Arguably, the development and growth of Christianity can be traced from its roots in Roman controlled Palestine to major religion in the globe. In fact, the Christina practices have gone to the entire continent of Europe and the world at large. As ammeter of fact, Christianity is the most popular religion in the planet earth, with global believers, making one-third of the world population. Additionally, this religion is also disputed by many other sects and religions in the globe. Christianity is certainly an Abraham religion that is based on the teachings, death, life, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
/>
Although Christianity is a monotheistic religion, one God is believe to exist in three persons known as the holy trinity. The Holy Trinity includes God the father, God the son, And God the Holy Spirit. Christianity according to the bible originated in the first century. In the city of Antioch, the followers of Jesus Christ were first set the name Christians; they had fled and settled in this city after the Judea early persecutions. Jesus who is believed to be Christ descended from the family of Judah, but many of the Jewish authorities rejected His teachings. Christianity developed as a religious thought in Roman Palestine and slowly spread to the eastern region of the empire towards the east (Harnack 5).
Within the first three centuries of its existence, Christianity concentrated and remains disorganized in the city regions. Each groups came up with their own was of liturgy under the leadership of charismatic local leaders. In the AD12, conversion of Emperor Constantine revolutionized Christianity structure and converted it into a quasi-political organization. The church provided the emperor with the toll to stabilize the entire empire. In AD325, Council of Nicea came up with liturgy uniform to be used in the empire. Theodosius II proclaimed the Christian religion as the official religion in the Roman Empire (Harnack 15). Christianity has greatly transformed in the first millennium after it was formed in conjunction with political changes and European culture. Undeniably, the collapse of Roman Empire in the fifth and fourth centuries increased influential and powerful (Hastings 7-12).
The message of Jesus was a clear representation of a revolution in the religious practices of the ancient Israelites. Jesus Christ came with numerous changes, which affected personal and public life. Christianity and Jesus was the key cause of revolution in terms of religious practices. In ancient Israelites, religion was based on polytheistic cultural way of life; this was intrinsic and pagan to the Jewish. The message that Jesus came with was to be based on a monotheistic belief where there is only one supreme God to be worshipped. Many people in the ancient Israel rejected the teachings, and opted to follow their polytheistic beliefs. Jesus came up with divergent views.
Jesus of Nazareth had to die for various reasons. From the first work of Jesus, conflict began with his own people. The reasons why Jesus was killed are very evident in the bible. Just like other people before and after Him, he was killed for what he said, did, and lived for. The four gospel books in the Bible demonstrations the violence and process that transpired during his death. Jesus was killed for all the wrong reasons. He was killed for supporting the poor. In fact, he was not in a position to repeat the miracles he had performed s in Capernaum. This was part of early conflict that later caused his death.
The leaders of that time saw Jesus as a potential threat to their power, therefore, in order to maintain their power, they had to kill him. Additionally, Jesus was killed because he opposed the payment of taxes to Caesar, as well as claiming to be the messiah. In another critical and biblical view, Jesus was killed because he was one of the political rebel. The scripture puts it clearly that the death of Jesus and resurrection was already planned. Therefore, Jesus was killed to fulfill the prophecies and bring salvation to the world. Moreover, he was killed because h was charged for claiming to be Jews king. Christians believe that Jesus Christ had to die and resurrect so that they will be saved. In his entire work, Jesus had a lot of crowds, meaning he had empower many people. Analytically, most of the works of Jesus was non-violent (Hastings 20).
The persecution of Christians began a long time ago and began with Jesus Christ through his resurrection. As a matter of fact, the early Christina were persecuted for several reasons of which were justified in various ways by those who carried out the act. Roman Empire was well known to be the persecutors of early Christians. The Roman Empire always tolerated other religions, the policy focused in incorporation of gods. On the other hand, Christians did not want to tolerate the Roman Empire gods. Christians came with worshipping of one god that was associated with loyalty and unity. Romans viewed Christianity as a threat to social justice and unity. Additionally, there were persecuted because Christianity was seen as a superstition.
The followers of Christianity were seen as indicators of hatred, whereas the roman gods sustained peoples progress and well being. Therefore, people believed that those who spread Christianity had no room in the empire, since they were going against the gods. Moreover, roman religion was based on pagan sense; hence, they asserted that bad things will happen if gods were not respected and worshiped well. The early Christians did not even worship the roman gods, meaning their existence in the Roman Empire would make the gods sad (Harnack 30-39).
Despite the difficulties that the early Christians went through, Christianity still spread swiftly to all parts of the globe. The horrific events and persecution gave the Christina s strength to endure the hardships and spread the gospel. Probably, the enormous reason for the spread of Christianity could be the essence to appeal to the masses. For example, most of the early converts were gentiles. Through Christianity, other sect game up, and acted as tolls to spreading Christian believes (Hastings 37). Additionally, the Christian principles and missions attracted many people. Christianity believes that there are no poor of rich people in Gods kingdom. Such a believe unites people from various backgrounds to worship together. Later, the work of missionaries and discipleship saw Christianity reach all corners of the globe. The collapse of the roman empire opened ways for Christianity to spread, and gave people within the empire freedom to choose their god under no influence of power.
Most Christian denomination in the middle age emulated the teachings of Jesus in one way or another, depending on the type on denominations. The middle age religion was dominated fully be the Catholics. In all aspects of life, church dominated all of it, regardless of status or class. The medieval hierarchy dominated during the middle age. The hierarchy begins with the pope, whose main role is to be overall in charge. In times of Jesus, he gave people to hold the key. The pope therefore takes the responsibility of peter. Other hierarchal posts include bishops and priests. The bishops and the priests represent the chosen disciples who helped peter during the preaching (Harnack 54).
Catholic church was a religious and political institution. Catholic Church is in other terms is known as Roman Catholic Church. This implies that there is a liaison between the Roman Empire and Roman Catholic Church. The Catholic Church supported various activities in the empire, which was political institution. Religiously, Catholic Church spread the gospel in every one of parts of the globe. In Europe the growing popularity of resenting high taxes to pay the Rome, was supported by political leaders.
Work Cited
Harnack, A. What is Christianity?. London: Springer, 2006
Hastings, A. A World History of Christianit. New York: Wiley, 2000
.
