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STAND & COMFORT Newsletter January 24, 2002 #1 Martyrdom: There Is Nothing New Under The Sun In searching the early church fathers both on and off the web, I came across this often quoted paragraph: "The Christians are to blame for every public disaster and every misfortune that befalls the people. If the Tiber rises to the walls, if the Nile fails to rise and flood the fields, if the sky withholds its rain, if there is earthquake or famine or plague, straightway the cry arises: 'The Christians to the lions!'"{F. F. Bruce, The Spreading Flame: The Rise and Progress of Christianity from its First Beginnings to the Conversion of the English (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1973),165 citing Tertullian, The Apology, Chapter XXXIX). Of this practice to blame natural disasters on the Christians, Philip Schaff writes in his History Of The Christian Church, "The common people also, with their polytheistic ideas, abhorred the believers in the one God as atheists and enemies of the gods. They readily gave credit to the slanderous rumors of all sorts of abominations, even incest and cannibalism, practised by the Christians at their religious assemblies and love-feasts, and regarded the frequent public calamities of that age as punishments justly inflicted by the angry gods for the disregard of their worship. In North Africa arose the proverb: "If God does not send rain, lay it to the Christians." At every inundation, or drought, or famine, or pestilence, the fanatical populace cried: 'Away with the atheists! To the lions with the Christians!' There were times when Christians were specifically hunted down and martyred, but they were not necessarily sought out and hunted down in the overall history of early Rome. But, their refusal to acknowledge the gods of Rome when they were brought before "the throne," of course, lead to many of them being martyrs for their faith: "It is my custom, Lord Emperor [Trajan], to refer you to all questions whereof I [Pliny] am in doubt ... I have never participated in investigations of Christians; hence I do not know what is the crime usually punished or investigated; or what allowances are made ... Meanwhile this is the course I have taken with those who were accused before me as Christians. I asked them whether they were Christians, and I asked them a second and third time with threats of punishment. If they kept to it, I ordered them taken off for execution, for I had no doubt that whatever it was they admitted, in any case they deserved to be punished for obstinacy and unbending pertinacity ... As for those who said they neither were nor ever have been Christians, I thought it right to let them go, when they recited a prayer to the gods at my dictation, and made supplication with incense and wine to your statue ... and moreover, cursed Christ - things which (so it is said) those who were really Christians cannot be made to do" (Pliny the Younger, the governor of Bithynia to Emperor Trajan (52-117 AD), Pliny, Epistles, X.97, in J. Stevenson (ed.), A New Eusebius: Documents illustrative of the history of the Church to A.D. 337, London: S.P.C.K., 1968, 16.). Such policies were not implemented throughout the entire Roman empire at first, but evolved over a period of time. Nor did all the emperors of Rome pursue deification. But Emperor worship was a system devised to create a common base of unity among citizens, while at the same time allowing the emperor's tolerance towards other cults they might belong to. At times, even the Christians enjoyed this tolerance. At other times, however, worship of the Emperor was demanded and expected with the threat of death if a Christian would not take part in the ritual. This tolerance was also extended to the non-believing Romans as well. As long as a citizen burned a pinch of incense and acknowledged the gods of Rome by an offering and a prayer before the emperor's statue, it didn't matter what he believed. But for the Christian to take part in these confessions and practices was to betray Christ as Lord of lords and King of kings. Therefore he stood out like a sore thumb, and was labeled intolerant and an insult to the emperor, the citizenry and Roman Empire. This Christian "intolerance" thus became a danger to the peace and stability of the Roman community, resulting in the accusations of blame for natural calamities. In our modern American society, the labeling of Christians as intolerant is blowing in the wind. For the present, the consequence of such labeling is mostly a scornful look, ridicule, or belittling. But to think that the winds of pluralistic tolerance will die down is only to lie to ourselves. Like the frog being boiled to death at a slow pace, I believe that these winds will slowly but surely increase, with the frequency and velocity changes going almost unnoticed. Call this a slowly escalating evolutionary process, turtle escalation, or the growing consensus of the people, but don't call it impossible. I believe we will wake up one morning only to realize that the world's unwritten code of tolerance has evolved into a full-fledged gale. We can see that intolerance of the Christian is here to stay by listening to interviews with Christian ministers on news networks and shows like "Politically Incorrect." These programs do two things in this regard: they show the tolerance of the "good, peace-making homo sapien" and the intolerance of the spiritually-minded Christian. We must also keep in mind that Scripture tells us that the world will worship the coming image of the beast, and the Christian will not and cannot (Revelation 13:14-15). The punishment for not ding so will be persecution and martyrdom for Christians - there is nothing new under the sun. Justin Martyr describes some of the ways Christians were persecuted in his time (110-165 AD). He states that not only was a martyr a witness and encouragement to other Christians to gird themselves up in faithfulness to the confession of their faith, but unbelievers witnessing those so martyred also came to believe on Christ: "Now it is evident that no one can terrify or subdue us who have believed in Jesus over all the world. For it is plain that, though beheaded, and crucified, and thrown to wild beasts, and chains, and fire, and all other kinds of torture, we do not give up our confession; but the more such things happen, the more do others and in larger numbers become faithful, and worshippers of God through the name of Jesus. For just as if one should cut away the fruit-bearing parts of a vine, it grows up again, and yields other branches flourishing and fruitful; even so the same thing happens with us. . . . For Isaiah cries, 'Behold how the righteous perishes, and no man lays it to heart; and righteous men are taken away, and no man considers it' [Isaiah 57:1]" (Justin Martyr (110-165), Dialogue With Trypho, Chapter CX). His comparison between the death of Christians and the pruning of a vine has now been put in simpler, more modern terms: "Christians are like dandelions. You kill one off and ten more spring up." It's a serious, not humorous, saying, but as history verifies, aptly put. In the early church, Christians were often led to their death with heavy chains bound around their neck and body, some to be used as sport for the citizens in the coliseum, some to be tied to stakes for burning by the very chains that already held them bound. Yet these Christians, these common people who had almost nothing, were dying for their faith. Peter and the other disciples were men who had little and left what they had in order to spread the gospel, knowing they would probably die for it and because of it. They were poor, yet they died for something seen only by faith. Do you remember when you were young and used the expression, "I'd just die to have that (whatever "that" was in your case")? How worldly, how fleshly we were, little realizing what we were really saying. The Christian martyrs knew what they meant when they said it, and they meant what they said. They proved this when faced with the stake or the flames or the lions or the chains or the oil. The world didn't understand, and it never will, because it cannot and does not "see" what the Christian understands and "sees." The threat of apostasy was heavily linked to the martyrdom of the saints of the past. Even in the face of flame, sword and lion, they would not apostatize, and so denied the emperor his idolatrous worship and allegiance. The epitome of apostasy and emperor worship can be seen in the coming Antichrist and the threat of martyrdom announced by his False Prophet, of which John of Chrysostom states, "Ver. 3, 4. 'Let no man beguile you in any wise: for it will not be, except the falling away come first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, he that opposeth and exalteth himself against all that is called God or that is worshiped; so that he sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth as God.' Just as we are dealing with apostasy, so did the early Church. Notice that we are seeing many of the same traits today as described in the following quotes from Alexander and Cyril: "Know therefore that there have recently arisen in our diocese lawless and anti-christian men, teaching apostasy such as one may justly consider and denominate the forerunner of Antichrist. I wished indeed to consign this disorder to silence, that if possible the evil might be confined to the apostates alone, and not go forth into other districts and contaminate the ears of some of the simple. But since Eusebius, now in Nicomedia, thinks that the affairs of the Church are under his control because, forsooth, he deserted his charge at Berytus and assumed authority over the Church at Nicomedia with impunity, and has put himself at the head of these apostates, daring even to send commendatory letters in all directions concerning them, if by any means he might inveigle some of the ignorant into this most impious and anti-christian heresy, I felt imperatively called on to be silent no longer, knowing what is written in the law, but to inform you of all of these things, that ye might understand both who the apostates are, and also the contemptible character of their heresy, and pay no attention to anything that Eusebius should write to you. For now wishing to renew his former malevolence, which seemed to have been buried in oblivion by time, he affects to write in their behalf; while the fact itself plainly shows that he does this for the promotion of his own purposes. These then are those who have become apostates: Arius, Achillas Aithales, and Carpones, another Arius, Sarmates, Euzoius, Lucius Julian, Menas, Helladis, and Gaius; with these also must be reckoned Secundus and Theonas, who once were called bishops. The dogmas they have invented and assert, contrary to the Scriptures, are these: That God was not always the Father, but that there was a period when he was not the Father; that the Word of God was not from eternity but was made out of nothing; for that the ever-existing God ('the I AM' -- the eternal One) made him who did not previously exist, out of nothing; wherefore there was a time when he did not exist, inasmuch as the Son is a creature and a work. That he is neither like the Father as it regards his essence, nor is by nature either the Fathers true Word, or true Wisdom, but indeed one of his works God, whereby God both made all things and him also. Wherefore he is as to his nature mutable and susceptible of change, as all other rational creatures are: hence the Word is alien to and other than the essence of God; and the Father is inexplicable by the Son, and invisible to him, for neither does the Word perfectly and accurately know the Father, neither can he distinctly see him. The Son knows not the nature of his own essence: for he was made on our account, in order that God might create us by him, as by an instrument; nor would he ever have existed, unless God had wished to create us. (The Ecclesiastical History, By Socrates Scholasticus, Book I, Chapter VI, The Epistle of Alexander Bishop of Alexandria). The Church of today needs to "make [itself] secure beforehand." We see apostasy in our midst, its growth through "new" doctrines within the Church, its yielding to the world's doctrine of tolerance, the frowns toward the "intolerant" Christian, the move to unite the world in all of its aspects, and the event toward which it all leads: the appearance of the man of sin. Do we know ALL of the SPECIFIC details? No. Have we got a darn good idea of how it will come about? Yes, for the most part. The old saying, "Closing the barn door after the horse is gone" comes to mind. Now is the time to prepare for whatever is ahead, to remain faithful to Scripture in study and practice, to rely on the Holy Spirit to teach us and guide us, to know that God will provide all for those who fear Him. When things do get really bad, it will be too almost late to prepare. As the things I've briefly discussed occur or begin to occur, remember that although persecution is a very negative thing, it has the tendency to strengthen the Church. Remember the dandelions? Remember them. Persecution also sorts out the true Christian from the false, with the true Christian becoming bold in his stance for Christ and his proclamation of the gospel. While facing martyrdom, Polycarp was brought before the court and asked what he was. He answered straight out, "I am a Christian." It's a short phrase, four little words, but we will need to utter it when those times come. How long? Five years? Ten? Before that? Longer? I don't know - do you? But WHEN does not matter as long as we remember to "make thyself secure beforehand." Some might say, flippantly, "Oh, no problem. I am secure in Christ." It's not a matter of saying it, but having such statements tested, and they will be. The Christian is called to faithfulness and God can do no more to make you faithful than you are willing. It's up to us as individual Christians to live out and through the harder times of the Christian life as prophesied in God's word: 1 Pet 1:13 Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; #2 Three Research Articles: United Religions, New Age History, Mind Control I am listing the following three sites with the exhortation to be discerning as you read them. I have gone over them the best I can as there is a lot of material here and feel there is much useful info here, but you have to be discerning when you read these. For the most part, they provide some good research material. Zuukie has sent in two articles that give some good research information on the United Religions movement and also a history of the New Age movement, part of which includes the idea of the "selection process" by which Christians will sifted out because of their "intolerance" toward the New Age agenda. These can be discerningly read at: Midwives of a Common God: The Myriad Friends of the United Religions Initiative by Lee Penn ============== This newsletter will be sent out whenever I think there is something the body of Christ needs to consider, to build it up, to give it encouragement or comfort in hard times. To sign up for this newsletter, email Ed at ejt@ncinter.net |