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How Christianity Changed Over Time

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Christianity, a religion many adhere to and follow faithfully, but what’s its’ history, how did it develop, and how did it impact the world? There are a million and one ways this religion has shaped the world and how its changed over the years. This paper is not to look at everything Christianity has done nor how its changed every time but rather talk about the four major points where Christianity really shapes itself throughout all of history. These four points are its birth in roam, the crusades, the protestant reformation along with John Calvin, and its effect on the transition to the new world. These are events in history where Christianity is undergoing major changer or is influencing most if not all the world. This paper will not defend …show more content…

We start in Roam where Jesus starts out as a peasant but throughout his life he gathers a following and it starts to concern the Roman leader of the time, emperor Tiberius. Under his rule followers of Christianity were punished as explained in a letter from Pliny the Younger to the emperor. It reads “for the moment this is the line I have taken with all persons brought before me on the charge of being Christians. I have asked them in person if they are Christians, and if they admit it, I repeat the question a second and third time, with a warning of the punishment awaiting them.” The punishment for admitting you were Christian was execution (Ward & Denis, 2012). For this Jesus was crucified a rather insignificant event for the time but in history will go down as perhaps one of the most defining parts in human history. This causes an outrage among the Jewish community and is the start of the rise of a group named the Zealots, they encouraged an armed rebellion against Roman rule (Mckay, et al., 2015). When Jesus died he had left no written accounts of what he taught this is very common with religions where the prophet simply only spreads their beliefs with stories and orally rather than writing them down. With this Christianity is starting out with everyone trying to figure out what to believe in, and the result is mass confusion. His stories are spread in often small gatherings such as neighbor’s homes. However, over time, the members grew. Researching why it grew it lists many reasons such as it was a mystery religion, offering special teachings that led to immortality and unlike other religions at that time many could reach immortality not just a select few, possibility of forgiveness for all were weak and exposed to sin, and it’s main reason for growing is that it gave the Roman world a cause instead of just living a passive life it

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