[b]THeMadHatter wrote:[/b] [quote]1- It is written that Christ ascended to heaven in Acts 1:1-11. ( \"9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. 10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11 “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” ) 2- Christianity is not set up on the basis that you have to clap your hands three times and turn in a circle counterclockwise. The basis for Christianity, which holds true for Catholics and protestants, is that Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. He was born of the virgin Mary through the miracle of God\'s work, performed many miracles, and was given as a pure and holy sacrifice for our sins in order that he may pay a debt which for us is unpayable. He was buried, and he rose on the third day. Without the acceptance of the gift of salvation, one cannot hope to enter the kingdom of Heaven, as we are all sinners, and only Christ can save us. That is the rough overview of what Christianity is based off of, as I am sure you learn every year (if not every Sunday) in church. Many people have varying beliefs about other followings, such as baptism, or the way women are allowed to dress, but the majority of Christianity as a whole believes that the basic belief outlined is the base, and all else is built upon it. To pretty much sum up an answer for your question: As long as you set your base there, then you can go through and study your Bible and find what you know to be true. you don\'t need a label, and you don\'t need to base your beliefs fully off of what someone tells you you should believe. Study for yourself. Take to mind the teachings of the Catholics and the Protestants, and then match both of those against God\'s teachings. See which reigns true, and believe in His word, not the words of men. 3- The original Bible... this one is interesting. We look at the Bible that Christ had when he was a boy- it was the old testament. He was in the temples reading, studying, teaching as a child from these manuscripts and scrolls that the church kept and passed down. He studied the Torah, which are the five books of Moses- found at the beginning of your Bible today. These had been passed down the way the people knew how- word of mouth (Each known ancient tribe had a member whose job it was to memorize stories word for word and pass them on) and by writing them down on these scrolls and manuscripts and toting them around. This is how the Bible was compiled. The Jewish scripts and records were taken and brought together to form the collective Old Testament. Later, the New Testament came along via letters of the followers of Christ who were with him during, or just following his lifetime. Many of them are written in the form of letters- especially in the case of Paul who wrote many letters to many different places at the time, sending them God\'s word. So to answer your question, I\'m pretty sure that the \"original Bible\" as you currently know it to be was eventually completed as a whole and bound entity by the Catholic church which came to power not too terribly long after the fall of Rome, and after it suddenly wasn\'t as illegal or life threatening to be a Christian. (I may be wrong on that, I\'m still taking this history class. Someone correct me i am, please!!) Also, never feel bad for asking questions. Notice that I still asked one in my answers ^. You will never stop learning, but that doesn\'t mean that you shouldn\'t study. Delve into the word for yourself, dig in God\'s message, and you will learn infinitely more than what you will learn in an hour of church each Sunday.[/quote] Original Bible- The Septuagint was the first known bible. It was the Pentateuch, Poetry, and Prophets Hebrew translated into Greek. It was compiled Before Christ(BC), while the Catholic Bible was compiled Anno Domini(AD). Christianity flourished before Nicaea because Constantine the Great made Christianity the state religion in 303 BC. The Fall happened about 700-800 AD..