Chapter 4
Gold Tested in Fire: Courageous Faith
& Clear Doctrine
Major Concepts
1) Courageous Faith Amid the Fires of Persecution
2) Constantine’s Conversion
3) Clarity of Doctrine Amid the Fires of Heresy
From a letter written by a Christian who
survived persecution, written in the year 177
C.E.:
“There can be no adequate description, either in
word or in writing of the magnitude of the
suffering here, of the animosity of the pagans
towards the saints, or of the steadfastness of
the blessed martyrs ….”
Courageous Faith Amid the Fires of Persecution
• Governments under pressure, either because of
external threats or internal dissent, often revert
to victimizing some minority for their difficulties
• Rome from 100 CE to about 300 CE was under
significant external threats from barbarians,
some of whom had previously been Roman
allies, ex. the Goths
• Rome continued to forge alliances only to betray
their allies or fail to deliver on promises made
• The ‘Roman” army was no longer largely Roman
made up of citizen soldiers. Instead it was made
up of mercenaries drawn from many cultures
with minimal allegiance to Rome itself
• The Empire had grown so large, and distance
took so long to cover, that maintaining
centralized authority and control in Rome was
becoming impossible
• The East, largely Egypt, were often allowed their
own control
• Emperor Diocletian eventually split the Empire
into 3 totally separate parts in the 3rd century
• Inside the Empire, dissension rose as Emperors
were often absent from Rome fighting wars on
foreign soil leaving the city to decline
• Disease, shortages of food and a lack of troops
to keep the peace led the rich to leave the city
leaving the poor to fend for themselves
• Like most cosmopolitan Empires, the Empire and
city of Rome were now largely populated by
non-Romans whose loyalty was one of
convenience
• The presence of large numbers of slaves
throughout the Empire, many trained to fight
as gladiators, added to the tension
• Aqueducts started to fail to deliver water,
sewage backed up into the streets, crime rose
as people would do anything to feed their
families, made the city of Rome more like the
barbarian cities they were used to conquering
• Emperors came and went with little or no
management ability or interest
• Emperors increasing were assassinated by
their own guards, the Praetorian Guards, with
their successors picked by the same soldiers
• The decadence of the Emperors became
legendary in their own time, ex. Emperor Nero
played his fiddled as Rome burned
• And here was the vulnerable followers of this
new religion, the “Christians,” disliked by the
Roman and Jewish priests alike, with no
political patronage, available as the people
who could be blamed for Rome’s troubles
• Christians would not give homage to Roman
gods, not even the Emperor who saw himself as
a god, thereby destroying Roman unity and
demonstrating a lack of patriotism
• Christians refused to serve in the Roman army
• The Emperor’s solution: blame the Christians
and send them to the Coliseum:
– To fight gladiators without their own weapons
– To be fed to live, hungry animals such as lions and bears
– To be covered in tar and used as human torches to light the Emperor’s
gardens at night
– If Roman citizens, to be beheaded publically
– To be crucified en masse in the Coliseum: men, women and children
– and, human/animal sexual bestiality
• Show “Senior Video Clips” # 1-5
• And this persecution was not limited to Rome
proper
• It was by order of the Emperor carried out
throughout the Roman Empire
• Christians found no refuge anywhere and yet
converts not only continued, but increased in
number
• Converts found in the faith of the martyrs
something missing in their own lives
• Church fathers also allowed early Christians to
deny their faith in order to save their lives.
Understanding the faith amid Persecution
• Christians were still trying to come to grips
with question of who Jesus actually was
• Different beliefs even created divisions with in
the early decentralized communities
• The combination of internal struggles within
Christianity and persecution from without
created “the gold test in fire”
• Some Christians could not face martyrdom
and had to renounce the faith to stay alive
• Christians who had renounced their faith
(apostates), or sacrificed to idols, in order to
save their lives, were allowed to rejoin the
church after:
– a process of public penance
– and, a ritual of re-entry
• Apostasy is the formal disaffiliation from, or
abandonment or renunciation of a religion by a
person. One who commits apostasy apostatizes
and is an apostate. These terms have a
pejorative implication in everyday use.
Key Terms: Apostate, Heresy and Blasphemy
An apostate differs from a heretic – a person
who espouses heresy. Heresy is a controversial
or novel change to a system of beliefs, especially
a religion, that conflicts with established dogma.
It is distinct from apostasy, which is the formal
denunciation of one's religion, principles or
cause, and blasphemy, which is irreverence
toward religion.
• Christianity was too new a religion in the 1st
thru 3rd centuries for heresies to have had
time to develop.
• Blasphemy might have come in the manner of
graffiti drawn by critics of the religion, but it’s
not likely to have come from within the church
itself.
• But apostasy was a problem as people tried to
be faithful, but bowed to the “life or death”
pressure of persecution.
• An apostate's performance of public penance
and participation in a rite of re-entry into the
church were the roots of what came to be
known as the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
• In the teaching of the Catholic Church, the
Sacrament of Penance (commonly called
Confession, Reconciliation or Penance) is the
method given by Christ to the Church by
which individual men and women may be
freed from sins committed after receiving
Baptism, which itself (Baptism) frees the
penitent from all previous sins.
Not Everyone Was, or is, Cut Out to be a Martyr
• A martyr is generally understood to be a person
who chooses to suffer death rather than
renounce religious principles.
• No one knows for sure how many martyrs there
were in the early church although historians
believe it was probably a large number.
• But if everyone had become a martyr there
would have been no one left to continue the
faith!
• Read page 66 out loud in class
Persecution can have the Opposite Effect from
that Wanted by the Oppressors
• Persecution can lead to a consolidation and
solidification of the oppressed group
• During the two centuries it was illegal to be
Christian in the Roman Empire, new
communities continued to begin and grow in
Asia Minor, Syria, Greece, Italy and Rome
itself, Gaul, Spain and the northern coast of
Africa
• For homework, read the section “Well-known”
Early Martyrs on page 67
• Despite persecution, Church Structures and Roles
Developed:
– Election of a bishop at the local level
– Deacons and Deaconesses
– Before the fall of Jerusalem in 70 C.E., , the Bishop
of Jerusalem was considered the most important
– The Bishop of Rome them took primacy as the place
where Peter (Jesus’ appointed head of His Church)
had been martyred) as the “successor to St. Peter”
– All were initially part-time & self-supporting
• For homework, read pages 68 thru 72
• Christianity undergoes a revolution from a
church of non-violent martyrs who were part
of a growing Church, to a Church intertwined
with the culture, politics, and wars of Europe
for many centuries
• For written homework, to be turned in
tomorrow, answer the five Review questions
on the bottom right of page 72.