Spread of Christianity

◆ In 60 or 61 C.E. the apostle Paul wrote to Christians in Colossae that the “good news” of the Christian message had been “preached in all creation that is under heaven.” (Col. 1:23) Recognizing that Christianity not only was preached but also took root throughout the Roman Empire, Professor J. W. Thompson pointed out: “Christianity had spread with remarkable rapidity over the Roman world. By the year 100 probably every province that bordered the Mediterranean had a Christian community within it, and in many provinces there were several congregations. The vertical expansion upward from the lowly classes who had been its first converts into the upper strata of Roman society seems also to have been rapid.”​—History of the Middle Ages, p. 22.