The history of Christianity. Introduction.

Before the visitors of this website start to study what mankind has done with the Bible and with the message of Jesus during the past twenty centuries, it would be good if they were aware of the following facts:

--- When the author of this website writes about the Bible and the contents and the lessons of the Bible, he can base himself on perfect, God-made texts. When writing about the history of Christianity the author does not possess any perfect, God-made writings. He can only base himself on texts which were made by men and which, consequently, are not perfect.

--- On the other hand it a comforting thought that among professional Christian historians there is practically complete agreement as regards the question what mankind has done with the thoughts and lessons of the Bible and of Jesus Christ during the past twenty centuries. Among the hundreds of Christian Churches of the moment the differences in opinion with regard to the question how Christianity has developed after the death of Christ are negligible.

---Just like the 40 human authors of the Bible wrote with great candor about the weaknesses and the errors of themselves and other worshippers of JHWH, the professional Christian historians of all the different Churches have always been extremely frank about the flaws and evils within their Christian communities. This means, to give an example, that when Roman Catholic historians write about the way the Roman Catholic Church functioned in the Middle-Ages they report exactly the same kind of negative aspects of this functioning as their Protestant colleagues. The fact that not one Christian Church, when describing twenty centuries of Christian history, tries to present its own role in this history in the most positive kind of terms and the role of other Churches in the most negative terms, may give seekers of truth in our century the certainty that it is possible to attain a very truthful picture of the history of Christianity.

---Just before His death and in the course of the forty days between His resurrection and His ascension Jesus Christ commanded His followers to spread His message all over the world. Every time He gave His followers this command He promised them that He Himself and the holy spirit would accompany and support the people who were going to proclaim His good news. This fact leads to a vital question for all the people who study the history of Christianity: have the guidance and the support of Christ and the holy spirit been equally present and discernable in all the hundreds of Christian Churches that exist today ЕЕ.or does an impartial studying of twenty centuries of Christianity lead to the conclusion that Christ and the holy spirit guided and supported one Church-organization and no more than one or that they supported a number of Churches a lot and others only a little.

It is obvious that there is not any Christian Church that dares to formulate an answer to this question. This means that there is not any Church that considers itself the only true Church and proves the validity of this claim by stating that all sensible people of good will can clearly see that Christ and the holy spirit guide and support her members a lot more than the members of other Churches.