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John Pinnix

English IV Honors

Mrs. Wilson

4/27/2018

The Spread of Christianity

Thesis: Christianity is as popular as it is and grew as rapidly as it did because its core message is

about love, forgiveness, and salvation for all. This message is effective because Christians

believe that all humans are inherently sinful and must be saved through Jesus Christ in order to

go to Heaven.

I. Introduction

II. Core beliefs

A. Original sin

B. Who Jesus is to Christians

C. Jesus’s teachings

1. Love

2. Forgiveness

3. Salvation

4. The Resurrection

5. Spreading the Gospel

III. How Christianity Spread

A. The Disciples

B. The Roman Empire

C. Christianity in China
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D. The Crusades

E. The New World

IV. Christianity Today

V. Conclusion

John Pinnix

English IV Honors
 Pinnix

Mrs. Wilson

4/27/2018

Totalling over 2.3 billion followers, Christianity is the world’s largest religion. According

to a study by Pew Research Center, they make up 31.2% of all religious people in the world

(Hackett). Christianity was at one time the fastest growing religion in the world. Christianity is

as popular as it is and grew as rapidly as it did because its core message is about love,

forgiveness, and salvation for all. This message is effective because Christians believe that all

humans are inherently sinful and must be saved through Jesus Christ in order to go to Heaven.

One of Christianity’s core beliefs is original sin. This is one of several core beliefs that

makes up Christianity what is. Original sin is the idea that sin came into the world through one

man, Adam, when he and Eve ate the forbidden fruit from the Garden of Eden and broke the trust

of God (Genesis). In Romans 5:12 the Apostle Paul writes, “Therefore, just as sin entered the

world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because

all sinned.” This idea is a fundamental belief for Christianity and is part of the reason its message

is so powerful. Paul is saying that because one man sinned, all of mankind has sinned, and

through this sin spiritual death was brought to all people. It is not just that man sinned, but that

he broke the trust of God. Jesus says in John 8:34, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a

slave to sin.” This is further evidence Christians believe that all people are naturally sinful.

However, they also believe there is a way to be cleansed of this sin. This is important because

Christians believe that sin cannot be in the presence of the Holy God; meaning that humans

cannot, by themselves, be in God’s presence. However, through Jesus they believe that this

relationship is restored.
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Christians believe that through Jesus Christ all people can be saved and have eternal life

in Heaven. It is a historical fact that Jesus existed. He was born in Jerusalem and would go on to

become a carpenter and, for some, a prophet. For non-Christians that is all He was. Christians,

however, believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God and was sent to Earth to give humanity a

path to salvation. Jesus said, “before Abraham was born, I am” (John 8:58). In saying this He is

saying that He is God. For the Jewish people of the time this statement was unprecedented and

most did not believe Him. Luke writes, “but with loud shouts they insistently demanded that He

be crucified, and their shouts prevailed” (Luke 23:23). The Jewish leaders of the time shouted

these things because they did not believe Him. For a few, however, Jesus would inspire them to

spread His teachings all across the Mediterranean. Jesus’s teachings are what separates believers

and nonbelievers.

One of the most important parts of Jesus’s teachings is His message of love. Jesus says in

the Gospel of Luke,

But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate

you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps

you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not

withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone

takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have

them do to you. (Luke 6:27-31)

This is a powerful message and one that is almost impossible to live up to. This message is fairly

straightforward and simple to comprehend. Jesus is saying to love all people regardless of who

they are, where they come from, or what they have done. He is saying to love even the people

who have done wrong to oneself. Jesus says to, “turn the other cheek,” a familiar message to
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most people, even non-Christians. The message is saying to be above retaliation; let passiveness

and restraint show one’s true strength. By showing restraint one is displaying God’s grace, and

would someone not expect the same in return? This is why Jesus taught the disciples to act

differently than one would naturally act. The Golden Rule, “Do to others as you would have

them do to you,” something familiar to most people, is a fundamental principle of Jesus’s

teachings and of Christianity. These messages set the disciples apart in their time, helped

Christianity to grow, and distinguishes Christianity from the other major religions such as Islam

and Judaism.

Jesus taught often on the topic of forgiveness. Mark 11:25 says, “And when you stand

praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may

forgive you your sins.” This is a challenging idea for most people regardless of how strong their

faith is. It is saying to forgive everyone, regardless of whether they are friend or foe. This is

because the Bible says that all people deserve forgiveness no matter who they are. This ties

directly into His message of love, because through forgiveness comes through love. The reason

Christians believe in forgiveness is because they believe that God is ready to forgive all of

mankind because He sent His son Jesus Christ to Earth to be sacrificed. Ephesians 4:32 says, “Be

kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”

This is further evidence that God expects Christians to display God-like grace by forgiving one

another. Jesus says in the book of Luke, “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not

condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven” (Luke 6:37).

Jesus’s message here is simple: He is reiterating what He said earlier in the chapter in verses 27-

31 about doing to others as you would have them do to you. He is saying that as long as one

forgives others then that person will be forgiven, and that God will also not forgive those who do
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not forgive. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says, “For if you forgive other people when they sin

against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their

sins, your Father will not forgive your sins” (Matthew 6:14-15). This is further evidence of

Jesus’s simple message of forgiveness: if one forgives then they will be forgiven. This simplicity

is part of what makes it appealing and practical to teach and to learn.

Arguably the most important lesson of Jesus’s teachings are his lessons on salvation.

These teachings are the culmination of His other major lessons of love and forgiveness. The

Apostle Paul writes in Romans 10:9, “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and

believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Paul is saying that

anyone who hears Jesus’s message and believes in his or her heart that Jesus is the Messiah that

came to Earth to save the world will be saved and have eternal life. John writes about this as

well, saying, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the

world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe

stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only

Son” (John 3:17-18). Jesus was sent here to save, not condemn. Christians believe He was sent

here to give humanity a path to salvation that cannot be attained through any other means. They

also believe that God has not destined mankind for wrath, but for salvation (1 Thessalonians

5:9). This message about how to be saved and have eternal life helps make Christianity appealing

and popular.

The idea that the Holy Spirit raised Jesus from the dead and will be with oneself as long

as one lives and help one display God’s grace is another captivating idea that helps Christianity

grow. It is one of the most defining points of Christianity. The belief that Jesus was crucified and

was then resurrected three days later. This is crucial because it reinforces the Christian belief that
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Jesus is not dead, but still alive. They believe that the grave could not hold him and that He will

never die again. Romans 8:11 says, “And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is

living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies

because of his Spirit who lives in you.” There is also the belief that even though someone dies,

they are not truly dead. Jesus says, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in

me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die” (John

11:25-26). This belief that someone who has accepted Jesus and believes that He is their savior

can never truly die is an incredibly appealing concept. It is the reason Christianity is the world’s

largest religion.

Jesus also taught about sharing the gospel and the importance of all people having a

chance to be saved. Jesus said, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in

the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). This is called

The Great Commission. He is commanding all of His disciples and followers to show non-

believers the path to salvation. He is telling them to teach about his other lessons of love, and

forgiveness, and salvation. In this way Christianity will continue to grow, as these new followers

go into the world and spread the gospel and so on and so forth. This is how Christianity grew

from a small religion with a few hundred followers to the largest religion on the planet.

Christianity spread rapidly over the few hundred years after Jesus’s crucifixion. It spread

because of what Jesus had taught His twelve disciples. His key messages of love, forgiveness,

and salvation for all people are what propelled Christianity into the lives of thousands, and later

billions, of lives. His disciples would travel all across the Mediterranean Sea spreading His

message and taking The Great Commission head on. After the death of Jesus in approximately

30 A.D, the disciples and other followers gathered at Pentecost in 33 A.D. This is widely viewed
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as the birth of the Church (Emberson). At this time little to none of the New Testament was

written. This and many other things would change for Christianity over the next sixty years.

The disciples lived hard and dangerous lives in order to spread Jesus’s teachings. Paul

alone, even though he was not one of the original twelve disciples, racked up around 10,000

miles in his travels all over the Roman Empire, going to places such as Ephesus, Philippi,

Corinth, and Athens (PBS). This is because of how much he believed in Jesus Christ and how

impacted he was by His teachings. The first Christian martyr came about in 33 A.D (Emberson).

Stephen was stoned because of his beliefs and because he refused to change them. He would not

back down because he knew that what the disciples taught him had been the right way. Acts 7

says, “While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ Then he fell

on his knees and cried out, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them’” (Acts 7:59-60). Stephen

was ready and willing to forgive his killers as he was dying. Christians view this as a true

testament to God’s grace and shows how Jesus’s teachings can completely alter someone’s way

of thinking. This also shows how dangerous it was for early Christians to proclaim their faith and

preach the gospel to others as Jesus commanded.

Christianity would continue to spread and reach people all across the Mediterranean as

the disciples and other new believers traveled and preached. It is around 60 A.D that the first

Gospel was published. It is believed that this was the Gospel of Mark (Emberson). Having a

written testament to the life of Jesus helped to bring new people to the faith and show them the

way Christians believe is the right way to live. Over the next ten years two more martyrdoms

would occur. The first of these was James, the half-brother of Jesus Christ, in 62 A.D. In A.D 67-

68 Paul and the Apostle Peter would be killed under the reign of the Roman Emperor Nero

(Emberson). These martyrs serve as further evidence of the potency of Christ’s message and how
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far His followers will go to spread his teachings. Seeing these people be martyred showed others

how much they cared about what they were teaching and brought in new believers. These

martyrs still continue today. It is estimated that, “Over 160,000 believers will be martyred this

year” (“About Missions”).

Christians would still continue to be heavily persecuted for the next 250 years throughout

the Roman Empire. Roman Emperors Nero, Marcus Aurelius, Decius, and Diocletian were

responsible for a majority of this persecution (Emberson). Despite this persecution, Christianity

would still be legalized by the Roman Emperor Constantine in 313 A.D when he issued the Edict

of Milan (PBS). This came after he reportedly received a vision of a flaming cross with the

words, “In hoc signo vinces” or “By this sign conquer.” Constantine then defeated Maxentius at

the Battle of Milvian Bridge (Emberson). Ten years later Christianity would become the official

religion of the Roman Empire (PBS). Having the entire Roman Empire to travel and preach to

was a monumental accomplishment for a religion that only had a few hundred followers three

hundred years prior. This growth can be attributed to Christianity’s core message of love,

forgiveness, and salvation for all. This was just the start of Christianity’s rapid growth that would

come over the next thousand years.

Christianity would continue to grow and achieve many milestones with this growth. In

800 A.D Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (Emberson).

Charlemagne worked hard to spread Christianity and established a library of Christian works

(BBC). These contributions aided in the spread of Christianity. In 988 A.D Prince Vladimir was

converted to Christianity (Emberson). His conversion led to the spread of Christianity in Russia

and the surrounding countries. In 1054 A.D the Great Schism occurred and the Church split into
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Eastern Orthodox and Western Orthodox (Emberson). However, the key principles of

Christianity would remain the same and therefore both churches continued to grow.

It would not take long before Christianity and the beliefs that come with it would reach

China. The earliest record of Christianity in China is a stone stele that is dated 781 A.D

(“Christianity in China”). This shows how far Christianity spread and how relatively quickly it

spread as well. The Emperor Taizong issued the following proclamation “having examined the

principles of this religion, we find them to be purely excellent and natural…it is beneficial to all

creatures, it is advantageous to mankind” (“Christianity in China”). He said this after being

presented with a translated Gospel. This proclamation demonstrates how powerful the founding

principles of Christianity, love, forgiveness, and salvation for all, can be. Unfortunately, since

the Chinese Communist Revolution in 1949, the Chinese government has tried to take control of

all religions and expel all foreign missionaries (“Christianity in China”). Despite these efforts,

however, “China is on pace to become the world’s most Christian nation within 15 years”

according to Professor Fenggang Yang of Purdue University (Phillips). Christianity’s key

principles of love, salvation, and forgiveness have made this possible.

The crusades are a monumental part in the history of Christianity. They were the attempts

of the Catholic Church to try and reclaim the Holy Land in the Middle East. The crusades were a

series of invasions by Christians from Western Europe that started in twelfth century and lasted

almost 200 years (“What Were the Crusades and How Did They Impact Jerusalem?”). These

invasions were not only because Christians wanted to reclaim Jerusalem, but also because of

what Jesus had taught about spreading the Gospel and trying to bring new people to the faith.

The effectiveness of the crusades is debatable in terms of making more people believers in
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Christianity. However, the intent of the European invaders is clear. They intended to spread

Christianity and its beliefs because of how they interpreted the teachings of Jesus Christ.

Christianity would continue to spread and grow throughout the next three to four hundred

years; the ultimate missionary opportunity would come about with the discovery of the

Americas. When Christopher Columbus first arrived in the Americas he brought with him his

Christian beliefs and ideologies. These included the idea that all people deserved an opportunity

for eternal life. Columbus was a very religious man. His crew would observe religious practices

on board and he had even used the Bible to try and calculate the distance from Portugal to Japan

(Giles). Christopher Columbus wrote in his journal, “So that they might be well-disposed

towards us, for I knew that they were a people to be delivered and converted to our holy faith

rather by love than by force, I gave to some red caps and to others glass beads, which they hung

around their neck, and many other things...I believe that they would easily be made Christians,

for it seemed to me that they had no religion of their own” (“Columbus Landed in America”). It

was Columbus's strong belief in the teachings of Jesus that inspired him to want to convert the

indigenous people he had encountered to the Christian faith.

Christianity is still not done growing. According to About Missions, “In A.D 100 there

were 12 unreached people group for every congregation of believers. Now there is one

unreached group for every 1000 congregations.” This statistic offers a new perspective on the

growth of Christianity as a whole. It has grown so much because of the continued efforts of

missionaries all across the world. It is estimated that there are 430,000 missionaries from all

branches of Christianity (“About Missions”). However, despite these efforts Islam is projected to

outgrow Christianity at a growth rate of +70% to +34% (Hackett). This can be explained by how

Christians are focusing their mission efforts. According to About Missions, 91% of all Christian
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mission efforts do not target non-Christians, but rather target other Christians. This has resulted

in over 1 billion people dying in the last forty years without hearing the name Jesus Christ. This

continues today, as 70,000 people will die every year without hearing Jesus’s name. It is

estimated that, “American Christians spend 95% of offerings on home-based ministry, 4.5% on

cross-cultural efforts in already reached people groups, and .5% to reach the unreached.” (About

Missions). These are just a few statistics that explain why Christianity’s growth has decreased in

the last century when compared to Islam. It is not because of the message of Christianity or

Jesus’s teachings.

Jesus’s teachings of love, forgiveness, and salvation for all have been spread all across

the earth by people from all different walks of life. Christianity has been consistently spread

because of the truth behind its message and how fervently its followers share it. Between 1493

and 1820 Spain alone sent over 15,000 missionaries to the Americas in order to convert more

people to the Christian faith (Giles). This displays the passion that Christians have towards their

faith. Perhaps the most compelling message of Christianity is the message that mankind will

continue to fail; but God’s grace will always be there, regardless of what happens (Gonzales).

Christianity went from a small religion, that many expected to disappear after Jesus’s death, to

the largest religion in the world. This happened because of its message of love, forgiveness, and

salvation for all.

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Works Cited

About Missions | Statistics, www.aboutmissions.org/statistics.html.

BBC, British Broadcasting Corporation. “History - Charlemagne.” BBC, BBC,

www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/charlemagne.shtml.

“Columbus Landed in America.” Christianity.com, www.christianity.com/church/church-

history/timeline/1201-1500/columbus-landed-in-america-11629896.html.

Emberson, Iain A., and Andreas Viklund. Timeline of Christian History,

christianityinview.com/timeline.html.

Giles, Thomas S. “Columbus and Christianity: Did You Know?” Christian History | Learn

the History of Christianity & the Church,

www.christianitytoday.com/history/issues/issue-35/columbus-and-christianity-did-you-

know.html.

Gonzalez, Silverio. “The Most Compelling Message About Christianity.” Core

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Christianity, 28 Jan. 2018, corechristianity.com/resource-library/articles/the-most-

compelling-message-about-christianity.

Hackett, Conrad, and David McClendon. “Christians Remain World's Largest Religious

Group, but They Are Declining in Europe.” Pew Research Center, 5 Apr. 2017,

www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/04/05/christians-remain-worlds-largest-religious-

group-but-they-are-declining-in-europe/.

“History of Christianity in China.” Christians In China,

www.christiansinchina.com/history-of-christianity-in-china/.

PBS, Public Broadcasting Service,

www.pbs.org/empires/romans/empire/christians.html.

PBS, Public Broadcasting Service,

www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/why/appeal.html.

Phillips, Tom. “China on Course to Become 'World's Most Christian Nation' within 15

Years.” The Telegraph, Telegraph Media Group, 19 Apr. 2014,

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/10776023/China-on-course-to-become-

worlds-most-Christian-nation-within-15-years.html.

The Holy Bible: New International Version. Hodder & Stoughton, 1984.

“What Were the Crusades and How Did They Impact Jerusalem?” Biblical Archaeology

Society, 25 Oct. 2017, www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-sites-

places/jerusalem/what-were-the-crusades-and-how-did-they-impact-jerusalem/.
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