The birth of the church resulted from the work of Jesus. God had prepared the way so that the disciples through the power of the Holy Spirit could be witnesses “in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) (Gonzalez, 7) The first century church was plagued with persecution, torture, and martyrdom. The stamina, staying power, and survival of the Christian community during the early days may be the greatest “miracle” beyond the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Attempts to eliminate them by emperors, by opposition from the religious leaders, and from false teachers and doctrine within the Christian community merely strengthened the resolve and faith of the Christians. All this established and spread the Christian church throughout the then known world.
Christianity has always faced both external and internal problems even in the very beginning. The Early Church had to face serious internal problems and at the same time, had to deal with the external problems and persecution. During the first few years, Christianity, like Judaism, enjoyed the protection of Roman laws. The church endured little persecution so long as it was perceived as a part of Judaism that was a legal sect (Dowley, 71) When Jewish religious leaders started rejecting Christianity, then Christianity was distinguished from Judaism as a separate religion. At that point, it came under the ban of the Roman state and was considered a threat to the Roman state. Then persecution started and people suffered hardships for their faith. People were mistreated, tortured, and even killed for their faith though stoning, crucifixion, burning at the stake, and being thrown to lions. The martyrs, who felt honored to share a death like ...
... middle of paper ...
...obert (1984). Church History. Revised and Expanded Edition. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House. Print.
Cairns, Earle (1976). Christianity Through the Centuries. Revised Edition. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House. Print
Dowley, Tim, Briggs, John, Linder, Robert, Wright. Eerdman’s Handbook To The History Of Christianity. Carmel, New York: Wm B Eerdmans Publishing Co. Print
Gonzalez, Justo L (1884). The Story of Christianity Vol 1. New York, NY: Hapercollins Press. Print.
Hahn, Roger. Neale, David, Serrao, Jeanne, Spross, Dan, Tashjian, Jirair, Varughese, Alex. (1989) Discovering the New Testament Community And Faith. Kansas City, MO: Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City. Print.
Walton, Robert (1984). Church History. Revised and Expanded Edition. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House. Print.
The persecutions did help the spread of Christianity because they showed that people were willing to die for what they believe in. “I am corresponding with all the churches and bidding them all realize that I am voluntarily dying for God”(Ignatius, paragraph 5). This shows that Christianity is a way to unite ourselves with God and to be freed from all evils. Another reason it helped the spread of Christianity is that there were public executions which increased the number of people knowing about it. This also shows that the Romans don't really care for the individual freedom of their
· Lewis, CS. Mere Christianity. New York: Doubleday, 1982. · McBride, David. The Story of the Church.
Jenkins, Phillips. The Lost History of Christianity. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2008. Print. Phillips, Jonathan.
The most important historical fact of Christianity is the life of Jesus, the prophet that the faith of Christians is centered around. The historical Jesus grew up in Nazareth where John the Baptist baptized him, thus beginning his career as a teacher and healer of God. Little is known about where Jesus came from or what he looks like, only his personality through actions and words. Like most prophets, Jesus looked to the spiritual world to find answers to remove the suffering; John was the prophet to open Jesus’ eyes to heaven, leading him into a state solitude until he became empowered by the Spirit. The actions that speak for his personality are of power to heal sickness, cast away evil, and perform miracles, all that the prophets gave credit to Jesus, but this what not the focus of his ministry. What drew people into Jesus was his hope to heal humanity, not just people; he urged peace and loving of the enemies, which created ties with the Pharisees. However, the Pharisees did not see God as compassion, so they created categories of clean and unclean people. Christianity is originally created for the undesirables, so Jesus felt that the boundaries were not exemplifying His compassion, thus he set out to change the system. This did not sit well with the Pharisees, so Jesus began to compiled enemies of Rome, which would lead to his crucifixion. It was the death of Jesus that began the Christianity faith, but his words and deeds that empowered the people. Jesus had no new teachings that were different from those before him, but he had a weight of meaning to his words. Christ’s teachings were mostly in the forms of stories where lessons of the heart lay behind the message. Not only did he speak with authority, but he spoke out ag...
McManners, John. "The Oxford History of Christianity." The Oxford History of Christianity. New York: New York Oxford Press, 2002. 28.
Jesus’ teachings created the religion of Christianity. Though Christians were persecuted during the beginning of time in which they began to spread, many factors helped to shape Christianity into the popular religion it is today. Christianity was able rise from just a Jesus ministry to a popular religion with the help of martyrdom, missionaries, governmental support and Jesus himself.
...o Pilate, JesusÆ main enemy, or trouble, was the Roman Empire. Their religion was polytheistic; they had, among many others, a god of war, (Mars), a god of wine, (Bacchus), and a goddess of love, (Venus). They also believed that their Emperor, at the time Caesar, was a living God. This included Jesus, one of his titles being "King of the Jews". At the time of JesusÆ death, this number was sizeable, and as the early church grew, after the resurrection, the followers grew in number too. Literally. All of the people who attended these secret meetings, to tell or listen to the tales of Jesus Christ, were disciples. They were risking their lives to spread the good news. Stephen was viciously stoned to death after his great speech at the Sanhedrin (Acts 7), and Peter was crucified. There are many examples of modern day disciples around. Oscar Romero was the Roman Catholic Archbishop of El Salvador. Endangering your own life by fighting oppression, injustice, and going up against bigger powers, or giving your life to helping others. There are still some people today who take the faith as seriously as the first Christians do, but not many. TodayÆs society is too materialistic.
...he centuries following them, they did not work nearly as hard, or did they suffer the same sacrifice and separation from materialistic possessions and luxuries. The church and congregation itself also underwent a dramatic change. The church progressed with the times to be not only a powerful institution religiously, but also politically, economically and also socially. With this rise in power in many different areas besides religion came the involvement in many different areas in society. These ties in society created involvement in the “City of the World” which took away from aspects of the “City of God.”
Rourke, Nancy. “Christianity Notes.” Religion 101 Notes Christianity. Entry posted April 14, 2011. https ://angel.canisius.edu/section/default.asp?id=43760%5FSpring2011 (accessed April 18, 2011).
In conclusion, it is important to realize that it was not one single factor which was responsible for the spread of Christianity, all these figures came together to give the perfect platform for a new religion to develop, " Never before in the history of the race had conditions been so ready for the adoption of a new faith by the majority of the peoples of so large an area" (K.S Latourette).
The first Christian Church (the Orthodox Church) came to be in the Late Roman Empire because of Jesus of Nazareth, and the first Christian Emperor Constantine. The messages Jesus wanted to reach his disciples were this: brotherhood, equality, elevation of the poor, and anti-materialism. He preached a lifestyle that changed mankind, and gave people hope. Jesus gave the people of the Late Roman Empire some hope, and guided them through times of need. On the other hand you have the Catholic Church in Medieval Europe, with a lot of power in the medieval society. The Catholic Church was the western counterpart the Eastern Orthodox Church and it slowly became a very strict religion. Their mission was simple: faith+good works=salvation. Religion over 2000 years ago was almost more important then, than it is today. It was new, and it was important, the rise of Christianity played a central role in the early historical
Church History in Plain Language is written by Bruce L. Shelley. This work focuses on the history of Christianity from 6 B.C. to the current period. It covers some of Christianity’s greatest events, theologians, and the various subsection of Christianity. Other than the events leading up to the death of Jesus, I had very little knowledge of Christianity’s history. After reading through the book, I have gained understanding on the Christian Councils, scholasticism, Christendom, and modern trends of Christianity.
Christianity, originally, was thought of as an outsider religion, and wasn’t accepted by most Romans. The Romans could learn to live with other religions, but not when they were harmful to public order. At one point, Romans viewed it to be just that. Christians tended ...
Gonzalez, Justo L. 1984. The early church to the dawn of the Reformation. San Francisco: Harper & Row.
Gonzalez, Justo L. The Story of Christianity. 2nd ed. New York City, NY: HarperOne, 2010.