PART ONE. The evil Rome as the real and the real false prophet revealed to me by our Lord Jesus Christ

In summary, the Roman Empire had a tremendous wicked impact in the circumstances regarding Jesus’ birth and crucifixion, and unintentionally provided the necessary infrastructure to allow the apostles to spread the gospel throughout the Mediterranean world

The persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire was carried out by the state and also by local authorities on a sporadic, ad hocbasis, often at the whims of local communities. Starting in 250 AD, empire-wide persecution took place as an indirect consequence of an edict by the emperor Decius. This edict was in force for eighteen months, during which time some Christians were killed while others apostatised to escape execution.

Romans, for the most part, were tolerant in matters of religious belief and allowed countless religious sects, cults, saviours, and redeemers to proselytize without restrictions. Loyal and submissive members of society could believe in any Deity they wanted, including Jesus. The belief was a private matter of no interest to the Roman authorities. Roman cohesion was based on obedience to authority and on public pledges of loyalty to the state – epitomized by symbolical sacrifices to the Roman gods.^[1]Contrary to later misperceptions, at first, Romans did not oppose belief in Jesus. Rather, Romans persecuted whoever refused to pledge loyalty to Roman authority, to the inclusion of those believers in Jesus that refused to sacrifice to the Roman Gods (the equivalent of an oath of allegiance). Roman persecution of Gentile believers in Jesus lasted more than two centuries and included harassment at the local level, and officially sanctioned or decreed persecution. Officially sanctioned Roman persecution was most intense during the reigns of Marcus Aurelius (161–180), Decius (249–251), Diocletian (284–305) and Galerius (305–311).

All individuals living in the Roman Empire were free to believe whatever their souls desired, as long as the traditional protocol of symbolic submission and allegiance to imperial authority was performed. Christianity was outlawed after two centuries of persistent behaviour that the Romans interpreted as defiant and subversive, and after three official persecutions failed to quell what the Romans considered to be seditious behaviour. Pagans could not but interpret the refusal to sacrifice to the Roman Gods (by some, not all Gentile believers in Jesus) as an act of political defiance. ^[2] The point of contention, as seen from the Roman side, was not belief in Jesus. It was the refusal to acknowledge imperial authority. ‘The polytheistic worldview of the Romans did not incline them to understand a refusal to worship, even symbolically, the state gods.’ ^[3]Wilson concluded that eventually, ‘Christians’ (i.e. Pauline believers) would have been suspected of conspiracy and disloyalty. Per Wilson, Christianity appeared as a movement that promoted disruption of the established order and dangerous social tendencies. The prejudice became so instinctive that eventually, mere confession of the name Christian could be sufficient grounds for execution.^[4]Per Zetterholm, the Jesus-believing Gentiles of Antioch found themselves in the peculiar position of having to publicly identify themselves as Jews subject to the tax to avoid prosecution for neglect of the cult. ^[5]