Origin and Later Spread of Christianity: Its Historical Background

Christianity is one of the biggest religions that arise from the life, teaching and death of Jesus Christ, dating back to the 1st century EC. Geographically it’s the most widespread compared to other faiths, being made up of more than two billion believers. It constitutes mainly the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and the Protestant churches. It entails beliefs such as the belief in one God who is God the father, the son and God the Holy Spirit. Christians believe on their forgiveness of sin through death by crucifixion of Jesus Christ on the cross. Christianity comes out as a successful mission due to its vast spreading in spite of having only a few believers at the beginning. This essay on spread of Christianity will focus on its origin and spreading process among its believers.

What Bible Says About the Origin of Christianity?

As per the Bible, the first church came up 50 days after the death of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit came upon Jesus’s disciples, leading them to organize themselves to form the first church. This first church was formed in Jerusalem, and consisted mainly of Jewish converts. Non-Jews also accepted Christianity after the formation of the church. The early Christians took up the obligation to preaching out the gospel and spreading Christianity.

Earlier, Jews lived under the laws of Moses and depended on revelations of God through prophets. They offered sacrifices to their one God. Jews suffered national defeats from the Assyrians in 722 BCE and the Babylonians in 587 BCE and God through his prophets promised to bring back Israel’s independence. Through David’s descendant, God would bring along ‘an anointed one’ (messiah) who would lead Israel against its enemies. A new Eden would then be established to be known as ‘The Kingdom of God’. The Messiah (Jesus of Nazareth) said that the Kingdome of God was near. He was crucified between 26-36 CE by Rome, and after his death, his disciples claimed that Jesus had risen from the dead, and were motivated to spread the good news which was the gospel that the kingdom of God was coming soon. This message was first taken to the synagogue communities of Jews in the Eastern part of the Roman Empire. Despite the fact that many Jews did not believe that Jesus was the messiah, many pagans who were the gentiles believed and wanted to join in the movement. In a meeting, (ca. 49 CE, The Apostolic Council), pagans were allowed to join in the movement without first becoming Jews. Being a Jew entailed circumcision, observing of diet laws and observing the Sabbath. They were however required to observe parts of Jewish principles including draining blood from meat, sexual morality, and cessation of all idolatry. The gentile-Christian became the majority of the followers of Christ by end of the 1st century.

A Pharisee known as Paul had a vision and encountered Jesus Christ who instructed him to be his apostle to the gentiles. Jesus was in heaven and would soon return. Jesus Christ being in heaven became an object of worship. Apostle Paul claimed that Jesus was present during creation. Paul preached the gospel, establishing churches in the Roman Empire, Europe and Africa. He wrote 13 books of the New Testament.

In 303 AD, co-emperors Diocletian and Galerius caused severe Persecution of Christians which was identified as the Great Persecution. Roman Emperor Constantine changed to Christianity causing a shift in religious tolerance in the Roman Empire. Consequentially, the ban on Christianity was lifted. He established Nicene Creed which unified Christianity and resolved issues that divided the church.

The Beginning of Catholic Church and Other Branches

Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity which up until the 4th century had been illegal in the Roman Empire. The Emperor saw that the Roman Empire was so big to be governed from a single capital of Rome and decided to come up with another capital at the east and named it Constantine City which is the present day Istanbul. The Roman Empire split into two with the western empire being governed by Rome, Latin being its native language. The eastern Empire used Greek as its native language and was governed from Constantinople. The western empire collapsed in the A.D. 476 leaving barbarian tribes, the pope in Rome being its spiritual head. The Eastern Roman Empire did well. It had the Eastern Roman Emperor as its temporal head and the Patriarch of Constantinople as its spiritual head. Because the eastern and the western churches spoke two different languages, it led to incomprehension and ended up excommunicating each other In A.D. 1056. In A.D. 1056 until 1517 there were two Christian churches: the Roman Catholic Church in the West, which used Latin as its main language, and the Eastern Orthodox Church in the East, which used Greek as its main language. From then, the protestant reformation split the western church into more denominations. The eastern church divided into a number of ethnic churches each speaking its own language such as Greek, Russian, Syrian/Lebanese, Ukrainian, Armenian, American.

Catholicism was declared the state religion in the 380 A.D by Emperor Theodosius I. The Pope or Bishop of Rome acted as the head of the Roman Catholic Church. Together with a deep devotion for the Virgin Mary, Catholics observed the seven sacraments, and honored relics and sacred sites. Differences came up among Eastern and Western Christians in 476 A.D when the Roman Empire collapsed. The Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church split into two groups in 1054 A.D. In 1517, Martin Luther published 95 Theses, a text that criticized certain acts of the Pope. It protested some practices and priorities of the Roman Catholic Church. He said the Bible did not give the pope the right to read and to interpret the scriptures. The idea triggered a movement called Reformation, which aimed at reforming the Catholic Church. Protestantism came up consequentially leading to formation of different denomination of Christianity.

Christianity is for that reason split into three branches: Catholic, Protestant and (Eastern) Orthodox. Catholic pope and bishops around the world governs the Catholic branch. A Holy Synod governs the orthodox. Many denominations are found in the protestant Christianity, which differ in their understanding of the church and interpretation of the bible. These denominations include; Baptist Episcopalian. Evangelist, Methodist, Pentecostal/Charismatic, Lutheran, Anglican, Evangelical, Assemblies of God Christian, Reform/Dutch Reform, Church of the Nazarene, Disciples of Christ, United, Church of Christ, Mennonite, Christian Science, Seventh-Day Adventist. Even though the different sects of Christianity have different views, with separate traditions and worship in different ways, they have a common core of their faith which is centered on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ.

Christians believe in the bible which is a collection of 66 books that were written by several authors. It has two parts which are the Old and the New Testament. The Old Testament illustrates the history of the Jews people with specific laws to follow. It talks about the lives of many prophets, predicting the coming of the messiah. The New Testament came about after Jesus’s death. The first four books which are Mathew, Mark, Luke and John are the gospel books referring to the good news. They provide the account of life and death of Jesus Christ. They were written between 70 A.D and 100A.D. It also contains letters which give instructions on how the church should run. The Acts of apostles gives an account of the ministry of the apostles after the death of Jesus Christ. The book of Revelations is the last book of the New Testament and it describes visions and prophecies that will occur at the end of the world.

Challenges and Opportunities for the Spread of Christianity

Christianity had appealing features that supported its spreading. It focused on morality and tolerance towards other human beings. This appealed to the weak and the oppressed in the society. For example the bishop of Rome was giving aids to 1,500 widows and poor people by mid-third century. It also promised heavenly rewards in the afterlife for those who did good deeds on Earth. This deferred from the pagan religion that did not have the notion of the afterlife. Christians looked forward to immortality in heaven after death. It also got rid of the social boundaries that divided people into categories. Before God, all people were the same which was not the case with the Roman culture. Citizens, non-citizens, women, men, slaves and free people were all the same. This caused the first converts to be mainly members of the lowest portion of society, which included woman and slaves.

Certain scenarios hindered the spread of Christianity. The aspect of equality of all people which saw women, slaves and non-citizens to be equal to every other person in the Roman Empire was not well welcomed. The people could not also see why the Jews insisted on only one God and did not acknowledge the presence of other Gods.

Some of the challenges to the early Christians constituted matters that were not within their control. They were external affairs that rose from outside the body of Christ, going against the church and made the task of the faithful difficult to achieve. Some atheists who heard the word of God for the first time referred to it a new doctrine and saw it as strange things to their ears. The resurrection from the dead was mocked by others. Envious Jews contradicted, blasphemed, and opposed things preached by Paul. They stirred up others and raised persecution against Paul. They followed the disciples, stirring up people’s minds against the gospel and setting them up against the disciples. Outsiders spoke badly against the church, spreading unfounded rumors about it, and God’s people received unfair bad publicity. Jews leaders counted Christianity as a sect, saying it was spoken of badly. The preaching of the gospel caused people to be uncomfortable as false religions were challenged and hypocrisy brought out in the open. Some people were made angry enough to kill. Paul and Silas were accused of causing trouble in the city and teaching unlawful customs. Many times, Christians were misunderstood, misinterpreted and accused of causing problems.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it took time for the Roman Empire to finally become Christianized. Beliefs within the Roman Empire changed gradually over time, Christianity was still spreading by 476 CE. This was the time when the western empire fell. The Christian religion did not come up suddenly or while formed fully. It gradually expanded and was shaped up by roman cultural and political structures for several years. It was highly influenced by both Judaism and Roman cultural institutions. Issues that caused division of the church. For this reason, Constantine’s conversion to Christianity marked a turning point in the history of Christianity.

References

1. Hastings, A. (2004). The Construction of Nationhood: Ethnicity, Religion, and Nationalism. Cambridge University Press.

2. Latourette, K. S. (1975). A History of Christianity: Volume 1: Beginnings to 1500. HarperOne.

3. Woodhead, L. (2001). Christianity: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press.

4. Pelikan, J. (1993). The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine, Vol. 1: The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition (100-600). University of Chicago Press.

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5. Roberts, P. (2011). The Story of Christianity: Volume 2: The Reformation to the Present Day. HarperOne.