Artifice of Scholarship : CSPI on FrontPage

Who are 'real' christians and bible

common criticism of historic orthodox Christianity is the claim that early Christianity was corrupted by the intellectual forces of 'Hellenism.' (Hellenism, of course, refers to the influence of ancient Greek philosophy and culture, which spread throughout the Mediterranean world after the conquests of Alexander the Great in the fourth century BC.) Specifically, the doctrines of Trinity and the deity of Christ have been rejected as unbiblical ideas that were introduced into Christianity through the corrupting influence of Greek philosophy, particularly the ideas of Plato. As long ago as 1531, in his book, On the Errors of the Trinity, Michael Servetus criticized the 'Hellenistic' terms used by Trinitarian Christians to explain their understanding of God. More recently, various critics of orthodox Christianity--including Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Muslims, New Age adherents, and theological liberals--have argued that the true biblical understandings of God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit were corrupted in the third, fourth, and fifth centuries by Greek philosophy and pagan polytheism, which led to the development of the doctrines of the Trinity and the deity of Christ. The following examples will document this approach:

Shah, it would be wrong to lump New Agers with Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Muslims.

Being who they are (polytheists, atheists, no theists etc), New Agers would probably find Christianity was SAVED (not corrupted) by Hellenistic influences, which pushed Christianity farther from the semitic models as best represented by Judaism and Islam.