As I discussed in an earlier post, it would be incorrect to believe that Christianity only existed in the Roman Empire. It also existed outside of this empires boundaries. Even prior to the emperor Constantine, bringing peace to Christianity in the Roman theater, and before emperor Theodosius the Great made Christianity Romes official religion - there were other nations in the world that had ALREADY become Christian. The Roman Empiress Christianity, is the branch of this religion, that western historians and Biblical scholars mostly know about. In addition to this, Western Christianity, comes directly out of the history of the Roman Empire - especially that of the Western half of Rome. Some of the nations that were christianized, were: Ethiopia; Armenia; Georgia - The European nation; The Parthian and Sassonid empires - the Persian empire - today known as Iraq and Iran. In fact, historians are definitive in their assertions, that there were greater than 100,000 christians in this empire. Tradition has it, that the gospel was brought to these lands initially by the efforts of the Apostle Thomas. It continued to grow there, such that the Christians of Mesopotamia and Iran, sent bishops to the first ecumenical Church council - the council of Nicea in 325 A.D.. Christianity was reportedly taken to Georgia by the Apostles Simon and Andrew. It became the official religion on 327 A.D. By way of contrast, Rome did not adopt Christianity as its state religion, until 380 A.D., under the reign of Theodosius. The Sassonid Empire, which replaced the Parthian Empire, also had strong Christian influence, though its believers were sometimes persecuted in part, because Christianity at that time was associated with the political Roman State. The earliest known reference to Christian communities, in central Asia (modern day Afghanistan and Pakistan), is from a writing by a Gnostic named Bardaisan around 196 A.D. which mentions Christians living in Bactria. Thomas, the Apostle, is also reported to have taken Christianity to India - where the Indo - Parthian king - Gondophares was both converted and baptized. This is the end of Part 2. Part 3 will be presented on this topic next time, Lord Willing.
Posted on: Sat, 29 Nov 2014 04:30:55 +0000
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