To understand the second, and by far doctrinally the more profound of Mithraic influences upon Christianity, we must go back to the burgeouning years of the faith. To understanding Mithraic influence here, one must realize that it was a Mithraic world that Christianity bore itself into. The first years of Christianity and indeed, the years of the Christ himself are shrowded in mystery. It was, however, clearly a time of prophets. the Christ, if he were to have existed, was not the only preacher of the day spreading words of a new kingdom. The Gospels themselves having been written many years following the time the Christ was to have lived can not be used as accurate historical accounts for this, their tardy arrival on the world scene, and also because of spirit behind the pens that wrote them.

Scholars are in vast agreement that the original Christian community was convinced upon a quick return of the Christ; this is the primary reason a general lack of interest in compiling a New Testament plagued them. And this also, as is the case with other religious Gospels from different faiths, as well must be suspect with regard to historical accuracy: exaggeration was a primary technique employed throughout history simply for the virtue of conversion. In the case of many ancient Roman and Greeks religious texts, it was common place for their dates to be increased by a thousand years and their authorship attributed to some personage of great antiquity. Likewise, the Gospels were attributed to historical figures such as Matthew, Luke, John even when they had been written many decades following their deaths - and it was the semblance of antiquity that was the primary criteria by which documents to be included in the New Testament were eventually chosen.

There were dozens of Gospels other than the synoptic Gospels and the Gospel of John that were being circulated at the time - and apart from the few bits of literature finally chosen as canonical, a whole treasure of Christian literature was ignored. Even what was to be included in the New Testament was fiercly debated - each Christian center, from Alexandria, to Antioch, to Nicodemia, to Jerusalem, to Rome, to Carthage used their own particular host of Christian literature to pass on the faith. And one must not forget that within this encompassing term "Christian" also many Gnostic works were being circulated and proved very influential. Such was the drive to encapsulate their own scope of doctrinal writings that some early Church officials worked towards excluding any piece of literature simply if it on a non-polemical note referenced within itself some other work that was not wholly recognized as authoritative.

Such was the scene on the Christian religious front during the late 2nd and 3rd centuries C.E. Clearly, the works that were finally chosen reflected a religious system of belief that was not representative of the entire Christian community, and moreover, they reflected beliefs that were themselves influenced over the course of nearly two centuries by the various unique positions of a host of different sects.

Also, in efforts to convert, the earliest Christians were faced with a pagan world heavily imbued in Mithraic doctrine - particularly in the regions of Anatolia and Armenia. And it was in the southern Anatolian town of Tarsus that Paul did much of his spreading of the good word. There are a few clear references to Mithraism within his letters and it is not so far as to construe that in efforts to convert the Mithraicists in the region that he may have condoned certain religious understandings of theirs to remain perhaps because for their expedient conversion and their beliefs in a savior god did not much contradict what he himself believed - as such, allowing a mutated version of his Christianity to become accepted and henceforth affect future Christian doctrinal movements; and it is reasonable, considering some of the stark similarities concerning, for instance, the Mithraic Communion or Baptism and later Christianity, or in the terming of the Christ as the "light of this world" - a clear grafting on of the title bestowed upon Mithra - that such fundamental aspects of the Christianity of the second and third centuries if not in spirit then at least in form were adopted in part from this ancient Mystery Religion.