Church Persecution: From 64 AD until Now
“If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.
For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's
will save it."
-Mark 8:34-35 (ESV)
Why are there four Gospel's? Why is the Book of Mark so different from the others?
Historical Context:
Traditional belief holds that the Book of Mark was written by a man name John Mark, who was a follower of Christ, cousin of Barnabas (Col 4:10), beloved by the Apostle Peter as son (1 Peter 5:13), and had accompanied Paul on his first missionary journey (Acts 12:12; 13:5).
Who was this letter to? The Christian Church in Rome.
When? Guesstimated between 64-69 AD
(Please notice the bold lettering of 'If' used throughout my blog. I do not claim this as absolute correct. Mark is one of the books of which author and time written is speculation and theory based on scripture from other books and external evidence. I do not believe that any of the theories I have heard changes the influence of the mind set. I do encourage you to research this for yourself. Regardless of the outcome, I do not believe it changes the message behind the book. Only the timing it was written. Possibly the audience, but so far, none of the scholars argue against it being the Roman church. -that I know of.
Besides this theory, the other one still supports John Mark as the author due to external evidence. However, one theory is that John Mark was only recording the teachings of the Apostle Peter. He did not record chronological order. He was not one of Jesus' original disciples. The other theory is that the young man in Mark 14:51-52 was John Mark's humble way of including himself without recording his name. This theory indicates that John Mark was one of Jesus' followers, and all the things he writes about in his book were his own personal experiences.
Regardless of these different opinions, most scholars do agree that it was written by request of the Roman church while they were enduring persecution. What persecution they were enduring can only ever be speculation. We can only be certain that all the Gospel's were written before 70 AD because it is unlikely that they would not have mentioned the Fall of Jerusalem to Rome. Especially since every one of them records Jesus prophesying about it.)
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It means that the Book of Mark is one of the most heart-wrenching books in the New Testament that I have read thus far. The author wasn't interested in chronological order. His main focus wasn't on the 'teachings' of Jesus, but rather on the 'life' of a very human Jesus. His emphasis was on the feelings of Jesus, and the sufferings he endured.
Why would John Mark focus on this?
Do you know your Roman history? I've always had a fascination with Rome! I grew up loving movies that involved Rome, and in reference to this subject, a classic movie from 1951 named "Quo Vadis." It's not really historically accurate, but the story itself has always moved me to tears. It is about the first 'real' persecution of the Christian church. The insane Emperor, Nero, who is believed to have been responsible for the burning of Rome in 64 AD., in order to save his own life when the accusations rose, blamed it on the Christian's. Hence, Christian's were found and gathered into the Roman Amphitheater where Nero had them either fed to lion's or burned alive.
There is no record of how many innocent lives were destroyed during that time. This is also the time when it is traditionally believed that both the Apostle's Peter and Paul were martyred. If the theory that this was written sometime during or after 64 AD is true, then the Book of Mark was written to a people suffering extreme persecution in Rome for the sake of Christ.
Now ask yourself, if you were a member of the Christian church during this time, having to hide away like a criminal only because you proclaimed Christ as your Lord and Savior, watching many people that you knew and loved being taken away for crimes they did not commit and dying horrendous deaths, -how would you be feeling? Would you be angry at the injustice? Angry at God? Would you wonder if He had abandoned you? Would you be wondering if He even understood what you were going through? Did He even care?
Personal Application (as close as I am able to come having never been persecuted):
I had to go to the Hospital some months back. They discovered I had a severely advanced case of pneumonia caused by infection and had to perform surgery to drain the fluid and cut out the infection. But during the first few days following the surgery I had honestly thought that God was punishing me for something I had done a few years ago. I knew it was a lie, but I still thought it.
That's what we, humans, do whenever we are suffering. Be it a physical illness, the death of a loved one, the betrayal of a friend, the politics of our countries, or persecution, we start struggling in our thoughts and our faith. We cry out to God, "Why? Why is this happening? What did I do to deserve this? Why are you being so cruel! I thought you were a loving God! You have betrayed me! Why??!"
Even after all the months I have spent intensely studying the Word of God, it's context, historical background, authors and audience, broken down each book's purpose and message, and cried my eyes out at the many trials and revelations I have received -I still had that thought when I was in the hospital. So if I, being raised in church and hearing God's Word for over 30yrs, now with all this Biblical foundation under me, developing a deeper and more intimate relationship with my Lord, can still have such a thought in my mind merely because I was recovering from surgery -how much more it must have been for the church in Rome during that time!
(How much more for a soldier who was injured on the battlefield, or saw a comrade killed right in front of them! How much more for a parent who watched their child die because of disease or accident! How much more for anyone unjustly imprisoned and beaten for preaching the Gospel! How much more for families of reporters who were captured, tortured, and murdered simply to be made an example of! How much more for anyone who has suffered amputation!)
So now, I want to ask you to do a little more research of your own. I recommend the movie if you don't mind the historical inaccuracy (as well as some theological). But if it can help pull you into the story of Rome and the persecution of the Christian's, then it's a good introduction. There are also numerous documentaries on Youtube and perhaps Netflix. Not to mention online encyclopedias and such. Look it up. Read up on what happened.
And then, go back to the top of this blog and reread that scripture. And ask yourself what those words, and the entire Book of Mark, would mean to you if you were living in persecution. (Or even if you are just going through a difficult time in your faith.) And also, what does it mean today to all those who belong to the underground church in persecuted countries. What does being able to have a Bible at all mean to them?
A poll was taken in 2013, with the guesstimate that revealing that at least one million Christian's were killed for their faith between 2000 and 2010. Many news investigators argue this as inaccurate, but I don't believe it is. -Especially hearing all the stories from other missionaries about their experiences and what is happening with the undergrounds. It may be hard for most people to accept the averaged out '100,000 Christian's are killed every year for their faith,' I don't know if this number 100% accurate, but from what I've been learning, it's not really far-fetched.
One thing we do know for certain. No matter how many Christian's have been persecuted since before 64 AD, our number has not dwindled. If anything, history has showed that every time the church is persecuted it multiplies. ...And our Lord and Savior is with us through it all.
Duet 31:6; Heb 13:5
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