What is one ingredient you think would be essential (or at least important) to the success of a new religious movement? Please read the first 12 chapters of Acts and see if you can find an example of the 1st century church either having or not having that ingredient.Thursday, February 12, 2009
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I believe there needs to be a few things that just line up to start a new religious movement. In the book of Acts these things just happen to take place.
The first thing any group needs is people. The book of Acts says there was a following in chapter one verse fifteen. These individuals had complete devotion for the calling which allowed them to follow a few chosen individuals (disciples). I don’t think there was one true key figure at this time I believe there was a good “board of directors”. Acts 1:13-15 This movement has one location, Jerusalem from there it will branch all over the earth. Acts 1:8 It is always a good thing to start small and get bigger and that’s what they will do here. When things expand too fast consequences happen and they (disciple) want to make sure that this movement will last forever.
Know once this piece is in the puzzle we need another which can be: money, doctrine, organized structure, laws and rules there so many more than that. In the book of Acts this first reading is all about the expansion of this new movement.
Brian Johnson
I think one of the most important ingredients to the success of a new religion is a strong leader or leadership. It is necessary to keep things in order and give direction and unity.
I think the early Christian church had that, and it was Peter who was the leader.
There are several verses that point to Peter being the leader of the early church. Acts 1:2 speaks of someone who Christ chose to be the leaders of his church and Peter was one of those people. There are also other scriptures that point to Peter being the leader.
Acts 2:1 "When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place."
Before I began reading Acts, my first thought of an important ingredient for a successful religious movement was that there needed to be a meeting place; I was thinking something along the lines of a church. In this verse, it describes how these followers gathered together in one place. This place is probably not a church (at least I don't think so), but it is probably something similiar to a church. Basically, these followers need a place to meet and share their beliefs and prayers.
Brett Newton
One of the first things that one need when getting people to follow any cause, or in this case religion is history. Without history there is nothing to believe in or base ideas and attitudes towards. This is what it does by describing the portrait of the life of Jesus. By giving the history, it gives the people something that is above themselves in cause. The key part of getting people to commit themselves into an idea that is more important than self.
With the history that the acts give us it also gives us a guide. This is a guide in the way we choose to live out our lives here on earth. One needs this when choosing to follow a religion because it shows the way of life that will give happiness in Christ. Its not really rules to follow, but a portrait of Jesus life that we should try and follow.
The Holy Spirit. It's pretty straight-forward. The disciples were just normal human beings until the Holy Spirit was upon them. Once that happened people whose language they could not speak understood what they were saying. This would enable them to expand Christianity wherever they traveled. The signs and miracles they performed through the Holy Spirit helped convert those who needed such things to believe. Of course the Lord took a more direct approach with Paul. He told Paul it was hard for Paul to kick against the goads. I took this to mean there was an internal battle going on with Paul. Paul refused to believe even though the evidence was right in front of him.
I don't think a major religion could be started today. When I see Benny Hinn on television I think of a con-artist from the old west selling snake oil. Then again, a lot of people believe in the religion of Obama and Gore. So I could be wrong.
One of the best things I believe that a new religious movement must contain compassion. People want to believe that their wrongs aren't going to condemn them for life.
The beginning of Acts shows compassion to Christian's followers. Acts 3:17-19, "Yet now, brethren, I know that you did it in ignorance, as did your rulers. But those things that God foretold by the mouth of his prophets, that the Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. Repent therefore and be converted,that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord."
These verses show the converters that they may have been ignorant but soon they will be forgiven if they recognize their sins. This is very compassionate and helpful to those who feel that they don't have much to look forward to because of their sins.
Acts is full of compassionate verses that help people want to be a part of Christianity.
Sam Merkel
For a religion to be successful and have many followers that believe in what they are bing told all depends on the leader of that religion. Peter was the leader for the christian church back than. To prove that he was Acts 1:2 when Jesus tells that there is a leader of his church and Peter was one of these leaders to represent the church. You can also look to the scriptures that say Peter is chosen as a leader. If there is not a good leader for the church to follow than all of the members will leave the church and the religion will die.
A new religious movement needs leaders of strong faith who set the examples that convince others to convert and follow. Faith is what stood up to the high priests and said that they are the leaders no longer; despite the threats and imprisonments of Acts 5:17-33 the disciples taught the Word and healed the faithful.
Even in the face of an angry crowd of doubters a man like Stephen professed his faith and asked forgiveness for those who stoned him in Acts 8:57-60, he could have obliged the crowd and turned away from his faith in the face of imminent violence but he stood his ground which is probably the toughest test to pass of a disciple.
And faith is what attracts people of similar mind; the centurion who sent for Peter was told this by an angel and received his blessings when Peter arrived. Peter too had his doubts about allowing the Gentiles to convert and be baptized but he learned otherwise by Acts 10:34-35, any one who truly believes is acceptable to the Lord and needs to be reached.
For any new religion it is important that the leaders maintain their professed beliefs daily and teach to others how to believe also. A man like Peter carried nothing except his clothes yet found food and shelter when he needed it from the people who believed in him and the message he taught. This strength from the ground built up the Church to its eventual great height.
Zach Anderson
"And upon faith in His name, His name has made this man strong, whom you behold and know; and the faith which is through Him has given him this wholeness of health before you all."
This I feel is a good basis for a new religion because it is a good summary of what the religion is about. I feel it is necessary to address those that might already be familar and those that might not know the teachings at all. This passage establishes the faith that Christ and God have in us and the faith we must have in them. That is the most important thing to get new members of a Church you must have a concrete faith that people can understand and believe. The book of Acts does this very successfully, and to me this passage is a prime example of this.
One thing that I think you need to have to help get a new religious movement going are some miracles.
In the first 12 chapters of Acts you have a number of miracles that the apostles or Peter perform. You have Peter in 3:1-10 healing a crippled begger, and in Acts 5:12-16 you have the apostles healing many people. Miracles are one thing that if you can perform them or they do happen can really get a religious movement going. It also helps to bring people in too because this gives them something to believe in. If people see something amazing or impossible to them, they will look at this and follow you because of this amazing feet.
Eric Bengs
Ruth Wilson
Martyedom of Stephen
I agree with everyone else, a new religion needs faith, people, a meeting place, ect. I also think that keeping a new religion strong needs persicution. The quickest way I know of to get people interested in things is to make it off limits or evil-- look at witchcraft today, or paganism. There is a new movement for these religions because of their forbidden qualities. Even when the Catholic Church was in its heyday, it grew not through love and compassion, but telling people that they would burn in hell if they didn't believe what the Church wanted.
Humans seem to thrive on persicution; it makes us feel special, makes us feel that we will be remembered after we are gone. When we are under the hot eye of persicution, obviously what we are fighting and dieing for is important, otherwise why would people be trying to shut you up?
With the first generation of believers being killed off, many must have asked themselves 'hey, whats going on over here? What did this man or woman believe so strongly as to die for it?'
I believe that there needs to be a common goal, and a group of devoted followers that can convince others to the rightness of their cause, beliefs, etc. The common goal was the spreading of the teachings of Christ and the converting of people to the "faith". The devoted followers who were responsible for spreading these teachings were the Apostles. I believe the day of Pentacost is essential. The Holy Spirit comes upon them. This gives them the power to perform miracles in Jesus name. In Acts, chap. 2 it talks about this amazing thing. It is the point which cements the Apostles entire focus for the rest of their life. They are devoted followers of Jesus, who have just been given the tools to be great leaders, teachers, etc. Some people will even miss the point and in a way start to worship the Disciples, instead of realizing that they are doing great things through Christ and all glory goes to him.
Joe Adam
The Acts 2:2-4
And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a mighty wind coming: and it filled the whole hose where they were sitting. And there appeared to them parted tongues, as it were of fire: and it sat upon every one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost: and they began to speak with divers tongues, according as the holy ghost gave them to speak."
Now what this means is that the apostles were given (through the Holy Ghost) the power of the tongue of fire. Now this made it so that the apostles could disperse and speak in the native language of the land. I find this a very key issue in trying to convert non believers.
I think that a new religion first needs a willing audience. The religion doesn't need to rapidly advance but it has to offer something to the potential followers that they had lacked before. Christianity allowed anyone to be saved and reaffirmed a good place for the poor in the after life. A good place to form a religion in any society is to make the poor and down trodden your leading candidates because they will in every case be more people who are beleaguered than well to do. The rewards for those who are not key in society is well reflected in Christianities after life. Being low in fund but high in faith gets you riches in heaven. I also believe the communication that the people can receive from God through the Holy Ghost helped to grow Christianity. It is good to know that the way you are living on Earth is pleasing to the people who matter in heaven.
There are many ingredients, but I agree that good leadership is an essential ingredient to the success of a new religious movement. Without good leadership, the movement would crumble. The first twelve chapters of Acts show us many examples of effective leadership. The most prevalent leader seen here is Peter. There are many examples of his leadership: Acts 2:14-41, Acts 3:11-26, Acts 10:34-49, Acts 11:1-18, just to name a few. Peter’s leadership has had a huge impact on the spread of Christianity.
Amanda Imberi
I think that cooperation between all the different groups of people coming together would be very important, and Christianity at first was made up of two very different groups of people, Jews and Gentiles. Early on the group of Christians was very close and would help each other with everything. In chapter 2 verses 42-47 it tells how "they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer...All the believers were together and had everything in common..." This is also shown a few chapters later in chapter 4 verses 32-37 where it says "all the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had..." These two passages show that the Christians strength came in their unity and common goal.
But they also had some problems between the Jews and Gentiles that could have been catastrophic to the young religion. The Jewish Christians were still wary about some of the Old Testament regulations, particularly the regulations regarding food that was clean or unclean and also the act of circumcision. Gentiles on the other hand didn't have any worries about the food they ate and did not follow the practice of circumcision. An argument started in the Church because of these differences of opinions and a council formed to help fix the problem. They finally decided on a compromise. They told the Jews that Gentiles did not have to be circumcised but should still be careful of what they eat around Jewish Christians. In chapter 15 verses 19 and 20 James says "'It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood." He realizes that circumcision was just an outward sign the Old Testament believers used, and wasn't necessary anymore. The council also knew that the refraining of certain foods was also an Old Testament custom that did not need to followed anymore, but they still warned the Gentiles to watch what they ate, especially around Jewish Christians. They did not want a Jewish Christian to see a Gentile Christian eating meat with blood in it, which is highly frowned upon in Jewish custom, and be driven away from Christianity. They realized that it was better for the Gentiles to make a small sacrifice so they wouldn't cause their fellow believers to stumble.
John Rawerts
Jesse Peck
a new religious movement attracting new converts, can be thought of in terms or introducing a new product to a market. If i were bring in a new candy bar i would start out with a low introductory price. people would try it out because it is cheap. Then once you have a base of customers you can raise the price, because they already like the product.
For a new religious movement you want to make initial conversion easy and open to every one. Once they have bought into it, you can raise the amount of commitment expected. It is easy enough to be baptized and start up. Then latter you can ask more of your converts. For example you could ask them to sell all of their possessions so every thing could be held in common. as in ACTS 4:32. Then you can have it be known that there is a punishment for noncompliance as in ACTS 5:1-11. If you want them to jump in immediately it would be too much to ask, start out small and work your way up. In order to make sure every one will in fact do what you ask of them there needs to be punishments or rewards.
Jon Adam
One ingredient that would be essential for the success of a new religious movement is that it is easily understandable and flows well so people can follow along and understand. It also cannot be confusing because a good percentage of people (during this time) are illiterate and only know how to fish or farm.
In Acts the language is hard to read. Is a fairly hard concept to understand (i.e. the decent of the holy ghost). The original language of the text is in Greek and few people spoke Greek thus the expansion of Christianity was slow.
The one ingredient definitely necessary is momentum.
You need to have excitement built up, and you have to hit the ground running. The more time you wait, the less likely you are to grab people's attention.
This momentum is definitely first fulfilled at pentecost, when the disciples are filled with the Holy Spirit. From this point on really, the momentum shows itself. The disciples go out, heal and pray in the name of the Lord Jesus. Peter does a great job leading, and then they gain a follower in Saul.
Everything is going so well for the Early Church, up until chapter 12...but that is a story for the next blog!
Acts 2:1 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.
For any religious movement to become successful, it will need to have people, right. It would be hard for any religions to be in existence today without people, but not just any people. Successful religious movements have followers who believe. It is really easy to have people who are content doing the bare minimum to get by, but for a religious movement to be successful, these people need to sacrifice themselves. This helps maintain credibility, not just with in the religious movement, but also the community outside the movement.
I would have to agree with Eric that one thing that attracts followers is by convincing the people to believe the by the best way, showing them. I find Acts chapter 3 very interesting because this shows that not only Jesus was curing the sick, and making miracles. By curing the crippled, Peter and John established leadership, which is another essential characteristic to have when you are trying to gain interest in people.
Peter also shows his leadership by giving the speech and tells the people that he did not raise this man up and help him walk, rather Jesus actually did. He helps the people realize what they have done by handing Jesus over to Pilate, and that their act was out of ignorance.
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