The Rise of Christianity

The history of the Christian religion and the Christian church began with Jesus and his apostles. Christianity is the religion that is based on the birth, life, death, resurrection and teaching of Jesus Christ.

Christianity began in the 1st century AD after Jesus died, as a small group of Jewish people in Judea, but quickly spread throughout the Roman empire. Despite early persecution of Christians, it later became the state religion. In the Middle Ages it spread into Northern Europe and Russia. During the Age of Exploration, Christianity expanded throughout the world; it is currently the largest religion of the world.

How many groups is Christianity divided into?

Christianity is divided between Eastern and Western theology. In these two divisions there are six branches: Catholicism, Protestantism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Anglicanism, Oriental Orthodoxy, and Assyrians. Restorationism is sometimes considered the seventh branch.

The major Protestant denominational families are:

How fast Christianity grows?

According to “The Oxford Handbook of Religious Conversion”, in mid-2005 approximately 15.5 million convert to Christianity annually from another religion, approximately 11.7 million leave Christianity annually, and most of them become irreligious, resulting in a net gain of 3.8 million.

What is the Bible?

• The Bible is the Holy Book that tells many stories and truths. The Bible is the main book that Christians use. The Bible is divided into Old testament and New testament. The Old testament is before Christ came on Earth and the New testament is when Christ came on to Earth and saved the people from their sins.

• Why the Bible is true

This picture shows the Red Sea. In the Bible, Exodus specifically, the Red Sea was parted because GOD wanted the slaves to be free from the Egypt soldiers that were coming after them. Later on, archaeologists found many skeletons that were the soldiers that died.

This shows the picture of Noah’s ark found in Turkey. The Bible explained about why this ark was built and how long and wide it is and after many years we found it being exactly what the Bible says.

• Another reason why the Bible is trustworthy is that all the prophecies that said would be done actually became true. For example, locusts, fires, disease, kids disrespecting their parents, lawlessness, hatred, etc. 
• The disciples that saw everything wrote what they saw.