Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus-- is not a name known to most of us today, but it is the name of a famous Roman emperor. We know this emperor by his adopted name which is Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus or just plain Nero Caesar.

Nero, an extremely evil and perverse man , initiated the first official Roman persecution of Christians. The Roman historian Suetonius (69-140 A.D.) writes of Nero’s many perversions and cruelties in his famous book The Lives of the Twelve Caesars. (Note: I highly recommend reading Suetonius)

Nero was blamed by the people of Rome for a great fire that raged for six days through the City of Rome, and destroyed most of the city. Nero needed a scapegoat for the disaster and he quickly found one in the Christians. He put out the word that it was they who had started the fire.

Roman vengeance on the Church was swift. Some Christians were sown in to animal skins and thrown to wild dogs which tore them to pieces. Christian Women were tied behind bulls and dragged to their deaths. Nero had other Christians covered with pitch and had them tied to poles in his garden. He then had them set on fire to light up the night. He invited the people of Rome to the garden to witness this event. Nero rode through his garden in a chariot as the Christians were burned at the stake.

As I study church history I am often awed by the courage of so many of those that came before us. I am also amazed at some of the things I here modern American Christians say. I was once told by a fellow Christian (who was from a Charismatic background) that if the Apostles Peter and Paul were executed by Nero (and of course they were) it must mean that they had lost faith, because bad things like that don't happen to Christians. How ridicules of a statement was that! -- This person knew nothing about Church history. As you can tell by her statement above, her understanding of what is taught in the Word of God was no better.

We Americans are blessed with abundance and are far better off materially than almost any other people in all of human history. We, you and me, live far better and more comfortably than have most kings in all of history. We need to be thankful that we have not been called to live in poverty, and suffer persecution and death for the faith, as have so many multitudes of our brothers and sisters in Christ that came before us.

I hope our blessings continue, and we are not called to endure what those Christians endured under Nero. We need to increase in faith, and be prepared anyway. We also need to study these things, so we can be truly thankful for the richness of our blessings.

Soli Deo Gloria,
Kenith