Through To A. D. 400: The Rise Of Christianity

The Rise of Christianity

The years A.D. 90 through to A.D. 400 saw the rise and decline of two world powers. The Roman Empire had started its collapse after the death of Marcus Aurelius and during the Military anarchy in 2nd Century A.D. After nearly a millennium, it was one of the most powerful empires to exist. Although Rome had begun its decline, Christianity had started to grow in popularity with the writing of the New Testament and the ministry of believers. The first book of the gospel to be written was Mark in A.D. 50 which was written in Greek and addressed to the Gentiles along with Luke, which was written to Theophilus a high-ranking Roman official, and then the gospel of John which is addressed to everyone. The writing of gospels in Greek specifically for gentiles allowed the word of God to be spread to a wider audience who were of a

Along with the writing of the Gospels and the New Testament, the evangelists and early church fathers, namely, Paul, Peter, James, Timothy and the other 12 disciples travelled throughout Asia Minor and in some cases to Northern Africa to spread the Good News with everyone. This also created ripple effects because as they spread the word, the new believers continued to do the same and Christianity began to have an exponential growth rate. During the fall of the Roman Empire, Christianity played an influential role. One we can consider is the conflict between Christian monotheism and Roman polytheism; the Romans considered their emperor a god, but Christian monotheism challenged this (perhaps why emperor Nero pinned the Great Fire of Rome in A.D. 64 on Christians). Another is the Roman persecution of Christians from the first to the third century due to Christianity’s popularity amongst the poor and the revolts it could cause against the Roman emperor weakening his authority (for reasons previously mentioned). However, with the reign of emperor Constantine, things took