Why the Romans took them almost 300 years to adopt Christianity?

Question

Why the Romans took them almost 300 years to adopt Christianity?

Answer 1

the romans invented christianity.

that book you think is the word of god...

compiled by the romans.

Answer 2

Believers of the Roman religions had to swear allegiance to the emperor and accept him as the corporeal embodiment of the gods. Indeed when an emperor died, he would often be elevated (defecated) in status to the level of a god. The acceptance of a physical god in human form was the foundation of Roman religion. The Christians would never give such devotion to the emperor, as they only acknowledged one almighty God who did not have a physical equal on earth. The Christian refusal to affirm their belief in a mortal god-like emperor was the main reason for their persecution.his belief was known as the 'Imperial Cult'. The cult originally started life during the reign of the mad emperor Caligula, who ordered all Roman citizens to look upon him as a god. This was unheard of as it was customary for an emperor to be granted god status after his death. Not while he was still alive.

. As Christianity spread throughout the empire, the Romans were left with a choice. Either embrace it, or destroy it. Initially they tried for the latter.By the third century A.D.,  Christianity  had become too big to drive out of Roman society. So radical were the teachings, people of the middle and upper classes began to take on Christian ways. By 200AD, it had become one of the major religions throughout the Roman world. By this time it had grown too powerful for the Romans and they decided to obliterate it from society. Such a religion that was severely opposite to the pagan ways had to go. Under Septimus Severus in 202AD, Christianity underwent a period of extreme persecution. In 250AD, Decius tried to wipe it out. Then Valerian carried on this work in 258AD. All these attempts failed. Even in the 'Great Persecution' of 303AD under Diocletian did not make much impression on its number of followers. It was during this period that two martyrs stand out. Alban of Verulamium along with Aaron and Iulius of Caerleon. Although it is widely accepted the execution of these three individuals took place in Diocletian's reign, there are writings that suggest the actual date was 208-9AD.

Then Constantine came to the throne. He was a reformer and sympathetic to Christianity and so ordered the persecution to cease.

In 325AD, he presided over the Council of Nicaea, which officially made Christianity the only acceptable religion in the Roman world. From then on, paganism declined. In 391AD, Emperor Theodosius decreed that all pagan temples be closed and all forms of pagan worship and ritual be outlawed. Whereas before it had been the Christians who had been persecuted, now pagans who were persecuted.

Answer 3

Christianity was accepted around 300 CE, but Rome had existed far earlier than the transition from BCE to CE.  Rome was invading its neighbors and gaining in strength way earlier.  Constantine allowed Christianity for political purposes too, not because he was a "believer".

Answer 4

You have to brainwash the children to get a belief system truly entrenched.  It takes a few generations.

Answer 5

It took a long time to make all that stuff up.

Answer 6

A hundred years to get it all written down, a couple hundred years for it to get big enough to be useful, and then it was picked up at the right time as a political move.

Answer 7

idk

Answer 8

Thr Crucificion of Christ brought that about.

Answer 9

Well, I guess they had to persecute the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ first. The church that came out of Rome wasn't the one Jesus started.

Answer 10

Rome was ruled under the pagan gods for centuries.

Answer 11

A growing portion of the population was adopting it while the pagan worship of Roman religion was weakening and rulers had a vested interest in keeping the religion that made them divine.

Answer 12

Because Christianity was a cult up until that point, and it was in direct opposition to the pagan priesthood.

Answer 13

Christianity was heavily persecuted from the pagan Romans. The ones who refused to offer sacrifice to Roman gods were killed. The first 50 Popes were martyred. Constantine was not the first Christian Roman official. Many Romans in government had gradually become Christian before Constantine was even born. By the end of the 3rd century, there were so many Christians in the pagan Roman government that the persecuting laws against Christians became redundant. The laws had to be removed from the books and that is when Constantine passed the Edict of Milan in 312 A.D. http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/bible/milan.stm

Anyone can read the Edict of Milan and see for themselves that it had NOTHING to do with starting a church. There was no church council in 313 A.D. The Council of Nicae did not happen until 325 A.D., 22 years later.  Constantine had no religious jurisdiction, was never ordained, and had no say during the proceedings. All he did was arrange the place in collaboration with the pope because the Arians were wrecking havoc in the empire.

It's unfortunate that so many "Christians" are not interested in historical facts, but want to protect their own groupie paradyms at the expence of the truth, and make up all kinds of nonsense about Constantine that cannot be verified by any reliable historian or encyclopedia.  

Answer 14

It took the Christians 300 years to adopt Christianity. Up until that time, they were simply loosely knit and sometimes warring groups of people (idea wise, that is) who all had their own interpretations of what was the "one true" way. The winners became the church and the losers became heretics.  

Answer 15

Actually, yes it did take the Romans 3 centuries to adopt Christianity.  There are a few reasons, but here it all is in one brief, if not exactly neat, mulch.

When Christianity first was "invented," you could say, it was a tiny sect of Judaism, according to some scholars.  Later in the first century, CE, with the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem by the Romans, there was a power struggle between the Pharisees and the Christians for the future of Judaism, you could say.  The Christians lost.

They remained a small sect, regardless of what actually happened, until Paul came along and spread Christianity to non-Jews in the area.  The Romans finally took notice of this sect, but treated them as social outcasts because they were so few and really didn't participate in Roman civic religion or what-not.  The Romans saw them the same way we might see the Heaven's Gate cult, or the Hare Krishnas in airports.   So the Romans used them as scapegoats.  Nero was famous for it.

Subsequent emperors used the Christians for scapegoats, objects of pity, or for entertainment.  Be that as it may, Christianity spread through the empire even as the empire continued to grow in size.  

By time the fourth century came around, the Roman empire was so large that the emperor Diocletian had to split the Roman Empire into 4 sectors, each ruled by a Caesar, and dividing overall rule between two Augusti.  It was an administrative nightmare.  

Enter Constantine.  By this time, Christianity had become the dominant religion in the empire.  Constantine did away with the administrative reforms of Diocletian.  He defeated his co-Augustus at the Battle of Milvian Bridge early in the fourth century, leaving him sole emperor or the Roman Empire.  

Constantine needed some way to consolidate his rule.  What better way than using the single dominant religion of the empire, turning IT to the state religion the way that civil religion had been for Rome in centuries past?

So Constantine decreed Christianity to be the state religion of Rome.  But this wasn't enough.  Which sect of Christianity?  There were Aryans, Gnostics, and so on.  In order to unify Rome under Christianity, Christianity itself had to be unified under a single orthodoxy.  Enter the Council of Nicea and subsequent councils.

The rest is Church history.

The short of it is that the Romans adopted Christinianity when was needed to hold the empire together.

Answer 16

They were stubborn.

j/k

Answer 17

no they didnt !

Answer 18

Good questions.  Probably the same reason gawds word was soooo important, the new world could wait 1500 years before ever hearing of it.

This is yet another in a loooong line of reasons why we know the buy-bull is BS.

Answer 19

Thats when Constantine had his 'vision' during a battle and changed the typical Roman pagan religion to Christianity.  

Answer 20

Because the Roman empire stretched 2000+ miles from east to west?

Answer 21

The Romans were entrenched in their pagan religions while Christianity was taking root in the eastern Mediterranean.  It is sometimes said that Constantine ran out of other ideas to conquer his enemies, so he "tried" Christianity--we'll never really know.  The Roman Empire created the Catholic Church, but there were already other Christian groups around.  The structure gave the RCC the ability to survive and grow over time.