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The Meaning of Persecution
For Christians in the early Church, persecution was a kind of blessing or exaltation: it was the highest form of renunciationi.e., the brightest and biggest way an early Christian could renounce the world, all its pomps, and choose Christ with body and soul even in the face of torture and death.[footnoteRef:1] Christ was viewed as the ultimate example of how to suffer persecution, and early Christians embraced the idea of being able to follow in the footsteps of Our Lord. [1: Herbert Workman, Persecution in the Early Church (Washorn Media, 2018), 3.]
The persecutions, which really began with Christ, were unjustified and based on illegal actions just as they were with Christi.e., an illegal change of venue, illegal retrial, illegal private examinations, and so on.[footnoteRef:2] Sts. Peter and Paul also faced strange trials and changes of venue (requested by St. Paul, for instance). Thus, there was an interplay between law and persecution, but in the most case for the early Christians in the beginning it was the push of the Jewish leaders to see the early Christians punished. St. Paul had done the work of the persecutors prior to his conversion, and after his conversion there was more push by the Jewish leaders to involve the Roman authorities in the matter, as they did with the persecution of...…in their own way.[footnoteRef:7] Diocletian had not at first been opposed to Christianity, as members of his family had been catechumens at one timebut forces opposed to Christianity were in his political camp and entourage and they prevailed over his thinking. Thus, Christians began to be put to death all over againtheir crime often marked as incendiarism against the State.[footnoteRef:8] Persecutions raged under Diocletion, with Christians in all places being arrested, thrown into prison, burned or drowned upon decree of the State. This was the Satanic passion of the heathen/pagan State unleashed in a fury against the people of God. [7: Herbert Workman, Persecution in the Early Church (Washorn Media, 2018), 268.] [8: Herbert…
Bibliography
Workman, Herbert. Persecution in the Early Church. Washorn Media, 2018
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