said of the Christians: “They are not to be searched for. If, indeed, they are accused and convicted, they must be punished, with this restriction, however, that when the party denies himself to be a Christian, and shall make it evident that he is not, by invoking our gods, let him . . . be pardoned upon his repentance. Anonymous accusations ought not to be received in prosecutions of any sort.”⁷

Judges often offered prisoners their freedom with the seemingly simple requirement that they “cast a few grains of incense upon the altar.” Christians, following the example of Christ, who would not do an act of worship to the Devil for personal advantage, firmly maintained their integrity. When this effort of the court was ineffective they used bribery, and then the victim was put to torture in which “every art of cruelty was employed to subdue such inflexible, and, as it appeared to the Pagans, criminal obstinacy.”⁶ While this official procedure continued in operation for many years, it should not be supposed that all cases were now handled by the courts and that a complete restraint had been placed on the priests who wished to oppress the Christians. To the contrary, at the public games they still succeeded in exciting the crowds to demand the death of Christians. Further, “it was in the power of the presidents to persecute the Christians with impunity whenever they pleased.”⁴

Faithful Christians firmly maintained their integrity, neutral as regards the affairs of the world, obeying all proper laws, but reserving their worship exclusively for Jehovah God. Rome pushed the issue to the fore by demanding that the state be placed above God. “Christians were liable to the penalties of sacrilege and high treason, of sacrilege for refusing to worship the gods of the state, of high treason for refusing to worship the genius of the Emperor in whom the majesty of the state was embodied, with the customary offerings of wine and incense.”⁵ But Christians, with full confidence in Jehovah God who holds the power of life, firmly declared: “We must obey God as ruler rather than men.” (Acts 5:29) Because they are no part of the world, true Christians are hated by the world. But because they maintain integrity to the Living God, he will show his love for them by granting them an eternity of life in which to serve him.

REFERENCES

¹ The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. III, F. P. G. Guizot, page 246; F. W. Farrar, page 142.

² On the Road to Civilization, A World History, 1937, Heckel and Sigman, pages 237, 238.

³ The History of Christianity, by J. S. C. Abbott, pages 238, 239, 255, 256.

⁴ Mosheim’s Institutes of Ecclesiastical History, Twelfth Edition, pages 55-57.

⁵ Christianity and the Roman Empire, by W. E. Addis, pages 54, 55, 59, 69.

⁶ History of Christianity, by Edward Gibbon, pages 233-235.

⁷ Library of Biblical and Theological Literature, History of the Christian Church, by G. Crooks and J. Hurst, pages 165-168.

“Best Thing That Could Happen”

A news dispatch in the Houston Chronicle of August 16, 1955, reported on some statements made by a clergyman in Marthall, England: “Rev. Philip Francis, the local vicar, sincerely believes that what this world needs is an atomic war. ‘Yes, it would be the best thing that could happen,’ the 55-year-old parson told reporters who besieged him with questions last night about a provocative article he wrote in his parish magazine. In the article he said: ‘We need not bother about the dire warnings of eminent people who hate changing from the gunpowder age to the atomic age.’ ‘An atomic war would do the world good. . . . It is the only thing which could clear away present evils and bring about world government.’” But the Bible shows that the only thing that will do this is God’s war of Armageddon. It will “bring to ruin those ruining the earth.”