The Gospel and the Roman Empire

The Gospel and the Roman Empire

The world in A.D. 90-400 was very much different from today. The Roman Empire was the powerful and dominant force. It controlled powerful cities like Rome, Alexandria, and Athens, the centers of culture and philosophy. It spanned from Britannia to Egypt, Mauritania to Mesopotamia. Its capital, Rome, was the “center of the world” of that time.

            Pax Romana, (the peace of Rome) is a term coined by the historian Edward Gibbon. It refers the era of surface peace established by the Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus that lasted 207 years, from 27 to 180BC.

            It was during his reign and the relative peace that characterized it, God chose to send the promised Mashiach, Messiah, His son Jesus Christ (Or, Yeshua Ha’Mashiach, as His Hebrew name was). He came to save the lost. He came to redeem Israel. He came. He came, not to establish His millennial rule and kingdom yet, but to do the will of the Father. He was crucified under Pontius Pilate, sinless, and bearing the sins of the world. He left His church with His “Great Commission”, to go into the entire world and to preach the Gospel, the Good News.

            From its beginning the church was hated, despised, and unwanted. The Jews regarded the followers of Christ as members of a heretical sect, a divisive faction that sought to destroy Judaism, which, of course, was not the case. The Romans saw the followers of Christ as political subversives who refused to worship the gods of the Roman Empire and to acknowledge Caesar as lord, because only Jesus was Lord.

            The church was wrought with problems - Persecutions from outside and divisions inside. The persecution, in fact, aided the spreading of the gospel because the followers of Christ had to flee Judea and Jerusalem. They spread to the ends of the earth, bringing the gospel of Christ.

            Greek was the standard language of the day, and Roman roads eased travel. Christians, as the followers of Christ soon became known as, traveled all over the Roman Empire. The Apostle Paul was one of the many missionaries of the gospel. Persecution followed the Christians everywhere. They continued to spread, the gospel was preached, and many were saved. However, the Romans treated Christians horribly – some burning them on stakes, feeding them to wild beasts, killing them with the sword, seizing their property, and making their earthly lives a misery.

            Yet the Church continued to thrive, aided by the Romans. The Romans did not realize (how could they?) that the more Christians were killed the more they persecuted the church, the more they shed innocent blood, the more the Church could spread, the more the Church could thrive, and the very blood they shed to put an end to the work of Christ was the very seed by which it grew, stronger and stronger, day by day.

            In 300BC, everything changed, drastically. Legislated persecution came to an end because Constantine, the Emperor, claimed to have become a Christian. He changed the laws and instituted “religious tolerance “and institutionalized the church as the “official religion” of the Roman Empire. Clergymen became government servants. Church became a part of the state. Soon, however, the church became a puppet of the state. Christianity as a whole seemed to have died.

            By institutionalizing the church, the Romans did more harm than outright persecuting it. Whatever Constantine’s motives were, he sure did a lot of harm. By combining the church and state, church became a ritual. Pagan elements were incorporated into worship. Worship was adulterated. The knowledge of God was adulterated. The Bible was adulterated. People were “forced” to “become Christians”. The Church as a whole almost forgot the Great Commission and lost the heritage Christ left to them. What was left in mainstream Christianity? Politics, Buildings, moneymaking, rituals, congregations, candles, icons, relics, pulpits, - these were left… these were a part of the church… but was Christ a part of the Church?

            As Paul said in his letter to the Colossians - ¹⁸ And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.

            A body without a head is dead. The church without Christ as its head, is dead.

WARNING: THIS IS COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL! I have recorded this in audio and may make a video one day.... :)