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Moving to Christianity Christianity in our modern times is one of the largest religions in the world, but it was not always the prevailing belief system that it has become. Much earlier in the mists of time, the Christian faith came out of other beliefs and faiths that are now referenced as pianistic. In this paper we will take a very brief look at the move of faith from those pianistic belief systems into the early Christian church. Before writing further, it is important to clarify on the use of the word pagan when discussing religion in late Antiquity. It is somewhat an improper designation f the cults and religious practices of the Greece-Roman world, which were not affiliated with either Christianity or Judaism. The term polytheist is much more accurate, as the term pagan is actually what early Christians began using to label their opponents because it had negative connotations.
The Latin word pagans actually meant both that the person was a rural dweller, as well as a civilian, both of which were somewhat negative ideas in that time (Cairns). Rural people tended to follow belief systems that were loosely knit together, but did not have the organization and structure of belief that established religions had. The people and cultures of the ancient world actually played a vital part in making the effective spread and success of Christianity possible. The Romans, unlike any other people up to their time, had developed a sense of the unity of mankind under a universal law.
Their sense of the solidarity of man while within the empire created an environment that was favorable to the reception of a gospel that proclaimed the unity of the human race in the fact that all men are under the penalty of sin and in the fact that all are offered a salvation that makes them a part of single universal organization, the Christian church, which is Christ's body (Lee). Another Roman step in fostering the idea of unity was the granting of Roman citizenship to non-Romans. This process was started in the period preceding the birth of Christ and was completed when Caracalla in 212 admitted all freemen in the Roman Empire to Roman citizenship. Roman law, with its emphasis on the dignity of the individual and his rights to justice and Roman citizenship, and with its tendency to fuse men of different races into one political organization, anticipated a gospel that proclaimed the unity of the race both in setting forth the penalty for sin and the Savior from sin (Cairns).
This general emphasis on organization helped set the stage culturally for an organized religion the extent of which had not truly been seen yet. The Romans also provided the means for the spread of this new religion. Free movement about the Mediterranean world would have been most difficult for the messengers of the gospel before the reign of Caesar Augustus. With the extension of Roman imperial power during his period of empire building, a period of peaceful development occurred in the countries surrounding the Mediterranean. This relatively peaceful world made it easy for the early Christians to move from place to place so that they could preach the gospel to all men everywhere. The Romans also developed an excellent system of roads radiating out from the golden milestone in the Roman forum to all parts of the empire.
The main roads were built to serve for ages. They wen tonight over hill and dale to the farthest point of th empire. A study of the journeys of Paul indicates that he made great use of the excellent road system to get from strategic center to strategic center of the Roman Empire. Roman roads and strategic cities located on these roads were an indispensable aid in the realization of Paul's mission; the spread of Christianity throughout the ancient world. The role of the Roman army in the development of the ideal of a universal organization and in the spread of the gospel should not be ignored. The Romans adopted the custom of using provincials in the army as the supply of Roman citizens declined because of war and easy living.
These provincials were brought into contact with Roman culture and helped to spread its ideas throughout the ancient world. They often came from regions that were more dominated by what we would refer to as paganism, and when they returned to these areas they taught their newfound belief system, Christianity. Moreover, some of these men that became converts to Christianity would then spread the gospel to areas where they were assigned for military duty. It is probable that the earliest introduction of Christianity to Britain was a result of the efforts of Christian soldiers or merchants from Rome (Lee). Roman conquests also led to a loss of belief by man peoples in their local pagan gods because the gods had not been able to keep them from defeat by the Romans. Such people were left with a spiritual vacuum that could not be filled satisfactorily by the pagan multi-deity belief systems of the day.
Overall, the organization and glory of Imperial Rome became an important aspect of the lives of people throughout Europe, and when Rome finally fell, it left an opening that was fulfilled in the ideals and intricacies of the ecclesiastical system. Greeks also played a huge role in paving the way for Christianity and aiding in its success. Greek philosophy prepared for the coming of Christianity by destroying the older religions. Whoever came to know its tenets, whether Greek or Roman, soon found that this intellectual discipline made his polytheistic, or pagan, religion so irrational that he turned away from it to philosophy.
But philosophy file to satisfy his spiritual needs, so he oftentimes sought comfort in the yser religions of the Roman Empire. At the time of Christ's advent, philosophy had declined from the peak reached by Plato to a system of self-centered individualistic thought. This bankruptcy of philosophy by the time of the coming of Christ disposed men's minds toward a more spiritual approach to life. Christianity was far more capable of filling the vacuum in the spiritual life of the day than was any pianistic tradition. Another way in which the great Greek philosophers served Christianity was to call the attention of the Greeks of their day to a reality that was greater than what they experienced everyday. Both Socrates and Plato in the fifth century B.
C. Taught that this present world of the senses is only a shadow of something else, and where the highest ideals are such intellectual abstractions as the good, the beautiful, and the true. They insisted that reality was not temporal and material but spiritual and eternal. Christianity offered to those who accepted Socrates' and Plato's philosophy the historical revelation of the good, the beautiful, and the true in the personification of a God-man, Jesus Christ.
Greek literature and history also show that Greeks were concerned about questions of right and wrong and man's eternal future, though they saw sin as more of a contractual matter, not a personal failure that affronted God and injured others. The Greek people also contributed in a religious way to making the world ready to accept the new Christian religion as it appeared. The advent of materialistic Greek philosophy in the sixth century B. C. Destroyed the faith of the Greek peoples in the old pagan worship that is described in Homer's Iliad. Even though elements of this worship lived on in the mechanical state of worship, it had lost its vitality.
After then, the people turned to philosophy, but it also lost its attractiveness. Both Greek and Roman systems of philosophy and religion thus made a contribution to the coming of Christianity by destroying the old polytheistic pagan religions and by showing the inability of human reason to obtain God. The mystery religions to which many people then turned helped to accustom people to think in terms of sin and redemption so that as Christianity appeared, people within the Roman Empire were especially receptive to a religion that seemed to offer a spiritual approach to life (Lietzmann). As Christianity sprang forth from Judaism, it is important to note the interaction of Christianity in its early stages with that religion. The Jews offered to the world the hope of a coming Messiah who would bring righteousness to the earth. This messianic hope was in sharp contrast with the national stic aspiration that Virgin depicted in the poem in which he described an ideal Roman ruler who was to come, the son to be born to Augustus.
The hope of a Messiah had been popularized in the Roman world by its steady proclamation by the Jews. Even the disciples after the death and resurrection of Christ were still looking for a messianic kingdon on earth. The Jewish people still further prepared the way for the coming of Christianity by providing the infant church with its message, the Old Testament. Even a casual study of th e New Testament will reveal Christ's and the apostles' deep indebtedness to the Old Testament and their reference for it as the Word of God to man. Many Gentiles also read it and became familiar with the tenets of the Jewish faith. This fact is indicated by accounts of the numerous proselytes to Judaism.
With all of these factors in place, the growth of Christianity was rapid. Jews from all parts of the Mediterranean world were present at Jerusalem to observe t Feast of Pene cost at the time of the founding of the church. Peter made this the occasion for the first and possibly most fruitful sermon ever preached, the declaration of Christ's messiahship and saving grace. At least three thousand accepted the word that he declared and were baptized. Soon after, the total number or those baptized soon reached five thousand. Such rapid growth had some great opposition on the part of the Jews.
Persecution came first from a politico-ecclesiastical body, the Sanhedrin, which, with Roman permission, supervised the civil and religious life of the state (Meeks). Herod killed James and imprisoned Peter in this period of persecution. The persecution occurred for different reasons than simply the danger that Christianity posed against Judaism and the polytheistic religions. Some of the dialogue of the Christian faith was misunderstood by people of the time.
Christians referred to each other as brothers and sisters, which was misinterpreted by many to mean husbands and wives because of discrepancies in translation. Talk of eating of the body and drinking the blood of Christ was also misunderstood and taken literally. There were many martyrs during the growth of the church, and they provided example and leadership in their deaths for the religious fever of the other followers. This persecution did not end until Galerius issued an edict from his deathbed in 311 that gave toleration to Christianity.
Then Constantine issued the Edict of Milan in 313 that brought freedom of worship to all religions. During his reign over the Roman State, there was unprecedented growth in the Christian church. He believed that the worship of God should be the first and chiefest care of the ruler, and mistakenly thought that there could be no state religion as the policy of the empire. During Constantine's time the Christians began to propagandize others in order to win them for Christ.
This reached its greatest level during the second and third centre, in which the church expressed its emerging self-consciousness with a new literary output by those called the p ologists and the polemicists. The apologists had a negative and a postive aim in their writings. Negatively, they sought to refute the false charges of atheism, cannibalism, incest, indolence, and antisocial action that pagan neighbors and writers has claimed against them. Their writings, known as apologies, made a rational appeal to the pagan leaders to create an intelligent understanding of Christianity (Lietzmann).
In writing and in practices of converting pagans, Christians used symbolism to abolish the old ways. The old crone's with the pointed hat that appeared in many pagan religions became the witch, and the sea god with his trident became the devil with his pointed pitchfork (Meeks). Such changes as these can be seen throughout the history of Church's indoctrination of new cultures. Overall, the Christian church sprang forth from great opportunity that was laid before it by the Greeks and Romans. Through the spiritual circumstances and technological advantages that appeared, the church was able to take hold and grow rapidly from its beginning. After those early times, it took a more offensive strategy in gaining a larger following, which can still be seen today.
Reference Cairns, Earle. Christianity Through the Centuries. Grand Rapids, Mich: Zondervan Publishing House, 1996. Lee, A. D.
Pagans and Christians in Late Antiquity. New York: Routledge, 2000. Lietzmann, Hans. The Beginning of the Christian Church. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1937. Meeks, Wayne.
In Search of the Early Christians. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002.
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