How does Edward Gibbon know that Christianity was corrupted by paganism? (I assume he means Catholicism specifically)
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(John 17:3) This means everlasting life, their coming to know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.
If we define Christianity as being followers of Christ Jesus they would be in full agreement of the above statement of Jesus. They would faithfully carry out his command.
(Matthew 28:19, 20) Go, therefore, and make disciples of people of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy spirit, teaching them to observe all the things I have commanded you. And look! I am with you all the days until the conclusion of the system of things.”
They would be readily identified by their preaching and teaching that Jehovah is the true God and that his Son Jesus was the one sent as the promised Messiah or Christ. Satan's attempt to prevent this by persecution failed, so he sought to bury genuine Christians under an avalanche of imitation Christians. Jesus had warned this would occur.-- (Matthew 13:24-30) His disciples asked him to explain his illustration.
(Matthew 13:37-39) In response he said: “The sower of the fine seed is the Son of man; the field is the world. As for the fine seed, these are the sons of the Kingdom, but the weeds are the sons of the wicked one, and the enemy who sowed them is the Devil. The harvest is a conclusion of a system of things, and the reapers are angels.
After John the last apostle died the foretold apostasy set in to such an extent genuine Christianity was no longer able to be seperated from imitation ''weeds''.
(Matthew 13:27-29) So the slaves of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow fine seed in your field? How, then, does it have weeds?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy, a man, did this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us, then, to go out and collect them?’ He said, ‘No, for fear that while collecting the weeds, you uproot the wheat with them.
By the time Catholicism came along paganism already ran rampant. The distiction was evident in civil matters.
“While they [the Christians] inculcated the maxims of passive obedience, they refused to take any active part in the civil administration or the military defence of the empire. . . . It was impossible that the Christians, without renouncing a more sacred duty, could assume the character of soldiers, of magistrates, or of princes.”—The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, by Edward Gibbon, Vol. I, p. 416.
Happily, now that we are in ''the conclusion of the system of things'',Jesus is able to separate the wheat from the weeds.
(Matthew 13:41-43) The Son of man will send his angels, and they will collect out from his Kingdom all things that cause stumbling and people who practice lawlessness, and they will pitch them into the fiery furnace. There is where their weeping and the gnashing of their teeth will be. At that time the righteous ones will shine as brightly as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. Let the one who has ears listen.
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