As we open to Revelation 2:8-11, we are opening to the second of Christ’s seven personal letters to individual churches of the late 1st Century. We looked at them as a group, but now we are taking a look at each particular church.
As we read these words, the historical context is that the Church at Smyrna was going through the second wave of persecution that the early church had to endure.
A Short History of
Early Church Persecution
Someone told me this week they could save the first half-hour of my messages by just “Google-ing” what I talk about, and implied they wanted me to just stick to reading the text of the Scripture. But for the rest of you that are willing, if you will bear with me, I’d like to give you a sanctified mind’s analysis of Church History: something that they could never get on Google.
I share with you the background details of each passage we study to show it to you through the lens of Scripture and with my own lifetime analysis of these facts, which is vital to increasing our understanding. That is actually one of the elements of expository preaching, which is my lifelong pursuit.
Church History records three notable waves of persecution from the Roman Emperors:
Wave #1: Emperor Nero (54-68 AD)
This persecution was sporadic and limited mainly to Rome, sweeping up Paul and Peter to execution.
Wave #2: Emperor Domitian (81-96 AD)
This persecution was wider than Nero’s, across some of the Roman Empire’s provinces, hitting the church at Smyrna and exiling John to Patmos.
Wave #3: Emperor Diocletian (284-305 AD)
This persecution was the greatest of any Roman Emperor against Christ’s Church. Diocletian, one of the most administrative of all Rome’s rulers, began a systematic purge of Christianity through an Empire-wide eradication of the Church, and he almost succeeded.
For the final nearly 10 years of Diocletian’s reign, he systematically decimated Christ’s church. The main reason that there is not one single complete manuscript of the Bible today, and all we have are 20,000+ fragments and partial manuscripts, is because of this one very powerful man.
Under Diocletian’s wave of persecution, every church meeting place that could be identified was pulled down; every pastor that could be found was killed; and every copy of God’s Word that could be discovered was destroyed.
The church came closest to extinction in those years.
(CLW-13; 110717AM)
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