Christian History Lesson 7

Lesson 7 master of Christian History Course

 

1 what were the factors that caused the persecution of the Christians by the roman state

 

               The Jewish faith and the roman state are the factors the reasons are :-

Political, religious social and economic.

The roman state would only recognize Christianity if it was a member of the Jewish faith or a state faith i.e. making tributes to the gods or emperor ,unfortunately this was not in the Christian doctrine as such no incense was used in the Christian faith as a tribute to the emperor and the Jewish faith was not going to recognize Christianity.

               Due also to the way the Christians met for worship i.e. in darkness it was seen more as a secret society Romans also worshiped idols which the Christians did not .the Christian faith fell open to all unlike Rome this included the slaves and as such would cause the Romans to again think of possible uprisings due to the Christians accepting all classes into their faith. With the advent of plague and famine and political unrest it could also be seen by the Romans that the gods where angry due to many turning to the Christian faith.

 

2 why is ad 250 a pivotal point in the persecution of Christians by the roman state

 

Ad 250 became the pivotal point in the persecution of Christians because before this date persecution was by rabble as opposed to the state which organized large scale fights despite the ensuing persecution which could be very violent the factors and reasons are given in question 1 although it would appear that the Christian faith fell foul of the Jewish faith and the roman state due to meeting in secret and not paying tributes to the gods or emperor .

 

3 when was the persecution of Christians the worst? When did it end and why ?How did the persecutions effect the Christian church.

Around 284-285 ad saw the worst of the persecutions start this was during Diocletian this ruler had no tolerance for religions he believed was a threat to the state in 303 ad he ordered the closure of Christian churches and they be destroyed .the believers could fall foul of numerous punishments from death down to labor prisons this declined when around 305 ad when Diocletian abdicated.