The Christian Church began when a small group of Jewish men and women believed all of the promises God made in the Old Testament writings had been fulfilled in the life of Jesus of Nazareth who claimed to be the long awaited Messiah of Israel.

In this Church History (Prelude) I want to explain how events in world history before Jesus Christ was born led to the explosive growth of the Church within the Old Roman Empire during the first century, so let’s begin with Moses.

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#1. With God’s help, Moses was able to force an Egyptian Pharaoh to release the children of Israel from their slavery and begin a journey to make their home in the land of Canaan.

#2. After Moses died, his personal assistant – a man named Joshua – became the leader and led the twelve tribes of Israel in a military campaign to gain control of a small portion of land in the Middle East.

#3. The land that Joshua conquered contained a trade route that traveling merchants from Asia, Europe and Africa used for international trade. Whoever controlled the trade route could collect tax revenue from those traveling merchants in exchange for keeping the countryside safe from bandits and other threats.

#4. The Book of Judges contains stories explaining the battles that took place for control of the trade route and the tax revenue that came with it. These conflicts took a dramatic turn when the last of the judges – a man named Samuel – appointed a King in Israel.

#5. King David managed to gain complete control of the trade route and its tax revenue, and his success in battle for control of the trade route allowed his heir – Solomon – to become incredibly wealthy from the tax revenue.

#6. The taxes Solomon imposed on the twelve tribes led to a civil war and resulted in two governments who fought between themselves a lot for control of the tax revenue. The Northern Kingdom was an alliance of ten tribes and the Southern Kingdom was an alliance of two tribes along with the Levites.

#7. The Northern Kingdom was conquered by the Assyrians and sent into an exile from which they still have not returned. The Southern Kingdom survived the Assyrian Invasion, but was later conquered and sent into exile by the Babylonians.

#8. When the Babylonians came, they destroyed Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem. This caused the Jews of the Southern Kingdom to begin building synagogues where they could study the teachings of Moses to make sure something like this never happened again.

#9. Eventually the Babylonians were conquered by the Persians, who let the Jews return from exile and even offered to use the tax revenue they collected from the trade route to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem.

#10. When the Persians were conquered by the Greeks, the heirs of Alexander the Great began Hellenization – the spread of Greek language, culture and architecture to help maintain control of the land they conquered.

#11. When the Greeks were conquered by the Romans, the Roman Empire began building roads that would allow someone living in Jerusalem to safely walk west as far as Spain, north as far as Russia, west as far as India, and south as far as Africa.

#12. When the last road was finished God decided that “the fullness of time had come” and God “sent forth his son.” (Galatians 4:4 ESV)

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To Be Continued…