Jesus And The Toleration Argument

Why do Timing Arguments Matter?

Timing arguments matter because they show God's perfect knowledge and intelligience. If God really did visit the earth in human form it would be prudent for him to choose an efficient timing to appear to us. In order to act most efficiently with free humans, he would have to appear in the perfect timing to get his message across, if Jesus passes this test, that serves as evidence for Jesus being God. 

Roman Toleration

              If God wanted to spread his message most effectively, he would most likely pick a time period in where his followers and himself wouldn’t be forced to be another religion due to conquering. It would have been very difficult for Jesus’ teachings and the early church’s communication to occur, if they were in constant threat of physical violence for practicing their religion.

Before Rome: Most Ancient civilizations were not tolerant of the gods of other groups and nations. Conquered nations were often forced to adopt the gods of the victorious nation and had to renounce the gods they previously worshipped. Had Jesus appeared before Roman Toleration of religion, he likely would only have been able to spread Christianity to the nation of Israel alone.

 Rome Was Unique: Rome was often annexing different nations because of its consistent growth to being one of the largest nations in the history of the known world. However, this also meant Rome would have to deal with religions and cultures of other nations and it would take many resources to make them just like Rome. So, Rome decided that they would allow each people group to retain its gods and traditions and embraced these deities as part of the larger Roman pantheon. This strategy worked well with most nations except for the nation of Israel, which refused to acknowledge there were other gods to be worshipped at all. Rome gave judaism a special legal status to allow it freedom from worshipping the Roman gods, which allowed for Jews to retain their monotheistic status.

Jesus appeared in the period of time which allowed for his message to be heard with religious tolerance, and even hide from Rome as a sect of judaism, until it was large enough to be stand in the religious persecution to come. Since his timing for the message of christianity to spread as a religion not constrained to a specific nation which it preached in its own doctrines, this allowed for Christianity to flourish.