On Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:28:57 -0500, "Reginald P. Smithers III"
"Reggie is Here wrote:

Actually Catholics were Jews for about the first 150 yrs after Christ's
death. They separated from the Jews over details, one being if converts
had to be circumcised. So really the first Christians (or as they
preferred to call themselves "The Way") were Jews.

Um...don't think so.

While they shared some similarties, the differences included the
establishment of a Holy Trinity, baptism, belief in Christ as spirtual
savior and formal establishment of Christ as a diety.

While Christ was looked upon as a Rebbe by followers and outsiders,
there was a distinct break between Jewish tradition and Christian
tradition which came very quickly after Christ's death - like within
months, not years.

The break was fairly clean which allowed for the rapid expansion of
Christianity which didn't suffer an internal schism until the middle
of the 4th century with the rise of Arianism.