Truth Magazine

By Edward O. Bragwell, Sr.

But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness (1 Tim. 6:11).

Four times, Paul warns his readers to flee (twice to Corinthians and twice to Timothy). One of my teachers defined flee “to get on out from, do not get close to it, do not stay and flirt with.” He was commenting on 1 Corinthians 6:18 – “flee fornication.” It is hard to improve on his definition. Christians can save themselves from “many sorrows” (1 Tim. 6: 10) by learning to heed Paul’s admonitions to flee. Too many are playing moral and spiritual brinkmanship – seeing how close to the brink they can get without toppling over.

Sexual Immorality

Corinth was a wicked city. One would have had to go out of the world to avoid the company of immoral people (5:9,10). When filth saturates a community, some usually gets into the church. It did at Corinth. One brother had his father’s wife -sexual immorality repulsive even to the world (5:1).

Some may have rationalized: “Foods for the stomach and the stomach for foods” (6:13). Why have bodily appetites if we cannot satisfy them? One must learn to control the body’s passions. The body is not for sexual immorality. The Christian’s motto is not “foods for the stomach and the stomach for foods,” but the “body is . . . for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.” The body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. One must use it to glorify God. One way to do this is to “Flee sexual immorality (fornication – KJV).”

I doubt that our communities are worse than pagan Corinth. Some may run a close second. One cannot totally insulate himself nor his family from exposure to corrupt morals. They must learn to cope or else “go out of the world.”

Most neighborhood schools teach “sex education.” The emphasis is on avoiding unwanted consequences, like V.D. or pregnancy, rather than avoiding fornication. The Lord attacks the problem at its roots – “flee sexual immorality.”

Christians, even preachers, have not always been careful enough. They thought it would not happen to them. They were wrong. One thing led to another until they went beyond the point of no return. It is a pity they did not have the foresight of Joseph in Potiphar’s house. He literally fled fornication (Gen. 39). David was not as wise in the affair with Bathsheba. He later lamented, “my sin is ever before me” (Psa. 51:3).

Young preaching brother (or maybe not so young), you can hardly be too cautious. You may not know how far you can go without sin. You do not want to find out! What begins as innocent confidential counseling may turn to talk leading to immorality. This is not fiction. It does happen. Preachers, especially young ones, do well to be extra careful here. One must protect himself and his reputation.

Preachers may do too much private counseling of young women. It might be better for qualified older women to counsel and teach younger women. If one feels that he must do such counseling, then by all means be discreet. Do it at a time and place where there can be no opportunity for it to turn in the wrong direction. If married, then take the wife along. If unmarried, then have someone else along to avoid any thing happening – either in fact or appearance. Sure, I know some good brethren think this is being overly prudent. I don’t think so. I have seen too many lives shattered, good churches troubled and preachers’ influence destroyed. In most cases it could have been avoided had they stayed clear of surroundings where such could happen.

Peer pressure, natural desire, and social acceptance put a lot of pressure on young people to engage in sexual immorality. If young people really want to please God by avoiding sexual immorality, they must flee it. They would do well to stay away from people, places and predicaments that would be conducive to it. They need to avoid the pre-fornication condition of “lasciviousness” – sexually provocative dress, speech and actions. It does little good to apply the brakes after one has revved the motor to full speed with the throttle wide open.

No one says it is always easy to flee fornication in a sensually saturated society. It can be done. It must be done.

Idolatry

“Therefore, my beloved, flee idolatry,” Paul later wrote to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 10:14).

The Corinthians constantly faced “things offered to idols” (8:1). The meat would be in the market place, in their neighbor’s homes, and at the idol’s temple. What was a Christian to do about all this? Could he buy the meat and eat it? Should he eat it if served by a neighbor at dinner? Should he eat at the feasts in the idol’s temple?

Paul addresses these problems in 1 Corinthians 8-10. He concedes that eating the meat was not inherently wrong (8:8). It was within the liberty they had in Christ (8:9). The strong understood that the idol was nothing in the world. When they ate it they would not be worshiping idols. They knew that there is but one God.

There were other things to consider. The effect it would have on weak brethren. The effect it could have upon themselves.

There were brethren, possibly formerly idolaters, who could not yet safely eat the meat. Would the weak brethren be encouraged to eat it as meat offered to an idol by seeing the strong eat? Where this would likely happen, the Corinthians should have enough love for the weak brother to waive this liberty.

Paul concludes, “Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble” (8:13). Then, in chapter nine, he gives examples of his own yielding of rights for “the gospel’s sake” (v. 23). Did he not have the “right to eat and drink” at the brethren’s expense (v. 4)? Did he not have the right to “take along a believing wife” (v. 5)? 1 believe he infers that, if he had a wife, that she also could “live of the gospel.”

I wonder how many churches would turn Paul down for local preaching because he had no wife. I also wonder how many would turn down Peter for a meeting because he would bring his wife along – at the expense of the church!

If Paul could voluntarily forego his rights for the gospel’s sake, surely the Corinthians could give up some meat to keep weak brethren away from idolatry!

Could knowledgeable Christians ever safely eat meat offered to idols? Yes, if sold in the market place (10:25,26) or at dinner in someone’s home (10:27,28) – unless someone at the dinner says, “This was offered to an idol.” This would be giving religious significance to it. In such cases one should not eat.

What about in the idol’s temple (8:10)? Paul discourages this altogether. Why? It would still just be meat there too. It would be much harder to disassociate the meat from idol worship. There was the problem of influence: “For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will not the conscience of him who is weak be emboldened to eat those things offered to idols?”

How far one could go without fellowshipping the demons? When a Israelite ate from the altar he symbolized his fellowship with the altar (10:18)? When a Christian eats the Lord’s supper he symbolizes his fellowship with the Lord. Likewise, when one ate at the idol’s table he symbolized his fellowship with the idol or demon the idol represented. It is not that the idol or the offering was anything themselves (10:19). But, it was the meaning given to them at the temple feasts. If the Lord’s table signified communion with the Lord, the idol’s table signified communion with demons. Eaters signified their fellowship with the ones in whose honor the table was set – the Lord or demons. So, one should not eat at the demon’s table – the table in the idol’s temple.

It is in this context that Paul says, “Flee idolatry” (10:14). No matter how strong he might think himself to be, he could not be that sure that he could frequent these feasts and be totally clear of idolatry. He gives ancient Israel for an example (10:1-11). They were delivered and sustained by the Lord (v. 1-4). Yet, they slipped into idolatry with its associated sins (v. 7ff). How could these strong, knowledgeable Corinthian Christians be that sure that they could go to the idol’s temple, eat at the idol’s table, without sinning? So he writes, “Therefore let him who thinks he stands (that brother who had knowledge was sure that he could eat without sinning eob) take heed lest he fall” (v. 12).

He concludes “Therefore, my beloved, flee idolatry.” Do not see how close you can get without being contaminated. Why should one test his power to resist religious error? Religious groups do things that are innocent apart from a religious setting. Participating in these things, though you may personally detach the religious significance, is not a good way to flee false religion. It is hard to effectively oppose a neighbor’s religious error while non-religiously participating in his religious activity. The things might be innocent themselves, but they are sponsored by them as religious activities. One can not be that sure that such close association will not sooner or later lead to acceptance -religiously. “Therefore, to him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.” “Therefore, my beloved, flee idolatry” (or any other form of religious error). Do not cuddle up to it, but see how much distance you can make between you and it.

Greed

Paul warns Timothy of all kinds of evil and sorrows produced by greed (1 Tim. 6: 10-11). One does not have to be rich to greedily love money. The warning here is directed primarily to servants (v. 1) and to God’s man, Timothy (v. 11). When servants of men or servants of God set their minds on getting rich, they are asking for trouble. A Christian, who was a servant, needed not become a freedom fighter – he could be content with being free in Christ. He needed not be greedy of his master’s goods (or anyone else’s for that matter) – he was rich in Christ. Timothy was to withdraw from teachers who “suppose that godliness is a means of gain (vv. 1-5). Temporal gain is not nearly as important as spiritual (vv. 6-8). A Christian servant, content with the bare necessities (“food and clothing”), gains far more than any freedom and/or wealth gained by greed.

Timothy, a young evangelist, was not only to “teach and exhort these things” (v. 2), he was to practice what he preached (v. 11). He to was “flee these things” – evils caused by an inordinate love of money. He was to neither make money his objective in preaching or be hindered from his work by it. J.W. McGarvey in one of his chapel talks, interestingly observed:

“Well, what is it (their preaching-eob) for? In order that you may get rich? There is not a man in the country green enough to think that is the way to get rich. And if there was a man thinking that he was going to be a preacher in order to get rich, he is too big a fool to be a preacher. And as soon as the people find out that is even one of your motives for preaching that will be the end of your preaching. There is not a man, woman or child in the country who wants to hear a preacher who is preaching for the money, and that one of his chief aims” (Chapel Talks, “Delivered Before the Student Body of The College of the Bible in 1910 and 1911,” John William McGarvey, p. 18).

It is easy for young (some not so young) preachers to get into the money trap. Timothy was told to flee it. Materialism has a powerful pull. While there is room for improvement over the country, brethren’s support of gospel preachers has improved in the last few years. The temptation to preach for the money is greater than in the past. The temptation to use preaching as a job until “something better comes along” is great. One may think of preaching to pay the rent and tuition until he can get enough education to qualify for a “good job.” It can be a good way to have full-time pay for part-time work freeing time to build a secular side line into one’s main line. Brethren, these observations may make some uncomfortable, but that is the way it is.

There are great and honorable men, who have tried full-time preaching and found out that it was not for them. They have wisely turned to other ways to make a living. Most of these are greater assets to the Lord’s cause than if they had continued in full-time preaching. There are others who have never preached full time. They have made their living at secular work, preached wherever they might be needed, even receiving some financial support for this work. I have nothing but praise for these men. Nor are we critical of any who are fortunate enough to work with brethren who pay enough to maintain a high standard of living (one comparable to other brethren with good paying jobs). We are critical of those who obviously use preaching as a means of temporal gain.

The temptations mentioned before are real. It does not take a Solomon to see that some do yield to the desire to be rich. “But you, O man of God, flee these things. . .”

Youthful Lusts

Timothy, a young man, was especially warned against youthful lust. Generally speaking, lust and desire translate from the same word in the New Testament. Lust is desire gone astray. Youth does not have a monopoly on lust, but some desires are stronger in youth than in later life. Lust is not limited to sexual lust. Paul says there are “many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition.”

Sexual desire is stronger in youth than in later years. The young need to be especially careful not to allow it to become sinful (cf. James 2:14,15). Timothy, a young preacher, needed to especially be careful.

Perhaps Paul had other lusts in mind -when he wrote, “Flee youthful lusts” (2 Tim. 2:22). The warning comes as he condemns strife caused by foolish and ignorant disputes (2 Tim. 2:14ff). Could a youthful lust be an inordinate love of controversy? One cannot, nor should he try to, avoid all controversy. The gospel is controversial. It has always been. Read of the controversy it provoked in the book of Acts. One with no stomach for controversy does not need to preach. However, there is a difference in being set for the defense of the gospel and just being argumentative. “A servant of the Lord must not quarrel. . . ” (2:23-26). Youth sometimes has an excessive love for argumentation – to make a sport and challenge out of winning an argument.

Young people often have a strong desire for the novel, innovative, and/or sensational. The inordinate desire for these can be a problem. They may desire change for its own sake. Some things may need changing. Some congregations need a good house cleaning with a fresh start that youth often likes to see. However, one must avoid clamoring for change for its own sake.

Young people have a strong desire to find their own places in the world. They want to be independent, standing on their own feet. This is not bad when kept under control and in perspective. Young preachers are no different. When this desire becomes an obsession or lust, a great deal of harm is done. They may belittle older and experienced men especially men of great influence. Rather than profiting from the teaching and experience of older brethren they scorn them. They want to show the world and the brotherhood, at all costs, that they are their own men – not riding on anyone’s coat tails. With such an attitude there are bound to be conflicts between the young and their elders.

Young people have a strong desire for action. They like to see things get done. Those of us who are older need to retain more of this desire in later life. This desire can become a lust and get out of hand. Young men sometimes grab the ball and run with it before the play is called. They want to get the church moving at their rate of speed so badly that they will assume leadership positions. They may not have had time to temper their zeal with the knowledge and/or experience needed to lead the church into action. Instead of working with older and experienced men, they may like Absalom of old set about to steal the hearts of the people (2 Sam. 15) away from them.

We need young people to spur us on with their idealism and enthusiasm. They may be able to rekindle in us some of the fire that we have allowed to burn low with age. Young people need to learn to keep a tight rein on these desires, so their energy can be channeled into useful rather than harmful avenues for themselves and the church.

These are some things that we just should not test our strength against. The only correct response is to flee, flee and flee

Guardian of Truth XXX: 20, pp. 618-619, 629
October 16, 1986

By Irvin Himmel

Do Thy Diligence

The thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness; but of every one that is hasty only to want (Prov. 21:5).

The contrast in this proverb is between diligence and haste, thoughtful action and thoughtless hurry. “Extremes meet, and undue hurry is as fatal to success as undue procrastination” (E.H. Plumptre).

Diligence

The following are some of the ingredients of diligence:

(1) Care. A hasty person is often careless. The diligent individual gives due attention to details. He pays attention and takes precautions. He exercises care to do his best in whatever he attempts.

(2) Thoroughness. Unlike the hasty fellow who glosses over many things, recklessly skips along, and overlooks important matters, the diligent person is painstaking, exact, and accurate.

(3) Hard work. Diligence demands laborious effort in the face of difficulties. It requires staying with an undertaking when the going gets rough.

(4) Steady improvement. One who is diligent in his work patiently strives for progress. He sees advancement as the fruit of persistence and toil. He tries to do a better job, for quality means something to him.

(5) Thoughtfulness. To be diligent necessitates planning, giving thought, taking heed, showing consideration, and being attentive.

Thoughtful Activity

“The thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness . . . ” Thoughtful diligence is needed in many areas. I mention three categories in particular.

(1) In business. There is no substitute for honorable industry in the commercial field. Honest labor is a better basis for success than “get-rich-quick” schemes. Gambling appeals to people who look for a short-cut to prosperity. Flashy schemes are usually just that. Quick as a flash the scheme can leave one in poverty! The person who diligently pursues his occupation with dedication and integrity is building on a good base.

(2) In learning. Some young people are attracted to shortcuts in education. The only way to learn is through diligent study, effort, and application. Getting a good, solid education is hard work.

(3) In the Lord’s work. Some brethren are attracted to popular fads that are supposed to convert a lot of people with little effort. Serious, persistent, and regular teaching does not satisfy their whims. They want to hurry up the process and convert the world without personally doing what the Lord has commanded. Oh how we need diligence in the lives of all the saints! The whole world would have been converted already if the schemes of men would do what some claim, but fads come and go. In the meantime, faithful Christians keep working diligently to do what they can, each trying to shine as a light in his little corner of the world.

What does our proverb mean when it refers to being “hasty”? The fundamental meaning is “to throng, to urge (Ex. v. 13), here of impatient and inconsiderate rashness” (F. Delitzsch). Haste may be defined as undisciplined impulse.

The hasty person gives himself no time to think. He plunges quickly, and often rashly, into some activity.

It is important that we think carefully before we jump into something. “But although it is wise an necessary to think before we act, thinking must only be preparatory to action, and must not take its place. It is good for a man to make a good plan of his house before he begins to build; but a house on paper only will not shelter him from the winter storms. It is advisable for the captain to study his chart well before he embarks upon his voyage, but if he does no more he will never reach the desired port” (W. Harris). After careful thought there must be action-diligent action.

Hasty people often come to poverty because the shortcut approach does not work; “get-rich-quick” schemes are often “lose-it-all-hurriedly” if we look to the ultimate results.

Although I believe this proverb is referring to one’s attitude toward success in temporal affairs, I see a principle that can be applied spiritually. A congregation can become spiritually bankrupt if it is under the leadership of elders who “act in haste” rather than with thoughtful diligence. Many churches have jumped on a bandwagon that hurriedly carried them into apostasy. They took a short-cut, then another and another, finally cutting themselves off from adherence to the word of God. They were swallowed by human schemes.

Let us pursue our goals with the dignity of calm diligence, avoiding rash haste. Steady plodding is to be preferred over a wild runaway.

Guardian of Truth XXX: 20, p. 620
October 16, 1986

By Ron Halbrook

Anyone who teaches publicly, whether in a pulpit or a paper or any other medium, can expect some response. We appreciate your questions and your comments, even when you disagree. No preacher is infallible or above question. The word of Jesus and not of some preacher will be the final standard of judgment (Jn. 12:48). We are to test and to examine all teachers by the Word of God (1 Jn. 4:1-6).

We are willing to share critical comments and the following is the warmest one we have received in a long time:

You free loader, why don’t you look up where your church started in public books. A woman started it. You are putting your . . . (expletive deleted) . . . in the paper and expect people to believe it. Just because you don’t get down and find out the facts, you got a one track mind.

The K.K.C. needs to get you and prove to you how stupid you really are. Because you don’t know any better, you expect the rest of the people to believe as you do. Remember, people are not crazy. If you want to believe your nonsense, O.K. but don’t try to preach to others that you are the only one that is right. Your Bible is all fouled up and you never took time to go into public books and find out the truth about your church. Wake up and do so while you have time to do so. Remember some people know the facts while others don’t. Watch yourself. Don’t you try to mislead others because you are wrong.

The Origin of the Church of Christ: The Real Facts

The reader confuses “Church of Christ” with “Church of Christ, Scientist,” which indeed was started by a woman named Mary Baker Eddy. She claimed revelations which were published as Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures and in 1879 started the first Christian Science Church in Boston. She was a “mental healer” who denied the existence of sin, sickness, and death, which are only “errors” of the mind according to her, She said the Bible is fouled up with impurities and is not a complete or final revelation. She taught that Jesus was not incarnated in flesh, He did not actually die, and He will not return in bodily form. The true church of Christ did not teach such theories in Bible times and does not teach such theories today. These are the real facts.

The true church of the Lord did not start in Boston in 1879 but started in Jerusalem 50 days after Jesus arose from the dead, as recorded in Acts 2. When people believe, obey, and teach the same gospel today that was preached in the beginning, they constitute the same church. If not, why not? What would it take to have the same church, if not the restoration of the original gospel? Corn seed produces the corn plant and apple seed the apple tree. If we wish to produce the original gospel and church of Christ, “the seed is the word of God” (Lk. 11:8). The church of Christ of which I am a member preaches the same facts, commands, and promises of the gospel which were preached in the beginning. We obey the same conditions of pardon – faith, repentance, confession of Christ, and water baptism (Acts 2:38; Rom. 10:10). Our worship, doctrine, organization, and discipline is taken directly and literally from the Bible. So long as we follow the Bible only, we are Christians only members of the church you can read about in the Bible. If not, why not? Those are the real facts.

Historically in America, in the early 1800s people from Congregational, Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, and other backgrounds gave up their human names, creeds, doctrines, and denominations in order to follow the Bible only. You can read of this restoration effort in public books like encyclopedias under “Churches of Christ,” or in more detail in Homer Hailey’s Attitudes and Consequences in the Restoration Movement (Edited for out-dated information). We will gladly give anyone a free copy of the booklet “A Short Study in Church History” by William E. McDaniel (contact the author). You will find that “restoration” did not mean starting a new denomination with a new human name. It simply meant forsaking all denominations, opposing them as sinful, and going back to New Testament Christianity as the only right way in religion. This means to take the Bible as the final standard without addition, subtraction, or substitution.

These are the real facts about the origin of the church of Christ. Our reader who wrote added heat but no light to correct us if these are not the facts.

Just One Right Way: What Does the Bible Say?

The reader seemed to think that I “expect people to believe” whatever I write just because they read it in the paper. No, not any more than he can expect me to believe what he says just because he writes it on paper. We constantly urge people not to take our own word or that of any other man, but to be like the noble Bereans who “searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so” (Acts 17:11). It would help if critical readers would send us the Scripture references they have been searching in order that we might be corrected and better informed. “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil” (1 Thess. 5:21-22). The only standard of testing and proving is, what does the Bible say (1 Jn. 4:1-6; 1 Pet. 4:11; 2 Tim. 3:16-17)?

Our reader primarily objects to our teaching that there is only one right way in religion. He says, “. . you got a one track mind . . . you expect the rest of the people to believe as you do . . . don’t try to preach to others that you are the only one that is right.” First, we have already pointed out that I do not claim to be the infallible standard or one right way but am pointing away from myself and all other human standards to Jesus Christ and His Word as the one right way in religion. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the father, but by me” (Jn. 14:6).

Second, the reader wants me to believe as he does that there are many right ways. So, the truth is that there are many right ways to God, not just one, according to him. Since he is trying to persuade me to his view of many right ways, I guess I could say to him, “You got a one track mind. You expect the rest of the people to believe as you do. Don’t try to preach to others that you are the only one that is right (on the point of many right ways)!” Why is it right for him to persuade me but wrong for me to persuade him?

Third, it is right to convince and to persuade people that the one right way is found in Jesus and His Word. Jesus said we should make disciples of “all nations” (Matt. 28:19). “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned” (Mk. 16:15-16). “If ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins . . . . And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not. Which of you convinceth me of sin?” (Jn. 8:24, 45-46) Was Jesus wrong in telling us to preach the gospel to others and wrong for saying that those who reject the gospel are lost in sin and doomed to hell? Does our reader convict Jesus of wrong in this? If Jesus was wrong for teaching only one right way, let someone produce the evidence which convicts Him of wrong! It has not been done in 2,000 years and it will not be done now!

People living in sin and error have always protested against the teaching of Christ on only one right way. Atheists and evolutionists object when the Bible says, “In the beginning God. . . .” Murderers (including abortionists), thieves, adulterers, those who covet (as in gambling), and liars all object to the condemnation of their sins, “Love worketh no ill to his neighbor” (Rom. 13:9-10). They do not believe there is only one right way to live.

Modernists and liberals do not believe there is only one right way when it comes to believing that the Bible is the inspired Word of God (word for word, 1 Cor. 2:13), that God created Adam and Eve by miracles in one day (Jesus said He did, Matt. 19:4), that Jonah was swallowed by a great fish and lived to tell about it (Jesus confirmed it, Matt. 12:40), or that Jesus arose from the dead (Matt. 28). Denominations teach many bodies or churches, many baptisms, and many faiths – they reject the Lord’s Word when it says just “one” (Eph. 4:4-6). People who wear denominational names and attend denominational churches are embarrassed at the Bible teaching that we should be “Christians” only without using human names (Acts 11:27; 1 Cor. 1:10-13).

Yes, Jesus abundantly taught one right way in religion and said, “Few there be that find it.” Most people will believe in many ways and be lost, He said (Matt. 7:13-14).

Guardian of Truth XXX: 21, pp. 643-644
November 6, 1986

By Daniel W. Petty

The first known persecution of Christians by the Romans came at the hands of the emperor Nero, according to ancient historians. Before this, the Jews seem to have been the source of all persecutions of the Church, as recorded in the New Testament.

In the books of Acts, the Christians had little to fear from the Roman government. Roman magistrates and soldiers often saved Paul from the wrath of Jews and pagans alike. From the Roman perspective, Jews and Christians were indistinguishable in the early years, the latter generally thought to be but a sect of Judaism. Since Judaism was held to be a religio licita (“legal religion”), Christianity naturally enjoyed the same status.

Nero became emperor in AD 54, at first a reasonable ruler who was fairly popular. Becoming increasingly infatuated by his dreams of grandeur and lust for pleasure, he lost this popularity, so that by AD 64 he was despised by the people; rumor had it that he was mad.

In June of AD 64, a great fire broke out in Rome. Though it seems that he was away at the time, it was rumored that Nero himself started the fire so as to rebuild the city according to his fancy. The Roman historian Tacitus seems to believe the fire was an accident. But no matter. The rumor spread, and more and more the people suspected the emperor. One of the rumors, which Nero tried to allay, was that he played his lyre during the fire atop a tower. But the rumors continued, and Nero knew that he needed someone else to blame for the fire. Two areas not burned had a high population of Jews and Christians; since the Christians were not popular, he decided to blame them.

Tacitus tells the story (Annals 15.44):

But all human efforts, all the lavish gifts of the emperor, and the propitiations of the gods did not banish the sinister belief that the conflagration was the result of an order. Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilate, and a most mischievous superstition thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome,. . . Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty [of being Christians, DP]; then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, as of hatred of mankind [they abstained from most social activities, since these were so connected with pagan worship, DP]. Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burnt, to serve as a nightly illumination when daylight had expired. . . . It was not, as it seemed, for the public good, but to glut one man’s cruelty, that they were being destroyed.

Peter was written very near the time of this persecution. It is clear from the epistle that they were facing various trials (1:6). They were being falsely slandered as evil-doers (3:16); they were being tested by a “fiery ordeal” (4:12). Peter was urging his readers to submit their souls to God in their suffering (4:19), and to be sure their suffering was for righteousness’ sake – “as a Christian” – and not for ungodly conduct (3:13; 4:15-16). They were to be encouraged by the facts that in their sufferings, they shared in the same experiences as brethren throughout the world (5:9), and in the sufferings of Christ Himself (4:12-14).

The popular indignation endured by the Christians made them Nero’s natural scapegoats. All kinds of slanderous reports about Christians had been circulating. The Lord’s Supper gave rise to rumors that they held secret cannibalistic meetings where they ate someone’s body and drank his blood. Christians were despised because they refused to participate in the wicked pagan festivals of the Gentiles.

The attitude of the Roman government toward the Church gradually changed from indifference to hostility. They had come to see that Christianity and Judaism were different. Christianity came to be regarded as a religio illicita (“prohibited religion”). It is clear that though in AD 64 the Christians were charged with arson, soon they were being persecuted for the mere fact of being Christians, and for the supposed abominations connected with that name.

Peter and Paul soon became martyrs under the reign of Nero, according to early tradition. It is likely that this persecution was limited to the city of Rome. Most persecutions were isolated and local until just before AD 250, when the first “general persecutions” would begin. Even so, the gateway to persecution had been opened, and ever after Christians were to live under threat. The slanderous rumors multiplied, and popular hatred and distrust of Christians led to many a persecution. Besides the Neronian persecution, the first century also witnessed the persecution of Christians under the reign of Domitian (AD 81-96). It was this later persecution that probably provided the background for the message for the Book of Revelation.

“By no means let any of you suffer as a murderer, or thief or evildoer, or a troublesome meddler; but if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not feel ashamed, but in that name let him glorify God” (1 Pet. 4:15-16).

For further reading: W.H.C. Frend, Martyrdom and Persecution in the Early Church (Oxford, 1965).

Guardian of Truth XXX: 20, pp. 617, 633
October 16, 1986