When I was a Christian, I took it for granted that the name [Christ] was a proper name to designate the [Divine] mature of [Jesus]... but soon after I learned the true name of our Creator, I started to wonder about Christ, also. I was taught, and until now I believed it, that "Christian" was an insult hurled at the earliest followers of Yahshua. If this is true, I wish to see the documentation.
What I’m learning lately is that none of the above is true. Christianity was concocted in Antioch, Syria, by Greek philosophers who adapted the teaching of Yahshua to their pagan persuasion. It is all documented in the writings of the early church fathers whom Paul probably knew by name. Some of them may have been converted by Paul at the Areopagus. Apparently, the Greek ‘converts’ at Antioch voluntarily became known as Christians. Actually, they felt offended, if not insulted, IF ANYONE WOULD MISPRONOUNCE "Christian!"
--- Tertullian, Apology, Chapter 3 * Well now, if there is this dislike of the name, what blame can you attach to names? What accusation can you bring against mere designations, save that something in the word sounds either barbarous, or unlucky, or scurrilous, or unchaste? But Christian, so far as the meaning of the word is concerned, is derived from anointing. Yes, and even when it is wrongly pronounced by you "Chrestianus" (FOR YOU DO NOT EVEN KNOW ACCURATELY THE NAME YOU HATE), it comes from sweetness and benignity. You hate, therefore, in the guiltless, even a guiltless name. But the special ground of dislike to the [Christian] sect is, THAT IT BEARS THE NAME OF ITS FOUNDER. Is there anything new in a religious sect getting for its followers a designation from its master? ARE NOT THE PHILOSOPHERS CALLED FROM THE FOUNDERS OF THEIR SYSTEMS--PLATONISTS, EPICUREANS, PYTHAGOREANS?
Tertullian makes it very obvious that the name Christian was an inside job. He also gives the reason why. Most philosophers belonged to "systems" or "schools" named after their founders and because the church fathers were mostly Greeks, they had no use for the Hebrew name of Yahshua, so they converted HaMaschiach (The Christ) into CHRIST (Messiah or Anointed). In the Greek culture ‘christ’ doesn’t have the same significance as ‘messiah’ does among the Hebrews, so it was very easy for the Greeks to accept Christ as a proper name in addition to Iesous...
--- The epistle of St. Ignatius to the Antiochians * Ignatius, who is also called Theophorus, to the Church sojourning in Syria, which has obtained mercy from [God,] and been elected by Christ, and WHICH FIRST RECEIVED THE NAME CHRIST...
Saint Ignatius was the third pastor of the Christian assembly at Antioch. In the opening words of his letter to them he admits that they were the first converts to receive the name CHRIST. Where did this name come from? The earliest Christian church fathers (Greek philosophers) spent their time calling each other heretics, and writing lengthy books exposing each other’s Christian philosophies, but in a greater or lesser degree they seemed to agree about a dual personality for Yahshua, or at least a duality of names to identify him. Some of the earliest Christians got to the point of believing that Yahshua and Christ were two distinct persons.
The church fathers claim that the new or second name for Yahshua came about in a ritual that is still known today in Christianity as "christ-ening" were you are supposed to receive a new name after you are sprinkled or immersed in holy water. And this is how Yahshua received the second Greek name of Christ to become known as [Jesus Christ]. There is no evidence that Paul was involved in all this. Although in the worst case, most likely, his letters were tempered with to reflect the philosophy of the early church fathers.
---Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies, Book I, Chapter 26 * Moreover, after his baptism, Christ descended upon him in the form of a dove from the Supreme Ruler, and that then he proclaimed the unknown Father, and performed miracles. BUT AT LAST CHRIST DEPARTED FROM JESUS, AND THAT THEN JESUS SUFFERED AND ROSE AGAIN, WHILE CHRIST REMAINED IMPASSIBLE, INASMUCH AS HE WAS A SPIRITUAL BEING...
--- Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies, Book III, Chapter 17 * It certainly was in the power of the apostles to declare that Christ descended upon Jesus, or that the so-called superior Savior came down upon the dispensational one, or he who is from the invisible places upon him from the Demiurge...
---Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies, Book III, Chapter 18 * And again: "And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died;" indicating that the impassible Christ did not descend upon Jesus, but that He Himself, because He was Jesus Christ, suffered for us...
--- Tertullian, Against Praxeas, Chapter 28 * And so, most foolish heretic, you make Christ to be the Father, without once considering the actual force of this name, IF INDEED CHRIST IS A NAME, AND NOT RATHER A SURNAME, OR DESIGNATION; for it signifies "Anointed." BUT ANOINTED IS NO MORE A PROPER NAME THAN CLOTHED OR SHOD; IT IS ONLY AN ACCESSORY TO A NAME. Suppose now that by some means Jesus were also called Vestitus (Clothed), as HE IS ACTUALLY CALLED CHRIST FROM THE MYSTERY OF HIS ANOINTING, would you in like manner say that Jesus was the Son of God, and at the same time suppose that Vestitus was the Father? Now then, concerning Christ, if Christ is the Father, the Father is an Anointed One, and receives the unction of course from another. Else if it is from Himself that He receives it, then you must prove it to us.
---Tertullian, The Five Books Against Marcion, Book III, Chapter 15 * Concerning His other names, however, and especially that of Christ, what has the other side to say in reply? If the name of Christ is as common with you as is the name of God (Theos)--so that as the Son of both Gods may be fitly called Christ, so each of the Fathers may be called Lord--reason will certainly be opposed to this argument. FOR THE NAME OF GOD, AS BEING THE NATURAL DESIGNATION OF DEITY, MAY BE ASCRIBED TO ALL THOSE BEINGS FOR WHOM A DIVINE NATURE IS CLAIMED,--AS, FOR INSTANCE, EVEN TO IDOLS. The apostle says: "For there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth." THE NAME OF CHRIST, HOWEVER, DOES NOT ARISE FROM NATURE, BUT FROM DISPENSATION; AND SO BECOMES THE PROPER NAME OF HIM TO WHOM IT ACCRUES IN CONSEQUENCE OF THE DISPENSATION.
In the above arguments from the early church fathers we learn the most horrifying truth about Christianity. I don’t claim to be an expert in demonology, but when you hear the early Christian church fathers getting into serious arguments about a spirit being called CHRIST coming down on a human being called JESUS... I’m sure that they were not talking about Yahshua HaMaschiach, but about bizarre entities of the occult.
From all this it is easy to conclude that Christianity is not only deeply rooted in paganism, but also in the occult. The early church fathers knew that Christ was a concocted, but essential name to call themselves Christians. They made their case before the early Gentile converts at Antioch, Syria, and won their acceptance. This is the reason why Saint Ignatius writes to them... "WHICH FIRST RECEIVED THE NAME CHRIST..." They had to accept the name CHRIST first before calling themselves Christians.
By the end of the first century the Christians became a very significant social/religious force to deal with. Nonetheless, their religion was based on strong moral teaching borrowed from the Torah. By the end of the second century they were in position to rule the world. The same world offered to Yahshua HaMaschiach by HaSatan, if Yahshua would only worship him at his feet. Yahshua refused the offer, but apparently the Christians didn’t hesitate to grab it.
Nothing has changed today. Christianity rules most of the world. Many political parties around the world are known as Christian. In several of my posts I urge the readers to stop calling Yahshua HaMaschiach "Christ," or the more fashionable "Messiah" which is a variant of "Christ" but the effect is the same. Messiah also became a proper name and formed a "school" or "system," as the Greek philosophers call it. That is how the relatively new word "Messianic" came about. It gathers together a school of Messianic believers of both, Jewish and Christian persuasions. Any new name is acceptable and valid for HaSatan as long as you stay away from YAH-shua Ha-Maschiach. That’s why we should endeavor to make sure that we got the name of Yahweh right... We may be led by the same spirit that inspired the Christian church fathers... to disfigure the simple pronunciation of the tetragrammaton, beyond recognition.
Here is where we draw the line. I don’t claim infallibility in anything that I say. I can be wrong. I depend on public documents to make my statements. In this post I'm only using the earliest documents available from around the year 100 of the common era.
To keep quiet at this final hour on this matter is to help and strengthen the enemy who deceives the whole world in the name of CHRIST or MESSIAH. If I don’t speak up someone else will, and I’ll lose my reward... I am a documentarian, so is my Heavenly Father Yahweh...
---Exodus 17:14a * Then Yahweh said to Moses, "Write this on a scroll as something to be remembered..."
---Malakyah 3:16 * Then those who feared Yahweh talked with each other, and Yahweh listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared Yahweh and honored his name.
---Daniel 7:10b * The court was seated, and the books were opened.
---Revelation 20:12b * ...and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.
By the way, there is nothing wrong using "The Christ" or "The Messiah," but never use Christ, or Messiah, or Maschiach by itself as a nickname, or a proper name. Such practice was born in paganism and in the occult.
You may resent my pointed remarks. You may feel that I lack brotherly love, but how much do you love yourself? If you are so bold to use the name of CHRIST, or MESSIAH, or MASCHIACH as proper names, you are a kamikaze, your final destination is not one inviting riders. I wish to issue a warning to all of you in the love of Yahshua HaMaschiach... I want to be free from your blood... You have the documentation in front of you... Choose life!..
---Jeremyah 16:19 * O Yahweh, my strength, and my stronghold, and my refuge in the day of affliction (tribulation), unto thee shall the nations come from the ends of the earth, and shall say, OUR FATHERS HAVE INHERITED NOUGHT BUT LIES, vanity and things wherein there is no profit.
Ahhh, but Christianity is such a good business...
May Yahweh be merciful to us all!
Shalom aleichem...
Lou