Persecution

07 Sept. Persucution

From the beginning of Christianity there’s has been persecution, even before it became an actual religion. Among the Jews the prophets had said that the faithful would suffer under the hands of the unrighteous. Persecution is the harassments of people for their religious faith, including infliction of death,. There has been three kinds of persecution in Christianity. The first was the Crucifixion, the second was the Jewish element and the third was the Greco-Roman Element, meaning during Nero’s time. Those who confessed their faith were considered Martyrs those who while facing death turned on their faith were called apostasies. Religious confession took on a social meaning, “blood witness”. Those who deliberately provoke authorities just for the cause did not represent the thinking of the church at large, which took the position that one should be faithful when brought to trial but should not seek out martyrdom. The first document devoted to martyrdom was the Martyrdom of Polycarp. The greatest number of martyrs was made during the persecutions of Decius and Diocletian in the mid-third and early fourth centuries. The theology behind martyrdom was that martyrdom was a grace not given by God to everyone and that it was an imitation and participation in the sufferings of Christ. Martyrdom was a fight with the devil and his demons, in which victory was won by the martyr. The martyr was assured of an eternal reward, whereas denial brought eternal punishments. Martyrdom was described in Eucharistic language, for example they described it as “a baptism of blood”. The great promises of the Gospels were theirs in a special way: forgiveness of sins, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and eternal life. When remembering a martyr we would remember him or her in the day of her death, because it is taught that is when they are reborn into eternal life.

Ignatius of Antioch, bishop and one of the apostolic fathers. Nothing is known of Ignatius prior