We look at the world around us today with all its upheaval and persecution of our fellow Christians, particularly in the Middle East, together with its unbelief and scepticism, and often wonder how we would behave were we to be per­secuted and whether we would remain faithful. If we look at God’s work with his people in history, we can see that he has not only preserved but also edified his church through persecution and contro­versy. An example of this is found in the third century AD in the Roman empire. Although it is often exaggerated, this was indeed a time of great upheaval politi­cally, of widespread manipulation of the economy by price-fixing and deflation of the currency, and of violent persecution. For some three centuries a large chunk of Europe, Africa, and the Middle East had been ruled by the Romans, whose empire had become a cultural and racial melting pot with a single government, fa­cilitating travel and trade. Religion in the third century was characterised by rejec­tion of the classical Greek and Roman gods and an interest in mystery cults and foreign gods from the ancient Near East, as well as increasing worship of the emperor.¹ It seems to me that this era in history can teach us how to respond to the doubts we face in our own age. We must remember, though, that before this age Christianity was unknown. As a result, there was no widespread Christian ‘hangover’ resulting from culture having been largely Christian previously.

Sporadic Persecution⤒🔗

Since Christianity had become well-known from the murder of James by the Jews in around 50 AD there had been sporadic persecution of Christians throughout the Roman empire. Usually this was by a mob that had got out of hand and the authorities allowing the lynching to run its course, fearing that intervention would only cause a riot. The Jews were well-known for such persecu­tions, but ill-wishing pagans also betrayed individual Christians to the authorities, who would then question them and execute them, depending on whether they were willing to sacrifice to Caesar.

Strictly speaking, Christianity was always illegal because everyone had to acknowledge that Caesar (the emperor) was god. Persecution was a legal anomaly until the third century, which I will de­scribe further below. Pliny the Younger, governor of Bithynia in modern-day Turkey, exchanged letters with the Emperor Trajan (ruled 98-117). A number of Christians had been denounced as atheists, meaning they did not worship the pagan gods; and they were hauled before the governor to be tried. Only those who persisted were punished and only after they refused to sacrifice to the Emperor and stop worshipping Christ. As a result of this correspondence the standard was to ignore Christians unless they were proven to persist in refusing to sacrifice to the Emperor or were guilty of crimes like anyone else.

Unlike today, where claiming to be a Christian can have its benefits, as it did for President Bill Clinton or as it did in the South African world of twenty years ago or so ago, there was no such attraction to do so at this point in the ancient world. Such nominalism certain­ly became a problem under Constan­tine, the first Christian emperor (ruled 313-337), because he gave priority to Christians for selection for a number of important public positions.

Public service usually involved sacrific­ing to pagan gods or acknowledging the divinity of the Emperor. Being a member of a guild or a tradesman’s association frequently demanded participation in dubious practices and oaths or liba­tions to pagan gods. Teaching involved instructing students in pagan culture, complete with its philosophy, theology, and ethics. Use of leisure time for Chris­tians had to be quite different, since the theatre and public games either involved nudity or outright immorality, or were inherently violent, such as gladiatorial combat was.

Persecution in the third century began sporadically under Septimius Severus (ruled 193-211), who outlawed con­version to Christianity. Trajan’s policy of condemning those who were accused of being Christians and refused to sacri­fice to the Emperor was continued. No attempt was made to hinder localised persecutions, such as that of Felicitas and Perpetua in Carthage in North Africa.

Enforcing Paganism←⤒🔗

The emperor Decius (249-51) reigned during a particularly turbulent time in Rome’s history. The economy was a mess and the barbarians were threatening to invade. His conclusion was that the abandonment of worship of the classical pagan gods of ancient Rome had brought these calamities upon the empire. Ac­cordingly, he sought to put the situation right by requiring everyone to sacrifice to the gods. However, this measure was never universally enforced and Decius’ persecution of Christians to enforce it was cut short when he was called away to fight the Goths. He died fighting them in roughly what is now Hungary.

Valerian ruled the Roman empire from 254 to 260. This era was not much more peaceful than Decius’. It was under Vale­rian’s rule that Cyprian of Carthage, one of the African fathers, was martyred.² Valerian was engaged in a number of wars, including one with the Persians, who defeated and enslaved him.

The church had a decade of peace before Aurelian (270-5) came to the im­perial throne. He was about to undertake a persecution when he was assassinat­ed. Widespread political and economic turmoil prevented further organized per­secution until the reign of Diocletian, especially from 303 onwards. At this point Constantine’s father, Constantius, governor of what is now Britain, France, and Spain, comes into the picture. He had refused to persecute Christians in his territories but died before he was able to defeat the Emperor. However, his son Constantine the Great took up from where he left off, and defeated the Emperor in Italy at the battle of Milvian Bridge (October 27, 312). The Edict of Toleration was published in March, 313. As a result, there was now a long period of peace for the church. Although it had taken three centuries it was not about to be undone and we are only now really seeing the decline of Chris­tianity in Europe.

The church’s achievements in the third century include deciding how to deal with those who deny the faith under persecution. This was a question which split the church in North Africa; but the orthodox church’s decision was to require a number of things before the lapsed member could be returned to full fellowship. Cyprian of Carthage set a new standard for diaconal gen­erosity and makes a good example of how wealthy Christians can serve the Lord with their wealth.

“Age of Reason”←⤒🔗

To return to our questions posed in the introduction, God has both preserved and edified his people in the present ‘age of reason’. Theologically, there are several achievements brought about by modern governmental pressure. Many people show prejudice to Christians’ in­volvement in politics in a way they do not show to Muslims, Hindus, and Bud­dhists, to choose a few examples. This prejudice is usually hidden under the guise of the separation of religion and state. However, it has become increas­ingly obvious that there is a big differ­ence between the separation of church and state and the separation of religion and state. Laws concerning marriage and abortion and the advance of science in relation to these have helped to clarify our thinking on issues that we did not need to consider previously and to make our thinking on these matters more con­sistent. So, for instance, homosexual marriage is particularly perverse but no more wrong than bigamy or polyandry. Scientific research on the unborn child shows increasingly that any distinction between human and not human must be either at birth or conception.

We have no guarantee of personal physical preservation in persecution; however, God will not abandon His people in time of trial (Romans 8:35­ 39). God will always preserve His seven thousand who have not bent the knee to Baal (1 Kings 19:18). We also have the promise that God will preserve the faith of his elect (John 17:20-26). We may wonder how we would behave under persecution; though God has not called most of us to suffer what we may think of as persecution. He will give us grace to stand as the need arises (Hebrews 4:16). After all, how often is our faith attacked by the unkind scep­ticism of workmates or fellow students or the profane worldliness of those we deal with on a daily basis? We need to keep an eye on the future, but only one (Ecclesiastes 4:6); each day has enough trouble of its own (Matthew 6:34) and how many tough days have come and gone regardless of how well we think we may have done? Accordingly, let us not become weary in doing good and persist in the faith (Galatians 6:9), doing little things right in what may well be a day of small things.