Traps Satan Set for the Early Christians

Christians who lived in the first and second centuries C.E.  were living at a time when the Roman Empire was at its zenith.  The Pax Romana (Roman Peace) enabled commerce to flourish. This prosperity brought much leisure time to the ruling class, and the rulers saw to it that the masses to plenty of entertainment so that they would not rebel.  During some periods, public holidays were as numerous as working days.  The leaders used public funds to give the people bread and circuses, keeping their stomachs full and their minds diverted.

Did this situation constitute a danger for the early Christians?  Judging by early  post apostolic writers, such as Tertullian most of the leisure activities at that time were  fraught with spiritual and moral dangers for true Christians.  For one thing, most of the public festivals and games were held in honor of pagan gods.  (2 Corinthians 6:14-18 At the theaters, even many of the classical plays were either grossly immoral or bloody violent. As time passed, public taste for the classics waned, an they were replaced  by lewd pantomime shows. In his book Daily Life in Ancient Rome, historian Jerome Carcopino says:  "In these plays the actresses were permitted to undreass entirely . . . Blood was shed copiously. . . . [The mime] pumbed the depths of  a perversion which had conquered the masses of the capital.  They were not sickened by such exhibitions because the ghastly butcheries of the amphitheatre had long since debased their feelings and perverted their instincts." -Matthew 5:27, 28.

In the amphitheatres,  gladiators fought each other to the death or fought wild animals, either killing them or being killed by them.  Condemned criminal and, eventually, many Christians were thrown to ferocious beasts. Even in those early times, Satan's trick was to blunt people's repugnance to immorality and violence until these things became commonplace and were sought after  by the populace.  The  only way to keep out of that trap was to stay away from the theaters and amphitheaters. -1 Corinthians 15:32, 33.

Next time: Conclusion of Traps Satan Set for the Early Christrians

From the Watchtower magazine, 2002