It is a given that Christianity is the most dominant and the most prevalent religion today, yet we speak of a religion to which the Founder of this religion, Jesus the Christ, died an ignoble death via crucifixion, because He was branded by certain Jewish leaders as deserving of death for blasphemy, while by the Romans He was crucified for rebellious treason, for claiming Himself as a King. You would think that His tragic death would have simply been the end of the story, as even his closest disciple believed that it indeed was, although Christ had carefully laid the path beforehand for his triumphant resurrection, to which He came forth, resurrected on the third day. It was this resurrection, attested to by all of the disciples of the Christ, to which we further read in 1 Corinthians 15: "After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once..." as witnessed by the apostle Paul. We read too that before the Christ ascended up into Heaven, he commanded his disciples according to Matthew 28:19 "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…"
Here was the great commission given from Christ to his disciples, who did indeed carry out his sacred mission, which continues onto this very day. In regards to those eleven original disciples, Matthias, and Paul, what penalty did they pay for the preaching of the way and of the faith? It is generally conceded that all but John who was exiled to Patmos, died deaths of martyrs, some crucified, some stoned, and some burned alive. Then too, what happened to those that became believes, and other apostles of the Christ, during the beginnings of Christianity? Many of those good people suffered for their faith, by being discriminated against, banished, arrested, imprisoned, tortured, beaten, unjustly persecuted, set on fire, torn apart by wild animals, killed, or martyred. Unfortunately, the Roman authorities considered Christians to be a threat to their system of government, because the Christian loyalty was not to the State, but to their God; and especially galling to the Romans, this Christ, was not one to bow down to the pagan beliefs and the pagan world, instead He was the one true way, superseding roman gods and silly superstitious sacrifices to them.
One would think though with the martyring of the disciples and the ill treatment to those of the faith, that Christianity would have simply died out, because most people would not have an interest in becoming disciples of a religion, which endangered themselves as well as their families, but this was not the case with Christianity. Christianity could not be killed because it is the Higher Law, the law and the way that supersedes man's misguided efforts to be master of all, when he cannot even master himself. Those of the Christian faith, the true believers and followers, were able to become the children of God, because they recognized through Christ that God is their father, that fear and evil is of this world, and that therefore to die is to gain, because we are truly not of this material world, but are made in God's image, which is spirit, and not matter. Death did not hold back the Christ, nor can death hold us back either, because the physical is of the physical world, while the spirit is of God's kingdom, to which we will find in due season the treasures that have been stored there for us and leave behind the tribulations of this world.