Once long ago there was an ancient religious order who felt threatened by a new perspective on their scriptures which was rapidly spreading among their people. Their response was heavy-handed, killing and imprisoning any and all who advocated the new teachings, many of them using false pretenses. The goal was to so publicly humiliate and shame its followers that they would be totally dissuaded from spreading its doctrines.
But they met with limited to no success in their efforts. The more they tightened their iron grip on power, the more determined the burgeoning religion's adherents became. And so the new beliefs began to spread like wildfire.
Dismayed, a meeting was called by the elders, where everyone's input was desperately solicited. One man in particular gave a novel explanation for why they should cease all attempts to brutally suppress the new movement.
He reasoned that, if the blossoming religion were born of mortals, it would reach its zenith before eventually crumbling, just as surely as does everything rooted in mortality.
But if the religion was of divine origin, then nothing in the elders' power could possibly thwart it, and any efforts to that end would squander their time, energy and resources.
There was much persuasive weight behind his words, for they were founded in sensibility. And so gradually over the coming years, decades, and centuries, the elders began to allow the once heavily persecuted new religion to take root. And take root it did, expanding in both numbers and scope, until its adherents ruled the entire land.
That religion's name was Christianity.
Add new comment