Answer: In 31ad Jesus Christ founded His Church, which was to take His teachings and His message of the coming Kingdom of God to the world (Matthew 28:19-20). Those who were a part of this movement began to be called “Christians” (Acts 11:26). However, it was not long before an element of that faith began to diverge from the teachings of Jesus in significant ways (Jude 3). The religion that grew from this divergence—blending some of the biblical teachings and practices of Jesus with unbiblical teachings and practices from outside of the Bible—eventually gained the power and authority of Rome and the public label of “Christianity.”
