Ian Paul is a theologian, writer and speaker. Associate Minister at St Nic's, Nottingham and Honorary Lecturer at the University of Nottingham. He asks this question:
How is it that a man who lived a short life, died as a criminal, left no writings and few followers, never travelled more than a few days’ walk from his birthplace, and lived and died in an obscure corner of a vast empire end up having so much influence in the world? No other religious leader lived a life like this—all others lived lives from which you could explain their influence. And yet few have come close in terms of global and historical impact.
This is regarded as a "gotcha" question by most Christians. They assume that the only sensible answer is that despite his humble beginnings, Jesus preached a message so beguiling that no intelligent human being can ignore it, and none can belittle it. Jesus influences our lives because he is not "just" a man, but a messenger of God; the fact (they say) cannot be easily denied.
Here's the real story:
About 2,000 years ago the Jews were living under Roman rule and many of them prayed for a Messiah to appear and kick the Romans out of their country.
Jesus arrived on the scene and he was able to convince a small group of followers that he was, indeed, the long awaited Messiah, but he failed to deliver on his promises.
Nevertheless, his followers lived in hope and the religion didn't die out. For centuries it was just another religious sect and much less important than the pagan religions which dominated the area at the time.
Then, in 325AD the Emperor Constantine looked kindly upon the religion. He appointed its leaders to political office and by 400AD the Christians had gained control of the empire.
They used their power to ban all pagan religions and kill anyone who spoke against Christianity.
They also destroyed non-Christian books and libraries, and restricted education to the ruling classes (ie: priests and monks only).
Within a couple of generations the population had been dumbed-down to the point where no-one had the capacity to argue with their religious leaders, and that situation continued for the next 600 years. We refer to the period as "The Dark Ages".
In 1000AD the leader of the Christian Church (the Pope) embarked on a campaign to eliminate a rival religion (Islam) that was becoming ever more powerful and posed a threat to Christianity. The wars with the Muslims lasted for 200 years. We know them as "The Crusades".
After 200 years of Crusades the Pope had to forget about the Muslims because there were some Christians who were starting to rebel against his authority in Europe. He instituted the first of many Inquisitions that were designed to do nothing more than root out all dissenters and kill them.
The Inquistions lasted for 600 years until the early 19th century when the church finally lost its political power and Parliamentarians gained control of most of Europe.
The Parliamentarians realized, of course, that the church could easily rally the flock to overturn any Government, and therefore, in order to prevent that happening, the Parliamentarians offered the religious leaders a bribe: Forget about trying to regain political power and we'll let you earn as much money as you can with a not a penny of tax to pay! The religious leaders accepted the deal immediately.
400 years struggling to gain political powerThat's how the church gained its influence. Jesus had nothing to do with it.
600 years of Dark Ages
200 years of Crusades
600 years of Inquisitions
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