Random Thought on Church History

I've been doing some reading/study on Church History in the past few days, and, I must say, it has been interesting.

Over the next few days, I will present some of my random thoughts as I study this topic. They will be presented in no particular order.

A disclaimer: I'm a doctor of medicine, not a theologian nor a historian. The views presented here have a high chance of being incorrect. And pardon my poor prose; it has been a very long time since I last wrote something other than medical records and shopping lists.

Random Thought #1: Persecutions
"The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church; the Church has thrived on persecutions." - Tertullian (AD 116-225).

For the first nearly 300 years of Christianity, its followers were routinely persecuted and killed, its Scriptures and other writings sought out and burnt. How did it then thrive to become the widespread religion that it is today?

When we think of persecutions of Christians today, as it applies to us in the Western world, we think of somebody making fun of our faith. Not so for the early Christians: those persecutions were not mild. Roman citizens faced execution by sword, but non-Roman citizens (which was most of the Roman empire) were killed by various and rather creative means - fed to wild beasts in the gladiatorial arenas, seared with hot irons, crucifixion, as well as other forms of public torture. Christians who were not being tortured were forced to watch the proceedings of others. Knowing that the Christians believe in resurrection of the body, the Romans burnt the bodies of the martyrs and scattered the ashes into the rivers. No Christian that was caught was spared - irrespective of sex, status, wealth, or age. Polycarp was 86 when he was burnt alive; Agnes was 12 or 13.

Jesus said in Matthew 16:18 that He will build the Church on Peter the "rock" - and 'the gates of hell shall not overcome'. Certainly some of the executions the Romans thought up were quite hellish. There can be no doubt that something divine was moving amongst the believers in those first 300 years, and has continued to move in the church as Christians faced persecutions in Asia and Africa in later centuries, and even now as Christians are facing the unspeakable in the Middle East. It is heartening to know that, in this period of crashing economies and whole nations facing bankruptcy, there is one institution that will never fall.