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It’s common knowledge that Christianity, as we know it today, would not exist if some very influential leaders had not adopted it. As much good work and influence as the early Christian church had, Christians remained very, very persecuted throughout the early Roman Empire, by both Jews and Gentiles.
Stephen was accused of blasphemy and killed by the Sanhedrin (Acts 7). Saint Antipas was widely believed to have been martyred, as Revelation 2:13 cites that “Antipas, my faithful witness, was killed among you, where Satan dwells.”
And these were just the killed and martyred Christians noted in the Bible. It’s easy to see the dominance of Christianity in the West today and see it as a faith that was always dominant, but the Roman Empire before Constantine actively persecuted Christians as Christianity spread through the Roman Empire.
According to historian Michael Gaddis, the emperors before Constantine, Diocletian, Maximian, Galerius, and Constantius issued a bunch of edicts that rescinded Christian legal rights and demanded that Christians comply with local religious practices. It was known as the Diocletianic Prosecution, the most severe persecution of Christians in…
