On several occasions, Jesus communicated to His followers that after He was gone, they would be persecuted for their faith and obedience to Him (i.e.; John 15:18-21). In fact, Matthew 24:9 says that they would be afflicted, some killed and ultimately hated by all nations for His name’s sake. It didn’t take long for this to play out. Following the narrative of the book of Acts, we have a record of the fulfillment of Jesus words, as the church leaders (i.e.; Apostle Paul) were persecuted almost everywhere they went by the Jews.
But there was no official Roman persecution of the church during the time of the book of Acts. That didn’t begin until the time of the Roman Emperor Nero (64 AD). But an interesting fact unknown to most Christians is that it was the Jerusalem Council’s verdict handed down in ACTS 15 that actually opened the door for Roman persecution of Christians.
If you recall, the Church council was called because certain Pharisees who had become believers were teaching that unless one was circumcised, he could not be saved. The end result from this council was that circumcision was not required for salvation. While this was good news for Gentiles spiritually, this move inevitably removed Christianity’s protection from Roman persecution.
In those days, when Rome conquered a nation, it allowed the conquered people to continue practicing their national religions as long as they were willing to pay homage to the emperor as well. About the only exception to this requirement was the Jews. The emperor did this because of the religious fanaticism of the Jews, who were willing to fight to the last man rather than bow down to any other God than Jehovah. Rome also reasoned that, since they mainly stayed to themselves and did little active proselytizing, they weren’t a significant threat to the empire.
Initially Rome considered Christianity just another sect of Judaism and because that religion was considered legal, no persecution against them existed. But with the results of the Jerusalem Council, Christians began a visible separation from the Jews and were now considered a new religion, one no longer approved and protected by the Roman government. On top of that, Christianity, as commanded by Jesus, began to convert multitudes all over the empire to this new faith. Now there were multitudes throughout the empire no longer willing to pay homage to the emperor, as their first loyalty was to Christ. With this, pagan suspicion began to set in and they now considered Christianity a threat to Rome. With that, persecution began. All they had to do was declare Caesar Lord to avoid trouble, but they refused and Jesus words ‘that they would be hated by all nations’ were fulfilled.
Persecution and martyrdom for believers is still taking place today in many parts of our world. According to Open Doors USA, 1 in 9 Christians worldwide are experiencing high levels of persecution. We have been exempted from this in America, but the day may be coming when we have to choose between obeying Caesar or our Lord. Should that happen my prayer is that we too, like others before us will be faithful to Him, no matter the cost.
For God’s glory and His alone,
Pastor Terry.