The Original Church…An Unsteady Beginning

The Original Church was not a collection of buildings. The Original Church was not a centralized body of men seeking worldly power. The Original Church was a collection of individuals, male and female, who were willing to bear testimony about Jesus of Nazareth, the one they considered the Messiah, the Chosen One. They were driven by a passion to share what is known as the “good news” or the “gospel”. This series of articles will focus on the first 300 years of the Original Church, because that is when the church grew, not by mandate, but by a desire for the truth.

The Original Church had a very unsteady beginning.

“And when they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him, and the witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul.  And they went on stoning Stephen as he called upon the Lord and said, “Lord Jesus receive my spirit!” and falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!”  And having said this, he fell asleep”. 

Those words found in the Book of Acts 7:58-60 tell of the first recorded martyrdom of a follower of Jesus.  Within the next 30 years of the original Apostles, all but John (the beloved disciple), and Judas (who hung himself) died martyrs preaching the Gospel.  They would not be the last to die, nor would their deaths be in vain.

From that humble and tragic start fifty days after the resurrection of Jesus, the teachings spread from the city of Jerusalem to Damascus in Syria, to Antioch, to Ephesus, to every corner of the empire, even the capital Rome.  It would spread from a small, Jewish sect called ‘The Word’ to a powerful movement and the seeds planted would grow into the most dominant religion in the world. 

One unlikely person would arise and play a key role in the spreading of the faith, Saul.

Saul, he who was an eager witness to Stephen’s death actively hunted and persecuted all followers of Jesus that he could find.  While on a trip to capture and jail members of the sect in Damascus, he had an unexpected encounter with the Resurrected Jesus.  That moment changed him so greatly that he became the driving force moving the teachings of Jesus and the importance of the Resurrection out of the synagogues only to the Greeks and other ‘pagans’.

He spread the message person to person, house by house, family by family, synagogue by synagogue, and town by town, providing a message of love and a new way of living.  Through his efforts, the sect left the narrow confines of Judaism and found a home among Greeks, Romans, and Arabs; it found a home among the wealthy and slaves, among men and women.

It did this even in the face of persecutions

The church grew in spite of losing its early leaders to martyrdom.

The first of the leaders of the organized group to fall was James the brother of Jesus, the leader of the church in Jerusalem, martyred in AD 62. According to early Church historian Eusebius, Hegesippus who lived immediately after the apostles, in his fifth book of memoirs wrote the most accurate account of James’ martyrdom.  “ The aforesaid Scribes and Pharisees therefore placed James upon the pinnacle of the temple and cried out to him and said: ‘Thou just one, in whom we ought all to have confidence, forasmuch as the people are led astray after Jesus, the crucified one, declare to us, what is the gate of Jesus.’  And he answered with a loud voice, ‘Why do ye ask me concerning Jesus, the Son of Man? He himself sitteth in heaven at the right hand of the great Power and is about to come upon the clouds of heaven.’….

 So they went up and threw down the just man, and said to each other, ‘Let us stone James the Just.’ And they began to stone him, for he was not killed by the fall; but he turned and knelt down and said, ‘I entreat thee, Lord God our father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.’…

 And one of them, who was a fuller, took the club with which he beat out clothes and struck the just man on the head. And thus he suffered martyrdom.”

‘James the Just’ was not the only leader of the church to be martyred. In the summer of 64 AD, during the reign of the Emperor Nero, the city of Rome burned.  According to the Roman historian, Tacitus this event spurred the first mass persecution of the followers of Christ. 

“But all human efforts, all the lavish gifts of the emperor, and the propitiations of the gods, did not banish the sinister belief that the conflagration was the result of an order. Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called “Chrestians” by the populace.

Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilate, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their center and become popular.

Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty; then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, as of hatred against mankind. Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burnt, to serve as a nightly illumination, when daylight had expired.”

Tradition holds that it was during this persecution that the crucifixion of the Apostle Peter took place.  Tradition also holds that Peter insisted on being crucified upside down since he felt he was not worthy of being crucified in the same manner as Jesus.

Peter would not be the last of the leaders to die in Rome.

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