And they believed that he would return someday to redeem the world, which leads us to two questions about Christianity. First, why did this small group of people believe this? And second, why and how did that belief become so widespread? So why would people believe that Jesus was the Messiah? First, the Jews had a long tradition of believing that a savior would come to them in a time of trouble. And Judea under the rule of Herod and the Romans? Definitely a time of trouble.