and persecution. I may take up this series again and talk on some other issues that overlap between early Christianity in and around Corinth and other Roman cities and Christianity today. But I really need to teach on the Westminster Confession of Faith because we have new members of the church and we really need to be establishing. or laying down the core doctrines that we believe. Plus, Dave pointed out that on YouTube, there is only one complete series of teaching through the Westminster Confession of Faith that he's found, which is by Jonathan Gerstner. Which, while it is excellent, is a little dated at this point in time. But, so, we'll be doing that and hopefully putting this stuff up on YouTube eventually. In the meantime, let's go ahead and pray. God, our gracious Father, we ask that you would help us to understand your word and to apply it in our own lives in this time. Help us to understand also that that which has been done before is that which will be done again. Lord, we understand that there truly is, as Solomon said, nothing new under the sun and that everything that we indulge in in this world is vanity, except for those things that have direct bearing on our life in Christ. I do pray, therefore, that you would help us to remember our Maker before the silver cord is loosened and the golden bowl is broken, as we are told to do. And I pray, Lord, that you would help me to point out the overlap between the life of your saints in the past and the life of your saints today. And may we learn from it. And we pray this in Jesus' holy name. Amen. All right. Well, there are Following the, now let me back up. For many years now on social media, Christianity, that is Orthodox Christianity, has been taking a battering, to put it mildly. And one particular article published recently said that if we go back to the 1990s, we can see three different phases of the world's approach to Christianity. The person who wrote the article said that the beginning phases were generally, in the 1990s, were generally favorable. Okay? Christianity wasn't a bad thing. Civil religion was still something that you saw and people didn't get very upset about. Incidentally, what do I mean by civil religion? Reagan, what's civil religion? and prayers and gatherings and things like that. Yeah. Manifestations of God stuff. Kind of the American good lord religion. God, guns, and guts made America great. That kind of thing that we saw in the 1990s. Then a transition began. in the 2000s, where holding to Christianity was something that was neutral, or people did not view it favorably any longer, but neither were they definitely opposed to it. And the author of the article, it's in First Things, incidentally, and I'm struggling even as I sit here to remember his name. But the third phase was actually negative, and that we've moved into the negative phase really since, I think he dated it about 2014, and I would absolutely agree with him. Many Christians, though, are not tracking with this. They don't realize. exactly how negatively Christianity is viewed within our society today, and they're still acting as though they're either in the neutral or the positive phase. Others are panicked. They have no idea how to respond. They feel like something has gone terribly wrong, that Christianity has somehow dramatically changed, and we're seeing all of these articles, ridiculous books and articles about how Christianity is becoming more and more fundamentalist, more and more conservative, what is actually going on is that the culture is moving away from Christianity and Christian ethics and ideals and beliefs at such a rate that Christians appear to be more and more crazy simply because they are moving away from those ideas so very, very quickly. Those of you who are Part of the Christian subculture will realize that Christianity is not actually becoming more conservative. Christianity is liberalizing across the board. Egalitarianism is the norm. We've seen that as we've gone through the Life in Clorinth series that many of the things that affected or were part of Roman culture in Corinth are now part of our own culture. We're seeing a huge push to normalize. In fact, in many churches, it's not even an issue any longer. Of course, women will have positions in office within the church structure. The idea that they wouldn't is simply crazy. And we're gradually getting to the point where sexual ethics are entirely disappearing as a topic within Christianity. In fact, If we declare these days we have so-called Christians who attack other Christians merely because they say that they're happy that infanticide was defederalized with the Roe versus Wade decision that you can no longer kill your children in the womb. by federal edict, now it's up to the states, and many Christians went ballistic about that, and the world, you know, sees that as a sign of the Christian theocracy and so on. We are so far from being a theocracy, as you well know that the idea is silly, but that's the way the world views it. Nonetheless, one of the things that is happening is many Christians are seeing this as odd, as bizarre, as something brand new in the Christian world, as though Christianity has always been kind of mealy-mouthed, and always generally acceptable, and the world always got along with it, and now there's these crazy radical Christians who come in who have made Christianity unacceptable. When in fact what has happened is that throughout time, the default position has always been, persecute the Christians. Now, what we're going to see as we look is the way in which, as we look at certain things, the way in which Christianity, Christian beliefs, and so on were despised and ridiculed within Roman culture, certainly within official Roman culture. and amongst the intelligentsia, and so on, and how they were viewed as the worst of all people. They were viewed as enemies of mankind by many Romans. But despite that, that the Christian faith flourished and spread, and that many obviously were embracing, even as Christianity was being demonized and persecuted, people were yet embracing it. And we see that happening in places where Christianity is openly persecuted. It's amazing when we consider that there are Christians in North Korea, that the Christian faith is still spreading there. There are Christians in China where it is heavily persecuted. There are even Christians in places like northern Iraq and so on. So no matter what the world does, no matter how the devil gnashes his teeth against Christianity, yet the faith doesn't die because the Lord has said that he will not allow it to do so. So we're going to be considering the way that the culture then treated Christianity and hoping to talk about some of the ways that we should react to that and also looking at some of the calls in the first century to faith and the core elements of Christianity and how that was borne out. For instance, not only in the Bible, which is, of course, our primary source in 1 Corinthians 15, but also in other Christian texts. Primarily, we're going to be looking at the last chapter of the Didache and seeing if we can learn anything from it. What is the Didache incidentally? Is it part of the Bible? No. When was it written? Anybody? It was written actually probably in the first century. They used to think it was written in the second century, but now they're dating it much earlier than that. So first century work. What was it? Anybody know? No, the Didache was actually a manual for catechumens, that is, Christians who were going to be presented for baptism. The scope of its teaching is mostly Christian ethics. It's been called a manual for Christian ethics or the Christian life. So its teaching is not heavily theological, although certain things are made very clear. We're talking about a first century Christian document. It talks about baptism. It talks about, for instance, how to honor the Sabbath, which is the Lord's Day, and it identifies that day as Sunday. So from the very beginning, we see that Christian churches were meeting on Sunday, not the Jewish Sabbath. But anyway, moving on to some other stuff. Let's see what the Romans thought about the Christians. Okay, this is an example of graffito, as it's sometimes called, which is graffiti mocking, historical graffiti mocking Christianity. This was carved into plaster in Rome. They're not sure when it could be dated to, but it goes back to somewhere between 150 and 200. Now, here you have a figure, a kind of a human figure with the head of a donkey, and then you have a man who's supposed to be a Christian, and it's Alexamenos worships his god. Alexamenos is worshiping who? Who are they caricaturing here? They're caricaturing Jesus, yeah. So, the Romans thought that the idea that they would worship a man as a god, as silly. And this is something also that we need to take to heart. Within Roman culture, the idea, and many, many people today have this idea, because they lived back then, that they were all hopelessly superstitious, and that everybody, for instance, if you told somebody, somebody had risen from the dead, they would be like, oh, okay, of course that's, That's absolutely a possibility. That could happen at any moment. Miracles could happen. People can rise from the dead. Virgins can get pregnant. Things like that. No problem. But that's not the case. They understood women do not generally get pregnant without the intervention of a man. They also understood that people who were dead, what happened to them? They tended to stay dead, especially when their hearts have been pierced with a spear. They did not expect this kind of person to rise again, so the entire idea of resurrection was not only foolishness to the Greeks, because it went right against their philosophy, and their philosophy said body bad, spirit good, so the idea of the body rising again was something that they were absolutely appalled by, but also the very idea that a body that had been dead for three days, that it would come back to life, that was not something that they were willing to immediately embrace. In fact, they thought it was foolishness. So I saw some hands. Yes, Margaret's mommy. There's also something cultural about the fact that you have somebody who is a criminal in their mind or that they could that he couldn't get himself out, that all of the pragmatic and cultural aspects of looking down on someone of the low of esteem, and then associating them with a god, it's just the cognitive dissonance. Yeah, anybody who believed that kind of thing, they believed would be themselves an ass in the sense of Balaam's riding animal. And graffito back in this time, we need to remember this is the social media of Rome. You scribbled on the walls to indicate your hostility towards various factions and so on. So Christianities have been taking it in the neck on social media since the very beginning of the Christian faith. Let's go to the next. I want to read most of Pliny's letter to Trajan, because this is, it shows not only what the early Christians believed, but it also shows the, first off, one of the things that we need to recognize was that persecution of Christianity was not initially empire-wide. It was not uniform, and also the Romans were still trying to figure out what it was that the Christians believed. So, for instance, there is a portion here where after, under torture, he has examined Christians. One of the questions that he obviously asked them is, what do you eat at your feasts? Because he had obviously heard rumors that they were eating what? human flesh, right? So he was zealous to figure out what was going on in their church services, because there were all sorts of rumors that were spreading about Christians and their beliefs. So let's go ahead and start reading this. If you want to back up, actually, because it begins on the other one. Pliny the Younger, obviously the letter itself was written in 112 AD, and it's essentially the governor of Bithynia in modern Turkey, okay, which is where Paul had established his churches, obviously, writing to Emperor Trajan asking for counsel on dealing with the early Christians. So let's continue. It is my custom, sir, to refer to you in all cases where I do not feel sure for who can better direct my doubts or inform my ignorance. I have never been present at any legal examination of the Christians. I do not know, therefore, what are the usual penalties passed upon them, or the limits of those penalties, or how searching and inquiry should be made. So obviously, he knows that the Christians exist. The Christians are persecuted in many different provinces. How do I go about doing this? What should I do? So he goes to the next. I've hesitated a great deal in considering whether any distinction should be drawn according to the ages of the accused, whether the weak should be punished as severely as the more robust, whether if they renounce their faith they should be pardoned, or whether the man who has once been a Christian should gain nothing by recanting. Excuse me. Whether the name itself, even though, excuse me, otherwise innocent of crime should be punished, or only the crimes that gather around it. So should you be punished for being a Christian or for the things that you were doing as a Christian? I have hesitated a great deal in considering whether any, wait. Sorry, yeah. In the meantime, this is the plan which I've adopted in the case of those Christians who have been brought before me. I ask them whether they are Christians. If they say yes, then I repeat the question a second time and a third time, warning them of the penalties it entails, and if they still persist, I order them to be taken away to prison until the Roman governor arrived. Now, one of the things that we see here is they were zealous to try to get the Christians simply to do what? recant their faith, okay? They did not want to be executing Christians wholesale all throughout the provinces, but they are looking merely to cause them to be, cause them to turn away from this dangerous, quote, superstition that they'd embraced. Let's go to the next. For I do not doubt that whatever the character of the crime may be which they confess, their pertinacity and inflexible obstinacy certainly ought to be punished. There were others who showed similar mad folly whom I reserved to be sent to Rome as they were Roman citizens. That would be like who? Paul. Subsequently, as is usually the way, the very act of my taking up this question led to a great increase of accusations and a variety of cases were brought before me. A pamphlet was issued anonymously containing the names of a number of people, those who denied that they were or had been Christians and called upon the gods in the usual formula, reciting the words after me, those who offered incense and wine before your image. So we see already what's happening. We're getting emperor worship and it's becoming a test of good citizenship. Okay. Which I had given orders to be brought forward for this purpose together with the statues of the deities all such I considered Should be discharged especially as they curse the name of Christ Which it is said those who are really Christians cannot be induced to do interesting, isn't it? He's already heard that true Christians will never Or deny Christ right going to the next Others whose names were given me by an informer first said that they were Christians and afterwards denied it, declaring that they had been but were so no longer. Some of them having recanted many years before and more than one so long as 20 years back, they all worshipped your image in the statues of the deities and cursed the name of Christ. Oh dear. Going to the next. But they declared that the sum of their guilt or their error only amounted to this, that on a stated day they had been accustomed to meet before daybreak and to recite a hymn among themselves to Christ as though he were a God, and that so far from binding themselves by oath to commit any crime, their oath was to abstain from theft, robbery, adultery, and from breach of faith, and not to deny trust money placed in their keeping when he called upon to deliver it. So what things can we see were already happening? This is written in 112 amongst the Christians or amongst the Christian community. Yes, Joy. People were leaving. Now, those of you, who remembers a letter specifically dealing with the issue of increasing apostasy amongst Christians? Yes. Hebrews, right. Because culturally, it was a big, It was a big negative, right? So Back then, and this is something we need to absorb, early Christianity in 112 AD, we're just one generation after the apostles, right? Well, who was the last of the apostles? John. John, OK. So people he taught were still alive and preaching. And so we are dealing with an issue of Christians are already turning away because of social pressure and government persecution, direct and indirect. All right, so you've already seen people who have embraced Christianity and then walked away from it. Not very different from what's going on today, right? Okay, so, but contrary to what they thought and the terrible things they said about them, they were actually, were they bad citizens? They were, in fact, the best of citizens, yeah. Joy? The one thing I would say is that there's a great distinction between their circumstance and a more modern circumstance, at least in post-Christian America, or whatever you want to call it. So you've got, this is a sect. This has not got its own massive cultural network. It's really just, it's still nascent in some senses, right? Because it's calling out of the world. We're not talking about generations and generations of Christians. Christian culture, nominal generation upon generation, dependent upon where you are, of Christianity, people are apostatizing. You know what I mean? It's slightly different. It's kind of like Yeah, we did it would have been at the most to two generations of Christianity before they had the apostatized so Alright moving to the next When the ceremony was concluded, it had been their custom to depart and meet again to take food, but it was of no special character and quite harmless. And they had ceased this practice after the edict in which in accordance with the orders I had forbidden all secret societies." So they were afraid, even back then, that these people were gathering and there was an overtly religious side, but what did they really think that they were there for? Yes? Yeah, that it was political, that all of their designs were political. So do we see that today by any chance? Because the Romans thought entirely in terms of politics. Politics were the most important thing to them. Religion was just, you know, everybody's religious. We all know that. But politics is what makes the world go round. Is that like we deal with today? Yeah. So they saw these secret societies as a threat because of their political nature. And today, we see that that's the great charge that's brought against people. that the great danger of Christians is their involvement in politics and so on. Moving to the next. Graham, your hand was up, right? Did you have a point? I just wanted to point out an example. I'm sorry, my bad. I thought you were asking for examples. OK, what's your example? Too late? It's over. OK. The moment has passed. The muse is no longer upon you. The matter seems to me worthy of your consideration, especially as there are so many people involved in the danger. Many persons of all ages and of both sexes alike are being brought into peril of their lives by their accusers, and the process will go on. Next. For the contagion of this superstition, by which means Christianity, has spread not only through the free cities, but to the villages and rural districts. And yet it seems to me that it can be checked and set right. Next. It is beyond doubt that the temples, which have been almost deserted, are beginning again to be thronged with worshippers, that the sacred rites, which have for a long time been allowed to lapse, are now being renewed, and that the food for the sacrificial victims is once more finding a sale, whereas up to recently, a buyer was hardly to be found. So what is he saying? He's saying that a change has taken place. What change took place initially? that as people embraced Christianity, they stopped doing what? They stopped going to the temple. They stopped offering sacrifices. They were deserted. Now that they are being persecuted heavily, what's going on? There's a revival of paganism going on, okay? Are we seeing a revival of paganism by any chance? Oh my word, yes. Okay, so it shouldn't surprise us that as nominal Christianity ceases to be acceptable, that paganism arises once again. So, going to the next. From this it is easy to infer what vast numbers of people might be reclaimed if only they were given an opportunity of repentance from turning away from these kind of things. But how wrong he was in the long run. Pliny's idea that the old religion would eventually win out was absolutely incorrect. Let's go to the next. All right, so the next one I want to read from is Cornelius Tacitus, who is talking about a particular persecution that occurred within Rome in the 60s, 63 AD specifically. What happened, was it 64? Somebody help me out. The Great Fire of Rome. Nero, yes, but 64 AD, right? 63 or 64? I can't remember which. All right. I will look it up later on. But in any event, Nero needed a fall guy for the fire, and he decided who was going to be responsible for every bad thing that ever happened. Christians, right? Christians and the lions. 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 Christians by the populace. Yes, Grant? 64. 64 AD. Thank you, Grant. Next. Christus, for whom the name had its origins, 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 Judea, 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." That's one of the other things that was a common charge that was made against Christians, that they were haters of mankind. They were also called athioi. What does that mean? Atheists. Why were they called atheists? Right, they denied the other gods. Now, if you were a worshipper of Zeus within the Roman Empire, did that mean that you denied the other gods? No, quite the opposite, that you believed in all the gods, you just had primary gods. So they didn't mind really who you worshipped, but the idea that these Christians would deny the very existence of all the other gods, that offended the living daylights out of them. It was the you believe we're wrong thing that really inflamed them, okay, made them angry. Do we see that today? Oh my, yeah. It's not even if you keep it to yourself. It's the you have to agree with us. You have to come out and say this is OK. Otherwise, we hate you. So moving to the next. Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished or nailed to crosses or doomed to the flames and burnt to serve as a nightly illumination. When daylight had expired, they literally used Christians as tiki torches for their parties. Moving to the next. Nero offered his gardens for the spectacle and was exhibiting a show in the circus while he mingled with the people in the dress of a charioteer or stood aloft on a car, which is a chariot, moving to the next. Hence, even for criminals who deserved extreme and exemplary punishment, there arose a feeling of compassion, for it was not as it seemed for the public good, but to glut one man's cruelty that they were being destroyed. Indeed, and we see often that politicians will turn the hatred of the people against a scapegoat, okay? And this has often been Christians. So it shouldn't surprise us when political parties fix their hatred upon Christians and Christianity, and political leaders begin accusing them of all sorts, all manner of wickedness. So, moving to the next. This is actually by Lucian of Samosata, who was a Greek poet. He wrote epic poems, and his work, The Death of Peregrine, written around 170 AD, Lucian of Samosata wrote, the Christians you know worship a man to this day, the distinguished personage who introduced their novel rights and was crucified on that account. The poor wretches have convinced themselves first and foremost that they're going to be immortal and live for all time, in consequence of which they despise death and even willingly give themselves into custody, most of them. Furthermore, their first lawgiver persuaded them they are all brothers of one another. They have, after they have transgressed once for all by denying the Greek gods and by worshiping that crucified sophist himself and living under his laws. Who's the crucified sophist he's speaking of? Jesus, right. So please keep in mind, this man is, he's not part of the government. He was a writer, he was a poet. So this was the view of the literary society within that time. But generally, the view of the intelligentsia within the Roman Empire, what did they think of the Christians? Well, not just political adversaries, they thought they were Morons, okay, absolute morons. Yes Yes, his animals are a history of he hated Nero obviously and so he He almost wants to be sympathetic towards the Christians, but as a good Roman he can't so You understand, within Roman society, the people at the top, the people in the literary, the chattering classes and so on, hated Christianity as a general rule. One of the things that Paul says, obviously, is that not many what? Not many of this particular class are called to Christianity. Not many of the wise in the worldly sense. Not many of the people who have titles, not many of the people who have honors, tend to go into Christianity. Why is that? Why was that in the Roman time? Yes, Joy? And then? Because it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of the beholder. OK. Yeah, there's the election issue. Keith, and then Song. It's because people tend to kind of rest in their own ability to give to life. And there's an idol worship of power and authority and money and influence and all those sorts of things. And so to be a Christian, to be humble, to let those things go, to rest in God and say, God is doing all of these things, all these blessings I have in my life, not for him, not for me, Yeah, so the more that you have to rest on in this world in a material sense, the least likely it is that you're going to turn to Christ's son. And they had more to lose within the social structure. From our point of view, the politicians, the writers, the playwrights, the officers in the military and so on, they all had much more to lose by becoming a Christian than they would ever gain by being a Christian. And even in the times when nominal Christianity was acceptable, let's face it, nominal Christianity was what was wanted from the people, not real Christianity. During the time of the Puritans, for instance, everybody was expected to be a Christian. They were expected to be a little religious, but never to take it very seriously. Perkins was asked by one of his neighbors, why do Puritans have to be so precise? And his answer was, oh, sir, I serve a precise God. But the king wanted subjects who were Christian in name, but weren't so given over to Christianity, for instance, that they wouldn't lie for him, that they wouldn't sin in order to advance, so to speak, the interests of the crown. And so it's always been the case through history that real devotion to Christ is not the way to advance in terms of the social strata. So and even Wait a minute, that's the next one, okay. Even Billy Graham, for instance, in terms of his acceleration, he picked up a lot more energy when he began to broaden his Christianity and dumb it down. All right, so let's go ahead and actually read, oh crumbs, this is wrong. It's supposed to be 1 Corinthians 15. Could you see if the next, actually open up the slide if you would and make the change. I probably did not press the, It's right. It's listed as 1,215. OK, so you've got to press the, there's a little arrow button that looks like an arrow going forward. You actually have to press on the right-hand side. There you go. OK, who would like to read? Who wants to? All right, you can start. And then I'll have Keith take it up after that. OK. Warmer, brethren, and clearer to you, the gospel which I preach to you which also you received, in which you stand, by which also you were saved. If ye hold fast that word which I preached to you, lest ye believe in vain. Okay, next. After that, he was seen by over 500 brethren at once, of whom the greater part remained to the present, but some had fallen asleep. After that, he was seen by James, then by all the apostles. And last of all, he was seen by me also, as by one more out of two times. I am the least of the apostles. Who am I, who am not worthy to be called positive? Because I persecuted the Church of God. But by the grace of God, I am what I am. And His grace toward me was not vain. But I labored more abundantly than they all. Yet not, yet not I, but the grace of God, which was with me. There you may be. whether it was I or they, so he preached and so he believed. Now if Christ has preached that, he has been raised from the dead. How do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God because we have testified of God, that he raised up Christ, whom he did not raise up if, in fact, the dead do not rise. For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. OK. And Greg? And if Christ is not risen and your faith is futile, you are still in your sins. Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, We are of all men the most pitiable. But now Christ is risen from the dead and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. Okay, so he grounds, that is, Paul grounds our faith in what? What fact? the fact of Christ's resurrection. Okay, we believe what happened not based upon some story. Oh, I heard from so-and-so that this happened in a different region or so on. Paul says that he actually, in the beginning of 1 Corinthians 15, what? That he had Yeah, he had actually met not only Christ, he was seen by Cephas and then by the 12, that he was seen by over 500 brethren of whom the greater part remain to the present when he's writing in the 50s and 60s, and after that he was seen by James, then by all the apostles, then at last he was seen also by, as by one born on due time himself, he was seen by him when? on the road to Damascus. So this isn't a plausible story that he heard or some sort of crazy superstition that was being mingled. He says, your faith is based upon something that seems incredible but actually happened. Your faith is based upon eyewitness testimony. And the point that he is trying to make is not that, you know, believe this because, you know, it would be very nice to believe it. He's actually saying believe it because it happened. And he's saying if it didn't happen, well, then what's the inevitable conclusion? I mean, some people would say, well, even if Christ didn't rise from the dead, does that really matter? I mean, then we still have all of this ethical teaching and so on. That's still, that's good enough, right? What does Paul say? Yeah, we're still in our sins. There's no there's no hope for us if he hasn't risen from the dead All right. So this teaching of the resurrection and the life to come if you go to the next I was something that Christian catechumens, as they were coming into the church, were taught that they might have hope in the midst of persecution, thinking it's not nearly this life that I'm living for, but it's the life to come, and all of the things that will happen. So here's the dedicate. Incidentally, what are the things in the background there? Anybody tell me? Yeah, that's an, okay, we got a fish, we got an ecthos. I'm not sure what the swastika indicated. An early Christian cross, you have the shepherd, you have the anchor, which incorporated the cross as well. You have the Cairo symbol. These are all, this is graffiti from the catacombs where the Christians were meeting for worship, going to the next. So chapter 16, watch concerning your life. Let not your lamps be quenched or your loins be loosed, but be ye ready, for you know not the hour at which our Lord cometh. But be ye gathered together frequently, seeking what is suitable for your souls. For the whole time of your faith shall profit you not, unless ye be found perfect in the last time. For in the last days false prophets and seducers shall be multiplied, and the sheep shall be turned into wolves, and love shall be turned into hate. And because iniquity aboundeth, they shall hate each other, and persecute each other, and deliver each other up. And then shall the deceiver of the world appear as the son of God, and shall do signs and wonders, and the earth shall be delivered into his hands, and he shall do unlawful things such as have never happened since the beginning of the world. Then shall the creation of man come to the fiery trial of proof, and many shall be offended and shall perish. But they who remain in their faith shall be saved by the rock of offense itself. And then shall appear the signs of the truth. First, the sign of the appearance in heaven. Then the sign of the sound of the trumpet. And thirdly, the resurrection of the dead. So all these things happening at the same time, at the end of time. And not of all, but as it has been said, the Lord shall come and all his saints with him. Then shall the world behold the Lord coming on the clouds of heaven. That's it? Oh, okay. Then shall the world behold the Lord in the clouds of heaven. So where was he telling them to place their faith? Or what was the dedicate telling men to place their faith? In the resurrection of Christ and in the certainty of his second coming. Where do we place our faith? In the resurrection of Christ and the certainty of his second coming. Not that we're going to somehow Christianize the entire world. And that the day will come when everything will be perfect and la, la, la, la, and we'll be like Smurfs living in Smurf Village. So, yes? On the shepherd carrying a sheep. So, yes? but it was supposed to be a religious symbol back in the day, like, for Eurasians and African American cultures. Yeah. And I'm pretty sure that's not where the Christians got it, though. I've seen it in Hinduism, for instance. And you'll find it in Buddhist temples, as well. So it's a reoccurring symbol coming up again and again. Say what? In the Far East, it's a flip-flop. Hm. There you go. Instead of this way, it's the other way. Got it. Got it. Yes, Graham? What does the PX stand for? Cairo, Christus Rex. Christ the King. Any other questions about this before we, I'm gonna go ahead and dismiss the kids for their final talk. Farewell. Okay, so my question is, how do we apply what we've learned about the way that the life of early Christians in their culture was not too terribly different from the life of present day Christians in our culture? What's the application of all that? Is there anything helpful that we can find in this? Okay. Yeah. Jesus wasn't kidding when he said, you know, the service is not greater than the master. If they persecuted me, they're going to persecute you as well. Joy? Yeah, everything that's been done to Christians now is something that's been done to Christians in the past. So, it's nothing, we're not experiencing anything truly new. So, other thoughts? Yes, Jamie. The persecution in Maastricht. Yes, okay. And also there were, the persecution didn't go like this. Persecution went like this. And then gradually it subsided until you had nominal Christianity. But that was not a growth time for Christianity once the persecution stopped. One of the things also that I hope you'll see is actually persecution is, the crucible in which Christianity does best. It's the dross is purged away, the gold shines, when everybody can, you know, get a pat on the back for declaring that they're Christians, not generally the time when true Christianity flourishes. Also, it's in times of persecution that you see the separation of walk. Yeah, the winds of persecution blow through and the chaff goes away. So the chaff inevitably throws its lot in with the wind. the world. So it should not surprise us when we see lots of supposedly Christian celebrities throwing in their lot with the world. It never surprises me when a Jen Hatmaker or an Andy Stanley or whoever, one of the Christian celebs who desperately wants the love and attention of the culture, is suddenly repudiating biblical Christianity and throwing in their lot with whatever the culture wants to hear. So, tickling ears is nothing new. Paul warned about it. So, it was a problem in Paul's day. It's going to be a problem in our day. It's going to be a problem until Jesus comes back. So, yes. What, how does that, how should that affect the way that we live in the world, though? Yes, go on. I mean, well, in that it should, as he seeks to bear witness, it might make choices bigger. But they're still the same choices. All right. Yes? Go ahead, Rhoda. I mean, I know I'm afraid to say this, but twice in the past, So there's two uses. But the weird thing is, coming as servants, it's in a sense of doves, in a sense of how we're walking in this world. Not because we're trying to stay away from persecution, but because words matter, and we want to live out what we believe. Right. One of the things that Lucy and other groups of people have pointed out was that many of the Christians in their age were essentially battering at the doors of the Coliseum in an attempt to be martyred. That really is not the calling of Christians. I mean, Jesus is the one who told us, if you're persecuted in one city, what should you do? You should flee to another. And if you can't flee any longer, then then you accept your persecution. But it's not necessarily the greatest thing that we can do in any given setting to be killed for our faith. It may become necessary for us to die for our faith. The Christian, you're called primarily to live for your faith in this world, which is sometimes harder than simply laying down your life. So that's something that we're called to do. Where are we going to have to be? extra, in terms of applying these strips, okay, that the persecution that happened in places like Corinth is analogous to the persecution that comes to place today. Where are we going to, who do we need to help the most with that process? Yes, joy. New Christians, people who are coming in. And one of the things that evangelistically we have to stop if we're doing it is we have to stop telling people that become a Christian and your life will get better. your life in this world will get better. It won't. Okay? C.S. Lewis was right when he said, I didn't become a Christian to make me happy. I always knew that a glass of brandy would do that. Was it port? You're sure it's port? Okay. All right. You're probably right. A glass of port would do that. We don't become Christians in order to benefit in a material sense, in a social sense, and so on. If you become a Christian expecting people are going to love you, you're in it for the wrong thing. And if you try to be a Christian and get the world to love you, you've got your feet simultaneously in two different boats. And that does not work out very well. If you've ever tried that experiment, try putting one foot in one canoe and then the other foot in another canoe and see if you can stay upright without falling in the drink in between. So you've got to make, and it means, You've got to make a decision. Are you going to serve the world for what little it can give you in the present? Or are you going to serve Christ, the kingdom? I want to suggest also that the people who are going to need the most help with this are going to be kids. growing up in that environment. But I also wanna suggest to you that nothing except genuine faith is gonna be able to get you through this persecution. The hatred of the world is so intense and people hate being hated so much that it's gonna be a time when a lot of kids who aren't genuinely sold out for Christ are going to give up and walk away. Because there's nothing in the social credit sense that they get from being Christians, other than the abuse of their fellow citizens. So, yes? You know, and Boston goes on about the, which I don't know where. Thomas Boston, Crook and the Law. Right. Okay. And in some senses, to me, Christian youth here, it is kind of like being a rich animal. So the question, the right question might be asked, but the come and die is not attractive or is asking too much. Yeah. One thing also, kind of jumping on that slightly, is it should, if we look back at what happened in the past, it should give us hope for the future. I hope that it does give you hope for the future in this. You saw how Pliny was being a triumphalist, right? Persecution is destroying the Christian faith. Paganism is arising again, and we'll beat them, okay? Pretty soon this terrible superstition will be trod underfoot and all gone. when in fact it was paganism that eventually was trodden underfoot and disappeared. Christianity, or what is it, rumors of Christianity's demise are greatly exaggerated. everywhere around the Romanesque, not the architecture, Romanesque persecution that occurred in the first century and the second century coming in once again. And we might suspect, well, Christianity is going to disappear. But the fact is, it's not. It will continue on. It always has. So we need not give up hope, because we have precious promises given to us. And we have, most importantly, the promises of Christ. And Christians can and will endure. So we need to hold on and look forward to the promises that are given. Not that we'll be suddenly treated very, very well. That's not what we're looking forward to. What are we looking for? To quote Christian, life, life, eternal life. That's what we're headed towards. So we need to take Pilgrim's Progress more to heart and see how going through this world is a difficult endeavor, but it ends in? Glory, okay? No worldling can say that. One of the things we need to remember, and you can present this as part of your gospel presentation as well, all of the pleasures, oh, let me put it in the other way first. All of the hardships, all of the pain, all of the suffering that a Christian will ever endure occur on this side of glory. and they are very short by comparison. They all go away the moment we die, okay? Whereas all of the good things, all of the pleasures, and all of the comforts that a worldling has also occur on this side temporarily, and they all go away the moment they die. So you have made the right choice. You have chosen correctly when you've chosen to follow Christ. and to continue in his footsteps. Any other thoughts before we close? As I said, this is the last one I'm going to be doing for this particular season, and we'll be turning our attention to the Westminster profession of faith and the core doctrines. Yes? When I'm talking to—it depends on who I'm talking to—the main thing about salvation and stuff like that, because growing up, I knew I was saved, but I didn't exactly know what that meant. And you do think, if it's presented wrong, you do think, oh, my life is supposed to be easier. But no, you have to just tell them, look, this is what that looks like. You study the life of Christ, you're going to understand what being saved looks like. You're going to have to go through everything and everything he did, even unto death. Did he die for you, or are you willing to die for him, when it comes down to it? And that's usually the question, the standard question. Are you willing? If somebody comes to that door and says, murder or die, what are you going to do? And it's really a thing that you don't really think you have to worry about until now. It's getting more and more ridiculous. So I mean, it's something that people have to really think about. And then that also leads out, well, am I really in this for Christ or am I And people can become Christians for the wrong reasons. Many people became Christians initially for the fellowship aspects, for the mutual support that it gave. If you're not following Christ out of love for Christ and a desire to to follow him and seeking after eternal life. You're not following him for the right reasons. So that's often the case. But certainly, we need to turn away, I think, also from any sort of appeals to social advancement or normalization. And one of the things that we need to also understand is compromises. Compromising our faith is, first off, it's a waste of time. They're not going to love you if you become a compromiser. And secondly, whose name are we blaspheming when we compromise? It's Christ. So stand fast.