Chapter 2: The Church Is Tempered (A.D. 33-313)

The Heroic Age of the Church
Christ had forewarned His disciples: “They have persecuted me, they will also persecute you.” Throughout the ﬁrst three hundred years of its existence the Church was tempered in the ﬁres of persecution. This period has been called the Heroic Age of the Church.

The Apostolic Church Is Persecuted
Many leaders and members of the newly formed Church suffered for their Christian faith. This persecution began already in the history recorded for us in the Bible. Peter and John were imprisoned and persecuted on more than one occasion. Both Stephen and James had died a martyr’s death.

At one time when Paul was in Corinth, he was dragged by a Jewish mob into the court of the Roman governor Gallio. This governor would have nothing to do with the case and brusquely told the Jews to run along. When the Jews continued to press their charges against Paul, the governor had attendants drive them out of the courthouse.

The initial sufferings were inflicted upon the followers of Christ by the Jews, but in course of time, the attitude of the Roman government toward the Christians underwent a change.

Nero, the First Emperor to Persecute Christians
In the year 64 during the reign of Emperor Nero, ﬁre broke out in Rome. For six days and nights the ﬁre burned. The greater part of the city was laid in ashes. The rumor got around that Nero himself had caused the city to be set on ﬁre. This aroused great hatred in the people of Rome against the emperor. To turn this hatred away from himself, Nero accused the Christians of having set ﬁre to Rome. The accusation certainly was not true, but large numbers of Christians were arrested and a terrible persecution followed. Many Christians were even cruciﬁed. Some were sewn up in the skins of wild beasts; then big dogs were let loose upon them, and they were torn to pieces. Women were tied to mad bulls and dragged to death. After nightfall Christians were burned at the stake in Nero’s garden. The Roman people who hated the Christians were free to come into the garden, and Nero drove around in his chariot wickedly enjoying the horrible scene.

During the persecution of Nero, according to tradition, the apostles Peter and Paul suffered martyrdom in Rome. It is related that Peter was cruciﬁed with his head down. This was done at his own request. He said he was not worthy to be cruciﬁed in the same manner as his Master. Paul, being a Roman citizen, was beheaded.

The slaughter of Christians at this time was conﬁned to the city of Rome. It was not a general persecution throughout the whole of the Empire.

Ignatius, Polycarp, and Justin
For the next one hundred years (from 68 to 161) there were no general persecutions, but in different parts of the Empire many Christians were put to death. Outstanding among the martyrs of this period were Ignatius, bishop of Antioch; Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna; and Justin, the apologist who had written boldly and very ably in defense of the Christians.

Ignatius (AD 67-110) was ordered by the emperor to be arrested and was sentenced to be thrown to the wild beasts in Rome. He longed for the honor of giving his life for his Savior, saying, “May the wild beasts be eager to rush upon me. If they be unwilling, I will compel them. Come, crowds of wild beasts; come, tearing and mangling, wracking of bones and hacking of limbs; come, cruel tortures of the devil; only let me attain unto Christ.”

Polycarp was the last one of those who had been personally taught by the apostles. He was arrested and brought into the amphitheater in Smyrna, which was ﬁlled with an immense multitude. Since there were no images of gods in the houses of worship of the Christians, the heathen rightly concluded that the Christians did not believe in the existence of the gods, and so they accused them of being atheists (people who believe there is no God). The proconsul reminded Polycarp of his great age, and urged him to show his penitence by joining in the cry, “Away with the atheists!” Polycarp looked straight at the excited crowd, pointed his ﬁnger at them, and cried, “Away with the atheists!”

Then the proconsul said, “Revile Christ, and I will release you.”

But Polycarp answered, "Eighty and six years have I served Him, and He has never done me wrong; how can I blaspheme Him, my King, who has saved me? I am a Christian.”

To the crowd the proconsul then proclaimed, “Polycarp has confessed himself to be a Christian.”

The crowds yelled, “Let him be burned!”  Wood was collected and made into a pile. Polycarp asked not to be fastened to the stake. "Leave me thus,” he said. “He who strengthens me to endure the ﬂames will also enable me to stand ﬁrm at the stake without being fastened with nails.” The woodpile was lighted. While Polycarp prayed with a loud voice, “Lord God Almighty, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, I praise Thee that Thou hast judged me worthy of this day and of this hour, to participate in the number of Thy witnesses, and in the cup of Thy Christ,” the ﬂames consumed him. Polycarp’s martyr death took place in the year 156.

Justin Martyr (100-166), who was a philosopher, was scourged and beheaded in Rome with six other Christians. In the face of death he bore with joy the witness to the truth. His last Words were: “We desire nothing more than to suffer for our Lord Jesus Christ; for this gives us salvation and joyfulness before His dreadful judgment seat. . .”

Persecution Is Continued Under Marcus Aurelius
The emperor Marcus Aurelius (161-180) decreed that the property of Christians should be given to their accusers. It is not difficult to see what would be the effect of this decree. Everywhere there were people who were eager to have the property of the Christians. These came forward with accusations. Persecution became well-nigh universal. Christians everywhere were sought out, brought to trial, and often executed with the greatest cruelty, while their property was taken from them and given to their accusers.

What happened to the Church in Lyons and Vienne in southern Gaul, now France, can give us some idea of the severity of the persecution under Marcus Aurelius. By the most horrible tortures, they sought to make the Christians deny their faith. When at last the persecutors became convinced that no amount of torture would make the Christians deny their faith, they beheaded those Christians who were Roman citizens, and the others they threw to the wild beasts in the arena of the amphitheater.

From far and near the heathens ﬂocked to the amphitheater to see this spectacle. All the condemned met their death with great joy. The last to die was Blandina. She had been a spectator of the death of many others, and she had constantly encouraged and exhorted them to remain steadfast to the end. With joy and thanksgiving she entered the arena. A net was thrown over her. Then she was exposed to the fury of a wild bull. Several times the bull took her upon his horns and tossed her into the air. At last she was dead.

The bodies of the martyrs were burned, and the ashes were thrown into the river Rhone. The heathen said mockingly, “Now we shall see whether there will be a resurrection of their bodies.”

A Lull in the Storm
With the death of Marcus Aurelius this period of persecution came to a close. For some  seventy years the Church on the whole  enjoyed rest, with the exception of the  persecution under Septimius Severus from  200-211.

For a time this persecution raged with great violence in Alexandria in Egypt. Along with many others, the father of Origen was put to death. Origen, who later became the greatest scholar the Church had produced, was at the time of his father’s death a young boy. It was only with the greatest difficulty that his mother restrained him from offering himself for martyrdom.

Another to suffer a martyr’s death during this period was Irenaeus, the Church Father who had written the brilliant defense, Against Heresies.

Efforts Are Made to Destroy the Church
The ﬁrst emperor who ordered a general persecution with the deﬁnite purpose of destroying the Church was Decius. Happily his reign lasted only two years, from 249 to 251. After a brief respite of seven years the Church suffered persecution under Valerian. Thereafter the Church was granted another period of tranquility, which lasted forty years. In the year 505 the emperor Diocletian started a persecution which was continued by his successor Galerius until the year 511.

The tortures which were inﬂicted upon the Christians during these persecutions were so gruesome that it is not ﬁt to describe them. Church buildings were demolished and Bibles were burned. These persecutions far surpassed, in the number of Christians who were martyred and in cruelty, anything the Christians had been made to suffer up to this time. These persecutions were a determined and systematic attempt to uproot Christianity completely, and wipe the Church off the face of the earth. An outstanding Christian who suffered martyrdom in these persecutions was Cyprian. Origen also died as the result of the tortures inﬂicted upon him at this time.

Many Christians in the city of Rome found a place of refuge in the catacombs, which were underground passageways. The ground upon which Rome is built consists of comparatively soft stone. Burying people within the city limits was not permitted. So in many places just outside the city, long, narrow passages or tunnels were dug out of the soft stone for this purpose. There are so many of them that if they were all end to end they would be some ﬁve hundred miles long. They wind and cross each other in every direction so as to form a veritable maze. Many of these subterranean passages are thirty or more feet below the surface. In the sides of these galleries or passageways excavations were made row upon row. In these excavations the dead were laid to rest. It was in these catacombs that many Christians hid themselves in times of persecution. There they also laid to rest the mangled remains of their fellow believers who had died as martyrs.

The persecution under Diocletian and Galerius was the most severe of all. But it was also the last. Heathendom had ﬁnally exhausted its strength and spent its fury.

Galerius Calls a Halt
Emperor Galerius became ill and suffered unspeakable torments. His disease was dreadful and incurable. From his sickbed, which became his deathbed, he issued in the year 511 an edict which granted to the Christians permission to hold their assemblies again. He asked for their prayers in behalf of himself and the Empire. The edict of Galerius was not a complete victory. What Galerius had granted was only a halfhearted toleration. Nevertheless the complete victory for the Church was near at hand.