Early Christians Persecution essay

Later on, Licinius and Constantine the Great who were Roman Emperors at a later period of time, took a step and indorsed Christianity across the Roman Empire (Griffin). The people of Rome regarded the early Christians as a menace. Thus, that is the reason as to why they crafted several indictments against the Christians. Whereas several of the accusations were not true and frivolous, the Romans Empire was sincere in identifying the threat. The Christian religion certainly posed a fatal danger to several of the most severely held conventions in the Roman universe. Monotheists Christians were also persecuted in the Roman times because they were firm monotheists. They refused to bow down to other gods. From the time syncretism was the trend of that era, the early Christians were considered as adamant fanatics who persisted on only worshipping their One and only God, thus the Roman Empire viewed this as a foreign cyst that should be eliminated for the benefit of the whole society.

The fanaticism was revealed when the Christians were invited to the usual, cultural engagements. Since the Christians had faith in only one God, they believed that they had to refrain from the practices that the Greco-Roman pagans did, such as, giving offerings to the gods (Gonzalez, p. Monotheism was not look upon as fascinating by such people. Incest Incest was also one of the reasons as to why the Roman Empire tortured the early Christians. The fact the Christians stuck to only marrying their ‘sisters’ or ‘brothers’ in Christ, caused the Romans to accuse them of being too incestuous. Cannibalism The Romans having no understanding of what Christianity was all about, believed that the religion practiced cannibalism. Because the Christians always said that were nourished by the blood and the body of Christ and the manner in which they referred to Jesus as a little baby, some of the people in Rome concluded that, through the initiation rite, Christians covered an infant in bread and after that they commanded the recruit to slice the loaf of bread (Eshleman, p.

The act of not burning incense before the image of the emperor was also an indication of treason. The early Christians were therefore condemned as seditious and disloyal individuals by the authorities for failing to practice the act of burning incense before the Roman emperor. High Moral Standards Last but not least, another reason why the early Christians were persecuted at the Roman times was because they had very high moral standards. They felt that it was not ethical to engage in the savage practices of the Greco-Roman’s. Practices involving bloodshed and tortures especially of the people who took part in the gladiators were considered inhumane by the Christians. Becoming Heretical: Affection and Ideology in Recruitment to Early Christianities. The Havard Theological Review.