History

The history of the modern Christian church begins with the story of Christ and the various accounts of work done by the apostles and other early teachers and missionaries. However, that history as recorded in the Bible ends in the first or second century after Christ’s ascension. As the church spread in the early world it encountered “three centuries of intermittent persecution, martyrdom, and extraordinary courage.”[1]

This early Christian culture had only the theology of the Old Testament to live by at the time. The fact that Jesus fulfilled the law and became the Messiah prophesied about in the Scriptures had not yet been set to written word. Paul’s writings became the basis of much of modern Christian theology. He was the first to declare for a universal and unified church that accepted non-Jews and practiced a universal doctrine.[2]

Early Christians had a broad affect on their culture. Nero blamed them for the burning of Rome.[3] Pliny discovered that the execution of Christians was having little effect on the growing sect, still considered by many to be a cult.[4] Christian martyrs were influenced by their Hellenistic counterparts in their willingness to die for a principle.[5]

During the late second century, a crisis occurred in the Roman Empire which seemed to bring Christianity into acceptance by the Roman citizens. The empire was under constant attack from invaders and common Roman beliefs were being questioned. The Christian tenets of loving and helping your neighbor brought many to think that the feud between Rome and Christianity was insignificant compared to the battle between the empire and invaders. Rather than being viewed as internal enemies, Christians helped to preserve the empire.[6]

During the same period, the theology of Christianity was beginning to integrate with mainstream Roman life. Theologians of the time put forward the idea that Christ’s role “was not to overthrow the empire but to be a teacher and healer” and to bring all previous philosophies and religions under one umbrella, resolving all their differences.[7]

Through the fall of the Roman Empire, the Dark Ages, the Middle Ages, and into the Renaissance and the modern era, Christianity became a way of life, a civilization unto its own. The established church structures became the early civil structures in England and other European countries. The history of Christianity shows ebbs and flows of influence, but what was once considered a small Hebrew cult grew exponentially throughout the world.

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[1] Roger Osborne, Civilization (New York City: Pegasus Books, 2006), 113

[2] Niebuhr, Christ and Culture, 117

[3] Ibid., 116

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid., 122

[7] Ibid.