How Did The Existence Of The Roman Empire Help The Spread Of Christianity

Patheos ^ | 2016 | Jack Wellman

[CondoleezzaProtege]

Did the Roman Empire help to spread Christianity, and if so, in what ways?

Pax Romana

During the times of Christ and the Apostles, the Roman Empire was the dominant world power and they subjugated all nations which they conquered, but they also allowed them certain freedoms, like the freedom to worship in their own way. The mighty empire brought a domineering power to the world, but it also brought a peace that the world had not known for some time. It was called “Pax Romana,” which is Latin for Roman Peace and so the Romans brought a state of peace or a state of comparative tranquility throughout the Mediterranean world from about 27 BC to nearly 200 AD. The Roman Empire protected and governed individual provinces and permitted each nation, group of people, and individuals to make and administer its own laws while accepting Roman taxation and military occupation.

Roman Roads

The Roman Road system that the Roman Empire had built was created for the purpose of the Roman’s holding onto power. The Roman Road systems allowed the Romans to move military units in a quick manner, dispatching them quickly to troubled areas, so the Roman Roads were meant to help the Romans retain control over their empire, but they also served to spread the gospel...

[CondoleezzaProtege]

...because prior to this road system, there were places that were nearly impossible to cross during the rainy season when roads would either be non-existent or what roads (or paths) there were because impassible. Roman engineers were among the best in the world (at the time) and the excellency of the road system they built was so remarkable that many of the original Roman Roads are still being used today. These roads provided safety from bandits and harsh traveling elements but they were primarily built to expand the Roman Empire for trade and as a means to efficiently move large armies across their vast empire in order to protect the empire but also to ensure the empire would remain under Roman authority. After Rome had conquered Judah in 66 BC, the Roman policy allowed the people to incorporate the religions of the conquered region into their own customs, so Judaism was acceptable by the Romans, up to a point, and at least in the beginning, Christianity was viewed as just another sect of Judaism, but later Rome would turn on these law-abiding Christians and murder them and torture them like no other people on the face of the planet.

Roman Protection

More than once the Roman authorities rescued the Apostle Paul from death at the hands of the Jews as “the Jews made a plot and bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till they had killed Paul. There were more than forty who made this conspiracy. They went to the chief priests and elders and said, “We have strictly bound ourselves by an oath to taste no food till we have killed Paul” (Acts 23:12-15a) so they “we are ready to kill him before he comes near” (Acts 23:15b), so the Roman tribune “called two of the centurions and said, “Get ready two hundred soldiers, with seventy horsemen and two hundred spearmen to go as far as Caesarea at the third hour of the night. Also provide mounts for Paul to ride and bring him safely to Felix the governor.” And he wrote a letter to this effect” (Acts 23:23-25). If not for the Roman authorities, Paul would have surely died and the gospel might not have reached as far as he caused it to go. In this way, the Roman Empire helped to preserve, and in some cases, spread Christianity.

Roman Brutality

For many years, the Roman Empire tolerated what they called a Jewish sect, or the people of “the way,” but later, Rome employed the policy of emperor worship and this required subjects to burn incense before an image of the emperor and declare that Caesar is Lord. Naturally, Christians refused to worship anyone but the true and only God, and there is only One God we worship, and Caesar’s not it! Of course, this led to severe persecution by Roman authorities, but something was happening within Rome herself. Many began to believe and put their trust in Christ, but many of these same believers paid dearly for it, sometimes with their life. If you read the Apostle Peter’s letter to the dispersed Jews (1st Pet 1:1), he knew that many of them had been suffering a great deal for trusting in Christ (1st Pet 1:6-8). Many of them had lost all of possessions, including their own homes, and had to leave their family and friends behind in fleeing Jerusalem. All they had brought with them was the gospel…the most precious thing of all! The author of Hebrews tried to encourage the church by writing, “you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one” (Heb 10:34). Perhaps they finally understood what Jesus meant when He asked, “what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself” (Luke 9:25)? Everything in this world and in this life will pass eventually away, but Jesus promises that “Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live” (John 11:25).

The Roman Road

The Roman Empire helped the spread of Christianity by providing a sense of security and stability when the church was birthed. It provided good roads for the gospel to be taken to the ends of the empire and beyond. It kept Jewish persecution from being worse than it already was, and it helped to spread the gospel to the known world and beyond by the elaborate Roman Road system. The roads also allowed the gospel to move to different parts of the empire through carrier who transported the letters, sometimes copies of the gospels. These were written by the authors of the four gospels, but also Paul’s letters (epistles), John’s books, and the other writers, and these would eventually become Scripture. These “books” would be read far and wide throughout the Roman Empire, and since the gospel of salvation has the power of God in it (Rom 1:16; 1st Cor 1:18), many were saved by reading it or hearing it (in most cases). The Roman Road allowed the gospel to spread far and wide, but there is another Roman Road that the Apostle Paul has taken many of us through, and on this road we find that none of us, compared to God, are good; not even one of us (Rom 3:11). This road brings us to the knowledge that all of us fall far short of God’s glory and His perfect standard of righteousness (Rom 3:32). All that we are left with is to wait for the Day of Judgment when we’ll receive the wages for our sins (Rom 6:23a; Rev 20:12-15). Thankfully, Paul doesn’t leave us there because, just around the corner, we read about “the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 6:23b). The Roman Road convicts us; it finds us guilty and without hope. This should make us run to the cross for mercy and grace. If we are brought to repentance and trust in Christ, we receive the free gift of eternal life, but only when the God’s wrath is revealed is God’s mercy relevant. The Book of Roman’s does that.

Conclusion

The empire didn’t intentionally spread Christianity, but it did allow it to spread by giving the church certain privileges, rights, and freedoms that others in the empire had as well. Even though the empire was evil, God has a way of using evil for His own good purposes (Gen 50:20; John 3:16). The Roman government, for the most part, actually did a better job of holding down persecution than some governments of the world do today. God allowed the Roman Empire to be used as a means to take the gospel to the ends of the empire and beyond. The ripples of that are still being felt today, and will be felt throughout all eternity. How interesting that God can use a pagan or evil empire such as the Roman Empire and an evil ruler (such as Caesar was) to His glory. It is as Solomon wrote, “The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will” (Prov 21:1), whether the king knows about it or not.

[dp0622]

I wonder if any of my ancestors, or more than one was a Roman soldier.

If they were, I’m betting they were in much better shape than me at 50 :)

[mo]

https://www.geni.com/people/Saint-Pudens/6000000003086931398

Rufus Pudens was the son of a Roman Senator and a half-brother of St. Paul-Romans 16:13

[Patriot777]

Awesome study you’ve represented here! May many have the scales dropped from their eyes this year so that they can see and understand the Gospel and turn to Christ. May the Holy Spirit of God be poured out on this nation and the world. His mercy endures forever, Praise His Holy Name!
The birth pangs of the close-approaching wrath of the King of Kings grow ever more severe as the Earth He created is groaning as a desperately ill man over the horrific evils that have been thrust upon it since the Fall.

Oh, beloved FReepers who have not trusted your lives to Jesus, do not become as those who perished when the Flood came, or when the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed because of abominations that now exist in many major cities, or as the millions that Moses led out of Egypt by the Hand of God were dealt with and wandered the desert wilderness for 40 years. The judgment of Revelation is at the gate. And it is just as real as the computer screen in front of you.

God bless you, CondoleezzaProtege, and write again.

[trebb]

Constantine opened the floodgates..

[Patriot777]

“If you cannot explain it simply, then you do not understand it well enough” or in other words “If you cannot explain it to a six-year-old, you do not understand it yourself” is the claim of Albert Einstein.

[Claud]

I wonder if any of my ancestors, or more than one was a Roman soldier.

It's pretty much guaranteed.

I calculated the number of my direct ancestors back through successive generations: 2 born in the 1930s, 4 born in the 1900s-8 born in the 1870s-16-32, etc.

By the 1100s the number of ancestors is more than the population of Italy at the time. By the 900s it's more than the population of the world.

If any Roman soldier left descendants still alive today we both are statistically certain to have descended from him.

[BwanaNdege]

Alexander’s prior conquests gave that area of the world a common language, Koine Greek.

Those two empires set the stage for the rapid spread of the Gospel.

Language
Relative Peace
A Transportation network

To a similar extent, the British Empire, which “the Sun never set upon”, Gutenburg’s printing press, Hollywood’s spread of English worldwide and now the Internet have helped provide people speaking mutually non-intelligible native languages to communicate via English.

Ideas are transferred from one language culture to another through the “Lingua Franca” of English.

Of course, one best understantds the Gospel through a good translation of the Bible into one’s native language.

[unlearner]

“I calculated the number of my direct ancestors back through successive generations: 2 born in the 1930s, 4 born in the 1900s-8 born in the 1870s-16-32, etc. By the 1100s the number of ancestors is more than the population of Italy at the time. By the 900s it’s more than the population of the world.”

It does not work like that. Your math is wrong. The further you go back, the greater the likelihood of there being an overlap. In order to avoid any overlap would have required everyone to marry only the most distant unrelated person on the planet, which rarely happened, if ever. This is why there are nations, languages, ethnicities, and clans / tribes.

You would have to go back much further before you would find a specific common ancestor, such as a specific Roman soldier. Sure, if you are white, there is a decent chance that somewhere in your lineage was a Roman soldier. That does not mean it would be the same Roman soldier that is in the lineage of another white person.

“If any Roman soldier left descendants still alive today we both are statistically certain to have descended from him.”

Only if a specific Roman soldier has a massive number of descendants and others do not. If the “Smiths” had a specific soldier as an ancestor, and assuming these “Smiths” are all related by a common ancestor since the time of that soldier (rather than the name being common because their profession was common) then it would be possible. But considering all factors, it seems highly unlikely rather than “pretty much guaranteed.”

It is even more unlikely that Asian or the people indigenous to North, South, and Central America were descended from a Roman soldier. Their posterity would not have been either, unless some of their ancestors intermarried with Europeans.

If someone is Italian (as per your example of the population of Italy in the 1100s), that person can be certain to have descended from at least a certain segment of the Italians of the 1100s—possibly a large segment. But this is because that was an isolated population and the person inquiring knows he or she is Italian. As a white American of mostly British ancestry, it is quite possible I also have Italian ancestors from the 1100s. But it is highly unlikely that I have any Asian ancestors from the 1100s.

[GingisK]

I don't think the Roman Empire was evil. Civilizations in those days were brutal because that was common practice in the times leading up to Rome. Some say Thomas Jefferson is not worthy of our honor just because he owned slaves, even though slave ownership was very common through the millenniums up to his time.

The Roman Empire added a great deal to civilization.

[dp0622]

Wow.

[dp0622]

Interesting page. Thanks

[nicollo]

Check out the History of the English Language podcast which details the influence of Rome and Christianity and their confluence upon Anglo-Saxon England c. 700/800. Rather fascinating how the locals adopted Latin-based Christianity into local dialects, which led to the enlargement of Old English well before the Norman invasion. See episodes 37-39 for this transition. Fascinating stuff.

[Lurker]

“If they were, I’m betting they were in much better shape than me at 50 :)”

Most likely they died before they saw their mid 40s.

L

[LouAvul]

Also, Greek was widely spoken which greatly aided the spread of the church. Many pundits considered it a “universal” language.

[mo]

St Paul was operating in Rome under some protection and patronage of the Roman Senate

[SunkenCiv]

Note: this topic is from 02/09/2019. Thanks CondoleezzaProtege.

[Larry Lucido]

[Red Badger]

Romans and the Greeks before them had a mythology that included many, many myths of people being the offspring of humans and gods: demigods.

SO, when Christianity came along, it was no problem for them to believe that Jesus was the Son of God.

Plus the added benefit that there was JUST ONE GOD, instead of many, each requiring their own temple that was usually far away, and usually requiring a sacrifice of some sort.

With a ‘One God’ monotheism, all that was wiped away, and was very economical, especially since no expensive ‘sacrifices’ were necessary.

The Romans and Greeks, the dominate cultural gate keepers of the times, were practically ‘Prepared In Advance’ to accept Christianity from the get-go.

The Jewish culture, where Christianity came from, rejected Christianity outright, as was prophesied (See Parable of the wine-skins). Their religious foundation was not prepared and could not accept a ‘Son of God’ in their dogma.

Acts 28:

25 They disagreed among themselves and began to leave after Paul had made this final statement: “The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your ancestors when he said through Isaiah the prophet:

26
“‘Go to this people and say,
“You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.”
27
For this people’s heart has become calloused;
they hardly hear with their ears,
and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them.’[a]

28 “Therefore I want you to know that God’s salvation has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will listen!”

[chesley]

I read once that all European descended people were related at least as closely as 32nd cousins, or something like that.