Christianity Response Paper

The most important factor in the success of Christianity was Paul. Paul was a Pharisee Jew who persecuted the Christians until he had a religious experience on the way to Damascus where he heard Jesus’ voice and saw a bright light that temporarily blinded him. From then on Paul pursued a different approach to the Christians. He joined their small community, and then he began to suggest some radical new thinking. Paul began to create small communities around the world of anyone who would follow the teachings of Jesus and live a “perfect” life. Paul argued with other leaders of the Early Christian Church to convince them to let the gentiles that joined these communities not be required to be circumcised. Paul also wrote to these communities and advised them about Jesus’ teachings.

Paul’s actions to bring Jesus to the gentiles was what enabled Christianity to spread. Paul laid the foundation of believers that would multiply over the years till Christianity was the only legal religion. Without his efforts to convert the gentiles and teach them the correct message of Jesus the Early Christians would most likely have disappeared after the first generation that knew Jesus had died. Paul’s evangelizing methods also set a precedent for the church that would continue to try to convert people to Christianity around the world for centuries to come. Lastly, not only did Paul’s insistence that circumcision should be unnecessary increase the number of gentile converts, but it also separated Christianity from Judaism. Had Paul not broken that fundamental rule of Judaism, Christianity might still be a sect of Judaism and would have never have been independent from other Jewish laws.

What was the most important factor for Christianity success?

From the early stages of religion, Christianity was the minority in the Jewish community and being persecuted by the Polytheistic Roman to the world largest religion. What makes Christianity accomplish its success? One of the most importance factors is the open religion that welcomes anyone who is interesting in Jesus’ teaching, unlike Judaism.
The early Church of Christianity was actually under the Jewish community, and all the Jesus’ followers still see themselves as a Jewish. However, there were some non-Jew followers of Jesus, which according to basic Jewish religion non-Jews should be covert into Judaism that includes the process of circumcision. Most of the Non-Jew followers were not willing to convert into Judaism because they were only following Jesus’ teaching. Even thought Jesus was a Jew, it did not mean the non-Jew followers had to go though Jewish conversion, especially circumcision. Paul, one of Jesus’ apostles, had actually made the community became divers, which is one of the main factor for Christianity to grow to the size in the modern world.
Christianity’s religion practices were different from the Polytheistic Roman, and Christianity was being persecuted by Roman for over three hundreds of years. Christianity does not include scarifies as the worship of god, but the gathering and having supper together within the same community, known the Jesus’ last supper. Scarifies were the way for Roman to worship their emperor, which everyone under the Empire to obey the rule; however, Christians were not willing to giving and follow the Emperor’s order. Therefore, with Christianity’s odd practices and unwillingness to scarify for the emperor made them into the stage of Persecution.
Christianity continues to convert people in to the religion from the early church. In addition, when the capital of the Constantine moved, Pope, the Bishop of Rome, become the leader of the region, since most of the people at the time were converted into Christianity. With the central power lost by the movement of capital, Pope automatically has the power to rule the people in the area.
With the number of Christianity conversion pretty much determined the faith of Christianity. When Christianity was the minority in the Roman Empire, they were being pressed and persecuted; however, when it became the most followed religion in the empire, it became the important figure for the nation and the people. The diversity and conversion of Christianity are the factors that determine the success of Christianity.

Christianity Response Paper

Christianity has become a successful religion for a variety of reasons. Back when Christianity first began it appealed to those looking for guidance and continues to do so to this day. It also provided followers with a different interpretation of the covenant and principles which gave citizens a choice between the two faiths, Christianity and Judaism.
One aspect of Christianity’s success is the large group of followers who saw Jesus as a miracle worker. He healed the sick, walked on water, gave food, and raised the dead. To the Jewish citizens these actions were outrageous and unlike anything they had seen but these actions alone were enough to start drawing in a large crowd who believed that he was the Messiah. Soon after, Paul, another important and respected figure who is known for his actions and his time spent being a forerunner in Christianity, came into the picture and spread Jesus’ message and gained followers along the way. Paul focused on the laws and less on the spirit and traveled around the Roman Empire to spread the religion. Christianity was appealing to citizens became it encompassed all different kinds of people. They eliminated gender and class distinctions, and helped those that were less fortunate. Paul had a great impact on people living at that time and helped some break away from the close knit laws of Judaism and showed them a different side of religion for the time. Without Paul’s help and dedication, Christianity would not have had enough followers to continue into our time now.

Who Decides what Jesus Said?

The phrase, “In God We Trust,” is believed to have led the United States through the hard time of American Civil War and is now even carved and printed on all the coins and bills since 1900s. During the Civil War, population that relied on religious beliefs, mainly on Christianity, to alleviate their pain had increased. What is it so powerful about Christianity that allows the whole nation to believe that, as long as people have faith in God, everything will be alright? Bible has been the only source of Jesus’, son of God, life and his missionary. However, Jesus himself did not write the book; the Gospels did, and they didn’t even start to write until about 30 years after Jesus’ death. Where did they get all the source of information? Who told them that the miracles that were said to be performed by Jesus actually happened? While each Gospel covers dissimilar parts of Jesus’ life, some common details among the four don’t fit into each other that well. Nobody really knows if the Gospels interpreted Jesus’ life accurately.

Furthermore, as different churches have evolved, each division interprets the contents of Bible in various ways and the Christians do not always agree with each other. So who is in charge of spreading the right words of Jesus to people? What did Jesus really say that he wanted to let the people know? The authors of the Gospels added their opinions into the stories; some thinkers like Thomas Aquinas during tenth to fourteenth centuries developed different issues about faith and reasons in Christianity. These are all the ways that people try to figure out what Jesus was giving to people. If the opinions are not too extreme, they will be accepted by the public and used for future reference of the religion. Because of these interpretations of God’s words, they have become very powerful and trusting to people who need some spiritual comfort through this indiscernible hope that might give them miracles to change. Bible always has the most say about Jesus’ teaching and it will still be, unless there are some more reliable sources that can be proved to be more directly from Jesus himself than just from other people’s thoughts and opinions. 

The Success of Christianity

The Roman Empire was the most important factor in making Christianity successful. There were many events and places that influenced the spread of Christianity, but two of the most important are the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE and the city of Rome. The fall of the Temple in 70 CE not only caused Judaism to reconsider their worship practices but also the Jerusalem church’s as well. Before the fall of the temple the Jerusalem church’s practices did not vary significantly from Judaism, but with the destruction of the temple it forced the Jerusalem church’s followers to leave Jerusalem and bring the teachings of Jesus to other parts of the Roman Empire. As they dispersed, they brought their religious practices to other communities and thus the spread of Christianity began. The large Roman Empire allowed them to travel through out the Empire spreading Jesus’ teachings. The cohesiveness of the Empire also allowed for Paul to form his gentile communities.

The city of Rome is also very important for the success of Christianity because it enabled Christianity to have one base of power. The base of power started when Peter founded the Church of Rome. Soon the Bishop of Rome became the most important bishop in the Roman Empire and was given the title of pope. Just as important was when the Emperor Constantine moved the capital of the Empire in 330 CE to Byzantium creating a power vacuum that enable the pope to become the emperor figure in the Western Empire. Because the pope was able to gain so much power and prestige the strength of Christianity increased. Everyone in the West looked to the pope for guidance and needs which put the church in a position of power over the people. Both the fall of the Temple and the city of Rome helped Christianity stay alive by helping Christianity adapt to new situations and the changing world.

Christianity RP Opt. 3

What separates early Christianity from the early church?

In the beginning, there was Judaism and this is the basis from which Christianity grew. Jesus of Nazareth was born into Judaism, and it was Jews to whom he initially preached and gained his following from. Judaism was a crucial part of the earliest Christianity, as the teaching of Jesus was new interpretation of the same covenant and scriptures. The earliest Christians were naught more than a small sect of Judaism who declared Jesus of Nazareth the Messiah. After his death, this small sect faced the reassessment of what the Messiah was and how to live by the teachings of Jesus. The original Christians were very much Jewish, except in their emphasis on practice of baptism and the Eucharist. In their attempts to live in accordance with their Messiah’s teachings they also lived by a kind of communism in which all class distinctions were eliminated and wealth was distributed based on need.

Christianity in a form recognizable today did not even begin to form until the sect first gained more formal organization and began recording the new interpretation. The early church developed out of the traditions of small communities, the leaders in these later becoming the leaders of the church. Many of these communities consisted of diverse groups of gentiles whom were converted by Paul. What allowed Christianity to move from being a small sect of Judaism to a religion in its own right was the incorporation of those who were not first Jewish into that system of beliefs. The inclusiveness that made Christianity accessible and the philosophies that made it an attractive religion in the first place allowed Christianity to grow into something more than just another branch of Judaism.

The Success of Christianity

After years of persecution in the early stages of the Christian church, Christianity has grown into the largest world religion with over two billion followers. But how did this come to be? Especially at a time when Jerusalem was ruled by the polytheistic Romans. The rise of Christianity can be attributed to the fact that Christianity offered people a way of life that had never been experienced before and to the persistence of Christians.
During the years of the early church there was no middle class; there was just the very rich and the very poor, Christianity presented a lifestyle that made comfort and security a possibility. The Christian communities would share everything, much like communist communities, everything that was earned would be redistributed to assure that everyone is taken care of. In a world where people were uncertain of when they would have their next meal this option would seem very attractive. The teachings of Jesus also encouraged the elimination of gender and class discrimination, which, again, would be very attractive to the poorer population of the Roman Empire.
The lifestyle Christianity presented along with Paul’s influence that made Christianity open to more people than just Jews was the reason Christianity survived. The reason Christianity has thrived, however, is because, unlike Judaism, Christianity has had a history of conversion. From Paul to the Reconquista to Jehovah’s Witnesses, Christians have actively been converting people since the start of the religion. Churches will send mission trips to poor parts of the world and build houses for poor families and while they are there they will preach the teachings of Jesus.
The combination of presenting an attractive lifestyle to people who are desperate for some sort of salvation and the conversion of millions of people throughout it’s history has allowed Christianity to thrive and in turn become the world’s most followed religion.