On October 28th, 312 AD, the tetrarch Constantine defeated his fellow tetrarch Maxentius, at the battle of the Milvian Bridge. The night before the battle Constantine had a heavenly vision—the famous Chi-Rho (the first two letters in the name “Christ”)—and heard a voice say, “In this, conquer!” That experience marked Constantine’s conversion to Christianity. He…
The “Middle Ages” That Never Were Most history books lump the time between the rise of Constantine and the Renaissance as the “Middle Ages,” or the “Medieval Period,” or the “Dark Ages.” As most people have now just come to assume, ancient Greece and Rome was a golden age of philosophy and reason, but then…
Now we come to the final topic regarding early Christianity in the Roman Empire: persecution. Two things must be said up front: first, despite what some might think (I mean, it’s what I thought growing up), Christians were not continually persecuted for 300 years until the rise of Constantine the Great. That being said, persecution…
After a while, there’s only so much you can say about the claims of young earth creationist groups like Ken Ham’s Answers in Genesis. As I wrote in my book, The Heresy of Ham, the entire “gospel” of Answers in Genesis (which really is no gospel at all) can be boiled down to five basic…
In my last post, I began to look at a number of Christian philosophers from the first couple of centuries of the early Church who proved themselves to be some of the most influential philosophers of their time. I looked at Justin Martyr, Athenagoras of Athens, Clement of Alexandria, and Origen of Alexandria. In this…
As was discussed in last week’s post, not only was Christianity probably the most significant counter-cultural movement in history in terms of practical, day to day morality, Christianity also gave rise to a philosophical paradigm, based on the historical realities of Christ’s resurrection and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, that both challenged…
In my last post, I took a brief look at life in ancient Rome. Simply put, despite the impressive monuments we love to “ooh” and “ahh” over, the fact is that daily life in ancient Rome for the majority of the people was harsh, cheap, and brutal. Rampant pornography and promiscuousness, the subjugation of women…
As the apostles of Jesus made their way out into the pagan world, they preached and lived out something entirely new that would ultimately change the world. Now one thing must be made clear: Christianity’s impact on the Greco-Roman world was not revolutionary. There was no catastrophic revolt or upheaval within the Roman Empire because…
About a week ago in one of the “creation/evolution debate” Facebook groups I am in, a young earth creationist (I’ll call him “Bob”) asked the question, “Can anyone point any example that proves evolution can change one kind of animal into another kind?” I have heard this question (or variations of it) many times before….
It was into this world of Greek philosophy, Roman imperial might, and rampant paganism that Jesus of Nazareth was born. Of course, the “genesis-point,” if you will, of the Jesus movement was in backwater Palestine…Galilee to be specific. This Jewish Messianic movement that emerged around Jesus of Nazareth eventually grew beyond its Jewish roots and…