Winning Converts was of prime importance to the original Christians. We read that:
(A) 17 And Jesus said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” (Mark 1:17)
(B) The Great Commission
16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:16-20)
(C) Sending out Emissaries
Just as Moses had chosen twelve spies to reconnoiter the land which stretched “before your face,” sending them through the cities of the land of Canaan, so does Jesus send a second group, after the twelve, a group of seventy, whose number symbolizes the nations of the earth who are to be conquered, so to speak, with the gospel in the Acts of the Apostles. He sends them out “before his face” to every city he plans to visit (in Canaan, too, obviously).
To match the image of the spies returning with samples of the fruit of the land (Deuteronomy 1:25), Luke has placed here the Q saying (Luke 10:2//Matthew 9:37-38), “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few; therefore beg the Lord of the harvest to send out more workers into his harvest.”
And Jesus’ emissaries return with a glowing report, just as Moses’ did.
(Deuteronomy 1; Luke 10:1-3, 17-30)
——————- How far do you think the original Christians would go to win converts? Would they even lie about Jesus to win converts?
Aside from putting forth an effort to evangelize through missionary work I don’t think Christians had to go very far to win converts and I think this is one of the reasons the growth rate was exponential. As religions go Christianity had a lot of upside and would have been most appealing to the lowest levels of society which of course was where the majority of the population found themselves. The target group of Jesus (as presented in the Gospels) was the poor. He spoke to them about how this world would fade away and that when God’s kingdom came into being that they would no longer be poor (not necessarily in the financial sense). Another aspect is that Christianity, in the beginning, had little ritual compared to other religions so it was easy to take part in. You didn’t have to sacrifice to a panoply of gods depending on what favor you wanted. You didn’t have to have their images in your home. You didn’t have to visit a temple. Finally, as far as I know, Christianity was the only religion that guaranteed that believers would be reunited with their loved ones in heaven and live in happiness for eternity.
I’m sure there are other reasons. I’ve never researched this topic, but it’s something I’ve rolled around in my head before.
In addition, the men were not required to be circumscribed in the religion as described by Paul. The prospect of imminent coming of the new reign of peace and justice in the lifetime of the converts must have been appealing. Although Jesus wanted the Old Testament followed exactly, Paul did not seem to think it so important. No cutting, no sacrifices, salvation around the corner…what’s not to like?
In Lost Christianites, Professor Ehrman gives some reasons for the success of proto-orthodox Christianity. He uses summary on page 179. I will paraphrase.
Christians claimed ancient Jewish roots, thereby mitigating the prejudice against a new religion.
- At the same time, they rejected the more burdensome Jewish traditions.
- They were organized and had a church hierarchy.
- They were in constant communication with each other throughout the Roman Empire.
I would add another factor. I am not at all sure about this, but, so far as I know, Christianity was the first proselytizing religion. Of course, people are bound to have expounded on their religion before, but I don’t believe any prior religion placed such emphasis on converting and saving people. Adherents of Greek and Roman gods did not have the same missionary zeal. In that sense, they went a lot further than any other religion in converting people.
I will go out on a limb here and say that, once you start trying to convince people of anything, there is a temptation to exaggerate and put a positive spin on things. If you are in an argument, the natural human tendency is to want to win. Before Christianity, most people didn’t care about winning an argument with other religions.
Again, I could be wrong about all this and I invite more educated comments.
BDEhrman
FreedomBen
evgendob
Robert
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