The World into Which Christianity Came - Essay Example

The World Into Which Christianity Came Introduction: Meaning of Christianity Christianity is a collective applied to societies who believe on the ideas of the existence of Jesus Christ, the Son of God who was sent to save the world from sin by dying on the cross and rising from the dead after three days. These concepts are supported by a known document they call Scriptures, which are composed of the Old Testament - documents before Christ era and the New Testament - compilation of documents from Christ followers after his death, and other non-written accounts they refer to as traditions. It was believed that Christianity have sprung from the original followers and disciples of Jesus, who gained a lot of converts in the first century onwards. Today, it is the world's biggest religion; with about 2.1 billion followers worldwide (bbc.co.uk, Nov. 20, 2007) and about 6 million are considered practicing or doing the mandates of the religion, including attendance to regular mass, doing the sacraments, and participating in missionary works. Although they trace to the same founder, Christians are classified into different congregations each having their own sets of ideals, fundamental beliefs, and practices, which are either solely based on the Scriptures or with tradition. The largest Christian group is the Roman Catholics. Other groups include: The Amish, Baptist churches, Church of England, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Church of Scotland, Eastern Orthodox Church, Jehovah's Witnesses, Methodist Church, Pentecostalism, Catholic Church, Seventh-day Adventists among others that existed throughout the world. The popularity of the Christian movement and its rapid acceptance in the early centuries of its development is a manifestation of the need of the peoples during those times. The society in which this interest group had started must have something that served as a driving force to accept the teachings of Christianity. Understanding the need of these generations would provide a good picture and vivid perceptive why such ideals evolved into a widely received trend and values. The Society Upon Which Christianity Christianity emerged in the 1st century and was congregated by Jews and their non-Jewish converts who accepted the beliefs of Jewish Christians. Initially though, the teachings inherent in the Christian societies are meant for the Jewish people, but the message became universal, which means Jewish and non-Jewish alike benefit from the teachings and are accepted into the society. There were several precursors to the growth and strengthening of the Christian movement. Among which is the growing need for independence of the Jewish people, and the collapse of Judaism in the Roman society. A society of the oppressed Why do we consider the Jews hunger for independent life Basically Christianity traced its roots from Judaism with its founder, Jesus Christ belonging to a sect of the Judaism religion. Before Christianity appeared as a religion, all Jews could either be classified as Pharisees, Sadducees, or Essenes (C. George Boeree's "A Brief History of Judaism"). The entry point of Christianity was based on the conditions of the Jewish people under the rule of the Roman Empire. The Jews, claiming to be God's people had been in bondage for a long time and was very desperate for freedom. About a hundred years before Jesus was born, the Romans granted them control over their kingdom but internal divisions weakened the Jewish kingdom that prompted the Romans to take control over once again in 63 BCE (BBC Team's "History of Judaism"). Oppression were felt by the lowly Jewish not only from the Romans but also from other Jewish who ruled them under Roman controls. The priests or Sadducees were allied to the rulers and lost favor with the people, who turned increasingly to the Pharisees or Scribes, from whose group Rabbis or teachers arose. Jesus was considered one among those messianic teachers who emerged from the oppressed Jewish society. Under the circumstances of the Jewish race, the people are waiting for the promised savior according to the early scriptures used by the Jewish society written by early leader and teachers whom they consider as prophets like Isaiah, Micah, Daniel, and the likes. Jesus was not the only one who claimed to be the promised Messiah. There are lots of them, but their ministries are short lived. The timeliness of Jesus' teachings when the people were at the peak of their afflictions made them sensed something must be done to end the societies problems. Very timely ideals for change There are many attractive features on the teachings of Jesus that encouraged majority of the early followers. These teachings of Jesus, which brought attention to his audience who became his disciples and followers later are apocalyptic in nature. This points are considered as a good strategy of Jesus to give the people reasons to become alert, to make the start of his ministry as attractive as possible to the Jews, his initial targets. It started with the preaching of John the Baptist, who was accepted by Christians as the person who prepares the way for the coming of the messiah as stated in the prophecy of prophet Malachi (The Holy Bible: New King James Version, Malachi 3:1) in the Old Testament, which theme is apocalypses. The statements, "Prepare for the kingdom is near," was a message to awaken the Jewish people to let them reconsider their actions and preferences for it is the end of time. The essence of this teaching, which was also accepted or pursued by Jesus, was for the people to change their ways from sinfulness to righteousness since only those who renew themselves can enter the kingdom that was promised by God, a kingdom dreamt by most Jews since the Babylonian captivity of Israel. The upper class of the Jewish society opposes the teaching for they are those who did not experience the hardships. But the marginal and the lowly Jews, who felt much of the oppression, the high taxes, poverty, and other afflictions brought by the rule of the Roman Empire, are the ones hoping for the coming of the promised one. Therefore they grab every opportunity. They are the target audience as far as the apocalyptic message of Jesus is concerned. This is the essence of Jesus' ministry anchored on another apocalyptic prophecy from Isaiah (Isaiah 61:1) which states, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound." Jesus himself, after reading the passage, affirmed in Luke 4:21 by saying that the prophecy is fulfilled in him. They found the charisma within Jesus, a leader who has the guts to challenge even the influential leaders of the Jews, the reason he gained early followers from among his town mates. Furthermore, the ideas and practices of the early apostles brought encouragement and inspiration into the new society, which so rapidly grew up as the effect of their preaching. As Jesus taught, the group included within the first converts -- rich and poor, slaves and freemen. Apostles directly attacked what the people really hope for.- equality as they preached, "For as many of you as were baptized in Christ, have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek: there is neither slave nor free: there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:27-28). A society that needs a healthy alternative way of life Another important prelude to the acceptance and growth of Christianity among Jews and Gentiles was the historic transformations of both societies, which are rampaged by lot of inequalities. The growing oppression of the Roman rule in the Jewish society created pressures among all sectors of society. Worse conditions were aggravated by incompetence and corruption of the government of mostly Roman-appointed Jews. Fanatics arose who killed disloyal Jews and Gentiles alike (C. George Boeree's "A Brief History of Judaism"). A period of great change in political, religious, cultural followed and social turmoil abounded in Palestine. During the first 150 years after Jesus the Jews twice rebelled against their Roman leaders, but both rebellions were brutally put down. The first revolt, in 70 CE, led to the destruction of the Temple. This brought to an end the temple worship and is still perceived by traditional Jews as the biggest trauma in Jewish history. The second revolt, in 132 CE, resulted in the death of hundreds of thousands of Jews, the enslaving of thousands of others, and the banning of Jews from Jerusalem (BBC Team's "History of Judaism"). These events were followed by restrictions on Jewish freedom, which included banning the practice of Jewish religion. As purely Jewish religious practices became unacceptable many religious Jews were looking for alternative ways to establish connection with their God's and the flourishing Christian society was a better alternative then. Personal critical evaluation would lead us to think that people who desire harmony within the society, such as Jewish living peacefully within the Roman domains, would readily accept the Christian ideals. Caird (19-22) had referred to this ultimate goal of Jesus as the national eschatology of the New Testament. A time when people heed the call of God, "for nothing but the thoroughgoing change of heart, which Jesus demanded and made possible, could in the end keep the nation out of disastrous conflict with Rome,"(Caird 22) or other nations for that matter in the future. Christianity after Jesus After the claimed resurrection of the Jesus Christ, founder of the Christian religion, the established network within the Roman Empire facilitated the spread of the society among other Jews and the non-Jews. Without the linkages within the domains of the Romans it could have been harder to conquer the other areas. Since the dominant government was under Roman rule, commerce and other flow of civilization can easily move within the domains. Jews are scattered within different areas of the empire but early Christian missionaries could also reach them through the means used in trade and commerce. The early Christians who looked for the Jewish people first to preach the teachings of Jesus traveled around the areas of Roman dominion. In the course of their preaching, a lot of non-Jews who saw and observed their practices became converts as well. The conversion of the Gentiles One of the most important missionaries in the early Christian era was the Apostle Paul. He was often referred to as the chosen disciple for the gentile people and his works were even followed by later day missionaries. The unique feature of the teachings brought by early missionaries from Jerusalem was its universality. While Judaism was strict on exclusivity, Jesus teaching is for all, as mentioned earlier. The goal to spread the teachings of Jesus to the gentiles was given to the early disciples, and it was Apostle Paul, a Jewish with Roman citizenship and an enemy of the early Christians who was converted through an encounter with the resurrected Jesus, who was commissioned by Jesus himself to preach the gospels to the gentile nations (Acts Chapter 9). From then on the ministry of Paul was centered on teaching the ideals of Jesus Christ to the gentiles and Jews living in the gentile nations. Through his mission he traveled several times from Jerusalem to other cities and colonies within the Roman Empire and his final trip was to Rome. With coordination from the disciples in Jerusalem Paul and his missionary team was able to bring to the Christian faith people from different parts of the gentile world such as Galatia, Macedonia, Corinth, Ephesus, Achaia, Asia and others which earlier has no churches. Paul was considered "the most effective cross-cultural missionary the church has ever seen (quoted in Little 24) The Apostle Paul's missionary works resulted to the growth of the community among the gentiles and the eventual spread of what others call as the Pauline Christianity. These groups are spread among the gentiles and co-exist with other Christian societies such as Gnostic Christianity and Jewish Christianity, which also emanated from Jews in Jerusalem and other Jewish community in Rome. The adoption of the teachings and the integration of local customs resulted to wide variations in the Christian beliefs and practices during the early days. After the execution of Peter and Paul, and the growth of the different Christian movements in Rome a lot of influential people joined the community. The adoption of the Roman Catholic Church as the official church of the empire banned other groups thereby instituting what is now the largest Christian denomination in the world. However, small Christian communities, outside of the state-adopted religion, also exist within Rome and other territories as minorities. Conclusion Christianity has been a success from its inception during the ministry of Jesus Christ up to the present times. These could not have been made possible without the underlying circumstances that revolve around its birth and its subsequent growth. During its birth the oppression of the Jewish people and their desperate need for freedom, equality, and justice from the Roman Empire was the main driving force. During its growth in the early times, the existing Roman infrastructure, influence, power, and the wide area it covered was very instrumental in the spread and adoption of the religion into a world scale. Literature Cited Allard, Paul. "Slavery and Christianity." New Advent. The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XIV. July 1, 1912. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 14 April 2008 Boeree, C. George. "A Brief History of Judaism." Judaism. 2002. Shippensburg University. 12 April 2008. BBC Team. "History of Judaism." BBC Religion & Ethics. 20 July 2006. British Broadcasting Corporation. April 14, 2008 Caird, G.B. "Jesus And The Jewish Nation. The Ethel M. Wood Lecture delivered before the University of London on 9 March 1965" The Athlone Press, 1965. pp.22. February 2008 Little, Christopher R. "Whatever Happened to the Apostle Paul An exposition of Paul's teaching and practice of giving." Mission Frontiers. September 2001. 14 April 2008 The Holy Bible. New King James Version. Thomas Nelson Incorporated. 1985 Read More