Events
From Pentecost to the modern era — the events that shaped the Church. Each described in its own significance, with the people, councils, and traditions involved.
1st Century AD
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c. 33 ADPentecost
The birth of the Church.
Fifty days after the resurrection, the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles gathered in Jerusalem. They proclaimed the gospel and were heard, each in his own language; about three thousand were baptized that day. The Church was born.
c. 34 ADThe Stoning of Stephen
The first Christian martyr.
Stephen, one of the seven deacons chosen to serve the early Church, was stoned to death in Jerusalem after testifying before the Sanhedrin. He died praying for his killers. A young man named Saul stood by, approving.
c. 34 ADThe Conversion of Paul
The persecutor becomes the apostle to the nations.
Saul of Tarsus, travelling to Damascus to arrest Christians, was confronted on the road by the risen Christ in blinding light. He rose a believer. As Paul, he became the apostle whose letters shape the New Testament.
c. 49 ADThe Council of Jerusalem
The gospel is opened to the nations, by grace and not by the Law.
The apostles and elders met in Jerusalem to settle whether Gentile believers must be circumcised and keep the Law of Moses. They decided that salvation is by grace through faith — the first council of the Church.
64 ADThe Great Fire of Rome and the Neronian Persecution
The first persecution of Christians by the Roman state.
After a fire destroyed much of Rome, the Emperor Nero blamed the city's Christians and put many to death with notorious cruelty. It was the first persecution by the imperial power; tradition holds that Peter and Paul died in it.
70 ADThe Destruction of the Second Temple
The end of the Temple — and the parting of Church and synagogue.
Roman legions under Titus besieged Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple. Sacrifice ceased. Judaism reshaped itself around the synagogue and the rabbis; the Church, already looking to the risen Christ, continued on its own way.
4th Century AD
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313 ADThe Edict of Milan
Christianity is made legal across the Roman Empire.
The emperors Constantine and Licinius agreed to grant religious toleration throughout the empire, ending the official persecution of Christians. Within a lifetime the faith moved from the catacombs to the public basilica.
325 ADThe First Council of Nicaea
The Church confesses the Son as true God.
Constantine summoned bishops from across the Christian world to Nicaea to answer the teaching of Arius. They confessed the Son as 'of one substance with the Father' and produced the first form of the Nicene Creed.
5th Century AD
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11th Century AD
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15th Century AD
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16th Century AD
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1517The Ninety-Five Theses
The spark of the Protestant Reformation.
Martin Luther, an Augustinian friar and university professor, published ninety-five theses challenging the sale of indulgences. What began as a call to academic debate became the Reformation that reshaped Western Christianity.
1545–1563The Council of Trent
The Roman Catholic Church's defining response to the Reformation.
Over eighteen years the Council of Trent set out Roman Catholic doctrine in answer to the Reformation and reformed the discipline of the Church. Its decrees shaped Roman Catholicism until the Second Vatican Council.
17th Century AD
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20th Century AD
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1906The Azusa Street Revival
The birth of global Pentecostalism.
A revival led by William J. Seymour at a mission on Azusa Street in Los Angeles — marked by speaking in tongues and racially integrated worship — became the seedbed of worldwide Pentecostalism.
1962–1965The Second Vatican Council
The Roman Catholic Church engages the modern world.
Convened by Pope John XXIII, the Second Vatican Council renewed Roman Catholic worship, opened dialogue with other Christians and other faiths, and reshaped the Church's engagement with the modern world.