History of the Church
Lesson 4: Expansion and Persecution – AD 100 - 313

Speaker: John Phillis
Date: June 30^th and July 7^th and 14^th, 21^st, 2004, Wednesday Evening Adult Bible Class

Toward the end of the 1^st Century, the church was well established despite opposition and persecution, first from the Jews and then from the Romans. It had indeed become the “sect spoken against everywhere,” Acts 18:22. In addition to these attacks from without, there would also be attacks from within causing conflict and internal strife. These would eventually bring about organizational and doctrinal changes in the church.

In this study of the expansion and persecution of the church, we will be looking, primarily, at a period of time at the end of the 1^st Century. We’ll go back some into the 1^st Century, but the period of time is effectively from about AD 100 to about AD 313, a period of a little over 200 years, the 2^nd into the 4^th Centuries.

The Persecution of the Church, Begun by the Jews (Acts 6) and Continued for the Next Nearly 300 Years by Rome

By 100 AD, the church had really, in a sense, outgrown its Jewish connection, its Jewish origins. It was no longer being mistaken for just another “Jewish sect,” like the Pharisees or the Sadducees or the Essenes, and so on. Christianity had now become a “separate sect,” so to speak, and this new status meant that Christians no longer needed to fear persecution from the Jews, but it meant that they now had to face persecution from Rome.

Actually, Roman persecution had begun well prior to AD 100. Emperor’s names such as Nero and Domician are synonymous with persecution among the saints in the mid- to the latter part of the 1^st Century. But the real intensity of persecution from the Romans would not be felt for a while longer. Yes, these ones did persecute the Christians, but it was fairly sporadic; it was not really an organized effort on their part. It was somewhat regional. As a matter of fact, history tells us that during this period leading up to AD 100, and even beyond, many Christians in a number of the parts of the Roman Empire lived in relative freedom of persecution. They really weren’t bothered at all. The persecution, though, would sort of, well, “ramp up,” I guess you might say, to the point where in AD 300, the beginning of the 4^th Century, the persecution would be so severe that these ones here in the latter part of the 1^st Century and the beginning of the 2^nd Century would not have been able to comprehend just how bad it could get.

Causes for Persecution

Why were the Christians persecuted? What was it about them to cause them to be persecuted? Now, we know why they were persecuted by the Jews. That’s relatively clear to see, because the Jews hated what the Christians stood for. The Jews rejected the Messiah; they rejected Jesus, the Christ. They wanted to put Him out of the way. Their belief, their understanding, was that once the leader was gone, then whatever movement that He had begun and was a part of would die off as well. Of course, that didn’t happen. The Christians continued to grow in number, and so, the Jews, then, began to persecute. But again, that persecution would be relatively mild. Yes, there would be some, like Stephen, who would be killed. There were those who were quite zealous in pursuing and persecuting those early Christians, like Paul, prior to his conversion. But the real intensity of persecution would be brought upon our “relatives” in Christ those hundreds of years ago under the Roman control. Well, what was it about the Christians that caused Rome to persecute them?

First of all, Christians were persecuted by Rome for political reasons. For Rome, for the emperors, for the officials, even for the common citizens for the most part, the State was all important. So long as one was willing to participate in the State religious ceremonies, Rome was inclined to be rather tolerant.

Remember, now, that the Empire stretches all across a very, very large expanse of the known world at that time, not only there in the Mediterranean Basin, but up into Asia Minor, over into Africa, and so on. This was a very large, very expansive Empire. So, they had any number of cultures, any number of civilizations, which were a part of the Empire, people who had a wide, wide variety of beliefs and understandings. The majority, with the exception of the Jews and the Christians, were all pagans. They were heathens. They engaged in some type of idol worship. That may not have been the same type of “State-sponsored religion” that Rome had in mind, but you were free to practice your form of religion, you were free to worship your carved images or perform whatever practices you desired to do. The only stipulation was, you needed to also participate in the Roman religion, and that primarily came to be Emperor-worship.

Well, probably most of those cultures that were taken in and were a part of the Roman Empire had no problem with that. They were contented to do whatever they did—worship the animals or the trees or the stars or whatever it was—and when they were required to bow the knee to Rome, they would do that as well. No problem. However, the Christians wouldn’t do that. The faithful Christians would not. They refused to divide their loyalties. For them, devotion to God required that no other person (namely the Emperor), no other thing (the State itself), would be elevated to the place of God. And so, that caused a problem, because the Roman officials couldn’t understand why the Christians were this way.