What factors were behind the rapid growth of Christianity in its first few centuries?

[Pudgy]

10 minutes ago, TrueTomHarley said:

That old hen!

Speaking of old hens, recent fossil evidence from South America has shown that birds are supposedly evolved from reptiles, and specifically chickens have evolved from snakes

I suppose you are familiar with the fact that a chicken can expand its neck and stretch it out quite a bit, the vertebrae in the neck being very flexible, and the snakes body has the same sort of flexibility in it’s vertebrae.

You are probably also familiar with the fact that a snake can eat something much larger than itself and pass it down the throat to it’s stomach.

In  a similar fashion chickens have the same ability, probably carried over from when they used to be snakes, and their throat has the same capability due to the ability of the vertebrae to stretch and bend the way it does.

The ancient prehistoric hens, when they were about to lay an egg would pass the egg up through their throat,  and the egg would fall out of her mouth. This is why even today as the chicken is eating, it’s head bobs up and down as it is eating.

Of course, this fossil evidence is from South America, where things that drain go clockwise, and things above the equator go counterclockwise.

So where over Eons the chickens evolved, and migrated northward to North America, they gradually laid eggs as we see it today.

 

 

 

[Arauna]

9 hours ago, WalterPrescott said:

ecause scripture doesn't "specifically" mention door to door preaching, doesn't mean there wasn't door-to-door preaching in the townships. 

It was custom to congregate at the city gates or market places.  Paul was the "apostle to the nations" and preached to Greeks as well as other nations.  He was here in Albania via the Via Ignatius from Corinth - then called Illyricum.  (He could have been in the port city here where I live because Rome later considered to make this the eastern capital instead of Byzantium). At the gates or market Paul usually would find someone favorable and go home with them and preach further. On occasion he would use this house as a base. He also went to the Synagogues.  In most cities it was the Jews who started the riots because he was teaching a new form of Judaism. (To them it sounded like blasphemy, when they refused to acknowledge the Messiah had come.) In the week, I am sure, he would have done some house preaching after working on tents. 

Although the Greeks had the oratory tradition, I wonder how much of a help it really gave to the poor and those who moved in the lower echelons of society? Religion was run by the upper echelons or educated segments of society. It was also very set in tradition and ritual. To my thinking, it offers only an empty framework of tradition and many stories of Gods - as much as Hinduism with its many gods and its caste system does today.  With skillful preaching (and the miracles during the lifetime of the Apostles), the gospel message was appealing to those with a searching heart.  (The other points mentioned above about angels and other points, were good to think about.)

Not only did the Christians teach a different god, a creator with a Name (using the Septuagint translation of Hebrew scriptures), but this god was interested in humans because he sent a loving, human son who came to earth to show us how to live.  This representative of God was killed as a man because he preached about a future kingdom which would restore the earth..... and this ONE was killed in a very ghastly way by the authorities (which I supposed appealed to anyone ever treated unjustly by authorities or even a few rebels).  He taught that all humans were brothers and war and violence was wrong.  (The military machine of Rome would not like this idea because one could only rise to the top in society through war such as humble donkey breeder, Vespasian.)

The fact that this lowly Jesus (being the son of the true god), was prepared to die for our imperfections, and all his associates saw him raised up again, must have been a powerful message. The gospel message was simple - in that it taught love.  That all should love and treat each other justly, to share material things, be hospitable, no biased, and to not be selfish or materialistic, not hang onto earthly things because Jehovah would provide. Also the pagan religions taught a lot of superstition. They were free from fear and superstition. 

8 hours ago, JW Insider said:

It's true that Rutherford made excuses as to why he didn't participate,

I think those plagues against Christendom in Revelation 6 were all thrown down from heaven by the angels and distributed by Rutherford against Christendom in his public exposes - lol -  (he had his fiery place in the unfolding of Jehovah's purposes). 

8 hours ago, WalterPrescott said:

He practised what he taught,

I appreciate your examples - I must add that these are all individuals that you quote during a period of the dark ages. A period when the Catholic church allowed no dissent to their false teachings. Very little true light was available.  But a slow renaissance was coming into the church as well. JWs often cite these examples of faithful people, who stood up against the powerful church, as ones who were possibly also anointed by Jehovah as they often were burnt or executed by the Church. John Wycliffe, Johannes Huss,  comes to mind. They kept their integrity with the available light they had at the time.   Jesus taught that ALL Christians must carry the gospel (Romans 10) How will they know if they have not heard? (paraphrased).

As I mentioned before, people who just read the bible with a sincere heart, understand that they have to preach.  I have a Swedish friend who had never read the bible in her life or been to a religious class (her parents were atheists), who tried to preach on her own after she regularly read the bible. She did not know how to go about it and no-one listened. It was not long after this that Witnesses found her and she is still a full-time preacher today.

 

8 hours ago, WalterPrescott said:

JW's just happen to bring it back to the people

We not only preach but we are an earth-wide community or congregation of people dedicated Jehovah.  In the "last day" this prophecy is coming to fulfillment.

Isaiah 2: 2- 4 "  In the final part of the days,he mountain of the house of Jehovah Will become firmly established above the top of the mountains, And it will be raised up above the hills, And to it all the nations will stream.c ³  And many peoples will go and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, To the house of the God of Jacob. He will instruct us about his ways, And we will walk in his paths.” For law* will go out of Zion, And the word of Jehovah out of Jerusalem. ⁴  He will render judgment among the nations And set matters straight* respecting many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares And their spears into pruning shears. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, Nor will they learn war anymore.

From the above we learn that they are under heavenly mount Zion, New Jerusalem (Hebrews 12:22 But you have approached a Mount Zion and a city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem, and myriads* of angels).  Jesus is now ruling invisibly in heaven and we fall, as a world-wide nation under his heavenly government. The identifying mark is our love because we refuse to kill our brothers in other nations - we are not influenced by the nationalistic wars propagated by beastly nations. 

 

My husband grew up as a Brethren, which also has different sects.  Some of them do not even eat with their children if they have not been baptized. 

[Patiently waiting for Truth]

11 hours ago, JW Insider said:

Paul is saying, basically: I didn't just teach you brothers publicly [among other people], but even [privately] in your homes.

Notice that the literal expression in the Kingdom Interlinear is "according to houses" not "from house to house."

 

11 hours ago, JW Insider said:

NLT: I never shrank back from telling you what you needed to hear, either publicly or in your homes.

 

11 hours ago, JW Insider said:

It's just that Acts 20:20 isn't really about that kind of preaching activity.

NNWT Act 20 : 20

while I did not hold back from telling you any of the things that were profitable* nor from teaching you publiclyp and from house to house

So, Yet another misinterpretation / misuse of scripture by your Governing Body, as a means to control it's congregation and distribute it's propaganda... And on top of that they demand a report of the hours you spend going from house to house. 

[JW Insider]

4 hours ago, Arauna said:

At the gates or market Paul usually would find someone favorable and go home with them and preach further. On occasion he would use this house as a base. He also went to the Synagogues.

Thanks for your input. This makes perfect sense, and it aligns with what we read in Acts and does not at all contradict Jesus' instructions to the 70 evangelizers. There was an urgency to the preaching in the first century, and the most effective means, for that time and place, would have been used first.

4 hours ago, Arauna said:

Although the Greeks had the oratory tradition, I wonder how much of a help it really gave to the poor and those who moved in the lower echelons of society? Religion was run by the upper echelons or educated segments of society. It was also very set in tradition and ritual. To my thinking, it offers only an empty framework of tradition and many stories of Gods

Thought this was excellent, too. Among the Greeks [and Romans], these empty rituals were more important than beliefs. There was not much concern that the story about a certain god in one town could differ quite a bit from the stories told in another town. There was no specific set of beliefs or doctrines, so that the expectations about how humans could be affected from the gods was more general and rooted in superstition. Events were often "chalked up" to the capriciousness of those gods.

Your description of the appeal and superiority of the Christian message in those next couple paragraphs was packed with so many good points. I loved it.

It sounds like you have a great knowledge of history, but there is a difference in knowledge and making sense of it to people today. I think that's a great skill of yours. You actually make sense out of it. And the fact that you live in such historic geographical locations must make your knowledge and application come alive even more.

As a family (wife, kids, brother, parents) we have taken a couple Mediterranean cruises that covered Rome, Pompeii, Athens, Corinth, Ephesus/Smyrna, Egypt, and Istanbul. I'm sure I bored my kids with all the details I wanted to share about the Biblical and historical connections in all these places. At least they could always go back to unlimited ice cream and pizza when they got back on the cruise ship. 

 

[JW Insider]

29 minutes ago, Patiently waiting for Truth said:

So, Yet another misinterpretation / misuse of scripture by your Governing Body, as a means to control it's congregation and distribute it's propaganda... And on top of that they demand a report of the hours you spend going from house to house.

I think we tend to misinterpret Acts 20:20, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't preach from house to house. I'm only saying that this isn't what that specific verse is about. We tend to impose a meaning on it that isn't there because of our favored method of preaching. But that doesn't mean that the term "house to house" is a terrible translation, only that we don't think enough about what it must have meant in that particular context.

There are good reasons today to use the house-to-house preaching methods, because there is no central gathering place where people get news and share ideas. In some cities there is something akin to that in certain parks. Union Square Park and Washington Square Park in NYC come to mind as places where people, often from NYU, meet to hold up signs and megaphones to promote an ideology. In fact, I have had success talking to individuals in these parks. But most people are not there to get talked to.

We are "encouraged" to report, it isn't "demanded."

[Arauna]

1 hour ago, JW Insider said:

As a family (wife, kids, brother, parents) we have taken a couple Mediterranean cruises that covered Rome, Pompeii, Athens, Corinth, Ephesus/Smyrna, Egypt, and Istanbul. I'm sure I bored my kids with all the details I wanted to share about the Biblical and historical connections in all these places. At least they could always go back to unlimited ice cream and pizza when they got back on the cruise ship. 

I  too have bored my family on vacation when I looked at the sewerage systems, baths, building materials, walking through the town and studying all the implements and hand tools and went through the sites with a tooth comb.  I always had a penchant for understanding how the poor folks got through their day.

Recently I listened to a talk by a professor (forgot his name) but he spoke about "empire".   It made me think of the seven heads of the beast.  What he said came down to this: empire was always a war machine which fed the rich and the ruling class.  Soldiers  would grab not only slaves but the wheat, food, animals and strip the land of all its riches.  Everything was transported back to the capital city or became part of booty.  Afterwards there was also the matter of tribute from the survivors.......  Does modern empire work the same?   Certainly.... especially the false prophet which has "two horns like a lamb but began speaking like dragon".  All these trumped up wars come to mind.

Listened today to two people talking about the time under Stalin. How the death squads within Russia murdered people via poisons and plausible suicides and also operated in other countries. One such killer in UK was tracked and he had already committed 14 murders without anyone suspecting foul play.  The polonium case however did hit international news. Putin has similar operations today and was apparently involved in this type of operations in his salad days. 

Eight oligarchs, living in other countries, have died suddenly from non-suspect heart attacks, except for one family who  were all brutally murdered, children included. The father was working as an accountant and had given information to the West on how money was being transferred through banks while renewed sanctions were in place. 

[Patiently waiting for Truth]

6 hours ago, JW Insider said:

We are "encouraged" to report, it isn't "demanded."

If you don't report you become an inactive publisher and you get a talking to. Been there done that. 

And on top of that the number of JWs is counted by the number of reports / active publishers. 

Now this should be a new topic  

[JW Insider]

4 minutes ago, Patiently waiting for Truth said:

you become an inactive publisher and you get a talking to.

Even more encouragement!!

[Patiently waiting for Truth]

12 minutes ago, JW Insider said:

17 minutes ago, Patiently waiting for Truth said:

you become an inactive publisher and you get a talking to.

Even more encouragement!!

No, threats. They only allow a person to become inactive when it suits their own purpose.

For example, when I told them I was leaving and gave them the reason, they said i could just quietly go inactive. The obvious reason they said that was, if i remained in the Org they still had control over what i could say to others, because the thread of D/fed would be there. They wanted me quiet but controlled. 

But normally congregants are told to do more hours, put in more effort, make more time for the ministry. and those that do not are given warnings and shunned.  Yes I've seen it happen to some that I was close to way back then. 

[Arauna]

35 minutes ago, Patiently waiting for Truth said:

Yes I've seen it happen to some that I was close to way back then. 

I used to know a JW who saw bad motives in everything others did. She was hyper-critical.  It messed up her life.

[Pudgy]

2 hours ago, Arauna said:

I used to know a JW who saw bad motives in everything others did. She was hyper-critical.  It messed up her life.

Yeah, I have seen several cases where a hyper critical person that thinks everything is stupid and ignorant and evil except them as generally self-destructed by a stroke, a heart attack or just generally consumed by their own paranoia.

One very theocratic brother, much younger than me, and better than I, but hyper-critical and smug sat in front of me at the Kingdom Hall had extremely short hair. (Picard Cut). You could see all the wrinkles in the back of his head, and to me it looked like the face of a fat Chinese person , so it was easy for me to ignore him, or bust out laughing.

He died of a heart attack walking across his living room floor.

[Pudgy]

In my life I have been attacked by 21 people, as I used to keep a list for ”later”.

After awhile I noticed they self-destructed.

So far, I have managed to casually outlive all but one.