(Everything was Ready for His Coming)

“When the Fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son”

Galatians 4:4

Roman Contributions to the Maximum Impact of Christ

1. Unity of Mankind (as seen by Romans)

promoted by Civil Law (Jus Civile)Product of struggle of orders, statutes, rulings…

Equally applied to ALL Citizens

Made Christian teaching about human brotherhood easier acceptable“There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:28 NIV

b) Jus Gentium (Law of Nations) same as Jus

Naturale (Natural {Rational} Law)

APPLIES TO ALL PEOPLE

c) Universal Citizenship of All Free Men

1. Unity of Mankind cont.

“the universally applicable expression of right reason, eternal and unchanging.”

Made Christian teaching about human brotherhood easier acceptable“There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:28 NIV

2. Roman Peace (Pax Romana)

Free Movement in the Whole Empire

Made it easier for early Christian missionaries (like Paul) to preach the Gospel throughout the empire

3. Roads Throughout Empire & Strategic

Cities

Easy Travel

Made it easier for early Christian missionaries (like Paul) to travel and preach the Gospel throughout the empire

Via Appia Via Dimitian at Ambrussum

Roman Road-Pyrenees

3. Roads cont.

4. Roman Army

Universal & Multiethnic Organization with

People from Everywhere

Soldiers take Gospel with them to far away places

Provincial Soldiers take Gospel to far away Army Posts & Back Home

Martyrdom of St.Maurice & the Legion, El Greco

4. Roman Army cont.

5. Rome Defeats other nations and thereby defeats their Gods

This leads to defeated peoples loss of belief in their gods, creating a vacuum and giving Christianity the opportunity to fill it.

6. Mystery Religions

~ Cybele’s son Attis died & was resurrected.

Believers practiced baptism in blood of Bull.

Cybele Shrine, Vienne, France Attis Cybele

Attis was the son of Cybele. Cybele loved her son intensely but Attis fell in love with a nymph and jealousy overcame the mother. In a rage she cast a spell of madness and he castrated himself and died. Thus it was that death and sadness entered the world. Cybele, full of remorse took the body to a cave and wept. She first buried Attis at Pessinus but then used her power to restore him to life and they were reunited.

Similar (but far inferior) beliefs and practices prepared

the way for Christianity

Cybele's most solemn ritual was the Taurobolium, a sacrifice of a bull, like Mithras's. The blood flowed through the slats of the sacrificial platform. The initiate standing below thereby became "born again". People who could not afford a bull made do with a sheep and so were "washed in the blood of the lamb“.

Taurobolium

Attis was a typical "g-d without a father," the Virgin Cybele’s son. He grew up to become a sacrificial victim and Savior, slain to bring salvation to mankind. His body was eaten by his worshippers in the form of bread [the Eucharist of Attis]. He was resurrected as "The Most High G-d, who holds the universe together.”

(Walker, The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets,

p. 77).

Isis and Osiris: - Seth killed his brother Osiris - Isis and Horus put him together and he becomes king of Underworld - There will be a great final Battle between Seth and Horus - Seth and Horus contend for human souls - Osiris after final Battle will return to Earth to rule with those that believed in him

Horus, Osiris,Isis (Louvre)

People kneeling before Osiris

6. Mystery Religions cont.

~Isis & Osiris……Death& Resurrection

Seth killed his brother Osiris. Isis gathered the pieces together, rejoined them by magic, and by magic made a likeness of the missing member so that Osiris was complete. Then she caused the body to be embalmed and hidden away in a place of which she alone knew. And after this the spirit of Osiris passed into Amenti to rule over the dead until the last great battle, when Horus should slay Seth and Osiris would return to earth once more.Horus and Seth still contend for the souls of men and for the rule of the world.The Skondians believed that the Last Battle was still to come - and that Horus would defeat Seth in this also. And when Seth was destroyed forever, Osiris would rise from the dead and return to earth, bringing with him all those who had been his own faithful followers.

Mithraism ~December Festival

~Baptism in Bull’s Blood

~Eating Sacred Meal

~Savior God

~Immortality of the Soul

~The Evil One

6. Mystery Religions cont.

Mystery Religions may be halfway house between Paganism & Christianity

~MithraismMithra was regarded as created by, yet co-equal with, the Supreme Deity. Mithraists were Trinitarian, kept Sunday as their day of worship, and their chief festivals were what we know as Christmas and Easter. Long before the advent of Jesus, Mithra was said to have been born of a virgin mother, in a cave, at the time of Christmas, and died on a cross at Easter. Baptism was practiced, and the sign of the cross was made on the foreheads of all newly-baptized converts. Mithra was considered to be the savior of the world, conferring on his followers an eternal life in Heaven, and, similar to the story of Jesus, he died to save all others, provided that they were his followers.

Greek Contributions to the Maximum Impact of Christ

Greek Contributions to the Maximum Impact of Christ1. Universal Language (Koine), Common Man’s

Language Koine

4th B.C. to 4th A.D., the language of the New Testament and Septuagint, spread by Alexander the Great throughout his Empire. Based on the Attic-Ionic dialect.

~Paul & Missionaries could be Understood

throughout Empire

2. Greek Philosophy (Plato, Aristotle, )

a) Showed the Irrationality of Old, Pantheistic

Religion

b) Showed the Reality of the Transcendent

Plato’s “Ideas more Real then the Visible

World”

Plato

More Greek Contributions…

Stoicism ~World a Single Society (Brotherhood of All)~World Contained a Principle of

Order,

the Logos (God?)~All People have Reason, All have

Dignity, All are Brothers

~Control things you can, be indifferent to

things you can not~Have Inner Strength (Not

Miracle) to Deal with Misfortune

2. Greek Philosophy cont.

c) Insufficiency of Latest Philosophies

~Stoicism: Zeno, Epictetus, Seneca,Marcus

Aurelius Materialistic & Pantheistic

d) Philosophies offered no Ultimate Hope

Christianity’s Advantage: It did offer hope

SenecaZenoMarcus Aurelius

Jewish Contributions to the Full Impact of Christ

1. Monotheism Sole God

(At least other Gods Irrelevant)

Sovereign

(Source of All, Creator, Eternal)

Transcendent

(outside cosmos [nature] He is not in nature)

Good

Merciful & Kind

2. Messiah

El Greco

3. Old Testament Torah

1610

4. Individual

• Dignity, Autonomous, Freedom to choose

• Condition of Freedom:

Voluntary Obedience

5. Universalism & Individualism

6. Philosophy of History

History has Meaning History is Linear and moves toward an End

Each Event is Unique (ex. Exodus)

Cataclysmic End

Divinely Created New Beginning

For Pagans:History is Cyclical

NewBeginning

NewBeginningEnd

Jewish-Christian History with Meaning, Linear, Each Event Unique….

Exodus

7. Covenant and the Law

(The Ethical System)• Mutual Contract

• The Law

• Principal Provision:

Protect Orphans,

Widows, Strangers

8. Synagogues First Preaching Place of Gospel

Assembly Room- Dura Europos, Iraq Synagogue of Ostia, Italy-1st-4th cent.

Dura Europos

DuraEuropos3rd cent

Dura Europos

“When the Fullness of time was come, God sent forth His

Son”Galatians 4:4