Persecution of the Early Church

Anthony Waller
Research Exercise 1

Persecution of the Early Church
One of the reasons the early church was persecuted was because of the emperors that ruled the Roman Empire like Nero who reigned from 54-68 A.D. Nero who was bloody and treacherous had his mother stabbed to death; his wife beheaded and also kicked his mistress to death while she was pregnant. These incidents did however; overshadowed some of the other things he attempted to do, like albeit without success, the abolition of indirect taxes (to help farmers), the building of a Corinthian canal and the resettlement of people whose homes were lost in the Great Fire of Rome in 64 A.D. The city of Rome burned by a fire that was started by Nero and blamed on the Christian community. While the city burning and people were being burned alive. Nero sat down and played the lyre and sang songs enjoying the spectacle. Nero later committed suicide due to political turmoil with his last saying, “What a showman the world is losing in me.” [1]

Pax Romana
Pax Romana in Latin means (Roman peace); it was inaugurated by Caesar Augustus and sometimes would be called Pax Augusta. The Pax Romana provided peace with very little expansion of military force in over two centuries. It was during this time of peace; traveling on the road was safe and quick. This peace allowed the Romans to build a network of 53,000 miles of road 10-12 feet wide. The roads were filled with so many missionaries traveling; so John gave instructions in (3 John 6) which reads, “You will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God.” This was the instruction on how to treat traveling missionaries; Paul made mention of the hospitality of Lydia in Philippi (Acts 16:15) of Jason in Thessalonica (Acts 17:5) and of Gaius in Corinth (Roman 16:23). The instruction in (3 John) canceled out the didache, an early collection of Christian instructions. [2]

Monophysitism
The Monophysites were created and led by Eutyches. In response to the Nestorius’s implication; that Christ was actually two people, one with a human nature the other with a divine nature. They even went so far as to lay claim that Christ with the human nature; was made with a fusion of human and divine elements. Whereas, the Monophysites, were known because of their claim that Christ had just one nature. This didn’t make them any better than the Nestorianism; because it denied the full humanity and full nature of Christ. If Christ’s nature wasn’t fully human, then He wouldn’t be fully human and if His nature wasn’t fully divine then he wasn’t fully divine. [3]

Bibliography

[1] Galli, Mark. Persecution in the Early Church: A Gallery of the Persecuting Emperors. https://www.christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/ persecution-in-early-church-gallery/ (accessed May 15, 2015)

[2] Fanning, Don. “Apostolic History of the Early Church” (2009). History of Global Missions. Paper 1. http://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/cgm_hist/1 (accessed May 15, 2015)

[3] http://www.catholic.com/tracts/the-great-heresies (accessed May 18, 2015)

Bibliography: [1] Galli, Mark. Persecution in the Early Church: A Gallery of the Persecuting Emperors. https://www.christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/ persecution-in-early-church-gallery/ (accessed May 15, 2015) [2] Fanning, Don. “Apostolic History of the Early Church” (2009). History of Global Missions. Paper 1. http://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/cgm_hist/1 (accessed May 15, 2015) [3] http://www.catholic.com/tracts/the-great-heresies (accessed May 18, 2015)