is this true?

Question

My Sunday school teacher told me that when christianity first started, the Pagans would kill and torture the Christians. Is that true?

Answer 1

your teacher isn't going to lie to you!

Answer 2

The Romans (really the only Pagans that Christians dealt with for a looong time) tortured and killed anyone and everyone they could get their grubby paws on. Even Roman citizens were subject to becoming slaves w/ few rights. However they didn't do it just because of the religion. It was also because they thought early Christians were nuts! Early sects made war on one another, claiming themselves the true sects and all other heretical. Combining these acts with the stories of peace and charity that early Christians held in such high regard made them look crazy to the Pagans. Also, in Rome worship of their Gods went hand in hand with the daily life of a perceived good citizen. Refusing to even pay lip service to Roman Gods (which Christians would not do) was viewed as a kind of anarchy not to be tolerated.

Answer 3

It was the Romans as a result of Pagans.

Rome ruled almost everything at the start of Christianity. Religion was a major source of economic income for most of the cities.

In most cities, people would sacrifice bulls, goats, etc. to the gods. From these sacrifices, the priests would sell them in the streets for food, so a huge economy was established around the sacrificial religious movements.

When Christians came however, they refused to "eat things sacrificed to the gods," thus they became a threat to economic stability in many cities.

As a result, they were killed or tortured for not sacrificing or buying things which were sacrificed to other gods. If they did offer sacrifice, they would be spared.

Thus, it wasn't really the "pagan" aspect that was killing them, but rather the economic factor of the communities in which they lived.

By the way, Jews had the same problems.

Answer 4

There were a lot of religions practiced in Rome, including those of Persia and Egypt, but they didn't tolerate any threat to their power. The reason they killed Jesus in the first place was because they thought he was going to be the focal point of a rebellion. They had a test of loyalty to the emperor, a person had to make a sacrifice to the personal god (called a "genius") of the Emperor. Christians wouldn't do this.

What made matters worse was the murder of a teacher of the library of Alexandria by a mob of Christians. Her name was Hypatia. Rome outlawed Christianity, and Christians were tortured and killed. It got worse as the emperors became more and more powerful.

Answer 5

In reality it happened on both sides. Pagans didn't understand Christians, they thought communion was cannabalism(eating the blood and body of Christ), they thought orgies happened at Christian meetings. And since Christians at that time were so secretive, no one knew otherwise. Christians did their fair share whenever they gained some sort of power in one region. Then, they became the majority(through war, bloodshed, rape, brainwashing, and political ties), and then all they had no one left to torture but themselves- and the Muslims and Jews. Your teacher needs to accept ALL history, not just the parts she likes. Ask her why the Crusades, the Burning Times, Salem Witch Trials and other events happened if Christians were 100% innocent of everything.

Answer 6

Yes until the 330s AD. 'Persecuted' is the often used word.

Then as Eiliat says, in the Middle Ages, when Christianity was prevalent, pagans in turn were tortured and killed for their beliefs.

Amazing what people will do in the name of belief.
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Answer 7

Yes, but you should ask your teacher about the Crusades and the Inquisition. Then you'll find out about how the Christians eagerly went to the Holy Land to kill followers of Islam, and in the Inqiusition the Christians went looking for Jews to kill. See if your Sunday School teacher knows about any of that history!

It's not all as simple as she may be leading you to believe!

Answer 8

It is quite possible, Christians did go through a lot of torture and persecution over the years. Then there were also times when the opposite was true, that certain leaders would execute any non believer, then there was the crusades.

Generally everyone has gotten picked on and have picked on others in history.

Answer 9

She's right, and you don't need to go much further than the first few chapters of the book of Acts for proof. There were also references in secular history to how Christians were even murdered for their faith--Tacitus, Pliny the Elder, and others.

This was still going on--persecution of Christians, that is--until Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire, about 312 AD or so. But the true believers still had to endure persecution from others for many years. Examples: Christians living in areas where barbarians (Goths, Franks, Huns, Vandals, etc.) attacked; North Africa after the Muslim takeovers in the late 600's; believers living behind the Iron Curtain before the fall in 1989 or so, and many others besides.

If you can find a copy, a couple of books will give you a lot more detail: Foxe's Book of Martyrs, stopping at the mid-1500's to early 1600's, as I recall; either of a two-volume set of New Testaments from DC Talk, "Jesus Freak" New Testaments or something like that (I gave away my only copy a few years ago, and haven't seen it since. Bummer!) and The New Encyclopedia of Christian Martyrs (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2001). You and your teacher will get another perspective about what it means to be faithful unto death. I hope it doesn't come to that but we need to be ready.

God bless you and your teacher for wanting to check this out. A word of caution: you will find on this forum several people who want to put down your faith or try to make you feel bad about asking questions like this. Don't let them. There are many of us who believe in Jesus who will be glad to answer your questions.

Answer 10

It's possible but highly unlikely. If you look at the different cultures and religions/faiths that existed before Christianity and what history we have about them, they didn't fight over religion. As people migrated they took their beliefs with them but they also adopted some of the beliefs present in their new homes. The travelers weren't killed in their new homes because they didn't believe the same. They might have been because they were "invading" someone else's home.

Answer 11

The Romans saw them as a threat because the early church questioned Roman authority. So Rome persecuted them. But seriously, Rome persecuted every group that didn't readily submit to them. So it wasn't really a religious thing. Rome was actually usually very open about others religions.