The Historical Trajectory: From Jewish Sect to World Religion

Many Christians assume they’re following what Jesus preached, but in essence Jesus who was Jewish and his followers were Jewish, preached the words written in th Old Testament the "Holy Scriptures" from the Torah. 

According to the "Gospel" Jesus said he didn’t come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. His movement was called The Way. It was a sect within Judaism, not a new religion.

It is a true fact that the "New Testament" didn’t even exist in the lifetime of Jesus.

Most of what’s in it comes from Paul, a man who never met Jesus, and later, Rome, which institutionalized Christianity as a religion of empire.

Christianity is not the faith of Jesus. It’s the faith about Jesus, created after the fact.

The movement led by Jesus was entirely Jewish and operated within the framework of Second Temple Judaism. His primary focus was internal to Judaism:

• Target Audience: The "lost sheep of the house of Israel."
• Sacred Text: The Torah and the Prophets (the Hebrew Scriptures).
• Theology: Monotheism, the centrality of the Covenant, and the imminent Kingdom of God.

The Historical Jesus and Judaism  

Jesus Was Jewish: Jesus lived and died as a Jew in 1st-century Roman-occupied Judea. His followers were also Jewish. His ministry was focused on the Jewish people, announcing the imminent arrival of the Kingdom of God within the Jewish covenant framework.  (Matthew 2:1) Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king

The Law and the Prophets: 

Jesus's teachings were fundamentally rooted in the Hebrew Scriptures ("Old Testament"). He constantly referenced the Torah and the Prophets, and the Sermon on the Mount is interpreted by many scholars as an intensification of Jewish law, not a rejection of it.

The "Law" (Torah):

 The Gospel of Matthew records Jesus stating: "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them" (Matthew 5:17).

"The Way": 

The earliest followers of Jesus were not called "Christians"; they were known as the followers of "The Way" (Acts 9:2), a sect or movement within Judaism, centered in Jerusalem. They continued to worship at the Temple and observe Jewish law.

After Jesus's death and resurrection (according to belief), his initial followers continued to adhere to Jewish law. The pivotal shift began when Paul started preaching to non-Jews.

The Role of Paul and the Gentiles: 

The major theological and practical shift that separated "The Way" from Judaism was largely driven by Paul (Saul of Tarsus). Paul was an educated Jew and a Roman citizen who claimed to have received an apostolic call from the resurrected Christ.

It was Paul who became the primary apostle to the Gentiles (non-Jews). His central argument—that Gentile converts did not need to become fully Jewish (e.g., be circumcised or strictly observe the dietary laws) to follow Jesus—was fiercely debated within the early movement (see the Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15).

Paul's letters - The New Covenant - systematically developed the theology that faith in Jesus's death and resurrection  supersedes the need for ritual observance of the Mosaic Law,. argued that salvation comes through faith in Christ and not through "works of the law," providing the theological justification for Gentile inclusion and a non-ethnic identity for the nascent faith. and laying the groundwork for a universal, non-ethnic religion

Institutionalization and Christianity's Formation 

The New Testament was written after Jesus's death, largely between 50 CE and 100 CE. These writings record the life of Jesus (Gospels) and reflect the theological and organizational development of the early communities (Acts, Letters, Revelation).

It was during the Roman Empire that Christianity grew from a minority movement, but its ultimate transformation into an "imperial religion" occurred in the 4th century CE. 

It was the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great who legalized Christianity in the Edict of Milan (313 CE), and Emperor Theodosius I who made Nicene Christianity the official state religion of the Roman Empire via the Edict of Thessalonica thereby cementing its status, giving the new religion the political and structural power to define its doctrine, institutionalize its hierarchy, and spread across the empire. This process resulted in the distinct, powerful idominant religious and cultural force in the Western world know as Christianity a global, universal religion whose core identity was defined by the person and theological meaning of Jesus Christ.

In conclusion: 

These developments transformed a movement centered on Jesus, Judaism—based on the Torah, the Temple, and the hope for the Jewish messiah and the Kingdom of God to that of Christianity.

Christianity is the distinct religious system that emerged after his death, centered on the messianic identity of Jesus (Christ), his resurrection, and the theological interpretation (largely by Paul) that transformed his teachings and identity into a salvation-based faith accessible to the entire world, separate from the strict observance of Jewish Law.