The reasons why hundreds of Pagans converted to Christianity

[Revoltingest]

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

It's as ludicrous as believing that mental illness is caused by demons, who may be cast out in
exorcisms.....or the son of a virginal mother can be his own father....or.....you get the picture.
Tis claims like yours which make people wear colanders on their heads.

 

[sojourner]

Rodney Stark, Ph.D., sociology, and the author of over 50 books, some of them on religion, wrote a best-selling book that is titled "The Rise of Christianity." The book is not anti-Christian at all, and Stark became a Christian after he wrote the book. Stark estimates that in 100 A.D., there were 7,530 Christian in the entire world. That was not very many. Stark provide various evidences such as archaeology, and papyrology, that show a very small Christian presence in the world in the first century A.D.

Noted Christian Bible scholar N.T. Wright said that "this belief was held by a tiny group who, for the first two or three generations at least, could hardly have mounted a riot in a village, let alone a revolution in an empire."

Your point?

 

[Agnostic75]

Your point?

Information since ChristineES said that early Christianity was popular among those who accepted it. Many people are interested in how fast Christianity grew.

 

[samosasauce]

Many people of the Roman era were actually told lies about their pagan rulers by Christians, which helped them convert. Romans were actually strongly against overt sexuality and practices such as orgies, so Christians told these people that their leaders were performing such heinous acts to try and win them over. That's at least part of it, anyway.

 

[Estro Felino]

Many people of the Roman era were actually told lies about their pagan rulers by Christians, which helped them convert. Romans were actually strongly against overt sexuality and practices such as orgies, so Christians told these people that their leaders were performing such heinous acts to try and win them over. That's at least part of it, anyway.

well....probably, but I believe that the Pagans' heinous acts that Christians hated, were not orgies, but the shady businesses of senatorial aristocracy and unfair taxation.

 

[JM2C]

How do you mix Catholicism and Pelagianism? Thanks

 

[Estro Felino]

How do you mix Catholicism and Pelagianism? Thanks

well...I believe in the possibility that someday the Catholic Church becomes Pelagian.
The Roman dogmas say what they say: that is, that you get salvation both though works and through faith. This is theory.
as for practice, most Catholics (including Cardinals) say that Atheists can go to Heaven, so Catholicism is tendentiously Pelagian.

The exact opposite of Pelagianism is Calvinism

 

[JM2C]

The exact opposite of Pelagianism is Calvinism

Lots of Works, self-righteousness, not election, and predestination. I do believe in some of the points of Calvinism.
So, how can you please God again? Through Mary, works, and self-righteousness? Don’t they all look like “filty rags” in the sight of the Almighty God?

Isa 64:6 “all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags” in the sight of the almighty God.

 

[Shiranui117]

Paganism most certainly did have ideas of right and wrong; to say otherwise is ludicrous. But Christians back then were so wholly devoted to loving others even at the cost of our livelihood and lives, and they focused so much on taking in the poor, the downtrodden, the ostracized and the outcasts, that people marveled at how we never so much as spoke against those who hated and slaughtered us, and how we readily gave without asking anything in return, helping others no matter how we would be viewed or what it would cost us, making no distinction between friends and enemies, but loving all equally. It's this radical love that attracted people to Christianity. More than all the miracles we worked, more than all the blind we made to see, lame and paralyzed we healed, more than the people we brought back to life, more than showing that our God is truly powerful, it was our love and endurance in the face of a world that despised us that drew people to Christ.

 

[ChristineES]

Christianity appeared to be going strongly (among those who followed it, that is), if not widespread, long before the Gospels were even written.

I think some of you may have misunderstood this statement because I worded it incorrectly. I meant that Christianity was NOT widespread, not that it was.

 

[outhouse]

Many people of the Roman era were actually told lies about their pagan rulers by Christians, which helped them convert. Romans were actually strongly against overt sexuality and practices such as orgies, so Christians told these people that their leaders were performing such heinous acts to try and win them over. That's at least part of it, anyway.

Just the opposite

Christians were labeled as baby killers and baby eaters.

They were viewed as atheist, and pagans.

 

[outhouse]

Information since ChristineES said that early Christianity was popular among those who accepted it. Many people are interested in how fast Christianity grew.

Fast enough that it had spread through the Empire in different communities before Paul starts hunting them down.


What we have is a martyred man at Passover, and people at that Passover were from all over the Empire.


So the message was spread all over the Empire rather quickly. Not all followed it, but the message and mythology was in circulation.


By the time of the gospels it was very wide spread, soon after with Marcion 150 ush his version was already very large. Which was the minority of followers as many were criticizing him.

 

[samosasauce]

Just the opposite

Christians were labeled as baby killers and baby eaters.

They were viewed as atheist, and pagans.

I'm sure both are true, honestly. I've seen proof for both.

 

[outhouse]

I meant that Christianity was NOT widespread, not that it was.

You were right the first time.


The gospels were written to attack the different views and the widespread diversity of the movement. Communities wanted their own version to help combat different beliefs because it was so popular.


They did not send Paul out to kill leaders of a small rogue sect.

They sent him out because of their fear of how popular it was from the start.

 

[outhouse]

I'm sure both are true, honestly. I've seen proof for both.

I would like to see sources for claims made by them early on.

I hope its not pseudepigrapha