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Explain why the first Christians were persecuted

The persecution of Christians by the Roman Government was not a consistent policy that was enforced the same way by every Roman provincial governor or government official or even by different emperors. Most of the time, Christians were tolerated but were viewed as strange and somewhat antisocial by most of the Roman people

The Romans who saw them as trouble and the Jews saw them as the "...mortal enemy to the Jewish Legalistic Tradition" (St. Paul). Because the Roman gods were actually a part of the state religion, and it was thought that they must be worshipped regularly in order for the Romans to have victory in war and prosperity at home, it was considered a roman's patriotic duty to sacrifice regularly to Jupiter, Mars, Juno, Vesta, and leave offerings out for the household gods, the Lares and Penates. The Christians, on the other hand, believed in one God and worship Him in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Making sacrifice to Jupiter or Poseidon was (and still is) abhorrent to a Christian. Because the Romans believed that the favor of the gods was necessary to the security of the state, the Christians were believed to be not only impious and anti-religious but unpatriotic as well. In addition, many Christians refused to serve in the army because they might have to kill other human beings and thus violate the commandments of Christ. Similarly, some Christians refused to hold government posts, engage in commerce, or loan money because they saw these activities as lending approval to a corrupt earthly system. They believed that the only true empire was in heaven. As a result, the Roman government saw fit to persecute the Christians from time to time, especially during unsettled periods when a popular reform movement arose to return to the old Roman ways and values. Most Roman magistrates believed themselves to be enlightened and the government they represented to be merciful. and gave the Christians many opportunities to renounce their "strange unpatriotic beliefs" before condemning Christians to death in the arena or by formal execution. They absolutely could not understand why a Christian would choose a shameful, agonizing public death over being reinstated as a full citizen with all privileges when all the person needed to do was make a sacrifice for the health of the emperor or even just sprinkle a little incense over a lighted altar. The crowds who came to witness the games were a different matter altogether. Sometimes they became worked up into a frenzy of hate. They considered the Christians to be antisocial scum and clamored for a painful death for them in the arena, being mauled and torn apart by wild beasts or forced to fight gladiators who killed them for a public spectacle.

The most famous of the Christian persecutions was under Nero. A disastrous fire destroyed much of Rome in the year A. D. 64. Somehow, a rumor started circulating that Nero himself started the fire in order to rebuild the city. It was well-known that Nero considered much of Rome ugly and squalid. Whether or not he had any part in setting the fire is still being debated to this day, but the rumors started to spread and might become a threat to Nero's reign and life if left unchecked. He therefore decided to blame the antisocial and subversive Christians for starting the fire. To make sure he was believed in accusing the Christians of setting the fire, he had many of them killed. Some were crucified in the arena, others thrown to wild animals, and still others were burned alive as living torches to light Nero's garden at his Golden House. St. Peter died during the Neronian persecutions. Because of this most well known persecution, Nero was written into history as one of the most depraved and cruel of the Roman emperors.

After all, Christians held worship services underground in the city tombs known as catacombs and they had mass where they ate the body and blood of Jesus Christ. This made the Romans think that the Christians were cannibals and the reason for this is because the Romans never understood the true meaning of receiving the body and blood of Jesus Christ.

Persecutions were renewed under Septimius Severus, Trajan Decius, Valerian, Gallienus, and Diocletian. The Second Century emperor Trajan instructed one of his provincial governors, Pliny the Younger, to not actively seek out Christians who were in violation of the law. Nevertheless, some Christians desired the crown of martyrdom so greatly that they openly proclaimed their faith. Some, but not very many, were condemned to death under Trajan. Severus Alexander and his mother, Julia Mamaea, were interested in all gods, philosophies, and religions. It is said that Severus Alexander actually kept a statue of Jesus amongst the statues of other gods in his own personal shrine.

Persecutions were particularly acute under Decius and Diocletian. These emperors sought to revive worship of the old Roman gods and bring back a respect for ancient custom. After a particularly intense period of persecution under Diocletian, Christians were finally given the legal right to worship as they pleased under the Edict of Milan, issued in A. D. 313 by Constantine I. Seventy five years later, Christianity had become so influential and Christians had such power that the emperor Gratian had the ancient statue of Victory removed from the Roman Senate House on the insistence of the very powerful and influential Archbishop Ambrose of Milan. Because Christians did not follow the Mosaic Law, they were seen as blasphemous and so, the Jews and the synagogue officials thought that it was their duty to protect their people from the Christians. Jesus claimed to be God and this was blasphemous because the Jews were in awe of God as they thought that he was a political leader, not a normal man.

Similarly, Domitius was a Roman Emperor who wanted to be worshiped by his people. When the Christians refused to worship him as a god, then he said that the Christians were traitors to the country and so he had to get rid of them all.

Christianity contradicted all their believes as Christianity says that there is only one God, while they believed in many gods. They thought they were right and so the resolved to roughage to prevent Christianity from growing rather that bringing those Christians to their believes.

Christianity teaches people to solve their problems within themselves as a sign of love and because the Christians did so without having to resolve to the Roman laws for order, it was like the Christians did not want the Romans and so they were like setting up their own country, which makes the Romans afraid that the Christians might overrule the Roman Empire.

Describe how one modern Christian has been persecuted because of his or her faith.

Maximilian was born in 1894 in Poland and became a Franciscan. He contracted tuberculosis and, though he recovered, he remained frail all his life. Before his ordination as a priest, Maximilian founded the Immaculate Movement devoted to Our Lady. After receiving a doctorate in theology, he spread the Movement through a magazine entitled "The Knight of the                      Immaculate" and helped form a community of 800 men, the largest in the                      world.

Maximilian went to Japan where he built a comparable monastery and then on to India where he furthered the Movement. In 1936 he returned home because of ill health. After the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939, he was told of what to preach but he did not do so because he knew that it was absolutely against his Christianity to teach falsely. He published a Catholic newspaper and a magazine where he spoke critical against the cruelty of the Nazi's. He had a huge number of men under his control and so the Nazis feared him. Besides the magazine, he set up a camp called: "Niepokalanow" for sheltering the Jewish and the Polish people escaping form the persecution of the Nazis. This is one of his greatest signs of Christian charity.

He was imprisoned on the charge of helping Jews and was sent to a prison called "Pawieck" in Warsaw. There he was treated very badly because he was a priest. There, because one of the guards who saw him with a Rosary, he got very angry, He was asked whether he believed in Christ and his answer was yes. He was beaten and was asked again. This went on and on until Father Kolbe became unconscious due to all the beatings. The guards name was Steaffen. The attitude of the guard as well as his name, which is very, close form St. Stephen indicates that he was probably a Catholic Christian but left the Religion so that he could have power. Therefore, he got agitated due to his feelings of guilt. He seems to have develop a hatred toward the Christians.

He was released but in 1941 he was arrested again and sent to the concentration camp at Auschwitz. Auschwitz was a place where millions and millions of people died. A normal person was allowed to live for only one week in the camps where as priests were allowed to live for one month. Again he was singled out because he was a priest. Besides this, prisoners were made to carry bricks and stones for building a Crematorium. But because he was a priest, then he was made to carry extra loads, this also besides he having only one lung due to his tuberculosis. He was physically very weak but still he had to carry heavy loads and when he would fall which was the case most of the time, then he was beaten by the guards. What agitated the prison guards even more was that he remained calm and never asked for help, as he knew hat this would endanger the life of a fellow prisoner. When compared, knowing that you are going to die after one week, is much more easier that to know that you are going to die after one month. This was the case for Father Kolbe besides he was given a tattoo number 16670. Being branded is a form of persecution as he was branded like how animals are branded. He chose to stay near the door of the room where many used to sit together in. the reason is that he wanted to know when they carried a dead person because he would wanted to pray for them. This was a great sign of Christian Charity. This was of course nothing besides what he did for the young father.

On July 31, 1941, in reprisal for one prisoner's escape, ten men were chosen to die. Father Kolbe offered himself in place of a young husband and father. It was a miracle and he was the last to die, enduring two weeks of starvation, thirst, and neglect. It was a miracle that the officer listened to Father Kolbe and that he did not kill Father Kolbe and the prisoner on the spot. He was kept in a place where the prisoners were not provided any food to die of hunger.

It was amazing how Father Kolbe was able to withstand the hunger even though, the days when they were given food, he shared his slice of bread with his fellow prisoners. After all the nine other prisoners had died of hunger, when the guards opened the door, they found father Kolbe on his knees praying and in a vary bad state of health and so they injected him with am poison and he died as a saint.

Show how the example of Jesus might help Christians facing persecution today.

Every time a person does something, it is very important that he knows what he is doing especially during a time of persecution. This is why the example of Jesus must be taken into consideration since the reactions that Jesus does, we are sure that it was correct therefore, he always was the one who turned out the victor. We must know whether what we do will have a valid outcome, therefore, reacting correctly is the most important thing of all.

Through the gospel of Mark, we see how Jesus faces each form of persecution and how He deals with them..

At the time when Jesus cured the paralyzed man, the Pharisees were scandalized. They were confused as to who was the true identity of Jesus Christ. Jesus confronts them openly in this incident because he knew that their thoughts were aroused from their lack of knowledge and understanding. Therefore, we may learn that during persecution, if it is clear that a person's adversary does not understand something, it is better to try and explain to them even if they do not talk it out loud.

At all times, the Pharisees were trying to find fault with Jesus, and this in itself is a form of persecution. When Jesus was asked about the question of the Taxes, He was able to overturn the question on the Pharisees. In this situation, Jesus uses His intelligence to evade an attempt of capturing a fault form Jesus. He used the fact that it was not allowed to carry coins, which had images of a person on it, to point out that the Pharisees themselves were doing wrong. We see, that the God given intelligence must be used to tackle any adversary, in fact, using intelligence, we will be able to decide on to which is the best way to tackle an enemy.

When Jesus was in front of Pontius Pilate, He replied to all his false accusation by remaining silent. Being silent is an indication that all what is being said is not true and so it does not matter with Him, as He knows that it was all not true. Since Jesus knew that it was not true, He left the truth to be revealed on its own, and this exactly what happened as all the evidence of the people did not match. When it is clear that a person is being accused falsely, it is better to keep quiet and not argue back since a lie will never remain hidden.

A person is usually repelled by his own people, especially if this person was weak and was not noticed to people. People are usually afraid of what is different and so they are afraid of the change in the character of the person, therefore, a person must not feel angry if his own people reject him. This we see when Jesus was repelled from the town of Nazareth since He had seemed to gain a large amount of wisdom which was unusual since Jesus was not noticed by the people as he was a young child who required not much attention.

Give your own response to the view that "The best life is a quiet life."

Give reasons for your answer, showing that you have considered other points of view.

 When people talk about life as a quiet life, they usually refer to it as being one where a person does not take part in social activities, possibly like joining in parties, or in other words, it could be a person who prefers to stay away from society, either to prevent problems that arise in the societies, or even because of felling of guilt, somehow like the Samaritan woman who used to go bring water during the afternoon, not during the sunrise like the rest of the women.

However, I believe that a quiet life is one where a person spends sometimes to thing about something before actually doing it. At a fit of rage, a person may do something rationally without knowing it is wrong. It is only after sitting in silence and thinking over what has happened and to think again and again over what is to be done. To do so, a person has to be very wise to be able to practice this without facing any difficulties. In any problem in a person's life, I believe that by praying and sitting in a few moments of total silence, all the anger and the agitation within a person is quenched and this is very good for our own self. When Jesus was troubled because of being betrayed by Judas, he went to pray in silence in the garden of Gethsemane, and it was only because Jesus had prayed to God -that He was able to cope up with all the stresses of the up coming events.

Praying to God provides us with a great blessing that gives us the ability to master our time effectively. In silence, seeking God is very easy as it is done though prayer, to prevent distraction; a place of silence is a very good choice. In silence a person relaxes himself physically and spiritually, because it provides a temporary relaxation effect. This is why when a person is under tension he seeks sleep because it is in silence.

A person who spends time going through any of his troubles usually reflects depth of character.

Knowing yourself better is very important as it helps in controlling our self better and more efficiently. A person can act far more rationally when he knows himself better as it will teach him to understand others better. This will in turn lead the person to be loved and cared for by others making that person far more sociable. Understanding a person better can only be achieved if that person learns more about himself and this can only be done in silence. This shows us how silence leads a person to be more sociable and so, it is wrong to think that a person who leads a quiet life must be unsociable and in a world of their own.

At all times, leading a silent life brings victory over all enemies. Either, silence brings wise decisions or it leads the enemy to give up, as he will feel that all he does has no effect on you. Yet, if a person is in silence without praying or thinking, then the person will start facing temptations for all kinds of sin. This means that a silent life is useful only if there is a need for silence and not at all times.

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