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 WHY HAS JESUS HAD SUCH A BIG IMPACT ON THE WORLD? Probably the best way to answer this is to have a look at the first few centuries of Christianity, when the church grew from an obscure Jewish sect to dominate the Roman empire. One main reason for this must be that his followers stuck with their faith throughout many periods of intense persecution, often going to their deaths rather than abandon it. Their heroism and devotion had a tremendous influence on people's opinions (and similar stories of faith under fire had the same effect later in history). Why were Jesus's followers so unrelenting? One reason must be that Jesus promised eternal life to his followers, so that martyrdom was the road to glory as well as a terrible ordeal. Another is that they were passionately devoted to Jesus himself, because of the difference his teachings had made to their lives, and because of their experience of his risen presence and personality. And not least, there was the example of Jesus's own suffering and death: he had already made the self-sacrifice that the faith demanded of them. This is how Christianity first won the hearts and minds of the Roman world, which covered three continents. Another crucial point is that even in Jesus' own lifetime he sent his followers out to spread his message, so from the very start Christianity was a missionary faith. His commands to spread the word, recorded in the Bible, have been taken up over and again throughout the centuries, as missionaries have taken the teachings of Jesus back into Asia and Africa, and to the Americas. More questions about who Jesus was |
Picture: 6th-century mosaic of Christ from Ravenna, Italy. |
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