The year is 1054 A.D.

And the followers of the Jewish Messiah now fall into many different camps.

1. The First Groups — Acts 2 through 9

These are the Jewish believers in Jerusalem and Judea — the original remnant of Israel who received the Spirit in Acts 2. They have no relationship to what later became known as “The Religion of Christianity.” Their identity is Jewish, prophetic, covenantal, and rooted in Moses and the Prophets.

2. The Second Group — The Gentile Disciples of Paul

These are the non‑Jewish believers who entered the faith through the ministry of the Apostle Paul, the apostle sent to the nations. They also have no relationship with the later Christian religion. Their identity is spiritual, rooted in the Gospel Paul preached, not in later Gentile institutions.

3. The Third Category — The Groups Branded “Heretics”

Over the centuries, many communities of Messiah‑followers were labeled “heretics” by the emerging Orthodox Christian establishment. These groups often preserved older traditions, languages, and interpretations that did not align with the developing imperial church.

Which brings us to the three branches of “Orthodox Christianity”

These are the groups that did emerge from the imperial church system — and these are the ones we will focus on here:

1. The Church of the East (431 A.D.)

Separated after the Council of Ephesus.

2. The Oriental Orthodox Churches (451 A.D.)

Separated after the Council of Chalcedon.

3. The Chalcedonian Churches (1054 A.D.)

Later divided into Roman Catholic (West) and Eastern Orthodox (East).

These three branches form what most people today call “historic Christianity.” But they represent only a portion of the people who followed the Jewish Messiah.

At the end of this page

You will find links to each of the other groups of Messiah‑followers — the ones who existed long before Christianity became a religion, and the ones who continued outside the imperial system.

Heretics in chronological order