Rise of Christianity in the First
and Second Centuries
Christianity
is a terminology derived from the Greek word Khristos- commonly referred to as Christ. The word Christ, if it is
to be defined plainly, means “the anointed one”, according to Spielvogel, 2011,
p. 190. The religious book from where the tenets and principles of the
religious belief of Christianity are found is referred to as the Holy Bible. Although
the Holy Bible is divided into the Old Testament and the New Testament, these
two actually complement each other since the new is a fulfillment of the old.
Christianity has its foundations in the teachings and philosophies of Jesus
Christ of Nazareth. It is from Jesus’ name Christ, that His followers got their
name “Christians”. The backbone of the Christian’s teachings and beliefs is
that Jesus Christ was, and indeed still is, the son of the Most High God, who
become human and was born of a woman so as to come into the world and save
humanity from death and eternal destruction which is brought by the devil
through sin. To achieve this redemption of humanity, Christians believe that
Jesus suffered at the hands of those who did not believe, died and rose from
the dead on the third day having triumphed over death, He then ascended into
heaven and therefore sits and reigns with God the father, awaiting the day of
judgment set apart for God for the sentencing of the world-each person
according to his own actions (Edwards, 1997, p. 491).
When
Christianity first came into being in the early first and second centuries, the
Jews were still under the rule of the Roman Empire which had conquered in war
much of Asia and many parts of present day Europe (Stark, 1996, p. 158). The
Jews were suffering under the Roman Empire since they were more or less under
slavery, although not in the strict sense of the word. The Romans had imposed
on them heavy taxes which the Roman Empire needed to be able to run their big
empire and take care of their massive military. The rights of the Jews were
many times denied with many of them being beaten and thrown into prisons if
they dared talk ill of or disobey the Romans. What kept them going was the hope
they had in their God, who had promised to send them a Messiah or savior, who
would rescue them from the brutal hand of the Romans who ruled them with an
iron fist. Although many of them doubted Him when He came, Jesus Christ was the Messiah they had waited for,
for so long (Kenchnie, 2001, p. 14); but then His own people did not believe in
Him and they rejected and killed Him. The main reason for their rejection of
Jesus was the fact that they had expected a military person; an army commander
who would lead them into victorious war against the Romans like past Jewish
heroes had done in the days of their ancestors. When Christianity first came
into being, there were different and varying positions and mindsets of the
Roman Emperors and their administrators towards the first Christians in the 1st
and 2nd century, based on who the empire was at the time and what he
deemed the best thing to do to with the Christian issue. Some emperors would
just adopt an outlook of unresponsiveness towards the Christians while others
would totally pursue and hound them for persecution (McKechnie,
2001. p. 221).
There
were several factors that led to the sharp rise and increase of Christians in
the first and second centuries. It is important to bear in mind that there were
several historical, sociological and even topographical factors that caused
this extraordinary expansion of Christianity. The Christians at that time were
still under the Roman Empire Constantine, whose reign was characterized by
frequent and regular disasters to his empire. Spielvogel, 2011, p. 202 informs
us that Constantine was not aggressive with Christians because he even gave
Christian leaders grants to empower them. Between 160 and 250 AC, the empire
was hit by a distressing outbreak of disease which most modern medical
practitioners suppose to have been the first occurrence of small pox in the
world which was most times called the “Plague of Galen”; the plague led to the
deaths of so many people, both juvenile and adults, that it has even been said there
were people with carts who would be chosen and burdened with the task of loading
their carts with corpses and dumping them out of the cities to avoid stench
(Stark, 1996, p. 83). This epidemic, although a disaster, presented an open break
that Christianity needed to rise to preeminence in quantity and also
theologically due to several reasons. The first major reason has its foundation
in the teaching of Christianity; the greatest commandment that Jesus Christ
gave to His followers before ascending to heaven was that they should love the
Lord God their God and love their neighbors as they love themselves. His
teachings were very different from what the people had been hearing for years
(Frend, 1984, p. 3). The Christian principles and tenets also advocate for kindness
and assistance to those in trouble or undergoing sufferings. During and after
the epidemic that broke out in the Roman Empire during this 1st and
2nd century, the Christians were on the front line taking care of
the infected and affected; they did not discriminate against the pagans or
gentiles but took care of any sick person in similar manner as they had been
taught by Christ (Frend, 1984, p. 101). Their humanitarian actions eventually
transformed to performances of communal service in that difficult time of calamity
through their systems of health care. This attracted many people to the
religion and the numbers of Christians continued to grow (McKenchnie, 2001, p.
78.).
Another
factor that led to the growing of Christianity was the fact that unlike the
other religions or cults and sects that were in existence in the 1st
and 2nd century, Christianity put across more reasonable and
acceptable rationalizations of the tragedies that were taking place throughout
the Roman Empire at the time. It is worthy to note that while the originator
and pioneer of Christianity, Jesus Christ, was in the world it is recorded that
He performed many miracles and supernatural acts that can not to this day, be
explained by the human mind or technology, no matter how wise and intellectual human have proved to
be. After He rose from death and ascended into heaven, Jesus gave his disciples
and followers the power and authority to do the same miracles and supernatural
acts that He had done while on earth. Since most of these miracles included
healing operations and solving of humanitarian crisis, the Christians continued
to attract mass followings and the believers grew in numbers. It was also
strange and unusual to the other people how little the Christians were affected
by the outbreaks of disease or other catastrophes that were occurring in the
Roman Empire (Stark, 1996, p. 13) ; many therefore opted to become Christians with
the hopes that that the God of the Christians could protect them from
calamities in similar manner. Other contributions that have been forwarded in
recent years as to why Christianity could have ascended to such supremacy in
such a short frame of time, is the fact that Christianity promises renaissance
from the dead and eternal life in paradise later on. Although this could be
true at the time, there were also other religions with almost the same if not
similar beliefs at the time; again to achieve this eternal life of bliss in
paradise there are many things that one had to do to according to Christian
teachings.
Work cited
Edwards, D. L.: Christianity: the first two thousand years. (Continuum International
Publishing
Group, 1997)
Frend, W. H. C.: The rise of Christianity. (Darton, Longman and Todd, 1984)
McKechnie, P.: The first Christian centuries: perspectives
on the early church. (Apollos,
2001)
Spielvogel, J. J.: Cengage Advantage Books: Western
Civilization, Complete. (Cengage
Learning,
2011)
Stark, R.: The rise of Christianity: a sociologist
reconsiders history. (Princeton University
Press,
1996)
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