Revelation: The Bride, the Beast & Babylon Page #3

Basically,

if something's going wrong

Probably it's because

there are Christians around

Who are refusing to give the gods

their proper due.

Of course

you have to punish them

And punishment meant,

most of the time, death.

What people thought

Was that Christians

gathered together

Also seemed to make love

with their brothers and sisters.

Because there

were rumors about them

That they commit incest.

The Christians used to call

themselves "brother" and "sister"

And they used to eat

the flesh of Christ.

People heard, apparently,

That Christians

were eating children.

So when pagans heard about this

They thought the worse;

They assumed the worst.

Christians are progressively

stripped of their civil offices,

Their military offices.

Their books are confiscated.

Their churches are destroyed.

They're forbidden

to meet and so on,

All because there's an anxiety

That this is really undermining

the welfare of the empire.

As the early church suffered

Under this withering

persecution of Rome,

Their lives became a powerful

testimony for truth.

While the pagans lived

in constant superstitious fear,

These Christians

faced torture and death

With a supernatural peace.

Basically, what Nero did

was he fed them to the lions.

He had them tied to pillars,

put pitch on them,

And then he set them on fire

as human torches

So they could have the festivities

continue on into the night.

He had them stretched,

pulled into two,

Being killed by gladiators.

Just about every creative way

That you can dispose

of Christians.

When facing

the painful end of their lives

They often sang and rejoiced.

As thousands of Christians

Paid the ultimate price

for their faith,

Their dying prayers and blood

Essentially became seed

for the new church.

People are so enthralled

by how these Christians are dying

That immediately

the reaction is, "sign me up."

And so the Christians

spread like wildfire.

The more you killed them

The more they stood

for their faith.

It is true and I think

it has to be emphasized,

That the early church spreads

Despite the very concerted

attempts at repression

Of extremely autocratic

and powerful emperors

Who set themselves very firmly

against the Christians

And yet the early church survives.

Tertullian argues,

whenever something goes wrong,

Whenever there's a famine,

or whenever there an illness,

A pestilence

that sweeps through,

Everybody says,

"the Christians to the lion,"

And then he says snidely,

"As if so many

could be fed to so few."

And his point

is that you can't destroy us all.

During this time

of exponential growth,

Christians all across

the roman empire

Quite literally

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