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Oculus Spirit [93673]
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Idle speculation is kinda fun sometimes.
Jun 26, 2022, 7:50 AM
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I Acts Chpt Two just after receiving the Holy Ghost, Spirit if you must, 3000 people first believed that Jesus was Christ. The tidal wave of Christianity was begun. When reading this I wondered how Rome felt about 3K of its subjects changing to a strange religion by which they shared all they owned with the others. 3K a day? No wonder they fed them to the lions.
In Chpt Three, Peter and John were visiting the temple. Peter healed a cripple man who sat just outside the temple asking for alms. The man jumped up and followed them into the temple, leaping around praising God for his newfound ability to walk. I can imagine the Pharisees thinking 'OH CARP, we just got rid of the last one now there are two of them.'
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All-In [47798]
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the Roman Empire was full of all sorts of
Jun 26, 2022, 7:54 AM
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strange religion. They were very used to accepting all sorts of gods etc.... The new Christian proto-orthodoxy ran into trouble when they were required to worship the emperor cult.
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All-In [29864]
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Re: the Roman Empire was full of all sorts of
Jun 26, 2022, 3:58 PM
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Yes, and it's stated explicitly in several places. There's a famous letter from the Roman Governor of Bithynia, up on the north coast of Turkey by the Black Sea, about these new "Christians" in the area who seem peaceful enough but are hung up on the idea of "one God". Naturally this would be an issue for the Roman Emperor, so he was giving him a bit of a heads up that it could be a problem down the road.
Similarly, in Judea the idea of coins with Caesar's face on them was anathema to early Christians, but how can you live if you can't spend money, so that was a rub, too.
The influx of new converts, both Jewish and the Greeks that migrated into the Levant in the wake of Alexander's conquests, is another crazy "story within a story" highlighted in the Antioch Incident between Peter and Paul over what to do with them and how to handle them.
The only thing better than sausage is watching sausage being made. Plenty of good stuff to look at coming down the road. The rise of Christianity is a great, great, story.
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Oculus Spirit [93673]
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It's funny that both replying to the OP focused solely...
Jun 29, 2022, 10:16 AM
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on the worship of a 'New God,' rather than the form the early church took which appeared to me to be the first communist society. I imagine Rome was more interested in them selling their possessions and giving the money away than caring whether or not they worshiped a new god. I imagine the plublicans wasted no time reporting this to those up the ladder.
But whatever, this is the religion bored the politics bored is that way, right?---------------->
<--------------I forget sometimes, is it that way?
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All-In [29864]
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Re: Idle speculation is kinda fun sometimes.
Jun 26, 2022, 3:48 PM
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It was truly a meteoric rise from about 50 AD till 312 AD and Constantine's conversion the night before the Battle of Milvian bridge. And the very next year, 313 AD, he declared all religions to be tolerated in the Roman Empire.
That's an important date because it shows that politically, Christians had achieved enough numbers in the empire that Constantine felt it was "advantageous" to be a part of their club.
13 years later in 325 AD he convened the Council of Nicea to organize the "new" 300 year-old religion, and then 6 years later in 331 AD ordered the first 50 Bibles, as we now think of the Bible, to be assembled from the various texts scattered all around the Mediterranean.
But the rise was nowhere near over. In 380 AD Theodosius I hit the nitro injector and declared that Christianity was not just tolerated, it was the STATE religion. Another indication of its growth and prevalence in society. So in less than 300 years Christians went from non-existence, to persecuted minority, to top dogs.
But, man being man, you know what's next. The same Theodosius I who championed Christianity and its message of Love thy Neighbor then declared the Theodisian Decrees 11 years later in 391, to persecute all wrong thinkers and pagans. The hunted became the hunters.
But the most important part of all this is that it gives me the chance to post the famous "Victory of Faith" painting by the Irishman Saint George Hare. I think that was his actual, unusual name, "Saint", not a title. Sort of like "States Rights" Gist in the Civil War or "Moon Unit" Zappa.
It shows two Christians calmly contemplating their mortal fate while they wait to be fed to the lions. I think anyone can appreciate and admire their calmness and relaxation in the face of such a grim doom.
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