Third Century Christian Persecutions

Since the first century, Christians were under persecutions because of their faith. After the second century, the persecutions of Christians became widely and severely. There were four main general persecutions during the third century; each of them lasted no more than three years. The authorities tried to maintain the balance between different religions and the authority. However, after almost half a century of peace, Great Persecution burst at the beginning of the fourth century and it lasted for ten years. The churches were commanded to “be leveled to the ground and the Scriptures to be destroyed by fire, and those who held places of honor to be degraded, and servants who persisted in Christianity to be deprived of freedom.” It was the

During the third century, nature disasters, massive inflation, military threats from Persia and Germanic barbarians and traditional religious conservatism lasted for a long time in Rome; all these factors caused the chaos of the third century. These resulted in social tensions and rejection of the old Roman value, as well as religious fervor. The tetrarchy of Rome Empire made the political and religious situations become more complicated. With the increasing power, the authorities “changed the peaceful attitude and began an implacable

Whenever I saw the word “persecution”, I could not stop thinking about the longtime persecution of Christians in China. The missionaries came to China as early as the thirteenth century. In the following several hundred years, they were persecuted in an alien country. When China was forced to connect with other countries in the 19th century, missionaries came back to China to build schools, hospitals and churches as the Christians did in the early centuries. They shared the gospel with those in need and love them selflessly. Christianity prospered in China. But after the civil war, when the new government took the authority, the authorities began to expel all the missionaries and shut down the churches. Christians had no choice but met in certain people’s houses as temporary churches. Churches did not open to the public until 1958. All the churches are under the control of government since then. Even though, Christians were able to go to church on Sundays after a long time religious persecution from the