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They denied all divinity except their storm god and themselves

During the video the Pastor said that the earliest Christians did not see themselves as being non-Jews. He also said that many (most?) Jews and Christians alike would not do what the pagans expected in the way of Emperor worship. I expect that even the Jews and Christians who did the minimum to avoid being attacked by the Roman authorities also fully considered themselves to be Christian or Jewish because their "worship" of the Leader of the Day was coerced.

@@mmccrownus2406 The Pastor explained during the video that both the early Christians and the Jews of the same time considered themselves to be Jews. Kind of like ELCA and LCMS are "flavors" of Lutheranism. If by "storm god" you mean the same God Christians, Jews and Muslims believe in then yeah.

Right! Christianity wasn't 'influenced' as though Christians were unwittingly duped into accepting parts of Plato and Aristotle, but Plato and Aristotle stated the ways things are in a way that Christians found helpful for explaining the faith.

​@@samueleastlund6137 This is so important and basic. Jesus reads from the Greek Septuagint in Scripture and quotes it in other parts of Scripture. Jesus' parents fleeing to Egypt would have spoken Koine Greek. "Synagogue" is a Greek word. The apostle Andrew (Andreia) had a Greek name. Scholars estimate 2/3 or more of Mediterranean jews lived outside of Judea. See? Romans in business used Greek. Most Romans who could write used Greek. Even Emperor Marcus Aurelius wrote his famous "Confessions" in Greek. Paul wrote his Epistles in Greek. Reading and Writing Koine Greek was common from Western India all the way to Spain. Biblical Judeans spoke dialects of Aramaic locally (also known as Syriac) but that was the language of the empire of Aram (Syria). We suffer this odd ahistorical delusion of of judean isolation from the rest of the Hellenized world, but nothing could be further from the case. There is no Biblical "jewish essentialism." The opposite is the case. The OT obviously documents their lengthy histories in Egypt and Babylon (where most Jews stayed, not returning to Judea). The several books of Maccabees were written in Greek before Jesus was born. 2nd Temple Judaism was a Pagan style sacrificial cult and not like post-Christian Rabbinic Judaism. Philo's reading of the OT as an allegory for Hellenic Stoic Philosophy is noteworthy (and preserved for us to read today), but not an exception. Everyone should read Maccabees or listen to it on YT. That describes episodes and issues from the history of Hellenized Judea and Hellenized Jews speaking Greek spread all over the Mediterranean, the Near East and even the Middle East into North Western India. Americans are far too isolated to understand this easily. But in Europe, most people speak (and read and write) 2, 3 or more languages. That's normal all over the world, where we find signs written in several languages. Remember the Rosetta Stone in which several languages are chiseled side by side? That's normal. The Ashokan Pillars in India from around 250 BC are written in Sanskrit, Syriac and Greek side by side on each stone pillar. I hope that help explains more.

​@@samueleastlund6137 Here's another VERY important angle on this. Most abstract WORDS in Greek were already gods. Gr. Pistis (En. Faith) was already a god. Here's an excerpt from Wikipedia: PISTIS was the personified spirit (daimona) of trust, honesty and good faith. She was one of the good spirits to escape Pandora's box and promptly fled back to heaven, abandoning mankind. Her Roman name was Fides and her opposite number were Apate (Deception) and the Pseudologoi (Lies). Similarly Soter and Soteria (En. Salvation) were already brother/sister gods in the Hellenized world. See the pattern? Gods were not just Gods of peoples (Athena for Athenians, Romulus for Romans, etc.) or natural phenomena (Poseidon, Uranus, etc.). There were gods and goddesses of almost EVERYTHING and those gods and goddesses functioned something like modern definitions of what the words meant. Even "meaning" had the messenger god Hermes, which gives us our modern academic term "Hermeneutics" - the study of meanings of texts.

@@samueleastlund6137 Last point: Plato and Aristotle were the basis of Hellenic educations, the famous Trivium and Quadrivium. Trivium: grammar, logic, and rhetoric. Quadrivium: music, arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy The Trivium/Quadrivium formed the basis for education all the way up to the late 19th C. when states took over with the newfangled "public education system." Scriptures were written by educated writers for educated readers.

@@scottmcloughlin4371 There may have been a few in Jesus' immediate circle with enough money to become educated in the Trivium. Jesus' education appears to be entirely traditional Jewish temple education, more advanced by far one would assume as Jesus was God. Now that may be entirely missing your point here. The other points, some of which I can quibble a bit with but not enough to merit it, but this one seems incorrect unless you are not asserting that the first followers of Jesus were educated in classical teachings, but that a few first and second century Christians were, that is closer to accurate it seems to me. That said, telling followers that your family will be split apart if you follow Him is a pretty philosophical point to make. Like a stoic Jesus seems to be saying "this suffering is worth it because you are suffering for following what you know to be true." Likewise the admonitions to not bother with marriage seems not that far from the perspective of the cynics, who held marriage a foolish institution. Like Jesus turning over the tables of the money changers, the cynics behaved in ways which made them outcasts. Most of this is a far stretch I suspect. I have "some college". YMMV

Good morning Dear Cindy! And also to your wonderful hubby 😄

@@savanahsmiles2632 sorry, I just saw this. Thanks for saying hi and asking about John. Hope you and your family are well. Have you been able to watch the service?