Christianity came from gentiles who called themselves Christians while seeking to follow the God of the Scripture with the teachings of the apostles.  The key thing to understand about Christianity is, the Word does not teach Christianity, but Christianity does attempt to observe the Word.

How did it start?  The apostles taught people how to be disciples of the Messiah and called them, believers, saints and disciples.  It was not until the disciples went to the Antioch, a Gentile city, that they were called Christians [Acts 11:26].  There are no examples throughout the Word of any of the disciples calling themselves or any other disciples by the title Christian but it is found in the Bible discussed as disciples being called Christians two other times [Acts 26:28, 1 Peter 4:16]. It makes sense that the original disciples who wrote the Epistles that make up the New Testament would not have referred to themselves as Christians because it originated in Greek and the disciples were Hebrew. Gentiles who did not speak Hebrew, however, would have used Christian.  For example, when Jews opposed to the disciples they called them Nazarenes which has its roots in Hebrew [Acts 24:5] but when King Agrippa – a gentile – is opposed he used Christian.

Once the disciples died and the temple was destroyed in 70 AD, the Hebrews were scattered and captured which left a space for a Gentile centric type of disciple.  The Gentiles, who indeed were observers of the teachings of the apostles, called themselves Christians throughout the territories that Rome controlled.  Christians developed various ways of following Gospel which left bishops or individual churches in disagreement.  Certain bishops had more influence than others and over time, based on influence, grew more powerful. All this occurred while Rome had a ban on Christianity for fear that it would unsettle society.  Many Christians were put to death during this time and punished to send a message.  Eventually, Rome adopted the belief of Christians – or Christianity – as acceptable then later a kind of state religion.  Whether this move was political or genuine is up for debate, regardless, the bishop of Rome was given authority after the council of Nicea which was an attempt to unify Christianity.  Constantine’s, the emperor of Rome, conversion was instrumental in much of this being set forth.  Although he promoted Christianity he did still participate in many pagan observances.  This led to many traditions, which were originally pagan, later becoming Christian.  Examples would be, the trinity teaching, the worship of Mary, Christmas, Easter, ect.

Eventually, the Roman Catholic Church was known and the Bishop of Rome became known as the Pope.  Later in history, groups began to reject the authority of the Pope who decided what should be believed by the people.  Groups protested against the pope with different interpretations of the Word which created multiple protestant movements.  This is why, today, there are said to be over 30,000 Christian denominations in operation.

Think of the Catholic Church as Babylon’s Tower and after God scattered the teachings it created the Protestants.  All of which come together to be the confusion of Christianity that is full of lies and misunderstandings.