The reasons why hundreds of Pagans converted to Christianity

[Estro Felino]

In the first century AD thousands of Pagans realized that their religion was pointless and meaningless.
Because their pagan religion didn't distinguish Evil from Good. And it didn't bring justice, given that the wicked wouldnt have been punished in the Afterlife.

So, as soon as they listened to Christ's teachings, they destroyed their useless altars and became Christians. Because they were oppressed by a bunch of greedy and wicked people: the Romans, who based their life upon the jungle law, or law of the fittest. The Romans used to mistreat the weak and to get rich at cost of the neighbor's poverty.

That's why thousand of Pagans (especially Greeks) became Christians. Because Christ had promised them divine justice: that is, the perpetrators will go to Hell, and the victims to heaven.

Blessed those who hunger for justice, for they will be filled
And an angel shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just.

That's why they were not afraid of dying, when the Romans fed them to lions: because they knew they would go to Heaven
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=SkDrflc8v9E

 

[ChristineES]

I am not sure that is totally it. Paganism has had a major comeback, with many, many members, who must feel it has a purpose. And, even as a Christian, I have to admit that some of those crusaders threatened people into converting (If I denied that, I would be as guilty as those crusaders).

 

[outhouse]

In the first century AD thousands of Pagans realized that their religion was pointless and meaningless.

Sources please.

Switching to a better religion does not discount the one they left.

Because their pagan religion didn't distinguish Evil from Good.

Speculation, nothing more.

So, as soon as they listened to Christ's teachings

Very few people actually ever heard him speak or teach or heal.

they destroyed their useless altars and became Christians.

Ridiculous, supply sources.

, Because they were oppressed by a bunch of greedy and wicked people

You know nothing of the origins of the movement.


The movement spread and was taught in the empire by Roman citizens and others in the Diaspora who were no oppressed.

 

[outhouse]

OP also forgets the movement adopted many pagan aspects in the first 400 years before dogma had been established. to make it more popular to the Hellenistic masses.

 

[outhouse]

No Pagan religion promises to avenge abuses and injustices

And just what education do you have on pagan religions????

Do you know anything at all about them?

Or is this just baseless opinion?

 

[Estro Felino]

Sources please.

Switching to a better religion does not discount the one they left.
Speculation, nothing more.
Very few people actually ever heard him speak or teach or heal.
Ridiculous, supply sources
You know nothing of the origins of the movement.
The movement spread and was taught in the empire by Roman citizens and others in the Diaspora who were no oppressed.

I assure you that Pagans converted to Christianity spontaneously: that's why they were persecuted. How could the Romans force them to convert to Christianity and persecute them because they were Christians at the same time?

 

[Estro Felino]

I am not sure that is totally it. Paganism has had a major comeback, with many, many members, who must feel it has a purpose. And, even as a Christian, I have to admit that some of those crusaders threatened people into converting (If I denied that, I would be as guilty as those crusaders).

Who forced them to convert?
Not certainly the Romans - given that the Romans persecuted them for 3 centuries exactly because they were Christians

By the way: what do you think about the message, that the good will be awarded and the wicked will be punished?
Isn't it catchy?

 

[Poeticus]

Who forced them to convert?

The story of Lithuania is a discouraging tale. What the Teutonic Knights did out of religious fervor to the Lithuanian pagans is hauntingly frightening.

 

[ChristineES]

Who forced them to convert?
Not certainly the Romans - given that the Romans persecuted them exactly because they were Christians

By the way: what do you think of the message, that the good will be awarded and the wicked will be punished?
Isn't it catchy?

Some of them were threatened to convert, certainly not all of them. History has claimed it. They were threatened with death, torture, etc. I can't cite any definite sources right now, I am nowhere near an encyclopedia, and I have even a better excuse: I am too tired to look it up.

 

[Estro Felino]

The story of Lithuania is a discouraging tale. What the Teutonic Knights did out of religious fervor to the Lithuanian pagans is hauntingly frightening.

Please, don't go off topic. We are talking about a precise period;:
first century AD until 380 AD

 

[Estro Felino]

Some of them were threatened to convert, certainly not all of them. History has claimed it. They were threatened with death, torture, etc. I can't cite any definite sources right now, I am nowhere near an encyclopedia, and I have even a better excuse: I am too tired to look it up.

I am talking about the first century AD, not after the Thessalonian Edict.

Do you know what Roman persecutions were?
so tell me: how could the Romans forced them to convert , and persecute them because they were Christians, at the same time?

 

[Poeticus]

Please, don't go off topic. We are talking about a precise period;:
first century AD until 380 AD

In regards to forced conversion ... it's vehemently on topic, Mr. Hay.

 

[ChristineES]

In regards to forced conversion ... it's vehemently on topic, Mr. Hay.

I agree. Even in those times, many people were converted by threat of the sword (so to speak). Even if it wasn't by crusaders of the the Middle Ages, that kind of conversion is against what Jesus taught in the first place.

 

[Estro Felino]

I agree. Even in those times, many people were converted by threat of the sword (so to speak). Even if it wasn't by crusaders of the the Middle Ages, that kind of conversion is against what Jesus taught in the first place.

Sources, please.
I have lots of sources, about Christian persecutions by the Romans. Tacitus, Suetonius, Marcus Antonius, etc etc etc
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_Christians_in_the_Roman_Empire

 

[outhouse]

I assure you that Pagans converted to Christianity spontaneously: that's why they were persecuted.

Not a word you wrote refuted a single thing I stated.

Yes they did.

That is not why they were persecuted. If you want I will quote Candida Moss, whom I have talked with about this.


They were first persecuted because they would not worship the Emperors divinity, remaining loyal to Jesus.

it's me who is supposed to teach you, not the contrary.

Without insulting you, you seem rather ignorant to the christian movement, and its obvious you know little of its origins and history.

If I am mistaken, I would glad to be corrected.

How could the Romans force them to convert to Christianity

The Romans did not force conversion. Nor did I imply that in any way shape or form.

But since you bring it up, YOU DO KNOW the early christians were viewed as pagans?

NO pagan religion says that the wicked will be punished in the afterlife.

First of all, the soul concept started in pagan religions.

Well, Pluto and Persephone, as these people said, are the rulers and have the general over-lordship, with a great throng of understrappers and assistants in administration-Furies, Tormentors, Terrors, and also Hermes, who, however, is not always with them. As prefects, moreover, and satraps and judges, there are two that hold court, Minos and Rhadamanthus of Crete, who are sons of Zeus.
These receive the good, just men who have lived virtuously, and when many have been collected, send them off, as if to a colony, to the Elysian Fields to take part in the best life.

Souls of bad people were punished in Hades. >>​

But if they come upon any rascals, turning them over to the Furies, they send them to the Place of the Wicked, to be punished in proportion to their wickedness. There-ah ! what punishment do they not undergo? They are racked, burned, devoured by vultures, turned upon a wheel; they roll stones uphill; and as for Tantalus, he stands on the very brink of the lake with a parched throat, like to die, poor fellow, for thirst!
But those of the middle way in life, and they are many, wander about in the meadow without their bodies, in the form of shadows that vanish like smoke in your [119] fingers. They get their nourishment, naturally, from the libations that are poured in our world and the burnt-offerings at the tomb; so that if anyone has not left a friend or kinsman behind him on earth, he goes about his business there as an unfed corpse, in a state of famine.
[Lucian, On Funerals, (second century AD), -- which you can find in: Harmon, A. M. Lucian Volume IV (Loeb #162) (1953 / 1999), pg. 117- 9]

Hell evolved from Hades a pagan religion

Hades - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The term "Hades" in Christian theology (and in New Testament Greek) is parallel to Hebrew sheol (שאול, "grave, dirt-pit"), and refers to the abode of the dead. The Christian concept of hell is more akin to and communicated by the Greek concept of Tartarus, a deep, gloomy part of Hades used as a dungeon of torment and suffering.

 

[outhouse]

Show me that there is a Pagan religion of the Ancient age that promises divine justice, and I will believe you

POCM Christian myth of human soul copy pagan mythology

Minos and Rhadamanthus of Crete, who are sons of Zeus.
These receive the good, just men who have lived virtuously, and when many have been collected, send them off, as if to a colony, to the Elysian Fields to take part in the best life.

 

[Sees]

it hurts

 

[Estro Felino]

Hell evolved from Hades a pagan religion

Hades - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There is a big difference between religious belief and mythology. Lots of Greeks did know that mythology was just pure fantasy.
Do you think that the Greeks really believed in the harpies torturing the damned in the afterlife? I don't

 

[Estro Felino]

POCM Christian myth of human soul copy pagan mythology

precisely. Lots of Pagan religions were influenced by Christianity and borrowed some concepts from it, like that of Divine Justice. an example is the Hellenism of Emperor Julian

what's wrong with that?

 

[outhouse]

Ignorance avoid it.

Ancient Egyptian religion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

During the late Old Kingdom and the First Intermediate Period (c. 2181–2055 BC), the Egyptians gradually came to believe that possession of a ba and the possibility of a paradisiacal afterlife extended to everyone.[37][42] In the fully developed afterlife beliefs of the New Kingdom, the soul had to avoid a variety of supernatural dangers in the Duat, before undergoing a final judgment known as the "Weighing of the Heart". In this judgment, the gods compared the actions of the deceased while alive (symbolized by the heart) to Ma'at, to determine whether he or she had behaved in accordance with Ma'at. If the deceased was judged worthy, his or her ka and ba were united into an akh.[43] Several beliefs coexisted about the akh's destination. Often the dead were said to dwell in the realm of Osiris, a lush and pleasant land in the underworld.[44] The solar vision of the afterlife, in which the deceased soul traveled with Ra on his daily journey, was still primarily associated with royalty, but could extend to other people as well. Over the course of the Middle and New Kingdoms, the notion that the akh could also travel in the world of the living, and to some degree magically affect events there, became increasingly prevalent.[45]