The Gospel Was Not a Power Grab: A Bold Rebuttal to Humanist Distortions of Early Christianity
Refuting the shallow claims of coercion, manipulation, and control with the supernatural truth of a blood-bought, Spirit-empowered Church.
The article “6 Conversion Tactics of the Early Christian Church” by Tanner the Humanist, on Medium, is not only historically misleading—it’s spiritually bankrupt. It is a venomous distortion of truth that strips the gospel of its glory and attributes the explosive growth of Christianity to manipulation, political opportunism, and fear-based coercion rather than the supernatural power of a risen Christ. Let’s be clear: Christianity did not conquer Rome with a sword, but with a cross. It did not rise through empire but through blood—not the blood it shed, but the blood it willingly gave.
This article reeks of cynicism masquerading as insight. It treats the gospel—the power of God unto salvation—as if it were a cheap marketing campaign. It portrays the saints who laid down their lives, not for personal gain but because they encountered a love worth dying for, as pawns in a manipulative scheme. That is not just bad history—it is a grievous affront to the truth of the gospel and to the One who gave Himself as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45).
Christianity Was Never About Fear—It Was Always About Freedom
To claim that early Christians wielded fear and guilt as weapons is to fundamentally misunderstand the gospel message. Jesus didn’t come to terrify people into submission—He came to set the captives free (Luke 4:18). He did not manipulate with threats; He liberated with truth. The fear of the Lord is not terror of punishment but awe of His majesty, a holy reverence that leads to repentance and life, not bondage.
Hell was never a scare tactic—it is a reality revealed in love, so that no one would perish (2 Peter 3:9). God so loved the world that He gave His Son, not to condemn it, but to save it (John 3:16-17). That is not fear. That is freedom.
Martyrdom Was Not Strategy—It Was Surrender
The martyrs weren’t pawns of propaganda. They were lovers of truth. Men and women sang in the face of lions because they had already died to themselves. Their deaths weren’t political theater—they were spiritual warfare, waged in love, not hatred. Their peace in suffering was a sign to the world: death has lost its sting (1 Corinthians 15:55-57).
The blood of the martyrs wasn’t a tool of manipulation—it was the seed of the church. The very thing Tanner mocks was the clearest evidence to the Roman world that something supernatural had taken hold of these people.
Authority in the Church Wasn’t Control—It Was Servanthood
The early church didn’t seize power; it served in weakness. Bishops weren’t emperors—they were shepherds, often persecuted and hunted. The church grew not because of imperial muscle but because it modeled the servant leadership of Christ, who washed feet before He bore the cross (John 13:14-15).
Tanner confuses later political corruption with the purity of the early ecclesia. The church was the counterculture, not the culture. It called people out of darkness, not into domination. Real authority in the kingdom is marked by laying down one’s life, not taking power (Matthew 20:25-28).
Pagan Practices Weren’t Absorbed—They Were Redeemed
Yes, the early church redefined cultural customs—but not as trickery. It was an act of spiritual reclamation. They didn’t adopt paganism—they overturned it by exalting Christ above it. The gospel is not intimidated by culture; it transforms it. The celebration of Christ’s birth isn’t a repackaging of Saturnalia—it’s the declaration that light has come into the world (John 1:5).
God has always been in the business of redeeming what was broken, reclaiming what was lost, and repurposing what the enemy meant for evil into instruments of truth.
Forced Conversions? That’s Not the Gospel
To equate the love of Jesus with coerced conversion is theological malpractice. True Christianity can’t be forced. No one can confess Jesus as Lord except by the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 12:3). Yes, history bears dark chapters of Christendom corrupted by empire—but that is not the church Jesus birthed from the upper room. The kingdom of God does not advance by sword or law—it advances by the Spirit, through hearts yielded in love.
Relational Christianity and Identity in Christ
The church didn’t manipulate people into religion. It introduced them into relationship. The Spirit of adoption cries “Abba, Father” (Romans 8:15), not “Obey or burn.” Christianity calls people to lay down shame, not wallow in it; to rise in sonship, not cower in servitude. The early believers weren’t guilt-ridden followers—they were sons and daughters who had seen the face of the resurrected King.
You are not what the world says you are. You are not what your past defines you to be. You are what the blood of Jesus paid for you to become—a new creation, filled with the Spirit of the Living God.
Apologetics and the Defense of Faith
This article collapses under its own shallow critique. It lacks academic rigor and dismisses centuries of theological depth for sensationalist tropes. Real apologetics exposes such rhetoric for what it is: emotional bias posing as insight. The gospel is intellectually defensible, historically anchored, and existentially transformative.
Christianity doesn’t fear scrutiny—it thrives under it. Truth has nothing to hide.
Humanity’s Cosmic Role and Redemption
Tanner sees history as power dynamics, but the gospel reveals a cosmic drama: a fallen humanity redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, restored to rule and reign with Christ (Revelation 5:10). The early church wasn’t seizing empires; it was reclaiming Eden. It wasn’t manipulating crowds—it was tearing down spiritual strongholds.
We were never meant to be slaves to religion or culture—we were made to walk with God and release His kingdom on earth.
Biblical Theology and the Supernatural Worldview
Tanner strips the Bible of its supernatural essence. He views martyrdom, authority, and redemption as sociopolitical phenomena, not divine intervention. But the Bible is clear: the church’s birth was not by human will, but by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:17). The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is the One who built the church—not by force, but by fire.
To deny the supernatural foundation of the early church is to blind oneself to the very power that changed history.
Final Call to Action
Beloved, don’t let this world or its humanist voices define your faith. You were bought with a price—you are not here by accident or coercion. You were called out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9). The same Spirit that filled Peter on Pentecost is alive in you. Don’t be intimidated by these hollow arguments. Stand bold. Know what you carry.
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