Today I shall be impart on to you the good news because today's topic is the potential mine field that is Facts About Christianity.
If you're probably or maybe not you may just be morbidly interested accustomed to the basics of this ancient religion Jesus is Lord the Pope is Catholic etc but what else do you know and not know about Jesus's official fan club for instance.
What frankly horrifying thing did Pope Stefan vi do in the ninth century spoiler alert nope not that.
What happens in the shocking tale of touch down Jesus and why isn't Stanley a saint yet he created Marvel for goodness sake ah well two out of three of those questions are going to be answered so put on your Sunday best don't eat fish on Fridays for some reason that's a really weird rule and prepare to be saved from boredom as we count through 101 facts about Christianity.
Before we get started a quick disclaimer on a couple of points number one as we like to stay on brand there are jokes in this airtical while talking about this topic. we're not presenting it as the correct religion or saying that any at all is for that matter believe or not believe.
What ever you want number one in case you haven't been well I don't know outside or ever spoken to anybody or listen to TV or anything like that Christianity is a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of the big man upstairs who came down stairs for a bit adherents of Christianity known as Christian believe Jesus is the Son of God.
The savior of all humanity and this whole thing has gotten pretty popular over the years number two Christianity began in the first century as a small Jewish sect in Jerusalem in the Roman province of Judea through the efforts and activities of disciples and followers the early Christian movement grew moving north wardand westward with in the Mediterranean region.
which I hear is lovely this time of year number three the religion Christianity is based upon traditional Christian scripture community creedal statements and the non canonized historical writings of the Christian Church Fathers the Christian holy book is known as the Bible of sorry no Bible may go which comes from the Greek word bibley on meaning paper or scroll the Bible consists of the Old Testament in which Jesus is arrival on earth as the Messiah or Christ is prophesized and the New Testament the sequel in which it actually happens plot twist and the life and teachings of this.
Jesus guy are chronicled number four early Christianity taught that Jesus of Nazareth was and is the literal son of God who fulfilled ancient Jewish prophecies of a coming Messiah.
who would set God's people free from bondage and all that kind following his incarnationas a sinless human being as such Jesus became the perfect sacrifice to reconcile all of humanity to Yahweh.
The Jewish creator of God which was nice of him I suppose number five how ever not everyone was super on board with a new religious movement that would ultimately developin to Christianity the teachings and activities of Jesus and his followers led to controversy in conflict with both members of the Jewish community and the ruling Roman powers of the region.
Eventually Jesus was arrested tried and convicted of treason in the Roman Court under Pontius Pilate apparently under pressure from Jewish leaders who accused him of blasphemy number six Jesus was ultimately crucified for hissupposed crimes which if you didn't know that means he was nailed through his hands and feet to a large wooden cross by Roman soldiers and left to die it'sthis fairly gruesome form of execution that led to the cross.
Becoming the most widely used symbol of the Christian religion number seven when it comes to the historicity of Jesus as a word there is an over whelming academic consensus that Jesus did indeed exist in some form with in only a few decades of his supposeat life time Jesus is mentioned extensively by Jewish.
Roman historians such that his supposed existence is all but certain by the standards of modern historical investigation number eight as the number of professed Christians rose the Jewish leaders.
who had earlier been threatened by the teachings of Jesus became worried that Jesus was super cool and also maybe the literal son of God movement could reignite and so turn their scorn and persecutions to his disciples and followers this prompted many of these early Christians to flee to safer morereceptive areas number nine still many early Christians decided to stay in Jerusalem.
Judea to speak their message of their faith which led to public effuse by authorities who were determined to extinguish it the conflict that a rose eventually escalated to serious violence and in the year 34 the man later canonized as st.
Stephen was stoned to death by the Jewish authorities becoming the first recorded martyr of the Christian faith number 10 many other Christians were martyred following the death of Saint Stephen though the disciple and rew was himself crucified but on a wooden axe rather than a cross supposedly at his own request deeming himself to be unworthy to be crucified on the same type of cross as Jesus the leader of the disciples Peter.
who was martyred in Rome under Emperor Nero was also crucified but shockingly enough upside down as he also felt unworthy to be nailed to wood in the same way as Jesus was number 11 on the Christian martyrs such as Paul Matthias and James son of Zebedee were beheaded for their commitment to their faith Matthias in particular was stoned firstand.
Then beheaded so you hear a bad day number 12 other early martyrs died a conspicuously less standard circumstances shall we say the gospel writer John the Evangelist was sent to been dragged to death byhorses through the streets of an Egyptian city until his body was torn topieces lovely while James adjust was clubbed to death after having some how survived being thrown from the top of a temple break.
number 13 as early Christianity developed through out the second century persecution mostly came from Roman leadership who exploited the passivity of early Christians using them as political targets and convenients capegoats for a wide variety of social ills number fourteen although not every Roman Emperor targeted Christians several rulers are no table for their cruelty and brutality towards them near Rome known as a capricious and tyrannical Emperor who reigned from 54 C II to 68 C II often targeted Christians as a distraction from his failings as a leader having Christians set on fire or torn apart by dogs number 15.
However perhaps the biggest roman oppressor of the Christians was Emperor Diocletian who reigned from 284 to 205 C II and believed that the declining power of the Roman Empire was more the fault of Christianity.
Than poor governorship as such he levied severe persecution against Christians essentially banning the religion by forbidding Christian worship blocking adherence from holding political office destroying Christian churches and burning scriptures and Bibles despiteall this.
However the Christian movement survived and grew even stronger number16 however the idea that the Flavian amphitheater aka the mother-effing Coliseum was the site of the mass martyring of Christians is likely not to be true there is little evidence that Christians were executed inside the Colosseum specifically for being Christian we do know however that Christians were killed in other locations such as the circus of Nero which was situated not far from the present-day Basilica of Saint Peter number 17 in the year 301 our mania.
Became the very first nation to adopt Christianity as its state religion the Armenian Apostolic Church of which over 90% of our manias 3.1 billion people are adherents was founded even earlier in the first century damn history you old number 18 by the 4th century Christianity dominated all other religions in greco-roman society and spread through out the Roman Empire this took the still young religion as far north of st.
In Britain and possibly asfar east as India number 19 as the Christian movement continued to developleaders in the burgeoning religion labor to preserve the authentic message ofJesus and His disciples attempting to maintain the integrity of Christ'steachings by rejecting substantiated myth or incongruent teachings concerning the ology on God and Jesus well they try to at least number 20 followers of theearly Christian faith developed short summaries of their faith which have since become known as Creed's the earliest of the main Creed's using Christianity
Today is probably the Apostles Creed no Apostles Creed not assassins there we go believed by some champers been formulated by Christ twelve primary disciples known as the Apostles underinspiration from the Holy Spirit written into its standard form in the following centuries the Apostles Creed is a simple statement of faith that affirms belief in the story of Jesus and fundamental Christian teachings number 21 in thecoming centuries the early Christian movement convened to define their beliefs and salute via the main stream interpretation of Christianity thus.
The main two doctrines of Christianity were established by ecumenical councils fromall of the Mediterranean region using Scripture as a handy guide the first Council of Nicaea held in 325 C II agreed upon the nature of Jesus by rejecting arianism oh god no not that one but rather a perspective which asserted that Jesus was subordinate to God number 22 numerous other interpretations of Christianity were rejected by mainstream Christian leaders.
There now today widely considered heretical docetism promoted the idea that the physical body of Jesus was not material in nature but merely an illusion as he was only spiritand never truly incarnated ya know people didn't like that one bit number 23 the doctrine and nestorianism held that Jesus existed as two separate people human and divine and there fore rejects the main stream Christian perspective of the hypostatic Union.
Which holds that the human and divinenature's of Christ exist as one in Jesus Nestorian ISM also promoted the idea that in some sense Mary only gave birth to Jesus the human and so she there fore could not be considered the mother of God much heretical very blasphemy number 24 another largely rejected doctrinesince we're having so much fun talking about it promoted the idea that Adamsoriginal sin did not taint humanity and there fore human beings are capable of realizing salvation by choosing good or evil without special divine aid again most mainstream interpretations of Christianity disagree.
So yeah that won't have to go to number 25 even tually the mainstream Christian movements throughdefy the super natural relationship of the Father the Son and the Holy Spiritare men of sorry that start about our forced habit would you mention he came to be known as the Trinity meaning free hold specifically these early churchleaders concluded that God exists as a single deity with three separate but permany connected entities thanks for clearing that up everyone cuz other wiseit'd be confusing right number 26 it was around this time in the early fourth century that the oldest surviving copy of a complete Bible was created known as the codex.
Vaticanus the ancient manuscript which ispreserved in the Vatican Library consists of 1759 leaves a vellum inunsealed letters and features a three column format without word divisionpunctuation all page numbers so yeah sounds like a great read number 27 eventually the persecution of the early Christians in Roman society.
Finally came to an end under constant sting one or the first rather one also arrogantly known as Constantine the Great who ruled between 268 and 337 C II Constantine was sympathetic to the Christian movement and wanting power reversed many of the former legal restrictions of Christianity.
Even returned too much of the property that have been confiscated under Diocletian number 28 Constantine the first eventually converted to Facts About Christianity.
Christianity on his deathbed Wow hedging his bets becoming the first Roman Emperor to do so his conversion may have been preceded by Marcos Judas Philip s.
Also known by his charming nickname of Philip the Arab who was rumored to have converted to Christianity but this has never been confirmed number 29 on the 27th of February 380 the Edict of The ssalonica was issued making Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire allowing for a dramatic change.
How the faith manifested in wider society Christianity shifted from a loose informal structure to stricter organization from individual worship to public community worship number 13 as things get bigger you need to find ways to organize them like winelaminated photos of Jennifer Lawrence which are categorized by emotion and that's exactly what have to course annecy well sort of over the next few centuries the Facts About Christian faith would see the developments of the religious aristocracy.
The laity the clergy the Episcopacy ie the role of governance by bishops and the papacy number 31 interestingly where riches for previously viewed as a sign of greed and exploitation owned to the association with the emperor over the subsequent centuries mainstream Christianity.
Became more to lerant of the accumulation of wealth viewing it in a more favorable light hmm funny that isn't it now a 30 to an even greater shift inattitudes or Christian belief chain from pacifism tumor tourism as Christians found.
Themselves obsession for power remember with great power comes great oh you're not in the mood for Spider Man reference ok then.
moving on number 30 Spray theological II there was also a move away from millennialism not that kinda millennial and a potential second coming of Christ to a more pragmaticearthly perspective on life as well as the enforcement of clerical abstinence and the condemnation of cemani.
which is the act of selling church offices and roles or spiritual privileges in general number 34 around the Year 500 cinqBenedict wrote.
what would ultimately become known as the rule of st. Benedicta book of precepts amongst living communally in monasteries under the authority of an abbot monasticism would become a powerful force in europe givingrise to many centers of learning most famously in Ireland Scotland and Gaul.
which is the old fancy word for France number 35 indeed from the 11th century on ward older Cathedral schools developed into universities such as the University of Oxford University of Paris and the University of Bologna originally.
These institutions taught only the ology but eventually expanded their range of subjects to include things like medicine philosophy and law becoming the directancestors of modern Western institutions of learning 936.
The Middle Ages came along and also brought about major changes with in Christianity - in the early 8th century the By zantine Emperor Leo Gotthard demanded that images in worship places be removed after claiming that the veneration of statues pictures and icons was idolatry in 787.
Those guys known as the second ecumenical council of nicaea rolled at the veneration of imagesdirected worship at the entity being represented not the image itself whichis kind of obvious why did Leo need to be told that number 37 the addition of the fancy new but also historically very old concept of purgatory was also established around this time in the 11th century.
They were always coming up withnew ideas weren't they Purgatory's has opposed intermediate states following death in which those destined for heaven are subject to a final purification sort of like washing for before you eat it I mean not like that and also I don't know that it's a hate fruit but a little bit like that sort of kinda you know.
what I mean number 38 in the year 897 Pope's Stefan the sixth accuser former Pope formosus of perjury and having ascended to the papacy illegally so he brought him to trial and ultimately found him guiltyand had all his act and orders an old and declared invalid this would have been sensational enough but in addition to his supposed crimes promoters haddied several months earlier in August of 896 that's right Pope's even the six had the rotting corpse of phimosis exhumed clad in papal vestments and propped upin a throne to face trial.
which became known as the cadaver sigh not so yourlife out Steve number 39 for hundreds of years between the 7th to13th century the Christian Church underwent a significant gruntalalienation between the Latin or Western Christian branch also known as the Catholic Church and a Nissen largely Greek branch.
The Orthodox Church the teabranches disagreed on a number of administer turbulent article and theological issues such as papal primacy of jurisdiction clerical celibacy and the use of unleavened bread in the Eucharist number fourteen these differences eventually proved too great and in 1054 the Western and Eastern Church split resulting in a schism known today as the east-west schism or sometimes.
The Great Schism despite several attempts to reconcile the two branches in the following centuries.
The Eastern Orthodox Church remained separate from the Catholic Church to this very day number 41 by the end of the 11th century approximately two-thirds of the ancient Christian world had been conquered by Muslims including important regions suchas Palestine Syria Egypt and Anatolia and should imagine the leaders of Christianity were not super jazzed about this and in their point of view something had to be done something like the meaning of life not that that's just even number interim.
The Crusades between the 11th and 13th centuries many Christians fought in a series of religious wars known as the Crusades which had been sanctioned by the church who took back control of the Holy Land from Muslim rule alongside several smaller efforts most experts recognized about nine major Crusades the first of which was initiated by pope urban ii the coolest Pope of all in response to pleas for aid against Turkish expansion by the By zantine.
Emperor Alexios the first number 43 estimates of total deaths as are sult of the Crusades vary wildly some experts for the number as low as 1million where as other suggest that as many as 9 could have been killed million boo Crusades number 44 despite initial success the Crusades ultimately failed with Christian forces failing to retake control of the Holy Land.
However many argue that the war did result in some positive out comes for the Christian world which was expanded to you graphically and graduated to a higher level of trade so yay for the Crusades yeah no may be not number 45 starting in 1266 CA the hugelyinfluential Christian.
Today regarded as one of the most influential works of Western literature number 46 as most medieval Europeans were illiterate gargoyles were invented to serve as visual reminders of Hell to get them into church by emphasizing the idea that evil dwelt outside the church while salvation dwelt within it number 47 before his ascension to papacy that means becoming the Pope of the way in1458 Pope pious ii wrote a popular erotic book called the tale of two bloodless.which became one of the best-selling books of the 15th century.
I can't imagine how erotic it is but today's standards but I'm sure back then it ruffled a few roughs number 48 towards the end of the 15th century Western Christianity was invigorated by the discovery of North America by Christopher Columbus in 1492 though we should point out that millions of Native Americans were already living there at the time and the Vikings had already visited.
The concert 100 years prior but decided to keep that Malone down for some reason anyway the kind of but not really discovery of North America prompted a new wave of missionary activity intenton converting indigenous peoples which coincided nicely with the burgeoning colonial expansion of the European powers spreading Christianity to the Americas Oceania East Asia and sub-saharan Africa yikes number 49 the sixteenth century saw the beginning of the remains and with it everyone's favorite Christian schism.
The Reformation this happened in 1517 when a German theological professor named Martin Luther protested against several Catholic doctrines particularly the sale of indulgences number fifty Luther's objections along with the work of other dissenters like huldrych zwingli and John Calvin developed into the major Christie movement called Protestantism.
which said uh-uh no wayto the primacy of the Pope the tradition and other doctrines andpractices number 51 the Divine's caused by the Reformation sparked out breaks of religious violence oh there's a surprise and the establishment of separate statechurches through out Europe Lutheranism spread into northern central and eastern parts of present-day.
Germany and Scandinavia our mean ISM gained followers in the Netherlands and frizzier and Calvinism and its related forms such as Presbyterianism were introduced in Scotland the Netherlands hungary switzerland and france number 52 the Reformation in England began in 1534 a bit later.
when King Henry the eighth declared himself head of the Church of England to justify his divorce from his first wife Catherine of Aragon hashtag legend hashtag let's on tour beginning in 1536 Henry had the monasteries throughout England Wales and Ireland dissolved complicating their land and treasures number thirty-two footmen.
what number 53 eventually the differences inopinion with in Western Christianity led to numerous major altercations prominent examples include the French Wars of Religion.
which constituted a 36 year long period of war and popular unrest between Roman Catholics and Calvinist Protestants known as Huguenots in the kingdom of France between 1560 - and 98as many as 3 million people died in the conflict making it the second deadliest religious war in history of Europe.
Surpassed only by number 54 the 30 Years War which pitted Protestants against Catholics in a bitter conflict whichlasted almost exactly three decades between 1618 and 48 roughly 8 million people were killed through out Europe as a result of not only war fare but famineand disease so something good is it at the moment number 55 16:11 saw.
The publication of the King James Version of the Bible created for the Church of England of the sponsorship of King James the first this version of the Christian holy book was generally accepted as the standard English Bible from the middle of the 17th century to the early 1900s number 56 the following centuries posed a considerable challenge to Christianity and stuff like scientific and philosophical developments in the form of the Scientific Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment prompted increased questioning of religious or thodoxy Christianity was confronted with various forms of skepticism as well as an emphasis on individual liberty and the rise of several modern political ideologies such as early versions of socialism and liberalism.
Number 57 in March of 1830 an American man named Joseph Smith published the Book of Mormon which he claimed was atranslation of sacred text engraved on two golden plates - constituted another Testament of the Bible how exciting Smith asserted that he found the platesburied Hill near his home the location of which had been revealed to him by an angel called Moroni.
Who told him he was not allowed to show them to anyone yeah yeah yeah I know number 58 despite the presence of what one might delicately called questionable aspects of Smith's story the movement became known as Mormonism and has since evolved into amajor if slightly quirky Christian tradition.
The largest denomination of which is the Church of Jesus Christ and the Latter day Saints which boasts roughly 15 million members there's also a musical about them too which is nice Iguess but famous Mormons include Brandon Flowers from.
The Killers Twilight or the Stephenie Meyer and prominent Republican politician Mitt Romney number 59 another non-traditional Christian denomination are the Jehovah's Witnesses.
which is by far the largest group to emerge from the Bible student movement founded by Charles taze Russell in the late 1870s Jehovah's Witnesses would take the mainstream concepts such as the Trinity and the inherentimmortality of the soul and are well known for their door-to-door preaching refuting blood transfusions and for not celebrating Christmas Easter or birthdays.
They also believe that Jesus died after being nailed to a singleup right state rather than a traditional wooden cross those guys number 60 in the14-year period between 1850 and 1860 for China was ravaged by civil war in the form of the Taiping rebellion in which the power of the Ching dynasty was challenged by the forces of a Christian convert called Hong to Kwan.
Who believed himself to be the brother of Jesus Christ the brother of delayed birth this didn't go down too well and low estimates of the number of people.
Who died in the conflict start at 20 million that's the low estimate and they startat 20 number 60 1.24 on. the bad guys of the second world wars twenty five pointplan I can't really say that name so forget the monitize introduced their concept of positive Christianity a twisted interpretation of the religion that sought to merge German Christian identity with their beliefs in 1937.
Hanscurl the Minister for church affairs explain the positive Christianity was not dependent on from the Apostles Creed nor on faith in Christ as the Son of God.
which is at once lightly presumptuous embraces the convenience given the thousands of years of Christian worship which they pretty much the exact opposite number 62 this different version of Christianity also denied.
The Jewish origins of Christ surprise surprise even going so far as to state that Jesus him self was an Aryan hero and not a Jew which is literally historically incorrect oh they're really the worst number sixty-three 1948 saw.
The formation of the World Council of Churches a world wide into church organization which aimed to promoteunity between the various Christian denominations members of the organization include the Assyrian Church of the east the Oriental Orthodox churches most juris dictions of the Eastern Orthodox Church and most mainline Protestant churches.
Which collectively represent as many as 590 million people around the world in 150 countries the Catholic Church is not ably not a member though it does send observers to meetings so make of that.
Where you will Nintendo 64 in 1955 a Dutch missionary known as brother Andrew founded open doors a charity organization that supports persecuted Christians around the world in 2018 the group released its annual world watch list.
which found the christine's in nine countries around the world experienced extreme persecution while Christians face a very high degree of persecution in a further 16 nations number 65 until 1966.
The Catholic Church had a fan list of books known as index librarian prohibit Oran which listed publications deemed heretical or contrary to Pirela.
Which Catholics were forbidden to read the list included works like a manual can't critique of Pure Reason ii sex by simone de beauvoir and weirdly Victor Hugo's famous novel amiserable number 66 359 years after forcing Galileo Galilei to recant his support for the very true theory that the eart horbits around the Sun the Catholic Church.
Then decided he was right in 1992 it took them until the early nineties to admit that the earth moves around the Sun Christ oh sorry Jesus number 67 in 2001 pope john paulii entered and prayed in the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus Syria in order to improve relations with Islam and in doing so became.
The very first Catholic pope to enter and pray inside a mosque even kissed a copy of the Quran an app that was questioned by many Catholics but made him very popular among Muslims our unity good number 68 there's the weighted cost of all the funeral event sheld following the death of pope john paul in 2005 and melted to around 12million dollars it's a fancy funeral right there but we can beat it right guys.
When I eventually go oh I'm all sad now number 16 celibacy shouldn't be doing that sorry the riches held by the Catholic Churchare hardly a secret in 2010 the Catholic Church reports of damn income of 97billion dollars and to think they spend most of it on bling number 70 will still say bling right in 2013 pope benedict xvi resigned becoming the first book to do so since craigory.
The 12th in 1415 almost 600 years earlier pope benedict was succeeded by pope francis who at the time of making this airtical is the current pope if you're from the future and Francis isn't Pope any more please let us know in the comments I know you want to number 71 trying to becoming.
The most senior Catholic on the face of the planet Pope Francis once worked as a bouncer at a bar in his home town of planetaries the capital of Argentina Wow okay don't mess with him that number 72 today a Christianity is the world's largest religion with over 2.3 billion adherents be very wildly in their commitment to the faith from the kinda-sorta Christian all the way up to Stephen Baldwin number 73 in 2001 the world Christian encyclo pedia counted 33 thousand eight hundred and thirty different Christian denominations.
Which is likely written in the gear since by far the largest of all these is the Roman Catholic Church of which roughly half of all Christians and members crazy to think that only one of these denominations is correct a choose wisely guys number 74 as a result of Christianity's historical dominance approximately little under a third of the global population 31.2% to be precise identifies Christian accordingto a Pew estimate from 2015 number 75 however commitment to Christianity declined significantly in Europe as modernity and secularism rose through out the 20th century though adherence to Christianity has remained relatively high in the United States.
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