Persecutions

2 Tim 3:12  ... yea and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. 

The first persecution relating directly to the person of Jesus Christ was when Herod (the Great) 37-4BC, demanded the slaughter of children younger than two years of age in an attempt to annihilate the predicted new king. This identified the threat that the promised Messiah posed to all existing emperors; that is, the threat of loosing their rule. This wasn’t exclusive only to Jesus, in fact throughout the entire first century anyone, who was of the seed of David or of his generational line risked being sought out and killed. Emperor Domitian just prior to his death in 96AD was particularly active in this pursuit. 

During the Apostolic Age, persecution came primarily from the Jews, and especially from the religious fraternity of the Pharisees and the Saducees. The preaching of a crucified Messiah, whose death was directly blamed on the Judaic spiritual leadership, was highly provocative.
It was Stephens’ preaching of this fact, as he outlined the transition and fulfillment of the law in Christ, that led to his martyrdom in the presence of Saul. Saul (later named Paul) was a Pharisee active in delivering up Christians to persecution until a supernatural encounter with Christ himself on the road to Damascus perpetrated his repentance, conversion, and subsequent apostolic ministry to the Gentles.I

Persecution of Christians in large numbers soon came from Rome, and for the following reasons. 

1.      Imperial authorities were generally tolerant of other religions providing they gave homage to the Emperor. Like the Jews, Christians would not bow, which infuriated Rome’s tolerance. Rome guarded against other sects joining Judaism in challenging the Emperors divine authority in this manner.

2.      Christians were different. Tertullian was quoted in his apology “we have a reputation of living aloof from crowds”. The Christian unworldly ethic in itself was a criticism of pagan beliefs.

3.      Christians were scandalously slandered because of their alleged ‘secrecy and mistrust’, including allegations of cannibalism and sexual orgies. The rumor of cannibalism came as a result of the hearing of Christians “eating and drinking of the [Lords] body”. Pliny (the elder) authorized the killing of Christians as a result of this particular rumor, accusing them of being "enemies of the human race”.

4.      The Christians were accused of atheism because of their rejection of the Roman gods, and of having a “conflicting pernicious superstition”.

5.      The most significant development, however, was their refusal to “worship” the emperor. The emperor was held as the symbol of the Roman goddess Roma - the spirit of Rome, to whom the grandeur of the empire was indebted, and unto whom, all were to offer sacrifice. 

All the above reasons, to one degree or another, contributed to set the Roman Empire at variance against the Christian faith.

The first ‘National’ persecution was under Emperor Nero (15-68AD).

Tertullian (early Latin theologian) wrote, "Nero was the first to rage with Caesar's sword against this sect,"  

Nero (picture) was fair-haired, blue eyed, plump, with a body covered with spots. He usually appeared in public wearing a dressing gown without a belt, a scarf around his neck and no shoes.
In character he was said to have been a strange mix of paradoxes; artistic, sporting; brutal, weak; erratic, sadistic, and bisexual, - and later in life almost certainly deranged.

The fire of Rome in July, 64AD ravaged Rome for six days. Tacitus (early Roman historian) reported that “of the fourteen districts of the city, four were undamaged, three were utterly destroyed and in the other seven there remained only a few mangled and half-burnt traces of houses”.
Nero’s indifference to the suffering caused by the tragedy stirred resentment among the people, and soon rumors spread that he himself set the fire in order to rebuild the city based on his pre-drawn plans. 

Nero, always seeking to be popular, therefore looked for scapegoats on whom the fire could be blamed. He found it in the relatively new religious sect, the Christians.
Tacitus again wrote, "First, Nero had some of the members of this sect arrested. Then, on their information, large numbers were condemned not so much for arson, but for their hatred of the human race. Their deaths were made a farce."
Many Christians were crucified, or thrown to dogs and wild beasts with carcasses tied to them. Others were burned to death at night, serving as 'lighting' in Nero's gardens (picture), while Nero mingled among the watching crowds. We know that the Apostles Peter and Paul suffered martyrdom at this time. 

The first ‘Empire-wide’ persecution was under Domitian (Emperor 81-96AD).
He was the younger brother of General Titus who sacked Jerusalem in 70AD.
Domitian (picture) was naturally inclined to cruelty, which was illustrated when he slew his brother. It is said that his nephew Flavius Clemens also suffered the same fate.
Both Jews and Christians refused to give homage to the godhead of Domitian, or offer sacrifice before the image, therefore he executed them.
He enforced persecution, on this basis, adding “That no Christian, once brought before the tribunal, would be exempted from punishment without renouncing his religion.” If famine, pestilence, or earthquakes afflicted any of the Roman provinces, the Christians bore his fury.
Domitian also sought to remove the entire lineage of the Jewish King David. He knew of the rumor that a king from the line of David would one day sit in his stead. So like Herod, because of this perceived threat, he sought out and murdered any citizen known to have proceeded from David’s genealogy.
The Apostle John was exiled to Patmos about this time. 

Domitian killed anyone he took objection to. For example, he killed his secretary Epaphroditus because he believed, 27 years prior, Epaphroditus had supposedly helped Nero commit suicide.
He also put to death some of his Roman senators, either through malice or to confiscate their estates. As a result, some remaining servants, made alliance with the Emperor's wife Domitia and conspired to kill him. It is recorded that Domitia's servant struck the first blow before the others joined in, and Domitian met his death.
When the news reached the Senators, they tore down all the images of Domitian in their chambers, and ordered all statues of him, and all inscriptions mentioning his name, to be destroyed throughout the empire. He was denied his state funeral. 

By 112AD things went from bad to worse when persistence in Christianity alone became a capital offence. Christians had no option but to met for worship in Catacombs - 600 miles of underground mole-like tunnels where they buried their dead (no land was given to Christians for burial).
Ten generations were buried in the catacombs. Archaeologists later found many inscriptions of Scripture including “the word of God is not bound”. 

At Lyons, in 177AD, those who had been scourged, branded, and exposed to wild beasts, chose to humbly disown the name ‘martyr’, preferring to confine that exalted title to Christ, saying of themselves: “we are but mean and lowly confessors”. The word martyr implied they were “a true witness of Jesus in word and deed”, to which they dared not claim. 

In 249AD Emperor Decius (picture) Emperor 201-251, made Caesar worship universal and compulsory for every race and nation within the empire for two reasons.

1. Many of the pagan temples were being emptied due to Christian converts.

2. A test of political loyalty, and sign of good citizenship. 

When an another outbreak of the Antonine plague of 165AD, emerged in 251 (called the Cyprian Plague after the bishop of Carthage), Decius had another bow to his armor to enforce full allegiance because any plague was believed to have been the result of someone, or some group, upsetting the Roman gods.
At its height between 251 and 266 the plague was said to be taking up to 5,000 lives a day in Rome. Just as the Jews were to later suffer the blame in the 14^th century for the Black Death, here the Christians received the wrath of the empire for the Cyprian Plague. 
Tertullian wrote: “If the Tiber reaches the walls, if the Nile does not rise to the fields, If the sky doesn’t move or if the earth does, if there is famine if there is plague, the cry is at once: “The Christians to the Lions”.

The anti-Christian legislation of Decius was more far-reaching in its effects than any previous persecution. The texts of his edicts have not survived however evidence of their brutal execution does. The object of the emperor was not the extermination of Christians necessarily, but the complete extinction of any religion that would not sacrifice to the emperor’s image (the symbol of the goddess Roma).
Many bishops, including Fabian (bishop of Rome) and the bishops of Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem, were martyred as well as many of Decius's own guards. Theologians Origen and Cyprian were persecuted, however were not killed.
On the other hand, those who were willing to recant from “the Christian sect” were to prove their allegiance by offering oblation to idols whereupon they would receive a document (libellus) authenticating their renunciation. Historian H Chadwick states: “the number of apostates especially among property owners was immense”.

When Decius perished in a marshland during a war with the Goths in 251, the persecution ceased.
Almost immediately, the question of readmittance to the Church for the many scores of people who had committed ‘apostasy’ was fiercely debated. “What should be done with professing Christians who had denied their faith to escape persecution?” In contrast, the awe of those faithfully martyred, tortured or sent into exile was enormous.
Subsequently, policies of “re-admittance subject to penance”, and the use of the ‘treasury of grace’ obtained by the martyred, were conceived and discussed for the first time - although not formalised until Augustine’s influence in the fifth century. 

One of the worst persecutions came during the reign of Diocletian (picture) 284-305AD, the emperor who had just subdued the long-standing enemy of Persia.
During the greater portion of Diocletian's reign, perhaps as a result of him having a Christian wife, the Christians enjoyed peace and prosperity. In fact, Eusebius (historian) who lived at this time, wrote "the glory and the liberty with which the doctrine of piety was honored", and that “many were flocking to the Church”.
Diocletian inaugurated a Caesar to rule the Eastern Roman empire by the name of Galerius. It was under the influence of Galerius the last of the Early Church persecutions began. In 302 he attempted to purge the empire of all Church buildings, all scripture and Christian literature. Further edicts of 303 and 304 inflicted torture and banishment upon Christians if they would not offer sacrifice. The cruelty with which these edicts were enforced, and the vast numbers of those who suffered for their faith was testified by Eusebius. Galerius went as far as massacring an entire population of a town who professed to be Christian. Many historians believe the Diocletian/Galerian persecution was the most severe of the ten Roman persecutions recorded.
After seven years of prescribing persecution, and nearing his death having failed in his pursuit of ridding the empire of Christian influence, Galerius, issued the Edict of Toleration on 30 April 311 commanding that Christians be tolerated.
This officially ended the period of Early Church persecution. 

Upon the death of Galerius, a stuggle for Imperial power broke out. In the spring of 312 Constantine (picture) advanced across the Alps to dislodge his rival Maxentius from Italy and to capture Rome. When he confronted the militarily superior Maxentius at the Milvian bridge just outside of Rome, he called upon the God of the Christians for help. In a dream he saw a cross in the sky and the words, “in this sign conquer”. This convinced him to advance, and looked upon his success as proof of the superiority of the Christian religion. The rise of Constantine as the result of his victory at Milvian Bridge in 312AD initiated the subsequent ‘Constantinian Revolution’. 

After Constantine’s victory, Christianity moved swiftly from the seclusion of the Catacombs to the prestige of affluence.
In 313AD, Emperor Constantine (picture), ruling from Byzantium (now renamed Constantinople), issued the Edict of Milan, granting Christians total freedom. From here they were allowed to again meet freely for worship and openly propagate their faith. Constantine found Christians to be peaceful by nature and thought the best way to minimise any up-rising was to make his entire empire, peacefully Christian. Accordingly, he propagated the faith and supplied priests and buildings (just as the custom had been previously for imperially favored pagan religions). Constantine also abolished death by crucifixion, the battles of gladiators, and made Sunday a public holiday.However, his alleged conversion may have been no more than a cleaver political move. Catholic historian Philip Hughes writes “In his manners, he (Constantine) remained very much the pagan of his early life. His furious tempers, the cruelty which spared not his wife neither his son, Crispus, a nephew, and a brother in-law (all who threatened his throne) are … an unpleasing witness to the imperfection of his conversion”.  

Chistianisation of the Roman Empire saw saw the beginning of Imperial interference. For example, magnificent Church buildings arose which, until this time, was foreign to the Church. Favored bishops began to adorn themselves and reign like kings, and politics entered the fold. People still half rooted in paganism, and the politically ambitious massed to the official religion which posed a new challenge for Orthodox Christianity.  

Monks rose to protest the secularization. The “called out assembly” came under a under a new threat which raised the question of whether Constantine’s Christianisation of the Empire was a good thing for Orthodox Christianity or not, despite the relaxing of persecution.
Many believers protested the changes claiming the world had invaded the vineyard. Some believers withdrew and began to serve God in caves in the wilderness, so not to be ‘spotted by the elements of the contemporary faith’. They became known as hermits.
Hermits attracted great admiration and followings, much to the displeasure of the hermits themselves. One such man, Simeon Stylites, disliked the disturbance of visitors to his cave so much that he made his home on the top of a high Roman pillar. His fellow Christians faithfully passed him food and water in a basket. It is said he lived there for 30 years secluded in prayer, and at times preached powerfully to the crowds below.  

By 380AD, Imperial rewards for Christians expanded to ‘penalties for non-Christians’ when Emperor Theodosius made belief in Christianity an Imperial command.
Theodosius assumed that his own will was that of Gods. However when he demanded the slaughter of 7000 Thessalonians for killing the governor, who had jailed their triumphant homosexual charioteer, he was called to repentance by Bishop Ambrose who refused him communion until he had repented several times (the dogma of the sacrament of Communion was accepted as the divine provision of receiving grace).
This event marked the beginning of a 1500-year clash between the Church and Imperial authorities. 

Persecution of true believers, in the West particularly, for the next 1300 years or so was regularly ministered by the arm of the Roman Catholic Church toward any subject who refused to recant and submit to its dogmas and beliefs. Papal figures were determined not only to enforce their rule over Imperial authorities, but over any person in contempt of its ruling dogma.
The “faith” of the empire was seen as a necessary framework for a stable and God-pleasing society. Any person or sect that threatened this was quickly dealt to, usually with the support of society itself.
However, this ethos developed to excessive measures, during the Dark Ages, when Augustine’s edict of “the use of necessary force” was enforced mercilessly. Augustine founded the heavy-handed edict against the Donatists when he wrote: “Why should not the Church use force in compelling her lost sons to return, if the lost sons compelled others to their destruction? (The Correction of the Donatists, 22–24) 

Christian believers were among those persecuted when, in 1095 Pope Urban II initiated the Crusades, which lasted for two centuries.Thousands of knights were sent to ‘serve justice’ in the name of the Roman Catholic Church whereupon they killed Muslims, Jews and Christians. They sawed open dead bodies in search for the gold that Muslims were rumored to have swallowed, ate the flesh, tortured, raped, sent children into slavery, and plundered, all with the assurance from Rome of automatic pardon for sins in the form of an “Indulgence”.  

The Crusades also in their wake a legacy of extreme anti-Semitism, which blighted the Crusader Church. Unfortunately, the reproach has remained visceral in today’s Jewry psyche toward the Christian Church ever since. 

After the first two Crusades the Roman Catholic Church, with the authoritative blessing of the Papacy, was determined to enforce what it insisted the people were to believe.
Just prior to the third Crusade of 1188, Pope Lucius III in 1184 initiated the idea of an Inquisition when he demanded his bishops “enquire” into the people’s beliefs. Anyone found to have heretical ideas, were immediately excommunicated and often handed over to secular authorities to be burnt by fire. Many true believers suffered a cruel death.
Soon after, the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 saw Pope Innocent III provide formal provision for “State punishment of heretics”. In 1220 he took the Inquisition from the hands of the bishops and gave it to the Dominicans. 1233 saw Gregory IX affirm the Dominican role and demanded it be executed in the name of the pope. The inquisitor was subject to no law, only to that of the pope. They became judge, jury and executioner. The Dominicans became the main enforcers during the Inquisition.
In 1252 Pope Innocent IV expanded the enquiry, and created a new theology when he authorized “torture unto death to expel demons, so the heretic could die in blessedness”.
As many as 700,000 people were murdered over a 100 year period. 

In 1480, Isabella and Ferdinand, as a monarchal/Church alliance, instituted the Spanish Inquisition. (Isabella’s daughter was Catherine of Aragon, who is known in history as the first wife of Henry VIII of England and mother of Mary I –bloody Mary). The Inquisition was aimed mostly at Jews and Muslims who claimed to have converted to Christianity but were suspected of practicing their faiths secretly. However, many of these were in fact genuine conversions.
In 1492, all Jews in Spain who refused to convert to Christianity were given six months notice whereupon they were expelled by royal edict.
Other less serious allegations saw people tortured or kept in damp cells for months and sometimes years without disclosure of either their crime or the name of their accuser. Ferdinand and Isabella were given the title "the Catholic" by the Pope, in recognition of their role in "purifying the faith".
Hereafter, Isabella was called “Isabella the Catholic”.

Author Dave Hunt in his book A Woman Rides the Beast writes “more Christians and Jews have been slaughtered at the hands of those obeying Papal instructions than by both Islam and the entire early Roman Empire”.
Will Durant, author of The story of Civilization, writes: “Roman Catholicism became the most persecuting faith the world has ever seen … Innocent III murdered far more Christians in one afternoon … than any Roman emperor did in his entire reign.”
Roman Catholic apologists today try to absolve their church by claiming the Inquisition was the work of the State. However it was the Popes themselves who invented the inquisition.
Even Dollinger, a leading Catholic professor of Church History, writes “... both the initiation and the carrying out of this new principle [the Inquisition] must be ascribed to the popes alone”.
Of eighty popes succeeding the thirteenth century, not one disapproved of the theology or methods of the Inquisitions.
Inquisitions toward Christians and Jews particularly was not confined to a point in history.
The Papacy held Europe in the grip of both the Medieval and Spanish inquisitions until its final suppression in 1809. As late as 1808 when Napoleon conquered Spain, his Colonel Lemanouski reported upon his arrival at the Madrid monastery, that the Dominicans denied existence of any torture chambers. However, under the floors were found full chambers with naked prisoners, all insane. The French troops, use to cruelty and blood, could not stomach the site and blew the monastery up.
According to R.W. Thompson in The Papacy and Civil Power (pg82), Canon Llorente, who was secretary to the inquisition in Madrid from 1790-92 and who had access to the archives of all the tribunals, estimated the number of condemned in Spain alone exceeded 3 million with about 300,000 burned at the stake.
The legacy of the Papal reign may well be drunk with the blood of martyred saints.

For a synopsis of persecutions inflicted upon Christians, largely by the Roman Catholic Church, during the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries, see Key developments leading up to the Reformation, and The Reformation.

Today ( statistics with permission: Voice of the Martyrs)

The Barna Research Group states that almost 70 million Christians have paid with their lives for their faith since the Crucifixion of Christ.  It may come as a surprise that sixty percent of that number, or over 40 million, were martyred in the 20th century alone.
Traditionally, throughout the ages since the birth of the Church, the Christian faith remained in Western Europe and Eastern Orthodox locations. However, gradually since mans ability to travel through exploration etc the gospel has found its way to the uttermost parts of the world.
The shift of Evangelical growth from the Western World to the non-western World over the past few decades in particular has been significant.
For example, in 1960, over 70% of all evangelicals lived in North America and Western Europe.
By 1990, 70% of all Evangelicals lived in the non-western World and this number continues to grow at a staggering rate. (Source: Operation World). 

The United Nations Commission on Human Rights on April 8, 2002 reported:
"We estimate that there are more than 200 million Christians in the world today who do not have full human rights as defined by the UN Declaration of Human Rights, simply because they are Christians. We believe that this is the largest group in the world without full human rights because of their beliefs," - Johan Candelin, director of the WEA Religious Liberty Commission. 

We know there are more than 200 million Christians presently undergoing persecution in today’s world, most of them in an area called the 10/40 Window. The 10/40 window signifies lines of latitude and longitude stretching from Morocco east to Indonesia.
The population of the U.S. is today less than 5% of the world’s population. Similarly, the American church is now less than 5% of the body of Christ worldwide. Today most Christians (over 90%) live in the 10/40 Window. Interestingly, the same location for the most “unreached” people groups in the world.
Illustrating these figures is the example of China. It is estimated the number of Chinese Christians increased from 700,000 in 1949, to approximate 80 million today, despite persecution and Communist suppression. 

As the Church age draws to a close, it is expected the number of those laying down their lives for the sake of the gospel, and for the love of their Lord, will increase. Global policy momentum, in the desire to combat terrorism, seems committed to eradicate all forms of religious “intolerance”, even at the cost of promoting policy that undermines the very foundations on which some of the great nations of West were built. 

Clearly, afflictions of the Gospel will continue until the cup is full (Rev 17:3-6), whereupon the Father, at a time determined from before the foundation of the world, will answer the two thousand year old prayer initiated by the Lord himself “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. 

“Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you”
– The Lord Jesus Christ.