CHRISTIANITY-BEGINNING
Christianity
burst into a corrupt world with a brilliantly new moral radiance... The moral
level of society was dismal, and sin prevailed in many forms... Into this
discouraged world came Christ and His Spirit-transformed disciples, filled with
holy joy, motivated by a love which the pagans could not grasp, and proclaiming
Good News – the message that God has provided a Savior... The Christians lived
in tiny communities knit together in the power of the Holy Spirit, little
colonies of heaven. They thought of themselves as pilgrims on their way to the
celestial city, but they were very much concerned to manifest the love of
Christ in all human relationships.
One of the
most amazing and significant facts of history is that within 5 centuries of its
birth, Christianity won the professed allegiance of the overwhelming majority
of the Roman Empire and even the support of the Roman state. Beginning
as a seemingly obscure sect of Judaism, one of the scores, even hundreds of
religions and religious groups which were competing within the realm, revering
as its central figure one who had been put to death by the machinery of Rome.
A dozen
ignorant peasants proclaiming a crucified Jew as the founder of a new faith;
bearing as the symbol of their worship an instrument which was the sign of
ignominy, slavery and crime; preaching what must have seemed an absurd doctrine
of humility, patient suffering and love to enemies – graces undreamed of
before; demanding what must have seemed an absurd worship for one who had died
like a malefactor and a slave, and making what must have seemed an absurd
promise of everlasting life through one who had himself died, and that between
two thieves.
The Divine Origin of the Bible, Philadelphia:
Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1991, I.432.
A religion
which did not flatter the rich, the great, and the learned – a religion which
offered no license to the carnal inclinations of man's heart – a religion whose
first teachers were poor fishermen, without wealth, rank, or power – a religion
could never have turned the world upside down, if it had not been of God.
J.C. Ryle
Commentary, Matthew 4.
Had it been
published by a voice from heaven, that twelve poor men, taken out of boats and
creeks, without any help of learning, should conquer the world to the cross, it
might have been thought an illusion against all reason of men; yet we know it
was undertaken and accomplished by them.
Stephen Charnock