Paul O’Sullivan

Christians & Persecution

To fully understand the persecution of Christians you must look at Nero. Nero was brought up by his twisted, alcoholic father, and his power crazed mother. He inherited his violent tendencies from his father and his lust for power from his mother. When Nero’s father passed away Nero’s mother (Agrappina II) immediately searched for power. She then went on to marry her uncle, Emperor Claudius. Soon after he was poisoned by a mushroom sauce and this is how Nero inherited the throne to the greatest empire. So Agrappina carefully engineered Nero’s life so that he would become Emperor and she could assist him in his role.

Romans hated the Christians because of their weird acts associated with their faith. They thought they were crazy and cannibalistic because they were said to eat the body of Christ and drink his blood! (This was symbolic but the Romans did not know that) Nero soon used this to his advantage when he later set fire to Rome while he performed on stage, so that he could build his golden palace on the land made available by the burned down houses. He blamed the Christians for that act of arson because they were believed to be crazy by many Romans.  

The fact remained that Nero was a bad leader and awful Emperor. It didn’t help that Nero was a twisted and sadistic person. He found entertainment in “blood sports”. He went to watch as Christian slaves were released in to an arena to be torn apart by Gladiators. He used to dress up in wild animal skin and tear off the genitals of Christians who were tied to wooden poles. Not only was Nero a sexual deviant, he was an also a symbol of great evil “666” (this number was invented through Nero’s Latin name being converted to numbers). After watching Gladiators kill Christians he also used to watch wild animals such as bears and lions kill Christians for entertainment. People actually gathered here to see these as if it were a football match, placing bets on how long they would live. Nero would also perform plays in the Coliseums. Nero also liked to crucify Christians as punishment for being faithful to the gospel. This punishment showed other Christians that their religion brings nothing but pain and suffering and even death. Some times he would make them into human torches by dipping them into tar and setting them alight through out the streets of Rome. These torches would burn for a day or so depending on the weather.

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His evil reign lasted long enough to put his own country into civil war. So as well as brutally killing innocent Christians in numerous gruesome ways he killed his own family and most of his friends. Eventually his enemies closed in on him and Nero took his own life to avoid being killed by his subjects.

There are numerous pieces of material which can be used to support the question “is there any evidence that the gospel was written for non-Jews”. During and after the period of persecution, it seemed like people were beginning to lose faith. Mark ...

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