CHURCH HISTORY, EARLY CHRISTIANS

The response received from the article on the origins of Easter was amazing and almost shocking that Christians know so little about church history. 

Hosea 4: 6 (KJV) says ‘My people perish from a lack of knowledge’. Christianity is one of the major religions stemming from the life, teachings and death of Jesus of Nazareth, who is Christ, the Anointed One of God, Son of God, and part of the Godhead it has become the largest of the world’s religions and, geographically, the most widely diffused of all faiths. It has a constituency of more than two billion believers. But how did it start? Apostle Paul, one of the greatest apostles, believed his message should be taken to Gentiles – the non-Jews. Its largest followers would soon be in Rome and later the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox churches, and eventually the Protestant churches, who broke away from the Universal Roman Catholic Church. We will talk mainly about the Roman Catholic and Protestant Church groups.

Roman Empire before Christianity

The Roman Empire was primarily a polytheistic civilisation, which meant that people recognised and worshipped multiple gods and goddesses. There was a statue/idol of all kinds of gods everywhere. Apart from the gods, who were glorified by the state, every Roman household worshipped curtain spirits. They believed that spirits protected the family, home, and even trees and rivers. Roman pagans worshipped 12 main deities (gods) that they adopted and adapted from Greek paganism. These gods were Jupiter, Juno, Vesta, Ceres, Mercury, Mars, Apollo, Diana, Vulcan, Poseidon, Minerva and Venus. Romans also worshipped foreign gods, such as the Egyptian goddess Isis and the Persian god Mithras.

Rome converts to Christianity

It is believed that millions of Christians perished within Pagan Rome for their belief.  Most were killed in the most horrific ways. However, In 313 AD, after many years of Christian persecution, Emperor Constantine the Great converted to Christianity and issued an Edict (order/law) of Milan, which accepted Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire. In the year 321 AD Constantine again decreed Sunday as the State’s ‘day of rest’ discarding what he called the ‘Jewish’ biblical Sabbath (Saturday); doing this without any scriptural authority.  In Roman culture, Sunday was the day of the sun god and the people were accustomed to going to church on Sunday.  In pagan theology, the sun was the source of life, giving warmth and illumination to mankind. He used the rising of Jesus from the dead on Sunday as a reason the people would accept.

Roman Catholic (Universal) Church

The Roman Catholic (Universal) Church was born and all the disciples of Jesus including the mother of Jesus, Mary replaced the many gods. It was called the Universal Church because it was the only church at the time throughout the Roman Empire. The many gods’ idols were not removed as per the Bible (Exodus 20: 4-5) but were now turned to represent the saints who were now the disciples of Christ. The joy of the Christians within the Roman Empire would be short-lived as the new Roman Catholic Church papal would soon start persecuting those who questioned its authority. The authority of the pope became absolute throughout the empire. Note that the Bible was not available to the general public to know any better but only available to the church and its priest. The church grew very powerful and corrupt. They soon claimed to have the only way to heaven and sold pardons for sin, giving them not only religious power but great political power throughout the kingdoms within the Roman Empire.

Great Inquisition Catholic Church

Great persecutions of Christians started again in another form. The inquisition was a powerful office set-up within the Catholic Church to root out and punish heresy throughout Europe and the Americas (heresy was a belief or opinion contrary to the orthodox religious doctrine of Catholicism). Beginning in the 12th century and continuing for hundreds of years, the inquisition was infamous for the severity of its tortures and its persecution of mainly Jews and any Christian who deviated from the teachings of the church and would later be referred to as protestants.

Protestant Reformation

The people soon started to protest the leadership of the Catholic church and a movement was formed. The Protestant Reformation was a religious reform movement that swept through Europe in the 1500s. It resulted in the creation of a branch of Christianity called Protestantism, a name used collectively to refer to the many religious groups that separated from the Roman Catholic Church due to differences in doctrine. Protestants believe in three essential beliefs. 1) The Bible is the ultimate religious truth and authority. 2) Through a belief in Jesus Christ and the grace of God, human beings can find salvation without having to buy repentance from the Catholic Church or any priest. 3) All Christians are viewed as priests and can communicate directly with God through Jesus Christ.

Its greatest leader undoubtedly was the German clergy Martin Luther from whom the Lutheran Church gets its name. It was also led by famous reformers such as John Calvin (1509–1564) and Huldrych Zwingli (1484–1531) in Switzerland, John Knox (1513–1572) in Scotland. Other important leaders were Philipp Melanchthon (1497–1560), Martin Bucer (1491–1551), and Heinrich Bullinger (1504–1574) just to mention a few. Later we had John Wesley (1703- 1791) John Wycliffe, Jan Hus and many more. The persecution in Europe by the Catholic Church forced the reform movement to seek a new home in America.  The United States Constitution guaranteed religious freedom as one of its cornerstones simply because of the experience in Europe particularly during the period called the Dark Ages under the Papal Rule.

The United States formally recognised the Holy See (Vatican) on January 10, 1984, when President Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II agreed to the establishment of diplomatic relations. From 1867 to 1984, the United States did not have diplomatic relations with the Holy See in the wake of rumors of Catholic implications in the Lincoln assassination. The longstanding critics of the Roman Catholic Church finally won in 1867 when the US Congress withdrew all funding for the legation in Rome. The Catholic Church remains the largest contributor to social development through their schools, clinics, hospital, universities and much more. Comment septembereswatini@gmail.com

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