In AD 303, the Roman Emperor Diocletian had a problem: Christians. First, they were nearly atheists in the eyes of the Romans. After all, they only believed in a single God. They also were increasingly rejecting the ways of the culture that threatened to influence Roman society. So on Feb. 23, the Emperor issued an edict designed to end Christianity once and for all. The date was deliberate. It was the Feast of Terminalia, honoring the Roman god of boundaries. The idea was to put a boundary around Christianity. To terminate it, once and for all.
That morning, imperial soldiers arrived at the newly built church in Nicomedia and tore it to the ground stone by stone. They burned the Scriptures in the public square. Influential and high-ranking Christians were stripped of everything. Clergy were hunted, imprisoned, and tortured. The empire was sure this would end it. Eight years later, the emperor was dead and the Church was still standing.
This pattern repeats throughout the Bible. Pharaoh threw Israelite babies into the Nile to destroy God's people. God raised up Moses from those very waters and God’s people survived. The Egyptian army did not. King Herod slaughtered the infants of Bethlehem in order to kill the Christ child. The Child survived. Herod did not.
The world has been trying to extinguish the light of the Gospel for as long as there has been a Gospel. It has never once succeeded and it never will. Remember, Christ himself tells us the gates of Hell cannot prevail against the Church. Yet, there is a greater danger: that we Christians would be tempted to change our ways in order to earn favor from the same culture that seeks to destroy us. This, too, is nothing new.
The Apostle Paul wrote to Christians in Corinth who faced exactly this temptation. They lived in a bustling Roman city full of competing philosophies and religions. They believed in Jesus, but they also wanted respect from their neighbors. They did not want to seem foolish.
We face the same struggle today. We face the temptation to soften the message against the harsh consequences of sin. We are told to go along to get along. Christian values and doctrines are treated by the culture as if they are backward, hateful, and embarrassing relics of a less enlightened time. The world claims it will finally accept us if we conform, but that’s a lie because the world is always changing, only Christ remains the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Paul's answer to the Corinthians is clear: The message of a crucified and risen Savior will always seem foolish to those who reject it, but that "foolish" message is exactly how God saves. We cannot save ourselves, but out of his great love for us God did not leave us in the dark. He gives faith through his Word, through Baptism, through the Lord's Supper. The faith he gave you he also sustains against the flaming darts of Satan and the vitriol of the world. Cling to him. Trust in him. Be in the world, but no longer of it.
Diocletian thought he could terminate Christianity. He couldn’t. Whatever the world throws at the Church today will not extinguish it either. Thanks be to God.
