Jesus And The Colonization 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 Colonization

              For the message of Jesus to spread more efficiently, it required the ability for the message to travel between cities and nations with little difficulty. Otherwise, it would have a smaller impact and be localized to one area for quite some time at least.

              753-509 BCE: Rome was founded in 753 BCE, and Rome became a Republic in 509 BCE. However, Rome was still only a city state at this time. No other nations were large enough at this time to facilitate the easy spread of Christianity from nation to nation. If Jesus had come before 509 BCE his life and teachings would be confined to Israel only.

              264 BCE: Rome had grown to the entire Italian peninsula at this period of history. The Nation of Greece had also grown significantly in this period as well. Had Jesus come at this time in history his ministry would still largely be confined to Israel only.

              27 BCE: Leading up to this point Rome had captured the nation Carthage, the Persian Empire, Egypt, and Greece. These led to Rome controlling the most influential territory in the world and they owned it all. At the height of the Roman Empire most of Europe, Asia Minor, the Balkans, the Middle East, the coast of Africa, and the surrounding oceans were unified under the same economic, military, and linguistic systems. This was the best period for Jesus to arrive to have his message expand beyond Israels borders, and this was also the period he did arrive in. Jesus arrived 23 years after this event had taken place. If Jesus had arrived before this period his impact on the known world would have been much smaller because his followers wouldn’t have had the ability to use Rome’s massive borders and power to spread the message of Jesus. We can attribute this divine timing as evidence of God's incarnation.