Two Streams in Early Christianity: Teachings vs. Beliefs

When Jesus began His ministry around 30 CE, His followers were drawn by two closely related but distinct aspects of His life: His teachings and His person. The first emphasis centered on His radical vision of God’s kingdom—love for enemies, compassion for the poor, forgiveness without limits, and a life of humble service. The second emphasis focused on beliefs about who He was—Messiah, Son of God, Savior—and on the significance of His death and resurrection.

The teachings-stream originated with Jesus, but the beliefs-stream originated with his fans.

In the earliest days, these were not separate movements. The same communities treasured both the Sermon on the Mount and the proclamation of the risen Christ. However, as the decades passed, the balance began to shift. By the time of Paul’s letters (around 50–60 CE), theological claims about Jesus’ identity and the meaning of His death had become central to Christian proclamation. The Gospel of John (c. 90 CE) further elevated this belief-centered focus, presenting Jesus as the divine Word made flesh.

As Christianity spread through the Roman world, belief about Jesus increasingly defined membership in the movement. The ethical call to imitate His way of life remained, but it became secondary to affirming doctrinal statements about His divinity and mission. By the 4th century, the decisive markers of orthodoxy were the creeds hammered out at councils like Nicaea (325 CE), which addressed Christ’s divine nature, not His ethical program.

The timeline below shows this steady change in emphasis from 30 CE to 400 CE:

This shift did not erase the teaching-centered stream—it lived on in monastic movements, reformers, and pockets of Christian practice—but in the mainstream Church, belief had decisively overshadowed practice as the primary identity of the faith