Resources/Articles
Seeing Yourself 2,000 Years Ago
What would you give to read secular history from the time of the early Christians? Plinius Secundus, sometimes known as Pliny the Younger, was the governor oof Bithynia in Asia Minor, and was written in AD 1112. It was in a letter to the Roman Emperor Trajan, and while it might have meant little to the Emperor at the time, it means a great deal to those of us 2,000 years later who truly love Jesus Christ and want to be genuine Christians.
According to William Harris, professor emeritus of Middlebury College, Pliny was “asking for procedures in dealing with the large number of Christians who were being brought before him daily on charges of refusing to do military service, refusing the due obeisance to the Emperor’s Statue (about the equivalent of refusing to salute the American flag or refusing to sign a Loyalty Oath in the 1950s), and having a strange new and secret religion, which, although harmless, seemed dangerous to the established Roman way of life” (This is a reference to the Christian Problem in the Roman world.)
“In the meantime, the method I have observed towards those who have been denounced to me as Christians is this: I interrogated them whether they were in fact Christians; if they confessed it, I repeated the question twice, adding the threat of capital punishment; if they still persevered, I ordered them to be executed…They affirmed, however, that the whole of their guilt, or of their error, was that they were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to a god, and bound themselves by a solemn oath, not to perform any wicked deed, never to commit any fraud, theft, or adultery, never to falsify their word, nor deny a trust when they should be called upon to make it good; after which it was their custom to separate, and then reassemble to partake of food — but food of an ordinary and innocent kind.”
What can we draw from this little glimpse into the early days of our people (Christians)?
- Early Christians often faced terrible persecution to believe and teach exactly what we believe and teach today. Many heard the orders for their execution, yet didn’t betray the Lord Jesus. They believed in Jesus Christ and his saving power enough to die for him.
- Early Christians met for worship regularly, and they sang.
- Early Christians taught and held to a code of morality — honesty, integrity, and faithfulness to their husbands and wives.
- Early Christians were together other than for worship.
What Pliny observed isn’t all there is in being a Christian, but his writing makes me happy to think that we are not so different from those Christians, and that the same New Testament they studied is what we study now. If our goal is to be what they were — simple Christians, pleasing to our Savior — then we will succeed by studying and obeying the New Testament of the Lord who said, “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11.28-30).
