Rome Burns, Nero Persecutes Christians - - 64 A.D.
The time period was thirty some years after Jesus' ascension and return back to heaven. The church had begun and was growing. Due to persecution in Israel, many Christians moved out from where they lived and God used that to help spread the message of the Gospel and to establish new churches in different lands.
The emperor in 64 A.D. was Nero. He was sixteen years old when he started to rule Rome. In Rome, Christianity was tolerated up until this time. The people who were actual believers in Jesus Christ could not divide their allegiance between Jesus and Caesar and the time came for them to have to make it known who they were going to be faithful to.
Rome believed in pagan gods. Christianity was beginning to look like a threat to the Roman Empire now, and Nero instituted a full scale persecution against the Christians. (A persecution is an act of harming or killing someone because of what they believe in).
It started when Rome burned down. The Christians were blamed for it. Nero wanted to believe that, even though it wouldn't make sense for the Christians to do that. Then the persecution continued to grow and become strong against the Christians. This was actually one of the worst times of persecution of the church in all of History.
Nero provided entertainment to his people by soaking the Christians in tar, then tying them to poles and lighting them on fire, in his garden. Sometimes, he would throw them to wild beasts. Peter and Paul may have been executed during this time as well (Peter was known to have been martyred in Rome by dying upside down on a cross).
After this, Nero began to rebuild Rome. His troops rebelled against him and he ended his own life.
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