Had it been published by a voice from heaven, that twelve poor men, taken out of boats and creeks, without any help of learning, should conquer the world to the cross, it might have been thought an illusion against all reason of men; yet we know it was undertaken and accomplished by them.
One of the most amazing and significant facts of history is that within 5 centuries of its birth, Christianity won the professed allegiance of the overwhelming majority of the Roman Empire and even the support of the Roman state. Beginning as a seemingly obscure sect of Judaism, one of the scores, even hundreds of religions and religious groups which were competing within the realm, revering as its central figure one who had been put to death by the machinery of Rome.
A religion which did not flatter the rich, the great, and the learned – a religion which offered no license to the carnal inclinations of man’s heart – a religion whose first teachers were poor fishermen, without wealth, rank, or power – a religion could never have turned the world upside down, if it had not been of God.
Commentary, Matthew 4.
