Saturday, February 23, 2019

"he went through the corn fields" - Christianity over Death in Europe


Tokyo


Christianity over Deaths in Europe

In the Mediterranean area of the Roman Empire, there lived 60 million people, of which 0.2 million people were rich.  Their average length of life was between 20 and 30.

It means that you could not find one rich man even among 100 Roman citizens, and most of Roman citizens died in their 20s.  In this situation, Christianity was introduced with the promise of acceptance into Heaven only if one believes.

In the Middle Ages of Europe, 20 births and 20 funerals occurred per year in a village with 100 households of residents having the average length of life between 25 and 30.   In this situation, Christianity diffused widely with the promise of acceptance into Heaven only if one believes.

However, the Black Death spread in Europe, killing 20 million people in Europe between 1347 and 1353.  One third of the European population were killed as Black Death victims.  Accordingly, Vatican's authority was derogated.

So, since the Roman Empire adopted Christianity for its state religion in 392, Christianity had been promoted for 1,000 years in Europe by the Vatican without serious obstacles and challenges.

Poor and unhappy Europeans believed in God of Christianity for 1000 years till they met  the Black Death in the 14th century.  But what they got after 1000-year belief in Christianity was the black plague that killed one third of the Europeans.  So, did they all abandon the faith in God of Christianity?  No, they didn't.  But the authority of the Vatican started to decline, and the religious transformation started in the early 16th century, almost 250 years after the Black Death.

All these incidents show how deeply Christianity came to be rooted in Europe in 1000 years after the Roman Empire adopted Christianity for its state religion.  Poor Europeans came to accept Christianity in these 1000 years.  And when they encountered a further tragedy of the Black Death, they did not abandon the faith although they came to criticize the religious body of the Vatican but not Christianity itself.

Accordingly, it is reasonable to regard Christianity as a true religion proven by the history.  And the Gospel reads:
Joh 11:25 Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:

So, the essence of Christianity should be that if one believes in Christ Jesus, he or she will live if he or she is dead.

Christianity spread over many and many deaths in Europe.



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Mar 2:23 And it came to pass, that he went through the corn fields on the sabbath day; and his disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears of corn.