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TENSE MOMENTS IN CHURCH/STATE RELATIONS (Number 7)
Divine Love confronts Human Power 1. The early Christians moved out into the world offering the love of God to every person without distinction or qualification. Some established groups resented these people of the Way of Love, and Roman magistrates sent back worrying reports of the resulting civil troubles. 2. Roman emperors wanted unity and loyalty in a kingdom stretching from Britain to Persia. Using the mystique of power they developed the cult of emeror worship through an oath of loyalty which addressed the emperor as a god. Christians, having no country base, could prove their loyalty by taking that oath, but would not. 3. In Carthage, North Africa, year 203, Vibia Perpetua, aged 22, of a noble family, well educated, married with a young baby, admitted when charged, that she was a Christian, a member of the Family of God. She, her two servants and other young people heard the sentence. They were to die being torn apart by wild beasts in the arena. 4. Vibia kept a diary (see With Love to the World Vol. 10 Number 10 Pages 63/4. Rev. Dr. W. Emilson) and records her family’s distress, her fears, and the visions by which she tried to deal with them. When ordered, these young people stepped firmly into the arena, remembering the God of Love, who, in Jesus, had died as a victim of the cruelty of the human race. 5. Why is big government so inclined to act with secrecy? Why intimidate and create a sense of fear if it is not to ensure compliance? Is the argument that it is for your own protection valid? We could ask many more questions.... END OF SERIES You might like to comment on any of the seven Numbers of Tense Moments series. Now we invite you to watch for a series on each Sunday’s Bible readings, commencing soon. Rev. Graydon Swain
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The last of the series.
Our thanks to the Rev Graydon Swain for his contribution.
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