What was so favourable in christianity that made so many of the world's population accept it ?

Answer 1

I think back through history a lot of folks were converted by force. This is kind of a silly question, though, as you can ask it for any religion that has a large following.

Answer 2

Pubicists and scribes abounded in that day in no less way than they do today.

The proponents, apostles, and disciples were well-traveled in that day; each having measures of skills in what we call today diplomacy, and public relations in addition to certain spiritual merit, and in some cities and states there lived a considerable hunger for truth as exhibited among the peoples stretched throughout the many lands of that time.

Acceptance did not come easy, by any stretch of conjecture. And many, many mistakes were made by the leadership, the champions and apostles and disciples of this new path...

Very often when detractors would lay seige upon the carriers of light at that time, these hate-mongers would in effect cause coalescence in the otherwise tenuous observers, for whose witnessing found the attacks by enemies so dreadful, so obviously crass and wrong, that this drew many to the favor of the words of this new line of orators of Christianity by, say, an inverse fiat.

The most open of the heart-felt people reasoned it far closer to the truth than what was otherwise exhibited by despot kings or aristocrats. By that evidence, none needed more to entreat them...

There existed of course the cynics and detractors and tyrants and criminals, but that was and is the way of the world.

Answer 3

many people were forced to believe in christianity. Plus constantine made it acceptable to the romans by incorporating alot of their pagan rituals so that it seemed more like their own religion. Also the catholic church was so powerful and very political ( for a long time they were the final decision makers even in issues of the state) that people gravitated to the power
How has it been sustained since? By the mind trap called faith. How can you question and find out for yourself that the religion is inherently flawed if questioning is a sin, doubting is wrong think thomas the doubter, and every story that does not make sense is chucked up to humans not being able to understand god. It is a self sustaining initiation. Also it helped that the church has been trying to change with the times. They have accepted science, debunked slavery and are inching towards acceptance of gender equality and homosexuality.

Answer 4

Look around the world where the church is growing. It is where people are willing to risk everything for their faith because they have what they believe is a real encounter and relationship with God. Often they have experienced miraculous healing or freedom from the torments of evil spirits they formerly suffered under.

These miracles back up the claim that Jesus rose from the dead and that God really loves people.

But look in areas where the church is not growing much, like in many parts of Europe and even in other western nations amongst traditional denominations.

These people believe in a creed, or parts of a creed that their forefathers once believed. They have little or no experience of answered prayer or the supernatural. They don't talk about their faith in Christ because their faith is very weak and they have little evidence in their personal lives that God is real.

In the early days of Christianity, people would give up everything if need be to follow Jesus. When thrown to wild animals to be killed, they died with smiles on their faces. The early apostles all claimed to have seen the resurrected Christ and the empty tomb. All except one died for their faith in Christ without recanting.

The early Christians showed love for the poor, accepting all classes of people - whether slaves or free, into their fellowship. They were like a family and they were experiencing answers to prayer. This was very attractive to others and so many did believe. Its only when Christian leadership positions became a ticket to money, wealth, power and influence that faith and Christian life began to be compromised.

Answer 5

Highlights: The Early Church's Health Plan
Christians practiced neither abortion nor infanticide and thus attracted women.

"The gods feel no love for humans", Aristotle taught. "God so loved the world," Christians answered. That response changed the standard of living in this world, says Rodney Stark, author of "The Rise of Christianity: A Sociologist Reconsiders History" (Princeton) and a professor at the University of Washington. His article is condensed from CT's sister magazine CHRISTIAN HISTORY. A little-known fact is that Christians in the ancient world had longer life expectancies than did their pagan neighbors. In fact, many pagans were attracted to the Christian faith because the church produced tangible (not only "spiritual") blessings for its adherents. These benefits included:

Social services. In a world entirely lacking in social services, Christians were their brothers' keepers. At the end of the second century, Tertullian wrote that while pagan temples spent their donations "on feasts and drinking bouts," Christians spent theirs "to support and bury poor people, to supply the wants of boys and girls destitute of means and parents, and of old persons confined to the house."

Similarly, in a letter to the bishop of Antioch in 251, the bishop of Rome mentioned that "more than 1,500 widows and distressed persons" were in the care of his congregation. This charity was confirmed by pagan observers, too. "The impious Galileans support not only their poor," noted the emperor Julian, "but ours as well."

Health services. When two great plagues swept the empire in 165 and 251, mortality rates climbed higher than 30 percent. Pagans tried to avoid all contact with the afflicted, often casting the still living into the gutters. Christians nursed the sick, even though some believers died doing so. We now know that elementary nursing—simply giving ...

Answer 6

Christians have a duty to spread the gospels. Other religions are not that organized. Christianity is very successful in places where no strong religions were present, like western Europe, Americas, Philippines, and Korea. Other places like Scandinavia, India, China, Thailand and Japan, where old religions were present, Christianity is less successful.

Answer 7

freebooter_16 already nailed it on the head. The most favorable force that Christianity had going for it to become the widespread religion that it has become was the Roman sword. When the dominant world power adopts it, everyone adopts it. With Rome's ambitions to dominate the world, if they hadn't adopted Christianity, we'd all be worshipping Jupiter today instead.

Answer 8

Matthew 5:44-47
"But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?"

Besides that, mythology works by means of "many teachers." 2 Timothy 4:3, 4 uses the term "gathered together" or "heaped up" to describe these teachers. This word (episoreuo) derives from one that means "burial urn." This means that, as Karen Armstrong wrote in "A Short History of Myth", mythology began when homo sapiens became homo necans, man the killer. The life-death-rebirth cycle apparently began ideologically with Cain's offering of fruit to God which wasn't accepted. In the Cain mold of disobedient children of God followed Nimrod, builder of the original Tower of Babel according to Genesis 11, and apparently Marduk of later Babylonian religion. The idea that worship of corruption (perishing beings) is the real driving force behind true freedom for mankind is reflected in pre-Christian myths which incorporate themes begun from Abel's sacrificial offering of the lamb. This is the argument that Justin Martyr pursued. "...For having heard it proclaimed through the prophets that the Christ was to come, and that the ungodly among men were to be punished by fire, they put forward many to be called sons of Jupiter, under the impression that they would be able to produce in men the idea that the things which were said with regard to Christ were mere marvellous tales... And these things were said both among the Greeks and among all nations where they [the demons] heard the prophets foretelling that Christ would specially be believed in..." from the page below.

This line of thought might speculate that Cain saw Abel's sacrifice (or later peoples saw the Israelite's animal sacrifices) and thought the raison d'etre for that way of approaching "God" was devotion to the corruption and perhaps pathos inherent in life.

In fact, triad worship has been around since ancient times anyway. According to Wikipedia, the three legal fronts of organised crime are building construction, trash hauling and gambling. These three things seem similar to the Creator/ Destroyer/ Administrator or Game-player triad of Osiris/ Isis/ Horus of ancient Egypt.

So triad worship is nothing new, but the Trinity isn't in the Bible anyway.

Answer 9

As Johnny L. points out, many cultures were converted at the point of a sword. In other cases, however, Christianity adopted many of the important parts of the other society's religion, thus becoming more appealing to that culture.

Answer 10

All those so called preachers preached fear. That was the reason. When they could not get people to give them money they used the phase fear of God which is crazy. I don't believe that God would apreciate some of the preachers tatics to get you to come to church of say every little thing is a sin.

Answer 11

It was adopted by the Roman Empire around the year 300 and subsequently forced upon Roman citizens. Since Rome was still the dominant superpower at the time, it spread quite easily.