The Christian Gospels of Mark and Matthew say that, after the Ascension of Jesus, his Apostles “went out and preached everywhere”. This is described in Mark 16 verses 19 and 20, and Matthew 28 verses 19 and 20. According to a tradition mentioned by Eusebius, they dispersed to distinct parts of the world.
This was the big bang moment for Christianity , with the Apostles blasting out of Jerusalem and scattering across the known world.” Thomas the Apostle went east, through what is now Syria and Iran and, historians believe, on down to southern India.
After Jesus, the two most significant figures in Christianity are the apostles Peter and Paul /Saul. Paul , in particular, takes a leading role in spreading the teachings of Jesus to Gentiles (non Jews ) in the Roman Empire .
In Spreading the Good News ! (Acts), follow the apostles as they take Jesus’ message from Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth. Peter spends his time preaching mostly to the Jews, until God shows up and gives the word that the Good News is for everyone (Gentiles included)! Peter and John Arrested.
According to the Acts of the Apostles (the historical reliability of the Acts of the Apostles is disputed), the Jerusalem church began at Pentecost with some 120 believers, in an “upper room,” believed by some to be the Cenacle, where the apostles received the Holy Spirit and emerged from hiding following the death and
Ehrman attributes the rapid spread of Christianity to five factors : (1) the promise of salvation and eternal life for everyone was an attractive alternative to Roman religions; (2) stories of miracles and healings purportedly showed that the one Christian God was more powerful than the many Roman gods; (3) Christianity
After Peter came down out of the ship and walked on the water, he became afraid of the storm and began to sink. Jesus caught him and reproved him for his lack of faith, and led him back to the ship, whereupon the storm stopped. Matthew also notes that the disciples called Jesus the Son of God.
After his resurrection, Jesus sent eleven of them (minus Judas Iscariot, who by then had died ) by the Great Commission to spread his teachings to all nations. This event has been called the Dispersion of the Apostles .
Tarragona would have been the most likely city for the apostle’s mission to Spain . Treating the apostle’s journey as an undoubted historical fact, John Chrysostom mentions that “Paul after his residence in Rome departed to Spain ,” and Jerome states that the apostle reached Spain by sea.
Jesus’s Teachings Love God . Love your neighbor as yourself. Forgive others who have wronged you. Love your enemies. Ask God for forgiveness of your sins. Jesus is the Messiah and was given the authority to forgive others. Repentance of sins is essential. Don’t be hypocritical.
Although it is often claimed that Christians were persecuted for their refusal to worship the emperor , general dislike for Christians likely arose from their refusal to worship the gods or take part in sacrifice, which was expected of those living in the Roman Empire .
During the reign of the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great (AD 306–337), Christianity began to transition to the dominant religion of the Roman Empire.
Faith is the central component of Paul’s doctrine of justification — meaning that Gentiles don’t need to become Israelites when they convert to Christianity, because God is not just the God of one nation, but Gentile and Jew alike.
Gentile , person who is not Jewish. The word stems from the Hebrew term goy, which means a “nation,” and was applied both to the Hebrews and to any other nation. The plural, goyim, especially with the definite article, ha-goyim, “the nations,” meant nations of the world that were not Hebrew .
In various Christian movements Christian teaching of the good news — including the preaching of the Apostles in the Book of Acts — generally focuses upon the resurrection of Jesus and its implications. Sometimes in the Bible, the good news is described in other terms, but it still describes God’s saving acts.