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Emergence and Triumph of Early Chrisitanity

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The emergence and triumph of Christianity in Rome began before Constantine and during the time of Jesus. Christianity was mainly formed by Jesus, and Saint Paul. Christianity did not catch on right away. The new religion became popular during the chaos of the third century and succeeded during the weakening of the fourth century. Jesus was born in Judea sometime during the Christian era. When Jesus was growing up, his region was facing some political unhappiness, and some people were trying to make a change. The Pharisees concentrated on preserving the Jewish law, and were anxious to the coming of the messiah who would rescue them from Rome. The Zealots, who wanted to over throw the Romans by force to gain freedom. Also there was the Essenes who wanted spiritual freedom through the union with god. The search for Jesus was more pacifistic than violent. The only historical records we have about Jesus events are the books of the New Testament, and the Gospels. However, the Gospel has many inaccurate events because it was written 30 years after Jesus’s death. Jesus believed he had a mission to save humanity from sin. He criticized greed and insisted to love the neighbor. He also taught us: Forgiveness and love for enemies, “do unto others as you would do to yourself”, the fatherhood of god and the brotherhood of humanity, repayment of evil with good, opposing to religious ceremonialism, and others more. Christianity began not as a religion, but as the movement of people around a preacher and leader. It was spread by the apostles. Above all the followers, Saint Paul was not a native of Palestine but a Jew born in tarsus. At the beginning he was a persecutor of Christians, but ended up converting to Christianity and spreading it in the east. Paul proclaimed Christianity to be a universal religion, and focused on the idea

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