Three moments pointed at the beginning of the Christian movement: 1) the crucifixion and the death of Jesus; 2) the last appearance of Jesus to the disciples; and 3) the Pentecost.

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If Jesus appeared numerous times, after his death on the cross, to the disciples, then is proven His preaching when he said: “All those who die will live”. For this reason, perhaps, the disciples, together with the first Christians of the time, did not have fear of delivering themselves to the torment, for they knew that death is only a passage.

The great feat of Jesus, his greatest miracle, was the Resurrection!

When Jesus was born, the Roman emperor was Augustus, nephew of Julius Caesar (he was very mild). Then came Tiberius (already more violent). The coin to which Jesus referred in the passage in which he says: “Give to Caesar what is of Caesar” had the effigy of Tiberius. Then came Caligula (a bloodthirsty). Next, came his uncle, Claudius (more mild than the nephew). Then came Nero (the apex of madness).

It was necessary to believe in the resurrection as force to support the persecution and the numerous torments lived by the followers of Jesus under the domain of these merciless emperors. Christianity exists until today thanks to the bravery of these missionaries, who faced death and torment for love of the cause.

Christianity initiated itself in Jerusalem, being that the first to convert were the Jews, for Jesus and the disciples also were Jews. It was, then, of a Jewish belief, having they formed the first Christian nucleus. In the beginning, it was a very simple Christianity: they shared all their material goods among themselves, they welcomed in the “House of the Way” (as was named the first Christian nucleus formed) the helpless, they fed the hungry and cared for the sick.

Then arises Paul of Tarsus, who was an apostle of Jesus and whose trajectory is impressive and wonderful. However, we will not deepen in the feats of this notable divulgator of the Christian message, for to speak of him would be to initiate another study, that we will leave for another opportunity.

In the beginning, it was believed that Christianity would be a current of Judaism. By fear of the Jewish priests, the “Men of the Way” (as began to be called the disciples) began to want to implant in the nascent Christianity the Jewish rituals, as the circumcision. All the communities formed were very simple and small. James the Lesser had remained in the Community of Jerusalem, being he one of those that insisted in the circumcision of those who converted to Christianity.

Two important facts happened in this century: the Resurrection of Jesus and the phenomenon occurred in Jerusalem fifty days after the Jewish Passover, the Pentecost. In this day, the disciples began to speak in different languages so that all those who were in the square — the many foreigners — could hear and understand what they said. Thus were fulfilled the prophecies of the prophet Joel, in his biblical book, chapter 3: “After this I will pour out my Spirit over all flesh. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your elders will have dreams, your young will have visions…”.

For the Jews, the Pentecost means to celebrate the moment in which Moses received the Tablets of the Law on Mount Sinai. For the Christians and Protestants, it represents the manifestation of the Holy Spirit. For the spiritists, it is the phenomenon of mediumship.

Important to highlight that, in this century, still could be felt the magnetism of Jesus and His simplicity among His followers.

Another point to be highlighted is the decapitation of Paul by the emperor Nero. The letters of Paul are called by the clergy “Canon”. In one of them, he writes: “Do not think that I came to build altars of stone; I came to build the message of the Son of God in the heart of men”.

The evangelists have their symbols: Matthew — the angel, signifying that he wanted to make a connection between Jesus and the Jews; Mark — the lion, symbolizing attitude and action; Luke — the bull, representing the sacrifice in holocaust for love of the people; John — the eagle, symbolizing that one who flies over, sees everything from above and brings the spiritual Gospel.

A figure of prominence of this first century is Titus, who was pagan and who, at the invitation of Paul, to be able to participate of the first meeting of the Christians, circumcised himself, for James expected that this would happen. With this proof of obedience of Titus, it was decided, from that meeting, that the Christians did not need the circumcision. Another important character was Timothy.

At the end of this first century, the Roman emperor was Domitian, and he was terrible for the Christians. It was also in this century that, by inspiration of the evangelist Luke, in a meeting of studies that happened in Antioch of Orontes, in Turkey, that the Followers of the Way passed to be called Christians.

The first century was marked by the presence of the apostles, by the communities created (churches) and by the birth of the Christian era. It was the century of pains and of the holocausts.