A.D. 64 to 68--Persecution under Nero.
95 to 96--Persecution under Domitian. Banishment of John.
96 to 104--Time of peace.
104 to 117--Persecution under Trajan. Martyrdom of Ignatius.
117 to 161--Time of peace. Apologies of Aristides,
Quadratus and Justin Martyr were written.
161 to 180--Persecution under Marcus Aurelius. Martyrdom
of Polycarp and the martyrs of
Lyons.
164--Justin Martyr was put to death.
Statistics concerning the sufferings of the first Christians show that
they were in great earnest. Eternity alone will reveal the true number
of the martyrs. They all suffered and died just as we would expect, in
case they knew the facts of our religion. Twenty-two books of the New
Testament were written before the martyrdom of the Apostles Paul and
Peter. Infidels often boast, in their ignorance, that the books of the
gospels were not written by those whose names they bear.
If Matthew, Mark, Luke and John did not write those books which bear
their names, then are they false in fact? and if so, what did the
authors die for? The sufferings of primitive Christians were great; the
persecutions which they endured were outrageous, cruel and inhuman in
their character. Such is the universal verdict of ancient history. Of
the persecution under Nero, Tacitus, a celebrated Roman historian, who
was born in the year 56, just twenty-three years after Pentecost,
writes, that Nero "laid upon the Christians the charge of that terrible
conflagration at Rome of which he himself was the cause." He says, "A
vast multitude were apprehended. And many were disguised in the skins of
wild beasts and worried to death by dogs, some were crucified, and
others were wrapped in pitched shirts and set on fire when the day
closed, that they might serve as lights to illuminate the night. Nero
lent his own garden for these executions, and celebrated at the same
time a public entertainment in the circus, being a spectator of the
whole in the dress of a charioteer, sometimes mingling with the crowd on
foot, and sometimes viewing the spectacle from his car." (Annals of
Tacitus, 15: 44.)
Juvenal, the coarse and bitter satirist of the same time, writes of the
martyred Christians as "those who stand burning in their own flame and
smoke, their head being held up by a stake fixed to their chin, till
they make a long stream of blood and sulphur on the ground." (Juv. Sat.,
1: 155.)
Seneca also refers to their fearful sufferings: "Imagine here a prison,
crosses and racks and the hook, and a stake thrust through the body and
coming out at the mouth, and the limbs torn by chariots pulling adverse
ways, and the coat besmeared and interwoven with inflammable materials,
nutriment for fire, and whatever else beside _these_ cruelty has
invented." (Seneca's Epistles, 14.)
One of Diocletian's coins commemorates the blotting out of the very name
of Christian: "Nomine Christianorum deleto." But the age of martyrdoms
ended with the accession of Constantine to the Roman empire, and to-day
there are more Christians in the world than ever before. Skeptic, take
one long look at the unbelieving, bloody, persecuting hosts, and choose
your future associates.
Strauss says: "No man knows who wrote the Gospels." Can he mean that
they are anonymous books? Does he mean that they are not
biographies--books containing, in their historic matter, an account of
the authors _themselves_? Who does not know that those books are and
have been called the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John? And who
has, in all the past centuries, produced evidence showing that those are
the wrong names. No one. Insane men might say such a thing. Infidels
don't like to say that; they just say you can't prove your religion, nor
show that Matthew, Mark, Luke and John wrote those books. Will any
sensible man affirm that they are the wrong names? How do we judge and
believe respecting the authorship of other ancient books? Why do we
believe that Caesar wrote the Commentaries on the Gallic War? And why do
we believe that Virgil wrote the AEneid? No sane man ever doubted the
authorship of those writings. Preoccupancy during the ages past is
considered by infidels themselves a sufficient ground for belief. The
fact that those books exist has certainly been known from the age of the
apostles to the present time, for men quoted extensively from them in
the second century. The names they bear were in the possessive case
then, and it is but fair to consider them the true owners.
Why are skeptics and infidels so partial among ancient books? They doubt
the authorship of no ancient books unless they are written in favor of
the religion of Christ. Will some wise one tell us why this strange
inconsistency? O, it is an evidence of a wicked heart--that's all!
all!!--ALL THERE IS OF IT!!!
Here are the dates of the books of the New Testaments, along with
contemporary landmarks:
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| |
BOOKS. | AFTER | CONTEMPORARY LANDMARKS.
| PENTECOST. |
-------------+------------+----------------------------------------------
1 Peter | 16 | Claudius Caesar ruled from A.D. 41 to 54.
Galatians | 18 |
1 Thess | 19 | Romans settled in England between 41 and 54.
2 Thess | 20 |
1 Cor | 24 | Nero ruled from 54 to 68.
2 Cor | 25 |
1 Timothy | 25 | Paul and Peter were martyred at Rome in or
Romans | 25 | about the year 63; 30 years after Pentecost.
James | 28 |
Matthew | 28 | Persecution continues under Nero until the
Mark | 28 | year 68. The satirist Juvenal, who lived
Philemon | 29 | under Nero, and his brother satirist Martial,
Collosians | 29 | both allude to the burnings of the Christians
Ephesians | 29 | in pitched shirts.
Philippians | 29 |
Luke | 30 | Suetoneus, writing of what took place under
Acts | 30 | Emperor Claudius, in 53, makes mention of
Hebrews | 30 | Christ.
2 Peter | 34 |
2 Timothy | 34 | Galba, Otho and Vitelleus rule from 68 to 69.
Titus, about | 34 |
Jude, about | 34 | Christians have peace from 68 to 95.
Epistles | |
of St. John | |
1, 2, 3 | 40 | Jerusalem was destroyed in the year 70.
Revelations | |
of Jesus | |
Christ | |
to John | 64 | Vespasian rules from 69 to 79.
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