They didn’t. That was a feature of a much later situation: religious medievalism, which had more to do with feudalism than Christianity. After the Roman Empire fell to Gothic tribes, the European church was under siege by marauders for well over a century. Libraries, lands, buildings, and general Christian knowledge was plundered and destroyed, as was much of Romanesque culture.
The church worked tirelessly to try and turn those pagan warlords (and their people) into Christians. But what emerged for centuries was a fusion of church and state that was highly authoritarian. And it only became worse when Danish and Norse Vikings invaded. The kings and the church found their only way to resist Viking raiders and conquerors was to band together in a very authoritarian structure. Bishops organized the Papacy to keep the various feudal states from become pagan again, and the feudal Kings were forever working to ward off both external invaders and maintain borders against hostile neighboring kings.
Anyone who didn’t swear loyalty to serve whatever was the ruling power became suspect. Sometimes the ruling power was more religious, other times it was more secular. Then the Reformation happened and kings allied either FOR or AGAINST the Pope. The wars that resulted wore about temporal powers, lands, control, wealth and titles than about faith. The Papacy itself became a type of Kingdom, which ruled over earthly kings with as much power as it could by pitting one kingdom against the other.
There were times, long periods of history, where the Popes were not even believers in Christ. Which is when the idea of “Mother church” becoming an earthly power ruling men instead of Christ.
True Christians would never shed blood without a just cause to defend others. Many Christians would rather die than kill someone. I know of no true Christian denomination which sanctions killing or force to spread the Gospel. That is a feature of religious territorialism which has NOTHING to do with Biblical Christianity.
Did Early Christians Kill Non-believers?
The church worked tirelessly to try and turn those pagan warlords (and their people) into Christians. But what emerged for centuries was a fusion of church and state that was highly authoritarian. And it only became worse when Danish and Norse Vikings invaded. The kings and the church found their only way to resist Viking raiders and conquerors was to band together in a very authoritarian structure. Bishops organized the Papacy to keep the various feudal states from become pagan again, and the feudal Kings were forever working to ward off both external invaders and maintain borders against hostile neighboring kings.
Anyone who didn’t swear loyalty to serve whatever was the ruling power became suspect. Sometimes the ruling power was more religious, other times it was more secular. Then the Reformation happened and kings allied either FOR or AGAINST the Pope. The wars that resulted wore about temporal powers, lands, control, wealth and titles than about faith. The Papacy itself became a type of Kingdom, which ruled over earthly kings with as much power as it could by pitting one kingdom against the other.
There were times, long periods of history, where the Popes were not even believers in Christ. Which is when the idea of “Mother church” becoming an earthly power ruling men instead of Christ.
True Christians would never shed blood without a just cause to defend others. Many Christians would rather die than kill someone. I know of no true Christian denomination which sanctions killing or force to spread the Gospel. That is a feature of religious territorialism which has NOTHING to do with Biblical Christianity.
Published in Church History, Commentary, Fellowship of Believers and Teaching