January 16 - Movin' on up

January 16 – Movin’ on up.

I’m nearly ready to leave the first and second centuries and move on. A lot happened for the church in those 150+ years. There were incredible highs and lows. But honestly, it was never easy. Christianity has never been about taking the easy path or having the good things in life handed out on silver platters.

Some of the greatest growth happened because of horrendous persecution. Some of the most amazing teachings came because of heresies that threatened the core foundations of faith.

Christians who had been Jews discovered that their heritage rejected them. Gentiles were confused because first they were told that they had to abide by Jewish law to be accepted into heaven, then it all changed. Greek philosophy, Roman structure, Jewish heritage. All of these combined to give Christianity an incredible history.

Teachers, heresies, creeds, canons, authors, apologists, theologians. Overseers, church fathers. Martyrs, revolutionaries. Persecution, death, excommunication. Everything that happened revolved around individuals, communities, churches … people!

God ripped the curtain open at Jesus’ crucifixion, allowing the world access to His presence. There would be false prophets and false teachers. There would be liars and self-promoters. There would be every possible test of this young religion.

The one thing that we must recognize is that this ‘young’ religion came from the most Ancient of Days, the Creator of all things. He had spent centuries hoping for His people of Israel to figure out what their true purpose in the world was. They were to bring the world to His doorstep. They succeeded, but only through the death of God’s Son.

When Marcus Aurelius came to power in 161 AD, he was known as one of the most enlightened emperors of the age. He didn’t care for power or glory, he was more interested in being a good man. However, this did not translate into relief for Christians. While he reigned, there seemed to be an overabundance of natural disasters, health epidemics, invasions and other terrible occurrences. The explanation that came was that Christians had brought on the wrath of the gods. Whether or not he believed this, he fully supported continued persecution.

One of the things that drove the Romans absolutely crazy was the fact that Christians were so stubborn about their faith. There is a story of a woman named Felicitas and her seven sons. She was a devoted Christian and gave so much of her life to the church that she was supported by the church. Pagan priests were furious with her and brought her before the Roman authorities. She refused to abandon her faith. When the prefect tried to get her sons to persuade her, she encouraged them to stand firm. Finally the matter was turned over to Marcus Aurelius, who ordered that they should all die in separate sections of the city to appease various gods.

A letter from the churches of Lyons and Vienne (in present day France) sent to Christians in Asia Minor describes terrible persecution. In fact, there were so many Christians held in one location that some died of suffocation before they could be executed.

The worst problem for Christians was that they didn’t know where or when the persecution would occur. Under some emperors, they were relatively safe. In some locations, they were relatively safe. But these circumstances could change without notice and quite regularly. They never knew when they could breathe.