Christianity?
Adam S asked:
Who here wouldn’t mind giving me a brief overview of the beginning of Christianity, or at least a few links to some good sites? Will be very appreciated….
Jacob
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Who here wouldn’t mind giving me a brief overview of the beginning of Christianity, or at least a few links to some good sites? Will be very appreciated….
Jacob
January 10th, 2012 at 6:49 am
Samuel
google NAB bible and read the new testaments.
January 13th, 2012 at 4:47 pm
Brayden
Basically. Jesus Christ was born in (it’s debated) 0,4, or 6 AD and preached about being the sun of god and all the things that good Christians should do. He has 12 apostles who spread the faith around the holy land, modernly Israel, and into the roman empire. The religion appealed to poorer people and non-citizens of the Roman empire. These people were persecuted by the wealthy Romans who feared the rising power of the church against their own, polytheistic, or multi godded beliefs. Christianity began as a sect of Judaism, and with the fall of the Roman Empire, became a very powerful organized, religion.
January 16th, 2012 at 1:21 am
Gavin
Just type in History Of Christianity. Then you can see all the mass genocide they caused over religion.
January 16th, 2012 at 6:51 pm
Savannah
Jesus was born, he grew up in the Jewish religion. He then disappeared for a while, probably to India where he took a few ideas from Hinduism. He returned to the holy land and preached peace and goodwill.He upset the local Jewish religious leaders who informed the Roman authorities. He wasn’t unique, there were a number of other messiahs around at the time. This usually happens when an occupying army is in control for various political reasons. The Romans answer to control the number of dissedants was to kill them as a warning to others. This they did but unusually the followers continued to follow. There were many gospels than the 4 we are familiar with today. A number of christian sects were formed each believing they to be the true followers. Eventually after about 300 years or so the emporer Constantine decided to adopt Christianity for a number of political and strategical reasons. He had his chosen spiritual leaders pick the four gospels the rest were destroyed. The result is Christianity of today> It could have been different if for instance the Nostic gospels or the gospels of Mary Magdelane or Judas were adopted instead.
January 18th, 2012 at 10:02 am
Alexa
One of the better sites for Christian origins is:
However, unless your willing to do a significant amount of reading and comparing of theories, using only superficial examination will likely make you more confused about this subject.
One thing that is not typically discussed is that origins within the apostles dedicated to the Jesus lore were focused on converting Jews to this new Jewish based sect. For example only those who remained within the Jewish dietary requirements and were circumcised were welcome. This remained fairly constant until Paul came along and took his conversion efforts from Africa to Europe and the Gentiles and in doing so dropped many requirements such as the dietary restrictions and being circumcised. It was at this time that this new (Jewish) sect began to lay the foundation for major growth.
Constantine plays an interesting role in the establishment of Christian power. He was Roman Emperor from 306 to 337; was born in 274, at Naissus in Upper Moesia, a son of Constantius Chlorus and Helena, and was, after the death of his father at York (July 25, 306), proclaimed emperor by the legions of Gaul. He immediately took possession of Britain, Gaul, and Spain; and after a series of brilliant victories over Maxentius, ending with the bloody battle at the Milvian Bridge, just under the walls of Rome, he also became master of Italy (312). He now ruled over the ‘Western Empire, as Licinius over the Eastern: but war broke out between them in 314; and in 323, after the battle of Chalcedon, in which Licinius was killed, Constantine became sole lord of the whole Roman world. He died in 337, at Nicomedia.
Tradition tells us that he was converted to Christianity suddenly, and by a miracle. One evening during the contest with Maxentius, he saw a radiant cross appearing in the heavens, with the inscription, “By this thou shalt conquer.” The tradition is first mentioned by Eusebius, in his De Vita Constantini, written after the emperor’s death. This miracle has been defended. with ingenious sophistry by Roman-Catholic historians and by Card. Dr. Newman (Two Essays on Biblical and on Ecclesiastical Miracles, 3d ed., Lond., 1873, pp. 271 sqq.), but cannot stand the test of critical examination. Constantine may have seen some phenomenon in the skies; he was no doubt convinced of the superior claims of Christianity as the rising religion; but his conversion was a change of policy, rather than of moral character. Long after that event he killed, his son, his second wife, several others of his relatives, and some of his most intimate friends, in passionate resentment of some fancied infringement of his rights. In his relation to Christianity he was cool, calculating, always bent upon the practically useful, always regarding the practically possible. He retained the office and title of Pontifex Maximus to the last, and did not receive Christian baptism until he felt death close upon him. He kept Pagans in the highest positions in his immediate surroundings, and forbade every thing which might look like an encroachment of Christianity upon Paganism.
For political reasons, however, unity and harmony were necessary; and in 325 the Emperor convened the first great oecumenical council at Nicæa to settle the Arian controversy. It was the first time the Christian Church and the Roman State met each other face to face; and the impression was very deep on both sides. When the emperor stood there, among the three hundred and eighteen bishops, tall, clad in purple and jewels, with his peculiarly haughty and sombre mien, he felt disgusted at those coarse and cringing creatures who one moment scrambled sportively around him to snatch up a bit of his munificence, and the next flew madly into each other’s faces for some incomprehensible mystery. Nevertheless, he learnt something from those people. He saw that with Christianity was born a new sentiment in the human heart hitherto unknown to mankind, and that on this sentiment the throne could be rested more safely than on the success of a court-intrigue, or the victory of a hired army. The only rational legitimation which the antique world had known of the kingship was descent from the gods; but this authority had now become a barefaced lie, and was difficult to use even in the form of a flattery. At Nicæa, however, the idea of a kingship of God’s grace began to dawn upon mankind. Constantine also met there with men who must have charmed and awed him by their grand simplicity, burdened, and almost curbed, as he was by the enormous complexity of Roman life. After the Council of Nicæa, he conversed more and more frequently and intimately with the bishops. his interest in Christianity grew with the years; but, as was to have been foreseen, he was sure to be led astray, for the needle lacked in the compass. He was more and more drawn over to the side of the Arians, and it was an Arian bishop who baptized him.