Persecution Of The Early Christians
PERSECUTION OF THE EARLY CHRISTIANS
In the Gospel of Matthew, we read that Simon Peter was the first person to openly acknowledge Jesus as the Son of God and that Jesus, seeing God’s hand in this acknowledgment, called Peter a rock on which He would build His church—a church that even the gates of hell would not be able to defeat.
This indicates three things. First, that Christ will have a church in this world. Second, that the church would be persecuted, not only by the world, but also by all the powers of hell. Third, despite its persecutions, the church would survive.
The whole history of the church to this day verifies this prophecy of Christ. Princes, kings, and other rulers of this world have used all their strength in plotting against the church, yet it continues to endure and hold its own. The storms that it has overcome are remarkable. I have written this history so the wonderful works of God within the church will be visible to all who might profit from them.
Of all the people who heard Jesus speak, the Pharisees and scribes should have been the first to accept Him, since they were so familiar with God’s law. Yet they persecuted and rejected Him, choosing to remain subject to Caesar, and it was Caesar who eventually destroyed them.
God’s punishment also fell heavily on the Romans. Hearing of Christ’s works, death, and resurrection, Emperor Tiberius proposed to the Roman senate that He be adored as God, but the senators refused, preferring the emperor to the King of heaven. In reply, God stirred their own emperors against them, causing most of the senate to be destroyed and the city of Rome to be afflicted for nearly three hundred years.
Tiberius became a tyrant, killing his own mother, his nephews, the princesof the city, and his own counselors. Seutonius reported him to be so stern that one day alone he saw twenty people executed. Pilate, under whom Christ was crucified, was sent to Rome and banished to the town of Vienne in Dauphiny, where he eventually committed suicide. Agrippa the elder was even imprisoned by Tiberius for some time.
After Tiberius’s death came Caligula, who demanded to be worshipped as a god. He banished Herod Antipas, the murderer of John the Baptist and condemner of Christ, and was assassinated in the fourth year of his reign.
Following thirteen cruel years under Claudius, the people of Rome fell under the power of Nero, who reigned for fourteen years, killing most of the Roman senate and destroying the whole Roman order of knighthood. He was so cruel and inhumane that he put to death his own mother, his brother-in-law, his sister, his wife, and his instructors Seneca and Lucan. Then he ordered Rome set on fire in twelve places while he sang the verses of Homer. To avoid the blame for this, he accused the Christians of setting the fires and caused them to be persecuted.
In the year AD 70, Titus and his father, Vespasian, destroyed Jerusalem and all of Galilee, killing over 1,100,000 Jews and selling the rest into slavery. So we see that those who refused Jesus were made to suffer for their actions.