Is it really true that for roughly 300 years after the crucifixion of the Christ, those who strove to follow Him, those who the people of Antioch first called christians, were persecuted for simply longing to walk His Way? Was not Saul one of the persecutors before he experienced his Why? moment? Discounting Judas, was John the Beloved really the only disciple of the original 12 to die of natural causes (somewhere around the age of 104, I believe)? Were the other 10 all executed in some fashion for refusing to denounce their Lord? When faced with crucifixion himself, did Peter really insist, since he believed he was not worthy to die in the same matter as Yahshua, that he be crucified upside-down instead? And did they really kill him in the way he required? Is it really true that Constantine had a night dream/vision in which the Christ promised him victory over Maxentius the next day in the Battle of the Milvian Bridge if all his warriors tagged themselves with the Cross? And that from that victory Constantine went forward and declared Christianity to be the official religion of the Roman Empire? Is it really true that for the first 300 years after the Christ was crucified, Rome sought to kill those who were identified as christian, and that after Rome declared Christianity its official religion it sanctioned the killing of any one who refused to convert to it? One day killing christians, and then virtually the next day killing those who refused to be called Christian... ...how, exactly, does that actually work if evil isn’t involved? So, I’m just askin’: Is it really true? |