The main lesson/s from the early years of Christianity, was convert or die, & do as you are told to do by your betters or else [both have the same ending, you are killed] Pretty much sounds the same to me [don’t you] in a simplistic form.
These were basically the operating “orders” from the early Church & were NOT along the teachings of Christ but of of the men who ran things. It was about wealth & power and keeping it for themselves & using HIS name for keeping from the uneducated population/s.
I am a minor [very minor] student of history, and this is how I am seeing things. Please show me where I am wrong in my line of thought/s.
Hi,
Try to read primary (as opposed to revised) historical sources, true biographical accounts of Christians who lived through those times.
“Convert or Die” were the words told to my Christian ancestors (on both family sides) by their muslim murderers.
Christianity is focused upon the spiritual life with God and how it is provided and sustained. It is unique in that it is provided by God to man, rather than man thinking or performing something to merit God’s favor.
Every human since Adam and Eve, except for Jesus Christ, was condemned before they were saved.
No human being is able to convert themselves or any other human being to Christianity. It is a work of God, wherein the believer exercises volition to accept His work in them.
Spiritually dead people do not understand or believe this. Those who attempt to have a relationship with God independently of His Perfect Justice and Perfect Righteousness, fail to met His Perfect Integrity.
Systems which attempt to worship God independently of His Plan, fail to meet His mark. Since there is nothing created which can be created, which was not created by Him, we all are accountable to Him in witnessing His work.
Many of these issues are studies in theology as doctrines of grace, common grace, and efficacious grace.
Even after a person becomes a believer, their souls are still scarred from worldly and fleshly sins. We all are tempted to confuse our recognition and knowledge of good and evil, as a mechanism to have relationship with God. Many worldly believers might fall into temptation to judge their fellow man and become legalistic in their understanding of Scripture. Such may have been the case of some in past religious wars, but there also remained the rights of nations to defend themselves from worldly aggression.