How did Christianity become a major religion?

Answer 1

Answer 1

Judaism was first, but then God sent Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for all of our sins, and Christianity grew out of Judaism.

People who are still considered Orthodox Jews do not believe Jesus was the Messiah, they think he was just a misguided Rabbi, and the are still waiting for a"king". But Messianic Jews believe that Jesus is Christ, but still follow many Jewish customs.

Christians know Jesus died for us, and was sent by God because of the historical evidence. The Bible had over 200 different authors, and many of them did not even know each other, but there are absolutely no contradictions in the Bible.

Jews only use the Old Testament that was written before the death of Jesus, while Christians use both the Old Testament and New Testament which makes up the Bible. The Bible was written by prophets of God many many many thousands of years ago.

Every race and place in the Bible, either has Historical evidence that it was real, or is still around today. Like the Israelites (Now Jews), Jerusalem, Persians, Israel, etc.

Answer 2

God religion started by start of universe creation. it is based on full submission to God as the one and only one God. This principle is called Islam. Islam means full submission to God; the Creator. Its birth place is the universe as it started by start of universe creation by God (same God in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam). Accordingly, Islam in its general sense is the God religion since mankind creation. All God prophets since Adam through Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad called for worshiping God as the one and only one God. Islam per Torah god revelation to Moses is called Judaism. Islam per the Bible God revelation to Jesus is called Christianity. Islam per Qur'an God revelation to prophet Muhammad is called the same name Islam as it is the last God religion. Since all God religions stem from same God. no one can claim that one God religion is an adaptation to another God religion. Refer to question below on how Muslims view Jesus (peace be upon him and upon all God prophets).

Answer 3

The development of Christianity has very little do with Jesus per se. While it does break from Judaism in that it held Jesus to be the Messiah, the Ecclesia, or early Church community, really developed after Jesus' crucifixion. During the first few centuries after Jesus' death, many Christian communities were seeded throughout Greece, Asia Minor, the Levant Region and Egypt in a very short amount of time. This led to the promulgation of numerous interpretations of what had occurred in the Holy Land and started debates between early leaders of the Church as to how to understand Jesus and those events to create a universal Christian consensus.

Scholars doubt whether the discussions between Peter and Paul in the Book of Acts happened, but there is clear evidence of the numerous councils, such as the Councils of Nicaea, the Councils of Constantinople, the Council of Ephesus, and the Council of Chalcedon. At these several councils, Church leaders would debate different understandings of Christ, the Virgin Mary, and general Christian theology in an effort to remove heresy and create a truly united church. It is from the First Councils of Nicaea (325 CE) and Constantinople (381 CE) that the Nicene Creed, which determines much of Christian belief comes.

As the Patriarchates of the Christian World began to truly take shape, there began to be disagreements between the power of the Roman Patriarchate (the Papacy) vis-à-vis the other Patriarchates, leading to the Schism of 1054 when the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church broke apart from the Unified Chalcedonian Church. Eventually the Catholic Church would also fracture during the Protestant Reformation in the 1500s.

Answer 2

Before the time of the Roman emperor, Constantine, Christianity would not have considered itself powerful, no doubt preferring the role of being humble.

Constantine saw the Christian Church as a potentially unifying force in the Roman Empire and gave the Church state patronage. He elevated the bishops to the same status as the most senior pagan priests and provided them with emoluments to support an impressive lifestyle.

When the mainstream Christian Church faced opposition from the Docetists, Constantine began to persecute the Docetists. Although this persecution did not last long and was ineffective, Constantine had shown the way to use persecution as a means to hold on to and expand the Church's power.

Constantine also began to persecute the pagan temples. Since the military could not be relied on to move against the temples, Constantine used Christians to attack the temples and remove their treasures on behalf of the state. By the end of the fourth century, Christianity had become the state religion, and the Church was in a position to expropriate all remaining temple property on its own behalf. With state support, Christianity had indeed become powerful and now demonstrated that it had learnt how to use that power.

Answer 3

Answer

When Christianity became the official religion of the Roman empire in the fourth century, it was inevitable that it would be the religion of the entire Mediterranean area and of all Europe. Persecution would ensure that all other religions were eliminated throughout this area.

When European nations began to colonise the New World, it was a time of religious fervour, particularly in Spain and Portugal. It is natural that the soldiers and missionaries took Christianity with them to the New World and imposed it on the natives.

The rest is history. Christianity allowed no competitors wherever it had absolute control, and this now included all Europe, the Americas, much of the Philippines and the Pacific region.