We Don’t Know What Our Older Children Don’t Know About Christianity.

A few months ago I was on a ZOOM call with five college students all professing Christians. Good kids with a weekly Bible study. They contacted me and said they had lots of questions about the Bible and how to apply it to real life and would I be willing to help them weekly. I told them, “I’d go straight to hell if I said no!”

Their first question surprised me. “Why are there so many different denominations if we’re all reading the same Bible?” So I began by explaining that for the first 1,500 years of Christianity there really was only one “denomination” the Catholic Church. Then everything changed when Martin Luther a prominent Catholic theogian nailed his 95 thesis on a church door in Wittenberg German on October 31, 5017. It was a list of 95 things Luther believed the Catholic Church had gotten wrong based on the Bible and needed reforming. That’s why October 31 in the Christian calendar is called Reformation Day.

The next question startled me. “Who was Martin Luther?” Before I could answer one girl asked, “Didn’t he just die like 50 years ago?” Another girl corrected her by saying, “That was Martin King Jr.” “Oh, then was it his father? So I stopped and asked all the girls if anyone knew anything about Martin Luther one of the most important figures in the Protestant Reformation. Nobody had.

Later it dawned on me if you never attended a Christian school where would have heard about John Calvin, Huss, Wycliffe, Arminius, and how their ideas have shaped every Protestant denomination that exists today? It’s not likely you’d heard about them in Sunday school, youth group, or even in a great Bible study. So I asked Claude AI to generate a 1500 word summary of Christianity from Jesus to the Reformation which I sent these girls then we had a discussion . If your older children, or grandchildren never attended a Christian school you might consider discussing the following information with them so they have some idea of the rich history of men and women who were willing to die for what they believed and shaped what we believe today.

The story of Christianity begins with Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God the long awaited Messiah and a teacher who lived in Roman-occupied Judea. His public ministry lasted only three years Around 30–33 AD, Jesus was arrested by Roman authorities, tried, and executed by crucifixion, a common Roman method of punishment. His followers were devastated.

But three days laterJesus rose from the dead. This event — the Resurrection — became the cornerstone of the entire Christian faith. The apostle Paul would later write that without the Resurrection, the faith would be meaningless. Jesus's followers didn't just mourn a dead teacher; they proclaimed a living Lord. That conviction turned a small, frightened group of disciples into a movement that would eventually reshape the world.

The Early Church and the Apostles (33–100 AD)

After Jesus's death and resurrection, his followers gathered in Jerusalem. On the day of Pentecost, about fifty days after the Resurrection, the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples — an event described in the Book of Acts as tongues of fire and a mighty wind. The apostle Peter stood up and preached to a large crowd. That day, thousands of people reportedly converted. The Christian church was born.

The early church was led by the Apostles — the eleven men Jesus had chosen during his ministry, along with a few others. Peter became the leading voice in Jerusalem. James, the brother of Jesus, led the Jerusalem church with wisdom and authority. But perhaps no figure transformed early Christianity more dramatically than Paul of Tarsus.

Paul had actually been an enemy of the early church, helping to persecute Christians. But he had a stunning conversion experience on the road to Damascus, where he claimed to have encountered the risen Jesus in a blinding light. He became Christianity's greatest missionary, traveling across the Roman Empire — through modern-day Turkey, Greece, and eventually Rome itself — planting churches and writing letters inspired by the Holy Spirit that make up much of the New Testament. Paul brought Christianity to the Gentiles (non-Jews), which was a huge and controversial step. He argued powerfully that faith in Jesus, not Jewish law, was the path to salvation.

By the end of the first century, Christian communities had spread across the Roman world, from Jerusalem to Antioch, Corinth, Ephesus, and Rome. The movement was young, diverse, and beginning to face serious opposition.

Persecution and Growth (100–313 AD)

For the first three centuries, Christians faced periodic and sometimes brutal persecution from Roman authorities. The Romans generally tolerated different religions, but Christians refused to worship the Roman gods or the emperor — which the Romans saw as an act of political disloyalty. Emperors like Nero, Domitian, and Diocletian launched campaigns against Christians, executing them in arenas, burning them alive, or feeding them to lions.

Rather than destroying the faith, persecution seemed to spread it. The courage of the martyrs — those who died for their beliefs — inspired others. The word "martyr" comes from the Greek word for "witness." One early church leader wrote, "The blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church."

During these centuries, church leaders called bishops emerged to lead and organize local communities. Influential thinkers known as the Church Fathers began writing serious defenses and explanations of the faith. Figures like Ignatius of Antioch, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and later Tertullian and Origen helped shape Christian theology and defend it against critics both inside and outside the church.

A major challenge during this period was heresy — beliefs that strayed from what the church considered true Christianity. One example was Gnosticism, which claimed that the physical world was evil and salvation came through secret spiritual knowledge. Church leaders worked hard to define and defend what they believed was authentic Christianity.

Constantine and the Christian Empire (313–400 AD)

Everything changed in 313 AD when the Roman Emperor Constantine issued the Edict of Milan, granting Christians freedom to worship openly. Constantine himself converted to Christianity — or at least became a major supporter of it — which was extraordinary for a Roman emperor. Suddenly, instead of being persecuted, Christians were protected and even favored by the most powerful government in the Western world.

Constantine also called the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, one of the most important gatherings in Christian history. At this council, bishops from across the empire came together to settle a major controversy about the nature of Jesus. A popular teacher named Arius argued that Jesus was a created being — the greatest of God's creatures, but not equal to God the Father. The council rejected this view and affirmed that Jesus was fully God, of "the same substance" as the Father. This became the foundation of the Nicene Creed, still recited in churches today.

Augustine and the Fall of Rome (400–500 AD)

As Christianity grew in power, it also grew in theological depth. Augustine of Hippo (354–430 AD) was one of the greatest thinkers in Christian history. Born in North Africa, Augustine lived a wild youth before converting to Christianity in his thirties. His autobiography, Confessions, is one of the most famous books in Western history.

Augustine wrote extensively about sin, grace, free will, and salvation. He argued that humans are fundamentally broken by original sin — the sin of Adam and Eve — and that salvation comes entirely from God's grace, not human effort. His ideas deeply influenced Western Christianity for over a thousand years, and his fingerprints can be found all over the later writings of Martin Luther and John Calvin.

In 410 AD, the unthinkable happened: the city of Rome was sacked by the Visigoths, a Germanic tribe. For centuries, Rome had seemed eternal. The shock was enormous. Augustine responded by writing The City of God, arguing that the true Christian hope was not in earthly empires but in God's eternal kingdom. By 476 AD, the Western Roman Empire had completely collapsed. Europe entered what some call the Dark Ages.

The Medieval Church (500–1300 AD)

As Roman political power faded in the West, the Church stepped into the vacuum. Bishops — and especially the Bishop of Rome, who became known as the Pope — took on enormous influence, not just spiritually but politically. The Pope became one of the most powerful figures in all of Europe.

Monasticism became a major force during this period. Monks and nuns retreated from the world into communities of prayer, work, and study. Benedict of Nursia wrote a famous set of rules for monastic life in the 6th century that shaped monasteries for centuries. These monasteries preserved ancient texts, ran schools, cared for the poor, and kept learning alive through the darkest periods of European history.

Two great missionaries deserve special mention. Patrick brought Christianity to Ireland in the 5th century, and Irish monks later helped re-evangelize parts of Europe. Boniface was called the "Apostle of Germany" for his missionary work in the 8th century.

In 800 AD, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne, king of the Franks, as "Emperor of the Romans" — a moment that symbolized the close, sometimes tense, relationship between church and state in medieval Europe.

Meanwhile, in 1054, a massive split known as the Great Schism divided Christianity into two branches: the Roman Catholic Church in the West, led by the Pope in Rome, and the Eastern Orthodox Church in the East, centered in Constantinople. Disagreements over theology, authority, and culture had been building for centuries, and the break was dramatic and lasting.

The medieval church also launched the Crusades — military campaigns beginning in 1095 to recapture Jerusalem and the Holy Land from Muslim rule. Pope Urban II called the first Crusade, promising spiritual rewards to those who fought. The Crusades were a complex and often brutal chapter in history, involving genuine religious zeal, political ambition, and terrible violence.

The great cathedrals of Europe — soaring stone buildings like Notre Dame in Paris — were built during this period, testaments to the faith and artistic genius of medieval Christians. Theologians like Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century produced brilliant works that tried to unite Christian faith with the rediscovered philosophy of Aristotle. His Summa Theologica remains a landmark of Western thought.

Seeds of Reform (1300–1500 AD)

By the late medieval period, serious problems had developed within the church. Many church leaders lived in wealth and luxury far removed from the poor they were supposed to serve. Corruption was widespread. Powerful church offices were sometimes bought and sold — a practice called simony. The Pope himself was sometimes more of a political ruler than a spiritual shepherd.

Critics began to speak up. John Wycliffe in England (1320–1384) translated the Bible into English so ordinary people could read it themselves, and challenged the Pope's authority. Jan Hus in Bohemia (1369–1415) preached against church corruption and was burned at the stake for it. Both men are now called forerunners of the Reformation.

A devastating outbreak of the Black Death in the mid-14th century killed roughly one-third of Europe's population. The trauma shook people's faith in institutions — including the church. Questions about suffering, death, and God's justice burned more fiercely than ever.

The invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg around 1440 was revolutionary. For the first time, books — including the Bible — could be mass-produced. Ideas could spread faster than ever before. This technology would soon prove to be a weapon for reformers.

The Protestant Reformation (1517 AD)

On October 31, 1517, a German monk and theology professor named Martin Luther reportedly nailed a document to the door of a church in Wittenberg. His 95 Theses challenged the Catholic Church's teachings on a number of important topics. Particularly infuriating was the practice of selling indulgences — payments that supposedly reduced punishment for sin.

Luther's central conviction was radical and simple: a person is saved by faith alone (sola fide), through grace alone (sola gratia), revealed in Scripture alone (sola scriptura). No amount of money, good works, or priestly ceremony could earn a person's way to heaven. Only trust in Jesus Christ could do that.

Thanks to the printing press, Luther's ideas spread across Europe like wildfire. The Pope demanded he recant. Luther refused. At the Diet of Worms in 1521, he reportedly declared, "Here I stand. I can do no other." He was excommunicated — formally expelled from the Catholic Church. But it was too late to stop the movement.

Other reformers followed. John Calvin in Geneva developed a rigorous theology of God's absolute sovereignty and predestination. Ulrich Zwingli led reform in Zurich. In England, King Henry VIII broke from Rome over a political dispute — wanting an annulment the Pope wouldn't grant — founding the Church of England.

The Reformation shattered the religious unity of Western Europe. New churches — Lutheran, Reformed, Anglican, Anabaptist — sprang up across the continent. The Catholic Church responded with its own renewal movement called the Counter-Reformation. The consequences, both violent and creative, would shape the next several centuries of Western history.

Conclusion

In roughly 1,500 years, Christianity had traveled from a small group of frightened disciples in Jerusalem to the dominant faith of Western civilization. It survived persecution, theological controversy, the fall of empires, and internal corruption. It produced great art, literature, music, and philosophy. It also motivated wars, injustice, and terrible violence. The Protestant Reformation did not end that story — it opened a new and turbulent chapter. But through all of it, at the heart of the faith was the same claim that started everything: that a man named Jesus died, rose again, and changed the world.

Next week my blog will cover the major reformers and a comparison of their beliefs still held by most denominations.