Once Jesus died, he appeared to his disciples and gave them the great commission, to “make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). This means that they had to spread the gospel around the world.

 

The followers received the Holy Spirit in approximately 30AD at the event of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-15). This enabled them to speak in different languages and empowered them perform miracles and preach the gospel. 

 

This led to people becoming believers and being baptised.

 

When Christians were persecuted, they fled from Jerusalem to other towns. They took their faith with them and began converting others.

 

One person hugely responsible for helping the Church expand beyond Jerusalem was St Paul. Paul, originally known as Saul, was a Roman Jewish official who persecuted Christians until his conversion on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1-19). 

 

Paul then became a Christian who went on missionary journeys to spread the word of God from 48AD until his death in 68AD. His journeys are detailed in Acts of the Apostles. Paul wrote many letters to churches he had visited and these became a part of the New Testament. 

 

The first official persecutions of Christians by a Roman emperor occurred in 64AD by Emperor Nero. This persecution continued off and on over the next two centuries.

 

In 312AD, Constantine became emperor after defeating his opponent at the Battle of Milvian Bridge. He attributed his success to the Christian God. Once he became emperor, he created the Edict of Milan in 313AD which made Christianity legal. This edict allowed for the Church to flourish. Once Constantine moved the capital of the Church from Rome to Constantinople in 324AD, the Church was further able to grow as Constantinople was more geographically central in the Empire. 

 

The Council of Nicaea in 325AD was the Church’s first ecumenical (global) council. It was a meeting of bishops which was called by Constantine to address the issue of Arianism. This was when the Nicene Creed was created. It allowed for the bishops to create a unified belief system.

The Popes during this time saw that the tribes were a reality with which they had to live. They saw that the Church’s mission was to convert them.

However, the Church at this time again experienced persecutions. Church assemblies were prohibited, property seized and bishops driven from their dioceses.

*** DEFINE PERSECUTION IN YOUR NOTES ***
 
The story of Christendom, therefore, is about a Church suffering at the hands of

military conquerors on the one hand, while on the other, spreading the Gospel as

followers of Christ, especially monks, moved around an unstable former Roman Empire. The Spirit moved them, especially the popes, to carry out the command of Jesus to preach his Gospel ‘to all nations’.

As military conquerors were converted  Church persecution stopped. The Gospel could now be spread without violent opposition.

The boundaries of Christendom continued to grow from the sixth to the fourteenth

centuries into northern Europe : Russia. 

The East West Schism, or the Great Schism, divided medieval Christendom into Eastern (Greek) and Western (Latin) branches, which later became known as the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church.

Tension between the two Churches dates back to the division of the Roman Empire into an Eastern and a Western part, and the transferral of the capital city from Rome to

Constantinople in the 4th century. An increasingly different outlook developed within the two churches causing a split along doctrinal, theological, linguistic, political and geographic lines. One of the central questions was the authority of the Pope in Rome.

news beyond Europe to new communities. The Church grew to become an important

part of the new world order.

The sixteenth century saw the dawn of the ‘Age of Discovery’. 

As explorers opened up new areas of the world, Christian missionaries sought to travel with them to proclaim the Gospel to all nations. Henry established missions in Africa, and Columbus brought missionaries to the Americas.

Christians again faced torture and martyrdom through their travels and expansion. 

The church spread to: 
- Africa
- The United States of America
- Asia
- Japan
- China
- Australia etc. 

Other Asian countries:

Today, the Church is growing in many Asian Countries such as Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Burma, Korea, Thailand and Vietnam. 

The Philippines has a higher percentage of Catholics than any other Asian

country; the former Spanish colony is nearly 80% Catholic.

In some countries, such as Sri Lanka, Taiwan and Thailand, the Church is completely free. In others, such as Malaysia, Burma and Vietnam, it experiences persecution in

varying degrees.