Hinduism and Buddhism in Todays World

Christianity Name Course College Tutor July 30, 2013 Christianity Introduction Christianity is a religion founded on the pioneer of the religion “Christ” of Nazareth who was also known as the Messiah. Its principles and edicts are based on the life, death, teachings and the exemplary living of its originator Jesus Christ (Bergant, 1998). Jesus was a Jewish teacher chiefly known as Rabbi who lived and taught his followers in Palestine in the first century, he was conceived by a virgin known as Mary, his father Joseph came from the lineage of the great king David to fulfill the promise that the Lord would deliver the Israelites and establish his throne forever (Psalms, Holy Bible). During the life of Christ, he lived amongst the people and taught them God’s ways, he revealed himself as the son of the living God a concept that did not anchor well with the religious adherents of his days as they considered that a blasphemy. Jesus taught through the Hebrew Scriptures that his appearance was in realization of God’s divine purposes of God reconciling man to himself. Jesus made the people realize that the kingdom of God was forthcoming, and it brought forgiveness of sins for all those who forsook their old ways and followed him. His claim to be the Messiah brought a lot controversy because the Israelites expected the Messiah to be a military authority so as to deliver them from the Roman rule (Rodney, 1996). The Pharisees who were then the religious leaders imprisoned him and executed him on the cross, on the third day he however rose again and after he went back to heaven his disciples together with the chosen twelve apostles went forth to spread Christianity as a religion. The History of Christianity Christianity as a religion emerged in the mid of the first century in a place known as Levant, the modern day Israel and Palestine. After Christ was executed he rose gain on the third day, after staying for forty days he was taken up to heaven (Acts 1, The Holy Bible). His followers were determined to preach the good tidings about the savior of mankind and the religion spread from Jerusalem through the newly converted adherents to places like Syria, Mesopotamia, Phoenicia, Jordan and Egypt (Rodney, 1996). Gradually, the religion was gaining acceptance and recognition, for instance in the 4th century the religion was adopted as the state religion in Armenia, Roman empire and Aksumite Empire (Rodney, 1996). Christian religion became common in Europe during the middle ages and it expanded to the rest of the world during the era of exploration. From the time of renaissance onwards the religion blossomed to become the world’s largest religion. Currently, Christianity has got over two billion adherents. Early Christianity mainly comprised of two major phases namely the apostolic age and the post-apostolic era. In the first phase, the first apostles of Jesus Christ were alive and the church was founded on their teachings and guidance. The apostolic church comprised of apostles who were close adherents of Jesus teachings. In his great commission Jesus and told the disciples to go to all the nations and spread the good tidings Of God’s kingdom (Achtemeier, 2002).The Acts of the Apostles records the major events that took place and the apostles sought to indoctrinate the world with the Christian principles. It is at Antioch where the followers of Jesus Christ were known as Christians Acts 11:26 (Holy Bible). The doctrines taught by the early Christians brought the apostles into conflict with the Jewish religious authorities; an element which caused the Christians to be expelled out of the synagogues. Later, two major Christian’s adherents were murdered and these were Stephen and James of Zebedee (Acts, The Holy Bible). Through this Christianity became a distinct religion different from Judaism although the Roman authorities were unable to tell the distinction from the start. During the post-apostolic period there was a development of early Episcopal structure and the Christians were fiercely persecuted. The Judaism adherents did not believe that Jesus was the messiah and so they wanted his message to be hushed. The Roman Empire exercised paganism and idol worship yet Christianity condemned their religion as false religion as they tried to persuade them into following the teachings of Jesus the Messiah (Collegeville, 2010). The Roman Empire systematically persecuted the Christians until AD 313 when Constantine the Great was converted into Christianity ending all the atrocities directed towards the adherents of Jesus Christ (Rodney, 1996). The Rise of Christianity After the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the founder of the Christian religion, the church functioned as a Jewish sect, but there was a distinction in that the Christians allowed non-Jews to follow into the teachings of Jesus and become part of the christen body. The Christians actively sought for converts following into the great commission of preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to the uttermost parts of the world. In 70 CE when Roman empire conquered Jerusalem, many Romans became Christians, even though the church was still oppressed and the Roman deemed that Christianity was illegal many churches were established through out the Roman empire and later to Europe and Africa (Bergant, 1998). When Emperor Constantine in 312 CE was converted into Christianity, the religion was accorded state approval and it was no longer illegal to be a follower of Jesus Christ. Moreover, the emperor gave the religion political and financial support, Constantine summoned the First Council of Nicea in 325 CE, which addressed heresies and splits rampant amongst the church leaders(Rodney, 1996) as a result, th...