Misunderstood by the Ruling Classes

9. Regarding separateness from the world, what is an outstanding difference between the early Christians and modern-day Catholics?

⁹ Most of the Roman emperors misunderstood the early Christians and persecuted them. Showing why, The Epistle to Diognetus, thought by some to date from the second century C.E., declares: “Christians dwell in the world, but are not part and parcel of the world.” On the other hand, the Second Vatican Council, in its Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, stated that Catholics should “seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs” and “work for the sanctification of the world from within.”

10. (a) How were the early Christians viewed by the ruling classes? (b) How are Jehovah’s Witnesses often viewed, and what is their reaction?

¹⁰ Historian E. G. Hardy states that the Roman emperors considered the early Christians to be “somewhat contemptible enthusiasts.” French historian Étienne Trocmé speaks of “the contempt in which cultured Greeks and Roman officials held what they saw as a very strange Oriental sect [the Christians].” Correspondence between Pliny the Younger, Roman governor of Bithynia, and Emperor Trajan shows that the ruling classes were generally ignorant of the true nature of Christianity. Similarly today, Jehovah’s Witnesses are often misunderstood and even despised by the ruling classes of the world. However, this neither surprises nor dismays the Witnesses.​—Acts 4:13; 1 Peter 4:12, 13.

“Everywhere It Is Spoken Against”

11. (a) What things were said of the early Christians, and what has been said of Jehovah’s Witnesses? (b) Why do Jehovah’s Witnesses not participate in politics?

¹¹ Of the early Christians it was said: “As regards this sect it is known to us that everywhere it is spoken against.” (Acts 28:22) In the second century C.E., the pagan Celsus claimed that Christianity appealed only to the dregs of human society. Similarly it has been said of Jehovah’s Witnesses that “for the most part, they are drawn from the deprived in our society.” Church historian Augustus Neander reported that “the Christians were represented as men dead to the world, and useless for all affairs of life; . . . and it was asked, what would become of the business of life, if all were like them?” Because Jehovah’s Witnesses refrain from participating in politics, they too are often accused of being deadwood in human society. But how could they be political activists and at the same time be advocates of God’s Kingdom as mankind’s only hope? Jehovah’s Witnesses take to heart the apostle Paul’s words: “Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier on service gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to satisfy the one who enlisted him.”​—2 Timothy 2:3, 4, Revised Standard Version, an Ecumenical Edition.

12. In what important aspect of separateness do Jehovah’s Witnesses resemble the early Christians?

¹² In his book A History of Christianity, Professor K. S. Latourette writes: “One of the issues on which the early Christians were at variance with the Græco-Roman world was participation in war. For the first three centuries no Christian writing which has survived to our time condoned Christian participation in war.” Edward Gibbon’s work The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire states: “It was impossible that the Christians, without renouncing a more sacred duty, could assume the character of soldiers, of magistrates, or of princes.”

Christians, Not Trinitarians

14. What accusation was brought against the early Christians, and why is this ironic?

¹⁴ It is ironic that in the Roman Empire, one of the accusations brought against the early Christians was that they were atheists. Dr. Augustus Neander writes: “The deniers of the gods, the atheists, . . . was the common name by which the Christians were designated among the people.” How strange that Christians, who worshiped the living Creator and not multiple gods, should be dubbed atheists by pagans who worshiped “no gods, but the workmanship of man’s hands, wood and stone.”​—Isaiah 37:19.