Roman Catholic Church Believes That The Pope Is The Successor Of Peter, Bishop Of Rome

The persecutions of the martyrs strengthened Christianity because the martyrs if they were willing to be killed for their faith then it must be very significant to them. The martyr’s suffering mirrored Jesus’ suffering and reinforced faith among Christians. “They looking upon her in her conflict, beheld with their eyes, through their sister, Him who had suffered for them in order to persuade those who trust in Him

In history, understanding the past is key to foreseeing the future and understanding the roots of the present world. As such, understanding the beginnings of the early church gives us insight into the success of the Catholic Church today and its 1.2 billion followers. The major transformation of Catholicism today can be traced to its early days, in particular, the early first century AD. After the Ascension of Jesus into heaven, the apostles brought themselves to embrace the mission Jesus gave them, and in doing so, they began preaching the word of God to all nations. As Christianity was still developing, a man named Saul, once a persecutor of the early Christians, would experience a powerful vision of Jesus in heaven on the road to Damascus,

In the early Church, martyrdom was considered a "baptism in blood," similar in itself to the baptism in water. The baptism of martyrdom was at the origin of the conversion of many. To be a true disciple is to die as a martyr. The rationale of costly discipleship is witnessing to non-Christians. This shows that martyrdom can communicate much more deeply than any other discourse. It is difficult to evaluate the intensity and scale of persecution against Christians of the first three centuries; nevertheless what we have are some documents that shed light on the frequency of these afflictions. During the first century, there were occasional persecutions under Nero’s reign, especially the fire of Rome in 64 CE, which Christians were accused of having

After the fall of the Roman Empire, the Pope was the highest level bishop in the West, giving symbolic leadership to Christians. There was a certain theological confidence about Popes, with many believing they never made mistakes regarding theological issues. Eventually, Popes regarded themselves as leaders that were in charge of spiritual and political issues, mainly through the Doctrine of Two Swords. With this idea originally from Pope Gregory I, other Popes furthered their boundaries of leadership outside of spiritual matters. They regarded themselves as Vicars of God, essentially meaning they were God’s “lieutenant” or a representative of God. The use of the word “lieutenant” played well into how Popes viewed themselves, for they were becoming more and more prominent military leaders.

Christianity during the early century was very difficult for many Christians. As many Christians were persecuted for not worshipping pagan gods.

From the third to the fourth century, the Roman Empire witnessed a widespread attempt to stop the spread of Christianity. Initially, leaders of the church were predominately targeted, but later anyone admitting to Christianity became a target. The persecutions hit a climax during Diocletian’s reign. These persecutions actually helped the spread of Christianity by glorifying Christians and beginning a tradition of martyrdom that shaped the Church, and the strength that Christians displayed shows that the persecutions could not have possible stopped the spread of Christianity.

Pope: The Pope is the bishop of Rome and the leader of the Western Church of Christianity. Pope comes from the word “papa” meaning father.

and became the last Pope to be declared a Martyr. While Martin's career provided dramatic evidence of

In contrast to the persecution experienced by early Christian followers, Christianity today does not experience the level of outward persecution. Christianity is practiced in an atmosphere nearly void of violence. It was not until the reign of Constantine when Christians were authorized to practice their chosen faith. The “Ediet of Milan”(313 A.D.), gave official recognition to the Christian faith, thus ending persecution within the Roman Empire. Before Constantine’s rule, there were many rulers eager to drive out the Christians. The Emperor Trajan (98-117 A.D.) established the first official policy relating to Christians and how they should be dealt with. Diocletion and the Apologists were the last of the persecutors in this era before Constantine. This marked the end of open persecution

by being crucified upside down (that position being requested by him supposedly because of a feeling of unworthiness to be crucified just as his Lord was). It is noteworthy that Christ did predict a martyr 's death for Peter (Jn. 21:18,19). It is thought that Paul was beheaded right outside Rome in 68 A.D. (II Tim. 4: 6-8,16-18). John supposedly lived and labored in Ephesus during his later years, being the only apostle allowed to die a natural death. The lives, ministries, and deaths of the rest of the apostles are far more unknown. These realities do not consider the enormous social differences are often existing in non-Jewish congregations. A person who sold goods only the wealthy bought and a Roman jailer in the same church (Acts 16:14-40)? A "dirt poor" person and the owner of an expensive home in the same church (James 2:1-4)? A slave and his or her owner in the same church--meeting in the owner 's home (Philemon)? A Jewish convert who refused to eat anything sacrificed to an idol and a pagan convert who ate anything in the same church (Galatians 2:11-14)? All those situations existed in the first century! The concepts that this course show me was when the church assembled in the first century, some spoke in tongues, some interpreted those tongues, some prophesied, some introduced a new song, some received a revelation and some performed miracles. To them, those experiences were typical events. That is my under from my studies that It is doubtful first century

During the first decades preceding Christ's death, Christians were tolerated but not really liked by the general population of the Roman empire due to their refusal to acknowledge the emperor as a living god. This act of defiance was considered heresy by the state .The real mass persecution of the Christian people came during the reign of the emperor Nero who needed a scapegoat on whom to blame the great fire during his reign.

Since the fifth century we have been able to count ten of the major persecutions in the early Christian church which are:

The early church was hated by the society and government of the Roman Empire for various reasons, such as the refusal of Christians to sacrifice to the gods. The Empire went through many phases of demanding that the Christians sacrifice which meant denying their faith or be killed. The earliest attacks claimed the lives of many of the apostles.This text is the story, from around 160 AD, of the martyrdom of Polycarp, the Bishop of the church in Smyrna, a city in Asia Minor (modern Izmir in Turkey) devoted to Roman worship. The account is in the form of a letter from eye-witnesses to other churches in the area. It is the earliest chronicle of a martyrdom outside the New Testament.Polycarp was an old man, at least 86, and probably the last surviving person to have known an apostle, having been a disciple of St. John. This was one reason he was greatly revered as a teacher and church leader. One interesting feature of the letter is that the writer is very conscious of how Polycarp’s death followed the pattern of Christ’s. As you read it, look for parallels between this story and the Easter story in the gospels. We are writing to you, brothers, with an account of the martyrs, especially the blessed Polycarp, whose death brought to the persecution to a close. Almost all the events that led up to it reveal it to be another martyrdom in the divine pattern that we see in the Gospel. For he waited for his betrayal, just like the Lord did, so that we might follow him, in looking out

Peter baptized the Roman pagan Cornelius and at the council of Jerusalem he gave his support to preaching to gentiles. He was imprisoned by King Herod Agrippa and escaped with the help of an angel. Peter died in Rome during the reign of Emperor Nero. It is said that Peter was crucified on the Vatican Hill upside down because her declared himself

Martyrs tells us that the earliest persecution came under the rule of Nero in the year 67