Quote Originally Posted by dneal View Post
Read "Jesus Lived in India".

Look up what's now grouped as "the mystery cults" for a glimpse of early christianity that resembles nothing like we see today. Gnosticism is a specific example. Modern Christianity is what remains after all the other groups were declared heretics and either converted or were killed.
I read an interesting article/essay on Gnostic Gospels, specifically on Gospel of Thomas. The author proposed that Gospel of Thomas was not included in the New Testaments because Thomas taught that God can be found anywhere and everywhere, especially within oneself (which supposedly resembles Eastern or Asian way of thinking). The early Christian leaders found this threatening because it implied that a formal structure (in both literal and figurative sense) of Church was not needed to be close to God. The author also attributed Thomas's Asian way of thinking to India where he allegedly proselytized and was martyred.