Page 7 - Heros of the Faith - Textbook w videos short

8. Christians kept slaves but treated them kindly. That kind of treatment would cause other slaves to
revolt against their masters.
9. Christians would not take weak or unwanted children out in the woods and leave them to die.
10. Roman crowds began to pass around rumors that Christians practiced cannibalism every week in their
services, because they ate bodies and drank blood.

In other words, the lives of the Christian stood as a light against the pagan culture of Rome. Those who
practiced the evil of the day saw Christians as a threat to their culture and way of life.

In the book to the Roman Church, the apostle Paul commanded Christians to NOT be conformed to the culture
of their world, but to be transformed (metamorphosis = changed into a different form) so that in doing so, they
would prove the will of God. Paul reminded Timothy that “In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in
Christ Jesus will be persecuted (II Tim. 3:12). It is clear that as the culture moves further and further away from
God, those who claim to be God’s children will become the brunt of evil men’s hatred and abuse.

The question is, are you persecuted? And if not, why not?

The First Great Persecution under Nero – 64 AD. – 67 AD

In 64 A.D., a terrible fire broke out in the grand city of Rome. It raged for almost six days and ravaged most of
the city. Out of twelve districts in Rome, only four did not burn. Thousands of people died and 2/3 of Rome was
leveled. In the aftermath, rumors swirled like flies; some even blamed the emperor of starting the inferno
(which was a true rumor). Nero’s plan was to burn the city and rebuild it, calling it Neropolis. To protect
himself, Nero would have to act fast. And so he did.

According to Tacitus, an historian that lived from 60-120 A.D., Nero used his position as emperor to place blame
for the fire on the Christians in the city. With the “culprits” fingered as guilty, there was only one thing left to do:
punish them.

Tacitus (who didn’t really like Christians or Nero) gave a fairly grim account of the punishment inflicted on
Rome’s Christians:

But all the endeavors of men, all the emperor’s generosity and the sacrifices to the gods, did not suffice to
allay the scandal or banish the belief that the fire had been ordered. And so, to get rid of this rumor, Nero set
up as the culprits and punished with the utmost refinement of cruelty a class hated for their abominations,
who are commonly called Christians. Christus, from whom their name is derived, was executed at the hands
of the procurator Pontius Pilate in the reign of Tiberius. Checked for the moment, the pernicious superstition
again broke out, not only in Judea, the source of the evil, but even in Rome, that receptacle for everything
that is sordid and degrading from every quarter of the globe, which there finds a following.

Accordingly, arrest was first made of those who confessed; then, on their evidence, an immense multitude
was convicted, not so much on the charge of arson as because of hatred of the human race. Besides being
put to death they were made to serve as objects of amusement; they were clad in the hides of beasts and
torn to death by dogs; others were crucified, others set on fire to serve to illuminate the night when daylight
failed.

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