TIME LINE OF CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM
"We are well aware also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know the One who is true. We are in the One who is true as we are in his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the true God and this is eternal life. Children, be on your guard against false gods." 1 John 5:19-21
| 3BC-30AD: | -Jesus of Nazareth |
| 28-30: | -Jesus of Nazareth preaches the Gospel of salvation |
| 30AD: | -Crucifixion, Resurrection, Ascension of Jesus Christ; second great Pentecost and birth of the Universal/Catholic Church and the beginning of the spread of Christianity across the earth. |
| 49/50: | -Council of Jerusalem |
| 52: | -St. Peter founds the Church in Rome |
| 64: | -Rome destroyed by fire; persecution of Christians begins by Roman Empire |
| 67: | -Martyrdom of St. Peter, succession of St. Linus as Bishop of Rome |
| 66-73: | -Jewish revolt against Rome. Temple in Jerusalem destroyed 70AD The Apostles and their disciples carried the Gospel of salvation to the corners of the Roman Empire. St. Paul carried the Gospel of Jesus Christ to Asia Minor, Greece and Spain; St. James Zebedee carried the Gospel into Spain; St. Philip carried the Gospel into southern Russia; Sts. Bartholomew and Thaddaeus preached Christ to the people of Armenia and modern Iraq and Iran; St. Thomas founded the Church in southwestern India; St. Andrew on the shores of the Black Sea in Asia; St. Mark the evangelist founded the Church in Egypt; etc. Their only weapon was love. Jesus' teachings are written down by His Apostles and their disciples; St. Paul teaches the doctrine of oral Tradition. |
| 132-136: | -The Jewis Bar Kokhba Revolt. Rome's victory over the revolt resulted in the extensive depopulation of Judean communities. The Romans expelled all Jews from Jerusalem, and the Emperor Hadrian renamed the city Aelia Capitolina. He also renamed Judaea the Roman province of Syria-Palaestina (meaning "land of the Philistines" and origin of the regional name "Palestine"). |
| 313: | -Emperor Constantine's Edict of Milan protects Christianity. Constantine is the first Christian Roman Emperor (ruled 312-337AD) |
| 325: | -Council of Nicaea |
| 382: | -Council of Rome: This local Church council under the authority of Pope Damasus, (366-384) approved a complete list of canonical books of the Old and New Testaments which is identical with the list the Council of Trent reaffirmed in the 16th century and identical to Catholic Bibles today. Christianity spread from Egypt to India and from Britain to the Black Sea and China, not by armies nor by the sword but by the Holy Spirit empowered message of the self-sacrificial love of Jesus Christ. |
| 570-632AD: | -Mohammed |
| 610: | -Mohammed's vision and the birth of Islam as a religion |
| 622: | -Opposition against him in Mecca. Mohammed's hegira (flight) to Medina) |
| 622-630: | -Mohammed authorizes the raiding & plunder of caravans |
| 623: | -Mohammed organizes 300 armed men to raid a rich caravan coming from Syria to Mecca. Battle at the Wadi Bedr (January 624) with the caravan's defenders from Mecca. Mohammad is victorious. Leaders of opposing force are executed and the rest held for ransom. |
| 624-632: |
-Mohammed authorizes murder and exile of opposition in Medina: -the murder of the Medinese poetess Ama for attacking him in her rhymes. -Afak, an Arab convert to Judaism is murdered for composing a satire on the prophet. -Kab ibn al-Ashraf, poet son of a Jewess murdered for writing verses prodding the Quraish tribe (defeated at the battle of Wadi Bedr) to seek revenge. -Banu-Kainuka Jews ridicule Mohammed's interpretations of Scripture and his claim to be the Messiah promised by the prophets. 700 driven out of Medina. -Mohammed then claims Allah charged the Jews with corrupting the Scriptures and killing the prophets and rejecting the Messiah = Mohammed. |
| 625: | -Battle of Uhud; Moslems defeated by Quraish forces of Mecca |
| 626: | -After aiding the army of Quraish forces opposed to Mohammed, Mohammed led 3,000 men against the Banu-Kuraiza Jews. On surrendering they were given choice of Islam or death. They chose death. 600 men killed and women and children sold into slavery. |
| 628: | -Attacks and plunders Khaibar Jews east of Medina. -Treaty of Hudaybiyya; truce with Quraish of Mecca |
| 629: | -Jews of Khaibar put to the sword-Mohammed sends messengers to Kings of Persia, Ethiopia, Yeman, & Christian Emperor Heraclius inviting them to convert to Islam. |
| 630: | -Mohammed breaks the truce with Mecca and surrounds Mecca with an army of 10,000 men; city surrenders. Pagan shrine of Ka'bah established as religious center of Islam.-Mohammed proclaims Mecca the holy city of Islam |
| 630-632: |
-Mohammed continues to consolidate the Arab tribes under
Islam. -In return for a moderate tribute the Christians of Arabia are taken under Mohammed's protection and enjoy full liberty of worship. -Mohammed regulates the calendar. Previous calendar among Arabs and Jews consisted of 12 lunar months, with an intercalary month every 3 years to renew concord with the sun. Mohammed rules that Moslem year should consist of 12 lunar months, alternating 30 &29 days. As a result Moslem calendar lost all harmony with the seasons and gained a year every thirty-two and a half years. -Mohammed's sayings are written down'sayings collected over the last 23 years of his life. -Mohammed details legislation, judgment and civil and religious law and military organization. |
| 632: | -Mohammed dies naming no successor. |
| 632-634: | -Abu Bekr, Mohammed's general/confidant becomes the first caliph of Islam. Mohammed's cousin/ son-in-law Ali opposed the election and thus began the division that would yield a dozen wars, and a sectarian division that produced Sunni and Shia Moslems and continues to cause chaos in the Moslem world. |
| 633: | -Abu Bekr orders that the saying of Mohammed be collected into one manuscript |
| 634-644: | -Omar caliph |
| 635: | -Moslem armies conquer Damascus, Syria |
| 637-638: | -Moslem armies take Jerusalem and Ctesiphon |
| 641: | -Moslems conquer Persia & Egypt; found the city of Cairo, Egypt |
| 642: | -Mosque of Amr built at Cairo |
| 644-656: | -Othman caliph |
| 651: | -Caliph Othman commissions 4 Moslem scholars to revise the manuscript; copies of this official revision have been preserved intact unaltered as the Qur'an ("readings" or "discourse") |
| 656: | -Hashimite clan raises Mohammed's son-in-law Ali to the caliphate. He rules from Kufa in what is modern Iraq near the ancient city of Babylon |
| 656-660: | -Ali caliph (son-in-law of Mohammed) in Kufa. Hashimite rulers of Jordan are descendants of Mohammed through Ali and Mohammed's daughter Fatima but are Sunni Moslems. |
| 660-680: | -Muawiya I caliph |
| 660-750: | -Umayyad caliphate at Damascus |
| 680: | -Husein, son of Ali, murdered by Umayyad caliphate |
| 680-683: | -Yezid I caliph |
| 685-705: |
-Abd-al-Malik caliph -Al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the rock built on what was the site of the Jerusalem Temple. |
| 693-862: | -Moslem conquest of Christian Armenia |
| 698: | -Moslems conquer Carthage in North Africa |
| 705-715: | -Walid I caliph |
| 705: | -building on the Great Mosque of Damascus begins |
| 711: | -Moslem conquest of Spain begins |
| 715-717: | -Suleiman I caliph |
| 717-20: | -Omar II caliph |
| 720-724: | -Yezid II caliph |
| 732: | -Moslem armies defeated by Christian forces at Tours, France. Internal factors corrupted the caliphate. There was no central religious or political authority from the time of the death of Mohammed to hold together such a scattered and diverse collection of provinces and tribes that came under the force of Islam in the century after Mohammed's death. Racial and territorial disputes fostered repeated revolts within Islamic governments. The faith that had at one time forged religious and political unity split into sects governed by different independent Moslem governments. |
| 809-810: | -Moslems defeat Christian forces of Sardinia and Corsica |
| 827: | -Moslems conquer Sicily |
| 846: | -Moslems (Scaracens) attack Rome |
| 929-944: | -Shia Hamdanid Moslems defeat Sunni forces and capture northern Mesopotamia and Syria making Mosul and Aleppo brilliant centers of cultural. |
| 1095: | -Pope Urban II calls for the protection of Christian pilgrims and proclaims the first Crusade. |
| 1099: | -Combined Christian armies retake Jerusalem-the birthplace of Christianity |
| 1187: | -Saladin defeats Crusaders at the Battle of the Horns of Hattin & temporarily retakes Jerusalem |
| 1212: | -Christians defeat Moslem Moors at Las Navas del Toledo, Spain |
| 1244: | -Moslems retake Jerusalem |
| 1291: | -Mamluke (Egyptian-Turkish) Moslem army captures Acre; end of Crusades and Christian political presence in Holy Land |
| 1453: | -Moslem armies conquer Constantinople |
| 1492: | -last of the Moslem armies driven out of Spain |
| 1571: |
-Attempted invasion of Europe by Turkish Moslem navy
turned back at the Battle of Lepanto. -Islam spread from Arabia across North Africa and into Asia Minor, India, Asia, and Eastern Europe by the power of the sword wielded by Moslem armies. |
Jesus claimed to be the Messiah promised by the Old Testament prophets. He proved His divinity by numerous miracles including healing the sick and rising bodily from the dead. Jesus was always consistent in His teaching. He established the New Covenant Church under the authority of Peter and the Apostles through which His teachings have been handed down unchanged since His Ascension. With the laying on of hands which evokes the power of the Holy Spirit, the Gospel of salvation has been handed down the centuries from Jesus Christ to His Apostles, to their disciples who where the first bishops of the Church to the priests they ordained and down through history to the bishops and priests of the Catholic Church today-one unbroken physical, oral, and written chain.
Mohammed claimed to be the Messiah promised by the Old Testament prophets but he claimed no power to predict the future or to perform miracles. When his teachings were inconsistent or disputed the Old or New Testaments he claimed he received revised instructions from Allah and that the Old and New Testaments, which predated his writings by 600 years, were corrupted and inaccurate. Although he denied any divine gifts he did, however, use "divine" revelation for human and personal ends. Conveniently a special message from Allah sanctioned his desire to take the pretty young wife of his adopted son Zaid into his harem of 10 wives and two concubines even though he had pronounced that Allah only permitted a man to take the maximum of 4 wives. All of his wives were barren with the exception of Khadija who bore him a daughter, Fatima who survived him, and Mary a Christian slave who bore a son who died in infancy. History presents Mohammed as an unscrupulous warrior, reneging on truces and treaties to win advantage over an enemy, and a just and merciful judge. He could be cruel and treacherous but his acts of mercy were numerous. He established no hierarchy to continue after his death and named no successor. As the single author of the sayings recorded in the Qu'ran it cannot be denied that the collection of his sayings has become the most influential book ever created by a single author.
Who is the liar, if not one who claims that Jesus is not the Christ? This is the Antichrist, who denies both the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son cannot have the Father either; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father too. 1 John 2:22-23
"My dear friends, not every spirit is to be trusted, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets are at large in the world. This is the proof of the spirit of God: any spirit which acknowledges Jesus Christ, come in human nature, is from God, and no spirit which fails to acknowledge Jesus is from God; it is the spirit of Antichrist.." 1 John 4:1-3a
Michal Hunt, Copyright © 2006 Agape Bible Study. Permissions All Rights Reserved.