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EARLY HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY: A BRIEF LOOK 275

according to the Scriptures,
And ascended into heaven (Gk. the heavens)
And sitteth
on the right hand of the Father.
And he shall come (Gk. cometh) again with glory
to judge both the quick and the dead:
Whose kingdom shall have (Gk. of whose kingdom there shallbe) no end.
And I believe in the Holy Ghost,
the Lord and (Gk. the) giver of life,
Who proceedeth from the Father and the Son,
Who with the Father and the Son
together is worshipped and glorified,
Who spake by the Prophets.
And I believe one
Catholick and Apostolick Church.
I acknowledge one Baptism
for the remission of sins.
And Ilook for the Resurrection of the dead,
And the life of the world to come.
Amen.f''

These two vastly divergent creeds testify thatJesus never truly defmed
his message, or that it suffered distortion in myriad ways, for otherwise a
simple statement of faith would not have become inflated into a prodigious
sermon. The earliest creed lacks any Trinitarian reference, whereas the
Nicene incorporates Son of God, God of God, and Begotten, all of which
attests to the ever-changing Christian beliefs regardingJesus during Chris-
tianity's formative days.

iii. The Implications of the Term 'Christian' in the Early Days

Infact, it appears likely that the term 'Christian' was merely an invention
of Roman propaganda, for in the early days,

the name 'Christian' was associated with all kinds of detestable crime
- this, too, is a common feature of the political propaganda, and the
author of 1 Peter... admonishes his readers not to suffer for the things
which for the populace were implied in the name 'Christian,' (4:15)
e.g. as "a murderer, thief, wrongdoer [better malicious magician], or
mischief-maker.T'''

29 ibid, pp. 220-1. Badcock has italicised differencesfrom the Greek text.
30 Dictionary ofthe Bible, p. 138.