January 20 - Sacrifice or Die!

January 20 – Sorry I didn’t die…

In 247 AD, Rome had a birthday party. It was 1000 years old! This was a party to end all parties and lasted for three days and nights. Christians, however, refused to play. Then … after the party … a plague devastated the city and many of the Roman citizens wondered if the Christians had really ticked off the gods.

There was a new boss in town – Emperor Decius. He was a true Roman and believed that the only way to regain the favor of the gods and restore the ancient glory of Rome was to restore the ancient religion. So, he tossed out all of those simple laws regarding Christians and Jews. There were no more laws about ignoring Christians unless they were accused of something. No more laws about obstinate Christians who refused to worship the emperor. Now the law pretty much stated that unless you worshiped the ancient gods, you were guilty of high treason. Decius figured that the survival of Rome depended on this.

He wasn’t about creating martyrs, he wanted obedience. Worship of the ancient gods was mandatory. Everyone had to offer sacrifice to the gods. If you complied, you received a certificate. If you didn’t have a certificate, you were an outlaw.

Generations had passed since the last round of persecutions and people didn’t know what to do. They weren’t ready for this. Some left the Empire, others tried to stand firm, but failed and finally offered the sacrifice. There were others that purchased fake certificates and then there were those who refused to obey.

Since his purpose wasn’t to create martyr, but to force obedience, there weren’t many who were actually killed. Most were arrested – in fact, Origen was tortured and imprisoned during this time.

Decius died in 251 and this round of persecution faded with his death. Gallus came after him and set aside his policies. Six years later, Vespasian began a new round of hideous persecutions, but the Persians captured him and hauled him away. Christianity then had at least forty years of peace.

However, there was a problem that arose in the church.

Remember those who had failed and ended up with a certificate? They wanted to come back to the church. But, there was no way to tell who was truly repentant and who wasn’t. They couldn’t just take in false believers, could they?

We’ll look at these ‘lapsed’ believers tomorrow.