Christianity as the Church formulated it

Christianity as the Church shaped it: beliefs and rites

Christianity contains no legal rulings; the most important thing in it is the Christians' belief about Jesus (peace be upon him). We must therefore now trace the origin and development of that belief through the church councils, which, as we have said, are the true authors of the Christian religion.

We do not stray from the truth if we say that Christianity in its present form is a man-made religion, not a divine one, in that it has settled on beliefs and rites that set it apart not only from Islam, which Moses and Jesus brought, but even from Judaism and from Christianity as we see them now in the Torah and the four Gospels. "For the indisputable truth is that the Church was able to triumph during the fourth century only thanks to the defeat of the first faith, which we may call the faith of the Twelve" (51).

As for the beliefs:

They consist of two pillars:

The first: the divinity of Jesus, or the doctrine of the Trinity.

The first Christians held the correct belief about Jesus: that he was the servant of God and His messenger, whom God sent to guide the Children of Israel. But a short while after Christ was raised up, the very nature of Christ's life, the extraordinary circumstances of his birth and his end, and the miracles that appeared at his hands stirred up debate about his nature. This debate was provoked and led astray by alien elements, which exploited this unique nature of Jesus (peace be upon him), spread strange ideas and false beliefs, and made them attractive to people, until Christianity ended as a religion entirely different from the one the first Christians had professed.

The first to proclaim the divinity of Christ was a man named Saul, later called Saint Paul. He was a Jew, fiercely hostile to Christianity, relentless in persecuting

(51) Al-Masihiyya: Nash'atuha wa Tatawwuruha, p. 190.

the Christians and inciting others against them. But he suddenly changed his religion and his ways, and embraced Christianity in 38 CE.

Let us give a brief account of his life, from what Luke said about him in the Acts of the Apostles, which shows us how intense his hatred and open his hostility were towards Christ and his mission. He says:

"As for Saul, he was ravaging the church, entering house after house, and finding men and women he committed them to prison." (52)

As for his sudden conversion and entry into Christianity, proclaiming the divinity of Jesus (peace be upon him) and claiming that this teaching had been revealed to him, Luke says:

"As for Saul, he was still breathing out threats and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the congregations in Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

And as he journeyed, it happened that as he drew near to Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him, and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him: Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?!

He said: Who are you, sir?

And the Lord said: I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting ...

And trembling and bewildered he said: Lord, what do you want me to do?

And the Lord said to him: Rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you must do ...

Saul rose from the ground, and though his eyes were open he saw no one.

So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus, and for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias ... and the Lord said to him: Rise and go to the street ... and inquire at the house of Judas for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying.

But Ananias answered: Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem.

But the Lord said to him: Go, for he is a chosen vessel of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles

(52) Acts of the Apostles, chapter 8.

and kings and the Children of Israel ...

So Ananias departed and entered the house, and laying his hands on him he said: Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road, has sent me ... And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight at once ...

And Saul was with the disciples in Damascus for some days, and immediately he began to proclaim Christ in the synagogue, that he is the Son of God." (53)

This is a brief account of Saul, or Saint Paul, as Luke relates it.

Researchers and historians relate that Paul was highly intelligent and keenly interested in the study of ancient religions and philosophies, and that he carried much of them over into Christianity. He taught people that Jesus was not only the promised Messiah but the Son of God, who came down to earth to offer himself as a sacrifice, crucified in atonement for the sin of mankind committed by their father Adam; his death was thus a great sacrifice by a great god for the salvation of mankind.

Saint Paul set about bringing his doctrine closer to his pupils' understanding, giving them the example of the ancient Egyptian beliefs: that Jesus was like Osiris, a god who died to be raised to life anew and to grant people immortality.

Thus Paul entered Christianity and became its teacher; indeed, in the view of Western researchers he is the true founder of Christianity in its present form (54).

Paul himself claims that what he preaches and proclaims is neither from himself nor from any other person, but that he received it by revelation from Jesus Christ. In this way he blocks the path to any objection to, or discussion of, what he says.

He says:

"I make known to you, brothers, the gospel that I preached, that it is not according to man; for I did not receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but through a revelation of Jesus Christ." (55)

(53) Acts of the Apostles, chapter 9.

(54) Muqaranat al-Adyan: al-Masihiyya, p. 90.

(55) To the Galatians, chapter 1.

And he says of himself:

"Paul, an apostle, not from men nor through a man, but [through] Jesus Christ." (56)

Through this infallibility, or divine connection, which Paul conferred on himself, he introduced into Christianity four principal doctrines, which became the basis that the church councils adopted and decreed as the final creed of the Christians thereafter. These doctrines are:

1. Christianity is not a religion for the Jews alone, but a universal religion.

2. The Trinity: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are one God; that is, the divinity of Christ.

3. The crucifixion of Jesus was an atonement for the sin of mankind.

4. Jesus is the one who will judge mankind on the Day of Resurrection: "For he rose from the dead three days after his crucifixion and ascended to heaven to sit at the right hand of his Father, as he had been before, in order to judge between people on the Day of Resurrection" (57).

Two factors helped to spread Paul's ideas and doctrines among people and to bring the Christians to embrace them:

The first factor

A psychological cause connected with Paul himself. He announced his conversion to Christianity after having been one of its fiercest opponents, and this had an effect that revived the hopes of the persecuted Christians for the triumph of their cause and for their deliverance. This psychological factor, together with Paul's intelligence and cunning, did much to win acceptance for his ideas and spread his mission, and it became the driving force that carried his doctrine to dominance over the other doctrines in the hearts of the masses.

The second factor

The persecutions that consumed many of Christianity's original sources and destroyed the true Christians after Jesus was raised up, and the continuation of this persecution with violence at the hands of the Jews and the Roman emperors, made people believe the myths that revived their hopes and stiffened their resolve, and accept death and torture in imitation of the Son of God who was crucified as a ransom for mankind.

(56) To the Galatians, chapter 1.

(57) See Muqaranat al-Adyan: al-Masihiyya, p. 95.

We must now point to the most important of the councils that codified Christianity and gave it its religious legitimacy, in respect of its books, rituals and rites:

The Council of Nicaea, 325 CE

During these centuries of persecution, which reached their peak in the age of the Emperor Diocletian (284-305 CE), called by the Christians the Age of the Martyrs because of how much Christian blood was shed in it, and amid the accompanying religious disputes among the Christians themselves over the ideas and beliefs about Christ that Paul had spread, Christianity lost its true foundations and character. Many philosophical ideas and popular superstitions alike entered it, leaving it a mixture of contradictions and superstitions, especially concerning the nature of Christ, about which opinions and doctrines multiplied.

Some said: he is a man like other people, and a messenger like other messengers. Others said that he is God or the son of God, or both together.

The Church feared that these disagreements would destroy Christianity itself, especially after it had become the religion of the Roman state in the reign of Constantine, who had embraced Christianity as Paul taught it, and who feared the disintegration of the empire because of these disputes. For this reason Constantine assembled the patriarchs and bishops in what is called the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE, to lay down a single creed for all Christians to profess.

The council met for the first time with 2,048 members, representing the churches and clergy in all parts of the empire.

They then began to discuss the various beliefs and opinions about Christ, especially what Arius the Egyptian had declared: that the Father alone is God and that the Son is made by God. Before long the council split between supporters and opponents of Arius's teaching, and it could not reach a unified decision on the nature of Christ. The emperor then decided to impose by himself the doctrine of the Trinity in which he believed. To that end he had Arius and many of his supporters within the council killed and the rest exiled, and then called another council in the same place and the same year, attended only by those who upheld the Trinity and the divinity of Christ, numbering 318 members (58).

(58) The previous reference, pp. 168-170.

They arrived at their decision, which is regarded as the basis of the Christian creed to this day. This is the text of the decision:

"We believe in the one God, the Father, Master of all things, Maker of what is seen and what is unseen; and in the one Son, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, the firstborn of all creation, who was born of his Father before all worlds, and is not made;

true God, of the substance of his Father, by whose hand the worlds were perfected and all things created; for our sake

and for the sake of humankind, and for our salvation, he came down from heaven, was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and became man, was conceived and born of the Virgin Mary, was killed and crucified in the days of Pilate, and was buried;

then he rose on the third day, ascended to heaven and sat at the right hand of his Father; and he is ready to come again to judge between the dead and the living. And we believe in the one Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from his Father; and in one baptism for the forgiveness of sins; and in one holy Christian community; and in the resurrection of our bodies and in life everlasting, for ever and ever."⁽⁵⁹⁾

By this decision Christ became, for the Christians, God or the son of God, and the Christian creed came to rest on the idea of the three hypostases, or the Trinity.

After that, councils followed one another to decree doctrinal principles concerning Christ and the men of the Church, such as:

The Council of Rome, 869 CE

It decreed:

1. The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.

2. Whoever seeks judgement in a matter relating to religion shall bring his case to the Church of Rome.

3. Christians in all parts of the world are subject to the decisions of the head of the Church of Rome.

(59) Al-Milal wa al-Nihal, 1/204.

The Council of Constantinople, 879

It decreed that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father alone and not from the Son. This was regarded as contrary to the earlier Council of Rome and as a breach with the Church of Rome.

With this council the Church split into Western and Eastern, each with its own council, which does not recognise the decisions of the other.

The Council of Rome, 1225

It decreed that the Church possesses forgiveness and grants it to whomever it wishes.

Then the Council of Rome, 1869

It decreed that the Pope is infallible and has the right to legislate, that nothing he issues may be contradicted, and that whoever contradicts it is an unbeliever and accursed.

In decreeing this authority for itself, the Church relied on certain religious texts which claim that Christ gave his pupils the power to work miracles, and that this power was then inherited by the clergy after them; and that revelation did not cease when Jesus was raised up but continues among his pupils and their followers for as long as God wills.

The first to plant this idea and spread it in Christian thought was Paul, as we have seen. Anyone who looks through the four Gospels and the books of the New Testament, especially the Acts of the Apostles and the letters of Paul, will find the idea of the angel who guides the believers and communicates with them, and of the miracles that appeared at the hands of Christ's pupils, recurring often and with remarkable insistence.

The men of religion, or of the Church, thus have among the Christians the same sanctity and infallibility as Jesus Christ; hence rebellion against obedience to the Church and its men is disbelief in Christ and in Christianity.

Likewise, the idea that revelation continued and came down upon the followers of Jesus is the justification on which the Christians rely in accepting the New Testament and believing what it contains, even though they all admit that it was neither composed nor dictated by Jesus, but composed by his pupils.

The second pillar: crucifixion and redemption

On this the Christians say that among God's attributes are justice and mercy.

By the attribute of justice, God had to punish mankind for the sin of their father Adam, who disobeyed and ate from the forbidden tree and was driven out of Paradise under God's wrath, he and his descendants after him, because of this sin.

By the attribute of mercy, God wished to forgive Adam and his descendants this sin. There was no way to reconcile the two wills, or the two attributes of justice and mercy, except through the mediation of the Son of God, His only one. So He made him appear in the form of a man, living a man's life, and then to be crucified unjustly in atonement for the sin of mankind; or, in another version, he took on this task himself.

This is the text of what appears in the New Testament:

"The Son of Man has come to save what was lost. Through His love and mercy He made a way of salvation; therefore Christ is the one who atones for the sins of the world, and he is the mediator who reconciled the love of God Most High with His justice and mercy.

For justice required that people should continue to be far from God because of what their father had committed. But by the joining of justice and mercy, and through the mediation of the only Son and his acceptance of atonement for the sins of creation, people were brought near to the Lord after being far away." (60)

And in the Gospel of John, chapter three, it says:

"He loved the world so much that He gave His only Son, so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him."

Here an unavoidable question arises: how can the sin of Adam, who disobeyed God, be forgiven through the sin of the son of Adam who killed the Son of God?! Or how can the sin of eating from the tree be forgiven through a sin far more hideous, namely the killing of the Son of God by the son of Adam?!

Further, if the essence of Christ's message is that God is love, and forbearance to the point that if someone strikes you on the right cheek you turn the left to him also, would it not have been more fitting for the very fountain of love and forbearance to forgive Adam and his descendants without resorting to this harsh trial of theirs,

(60) Muqaranat al-Adyan: al-Masihiyya, pp. 135-136.

and to plunging them into a sin that cannot be atoned for? For how can whoever kills the Son of God deserve any forbearance or forgiveness?!

This is the Christian creed as the Church shaped it and as Christians profess it today; and we praise God Most High for guiding us to Islam.

The rites

These are rituals that do not rise in importance to the doctrinal principles mentioned above. They differ from them in that a person is not a Christian until he believes in those principles, whereas a person is a Christian even if he does not perform the rites, though he is then regarded as disobedient or sinful. The most important of these rites as the Church laid them down are:

Baptism

Baptism is a rite the Christians took from the Jews. It is stated in the Gospel of John, chapter one, that John used to baptise people in the River Jordan, and that it was he who baptised Christ (peace be upon him); for this reason he was called "John the Baptist". It used to be enough for a person to testify that Jesus, the crucified one, is the Messiah, who died in atonement and rose in atonement for the sins of mankind, and who will return to judge between the living and the dead and establish the kingdom of God; after this profession he would be baptised by immersion in water three times with the help of a brother in the faith. This rite then developed along with the development of the church order, until it came to be performed with complicated rituals, prayers and offerings.

Baptism is indispensable for every Christian. It is performed by a priest of the church to which the baptised person belongs, and no one other than a priest performs it except in necessity, in which case it is called "emergency baptism". For them it is a holy obligation that leads to the purification of the soul and its release from sin, and a proof of the baptised person's faith and obedience to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit as his God and sole object of worship. Its form is that the priest sprinkles water on the forehead of the person being baptised, or dips part of his body, or his whole body, in water three times: the first in the name of the Father, the second in the name of the Son and the third in the name of the Holy Spirit, together with the laying on of hands, which is accompanied by anointing with the holy oil.

As for its timing, the Christians have not agreed among themselves. Some hold that its time is childhood; some hold that it is an obligation whose time is open, meaning that it may validly be performed at any time in a person's life; and some hold that it is best performed at the point of death, on the grounds that

baptism removes misdeeds and wipes away sins, so it is better done at the end of life, when no sins will follow it⁽⁶¹⁾.

The Eucharist, or Communion

This rite began as a gathering of the brethren to eat pieces of bread together as an expression of their brotherhood in faith. It then developed until it became a symbol with complex philosophical rituals of its own, in which the devout, amid hymns and prayers, gather around a table bearing bread and wine that represent Christ and his blood; those assembled partake of them so as to be united bodily and spiritually with Christ. For individual believers it takes the form of the person receiving from the priest's hand a piece of bread and a little water or wine. It symbolises the last supper of Jesus with his disciples, as the Gospels relate it, when he gave them bread and wine: the bread a symbol of the body of Christ, which was broken as a ransom for mankind for its original sin, and the wine a symbol of his blood, shed for the same purpose.

When a person receives this communion from the hand of his priest, the bread and wine are transformed in the body of the communicant into the body and blood of Christ, so that a union takes place between the one who eats and Christ and his teachings.

In establishing this rite the Christians relied on the four Gospels. The Gospel of John, chapter [6:53-55], says:

(Then Jesus said: Truly, truly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day... Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me.)

The Gospel of Matthew [26:20-29] says of the last night of Christ: "When evening came, he reclined at table with the twelve... And while they were eating, Jesus took the bread, blessed it and broke it, gave it to the disciples and said: Take, eat; this is my body. And he took the cup, gave thanks and gave it to them, saying: Drink from it, all of you, for this is my blood of the

(61) Al-Masihiyya: Nash'atuha wa Tatawwuruha (Christianity: Its Origin and Development), pp. 48, 153.

new covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. And I tell you, from now on I shall not drink of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in the kingdom of my Father."

The Gospel of Luke, chapter [22:19-20], says of Christ:

(And he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and gave it to them, saying: This is my body, which is given for you; do this in remembrance of me. And likewise the cup after supper, saying: This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.)

Likewise the Gospel of Mark [14:22-24] reads:

(And while they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them, and said: Take, eat; this is my body. Then he took the cup, gave thanks and gave it to them, and they all drank from it, and he said to them: This is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many.)

This is the rite of communion as the Christians hold it. Perhaps "Paul" was the first to lay down this rite, as he laid down others, for his letter to the Corinthians says:

(The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, gave thanks, broke it and said: Take and eat; this is my body, broken for you; do this in remembrance. And likewise he gave them a little wine and said: Take and drink; this is my blood, shed for you. And whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes again.) (62)

The cross and the bearing of it:

The cross and the bearing of it are mentioned in the Gospel of Luke [9:23-24]:

[And he said to all: If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross every day and follow me; for whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.]

From this came the Christians' veneration of the cross and their seeking of blessing by carrying it, as a symbol

(62) On the development of this rite see the previous reference, pp. 159-160.

of following the example of Christ (peace be upon him), who carried the cross on which he was crucified, and as an expression of disregard for life and readiness for sacrifice even unto death by crucifixion.

What adds further to the sanctity of the cross is that it was the instrument on which the body of Christ was stretched until death for the salvation of mankind; it is therefore the symbol that reminds every Christian how Christ suffered and sacrificed himself for his salvation.

Confession and Repentance:

This is the rite established by the Council of Rome mentioned earlier. A Christian who wishes to repent of his sins must, for his repentance to be accepted, first confess all his sins before a priest, on condition that he hide none of them from him. After that the priest accepts his repentance and grants him the Lord's forgiveness, and he becomes as on the day his mother bore him.

The origins of this rite go back to Paul's doctrine that faith in the divinity of Christ and in his crucifixion, and not the works of the Law, is the ground for deserving salvation. This is the main note of his letters. In his letter to the Galatians he says [2:21]: "If righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died for nothing"; and [3:13]: "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree"; [3:24-27]: "The Law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, so that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come we are no longer under a tutor, for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptised into Christ have put on Christ"; and [4:4-5]: "God sent his Son, born under the Law, to redeem those who were under the Law."

On the other hand, the spiritual authority given to the priests as a continuation of the authority that Christ gave to Peter the disciple, "And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (63), gave the priests and men of religion wide power over people in legislating, accepting and excommunicating. Because of its strangeness and the abuse made of it, this rite was the cause of the revolt of the German theologian (Martin Luther) in the sixteenth century, who took the indulgences as his justification for breaking with the Pope of Rome

(63) Matthew 16:19.

and founding the (Protestant) denomination, whose members set up a church of their own known as the Evangelical Church.

These indulgences became a winning card in the hand of the Church: "Whenever the Pope or a priest needed money for any purpose whatever, he had only to print a number of them and put them up for sale like stocks and bonds, with a blank space left on the certificate in which to write the name of whoever wished to exchange all his sins, past and future, for this wondrous certificate."

Since the fifteenth century many Christian theologians have recognised the moral and social danger of this rite, for it is nothing but a licence for whoever obtains it to commit whatever sins he pleases, as though the Church were declaring through these certificates that no disobedience harms a man who holds one, just as no obedience profits a man denied one.

So that the grave effect this rite can have on the individual and on society may become clear to you, here is the text of the certificate of indulgence:

(May our Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on you, O ... [a blank is left in which to write the name of the purchaser], and absolve you by the merits of his most holy passion. And I, by the apostolic authority given to me, absolve you of all the punishments, judgements and ecclesiastical censures you have incurred; and also of all the excesses, sins and transgressions you have committed, however great and heinous they may be; and of every cause, even those reserved to our most Holy Father the Pope and the Apostolic See. I blot out all the stains of guilt and every mark of reproach you may have brought upon yourself on this occasion; I remit the punishments you would have been bound to endure in Purgatory; I restore you anew to communion in the sacraments of the Church and join you to the communion of the saints; I restore you again to the purity and righteousness that were yours at your baptism, so that at the hour of death the gate by which sinners enter the place of torment and punishment shall be shut before you, and the gate that leads to the paradise of joy shall be opened. And if you do not die for many long years, this grace shall remain unchanged until your last hour comes. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.) (64)

(64) Muqaranat al-Adyan: al-Masihiyya (Comparative Religion: Christianity), p. 146.