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Month: May 2014

The Expansion of Christianity (a list of articles)

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For several days, I have posted about the expansion of Christianity in the first centuries. Below is a list of those posts with a one sentence summary. I have also included a few resources for further study.

The Growth of Christianity in the First Centuries

 The growth of Christianity in the first centuries is quite staggering when looking at the numbers.

The Growth of Early Christianity Among Women

 One attraction to Christianity was it’s treatment of women as equals.

The Growth of Early Christianity & Compassion

One of the major considerations as to why Christianity grew in the early centuries was that it provided help and compassion for those in need.

Despite The Difficulties, Christianity Triumphed

 What were some of the difficulties that the early church faced in spreading the gospel?

God Makes A Way For The Spread of the Gospel

 Was it just a coincidence that Christianity emerged when it did? Or was it divine providence that prepared the world for the birth of Christianity?

Did The Early Church Have A Plan to Grow?

The early church did not have a man-made plan. They walked in the “fear of the Lord” and in the “comfort of the Holy Spirit.”

Resources

The Rise of Christianity by Rodney Stark

The Triumph of Christianity by Rodney Stark

The Greco-Roman World of the New Testament Era by James S. Jeffers

The First Thousand Years by Robert Louis Wilken

The Christians as The Romans Saw Them by Robert Louis Wilken

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Did The Early Church Have A Plan To Grow?

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Did the early church have a plan to grow? Since I have been writing some about the growth of early Christianity (you can find a summation of the articles here), I find it to be an important question.

As I began to think about it, I came across a post by Ray Ortland that grabbed my attention.

He writes…

I remember hearing Michael Green at the Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in 1974. He asked us, Why don’t we see anywhere in the book of Acts a man-made strategic plan for evangelizing the world? His answer: They didn’t have one.

What then did they have? Two things, for starters: the fear of the Lord, and the comfort of the Holy Spirit.

In the fear of the Lord, they were teachable, they were humble, they were listening to the gospel, they were open and grateful and easily bendable. They did not have a spirit of self-assurance. They were eager to learn and grow and change in any way the Lord wanted them to.

In the comfort of the Holy Spirit, they were gladdened, they felt forgiven, they were reconciled to God and reconciling with one another. They saw their sins and failures, but they also saw the far greater reality of Jesus crucified for them. To put it in a secular way, they couldn’t believe their luck.

Openness in a know-it-all world, comfort in an angry world – that ancient world simply could not resist these heaven-sent powers. So the church didn’t just grow, it multiplied.

Those early churches had no master plan for their future. But they were walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, and it worked.

Church growth takes planning. Let’s do it. But church multiplication takes a miracle. Let’s be open to what only God can do.

When I look at church growth, I have come to the conclusion that there is only so much we can do. Consider what Paul wrote to the church in Corinth. He writes:

What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.

According to Paul, it is only God that gives the growth. This does not mean that we do not have a part as we “water” and “plant,” but as bad as we want to, we can’t make it grow. Only God can!!

I’m not necessarily against church growth books or strategies (well,  I am against a few of them), but we need to be careful not to forget to walk “in the fear of the Lord” and in the “comfort of the Holy Spirit.”

If I have learned anything from looking at the early church and their growth, I have learned that God had to have made it happen. True, God used his people, but as Paul writes, we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us (2 Corinthians 4:7).

 

 

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Stir It Up!

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What are you going to do in church today?

The writer of Hebrews helps us to decide…

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near (Hebrews 10:24-25)

Are you going to “stir up” someone to “love and good works?” Are you going to be a catalyst for someone to be “salt” and “light” this week?

It’s easy to go to church and forget about our role. You may not teach a Sunday School class or serve in any “official” capacity (whatever that means), but according to the writer of Hebrews, you have a part to play.

You are to be one who “stirs” things up!!! The phrase “to stir up” is actually a pretty harsh phrase. It has the idea of spurring a horse to get it to gallup. It has the connotation of “provoking” someone.

The writer of Hebrews wanted to make sure that those He was writing to remained in the faith and continued to bear fruit. Therefore, he urged them to “spur one another” to get things going.

This is not always a comfortable thing to do. And yet, sometimes people need to be “stirred up.” We occasionally need people to challenge us to think about what we are doing. There are times in our lives that we need to be kick-started.

So are you willing to “stir things up” today? Or it could be that  you personally need to be “spurred on”?

Do remember that as you “spur one another on,” and as others “spur you on,” it is done for the purpose of producing “love and good deeds.” So stay humble today and be willing to “stir” and be “stirred.”

 

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God Makes A Way For The Spread The Gospel

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I was listening to a young man the other day talk about his journey to Christianity. As he began to discuss his life, I became overwhelmed at how God orchestrated events in his life to draw him to Himself. Though this man grew up in a country that is not so friendly to Christianity, God made a way for him to hear the gospel.

Listening to his story, I began thinking again about the growth of the early church and how God made a way for the gospel to spread in those early centuries. Though it is true that the disciples did face difficulties (read here), there were also several things that created a path for Christianity to grow.

Here are a couple of them…

First is the  pax Romana.  Some have suggested that Christianity would have been “inconceivable had Jesus been born a half century earlier.”[1] But due to the control of the world by one power, Christianity entered the world at a time of peace, the pax Romana.

One could travel throughout the entire Roman world by the roads built by the Romans with relative ease and peace from war. Robert Wilken writes that “never before had so many different peoples enjoyed such a measure of security and freedom of movement. As Rome conquered the world, it made the world welcome.”[2]

Second is the spread of the Greek language. While the pax Romana made the “world welcome,” the spread of the Greek language, after the conquests of Alexander the Great, “provided a common language for communication, trade, education, and intellectual life.”[3]

Theologian Michael Green places much emphasis on the Greek language and the spread of Christianity. He writes, “Greek was a sensitive, adaptable language, ideally suited for the propagation of a theological message, because for centuries it had been used to express the reflections of some of the world’s greatest thinkers, and thus had a ready-made philosophical and theological vocabulary.”[4]

Was it just a coincidence that Christianity emerged when it did? Or was it divine providence that prepared the world for the birth of Christianity?

Paul writes that “when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son” (Galatians 4:4). Some have held that this “fullness of time” refers to the items listed above, the pax Romana and the Greek language, and how they made it possible for the gospel to spread. Others believe that “fullness of time” is a specific time period that must be met.

PersonalIy, I think it’s easy to see how God worked in opening doors for the spread of the gospel in the first century. Regardless of how you view God’s sovereignty and days of old working together, we all can agree that God works and moves through history and events.

I write this way because of the story of the young man from the Middle East. Thought its mysterious, God apparently opened and closed certain opportunities for him which eventually, led him to a place to hear the gospel.

Paul asked the church in Colosse to pray for him “that God may open to us a door for the word” (Colossians 4:2). Paul seems to understand that it is God who makes a way for the gospel to spread.

Therefore, maybe we should not only see our salvation as by God’s grace, but also the opportunities we had to hear about it as well.

 

[1]Michael Green, Evangelism in the Early Church.
[2]Robert Wilken, The First Thousand Years.
[3]Wilken.
[4]Green.

 

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Around The Web

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The State of Evangelism – Are Millennials evangelizing more or less than previous generations? What is the future of evangelism?

What Can Miserable Christians Sing? – This article was intended to highlight what I saw as a major deficiency in Christian worship, a deficiency that is evident in both traditional and contemporary approaches: the absence of the language of lament.

20 Time Management Lessons Everyone Should Learn in Their 20’s These are very helpful for those in their 30’s, 40’s, 50’s and beyond.

Lighten Up Christians, God Loves A Good Time – Challenging ourselves to embrace the sense of fun infused in this world.

Yawning At Tigers Ignoring the majesty and splendor of God leaves us yawning in the face of a tiger.

A Simple Habit To Set The Tone for Your Day – The thoughts we start the day with can set the tone for our day. We can begin the day grumbling and down. We can kick off the morning worrying or stressed. “Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself?”

Pro Day: L’Damian Washington – Powerful short video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_j85Bg4Ecoo#t=34

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Despite The Difficulties, Christianity Triumphed

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I believe that for those who claim to be Christian, discovering Christianity’s unique beginnings should be continually sought and made afresh with new understanding and study. Why? Because I think we will be encouraged and challenged.

This doesn’t mean you need to get a Ph.D. in the subject. Maybe you should just read a few things such as a blog post or two (consider what I have written about the growth of early Christianity over the past few days: day 1, day 2, day 3). Regardless of what you read, the book of Acts should never be left out.

One of the ways I think studying the early church will encourage us is that we will be reminded of the difficulties the early disciples had to overcome.

Consider what Michael Green wrote in Evangelism in the Early Church:

It was a small group of eleven men whom Jesus commissioned to carry on his work, and bring the gospel to the whole world. They were not distinguished; they were not educated; they had no influential backers. In their own nation they were nobodies and, in any case, their own nation was a mere second-class province on the eastern extremity of the Roman map.

If they had stopped to weigh up the probabilities of succeeding in their mission, even granted their conviction that Jesus was alive and that his Spirit went with them to equip them for their task, their hearts must surely have sunk, so heavily were the odds weighted against them. How could they possibly succeed? And yet they did. 

So what were some of the difficulties the early disciples faced?

  • The early disciples were nobodies.
  • They were seen as atheistic as they did not honor the customary gods.
  • They were believed to be guilty of both incest and cannibalism. The reason for this is that they met in secret, spoke about feeding on Christ in the Eucharist, and spoke of each other as brothers and sisters in Christ.
  • Their idea that Jesus’ death on the cross was the key to the wisdom of the ages was laughable.
  • Their ethical lifestyle was not appealing.

      (see Chapter 2 in Evangelism in the Early Church)

Basically, “Christians were opposed as anti-social, atheistic, and depraved,” writes Green. “Their message proclaimed a crucified criminal, and nothing could have been less calculated than that to win them converts.”

And yet despite all of this, the message spread throughout the Roman Empire. Though the message of the cross was folly to those who were perishing, to those who were being saved it was the power of God (see 1 Corinthians 1:18).

What difficulties does the church face today? What difficulties do you personally face in sharing the gospel? Is it easy to get discouraged? If so, it will do us good to remember the early church and the hardships they overcame as the proclaimed the gospel–the gospel which is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek (Romans 1:16).

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The Growth Of Early Christianity & Compassion

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So why did Christianity grow in the Roman Empire? In a world full of religious options and a plurality of gods, what was the attraction to Christianity?

As was written earlier, one attraction to Christianity was it’s treatment of women. Many have said that Jesus’ “attitude toward women was revolutionary as for him the sexes were equal.” So the early church, as it modeled Jesus, viewed men and women as equal as well.

But there is one more consideration as to why Christianity grew in the early centuries.  It is because Christians provided help and compassion for those in need. This is evidenced by the help Christians provided during the plagues (see chapter 4 in The Rise of Christianity by Rodney Stark).

In the early years, plagues tragically hit the Roman Empire. In 165, during the reign of Marcus Aurelius, a plague swept through the Roman Empire in which the mortality rate was so massive that Aurelius wrote of “caravans and wagons hauling out the dead.”[1]

Christians sought ways to help during the plagues as seen by a letter from Bishop Dionysius of Alexandria to those who had nursed the sick and to those who were giving their lives in doing so:

Most of our brothers showed unbounded love and loyalty, never sparing themselves and thinking only of one another. Heedless of danger they took charge of the sick, attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ, and with them departed this life serenely happy; for they were infected by others with the disease, drawing on themselves the sickness of their neighbors and cheerfully accepting their pains. Many, in nursing and curing others, transferred their death to themselves and died in their stead…. The best of our brothers lost their lives in this manner, a number of presbyters, deacons, and laymen winning high commendation so that in death in this form, the result of great piety and strong faith, seems in every way the equal to martyrdom.[2]

Evidence of Christian’s helping others is not only found among  Christian writings however. In 362, the emperor Julian launched a campaign in order to help start pagan charities in order to match the Christians. In a letter to the high priest of Galatia, Julian urged the pagans that they needed to “equal the virtues of the Christians, for recent Christian growth was caused by their ‘moral character, even if pretended,’ and by their ‘benevolence toward strangers and care for the grave of the dead.”

In another letter Julian wrote, “I think that when the poor happened to be neglected and overlooked by the priests, the impious Galileans [Christians] observed this and devoted themselves to benevolence.”

Julian also wrote, “The impious Galileans [Christians] support not only their poor, but ours as well, everyone can see that our people lack aid from us.”[3]

So what can we learn from this? How important is it for us to be compassionate? Should not the church be in the midst of the suffering of the world?

Jesus said, You are the salt of the earth…. You are the light of the world…so let you light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven (Matt. 5:13-16).

 

 

[1]Rodney Stark, The Triumph of Christianity, 116.
[2]Rodney Stark, The Triumph of Christianity, 117.
[3]Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity, 84-84.

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The Growth of Early Christianity Among Women

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The growth of Christianity in the early centuries, as was written about the other day, is quite staggering. This is especially so in light of the Roman Empire and its religion.

For a small Jewish group, of whom Rome thought nothing about, to grow into something that in 300 AD would estimate to over 6 million people is an incredible story. And it’s one we can learn much from.

So how did it happen?

Rodney Stark, in his book The Rise of Christianity, gives us some answers. “It is obvious,” writes Stark, “that people do not embrace a new faith if they are content with the older one.” In order for a new religion to break into a culture therefore, they must always “make their way in the market opening left them by weaknesses in the conventional religion (s) of a society.”

This is especially true in a pluralistic market where there are many options. For a new religion “to make headway—Hindu groups in the United States, for example—is extremely rare and depends on something’s having gone wrong in the process by which pluralism maintains market equilibrium.”

So why did Christianity grow in the Roman Empire? In a world full of religious options and a plurality of gods, what was the attraction to Christianity?

One attraction to Christianity was it’s treatment of women. Many have said that Jesus’ “attitude toward women was revolutionary as for him the sexes were equal.” So the early church, as it modeled Jesus, viewed men and women as equal as well.

Stark writes that increased female status can be found “within the family and within the religious community.” This happened as a result of several things. First, Christians did not condone female infanticide (actually, they didn’t condone infanticide at all). Second, Christians condemned “divorce, incest, marital infidelity, and polygamy.” And third, should women be widowed, they were not pressured to remarry and were allowed to keep their husband’s estate.

There has been objective evidence that leaves no doubt that the early Christian women did enjoy greater equality with men than did Jewish and pagan women. A study of Christian burial in the catacombs under Rome, based on 3,733 cases, found that Christian women were nearly as likely as Christian men to be commemorated with lengthy inscriptions. This “near equality in the commemoration of males and females is something that is peculiar to Christians, and sets them apart from the non-Christian populations of the city” (see the Triumph of Christianity by Rodney Stark).

To summarize, “women were drawn to Christianity because it offered them a life that was greatly superior to the life they otherwise would have led” (see Chapter 7 in The Triumph of Christianity).

So what can we learn from this? What does this say about the power of the gospel to change lives and the cultures we live in? What does the early church say to us about the power of “loving your neighbor as yourself” and treating those around you as equals, not inferiors?

There is something powerful about the gospel when we treat others as Paul commands in Philippians 2:3-4: Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

 

 

 

 

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