Versions of the Origins of Christianity and Its Spread to Africa and Kenya

A Christian is an individual who has personal relationship with Jesus Christ. The individual seeks to live his life according to the principals and values taught by Jesus Christ. Christians congregate in churches; many refer to Christians as the disciples of Jesus Christ. They have the Holy Bible as the only authoritative rule of faith. The main characteristics of the Christian family include, civil, kind, humble, gentle and beneficent. In other words Christianity can be defined as a religion which is based on life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christianity has the largest number of followers in the world; it has approximately two billion followers.

The religion has so many denominations such as the Roman Catholic, Orthodox, The Quakers, Seventh Day Adventist and the apostolic churches which have so many sub churches in them. Christianity began way before Jesus was born. It actually begun in the day’s prophets. They prophesized about the coming of the Messiah. Christianity came to be openly seen with Jesus and his twelve disciples. Many people believe that it began during the day of Pentecost. The disciples of Jesus had locked up themselves in a room due to fear. Suddenly, the room was filled with the Holy Spirit in form of tongues of fire and descended upon each of the disciple in the room. Everyone was filled with the Holy Spirit and started talking in different languages; they moved out and started spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. This paper shall discuss in details the origin of Christianity and also how it got to Africa and Kenya.

Christianity begun as a movement in Judaism, I n the first century in Roman province in Judea. The Jewish people were deeply rooted and also had foreign political powers ruling over them. The Jewish missionaries had a role to impose Jewish customs such as circumcision and the observation of the Sabbath Day.The impact of their teachings turned to be so bad to an extent of the Jews not accepting the non-Jews who were not circumcised. The relationship between the early Christian churches to Judaism turned principally on two questions firstly; the Messianic role of Jesus of Nazareth. Secondly, the permanent validity of the mosaic law of all. The Jews people were never impressed the Roman rule since it reminded them of the historical injustices they had faced (the Jewish people are believed to be the one who faced slavery in Egypt). Most of the Roman people were pagans and mostly intruded into the Jewish way of life, Jews were left with no other option but to start a hard struggle for change. A group of Jewish formed a resistance group while others decided to study the Jewish law and eagerly waited for the promised Jewish messiah.

Jesus was a Jew. His early followers referred to him as the Jewish teacher. Jesus is believed to be the long awaited Messiah who was even prophesized by the early prophets. The Jewish Messiah was born in Bethlehem and brought up in Nazareth. He was sent by his father to come and proclaim His kingdom. Jesus started His ministry by first choosing his disciples who were twelve in number and this were His first followers. The twelve disciples were also referred as the apocalyptic apostles. Jews were the first people to be Christians. The Gentiles joined Christianity at a later period, their union led to the division the Jewish Christians and the gentiles Christians. This split led to the Gentile Christians to form the orthodox Christianity. On the other hand the Jewish Christians disintegrated from Judaism, therefore being the minority group. In the fifth century the Jewish Christianity almost disappeared. Emperor Constantine issued the Edict of Milan which legalized Christian worship. The Edict of Thessalonica put forth under Theodosius, the Roman Empire officially adopted Trinitarian Christianity as its state religion. Christianity then established itself as the gentile religion in the state of the church of the Roman Empire.

In the middle ages the missionaries actively started to the spread the gospel towards the west of Germany. The growing criticism on the Roman Catholic beliefs, structure and behavior led to the rise of Protestants movements and the split of western Christianity. After a period of time the actual of partitioning and colonization of some countries in the world led to spread of Christianity to the rest of the world. Before dwelling in western missionary Christianity it is good to first understand the brief history of early Christians.

History of early Christians is categorized in two phases this are firstly, the apostolic age; this period is categorically named after the apostles. An apostle in Greek simply means one who was sent. In the New Testament the apostles were the twelve disciples of Jesus. For e2xample in the apostolic period apostle Paul used to preach inside a house because he was under house arrest. He was also arrested with Silas and was imprisoned but due to prayers the prison doors opened and were set free. The second period was the Nicene Period. In this period Christianity had spread all over Western Europe, Mediterranean basin and north of Africa. During Nicene period there was increased rejection and persecution of Christians.

The history of Christianity was foretold by the prophets in the Old Testament in the Old Testament. Almost three hundred prophecies were foretold over a period of a thousand years were recorded in the Old Testament, all these prophecies were about the coming of the Jewish Messiah. Therefore, this clearly indicates that before Jesus Christ came into this planet people had already known about his coming through the prophecies. Jesus travelled from village to village, in synagogues, on the lakeshores and market places teaching and healing the sick. Jesus challenged the then religious leaders to stop hypocrisy and repent their sins.

Jesus teachings brought about instability something that the Jewish leaders feared a lot. A group of people started following Jesus calling him the teacher. He taught about the kingdom of God. Jesus made his followers to understand that sin is the cause of mankind loosing good relationship with God. Due to this sin Jesus would be crucified on the Roman cross. After three days he would rise and that would bring hope to the world. Later on it happened just as Jesus had taught his followers. Jesus was falsely accused and after the cruel ruling of Poncio Pilate, crucified on the Roman cross, died and after three days He resurrected after conquering death. The incidences made disciples to start spreading the gospel of good hope. From the small province of Judea the history of Christian church began and spread it to the rest of the world.

In Africa Christianity is the dominant religion closely followed by Islam. In 2002 the world book encyclopedia stipulated that Christianity constitute of Africa’s population. Mark was an evangelist in the year 43. He became the first Bishop to serve the Orthodox church of Alexandria. The church initially used Greek but later the scriptures were later translated into three native languages. Christianity found its way in Africa in the first century. The religion further spread to the North West of Africa. The churches still maintained their links with the church at Rome. The Alexandrian church grew quickly and the Bishop earned the title of Pope and was also recognized senior Bishop in Egypt. In mid third century Emperor Decius ordered the persecution of Christians. Christians seek refuge in the desert. After the persecution some of the Christians remained the desert for prayers and founded Christian monasticism. King Ezana of the Ethiopian kingdom officially acknowledged Christianity; this led to the establishment of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahado Church. Christianity in North Africa was later wiped out with the coming of Islam into the region.

The Portuguese tried to introduce Roman Catholic in Congo kingdom but never lasted long. The evangelical Revival sent its missionaries to Africa in the 18th century. The good work of the missionaries was later bon outweighed by slavery and commercial exploitation. Henry Venn tried to develop an African church by urging the missionaries to move on. African Christianity grew due to the seeds planted by western missionaries and developed cultural identity. There was need for reforms in both missionary churches and independent churches which resulted to the emergence of African initiated churches for example the Tewahado church which now has a membership of 45million. There has since been an increase in Christianity in Africa as traditional religion is in decline. This is evidence by how many Christian churches sprout out daily. Nigeria in particular has witnessed rapid growth in Christianity with numerous African Christian denominations established across the nation.

In Kenya Christianity is dated back in 1844 when the first missionary settled near Mombasa. Little progress was made until 1870 when freed slaves settlement was established in frère town. The first Kenyans were ordained in 1855. The construction of Kenya Uganda railway gave easy access to the central highqlands. The Roman Catholic missionaries and the Protestants missionaries increased in number. The Agikuyu people were suspicious of the missionaries were white settlers. The settlers regarded the Agikuyu as Pro-Africans. In 1929 there was great disagreement between the missionaries and the Agikuyu when the missionaries to get rid of the clitoridectomy practice. The Agikuyu left missionary schools and churches and started one of their own which were free of missionaries’ control. After the Mau Mau uprising in 1952 some of the Christians to take the secret Mau Mau oath and were killed. They are commemorated as the Anglican cathedral at Murang’a. After Kenya attained independence there was huge influx in churches. The Roman Catholic and Anglican were the largest churches.

In another vision, Vasco da Gama anchored in Mombasa the place where Fort Jesus stands today in 1948. He was going around the Cape of Good Hope in the Indian Ocean. He discovered a new route to India. He felt he was on the route to Prester John’s kingdom, who was a powerful Christian king. He knew the king will be of great help in the struggle against Muslim expansion in Africa. From his way to Mombasa Vasco da Gama discovered that he was not welcomed by the Muslims who were already in the East Coast. He however found a warm welcome in Malindi. He erected a marble pillar in Malindi to commemorate this warm welcome.

Vasco da Gama discovered the presence of gold in the East Coast the likes of Francisco d’Almeida. In 1624 four places of worship were established in Mombasa that is the Augustinine cathedral, Mesiricordia church, Igreja Maritz (mother church) and a chapel inside Fort Jesus. It is now clear that Christianity came to East Africa before colonization. The Portuguese paved way for European countries to scramble, divide and colonize Africa. Though this may not be the main aim for their coming to Africa, they came to preach and spread the gospel. In the resent years there is increased tension between the church and the government. The church should always be concerned about the integrity of citizens and state leaders. The church has also the prophetic ministry of exercising which is ensuring that that the rights of all people are respected and protected by the government. However, these two parties should work together towards justice and peace.

From the emergence of Christianity to the present Christianity. Christianity has had a gradual growth and development. Christianity began from the early days of the prophets. Several prophets prophesized on Christianity, they prophesized on the Jewish Messiah.(Maseno 2015, P.126-139) Jesus fulfills all the description of this Messiah. Jesus was born in Bethlehem and when he was in his thirties he began His work as the savior of all mankind. Jesus was betrayed by his own disciples by the name Judas Iscariot.

He was falsely accused and crucified on the Roman cross, died and resurrected on the third day. Jesus went back to heaven and left behind his followers who make up the early Christians to spread His gospel. The gospel has since spread to all parts of the world. The spreading of the gospel has made Christians to have a total population of about two billion all over the world. The early missionaries also played a greater role in the spreading of Christianity especially in Africa. In Africa Christianity came with a lot of disadvantages such as slavery and colonization. In the present day Kenya Christianity has almost 75% of the total population.