History of Christianity

The history of Christianity really goes back before the birth of Jesus into the Old Testament and ancient Jewish prophesies. Christians believe that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah, a leader and savior whose coming was predicted by Jewish scriptures (the Christian Old Testament) centuries before His birth. "Christ" is the Greek word for Messiah, which is why Jesus is also called Jesus Christ, Christ Jesus or simply Christ. This is where the term "Christian" came from, to identify a person who followed Jesus.

Christianity began as an offshoot of Judaism for those Jewish believers who accepted Jesus Christ as the Messiah and their Savior. God's promise of the Messiah was always meant to be a blessing for the entire world and not just the Jewish people. In the same promise God made to Abraham, the father of the Jews, about creating a Jewish nation through him, God also states that the Jewish lineage would bring a blessing to the whole world. Christians believe that Jesus is that blessing that was promised to Abraham and everyone else. Jesus commanded that the good news of His sacrificial death, resurrection and redemption should be shared with the whole world. The early Christian church leaders soon realized that Christianity was not just for Jews and began spreading the word to Gentiles (non-Jews) as well.

The Gospel Spreads Throughout the World

Because Jesus and His disciples lived in the Roman province of Palestine, the environment was just right to take advantage of the well-connected Roman communications networks and enabled Christianity to spread quickly throughout the Roman Empire and eventually to the rest of Europe, and finally throughout the entire globe.

Over the last 2,000 years, the message of Christianity has been spread!

We see Christian church history as a history of the message of the gospel (which means good news), that Christ commissioned his disciples to spread throughout the world.