Jesus Accession And Return: The Evolution Of Christianity

Being a Christian in today’s world is not as simple or as accepting by humanity as it may seem. There are many varied worldviews, all believing that their own worldview concept is the right and correct one. Christianity is no exception, which makes it necessary to show a clear understanding as to what a Christian worldview consists of. So, the purpose of this paper will lead to a better understanding of God, humanity, Jesus, restoration, analyzing the Christian worldview, and reflection upon my own personal belief.

Throughout time, Christianity has changed constantly. In order to survive, Christianity has had to evolve and split. It has split into many denominations, some of which have become extinct over the centuries. The religion has changed and divided due to influential people and events in time.

Christianity was born and flourished in an empire where the common language was Latin and Greek. Two important people like Paul and Constantine further influenced and were a major part of the development of Christianity. The history of the Jews leading up to the time of Jesus had a major impact on the development of Christianity. “When Christianity was clearly identified as a distant religion, the new religion was considered by its members to be the fulfillment of Judaism rather than a new religion.” “Since Jesus was a Jew and preached to the Jews, Christianity was closely linked to Judaism.” The development of Christianity was due to several historical, political, and social circumstances.

The fundamental theme presented in chapter twenty five and twenty six of David W. Dorries book Spirit Filled Christology maintains that Jesus came, not only as a pathway for salvation, but also to lead as an example of the Spirit’s movements and to empower His church with supernatural abilities to further the ministry that He began. In order to expound upon his statements, Dorries uses historical context.

Christianity and the Roman Empire shared an important bond. Christianity offered the Roman Empire joy, hope, a shift in their world view, and a monotheistic God. Rome offered Christianity a more efficient way of spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Factors Which Led to the Spread of Christianity in the Roman Empire Christianity was not born in a vacumn. There were many social, geographical, historical and religious issues prevailing at the time of Christ and all of which were favorable to the spread of Christianity. Geograpicly, Christianity came into being in the Meditation world, the largest of the various centers of civilization at that time. Israel stands almost central to the five continents, dividing the east and west.

The nineteenth century was a time of great revolution both in the fields of agriculture, communication, transportation, technology, market and in the industrial sectors. It is in this period too that the collapse of great empires likes Portugal, Spain, Mughal, China, and the Holy Roman kingdoms was experienced and in their stead, arose the German, the British, the Japan and the United States realms. Great philosophical and religious leaders also dotted this century, like William Booth; the founder of the Salvation Army, Karl Max, Ellen White, John Stuart Mill the great philosopher, among others .

“For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members

Christianity is something that has stirred up a lot of controversy through the ages. During the Roman era, people like Emperor Trajan and Pliny, a Roman governor, did not appreciate Christianity since Christians did not follow the Roman religion. On the other side, Origen defends Christianity by debunking Celsus’s view of it. While Trajan and Pliny found fault in Christianity, Origen saw the potential religion that would allow humans to become better people.

A man named George Santayana once said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” (in John Bartlett, comp., Familiar Quotations, 15th ed. [1980], 703). We can clearly see that learning from the past molds and shapes who we are today and what will become of us in the future. Eventually, if we have learned how to live honorable and praiseworthy lives as true Christians we can return to live with our Heavenly Father and his son Jesus Christ. God always wants the best for his children so he has provided many means for us to return to his presence. One of these means is that the gospel of Jesus Christ, which has been taught since the beginning of

Throughout history, Christianity always had a reputation, or a “name” following it. Different perspectives approached the reputation that was attached to Christianity in different manners. Justin Martyr and Porphyry had objectives when defining whether this “name” really defined Christianity and the past. They wondered whether the past really represented Christianity. Additionally they honed in on the question of was the past that people represented as Christianity really the roots of Christianity? All around Porphyry and Justin was perceptions of what Christianity rooted from and stood for.

One great change that I would like to see in the world is the spread of Christianity. Civil rights leader Mahatma Gandhi wrote, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” I think everyone should be close to God, and accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior. To help this happen, I could donate to missionaries, get Christianity back into the public, and raise awareness in places where the people may have not previously known about God. This would help create an awesome, powerful change.

Jesus was beloved by many thousands of former Jews and Gentiles by the end of his ministry. However, he was also despised by even more of the population. Both his loving disciples and cruel adversaries’ feelings about Jesus can be attributed to the fact that “Jesus of Nazareth entered upon his public career in the lest quarter of a long period of decline in Jewish fortunes” (Meyer 777).

One influential cult was based upon a mystical interpretation of Plato. Neo-Platonism was like a rational science that attempted to break down and describe every aspect of the divine essence and its relationship with the human soul. An Alexandrian Jew named Philo tried using Greek philosophy to interpret the Jewish scriptures. He wanted to unite the two traditions by suggesting that the Greek philosophers had been inspired by the same God who had revealed himself to the Jews.

This week we have studied eschatology, the doctrine of last things, and the peculiar Christian tension of the “now” and “not yet” aspects of the kingdom of God. This paper will attempt to explain how the kingdom of God is present, but not yet fully consummated and how knowledge of that consummation shapes Christian kingdom work in the present day.