From the very beginning, the Church has been under attack. The children of God have never been accepted by the world because the Church is not a part of the world. From the time of the first Church, Peter, James, Paul, and more all were in agreement that they were in the last days. Historian John Foxe recorded the persecution of the early Church in his book Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. Join Reverend Kenny Yates as he sets the stage to the beginning of the persecution of the Church in this first video of Church Under Attack.
John 11:45–53
Matthew 12:13–14
Acts 7:51–53
Acts 7:54
Acts 7:55–58
Romans 5:3-5
Revelation 17:10
John 15:18–25
The Beginning of Persecution
Persecution of the Early Church
The Jews
13 Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. 14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” 15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed Him. 16 And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because He was doing these things on the Sabbath. 17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” 18 This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but He was even calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.
John 5:13-18
Nero
Nero even refined upon cruelty, and contrived all manner of punishments for the Christians that the most infernal imagination could design. In particular, he had some sewed up in skins of wild beasts, and then worried by dogs until they expired; and others dressed in shirts made stiff with wax, fixed to axletrees, and set on fire in his gardens, in order to illuminate them. This persecution was general throughout the whole Roman Empire; but it rather increased than diminished the spirit of Christianity. In the course of it, St. Paul and St. Peter were martyred.
Foxe’s Book of Martyrs
Domitian
The emperor Domitian, who was naturally inclined to cruelty, first slew his brother, and then raised the second persecution against the Christians. In his rage he put to death some of the Roman senators, some through malice; and others to confiscate their estates. He then commanded all the lineage of David be put to death. Another hardship was, that, when any Christians were brought before the magistrates, a test oath was proposed, when, if they refused to take it, death was pronounced against them; and if they confessed themselves Christians, the sentence was the same.
Foxe’s Book of Martyrs
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