Church persecution in the first century

Persecution was really on the increase at the end of the first century. Rome was persecuting the church as never before under Emperor Domitian. As John is penning the Revelation persecution is about to get worse.

Domitian was the first Roman Emperor that demanded to be called “dominus et deus”, which means master and god. He revived the imperial cult deifying the emperor.  “4th century writings by Eusebius of Caesarea maintains that Jews and Christians were heavily persecuted toward the end of Domitian's reign.” (Wikipedia) It’s important that we look at the book of revelation in this historic context. Because, it explains the purpose of sending the revelation to churches that were about to undergo persecution.

Why would Domitian persecute the Jews and the Christians so vigorously? When you think about it it is very simple. Jews and Christians cannot and will not call any man god. “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3 ESV)Christian are to remain faithful to Jesus and they will be rewarded “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.” Revelation 2:10 ESV Domitian wanted to be called god and they refused and preached against doing it. Christians were defiant in an even more troublesome way than the Jews, they claimed Jesus as their King. Domitian couldn’t tolerate any other god or king, so they must be made an example of what happens to those that do not worship the emperor.

So let’s keep these thoughts in mind as we delve further into the book of Revelation. 


© 2013 Leo J. Woodman

Blessed are those who hear

Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. Revelation 1:3 ESV

Obviously from this verse we can see that the revelation was meant to be read aloud to the church. The Revelation is a blessing both to the reader and the listener. The book of revelation truly is a blessing. It is full of reassurances of our faith in Christ.

As the verse states, the revelation is a prophecy. A prophecy of things to come and as the last part of the verse says, the time is near. SInce this is put right in the introduction of the book we have to realize that John is putting things in context for the readers and hearers of the revelation. “The time is near”.

As we read through this book we need to keep this in mind. This book was written at the end of the first century, to the first century church. Verse one spoke of “the things that must soon take place” and verse two says “the time is near”, that tells us something about the urgency of the book. The readers of this revelation must realize that the prophecy they are reading is about to take place.

This verse also says that the hearer is to “keep what is written in it”. In other words this this prophecy and the message of it are to be applied to the lives of believers. There are things in the prophecy that they will need to be ready for. As we read the revelation we too must realize the implications for us as believers today and apply them to our lives. We will will develop this theme as we go along.

In the next post we will look into the historical context of the revelation.

© 2013 Leo J. Woodman