Chapter 4: In the Beginning

Soon after the founding of the Christian religion and its organizational structure in the church, things took a turn for the worse and the opinion of the general public moved from apathy to loathing. The book of Acts first tells of the trial and execution of Stephen, making him the first recorded Christian martyr, but he would soon be followed by many more and the persecutions would become more frequent and grisly.

The rule of Nero in the mid-1st century marks the beginning of widespread, state sanctioned persecutions as perpetuated by the Roman government. These atrocities began following the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD, which burned a great deal of the city, causing many of its inhabitants to lose their lives. There are various accounts of what may have started the engulfing inferno, with many historians placing the responsibility squarely at the feet of the emperor, who has become synonymous with insanity over the years. This is the incident from which the legend that Nero “fiddled while Rome burned” took its shape and became a part of the Western consciousness. Regardless of how the fire began, Nero turned his accusation upon the easiest target to be found, Christians. Soon the early believers found their status changed from minority religion to enemy of state and Nero became their chief persecutor. The countless Christian martyrs of that dark time would face horrible deaths, some being thrown to dogs, some crucified, and some set afire to act as torches in the long nights.

Over the next 250 years, those of the Christian faith would be utterly despised by the masses and would face varying degrees of persecutions, finally culminating in the Great Persecution under Diocletian in the early 4th century. Despite the great efforts of Diocletian, the newly founded faith survived and even thrived. Church historian Tertullian described this strange, paradoxical relationship between faith and mass persecutions in this manner, “The oftener we are mown down by you, the more in number we grow, the blood of the Christians is the seed of the Church.”

Facing a hostile public and a powerful government bent on their very destruction, the early church moved into a defensive position in this seemingly overmatched game of chess. Under the constant threat of persecution, early Christian leaders made great advances in the style of writing known as the Apologetics (from the Greek word apologia), defined as a reasoned defense and justification of the Christian faith. Armed with their strong faith and a responsibility to their fellow man, Christians upheld the cause of Christ, guarding against the forces from without and compelling others to join the movement.

Justin Martyr, whose ministry stretched across the first half of the second century, was one of the greatest of the early apologists, defending the beliefs and practices of Christianity to a hostile pagan public. It was his contention that divine wisdom was to be found throughout the world and that Christians could and should expect to find aspects of the gospel reflected outside the church, itself. He then took this idea to the surrounding pagan culture, showing the similarities between the Gospel and the works of Plato, in hopes that they would come to belief. Many in the Christian community were quite critical of Justin’s work, though, including the aforementioned Tertullian, who answered his method with a question, “What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?” Taking the flip side of the argument, Tertullian saw the newly formed religion as a countercultural movement, one that must maintain its distinctive identity by avoiding secular influences and refusing to allow itself to be contaminated by the surrounding mental or moral environment. This conflict between church and culture and the relationship between the two is one that has continued through the centuries all the way to our 21st century churches of today.

After only a few years, the church that had been a solitary institution in its advent began to splinter as new and different ideas were introduced. One of the most prominent of these Christian offshoots was known as Gnosticism, a name which signified a sort of special knowledge, something outside the generally accepted teachings of the early church. Irenaeus of Lyons was one of many early Christians that took a stand against these ideas, labeling them as heresy and insisting in the existence of a “rule of faith” that was rooted in the Gospel as taught by the apostolic church and in the coalescing Christian canon.

While the first 250 years of the church’s existence is best described by the challenges from the empire on the outside and false teachings on the inside, the movement from despised minority to forced majority in the early 4th century would display the toughest challenge yet for the newly formed religion.

…to be continued

Advertisement