Historical Backdrop

The historical backdrop of Christianity concerns the Christian religion, its devotees and the Church with its different groups, from the first century to the present.

Christianity rose in the Levant (now Palestine and Israel) in the mid-first century AD. Christianity spread at first from Jerusalem all through the Near East, into spots, for example, Syria, Assyria, Mesopotamia, Phoenicia, Asia Minor, Jordan and Egypt. In the fourth century it was progressively received as the state religion by Armenia in 301, Georgia in 319,the Aksumite Empire in 325, and the Roman Empire in 380. After the Council of Ephesus in 431 the Nestorian Schism made the Church of the East. The Council of Chalcedon in 451 further isolated Christianity into Oriental Orthodoxy and Chalcedonian Christianity. Chalcedonian Christianity partitioned into the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church in the Great Schism of 1054. The Protestant Reformation made new Christian groups that differentiated from the Roman Catholic Church and have developed into numerous distinctive categories.

Christianity stretched all through the world amid Europe's Age of Exploration from the Renaissance onwards, turning into the world's biggest religion.today there are 2 billion Christians, one third of humankind.

Christians

The first recorded use of the term is in the New Testament, in Acts 11:26, which states "...in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians." The second mention of the term follows in Acts 26:28, where Herod Agrippa II replies to Paul the Apostle, "Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?" The third and final New Testament reference to the term is in 1 Peter 4:16, which exhorts believers, "...if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name." All three original New Testament verses' usages reflect a derisive element in the term Christian to refer to followers of Christ who did not acknowledge the emperor of Rome. 

The town Antioch, which is said to have given them the name Christian, had a reputation for coming up with such nicknames. However Peter's apparent endorsement of the term led to its being preferred over "Nazarenes" and the term Christianoi from 1 Peter becomes the standard term in the Early Church Fathers from Ignatius and Polycarp onwards. The earliest occurrences of the term in non-Christian literature include Josephus, referring to "the tribe of Christians, so named from him;" Pliny the Younger in correspondence with Trajan; and Tacitus, writing near the end of the 1st century. In the Annals he relates that "by vulgar appellation commonly called Christians" and identifies Christians as Nero's scapegoats for the Great Fire of Rome.

Christian

A Christian  pronunciation (help·info) is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament. "Christian" derives from the Koine Greek word Christ, a translation of the Biblical Hebrew term Messiah.

Central to the Christian faith is the gospel, the teaching that humans have hope for salvation through the message and works of Jesus, and particularly his atoning death on the cross. Christians also believe Jesus is the Messiah prophesied in the Hebrew Bible. Most Christians believe in the doctrine of the Trinity ("tri-unity"), a description of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, which retains the monotheistic belief of Christianity's Abrahamic heritage through an ineffable confluence. This includes the vast majority of the churches in Christianity. A minority of Christian churches are Nontrinitarians.

The term "Christian" is also used adjectivally to describe anything associated with Christianity, or in a proverbial sense "all that is noble, and good, and Christ-like." It is also used as a label to identify people who associate with the cultural aspects of Christianity, irrespective of personal religious beliefs or practices.

Asphodelus

Asphodelus is a genus of mainly perennial plants native to western, central and southern Europe, but now spread worldwide. Asphodels are popular garden plants, which grow in well-drained soils with abundant natural light. Now placed in the family Xanthorrhoeaceae, subfamily Asphodeloideae,[1] like many lilioid monocots, the genus was formerly placed in the lily family (Liliaceae).