October 1, 2025

The early church was persecuted by the Judaizers in Jerusalem (Acts 8:1), so the believers scattered to Judea and Samaria like Jesus told them to before he ascended (Acts 1:8). Eventually, churches were established in those regions and then began to spread to other parts of the Roman Empire. The rest of the book of Acts and the rest of the NT describe the early church seeking to be faithful amidst challenges from within and persecution from without.

There were often pockets of Jews in the urban centers of the Roman Empire and many of them had synagogues. Jewish believers would go to these synagogues and begin showing from the OT scriptures how Christ was the promised Messiah and would preach the gospel. As some Jews came to faith in Christ, this was controversial. As these Jews would now leave the synagogue and form a church, this was controversial. As Gentiles came to faith in Christ and joined a church with the Jews, this was VERY controversial. Half-truths, hot-heads, and ignorance made for a good deal of violence and threats which caused the Roman government to get involved. From their perspective, Christianity was controversial and with the rise of Emperor worship, it ended up being banned.

The persecution from the Jews began to fade with the fall of the Jewish state (A.D. 70) but the persecution from the Roman government slowly began to increase. Finally in 313 AD, the emperor Constantine issued the Edict of Milan which gave Christianity legal status. It was no longer a crime against the state to be a Christian. The persecution faded. No more Christians were being fed to the lions in the Colosseum. It was a major win for the early church. 12 years later, (325 AD) Constantine called for a council to gather in Nicaea in order to define the true beliefs of Christianity. The Nicene Creed came from this and has been a wonderful gift to the church. Around 8 years after that, Constantine himself was baptized into the Christian religion. He was about 65 and died a short while later.

In 380 AD, the Emperor Theodosius I declared Christianity to be the official religion of Rome. This meant that if you were a Roman citizen, you now had to be a Christian. All other religions were banned. The sword of the state now enforced the beliefs of the church. This was disastrous for the church and the gospel. For one, Christianity cannot be advanced by the sword, nor defended by it, because genuine Christianity starts with belief in the heart. Genuine belief cannot be coerced. This was part of the reason why infant baptism became a thing. It was never practiced by the early church because it did not exist. However, now to be born into the Roman empire meant that you were a Roman citizen (and now) a “Christian.” Do you see what happened? Infant baptism was the merging of the church and the state into recognizing the status of the child as a citizen of the state and a “member of Christ’s church.” The declaration of Christianity as being the official religion of Rome also gave massive political power, influence and status to the church.

What happens when you consolidate ultimate power into the hands of one or a few? History is replete with the awful results. Now instead of being persecuted, the church can do the persecuting. Instead of preaching the gospel and pursuing the genuine conversion of the lost, the church has become power hungry. It is advancing its influence by rewarding eternal life and forgiveness to generous benefactors and promising blessings and titles to politicians who will do their bidding. Just as power was consolidated into the hands of the emperor, the power of the church became consolidated into the hands of one man, the pope. It is not coincidental that the office of the pope became the ultimate power as the Bishop of Rome became the one ring to rule them all. But now, the church had both the “power of eternal life” to grant or withdraw and the sword of the state to enforce its influence.

Today we are hearing more and more about the rise of Christian Nationalism. Christian Nationalism is a movement that wants to make Christianity the official religion of our country. I completely reject this. Christian Nationalism will be disastrous for the gospel. History tells us this. Besides, Christian Nationalism fails to understand the mission of the church and how the gospel is actually advanced. Social change happens when genuine believers live out their faith consistently. But social change is not the goal. Our goal is to honor God whether or not there is social change. History has shown repeatedly that when social change becomes emphasized, then the gospel is lost as I will explain next week.

Should believers be involved in politics? Yes. Should believers seek to be faithful citizens of their country and live and vote in manners that are faithful to our beliefs? Yes. But it is not the mission of the church to make the country Christian. The mission of the church is to glorify God by helping believers become more like Christ through Worship, Instruction, Fellowship and Evangelism (missions and church-planting). We know Satan’s devices. He wants for us to be distracted by other things and will use other things, even good things, to keep us from the most important. Do not let good things distract you from ultimate things.

Grace and peace,

Bob

Sunday’s Text: Luke 14:25-35

A couple of years ago I did a lengthy talk on Christian Nationalism. You can listen to it here.