Grace Fellowship Church Pastor/Teacher Jim Rickard Thursday, November 4,

Doxology Praise God, from whom all blessings flow; Praise Him, all creatures here below; Praise Him above, ye heavenly host; Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.— Amen.

Memory Verse Phil 2:5, “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus.”

John 15:18-21 Obstructions to Divine Good Production: Reason #1: Satan’s Cosmic System hates the believer! Reason #2: We are not of this world-Election out from the World! Reason #3: “The servant is not greater than his Lord,” therefore we too will have persecutions! Reason #4: “The Cosmos does not know God and is ignorant to His Plan.” John 15:18-21 Obstructions to Divine Good Production: Reason #1: Satan’s Cosmic System hates the believer! Reason #2: We are not of this world-Election out from the World! Reason #3: “The servant is not greater than his Lord,” therefore we too will have persecutions! Reason #4: “The Cosmos does not know God and is ignorant to His Plan.”

Doctrine of Persecutions IX. Gentile Persecutions:

A. During the period covered by Acts there was not much Gentile persecution, yet great dangers and risks existed.

B. At Philippi, Paul and Silas were cruelly persecuted, Acts 16:19-40, just as Paul and Barnabas suffered much at Iconium and at Lystra, Acts 14:5, 19.

C. During Paul’s life the Roman authorities were not actively hostile to Christianity, it was still too miniscule to bother with.

D. The Persecutions of Nero. Following the great fire in Rome, July 64 AD, Nero having blamed it on Christians began a reign of persecutions against them.

He made them scapegoats and the legal decisions which were favorable to the Christian faith were soon overturned.

He also began ordering Christians to be thrown to dogs, while others were crucified and burned, Tacitus (Annals xv. 44).

E. Persecution in Asia: In Rev 1:9, John is in “Patmos for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus”, and persecution had broken out among the Christians in Asia.

1. At Smyrna, there is suffering, imprisonment and prolonged tribulation; but told that if faithful unto death, Christ will give them the Crown of Life, Rev 2:10.

2. At Pergamum, persecution has already resulted in Antipas, Christ’s faithful martyr, being slain, Rev 2:13.

3. At Ephesus and Thyatira Christians are commended for their patient enduring, indicating that there had been persecution, Rev 2:2, 19.

4. At Philadelphia attempts to cause the members of the church to deny Christ’s name, Rev 3:8. Their patience is commended.

5. No distinct persecutions mentioned at Sardis or Laodicea. They had enough problems of their own in regard to their faith.

F. The Roman Empire as Persecutor: 2nd and 3rd Centuries:

1. To become a Christian meant great renunciation, the joining of a despised and persecuted sect, attack of great prejudice, and the possibility at any moment of imprisonment and death.

For many it meant the rack, the blazing shirt of pitch, the lion, the panther, or in the case of maidens an infamy worse than death” (Workman, 103).

2. It was not the worst emperors, but the best, who became the most violent persecutors.

3. Pliny a proconsul of Bithynia in ~ 112 AD, during Trajan’s reign tried to “stem the tide of the advancing Christian faith.”

He rounded up Christians and demanded that they renounce their faith, and pay allegiances to the Roman gods and Emperor via sacrifices and worship.

4. Under Trajan’s successor, Hadrian, the lot of the Christians was full of uncertainty: persecution might break out at any moment.

5. The Decian Persecutions, 250 A.D., were particularly severe. There was hardly a province in the empire where there were no martyrs.

6. Other persecutions during the reign of Roman Emperors noted in Fox’s Book of Martyrs include:

a. Domitian, A.D. 81 b. Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, A.D. 162 c. Severus, A.D. 192

d. During the reign of Maximus, in A.D. 235, Seremianus the president of Cappadocia, “did all he could to exterminate the Christians from that province.”

e. Valerian, A.D. 257 f. Aurelian, A.D. 274 g. Diocletian, A.D. 303

7. Persecution in the Army for refusal to worship Roman deities especially Mithra, “the invincible saviour,” special deity of soldiers.

8. “The Third Race” was a belittling name given to Christians, placing them behind the Romans and Jews. Yet we are a new creation, (a new spiritual species), 2 Cor 5:17; Gal 6:15.

9. Tertullian’s Apology: “We live beside you in the world, making use of the same forum, market, bath, shop, inn, and all other places of trade. We sail with you, fight shoulder to shoulder, till the soil, and traffic with you.”

10. The persecution of the Church by the Roman Empire ended in March, 313 AD, when Constantine issued the document known as the “Edict of Milan,” which assured to each individual freedom of religious belief.

Grace Fellowship Church Thursday, November 4, 2010 Tape # Obstructions to Divine Good Production, Part 16 Persecution, Part 7 Upper Room Discourse, Part 435 John 15:21; Rev 1-2 Grace Fellowship Church Thursday, November 4, 2010 Tape # Obstructions to Divine Good Production, Part 16 Persecution, Part 7 Upper Room Discourse, Part 435 John 15:21; Rev 1-2 James H. Rickard Bible Ministries 2010