The Christians
What was a Christian in the beginning? Followers of Christ believed he was the Messiah they’d been looking for their entire lives, not a new god. The followers of Christ were Jewish and believed they had received the gospel as it had originally been delivered to their Jewish ancestors. It was the Gentiles that called them Christian. They were a new group of Jews, a group that had to be distinguished from the others. They were jews that believed in Jesus, Nazarenes. Christian was not what they called themselves.
The beginning of the Christian path was rocky. To start, they had lost their Savior to the cross, a moment both filled with great reverence and utmost grief. Yet this horrible fate lasted for just a moment as in three days he was risen from the grave. His disciples saw him and witnessed his truth, but even then, when Christ left them, they were not sure what path they should take.
The Bible recounts a very interesting moment that really tells the attitude of Christ followers after his death. After Jesus had appeared to them, Peter, the rock, is spending some time with other disciples and says to them “I go a fishing”. After all, it was finished. Christ had fulfilled his mission on earth. It was a spiritual one, not a physical one, and it was done. Why not go back to what was good before. That moment brings us back to the mindset of the earliest of Christians, the mindset that Christ had won the good fight, and all we are left to do is enjoy it.
While on the sea, a very familiar moment happens. A man appears on the shore after an unsuccessful bout of fishing. He tells them to cast their nets and an abundance of fish, too great to carry and fill their nets. For Peter and John, that was all they needed. Peter ran from his boat to greet Jesus. That afternoon, they ate fish on the shore, and the start of the Christian passion began with a simple question. Lowest thou me more than these?
That simple question was a spark in what Christ intended for his followers. It was the spark that turned Peter into the rock he was meant to be for the Gospel Christ had given. It was the spark that would push them through tribulation we can not even comprehend in our day.
Peter became a rock and taught boldly the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He was imprisoned by the jewish leaders because of his teaching. This was after the death of his close friend and fellow believers, James, the brother of John. King Herod Aggripa I found James death had pleased the Jewish leaders and felt imprisoning Peter would please them as well.
This was the start of persecution. In the following years, nearly all twelve men who walked with Christ would find themselves crucified, beheaded, or killed by some other means. Only a few skirt through history with a chance of a peaceful death with John being the only one without a gruesome possibility. They had been labeled Christians, followers of Christ. A term given to them by the Gentiles. A term Peter declared,
“Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.”
Don’t be offended, glory to God no matter what we are called. A name that would be used to distinguish them from their jewish brethren and make persecution more precise.
New leaders rose in Rome. They declared themselves god, but Christians would not bend the knee to these human gods. The nation that had, for the most part, ignored this new rising religion now had people refusing them because of that belief. A persecution that had been led by the jews had now become a Roman problem.
The first step of persecution was simple. They outlawed Christianity. They did not seek out Christians. In fact, they discouraged people from trying to accuse their neighbor of being Christian. Christianity was simply illegal, and if you did not renounce it, your punishment was death. A harsh rule, with less enforcement in its infancy. Rome wasn’t out to kill the Christians in the beginning. They wanted to turn people away from it. It had grown so rapidly that the only prevention was the threat of death.
This quickly evolved. Worship of the Roman gods prevented famine and sickness among the people, or so they believed. So when these things plagued the city, who was to be blamed. The Christians who didn’t worship the Roman gods. Christians were reliant on local leaders and public opinions to keep living their faith, but as these events turned the public against them, leaders moved against them as well. What was simple a rule for containment became a tool of persecution. Roman leaders began encouraging persecution.
In 250 CE, these persecution came to a head with the widespread edict requiring all people to perform a public sacrifice to the Roman gods. After which, each citizen would receive a certificate verifying their completion of the ritual. For the first time, Christians would be forced to reveal themselves or deny their God. What was a possibility for some became a reality for all.
For the next 60 years, the Christians were treated like vermin. Rome seemed to try every means imaginable to discourage them, torture, exile, and kill as many as possible. Clergy were forced to sacrifice under threat of torture, churches were destroyed, and scriptures burned. By all measures, this should have been the end of Christianity. Yet, the same man who was the harshest opposer of the movement admitted it could not be stopped and issued tolerance.
It reminds me of the words of Gamaliel, who said,
“And now I say unto you, Refrain from these men, and let them alone: for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought: But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God.”
A year after the edict of tolerance, a leader of Rome would have a vision. This vision would cause a shift. A shift that would take a nation that fought so hard against Christians to a nation led by Christians.
Jacob Gittins 