How did Christianity begin?

It began at Pentecost, about fifty days after Jesus' resurrection (around 30 to 33 AD), when his followers received the Holy Spirit and began proclaiming the risen Christ in Jerusalem. From there it spread across the Roman world and beyond (Acts 2).

Did the Council of Nicaea invent the divinity of Jesus?

No. Christians confessed and worshipped Jesus as God long before Nicaea in 325. The New Testament (John 1:1; Colossians 1; Philippians 2) and church fathers like Ignatius (c.107 AD) already confessed his deity. Nicaea defended this belief against Arianism; it did not create it.

Was Christianity always a Western religion?

No. It grew first and most deeply in the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia. Armenia became the first Christian nation around 301 AD, and the faith reached Persia, India, and China in its early centuries. Christianity has always been global.

Christian History: How the Faith Began and Spread

Christian History

How did the Christian faith begin, and how did it become the largest, most widely spread religion on earth? This is the story: from a small band of frightened disciples in Jerusalem who met the risen Jesus, through the early church and its martyrs, the church fathers, the great councils and creeds that confessed Christ as fully God and fully man, the spread of the faith across the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and the world, and the Reformation. Told honestly, and as shared Christian heritage: Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant.

Explore the story

The Early ChurchThe church began at Pentecost, about fifty days after Jesus' resurrection, when his followers in Jerusalem received the Holy Spirit and began to procl...The Church FathersThe church fathers were the influential Christian teachers of the first several centuries who guarded and explained the faith handed down from the apo...The Council of Nicaea (325 AD)The Council of Nicaea, held in 325 AD, was the first ecumenical (worldwide) council of the church. It met to address the teaching of Arius, who claime...The Ecumenical CouncilsThe ecumenical councils were gatherings of bishops from across the whole church to settle major questions of belief. The first four, Nicaea (325), Con...The Christian CreedsA creed is a short, shared statement of Christian belief, from the Latin 'credo', 'I believe'. The two most widely used are the Apostles' Creed, a sim...How Christianity SpreadChristianity spread from Jerusalem outward: first through the apostles across the Roman world, then far beyond it. Crucially, it was never only a West...The ReformationThe Reformation was a sixteenth-century movement to renew the Western church, usually dated from 1517, when Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses protest...

An honest word on the Nicaea myth

You may have heard that the church 'invented' Jesus' divinity, or decided the Bible, at the Council of Nicaea in 325. It is a popular claim, and it is not accurate. Christians worshipped Jesus as God from the start: you can read it in the New Testament itself (John 1:1; Philippians 2:6; Colossians 1:16) and in the church fathers decades before Nicaea. Nicaea defended and carefully worded a faith the church already held. We walk through this fairly and in detail on the Council of Nicaea page.

Frequently asked questions

How did Christianity begin?: It began at Pentecost, about fifty days after Jesus' resurrection (around 30 to 33 AD), when his followers received the Holy Spirit and began proclaiming the risen Christ in Jerusalem. From there it spread across the Roman world and beyond (Acts 2).
Did the Council of Nicaea invent the divinity of Jesus?: No. Christians confessed and worshipped Jesus as God long before Nicaea in 325. The New Testament (John 1:1; Colossians 1; Philippians 2) and church fathers like Ignatius (c.107 AD) already confessed his deity. Nicaea defended this belief against Arianism; it did not create it.
Was Christianity always a Western religion?: No. It grew first and most deeply in the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia. Armenia became the first Christian nation around 301 AD, and the faith reached Persia, India, and China in its early centuries. Christianity has always been global.

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The story is still His story

Every century of this history circles back to one Person. The councils met to confess him, the martyrs died trusting him, and the faith spread across the world because people met him and could not keep quiet. You do not have to take the church’s word for it, or ours. Read his own words and see. The Gospel of John is a gentle place to begin.

Read the Gospel of John Who is Jesus?The Resurrection

Jesus Christ is Lord.

Explore furtherWho is Jesus?The resurrection Come and See Read the Gospel