Christian History · Timeline

The Christian Timeline

From a small band of frightened disciples in Jerusalem who became convinced they had met the risen Jesus, the Christian faith spread in one unbroken story across twenty centuries and every continent: Pentecost and the early martyrs, the great councils and creeds, the medieval church, the Reformation, the missionary centuries, and today’s global church of some 2.4 billion people. Through all of it runs a single thread. Jesus said, ‘I will build my church,’ and he has.

The eras at a glance

This is the chronological companion to our thematic guide to Christian history. For the people behind these events, see the great Christians in history; for the faith country by country, see the body of Christ around the world. Where scholars differ on a date, this page says so.

• c. AD 30 to 33
  The crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus
  In Jerusalem, Jesus is crucified under Pontius Pilate and, Christians confess, raised on the third day. This is the event the whole faith rests upon. Scholars date it to either AD 30 or AD 33.
• c. AD 30 to 33
  Pentecost and the birth of the church
  Fifty days after the resurrection the Holy Spirit falls on the disciples, and about three thousand believe (Acts 2). The church is born in a single morning.
• c. AD 34 to 36
  The conversion of Saul of Tarsus
  The church’s fiercest persecutor meets the risen Christ on the Damascus road and becomes Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles.
• c. AD 48 to 49
  The Council of Jerusalem
  The apostles decide that Gentiles need not become Jews to follow Jesus (Acts 15). From the start, the gospel is for all nations.
• c. AD 48 to 64
  Paul’s missionary journeys and letters
  Paul plants churches across Asia Minor and Greece. His letters, written in the 50s, are the earliest Christian writings we possess, older than the written Gospels.
• c. AD 52 (tradition)
  The apostle Thomas said to reach India
  Ancient tradition holds that Thomas carried the gospel to India, where the Saint Thomas Christians trace their origin. Historians debate the details, but the community is very old.
• AD 64 to 67
  The fire of Rome and the deaths of Peter and Paul
  Nero blames Christians for Rome’s great fire. By early tradition Peter and Paul are martyred in the city during these years.
• AD 70
  The destruction of the Jerusalem Temple
  Rome razes the Temple, ending the sacrificial system and scattering the Jerusalem church. Christianity’s center begins to shift outward.
• c. AD 65 to 100
  The four Gospels are written
  Mark is usually dated around AD 65 to 70, then Matthew, Luke, and John by about AD 100. The exact dating is debated among scholars, but all fall within living memory of Jesus.
• c. AD 95
  Revelation and the close of the apostolic age
  The aged apostle John, exiled on Patmos, writes Revelation. His death around AD 100 ends the age of the apostles.

• c. AD 107
  The martyrdom of Ignatius of Antioch
  On his way to die in Rome, Ignatius writes seven letters that already call Jesus ‘our God’, more than two centuries before the Council of Nicaea.
• c. AD 112
  Pliny’s letter to Trajan
  A Roman governor describes Christians meeting before dawn to sing to Christ ‘as to a god’, a hostile but priceless outside witness to early worship.
• c. AD 155 to 160
  The martyrdom of Polycarp
  A disciple of the apostle John refuses to deny Christ: ‘Eighty and six years have I served him, and he has done me no wrong.’
• c. AD 180
  Irenaeus writes Against Heresies
  Defending the apostolic faith and the four Gospels against Gnostic distortions, Irenaeus anchors the mainstream of the church.
• c. AD 200
  Tertullian and the word Trinity
  The North African writer is the first to use the Latin word trinitas for Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
• AD 250
  The Decian persecution
  The emperor Decius orders everyone in the empire to sacrifice to the gods, the first coordinated, empire-wide persecution of Christians.
• c. AD 301
  Armenia becomes the first Christian nation
  King Tiridates III, converted through Gregory the Illuminator, makes Christianity the state faith, more than a decade before Rome grants toleration.
• AD 303 to 311
  Diocletian’s Great Persecution
  The last and most severe Roman persecution sets out to destroy the church, and fails.
• AD 313
  The Edict of Milan
  Constantine and Licinius grant Christians legal toleration across the empire. Three centuries of persecution give way to freedom.

• AD 325
  The First Council of Nicaea
  The first worldwide council confesses the Son as ‘of one substance’ with the Father and rejects Arianism. It defended, and did not invent, the church’s belief in Christ’s deity.
• c. AD 330
  The conversion of Ethiopia
  Through Frumentius, King Ezana of Aksum embraces Christianity, beginning one of the world’s oldest unbroken Christian traditions.
• AD 367
  Athanasius lists the 27 New Testament books
  In his Easter letter Athanasius names exactly the twenty-seven books Christians still receive as the New Testament.
• AD 381
  The First Council of Constantinople
  The council confesses the full deity of the Holy Spirit and completes what we now call the Nicene Creed.
• AD 382 to 405
  Jerome completes the Latin Vulgate
  Jerome’s translation becomes the Bible of the Western church for the next thousand years.
• AD 397
  The Council of Carthage affirms the canon
  A regional council lists the biblical books the churches had long used, confirming the shape of the New Testament.
• AD 354 to 430
  Augustine of Hippo
  The North African bishop writes the Confessions and The City of God, shaping Western theology for a millennium.
• AD 431
  The Council of Ephesus
  The council affirms that Christ is one person, and that Mary bore the one who is truly God (Theotokos), against Nestorius.
• c. AD 432
  Patrick’s mission to Ireland
  A former slave returns to evangelize the people who once enslaved him, and Ireland becomes Christian.
• AD 451
  The Council of Chalcedon
  Christ is confessed as one person in two natures, fully God and fully man. Over its wording, the Oriental Orthodox churches part from the rest.
• AD 476
  The fall of the Western Roman Empire
  As Rome collapses, the church becomes the great preserver of faith, learning, and order across the West.
• c. AD 529
  Benedict founds Monte Cassino
  His Rule shapes Western monasticism. For centuries, monasteries will copy Scripture and keep learning alive.
• AD 597
  Augustine of Canterbury’s mission to England
  Sent by Pope Gregory the Great, he brings the Roman mission to the Anglo-Saxons.
• AD 635
  The gospel reaches China
  The Church of the East sends Alopen to the Tang capital. The famous Xi’an stele records this early Christian mission along the Silk Road.
• AD 787
  The Second Council of Nicaea
  The seventh ecumenical council settles the use of icons, closing the age of the great early councils.

• AD 1054
  The Great Schism
  East and West excommunicate one another, dividing Christianity into the Orthodox and Catholic churches, a breach that endures to this day.
• AD 1095
  The First Crusade is called
  Pope Urban II launches the Crusades, a long, complex, and often tragic chapter that faithful Christians grieve honestly.
• c. 1181 to 1226
  Francis of Assisi
  Renouncing wealth, Francis renews the church through poverty, joy, and love for the poor and for creation.
• 1225 to 1274
  Thomas Aquinas
  His Summa Theologiae weds faith and reason and remains a towering summit of Christian thought.
• c. 1382
  Wycliffe’s English Bible
  John Wycliffe and his followers translate the Bible into English, insisting that ordinary people should be able to read God’s Word.
• AD 1415
  Jan Hus is martyred
  The Czech reformer is burned for calling the church back to Scripture, a full century before Luther.
• AD 1453
  The fall of Constantinople
  The Byzantine capital falls to the Ottomans, ending the eastern Roman empire and sending Greek learning westward.
• c. 1455
  The Gutenberg Bible
  The first major book printed with movable type is the Bible. Printing will soon carry the Reformation across a continent.

• AD 1517
  Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses
  Martin Luther protests the sale of indulgences and, carried by the printing press, ignites the Reformation.
• 1525 to 1526
  The Anabaptists and Tyndale’s New Testament
  The radical reformers press for believers’ baptism, and William Tyndale prints the New Testament in plain English.
• AD 1534
  The English Reformation
  Henry VIII breaks with Rome, and the Church of England begins the path that will produce the Anglican tradition.
• AD 1536
  Calvin’s Institutes and Geneva
  John Calvin systematizes Reformed theology and makes Geneva a center of the movement.
• 1545 to 1563
  The Council of Trent
  The Catholic Church answers the Reformation with its own reform, defining Catholic doctrine for centuries to come.
• AD 1611
  The King James Bible
  The King James Version is published and becomes the most influential English Bible in history.
• AD 1620
  The Pilgrims sail to America
  Seeking freedom to worship, they help plant a deeply Protestant culture in the New World.
• AD 1648
  The Peace of Westphalia
  The treaties end Europe’s wars of religion and reshape the relationship between church and state.

• 1738 to 1740s
  The Great Awakening and the Wesleys
  John and Charles Wesley, with George Whitefield, lead revivals that reshape English-speaking Christianity and give birth to Methodism.
• 1730s to 1740s
  Jonathan Edwards and revival in America
  The First Great Awakening sweeps the American colonies through preaching of the new birth.
• AD 1793
  William Carey sails for India
  Often called the father of modern missions, Carey launches the great Protestant missionary movement.
• AD 1807
  The abolition of the British slave trade
  After decades of struggle, the Christian abolitionist William Wilberforce sees the slave trade outlawed.
• AD 1807
  Robert Morrison reaches China
  The first Protestant missionary to China begins the long labor of translating the Bible into Chinese.
• 1854 to 1865
  Hudson Taylor and inland China
  Taylor’s China Inland Mission pioneers a humbler, more culturally adaptive model of mission.
• 1840s to 1873
  David Livingstone in Africa
  Explorer and missionary, Livingstone opens central Africa to the wider world and campaigns against the slave trade.

• 1906 to 1909
  The Azusa Street Revival
  A humble revival in Los Angeles gives rise to modern Pentecostalism, now hundreds of millions strong across the globe.
• AD 1910
  The Edinburgh Missionary Conference
  A landmark gathering that helps launch the modern ecumenical movement.
• 1934 to 1945
  The Confessing Church and Bonhoeffer
  German Christians resist Nazism. Dietrich Bonhoeffer is executed for his faith and conscience.
• AD 1948
  The World Council of Churches
  Churches across the traditions form a body for cooperation and dialogue.
• AD 1949
  Billy Graham and mass evangelism
  Graham’s Los Angeles crusade begins a ministry that will reach hundreds of millions.
• 1962 to 1965
  The Second Vatican Council
  The Catholic Church renews its worship and its engagement with the modern world.
• 1949 to today
  The explosion of the church in China
  Despite decades of persecution, Christianity grows dramatically in China, now home to tens of millions of believers.
• late 20th century
  The center of gravity shifts to the global South
  Africa, Asia, and Latin America become the heartlands of world Christianity.
• AD 1999
  The Catholic-Lutheran Joint Declaration
  Catholics and Lutherans find significant agreement on justification, the very issue that sparked the Reformation.
• Today
  The largest, most global faith on earth
  Some 2.4 billion Christians on every continent. The church that began with a few disciples now fills the world (Revelation 7:9).

The thread through it all

Read the whole story and one thing becomes plain: through every century, every council and controversy, every rise and fall of empires, one Person holds it together. The church has been divided, persecuted, corrupted, and renewed, and yet it has never once disappeared, because it was never finally ours to keep. Jesus said he would build it, and he has.

Frequently asked questions

How old is Christianity?

Christianity is about two thousand years old. It began with the resurrection of Jesus and the birth of the church at Pentecost, around AD 30, in Jerusalem.

What are the main eras of Christian history?

They are commonly grouped as the apostolic age (AD 30 to 100), the early church under Rome (to 313), the age of the councils (325 to 787), the medieval church (500 to 1500), the Reformation era (1500 to 1650), the missionary centuries (1700 to 1900), and the global church of today.

What is the most important date in Christian history?

Christians would point to the resurrection of Jesus, around AD 30, the event on which the whole faith rests and from which every later chapter flows (1 Corinthians 15:14).