they themselves would cast out demons and heal the sick. This would be the most effective way of convincing people who did not know the actually doctrines of Christianity that the apostles God was more powerful then their own. That was how most mass conversions happened. Even the story of St. Martin and the pine tree, which even though was not in this time period, demonstrated the power of a miracle can have over a mass of people. Whether these miracles actually occurred, is not the point. Just the stories of these miracles were enough to win converts. During this time, there were numerous amounts of people that claimed that they heal the sick and cast out demons. Casting out demons was one of the most common miracles. In almost any public speech that was trying to convert people, the speaker would heal those possessed by demons. (Hutchinson and Garrison 19). This caused conversions to Christianity, even before the converts knew what they exactly converting to; they just knew that the God of the speaker must be powerful, therefore, needs to be worshipped.All this occurred in the very beginnings of Christianity, or after the Edict of Milan in 313 C.E., when Constantine legalized Christianity for the Empire. In between that time, most Christians did not publicly preach or perform miracles. This was the time of the persecution of Christians. Most Christians kept to themselves and stayed away from neighbors and their activities. This caused suspicion and despise. And since there were no Christians openly telling the pagans what they believed, the pagans had to figure it out themselves. They were able to get bits and pieces of the truth, but of course, mixed with dark rumors and lies. Most pagans understood the idea that Christians believed that the pagans were going to suffer and that the Christians believed that the pagans were ignorant and evil. This produced an us versus them mentality. This is exemplified in a report of some martyrs i...
