Apostles Christianizing Nations

Christian History “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” Hosea 4:6

Paul and Barnabas were the first apostles to go to gentile nations with the gospel. But history indicates that all the 12 apostles eventually went out to all parts of the world.

The Ethiopian Eunuch, who Philip ran to his chariot, told him about Jesus, and then baptized him, may have actually been the first “evangelist” to reach his own pagan nation with the gospel. He led his king to embrace Jesus Christ and thereafter many of the people in Ethiopia. It eventually became a Christian nation and even retained the title of being a Christian Empire for 1,600 years until 1974. Multitudes of earlier generations of Ethiopians were genuine Christians, though eventually it become more cultural than spiritually personal. But even being culturally Christian as a nation it was far better off than the cultural pagan or Muslim nations.

Though Paul and Barnabas were the first apostles to go to other nations, history has it that one of the first 12 apostles, Bartholomew, went with Thaddeus (one of the later 70 apostles of Jesus}, went to the capital city of Armenia, Edessa. There they evangelized the capital city with multitudes coming to Christ, along with the first king that converted to Christianity, Abgar V. With the king becoming a Christian, in time the nation of Armenia became the first formal Christian nation in the world. 

King Tiridates III imprisoned Saint Gregory the Illuminator for 12 years for being the son of his father’s killer. After King Tiridates III realized Gregory, Gregory led the King to receive Jesus Christ and then baptized him, in 301 A.D. St. Gregory the Illuminator is credited with turning all of Armenia from paganism to Christianity. Armenia is considered the first nation to “officially” adopt Christianity as its state religion when King Tiridates III converted in 301 AD. However, other nations at that time now had majority Christian populations, such as Syria, Cappadocia, and Egypt.

Not long after Armenia, another king and kingdom became Christian. King Ezana of the African Kingdom of Aksum (320-360 A.D.) converted to Christianity and adopted Christianity as the official religion of his kingdom. The Kingdom of Askum was large and included:

• Ethiopia, also called Abyssinia
• Yemen
• Southern Arabia
• Northern Somalia
• Djibouti
• Eritrea
• Parts of Sudan

King Ezana originally minted coins with a pagan symbol at the top of a star and crescent moon. After he converted to Christianity, he replaced the star and crescent with a Christian cross.

Finally in 313 AD, Constantine the Great (whose mother was a Christian), embraced Christianity himself and best he could, started putting God’s moral Law in place of the pagan law over the entire Roman Empire. He stopped all persecution of Christians and had their previously confiscated homes and lands returned to them.

This began, what became to be called in an honorable tern – the “Western Civilization”. This was an honorable title because of the word “civilization” – these Christianized western nations were referred to as being “civil”. As all the other non-Christian nations truly uncivil and uncivilized. The meaning of the word “civil” as defined: “Of, or in a condition of, social order or organized government; civil peoples; adhering to the norms of polite social intercourse; not deficient in common courtesy; of or relating to a civil/moral law.” Even today, nations that have lacked Christian influence, or are turning away from it, are lacking civility.