What event officially began Christianity?

Answer 1

This is a difficult question as there are so many possibilities. What most people agree on is that there is no one 'official' event that started Christianity. Some might say that the Incarnation of Jesus Christ (his birth of the Holy Spirit where he became fully human and yet fully God) was a decisive moment. Others would say that his death on the Cross as an atonement for our sins was the decisive moment as this was necessary for our salvation. Still others would say that the resurrection and ascension - the final conquering of death - was the decisive moment when Christianity started as at this moment the true revelation of just who Jesus is became very evident. However, it seems to most Christians that the start of the Christian Church as an organisation started after these events - at the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, where the resurrected Christ allowed his Spirit to be poured out on al who turned to him. After this watershed moment, the disciples, alsong with Paul, who had a special revelation of the Holy Spirit on the road to Damascus at his conversion, proclaimed the gospel to all around, and the Christian Church grew astronomically all over the Roman Empire and beyond. The church began on the first Day of Pentecost following Jesus' ascension as recorded in Acts chapter 2, and the founding of Christ's church can properly be thought of as the "event" that "officially began Christianity." Before the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, Jesus' immediate followers were twelve apostles and a comparatively small, mostly unorganized group of disciples. After the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, Peter's sermon resulted in the baptism of over 3,000 that day, and Acts 2:47says, "And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved." Followers of Christ had never been "added to the church" before, nor had they been "saved" just for being His disciples. Though Christ had already ascended, the birth of the church was the crowning glory of His earthly mission, just as He had told the apostles it would be. His final words to them are recorded in Acts 1:8 - But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. While He was on earth, all "power" resided in Jesus and those to whom He directly bestowed it. With the coming of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the church (John 16:20-22), the power of Christ began taking up residence in all who believed and obeyed (Acts 2:38), and "Christianity" is the outcome.