The Way Before Christianity | The Way of Christ

I. Why the Creator in the Old Testament Regrets, Judges, and is Jealous

There is a reason the God of the Old Testament is shown as One who does not always know our hidden thoughts in the way later philosophy claims, who can regret a course of action, who becomes jealous for His Name, and who feels pain over what His image-bearers became. We were created in His image and then fell far below it. That hurt Him.

We fell for the lies of Satan and put personal needs and sins above one another and above God. The following texts are not side notes. They are the portrait of a living Creator, not a distant, emotionless abstraction later councils tried to lock into Greek metaphysics.

1. God regrets creating humanity

"The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. So the Lord said, 'I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created, and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground, for I regret that I have made them.'" Genesis 6:5–7

2. God showing ultimate judgment

"Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened... Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire." Revelation 20:11–12, 15

"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.' ... Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life." Matthew 25:41, 46

"For we know him who said, 'It is mine to avenge; I will repay,' and again, 'The Lord will judge his people.' It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." Hebrews 10:30–31

3. God being a jealous God

"Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God." Exodus 34:14

"For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God." Deuteronomy 4:24

"You shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me." Exodus 20:5

Four Traits the Biblical Record Refuses to Explain Away

He is not presented as already knowing every future human decision in the way later dogma requires.
He makes decisions He later regrets.
He gets upset and jealous for His Name.
He feels pain.

That is why a good God can feel distant to people who were taught a different portrait. Confusion on this point is not proof that the Father does not care; it is often the fruit of being handed an imperial picture of God instead of the one written in the text.

II. Who Jesus Is: Lord and Savior, Not the Almighty Father

Jesus is Lord and Savior. He existed before Abraham and before the making of the worlds. He is loving, caring, compassionate, and forgiving. He is everything the Father wished we would be. He is the first creation, the Son of God Himself, who humbled himself by being sent here by His Father, feeling the pain and suffering we feel so that He could stand with us.

He has never once claimed to be the Almighty Creator. He said "before Abraham was, I am." He did not refer to himself as the Alpha and Omega in the sense later creeds collapse into co-equal identity with the Father. He bows to our God. He is not co-equal. If He were co-equal in the later Nicene sense, He would not remain under the Father while the Father watches our sin, hatred, sickness, and every evil deed, and still lets us breathe, and still gives His Son for us. If that is not a miracle, nothing is.

What Scripture Itself Says About the Distinction

John 14:28: Jesus: "the Father is greater than I."
Mark 13:32: "about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father."
1 Corinthians 15:28: after everything is put under the Son, "the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all."
John 17:3: Jesus prays to the Father: "that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent."
John 20:17: "I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God."
He is sent, does not speak on His own, does the Father's will, and prays to the Father (John 5:19, 30; 6:38; 7:16; 8:28–29; 12:49).
Paul routinely writes "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ."

If the standard is the words on the page rather than the councils: the Father is God, greater, the only true God; Jesus is the Son whom that God sent. That is what those verses state.

III. "Christianity" is a Later Name; The First Faith Was The Way

Christianity is a Roman-era word. It was never the first-century name of the faith Jesus and His followers taught and walked. Followers of Jesus were first called by that label by outsiders. There are a handful of New Testament passages where the term appears, but not as the apostles naming themselves. Outsiders gave the name, and then hunted and persecuted those who bore it.

Christians, as a labeled movement, rose after Jesus had returned to the Father. Peter was concerned about what was forming under that name, but he was never "a Christian" in the later institutional sense. Both he and those later called Christians were trying to walk a path and read the same Scripture. The original path is The Way.

IV. How Imperial Rome Made Nicene Dogma the Law of the State

For centuries Rome first feared Jesus, His apostles, and the movements that grew in the decades after He returned to heaven. Then Rome absorbed the name, defined the dogma, and enforced it with state power.

Tertullian: Early Language of "Trinity," Without Co-Equality

Tertullian (c. 155–220 AD) coined early Latin theological terms such as Trinitas. He did not teach that the Son was co-equal or co-eternal with the ultimate Creator, God the Father. In Against Hermogenes, chapter 3:

"For God is the Father, and God is a Judge; but yet He has not always been Father and Judge, merely on the ground of His having always been God. For He could not have been the Father previous to the Son... There was a time when the Son was not." Tertullian, Against Hermogenes 3

The Turning Point: The Edict of Thessalonica (380 AD)

On February 27, 380 AD, Emperor Theodosius I, with Gratian and Valentinian II, issued the Edict of Thessalonica (Cunctos populos). The decree ended religious pluralism in the empire and established Nicene Christianity as the mandatory imperial religion:

"We authorize the followers of this law to assume the title of Catholic Christians; but as for the others, since in our judgment they are foolish madmen, we decree that they shall be branded with the ignominious name of heretics, and shall not presume to give to their conventicles the name of churches. They will suffer in the first place the chastisement of the divine condemnation and in the second the punishment of our authority..." Edict of Thessalonica, 380 AD

Centuries of Enforcement and Historical Casualties

The Albigensian Crusade (1209–1229): 200,000 to 1,000,000 estimated deaths.
Waldensians and Hussites (12th–15th centuries): 100,000 to 300,000+ estimated deaths.
The Inquisitions: 30,000 to 60,000+ direct executions, hundreds of thousands tortured and displaced.
European Wars of Religion (1524–1648): Millions killed across the French Wars of Religion, Eighty Years' War, and Thirty Years' War.

V. Peter Rejected Hierarchy: And Warned of What the Papacy Became

In the New Testament, Peter explicitly rejected personal veneration, monarchical authority, and authoritarian rule over believers.

He Refused Prostration and Worship

"As Peter entered the house, Cornelius met him and fell at his feet in reverence. But Peter made him get up. 'Stand up,' he said, 'I am only a man myself.'" Acts 10:25–26

He Rejected "Lording Over" Believers

"To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder and a witness of Christ's sufferings... Be shepherds of God's flock that is under your care, watching over them, not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock." 1 Peter 5:1–3

VI. The Biblical Framework: Father, Son, and Spirit in Tandem

The foundation is not a man-made creed, a papal decree, or a fourth-century council tradition. The foundation is what is written. Later vocabulary that does not appear in the text, such as homoousios or "eternally begotten" as a metaphysical slogan, should not be treated as apostolic.

The Four-Point Apostolic Model

The Father alone is the One Almighty God: the ultimate Origin and Head of all (1 Corinthians 8:6; John 17:3).
The Son pre-existed creation: begotten before time, the Firstborn over all creation, through whom God made the worlds, who revealed the Father (John 8:58; Colossians 1:15–17; Revelation 3:14).
The Son is subordinate to the Father: empowered by the Father, speaks only what the Father commands, and will hand the kingdom back to God (John 14:28; John 12:49; 1 Corinthians 15:28).
The Spirit operates in tandem: sent by the Son from the Father to guide believers and intercede back to God (John 15:26; Romans 8:26).

VII. Answering the Usual Objections from the Text Itself

1. Does honor given to the Lamb violate Isaiah 42:8?

Isaiah 42:8 contrasts Yahweh with lifeless pagan idols, not with the Anointed King and Son whom the Father chose to glorify. In 1 Chronicles 29:20, the entire assembly "worshiped the LORD, and the king." Tandem honor of God and His appointed ruler is thoroughly biblical.

2. Philippians 2 and Isaiah 45: Exaltation is not inherent co-equality

Philippians 2:9 states: "Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name." You cannot promote or highly exalt the Supreme God, nor give Him a name He already possessed by nature. It was given as a reward for obedience unto death.

3. Hebrews 1: The Son still has a God

Hebrews 1:8–9 quotes Psalm 45: "Your throne, O God, is forever... Therefore God, YOUR God, has anointed You." Even on His throne, the Son has a God who anointed Him above His companions.

VIII. What This Means for Anyone Seeking the Original Path

Summary of the Apostolic Stance

God the Creator is the Heavenly Father and is the only God as written in the Scriptures.
Jesus is God's literal Son and appointed Lord, existing before time, sent to deliver humanity.
The Holy Spirit was never presented in scripture as a co-equal third person in an imperial Godhead.

There is One God, the Father. There is One Lord, His literal, pre-existent, exalted Son, Jesus Christ. Join the mission to teach the original faith before the later name and the later machinery. We accept everyone.

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