The events that first marked the difference between Judaism and Christianity immediately after Jesus’ death in the first century of Christian history first came clearly when the Roman army which was very brutal attacked Jerusalem and destroyed the temple which was their center of focus. This made them lose hopes and very angered, it also meant that they would not worship in the temple anymore. Another event that accompanied this was when the disciples of Jesus, both those who saw him and those who believed in him settled in Jerusalem. While the other followers of Jesus were widely spread to even the other parts of the world outside Jerusalem since they were so many and could not all settle in Jerusalem. However for this reason, it is obvious that all the disciples did not know the same things about Jesus, therefore it means that they went preaching what differently on what each one of them knew about Jesus.
When the Roman army was attacking Jerusalem, they were very harsh and carried out their activities without sympathy.for this reason, they were now forced to worship under the trees or in the fields and it was not easy because at times they were rained on and even faced the cruel sun. this made them feel that it was inhuman because at first the believed the Romans were their brothers and never at any time expected such an attack.
This made them feel betrayed and forced them cut links whereby the Romans remained as Christians while the ones from Jerusalem remained to be the Jews.
On the other hand, the disciples of Jesus who settled in Jerusalem knew and even preached his gospel differently from those who went to settle in the other parts of the world because knew and understood him differently and this made the two groups separate into Christianity and Judaism.
The gentiles were religiously accepted as Christians by the early Christians because they both common beliefs Jesus Christ. But the most important thing about the early Christians is that they believed in cleanliness and uncleanliness. They had no problems with the gentiles changing
to Christianity as long as they observed the law. Some of the laws were; do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not blaspheme god’s name, do not steal, do not accuse someone falsely, do not worship idols, do not admire your neighbour’s wife or property. The christians did not consider the gentiles as unclean an not even worthy to become christians but they believed in Jesus Christ and copied exactly what he did by mixing and socializing with the sinners and changing them to do the God’s will. Another reason was because God did not tell them to eat only the animals that were acceptable for sacrifice but all. So they saw no need of refusing the Gentiles because they were unclean.
The Gentiles were no longer to follow the or obey the mosaic law according to the early Christianity in order to be accepted as christians because the christians knew that the mosaic laws were just make their identity easy and to separate them from the Jews and that it was not to be considered as a barrier from changing into Christianity. The Christians also believed that they too had their laws that guided them and so it was not fair to undermine others. Besides, they also believed that Jesus came and died for everyone.
Another advantage that the Gentiles had was that the early Christians believed they were all together at first and the fact remained that they were all still believing in Jesus Christ and the difference or the gap between them was not so wide that could hinder them from coming together again.
Christianity spread faster in the first three centauries because the Christians who were spreading it were very friendly in so many ways that made their work of spreading the gospel very easy. Some of their deeds that made so many people be attracted are; whenever they met strangers, they would provide them with food or they could even go as far as looking for the strangers with the food. Another reason that enhanced the spread of Christianity was the introduction of Christian education which also made people who knew nothing about Jesus know him more since they were taught , given illustrations which also made the understand this much better. More so, the presence of infrastructure also had a great impact in the spread of Christianity. Besides, the introduction of learning institutions made people to be able to read the bible which gave them the clear picture of who Jesus is.
With the presence of well established roads, it was easier for the Christianity to be spread since the movement was now easier for the people who were spreading it from one region to another and even connected them to the interior parts from the cities. The availability of good infrastructure also made it easier for the establishment Christian learning institutions and schools since they could only be established where was easily accessible. The other factors that socially made it easily spread is that the people who were spreading it were very friendly and due to that, people had no reason to fear moving or going closer to them and listen.
However the fact that they could also offer food to people they did not know made them attract so many people since the ones who had tasted it could even go as far as telling others to come and also have the same and this made attract large number of people.
The role of Christianity was to support the beliefs of the people according to the Romans. Therefore, it was now easier to spread it because the people who were doing it really believed in Jesus Christ and were sure of what they were teaching people. Again their behaviors also had great impact because the people they were teaching would wish imitate their behaviors
Emperor Constantine realized his insight and so no need of persecuting the Christians but instead decided to give them chance because he had realized that if he dint do so, it could slowly finish his empire. However, in February 23, 303AD he decided to issue the Milan edict that would no longer act as a persecution for the Christians. The proportions of the Nicene- Constantinopolitan creed that specify the Christian belief against thegnosticisn are the belief on the resurrection of Jesus and the law of death penalty. The Christians in the Roman Empire strongly believed that Jesus died and resurrected while in the Gnostic creed it is believed that Jesus only died but did not resurrect. However about the law on death penalty, in the Gnostic it is largely supported while Christians oppose it. Christians are against the death penalty because they believe it is against the wishes of God. The other proportion of the creed racism. Here we find that Arians were against racial segregation while it was supported the gnomish. They believed this because Jesus promised to leave his disciples with the holly spirit and indeed he did so. It was a situation where a girl fell down when a pastor was preaching and started shouting all her sins one by one and for sure she was saved and completely changing her ways which made people strongly believe in Jesus.
References
- Good News Bible. Acts chapter 10-16
- History of Christianity.
- Ethics and the Bible.
- Early Christians.
- St. Augustine’s Moral Thought.
- Thomas Aquinas and Medieval Moral Thought.