Christianity In The Roman Empire

From the beginning of time, the prominent religion of the Roman empire was polytheistic. Romans believed that there were many Gods and that their society was protected by an arranged agreement with the Gods in exchange for worship and sacrifice. Hence, religion was not so much to do with spirituality rather a, “contractual relationship between mankind and the forces which were believed to control people’s existence and well-being”(1) ,that is, the emperor's. Christians(believers of Jesus and his teachings) saw this as blasphemy and against the law and refused to worship the Roman gods proclaiming that there was only one true God worthy to worship. As a result, Roman religion found itself threatened by Christianity setting forth concerns and
One of the earliest missionaries being Paul ,who was converted by God through Christ, traveled to preach the word of God.Many people turned to Christianity because it had much to offer. Christianity gave people hope while offering salvation, forgiveness, and eternal life. The people saw all the good this religion had to offer and found themselves attracted to it’s strong faith. Furthermore, Christians would reunite and hold church services leaving out non-christian believers which arose suspicion and rumors. In fact, they were accused of practicing cannibalism due to the lack of knowledge of the eucharist (body of christ, blood of christ). Overmore, because of the lack of practicing worship to the Roman Gods; Roman Empire saw this as treason and had many Christians
These persecutions continued but at a lower tendency for a period of time however this graduallyincreased when the Roman Empire found itself in crisis. A plague destroyed the cities and the Roman economy was facing hard times. During this period in time civil war and battles resulted in the loss of many emperors leading to political instability. While some emperors were lenient with Christian believers others were far less tolerant. Decius(one of the emperor successors) had citizens required to worship and sacrifice to the emperor and then had them receive a certificate for proof. All who lacked this certificate would immediately be persecuted.
Although many early Christians were persecuted it was because of their acts and good deeds that Christianity prevailed during this time. The poor seemed to be neglected by the Rome empire and it was Christians who gave to them and as a result gaining they gained their loyalty. It was because of this and far more factors that the Rome Empire feared Christianity, and as a result the Christians good faith was contagious and continued to spread like the grain of mustard