William H. Smith                                                                                               March 8, 2002

1204 Christmas Tree Lane                                                                                about 600 words

Pearce, Az. 85625

303-36-7671

(520) 826-1029

 

 

 

 

 

Christianity to Religion

By

William H. Smith

 

            From the day of Pentecost, the birthday of the church of Jesus Christ which was to be known as Christianity, during the time about 313 AD Christians numbered about one half of the Roman Empire.

            On the eve of a battle just outside of Rome, Constantine saw a vision above the setting sun, it was a cross with the words “in this sign conquer”.  He decided to fight under the banner of Christ and won the battle, this was a turning point in Christianity.

            Constantine’s Edit of Toleration made in 313 AD,  granted to Christians and all others the freedom of religion.  This started religion being introduced into Christ’s Church.  He favored Christians in everyway, and he exhorted his subjects to also embrace Christianity.  He received resistance from the Roman Aristocracy, so he moved his capitol to Byzantium and called it Constantinople.

            Emperor Constantine made the Christians day of assembly on Sunday.  The first church building was erected under the reign of Alexander Severus, 222-235 AD.  After the year 313 AD more church buildings were built.

            Emperor Theodosius, 378-395 AD made Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire, this started the religious influence in Christianity.  Between the 4th and 5th centuries the Church was called the Imperial Church of Rome by the Pagans.  In its lust and ambition to rule, it lost and forgot the Spirit of Christ.  This began the interpretation of Jesus Christ in their own thinking.  The Church as we know it today was founded in the Roman Empire, where the head is still located today.  The first Pope in the Church appeared about 500 AD, this was the beginning of Papacy.

            Wyclif was active during the years 1324-1384, he had the Bible translated into English for the first time paving the way for the Protestant movement.  The printing press was invented in 1450 AD, putting the printing of the Bible into many hands and spreading the word spoken by Jesus Christ.  Between the years, 1513-1521 Martin Luther started the Protestant reformation.  The Church answered this movement with the formation of the Jesuits.

            Christianity was first established in eastern or the Greek part of the Roman Empire. For about 200 years Greek was the language of Christians.  In 395 AD the Roman Empire was divided into the Western and Eastern divisions, Rome was the capital of the Western division, and Constantinople was the capital of the Eastern division.

            632-638 AD, the three centers for Christianity in the east were Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, these were overcome by Mohammedanism.  Constantinople then stood alone as a center in Christianity.  About the year 869 AD the east and west pared, because the east would not acknowledge the authority of the Pope.

            The Greek Church is now the church of southeastern Europe and Russia.  There are three great divisions in Christianity, the Greek Catholics numbering about 150,000,000, the Roman Catholics about 340,000,000, the number of Protestants are about 210,000,000, the number of Christians are very small, with many of the Protestants making up their numbers.  The similarity of the Greek and Roman churches being prominent. 

            In 2000 years the human race has managed to bring the Church of Jesus Christ (Christianity) to what it is today, a vast group of churches that teach the viewpoint of man.  Even though man has built a church for himself and many worship in them there will be Christians growing from them.

--00--