hello belantos,
I have been reading some of your posts, and I am still not sure what you believe about Jesus, but it seems that you have concluded that He is not God. You appear well read in church history, I am wondering when did theologians start falling into heresy by declaring Jesus to be God?
The apostasy happened in the second century after the Bar Kochba revolt was crushed by the Romans and in the ensuing antisemitism the Gentile churches excommunicated the Jews because of their participation. These Jews most often provided the leadership in those churches (I only call them churches because if I call them synagogues people think I talk about the Jewish synagogues that did not accept Jesus, but these were synagogues, not churches) and interpreted the scriptures for the Gentile membership. However, they were in a very difficult position. If they refused to participate in the revolt they would have been excommunicated from the Jewish community, so they had little choice. Even though they refused to acknowledge Bar Kochba as the Messiah, whom Rabbi Akiba declared as such, they joined the revolt.
After they were kicked out of the churches, the Gentile believers lost the understanding of the Jewish scriptures and in the ensuing antisemitism they reinterpreted them in the light of their own culture and religious background. Hence, they employed Zoroastrianism (Satan as anti-God) and Platonism (dying being a liberation from evil matter, a soul being a separate entity from the body, sould going to heaven or hell upon death, etc). Google for 'Plato virgin mother' (without the single quotes) and read the top article to see if you notice any similarity to the Gentile interpretation of Jesus' birth narrative.
The falling away was so fast that Justin Martyr around the middle of the second century already wrote:
"When we say that the Word, who is the first-birth of God, was produced without sexual union, and that He, Jesus Christ, our Teacher, was crucified and died, and rose again, and ascended into heaven, we propound nothing different from what you believe regarding those whom you esteem sons of Jupiter." [Justin Martyr, First Apology, 21]
But he thought it was the devil's work who came ahead of time to deceive people with a similar belief.
Interestingly, he also protested against the doctrine of going to heaven upon death, as he saw it as the denial of the resurrection:
"I pointed out to you that some who are called Christians, but are godless, impious heretics, teach doctrines that are in every way blasphemous, atheistical, and foolish. But that you may know that I do not say this before you alone, I shall draw up a statement, so far as I can, of all the arguments which have passed between us; in which I shall record myself as admitting the very same things which I admit to you. For I choose to follow not men or men s doctrines, but God and the doctrines [delivered] by Him. For if you have fallen in with some who are called Christians, but who do not admit this [truth], and venture to blaspheme the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; who say there is no resurrection of the dead, and that their souls, when they die, are taken to heaven; do not imagine that they are Christians, even as one, if he would rightly consider it, would not admit that the Sadducees, or similar sects of Genistae, Meristae,Gelilaeans, Hellenists, Pharisees, Baptists, are Jews(do not hear me impatiently when I tell you what I think), but are [only] called Jews and children of Abraham, worshipping God with the lips, as God Himself declared, but the heart was far from Him." [Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, a Jew, Ch. 80]
Providing it is not fake, we find the very first trinitarian statement from one of the church fathers in the late second century. By that time Christianity was repackaged and was easily marketable to the Greeks due to the all the similarities, whose religions were loaded with virgin-born god-man saviours who saved the world by dying and raising. You can find many books about the subject on Amazon. Sure, they are different from the Jesus idea they developed, just as a Honda car is different from a Ford.
What is striking is the strong protest from the Ebionites when the virginal conception idea was popularised in the second century. And don't forget that according to the church fathers they were those who left Jerusalem before the destruction and went up to Pella, and were led by Jesus' brothers. Then there is the testimony of another, completely independent group on the Gentile side, the very influential sect of the Adoptionists whose doctrine was very similar to that of the Ebionites. The testimony of two independent witnesses against one large witness (the church that went down the Greek path). The Ebionites rejected Paul for the apparent reason that he taught Gentiles utilising ideas they were familiar with, which ended up contributing to the apostasy in the absence of the Jewish interpreters, but both believed that Jesus became the Christ when the Christ Spirit came upon him at baptism and it left him on the cross. "Christ" means "anointed", so Jesus was not "anointed" (ie "christ") until the "anointing" ("christ") Spirit came upon him. And the Spirit left him when he cried out: "Father, Father, why have you forsaken me".
Add to this one of the most widely read document in the early churches, "The Shepherd of Hermas", which is like a novel, but Unitarian in theology. Surprise, surprise...
The Adoptionists existed for a few centuries. The Ebionites were waiting for the return of Christ for a long time, and later on the develop the doctrine of two Messiahs(Messiah ben Joseph and Messiah ben David - meaning after the manner of Joseph - or David) and went back to their own Jewish communities. For this reason it is unclear whether it was really them who came up with the two Messiahs or it originated in Judaism. It teaches that if the Jewish people were worthy, Messiah ben David would come. If they were unworthy, Messiah ben Joseph would come.
Now I don't want to go into who was right and who was wrong, I simply gave you an insight into the struggle of the second century.
So first the falling away took place - the rejection of the Torah of God, the reinterpretation of the Jewish scriptures with foreign ideas, then the virgin birth idea was adopted that gave way to the doctrine of the deity of the Messiah eventually leading to the doctrine of the trinity. While in ancient Judaism there is no sin nature, only lust that can be and shall be overcome (google for Judaism 101 and read the article 'human nature' under Ideas), Christianity developed the idea of the sin nature that could not be overcome, which necessitated the virgin birth leading to the deification of Christ.
Jesus said, he came in his Father's name and they didn't receive him, but another would come in his own name and him they will receive. After the apostasy of the church this contender soon emerged - the idea of the deified Christ who came in his own co-equal and co-eternal name and claimed to be God in the Temple of God. No need to look for another.
Now expect hell fire coming down from Christians. They do that rather than doing their own research.
