Why Were Christians Persecuted?

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Why Were Christians Persecuted?

Kingdom Perspective

November 1, 2022 • Don Willeman

Transcript:

Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.

Rome was the most pluralistic civilization the world had ever seen.1 The Empire was comprised of people from all sorts of backgrounds, cultures and religions. So, this raises the question: Why then were Christians so singled out as a threat? Well, the answer is simple: they refused to declare the state and its leader ultimate. Under the authority of Rome, you could worship any god you please. Rome didn’t care which of the gods you preferred, so long as you also worshipped Rome and its Emperor.

Now, these early Christians had nothing against human government. They believed and taught that it was established by God (Romans 13:1) and was necessary for good order (Romans 13:2-5; 1 Timothy 2:1-5). They had nothing against obeying human laws and kings. They simply refused to worship them, as their ultimate authority. Just like faithful Jews before them, they refused to bow down and swear absolute allegiance to any earthly king or man-made god.

This meant that they could not obey any human dictate that forced them to disobey the dictates of heaven. However, this was a huge problem to Rome. In the mind of Rome, the universal and absolute worship of the Emperor guaranteed the continuation of Pax Romana—the Peace (stability) of Rome.

Historian and scholar Justo Gonzalez summarizes why Christians and their Jewish counterparts were seen as such a threat:

“In that atmosphere, Jews and Christians were seen as unbending fanatics who insisted on the sole worship of their One God—an alien cyst that must be removed for the good of society.”2

To the early Christians, Jesus was the Lord of all, or He was not Lord at all.

Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.

“Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience. For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.”

~ Romans 13:1-7 (ESV)

References:
1. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon (1776).
“Roman Religion” by Donald L. Wasson in World History Encyclopedia (2013). Accessed online at https://www.worldhistory.org/Roman_Religion/.
2. The Story of Christianity, Vol. 1 by Justo Gonzalez (Harper One: 2010).

Thank you for listening to and supporting The Kingdom Perspective! The Kingdom Perspective is a ministry of Christ Redeemer Church of Hanover, NH. To hear more episodes you can subscribe on Apple Podcasts. To donate or to find out more about the ministry and resources offered by Christ Redeemer Church visit www.christredeemerchurch.org.

Defeating Spiritual Despair

December 29, 2022 • Don Willeman

Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective. Spiritual despair is a terrible thing. It can settle upon us like a dark cloud, obscuring our vision and leaving us feeling like a failure of a Christian. The accusations of the devil flood our conscience, and it feels like there is no way of escape. What should we do? The great Martin Luther gives some advice in a letter to a young man who had become overwhelmed with similar feelings of despair. He counsels him: “By all means flee solitude, for the devil watches and lies in wait for you most of all when you are alone….” For us this may mean, we must call a friend, perhaps several friends, and ask for encouragement and prayer. But what Luther says next is most potent, for it draws its strength from the very heart of the gospel. “[The] devil is conquered by mocking and despising…, not by resisting and arguing with him. . . “When the devil throws our sins up to us and declares we deserve death and hell, we ought to speak thus: ‘I admit that I deserve death and hell. What of it? Does this mean that I shall be sentenced to eternal damnation? By no means. For I know One who suffered and made a satisfaction in my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Where he is, there I shall be also.’” My friends, the gospel is totally counter intuitive. It is when we are least deserving that Jesus is most for us. And even when your faith fails, the faithfulness of God does not. Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective. “The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself.” ~ 2 Timothy 2:11-13 (ESV)

Seeking Reconciliation

December 22, 2022 • Don Willeman

Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective. Times of crisis often reveal hidden problems. Repeatedly, we have seen national crises expose and exacerbate lingering social divisions. Class, race, politics are often pressed (and even, at times, manipulated), to further divide our nation, and even the church. As Christians, we must not allow this to be so. Jesus called us to be “peacemakers” (Matthew 5). Jesus Himself accomplished peace for us on the cross, by “swallowing” the animosity that divides us (Ephesians 2). Therefore, if we do not live into that peace, in practical ways, we deny (even undermine) the peace Christ has secured for us (Ephesians 4:1-6). But how exactly do we do this? There are perhaps many things we need to do, but most critically we need to do the hard and sacrificial work of seeking understanding. We need to repent of our self-centered arrogance and become curious of other people’s perspectives—especially those that may differ from our socio-cultural experience. Don’t assume that you see it all. Don’t naively assume that your news source gives you the “objective perspective”. We need to become learners. This is exactly what Paul commands us in Philippians 2:3-4 (NASB95): “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.” As Christians we are called to humble ourselves by stepping into the experience of others. And we are to do this, because this is precisely what God did for us in Jesus. Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective. “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!” ~ Philippians 2:3-8 (ESV)

Incurvatus In Se

December 8, 2022 • Don Willeman

Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective. We sometimes have a thin and petty understanding of sin. But sin is anything but thin and petty. The 5th century Christian leader Augustine (354-430) along with the Protestant Reformer Martin Luther (1483-1546) used a Latin phrase to explain the profoundly problematic nature of sin. They called sin “incurvatus in se”. Sin by its very nature is “deeply curved in on itself…. [Under the corruption of sin, our soul] wickedly, curvedly, and viciously seeks all things…for its own sake” (Luther in his Lectures on Romans, emphasis added). This means that sin is a radical self-addiction—a deep and abiding self-obsession. It is the very opposite of love as described in 1 Corinthians 13. Thus… Sin is not patient. It wants what it wants when it wants it. Sin is not kind. It is cruel, using and running over others. Sin is jealous. It always feels very insecure. Sin is arrogant. It’s always full of itself—puffed up with its own perspective and convinced of its own rightness; it is ready to explode at the slightest injustice or irritation. Sin is self-seeking. Sin is bitter, keeping track and nurturing every hurt and wrong. It is in a constant state of self-pity. Sin is easily provoked. It takes everything very personally. Sin rejoices in unrighteousness. It finds its pleasure in the pursuit of raw desire and refuses to be restrained with consideration of others, especially God. It says, “No one’s gonna tell me what to do. I live by my own rules.” Sin refuses to endure suffering. The sinful self is far too precious to be spent on anyone but itself, especially anyone who it deems to be “wrong”. Sin is obsessed with self; it’s curved in on itself. But Love is willing to suffer for others; it is willing to liquidate its life for the good of others. Indeed, this is what the embodiment of love—Jesus Christ—did for us on the cross. Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective. “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.” ~ 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (ESV)