What caused Christianity to get popular in the Roman Empire?

*tips fedora*

Then Islam must be more true since it is gaining popularity and Christianity is losing.

>imply Europe is going to become islamic
bro sick meme

living under a rock?
pic related

Things became very bad for Rome after the Crisis of the Third Century. Christianity offered the people a glimmer of hope and salvation in the afterlife.

>if the magazines say it it must be true hehehe

>kind of like islam is in europe ATM

Not a very good analogy, Islam isn't a small sect that's converting tons of people, its a huge religion that's swarming Europe through immigration and high birthrates.

Europeans are sedated by wealth but once Europeans will be left with no leeway they will wake up and genocide you.

There are a lot of reports that at the time Christianity started spreading, the citizens of Rome had started to become disinterested or disillusioned with the pagan gods.

Basically they were at their peak and they started to enter a sort of intellectual crisis, and Christianity was new and hip, and it preached love and respect and hard work and whatever else, and so a lot of people liked it.

So they say. I don't believe it till I see it.

>thousandths of middle-eastern immigrants going to Europe everyday
>Statistics show higher numbers of Muslims in Europe

Gee, I wonder what could be happening.

You are correct, but Hinduism/Buddhism/Newagetism is probably a better example for a modern world analogy.

>it preached love and respect and hard work and whatever else, and so a lot of people liked it.

I'm pretty sure it preached hate and treason more than love and respect. After all, supposedly these early Christians would believe Jesus is a god but Caesar is not. Additionally, Jesus commanded respect for the Roman authorities - the early Christians rebelled against them.

youtube.com/watch?v=23z1SinGZH0

I'm sure some people did, as there was no standard at the time and any preacher said whatever he felt like it. But it's hard to say that they were preaching Christianity if they ignored the fundamentals of the Christian faith, which are basically to live for god and for your fellow humans.

Besides, I highly doubt they would of gather a lot of support among the nationalistic Romans, lovers of order and civilization, by preaching rebellion against themselves. It would seem rather unintelligent.
There's a reason Catholicism made SO many compromises with the pagan roman church in order to become accepted.

Well they didn't read their own gospels is my point.

youtube.com/watch?v=ArQc7YYtiNI

They didn't though, initially.

The Emperor made it illegal not to be Christian.

They adopted Christianity a lot faster than older scholars believed, at least in the upper classes.

Christianity wasn't made the official religion of the empire until 4xx a.D, I don't know if they ever made it illegal not to be christian, but I know that if they did it was too late to be relevant.

Anti-hedonist movement + cynicism popularity + Eastern mystery cultists seemed to have really high turnover rate to Christianity for some reason

Long term reasons: Christianity promotes authority and restraint, which were growing schools of thought in the empire, eventually it was so mainstream that an emperor converted for economic convenience and the rest is history.

>Christianity promotes authority and restraint, which were growing schools of thought in the empire

That had always been the traditional school of tough in the empire. I don't wanna sound like a retard talking about "muh decadence" but part of the cynicism of the average roman of the time probably was in part due to how much they failed to live up to what they idealized as the "ideal" person.

>The Emperor made it illegal not to be Christian.

youtube.com/watch?v=oT-nzVQYyq4

> What caused Christianity to get popular in the Roman Empire?
Degeneration of institutes and decadence, it isn't a coincidence that Rome fell soon after becoming the Christian state.

Oh i agree, Rome was founded (the republic not the kingdom) on restraint and legalism (in response to the absolute bullshit of the monarchy)

it became a christian state hundreds of years after christianity took root, and rome fell because of civil war, succession crises, economic collapse, and foreign invasions.

or, if i wanted to be super technical, The empire lasted another 1000 years after it became christian.

2100 years is nothing compared to Egypt

Christianity took their roots during one of the most catastrophic Roman crisis.

The state of Rome existed for a grand total of 2192 years.

And it controlled the entire Mediterranean for around half of it's existence.

Now fuck off Mohhamed.

WOMEN!!!! Doesn't anyone read nietchze?

Too simple.
lol no
Pretty accurate.
Makes sense.

The original Roman mythology arose from a time before they had such great power and wealth, not to mention scientific knowledge. The needs of such a religion are intended to deal with are those of basic survival, not empire building. It's not hard to see why average Romans and those in power might feel disillusioned by their belief system.

Also beliefs in general change constantly, do you think the Romans always worshiped Zeus, oops, I mean Jupiter? They stole those from the Greeks, and probably had way different beliefs before that. They take what works and use it. Christianity was really good at satisfying an angry populace and keeping large numbers of people in submissive. It was first and foremost a method of governance that enabled and facilitated unity and cooperation where the alternative system was ineffective.

The official story is that emperor Constantine had a dream or a vision where he saw an angel or something, isn't that right? His conversion eventually spread throughout the Roman empire and therefore Europe.

So /thread?

The roman culture was always Greek. But it is truth the Romans adopted foreign gods into their pantheon.

It was rather logical in a way "well this god talked to us, so I don't see why he wouldn't talk to these sandniggers too, and if this god is cool with these other gods, then he's probably cool with us worshiping them as well".

It is also worth pointing out that Christianity was already half a millennium old by the time of Constantine, and there had only been 1 major persecution, and that was during the third century crisis, so it was pretty much free to spread as it pleased. I believe even members of the Roman Senate were Christian at the time of the persecution, tho i'm not sure how many of them were still alive by the time of Constantine.

Probably cultural crisis (as Europe in the Enlightenment) because the empire's philosophies didn't spoke about a nice afterlife and their gods were already "tiring".

It is interesting to me how easily the Egyptians took to Christianity when they had perhaps the oldest religion in the world at that point. I guess regular people didn't really have that much connection to the temples.

A person can't be born of a virgin, come back from the dead, and ascend into the sky. Christians are mental patients.

Obviously, this is too complex to answer in a short post,so here are the broad strokes.

As Rome grew, its old religion no longer answered to the needs of Romans. The old Roman Mythology was a ritualistic religion for soldiers- farmers living in hierarchical family units.

As Rome grew, large parts of Roman population abandoned the traditional lifestyle either becoming rich landowners, merchants, artisans or dirt-poor plebs. At the same time huge populations with different religious traditions became parts of Roman society and brought their faiths in. Many of these faiths, after acculturation, better suited the Roman society. Hence the spread of Mithraism, the cult of Isis, Manicheism, Judaism, various Celtic or Semitic deities.

It's striking that the early church authors are rather indifferent towards the old Greek and Romania pantheons. They are at the same time extremely hostile towards other "new" religious groups. They knew who was the real competitor over here. The old religion was dead by mid 3rd century, the only question was who would pick up the mantle of a new Roman religion.

Cont.

Why Constantine picked up Christianity rather than, let's say, far more militaristic Mithraism.

Aside from a genuine religion conversion (which is after all possible), some rational arguments could have stood behind choosing Christianity. Constantine worked upon Diocletian's reforms and strove to rebuild the Roman society. Christians at the time seemed to be an extremely communal and self-supporting group who withered all storms contuned to grow largely because they largely cooperated and helped each other. Considering that the Tetrarchy-era emperors wanted to build a state in which everyone knew his place and stoically shared the burden of administration and huge-ass army, Christianity seemed like a logical ideological component. The promise of afterlife made the life more bearable, while the rudimentary welfare provided by Christians to each other alleviated the economic burden imposed by the state.

this is a good post

Nice post

Is that not what is happening in europe? We have lots of deconversion, weird ideologies (communism), and new groups of people with different religions emerging (mainly islamic, but also african and chinese rituals).

yeah..good luck trying to stop it. there is a push for neopagan stuff here in Sverige with more and more goatfuckers pouring in.

god is dead, can't wait for the caliphate

And if He does, then He is God.

Which is kind of the entire point.

you're the reason islam is taking over europe..

have fun critizing them they'll cut your fuckin head off and you'll wish christians were around to care

hasn't Communism already had its rise and fall?

Why does Veeky Forums have so many fucking Christfags

Yes. But what I am saying is:

Christianity has been dead for awhile, and in that vacuum we try to fill it weird ideologies that resemble christianity. I mean you can even extend it into Nazi germany's race worship. Even though they failed, it shows something is trying to establish power in a society.

We're going to turn Veeky Forums into a Christian board soon.

History is His Story.

Since you atheists have zero defenses against the lies of the muslims, you should welcome the change.

You are correct, a person can't do such a thing. The son of God, however..

Christianity is not attempting to establish power in this world.

Catholicism is.

The sooner you learn to differentiate the two, the safer you will be.

>Hmmmmm...most advanced societies are interesting to historians

>discover new continents, wipe out races by force
>invent practically everything modern
>GOES TO SPACE

yeah I don't know what makes them so interesting. The aboriginal society is the same as christian

>And if He does, then He is God.
>Which is kind of the entire point.

You're totally confused - the gospels have all those white lies because the Jewish book contains so many psycho-killing murderous lies.

The moral of the gospels is always shoot the albatross because it goes on to a better place - not "herp derp magic tricks!"

youtube.com/watch?v=fsmIDvIuOJs

Yes, the thing is you say

>Catholicism is
>is
Wrong, they USED to. Now the pope is for open borders and bends christian doctrine. Let's be real here. I am not even religious. I don't like seeing religions die however.

Dubs don't lie though

>Jewish book
oh look it is one of those edgy neopagans I was talking about.

>TheImperialCult
LMAO you fucks enjoy your caliphate. keep shitting on christendom

>The son of God, however..
I didn't say he wasn't the Son of God - I just said the gospels have white lies in them.

I'm the "Son of Chaos."

youtube.com/watch?v=lAQJ8oVQYOM

how would it fill that niche though? christianity was able to fill in the niche left by roman paganism because it appealed to all kinds of people

don't give me a (you) he's todays fedora katana weilding neopagan-cuck

It's true.

>oh look it is one of those edgy neopagans I was talking about.

Yeah - I'm "neopagan."

youtube.com/watch?v=kRrODsTV32k

Congratulations on figuring out that the Old Covenant is not the same as the New Covenant. A cursory reading of Jeremiah 31:31 would have told you that directly.

If Jesus was born of a virgin
If Jesus lived a sinless life
If Jesus performed signs and wonders
If Jesus fulfilled prophecy of the coming Messiah
If Jesus displayed power over all creation
If Jesus displayed power over death itself

Then Jesus is God.

They're just as murderous and insidious and power hungry as ever.

It's not the cobra in the middle of the room that's deadly, but the one unseen in the brush.

The gospels have zero lies in them.

For you to show the gospels have lies in them, you would have to have a more reliable text than the inspired Word of God, which you do not and cannot have.

All you have are lies, ironically.

Well, lslam is a religion that does not tolerate marxist/equality doctrine that the West has had for quite some time. Look to the cities to see the future of any country. Every single one of them has MASSIVE growing muslim population.

Even if they don't get converts (which they do, oddly enough look up the muslim conversion ratio for GINGERS...its incredible) they will simply breed out old doctrine.

They are both abrahamic religions and share a similar story as well, just one is about peace in tolerance (Christianity) the other is about persevering.

>Congratulations on figuring out that the Old Covenant is not the same as the New Covenant. A cursory reading of Jeremiah 31:31 would have told you that directly.

You're a retard. Read the gospels dumbshit - you have no idea who you're fucking with. Follow Moses go to hell.

youtube.com/watch?v=ArQc7YYtiNI

>youtube.com/watch?v=kRrODsTV32k

>12 views
>1 dislike (not from me btw)
bro, are you serious right now. youre a fuckin joke. try not being weird and get involved in your local community

>15 views
get out, I'm serious. you are not healthy. go to your local church/mosque get involved in the community find a pretty lady and have kids.

stop with this weird shit

>bro, are you serious right now. youre a fuckin joke. try not being weird and get involved in your local community

Yeah, I'm the joke - not the genocidal burning bush - that's serious shit there.

youtube.com/watch?v=RX3jHvCN_0c

I've read them many times, and if you think God's man Moses is in hell, you're not only lost but delusional.

Luke 24:27 And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.

>It's striking that the early church authors are rather indifferent towards the old Greek and Romania pantheons.

I am the guy who wrote this. Forgot to add: Not only the early Church wasn't vigorous in the fighting of the old Pantheon. They actually tried to piggyback on them.

Hence you have the stories like that of Paul who encountered the temple of Unknown God in Athens and claimed that this particular god was the Christian God himself.

There's also the cult of saints who supplanted various pagan gods and spirits, especially those related to agricultural practices. Which was extremely important in order to reach an agricultural society.

Yes, Paul met those people where they were, pointed out that they were so religious they even had a temple to the "Unknown God", and then went on to tell them that their "Unknown God" was known to Paul, and to all Christians, as Christ Jesus.

Preaching to people where they are, and leading them to Jesus, is the heart of Christianity.

But since you cannot stop conflating Christianity with Catholicism, you will never find the truth. Sad.

>I've read them many times, and if you think God's man Moses is in hell, you're not only lost but delusional.

LMFAO - yeah - the entire fucking universe revolves around not just the human species - but a bunch of psycho-killers from the levant...

Retard...

youtube.com/watch?v=slwVHsJJdfk

>But since you cannot stop conflating Christianity with Catholicism, you will never find the truth. Sad.
what are you hitting at? I don't understand..

Correct. The entire universe revolves around what God put in the center.

>But since you cannot stop conflating Christianity with Catholicism, you will never find the truth. Sad.

I am not conflating. The cult of saints is a historical fact attested almost since the beginning of church writings after the New Testament.

You can argue whether the early church deviated from the gospels or not. But you can't deny the historical fact that the cult itself existed.

That you are as lost as you are confused as you are ill informed as you are incorrect as you are mistaken as you are a liar.

Specifically in this instance, that you cannot differentiate Christianity from Catholicism, when the two cannot be more disparate.

The cult of saints = Catholicism.

The worship of Jesus as God = Christianity.

> marxist/equality doctrine

What do you mean by this? Islam iirc in terms of its ideology tries to avoid race and cultural borders like Christianity does, though in practice it's a pretty brutal religion

>They are both abrahamic religions and share a similar story as well, just one is about peace in tolerance (Christianity) the other is about persevering.

What would a westernized version of it be like? cultures tend to take things from each other

Yeah, I kind of implied that. You typed a bunch of nothing.

I said:

What is the difference you are suggesting?

>Correct. The entire universe revolves around what God put in the center.

Yeah, and Moses is a blasphemer - not a prophet of God.

"This statement is 100% the word of God and Moses is a blasphemer."

You're only fooling yourself....

"I believe in an afterlife!"

youtube.com/watch?v=sD5XRZBm13w

That's stupid and extremely uninformed. Saints exist in basically every church except some Protestant ones. They are present also among Orthodoxes, Copts, eastern Churches and so on.

Regardless of what your pastor says, Saints are historically attested almost from the very start of Christianity.

>Islam iirc in terms of its ideology tries to avoid race and cultural borders like Christianity does
yes, I am speaking roughly about feminine rights and outcome equality that is pushed.

>What would a westernized version of it be like?
I have no idea. It could be anything.

The whole entire continent won't be taken over or anything, just the economic hubs/cities. Maybe a few christians live in countryside and face persecution.

>Additionally, Jesus commanded respect for the Roman authorities - the early Christians rebelled against them
That's why Diocletian had to do a massive purge in the army, and we have so many military saints, right?

Some suggests that Chrisiltians were so well organised that Diocletian suspected them of setting up a parallel structure both in the army and in the state in general.

Hence the purge which ultimately failed to achieve its goals. Constantine instead decided to coopt Christian structures into the state.

>That's why Diocletian had to do a massive purge in the army, and we have so many military saints, right?

Well, a significant portion of "Christians" if not the overwhelming majority are Jews - not Christians. Jesus is clearly a God-King with some fancy miracles added in to compete with the terrorist lies in the Hebrew Text. I don't blame anyone in pagan Rome for distrusting psycho-terrorists... Moses and Muhammad adherents will always be outlaws - that's never not been the case and it never will change - they were, are and will always be outlaws.

youtube.com/watch?v=8y_1ZwOPPkk

he's a butthurt baptist knee-deep in idiotic conspiracy theories.
Ignore him.
He's one of the shitposters of Veeky Forums, alongside some other folk, like the neo-liberal guy.

Catholicism is a continuation of Babylonian paganism having nothing whatsoever to do with the Kingdom of God.

Christianity is the collective group of born again Christians of all times, all nations, all languages, all tribes, etc.

There is virtually zero overlap.

State your opinion of what the blasphemy of Moses consists.

Exactly.

If it has idols, it's not Christianity. It's pagan idolatry, even if they name some of their idols after Christians.

It was just one of the waves of persecution of the church that utterly failed to kill all the Christians. Christianity thrives under persecution.

State your case for Catholicism and Christianity being synonymous, as that is what you appear to be calling "shitposting".

I've given you enough time. If you can't make an argument, maybe you're the shitposter.

>State your opinion of what the blasphemy of Moses consists.

Well, human sacrifice, treason, terrorism, murder, vandalism, rape, plunder, etc.. I mean, it's not like the Pentateuch is that long of a document.

youtube.com/watch?v=QGlwr44hsoE

Not him, but I will tell you:

There's direct continuity, both in writing and in archaeology, between the primordial Christian church and churches that exist today including Catholicism, Orthodox, Coptic, Assyrian, Armenian etc. Including the event which led those different groups to branch off each other.

By comparing the Catholic Church to Babylonian paganism (to which I have nothing against btw) you wrote nothing but a crazy and unsubstantiated conspiracy theory that prevails in some fringe radical Protestant Churches. Churches which, and I shit you not, are from historical point of view nothing but splits off the Catholic Church.