God-Consciousness and the Beginning and Spread of Christianity: Revised Edition

By Fred Rose

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Nov 8, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669853480

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Copyright © 2022 by Fred Rose.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the Holy Bible, King James Version (Authorized Version). First published in 1611. Quoted from the KJV Classic Reference Bible, Copyright © 1983 by The Zondervan Corporation.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Rev. date: 01/11/2023

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CONTENTS

Chapter 1     Introduction

Chapter 2     Consciousness

Chapter 3     God

Chapter 4     The Setting

Chapter 5     Part 1: The Holy Spirit

Part 2: Precious Words Of Jesus

Chapter 6     St. Paul

Chapter 7     Part 1: St. John

Part 2: St. John The Apostle

Part 3: St. John The Disciple

Chapter 8     The Expansion And Spread Of Christianity After St. Paul’s Martyrdom And John’s Death

Chapter 9     Persecutions, Heretics And Other Challenges

Chapter 10   Consciousness Revisited

Chapter 11   Other Factors That Spread Christianity

Chapter 12   Some Disagreements

Chapter 13   Secularism And Atheism

Summation

Selective Bibliography

Acknowledgements

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

In this book, I will spell out the part our God-consciousness played in the beginning and spread of Christianity in its first 300 years.

The greatest wonders of all of human history is the phenomenal growth of Christianity from the time that St. Paul was martyred, 62 AD to Constantine’s edict of 325AD, naming Christianity the State religion of the Roman Empire. One can only guess, but I would say that there were only about 15,000 to 20,000 Christians; both gentile and Jewish at the time of St. Paul’s death. They were, well scattered throughout the Roman Empire. I’ll talk about that in a later chapter. Those few Christians in 62AD grew to 15 million by 325AD, in spite of widespread persecutions and the actions of heretics and other challenges.

Christianity grew as the mustard seed Christ described in St. Luke 13: 19 It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and cast into his garden; and it grew, and waxed a great tree; and fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it. The same is said in the verses of St. Mark 4: 30-32, and St. Matthew: 13: 31-32.

St. Augustine said it best Either you must admit the religion of Jesus Christ triumphed over opposition by the evidence of miracles and was therefore divine OR you must say that Christianity was established without the help of miracles and so then the conversion of the world was itself the greatest of miracles.

I will investigate this great phenomenon from historical, human and spiritual perspectives.

We have writings about that era from contemporary historians, but also from early Jewish writers such as Josephus The Jewish War and Philo, and the famous historian, Edward Gibbon The Decline and fall of the Roman Empire. Those and others have given us some useful information concerning the life and times of that era.

There were several early Christian writers from the first 300 years of Christianity, such as Clement of Alexandria, Irenaeus, Justin Martyr,

Origen, and Tertullian, to name a few. These early Christian writers seem to have dealt more with the effects of persecutions, heretics and Church business than with individual Church membership, the methods of conversion, mission, etc. Many early Christian writers wrote Apologies defending Christianity against Roman critics. There is one important exception and that is the Book of Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament, which reveals to us the history of the early Church.

There are many current historians and theologians who give us a closer look at individuals and activities of that era. I’ll list the names and their works in the bibliography.

We Christians can answer the Spiritual and natural perspectives miraculous growth as the Will of God. One example of the Will of God is Pentecost when the Apostles were filled with the Holy Ghost, (Acts 2:1-4). This was in the era of individualism, the longing for fulfillment of their inner consciousness and freedom.

The Will of God was the primary force, for sure, but there were other forces that aided the development of Christianity, of that era. I will identify and examine them in the chapters ahead.

In Chapter 2, I will discuss consciousness, but specifically consciousness of self and universal God-Consciousness and how it plays into the beginning and growth of Christianity. I’ll present a brief history of human consciousness where I have classified five stages of growth. I’ll quote comments by philosophers and writers, citing both the pros and cons of God-Consciousness. In doing so I will deal with materialists and atheists who deny God-Consciousness and some who deny consciousness altogether. It is fascinating how, through the centuries the great minds of the times have given so little attention to consciousness and especially consciousness of self. Most likely the reason is that they would need to acknowledge a Creator-God. I’ll be quoting verses from the Bible in this chapter and chapter I I that imply or suggest God-Consciousness.

Chapter 3, deals with the most important subject of all, GOD. I will be subjective and very critical of atheist and agnostics in treating parts important chapter, I am a strong theist but also I embrace some parts of the theory of evolution. I will discuss the existence of God and the various arguments for and against God’s existence. I will present, to my own satisfaction, the existence of God. Discuss the nature of God, the problem of evil; the questions do we love God, and does He love us? I’ll review visions and apparitions of God and members of the Holy Family, and a critical assessment of the much publicized expression The Death of God. I’ll describe some of my personal experiences relative to this chapter.

In Chapter 4, I will, in detail, look at what was going on in the Eastern Mediterranean part of the Roman Empire during the time of Jesus and the three centuries that followed. I will specifically address the languages used, communication, commerce, religious and political environment, geology, geography, what the average person thought, how he lived and the methods of travel. What I want to show is how Christianity could have developed during this era. This chapter is important to understand the activities of Jesus and the birth of Christianity.

Chapter 5, has two parts: The Holy Spirit and part two The Precious Words of Jesus. I have quoted numerous verses from the Bible supporting the spiritual connection between the Holy Spirit and the Soul through our personal God-Consciousness. In Part 2, I examined six precious words of Jesus and how they are reflected in the main subject book.

In Chapter 6, I will discuss St. Paul who was the pivotal figure in early Christian history. He is responsible for changing Christianity from a mere sect of Judaism to an independent world religion.

There are many fine and well researched books about this great Apostle, so there is no need for me to go into too much detail in the life of St. Paul. There are, however, several interesting issues in St. Paul’s life that I would like to pursue. First we want to examine the events leading up to St. Paul’s conversion, and secondly the undocumented eight years following his conversion. I’ll present several options as to what St. Paul may have been doing during those absent years. Thirdly, I want to talk about the partnership of St. Paul and Barnabas and their work in spreading the Gospel.

Finally, I will discuss St. Paul’s Doctrine, the single most important contribution to the spread of Christianity: Justification by Faith.

I’ll discuss St. Paul’s comments regarding women in the Church in this Chapter.

Chapter 7. In the first part of Chapter 7 1’ll briefly write of my personal experience at St. John’s Lutheran Church and School.

The second Part of this Chapter is titled St. John The Apostle and I’ll tell, chronologically the life of St. John.

The third part of Chapter 7, St. John The Disciple. I’ll first talk about the meaning conversion and then review St. John’s Gospel, his exile to Ephesus, and to Patmos. I will discuss his activities during those times:

Writing the Epistles, establishing a school, and writing the Book of Revelation. I will quote from St. John’s writings some of the most inspiring and beautiful verses in the entire Bible. It was St. John, who first made known to all mankind the most memorable and comforting phrase God Is Love. Finally, what appears to have been St. John’s attempt, in his book of Revelation, to include the Children of Israel in Gods final Judgment.

Chapter 8 is entitled "The expansion and spread of Christianity after St.

Paul’s martyrdom and St. John’s death". At this point of my book I am going to follow the events in Christianity in chronological order, as best I can, up to the time of Constantine (Circa 325 AD), some events, however, encompassed a century or more. I will talk about the Primitive Church, the Apostolic Age and Post-Apostolic age. I’ll spend a good deal of time reviewing the history of the important city of Antioch and its impact on the spread and development of Christianity. I will discuss in some detail eleven of the compelling attributes or incentives that attracted so many to Christianity in those early years. I’ll write of the political and social environment that aided the growth of Christianity.

In Chapter 9, I applied Arnold Toynbee’s theory of; Challenges and their effects as written in his famous book A Study ofHistory to the early years of Christianity; challenges that include persecutions, heresy and internal discord. Christianity dealt with these difficult challenges successfully which would have otherwise destroyed it.

I want to re-visit consciousness in Chapter 10.Namely man’s unique faculty of universal God- Consciousness and its ramifications with Christianity, the new religion. I will discuss in detail the other unique faculties of mankind as they are related to human consciousness’, which in part contributed to the growth of Christianity in those first three hundred years. This was the time that the human race was beginning to understand the existence of their personal consciousness. Three or four hundred years earlier the great Greek philosophers were debating and writing about the subject of consciousness but the average human was confused and uninterested in the study of consciousness. I will discuss personal experiences of my own consciousness as is related to this book. Further I will discuss our consciousness of the hereafter, beauty, good and evil, brotherly love, and Christian-Consciousness. I will give special and personal attention to BEAUTY and LOVE and their close relationship to God-Consciousness. I will go into more detail in the next chapter. It is most important to mention the work of the missionaries and their methods during this period.

Chapter 1 1 discusses other factors that aided the spread of Christianity; namely, Brotherly love, morality, anti-paganism, salvation and the forgiveness of sins, Christian mysticism and finally the universalism of Christianity. I will look at the Christian missions, their methods, network and the individuals who were instrumental in propagating the good news. The times were right and the Gentiles were ready for a bright new religion; a religion whose missionaries were the Apostles who had known Christ or had known Christ’s original Apostles first hand. The missionaries’ messages of the Gospel and those other factors captivated and attracted many thousands, even though the missionaries themselves lived under constant threat of death for their preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Church Body had some disagreements during those first three Centuries. Chapter 12 looks into some of these serious disagreements that in the long run were not really injurious to the Church as a whole. Some were the acceptance of the concept of the Trinity, the agreement of the books available to be used in the New Testament and the rejection of others. The Church finally agreed upon the books of the New Testament including some of the Doctrine and beliefs that were the seed of the eventual split between the Eastern and Western Christian Church. I’ll discuss in some detail those points of friction between Rome and Jerusalem, particularity the Holy Ghost. Unfortunately, Jerusalem was not consistently the seat of the Eastern Christianity due to periods of foreign occupations.

Chapter 13 is entitled Secularism and Atheism and I discussed each as to their relationship and the criticism of Christianity. I took the time to reject and proved otherwise a claim by Atheist that the visiting Wise Men at Jesus birth was a myth.

In the Summation I’ll write of my credentials for and belief of Christian-Consciousness citing the philosophical and theological bases for my Faith. I’ll add quotes from famous individuals who are in agreement with my concept and the reality of God-Consciousness,

My Bibliography is lengthy, however it represents only a fraction of the hundreds of books I have read regarding the subjects of early Christianity, Consciousness, philosophy and related topics. I selected for my bibliography those books that were particularly germane to my book. I listed the books by their information in the respective Chapter, although some of those books listed influenced my writings in multiple Chapters.

I made personal and subjective comments about some of the books listed.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

A brief auto-bio so you can see where I’m coming from. I am in the ninth