Christian Contradictions
THESIS STATEMENT: If only the Christians were allowed to profess their faith and do what ever they want to in express to their faith, then non of these would have happened.
Way back before when Christianity was still a bud starting to grow and become a full-bloom flower, a lot of people especially the Roman emperors could not accept it. They condemned and persecuted the Christians who would profess their faith. When Christianity was finally accepted, still there were still people who contradict with the Christian faith. A lot of Heresies came out. The following could not have happened if only they would have accepted Christianity freely:
1. Jesus Christ of Nazareth was killed because the Roman emperors could not accept that he was the real “King of the Jews” and the “Messiah”. Even if a lot of people contradicted his teachings, he still continued to preach and spread the good news of God; and saved a lot of people. If only the Romans did not persecute Jesus, all of us humans should have been saved and all of us could enjoy eternal life because he was the one sent by God to represent him on earth and to make us grow closer to him.
2. On 54-68 AD, during the reign of Emperor Nero, he burned the city of Rome because he wants to rebuild Rome and change history. To escape from the crime that he did, he placed all the blame to the Christians. If only Nero did not blame the Christians for the crime that he did, a lot of people should have not hated the Christians and a lot of them would have not been killed.
3. Also during the reign of Nero, after the city of Rome was burned, Peter and Paul were killed. Peter was crucified upside-down and Paul was beheaded in Vatican Hill. If only they were not killed, there would have not been any confusion regarding the Christian beliefs because the two of them are the ones who can clearly explain the Christian beliefs.
4. Domitian the second son of Nero, charged the Christians of disloyalty to the emperor and Atheism. If only Domitian could have opened his eyes and did not falsely accuse the Christians, the other emperors to follow would have not hated the Christians so much and therefore, the persecution of Christians would have been stopped.
5. Antonious Pius forced the Christians to worship the Roman Gods and persecuted those who did not follow.
Because of the Christians refusal to no longer praise or worship the state gods and emperors; The Roman government killed and prosecuted the Christian members and supporters. On page 74 under the subheading “The Spreading of Christianity” it states that “The Christians believed that there was only one god. To them, the worship of state gods and the emperors meant worshipping-false gods and endangering their own salvation. Soon after, the Roman government began prosecuting
Essay: The Bible says Jesus of Nazareth was a teacher who used miracles to help people. In reality he was a wandering man whose simple tricks and healing remedies were mistaken for miracles. He wandered Judea preaching about the validity of the jewish laws. This gained him a large following. Roman officials caught wind of this and were scared of an uprising. So they had him executed; however this had the opposite effect. The jewish sect that followed Jesus was pacified for some time but emerged again as Christianity, with a larger following than before. Eventually, and ironically, it ended up surviving the Roman Empire.
As the last in line of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Nero succeeded his grand-uncle Claudius as the Roman Emperor in 54 AD at the young age of 17. Being so young and naïve about how to rule effectively, he often prioritized amusement over leadership. He had very little concern for the needs of his people; an example of his indifference towards his nation occurred later in his life when he retracted public land to create his ‘Golden Palace’ – a lavish home covering 125 acres. Furthermore, he was also complacent towards the Roman population when a great fire swept over the Roman Empire in AD 64, destroying homes and vital infrastructure, and caused many to become homeless. It was his lack of concern for his people’s welfare that sparked rumors that it was the Emperor himself who had set his city on fire in order to clear land for more personal developments. Nero knew the growing suspicion against him was not benevolent for his rule, so he quickly cast the blame on persons involved in the then rebellious Christian movement, and swiftly executed many for their alleged role in trying to destroy his empire – a great act of treason. Famously, it was during these executions that Nero had one of Jesus’ original disciples – Peter (known in Christian tradition as ‘the rock’ or the
Emperor Nero, infamously known as one of the most malevolent, oppressive, and tyrannical leader throughout history, was the last ruler of the Julio-Claudian Dynasty. He was born outside Rome in Antium and his mother married his great uncle, Emperor Claudius, in order for her son to be the next Emperor of Rome. It wasn’t apparent that her son was to become one of the most feared and cruel leaders in Roman history from 54 CE to 68 CE. By examining his achievements and failures as an emperor, his influences and changes over the entire economic, political and social spectrum are revealed.
Christians went from being persecuted to dominating Rome rather quickly. In a world where separation between church and state does not exist, a Christian becoming the sole emperor of Rome symbolized a huge turning point in history. The power switched and the Pagans in turn became persecuted. Christians rose up and took control of all aspects of Roman society. The Pagan past was destroyed, banned, or forgotten about. Those Christians that did not agree with how things were being run either left the empire and became monks or formed their own sect. All of Rome changed.
Throughout the ages, Nero has been viewed as a rogue and a disgrace to the Roman Empire, thanks to unreliable primary sources. Because of this, Nero is now renowned world wide as the man who hated Christians, the man who killed Jesus and the man who wanted nothing but to satisfy his own desire of personal gain. This, though was not the case.
Perhaps the most notable of Emperor Nero’s damaging actions took place toward the end of his reign when, following the Great Fire of Rome in 64 CE, he pinned the blame for the fire on the Christians; proclaiming that Christians were responsible for the catastrophe. His justification and grounds for this allegation are, even to this day, an issue of debate among scholars because it is difficult to distinguish the extent to which the recorded histories were effected by their writer’s personal biases. Whatever Nero’s true intention was, his accusation led to a considerable amount of cruel treatment and persecution directed toward the Christian citizens of Rome. Subsequent to the allegation, the Roman Christians were viewed, and understandably so, as enemies and arsonists,
The purpose of this essay is to examine the barriers to the spread of Christianity during the Roman Empire. The relationship between Christians, Jews, and the Roman Empire was quite complicated. The Romans became involved with the Jews in 63 B.C.E. as part of their domination of the eastern Mediterranean. Christianity originated 6 B.C.E – 29 C. E. by a Palestinian Jew named Jesus, proclaiming to be the Messiah. The NIV Bible is the primary source for this essay. Leviticus from the Old Testament is written as a series of rituals or laws given to Moses by God. The book of Acts, I Corinthians and Galatians are from the New Testament. Acts was written by Luke, one of Jesus’ disciples, and outlines the spread of Christianity. I Corinthians and Galatians are letters to the early church written by Paul, a leader and missionary. The authors of the books of the Bible record eye witness accounts and revelations from God. The World History I textbook and The Survey of World History/Civilization online content are secondary sources used to connect events in the Bible to historical events during the Roman Empire. Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire despite opposition from the Jews, the Romans, and problems with the early church.
The rise of Christianity in Rome did not come easily. It came with much destruction and death. The spark of Christianity in Rome came from an appearance of Martyrs in Rome. Martyrs were people that were executed for going against the common beliefs of pagan (polytheistic) ways. (Tignor, 2011, p. 286) Because of these awful executions, Christianity is said to be based off of “the blood of martyrs.” One of their main ways of spreading Christianity was through the sharing of their writings and by 300 CE there was an exceptional amount of book production throughout Rome. (Tignor, 2011, p. 289) “Christianity operated as one among many minority religions in the Roman Empire, and on several occasions experienced widespread persecution, especially under the emperors Nero (r. 54–68), Decius (r. 249–251), and Diocletian (r. 284–305). However, the situation changed radically under the emperor Constantine (r. 306–337), who in 313 issued the Edict of Milan that made Christianity a legitimate religion in the empire.” (Melton, 2010, p. 634)
Heinous crimes Christians were accused of include sacramental baby-killing, sacramental baby-eating, and performing illicit sexual acts after banquets “under covers of darkness”. As quoted in the Apologia, “We are said to the be the worst of criminals because of our sacramental… modest for our impious lusts”. (2, 8) According to Tertullian, Christians were hated because, they did not worship the Roman gods nor did they offer sacrifices to the emperor. As a result, Christians would be accused of sacrilege and treason. Referenced in the Apologia, “You say, 'You do not worship the gods, and you do not offer sacrifices for the emperors.'… we are accused of sacrilege and treason.” (2, 9) Tertullian’s rebuttal against this claim is, Christians ceased
Early Christian persecution, 30-250 CE, was not a universal event throughout the Roman Empire, but rather sporadic and local. In 64 CE, a massive fire destroyed almost the entirety of Rome, and in order to escape blame, Emperor Nero
While Suetonius’s scriptures of Nero may pose a risk of bias, similar perversions were discussed within Edward Champlin’s ‘Nero Reconsidered’. Champlin discuses Nero’s descent into debauchery and malfeasance; how his personal exploits gradually began to corrupt his political and military affairs (Champlin, 1990). Nero began alienating and persecuting much of the elite for higher interests in personal concerns, as well as neglecting military advances and affairs completely. Nero’s exorbitant personal affairs and expenditures left the treasury thoroughly exhausted. His period was riddled with deflation as shortage of money began to emerge (Champlin, 1990). Nero’s adolescence and unruly upbringing was largely contributory to his inadequacy during his years as Roman Emperor. While Nero contributed significantly to the city, his reign demonstrated the unravelling of the Roman
In the closing years of the 1st century, Roman authorities executed a sufficient number of Christians. In general, the provincial governors had wide discretionary powers of jurisdiction, but knowledge of Nero’s actions may have set a precedent in regards to the handling of Christians and may have also encouraged local enemies of Christians to try to persuade a governor to accept their accusations and proceed against the accused on the assumption that they were guilty of conduct detrimental to the interest of the Roman State.
From the third to the fourth century, the Roman Empire witnessed a widespread attempt to stop the spread of Christianity. Initially, leaders of the church were predominately targeted, but later anyone admitting to Christianity became a target. The persecutions hit a climax during Diocletian’s reign. These persecutions actually helped the spread of Christianity by glorifying Christians and beginning a tradition of martyrdom that shaped the Church, and the strength that Christians displayed shows that the persecutions could not have possible stopped the spread of Christianity.
Christianity is a religion that is extremely prevalent in many people’s lives today and is extremely. It has roots that date back to around the first century CE. Christianity is based off the life and oral teachings from Jesus of Nazareth within the New Testament (Christianity Origin Online). Ever since the discovery of Christianity, the Christian faith has had a rather large impact on the rest of the world, with nearly 2.5 billion followers and counting (Christianity Online). With the widespread teachings of Christianity becoming much more common, Christianity has had a significant influence on not only specific people, but within cities and one in particular, is Rome. Within this paper, I will explain to you exactly how Christianity influenced the Roman society in a great deal of ways, politically, culturally, and religiously. I will also elaborate on how the Roman culture further shaped the ideas of Christianity and continued spreading the teachings of Christianity to Western Europe. Lastly, I will explain Augustine’s views on God and how he views the Christian faith.