Faith Triumphs Over Persecution

[joanne_h]

This is a GREAT article that I want you to read. It is titled Faith Triumphs Over Persecution and it over on the New American website in its entirety.Here's part to whet your appetite...Every Christmas, Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, an event recorded in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Jesus was born in a stable, the Gospel writers tell us, because there was no room in the inn, and He later suffered the ignominious death of being crucified between two thieves. During the 33 years in-between, He never possessed wealth, at least not in the material sense. He never commanded armies or ruled over countries. His kingdom, He said, was not of this world. He never even wrote a book.Yet 20 centuries later, not only have countless books been written about Him, but even the years on our calendar are numbered according to when He was born. "One Solitary Life," an essay adapted from a sermon by Dr. James Allan Francis, captures well the influence Jesus has had on world history: "I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that were ever built; all the parliaments that ever sat and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life."...The most brutal suffering of Christians in the Roman Empire ended in 311, when the emperor Galerius, possibly as an act of remorse for having previously persecuted Christians, issued a deathbed edict of toleration for the followers of Christ. Two years later, Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity and issued his Edict of Milan, which provided for the full restoration of Christians' citizenship rights. Constantine's conversion had been inspired by a vision of Christ that included the "Chi Rho" symbol (the first two letters of the word "Christ" written in Greek that appear to be the letter X superimposed over a P), which was revealed to him with the promise "In Hoc Signo Vinces" ("In this sign, [you shall] conquer.") After Constantine's subsequent victory in the battle of Milvian Bridge, he became a strong supporter of the Christian church.Instead of destroying the Christian faith, more than two centuries of persecution by the Romans had resulted in the conversion of the empire. As the early Christian writer Tertullian proclaimed, "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church." How could any historian credibly argue otherwise? Though Christians were fed to the lions, it was not Christianity that met its demise but, eventually, the mighty Roman Empire. This turn of events was all the more remarkable considering that the Roman Empire was the greatest power on Earth, and Christianity was, and is, a religion of love and not of the sword.