I believe in our times the Christian for the most part finds it hard to identify with the early Christians, or maybe I should say the modern American Christian find it hard.. I can’t even speak to the Christians residing in other countries, but for the American Christian we can’t possibly understand what the early Christians had to experience. Under the Roman Empire, at the time of Jesus and the Apostles, one would risk their own life to even become a Christian. Not only was the Christian endangered through Roman persecution but also Jewish persecution. The Christian became a threat to Roman authority because they believed Jesus to the their King and and outcast of Judaism because the majority of Jews didn’t accept Jesus as Messiah. To believe in this new doctrine was treason and heresy.
Today in American we can’t even imagine what it must have been like to live in fear of your life constantly – to live like a criminal on the run. Many thousands of Christians were persecuted and martyred for their belief in Jesus the Christ as the only Lord and Savior of mankind.
Although in America today it seems as though many of our religious freedoms are being stripped away, although we still have the right to assemble in Jesus name. We have not yet suffered unto death. However it is becoming more and more difficult to speak of the truths of the God’s word if they are in conflict with government policy and law. Our governments are passing law that flies in the face of Christian principles in the name of tolerance and acceptance in order not to discriminate against any group of people with there particular set of beliefs, regardless if they are contrary to the doctrines taught in the Word of God on which our nation was established. Yet, the Christian in American has not suffered the tragedy of the early Christian.
I believe Christians today can learn the true value of a personal relationship with God from the early Christians. These truths and values learned from and taught by Jesus and the apostles were then and are now worth dying for. To deny Christ is to forfeit life eternal. To compromise our faith is to agree with and submit to the ruler of this world Satan. We must learn from the early Christians who thought Christ was worth their life and even the lives of their own families, that risking life and persecution here is to gain a life of peace, healing, prosperity, security, rest, joy everlasting with God and our Savior Jesus.
Christians today can learn the importance of the New Testament. The Apostles ultimately were martyred for trying to advance and teach the gospel of Jesus Christ. I’m afraid today we take these Holy Scriptures for granted.
As we know through out history the Christian church grew and spread even further due to persecution. I can’t help but feel it’s coming again and maybe this will be part of the last day out pouring spoken about by the prophet Joel.
