What Factors Account for the Amazing Growth of the Church in the First Century

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What Factors Account for the Amazing Growth of the Church in the First Century The Christian church refers to a group of people; there were no holy buildings in the first 300 years of Christianity. The Christian people met in secret as a fear of persecution, 40 days after Passover Jesus went to heaven, but told his disciples he would return. The Jewish Pentecost festival occurs 50 days after Passover. People from all over the world had gathered at the temple for the festival. The disciples are hiding in an ‘upper room’ in Jerusalem, when they heard a sudden noise from the heaven like that of a strong wind. Acts 2:3-4 ‘They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.’ The disciples then went out into the streets and preached to the people gathered at the temple. Pilgrims from foreign lands were amazed by the disciples speaking in their languages. Peter went and told the people how Jesus was the Messiah. Many people wanted to know what they had to do to be saved and receive the Holy Spirit. Peter replied ‘Repent and be baptized.’ From that day forward 11 people had persuaded 3000 people to join their church. This helped the church grow massively and when the people that gathered for the festival returned home to their communities they spread it to them too. Many people were persecuted due to their religion in Roman Times. They were tortured and killed. Surprisingly persecution also helped the church grow, many people scattered from Rome except the apostles as a fear of persecution. They went away and took Christianity with them; this spread the church across many countries. Acts 8:1 ‘And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of
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