THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN PERSECUTION SUMMARIZED

The Near-Extinction of Christianity: The closest Christianity came to being wiped out was during the reign of the emperor Diocletian. He administratively went through the empire and found an anomaly, a group of people that didn’t behave as they were supposed to. They didn’t worship the emperor like everyone else, they didn’t visit the pagan temples and engage in sexual immorality, and they didn’t sacrifice to the Greek pantheon of gods that so dominated the way of life. They were anomalies, and so Diocletian decided to get rid of them. First, he found the meeting places where the church gathered and tore them down. Then he went in and arrested the Christian leaders, killing every one of them he could find. Then, he searched for and destroyed every copy of the Scriptures he could find, so not a single complete copy survived before the fourth century. Diocletian came closer to exterminating Christianity than any other emperor, and there were at least thirty of them who tried. This was just beginning when John was writing down the Revelation of Jesus Christ, and in the midst of this persecution, the struggling believers at Smyrna received a letter from Jesus. From WOLFL-2024-05 - Hope Despite Persecution & Suffering (240417AM) - Join the LAND OF THE BOOK channel to access weekly video releases over the next year totaling 50 EXCLUSIVE VIDEOS featuring weekly in-depth Bible Study lessons with John & Bonnie. Clips are taken at just one of the places where we are taking our virtual journey through all the Lands of the Bible & Great Museums of the Bible on the Paul’s Life & Letters Course. Plus all the assigned HOLY LAND, Paul’s Life & Letters Course STUDY RESOURCES, and John’s two most loved books--David’s Spiritual Secret & Living Hope for the End of Days at: Follow Discover the Book Ministries to stay up to date: Facebook: DTBM Academy Courses: Purchase John’s Books, Mp3 & DVD resources: E-Books: Here are links to our Amazon Pages-- Donate to the ministry: For more of Dr. John Barnett’s Bible teaching messages, go to: