Page 34 - LD215 History of the Church in Africa A4 final

A History of the Church in Africa

Empire, from the Jews in the remote Syrian region” (Von Schubert, 14).
God’s ways are unfathomable to man.

The World of the Romans

Chronologically, the birth of the Roman Empire and the birth of
Christianity were not far apart. Geographically, the empire stretched
from the British Isles to Arabia and from Germany to North Africa
as one of the most powerful empires in the history of mankind. It
was divided naturally into two divisions: the East or the Orient and
the West or the Occident. The East included Egypt, Arabia, and the
lands east of the Adriatic Sea. The West included North Africa and
modern Europe.

Providentially, these people who were idolatrous and worshiped their
emperor were used by the true God to prepare the world for the coming
of the church. Note the following contributions of the Romans.

Political Unity

The Romans were successful in uniting the civilized nations into
an empire. Prior to 31 B.C., nations had lived in isolation. Rome fused
them into what Qualben
calls “a heterogeneous mass
of humanity with one emperor,
People who were one government, one military

idolatrous were used by organization, a common body of
laws and practices, a common
the true God to prepare language, common coinage, a

the world for the central mail and transportation
system, a common alphabet,
coming of the church. and one culture” (4). There was
a sense of unity and peace under
universal Roman law. Wherever
Roman government and commerce spread, Roman law went with them.
No other empire had succeeded in accomplishing this goal, not even that
of Alexander the Great. Kealy adds: “This Pax Romana [peace established
and enforced by the Romans] had brought unity, peace, and prosperity
everywhere. Free from war, from internal strife, from fear of invasion,

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