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Why Christianity grew so fast

RGacky3

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I hate to be pitching for the other team, but ... an argument is used by christians very often, that's not as simple as it sounds, and frankly, a bad argument.

the argument is basically "Christianity grew REALLY REALLY fast, and it wouldn't have grown that fast had Jesus not rised from the dead." that's a bad Version of it, but the argument follows basically that line.

Now Christianity went from a rag tag bunch of messianic nobodies in palestine, to being about 8-10% of the empire by the time Constantine came into Power. That's a HUGE Growth.

But there are ways to explain it outside of "Jesus must have risen" Now he DID rise from the dead, I believe that, but the rapid growth is not really proof of that, heres why.

By the time Jesus was born Judaism was about 10% of the empire .... Judaism was HUGE, and super popular, especially in the dispora, you had all sorts of People converting to Judaism or becoming "God fearers" or "noahides" even People quite high up in Power.

Why was it so popular?

Well Pagan religions and Judaism were 2 completely different kinds of Things.

Paganism was basically you had Your gods .... they had temples, you went there when you needed something, gave a sacrifice, and then hope you got what you needed, then there were myths around the gods, where they came from, what they did, and so on.

The Gods were almost blessing vending machines, they had nothing to say about the origin of anything, the universe, morality, history, nothing, they didn't tell you how to live, what was right, where Things came from, where Things were going, and also religion was primarily an upper class Things, poor People had local myths and supersticions, but the temples and gods were primarily imperial and for the ruling class. (so in a sense you could say that ancient pagan societies were less religious than modern western societies). For other aspects of life you went to philosophy.

Judaism was WAY different, their God explained everything, where the universe came from, where we are heading, it explained history, it explained morality, and it explained how to live, not only that but Judaism had a social welfare infastructure, so poor jews got help at the synagogue ... pagans didn't, Jews living a good life very often, they had an extremely Advanced religion morally, socially and philosophically ... so a ton of People were drawn to it ....

But whats the biggest problem With becoming Jewish if you're a pagan? Circumcision and the mosaic Law ... but EVEN WITH THOSE stipulations, Judaism grew exponentially under the Roman empire.

Then Christianity comes .... and it grows first in Palestine as a messianic movement, (there is an arugment there for the ressurection), but then it grew extremely fast outside of palestine, very fast, among non jews, InFact it grew faster among non jews (at least in teh second Century and later) than it did among Jews, why? Well basically it was Judaism, without the Law and without circumcision ... so if you were attracted to Judaism before, but were turned off by the laws and getting Your Dick snipped, well, here's Judaism without that, and it also has a further benefit, a kind of revolutionary New Kingdom of god, an escatology that was universal and NOT palestine based (unlike Jewish escatology which was not universal).

OF COARSE Christianity is going to beat out the pagan religions, the pagan religions were simply outdated, they had no social welfare aspect, they had no moral aspect, they had no cosmic narrative, they had no escatology, they were not theologically thought out.

The People who joined christianity from paganism had never probably heard of the historical Jesus, nor was that the driving factor, the Heavenly christ and everything that came With the christian faith was the driving factor.

in the first Century Christianity was one of the only forces providing social welfare for the poor, (as well as Jews), and the only force which was truely universal, and cut away Barriers of race and ethnicity and class, it was a evangelical religion (unlike judaism, which grew hugely anyway), it was the only religion which had a set narrative of history and the universe, which was intellectually satisfying, and it was the only one With a real hope.

So that's what explains the huge Growth of christianity, basically the same thing which explained the huge Growth of judaism before it, along with the perks christianity has that judaism doesn't.
 
İslam prophet Muhammed didnt rise from the dead but his religion spread all over the World .so l find this logic illogical.it also means christianity is an empty belief and l dont think it is empty whether jesus was a zombie or not

l also believe the belief in god makes a sense when you believe without any evidence or miracle
 
The People who joined christianity from paganism had never probably heard of the historical Jesus, nor was that the driving factor, the Heavenly christ and everything that came With the christian faith was the driving factor.

If you say so.
 
an argument is used by christians very often, that's not as simple as it sounds, and frankly, a bad argument.

the argument is basically "Christianity grew REALLY REALLY fast, and it wouldn't have grown that fast had Jesus not rised from the dead."

Are you sure it's used very often? I actually hadn't heard that before. What is the logic behind it? I don't see how that works out logically. Wouldn't that just be a fallacious appeal to popularity?
 
You did not mention that it was also the mission of the apostles to evangelize, to spread the "good news" among the gentiles.
 
I hate to be pitching for the other team, but ... an argument is used by christians very often, that's not as simple as it sounds, and frankly, a bad argument.

the argument is basically "Christianity grew REALLY REALLY fast, and it wouldn't have grown that fast had Jesus not rised from the dead." that's a bad Version of it, but the argument follows basically that line.

Now Christianity went from a rag tag bunch of messianic nobodies in palestine, to being about 8-10% of the empire by the time Constantine came into Power. That's a HUGE Growth.

But there are ways to explain it outside of "Jesus must have risen" Now he DID rise from the dead, I believe that, but the rapid growth is not really proof of that, heres why.

By the time Jesus was born Judaism was about 10% of the empire .... Judaism was HUGE, and super popular, especially in the dispora, you had all sorts of People converting to Judaism or becoming "God fearers" or "noahides" even People quite high up in Power.

Why was it so popular?

Well Pagan religions and Judaism were 2 completely different kinds of Things.

Paganism was basically you had Your gods .... they had temples, you went there when you needed something, gave a sacrifice, and then hope you got what you needed, then there were myths around the gods, where they came from, what they did, and so on.

The Gods were almost blessing vending machines, they had nothing to say about the origin of anything, the universe, morality, history, nothing, they didn't tell you how to live, what was right, where Things came from, where Things were going, and also religion was primarily an upper class Things, poor People had local myths and supersticions, but the temples and gods were primarily imperial and for the ruling class. (so in a sense you could say that ancient pagan societies were less religious than modern western societies). For other aspects of life you went to philosophy.

Judaism was WAY different, their God explained everything, where the universe came from, where we are heading, it explained history, it explained morality, and it explained how to live, not only that but Judaism had a social welfare infastructure, so poor jews got help at the synagogue ... pagans didn't, Jews living a good life very often, they had an extremely Advanced religion morally, socially and philosophically ... so a ton of People were drawn to it ....

But whats the biggest problem With becoming Jewish if you're a pagan? Circumcision and the mosaic Law ... but EVEN WITH THOSE stipulations, Judaism grew exponentially under the Roman empire.

Then Christianity comes .... and it grows first in Palestine as a messianic movement, (there is an arugment there for the ressurection), but then it grew extremely fast outside of palestine, very fast, among non jews, InFact it grew faster among non jews (at least in teh second Century and later) than it did among Jews, why? Well basically it was Judaism, without the Law and without circumcision ... so if you were attracted to Judaism before, but were turned off by the laws and getting Your Dick snipped, well, here's Judaism without that, and it also has a further benefit, a kind of revolutionary New Kingdom of god, an escatology that was universal and NOT palestine based (unlike Jewish escatology which was not universal).

OF COARSE Christianity is going to beat out the pagan religions, the pagan religions were simply outdated, they had no social welfare aspect, they had no moral aspect, they had no cosmic narrative, they had no escatology, they were not theologically thought out.

The People who joined christianity from paganism had never probably heard of the historical Jesus, nor was that the driving factor, the Heavenly christ and everything that came With the christian faith was the driving factor.

in the first Century Christianity was one of the only forces providing social welfare for the poor, (as well as Jews), and the only force which was truely universal, and cut away Barriers of race and ethnicity and class, it was a evangelical religion (unlike judaism, which grew hugely anyway), it was the only religion which had a set narrative of history and the universe, which was intellectually satisfying, and it was the only one With a real hope.

So that's what explains the huge Growth of christianity, basically the same thing which explained the huge Growth of judaism before it, along with the perks christianity has that judaism doesn't.

It's too long; I can't read it.
 
İslam prophet Muhammed didnt rise from the dead but his religion spread all over the World .so l find this logic illogical.it also means christianity is an empty belief and l dont think it is empty whether jesus was a zombie or not

Islam is basically Christianity for Sand People, the reasons for its rapid spread are much the same as outlined for Christianity in the OP.
 
Islam is basically Christianity for Sand People, the reasons for its rapid spread are much the same as outlined for Christianity in the OP.

SAND ?what do you mean by sand ? is it slang ? l dont want to look it up in urban dict
 
I thought Christianity was successful largely because it was the first Middle Eastern religion to be truly embraced and adopted by Rome under Emperor Constantine. You mentioned this in passing, but I thought it played a far more significant role than you indicate.

Under Roman influence, Christianity gained traction by absorbing many traditions / cults that came before it.
 
SAND ?what do you mean by sand ? is it slang ? l dont want to look it up in urban dict

What he's really saying is "sand nigger" but on the downlow. And anyone that reads that post knows exactly what he meant.
 
I thought Christianity was successful largely because it was the first Middle Eastern religion to be truly embraced and adopted by Rome under Emperor Constantine. You mentioned this in passing, but I thought it played a far more significant role than you indicate.

Under Roman influence, Christianity gained traction by absorbing many traditions / cults that came before it.

By the time Constantine legalized it, it was already extremely popular, about 10% of the empire being Christian .... After Constantine it wasn't the official religion until 391. Then it grew quite fast, but that doesn't explain the Incredible Growth prior to Constantine, that's what I was talking about.
 
They're something alike, since Jesus appears in both.

The claim Jesus is a profit and a liar at the same time. The believe he will return to tell Christians they have it all wrong. He will marry and have children, and be buried next to muhammad when he dies. Islam claims the Jewish and christian scriptures are corrupt.

Sorry about typos.. using fone..grrr
 
The claim Jesus is a profit and a liar at the same time. The believe he will return to tell Christians they have it all wrong. He will marry and have children, and be buried next to muhammad when he dies. Islam claims the Jewish and christian scriptures are corrupt.

Jews generally believe that Jesus was a false prophet. In many ways, Islam pays greater homage to Jesus than Judaism.
 
The claim Jesus is a profit and a liar at the same time. The believe he will return to tell Christians they have it all wrong. He will marry and have children, and be buried next to muhammad when he dies. Islam claims the Jewish and christian scriptures are corrupt.

Sorry about typos.. using fone..grrr

No they don't claim he is a liar, they claim the christian scriptures are corrupt and that stuff was added.

Of coarse, they have absolutely NO logical case for this at all.
 
Of coarse, they have absolutely NO logical case for this at all.

They have the same logical case as any religion which claims anything as truth.
 
They have the same logical case as any religion which claims anything as truth.

Logical case that the New Testament was tampered With to the point to where we can't know what it origionally says ... read Whole posts when you respond to them.
 
No they don't claim he is a liar, they claim the christian scriptures are corrupt and that stuff was added.

Of coarse, they have absolutely NO logical case for this at all.

Sorry, but to say christ didn't die on the cross is calling christ a lier. They try and dismantle the very underpinnings of Christianity.
 
Sorry, but to say christ didn't die on the cross is calling christ a lier. They try and dismantle the very underpinnings of Christianity.

No it isn't, not if Christ never said he died on the cross .... of coarse they try and dismantle the underpinnings of Christianity, as do Jews, as do other competing systems.
 
Sorry, but to say christ didn't die on the cross is calling christ a lier. They try and dismantle the very underpinnings of Christianity.

Really? What book of the bible did Jesus write, especially after he died? I think Christ the person probably did exist and probably was martyred, but that gives absolutely zero credibility to any kind of mystical events his followers then attributed to the event sometimes decades after the fact.

No they don't claim he is a liar, they claim the christian scriptures are corrupt and that stuff was added.

Of coarse, they have absolutely NO logical case for this at all.

Actually, considering you guys are making the positive statement that mystical and supernatural occurrences happened, the burden of proof rests firmly on your shoulders. There is no extrabiblical or historical evidence of anything mystical happenening around Christ's death.

The mistake most Christians make is that you assume because history suggests the man did exist that it's also simultaneously proof of his divinity. History also suggested that Mohammed existed, does that automatically mean that he met god in a cave?
 
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No it isn't, not if Christ never said he died on the cross .... of coarse they try and dismantle the underpinnings of Christianity, as do Jews, as do other competing systems.

Actually he said " I lay my life down, and in 3 days I will take it back up"
 
Actually he said " I lay my life down, and in 3 days I will take it back up"

That's if you believe the gospel accounts, the muslims claim it was tampered With.
 
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