Finishing Chapter 3 & Starting Chapter 4

1. Finishing Chapter 3 & Starting Chapter 4 Despite the final break with Judaism, we need to keep in mind our Jewish heritage: monotheism, the 10 Commandments, the Messiah, etc. Faith difference should not stand in the way of human trust and fellowship History is too full of the consequences of Christians failing to remember that heritage

2. Vatican Council II: “The Church of Christ acknowledges that in God’s plan of salvation the beginning of her faith and election is to be found in the patriarchs, Moses and the prophets…. Nor can she forget that she draws nourishment from that good olive tree [Judaism] onto which the wild olive branches of the Gentiles have been grafted.” If you have not yet done so, finish reading/studying all of Chapter 3 tonight before class tomorrow

3. Chapter 4Gold Tested in Fire: Courageous Faith& Clear Doctrine Major Concepts • Courageous Faith Amid the Fires of Persecution • Constantine’s Conversion • Clarity of Doctrine Amid the Fires of Heresy

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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 increaed 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.

11. Christians who had renounced their faith, 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 • We resume here tomorrow!!!