A question

[Piscinin]

[/quote]There were, and I have them. Believe me. And send money.
[/quote]

They`re not real, he`s a false prophet. God hates gold and materialistic people. I have a word document with the true commandements.

Because God hates people who cut trees for paper.

[Lek]

Christianity is continuing to spread to this day. Nepal has the fastest growing christian population in the world, followed by China, where the government is trying to suppress it. The early church spread in the face of persecution from the Jews and the Romans.

[abaris]

And it's on the decline in Europe.

[Godscreated]

Why did the rulers convert? Would a rural African convert to Sikhism? I mean, where's their critical thinking

Just a guess, but probably for political reasons.

The Roman empire already had started to crumble and monothism is better suited to keep people in line than polytheism. Especially when this religion explicitly says that any ruler is sent by god and people have to obey.

What the Roman empire was crumbling in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. It's amazing how nonbelievers make up so much junk to defend their position.

GC

[abaris]

What the Roman empire was crumbling in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. It's amazing how nonbelievers make up so much junk to defend their position.

GC

Care to look up Roman history? I mean the times when christianity first gained some influence, which would be 325 with the council of Nicea?

And it wasn't till the Edict of Thessalonica in AD 380, when Emperor Theodosius I made it the Empire's sole authorized religion.

So, care to come again after having a good hard look at what Rome was actually like in these days?

[Lek]

And it's on the decline in Europe.

And the US.

[fr0d0]

I have a book here somewhere by an Australian Christian that says that there was a deal between the growing catholic church and I think Constantine that saw both benefit. The catholic church managed to land grab 3/4 of Europe. Rome made it illegal to be non Christian. Some of the church father's were on the council in Rome.

[abaris]

I have a book here somewhere by an Australian Christian that says that there was a deal between the growing catholic church and I think Constantine that saw both benefit. The catholic church managed to land grab 3/4 of Europe. Rome made it illegal to be non Christian. Some of the church father's were on the council in Rome.

As I said above. It wasn't till 380 that paganism was made illegal by Theodosius I. His predecessor Julian actually pushed back on christianity.

So Constantine certainly had some influence, but he wasn't the great mover some think him to be. And he wasn't christian. Some say, he converted on his death bed.

[Minimalist]

Why did the rulers convert? Would a rural African convert to Sikhism? I mean, where's their critical thinking

The conversion of the Frankish king, Clovis, may serve as an example. It was merely a political decision. He remained as big a bastard after as before....which was fine with the fucking church.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clovis_I

Yet Christianity did offer certain advantages to Clovis as he fought to distinguish his rule among many competing power centers in Western Europe. His conversion to the Roman Catholic form of Christianity served to set him apart from the other Germanic kings of his time, such as those of the Visigoths and the Vandals, who had converted from pagan beliefs to Arian Christianity. His embrace of the Roman Catholic faith may have also gained him the support of the Catholic Gallo-Roman aristocracy in his later campaign against the Visigoths, which drove them from southern Gaul in 507 and resulted in a great many of his people converting to Catholicism as well.[13]

Politics...as always.

[Godscreated]

What the Roman empire was crumbling in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. It's amazing how nonbelievers make up so much junk to defend their position.

GC

Care to look up Roman history? I mean the times when christianity first gained some influence, which would be 325 with the council of Nicea?

And it wasn't till the Edict of Thessalonica in AD 380, when Emperor Theodosius I made it the Empire's sole authorized religion.

So, care to come again after having a good hard look at what Rome was actually like in these days?

The OP was wanting to know how it got started so fast and continued to grow, so we must start at the beginning 1st century AD. There was 300 years of Christian growth before the empire started to falter.

GC