{"id":4456,"date":"2025-03-06T15:37:35","date_gmt":"2025-03-06T20:37:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=4456"},"modified":"2025-03-06T15:37:35","modified_gmt":"2025-03-06T20:37:35","slug":"nero-and-the-fire-at-rome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/06\/nero-and-the-fire-at-rome\/","title":{"rendered":"Nero and the Fire at Rome"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n


Each day this Lent we\u2019re looking at major \u201cturning points\u201d in Christian history \u2013 moments or seasons in which the story of God\u2019s people took an important turn. \u00a0<\/em>

The next time you experience a surge of despair concerning the chaos and unpredictability of America\u2019s political landscape, or perhaps hear someone say, \u201cIt can\u2019t get any worse than this,\u201d call to mind what it must have been like to live in the Roman Empire about 25 years after the resurrection of Christ.

In A.D. 54, a teenager ascended to the emperor\u2019s throne. Nero was 17 years old when he became the most powerful leader of the world\u2019s most powerful domain.

Things did not go well.

Nero was, to put it simply, boundary challenged. He quickly became known for his narcissism and cruelty. From time to time he would dress like a commoner, leave the palace at night with friends, and mug people on the streets \u2013 just for the thrill of it. He occasionally dressed in animal skins and attacked both men and women tied to stakes.

Those around him, whether imperial staff or members of his own family, were never entirely safe. Nero beat to death his pregnant wife and ordered the execution of his mother.

Through it all, he insisted on being worshiped as a god who humbly consented to live among mere mortals.

On July 19, A.D. 64, fire broke out in a working-class section of Rome. Having recently witnessed the ferocity of wind-whipped flames in Los Angeles, we can only imagine the destruction of a metro area that had no firefighting equipment or access to water hydrants. Over a period of seven days, 10 of the city\u2019s 14 wards were completely destroyed.

Nero\u2019s enemies (and there were many) suspected he had a hand in the fire\u2019s origin, since he had openly declared his interest in urban renewal. The rumor began that he had \u201cfiddled\u201d while Rome burned \u2013 likely an aspersion aimed at his fanciful dream of composing the equivalent of a hit musical.

Unsurprisingly, the emperor immediately seized a generous tract of incinerated property and began construction of his Golden Palace \u2013 at public expense, of course.

What he needed, in order to redirect the inevitable grumbling, was someone to blame for the fire.

He found it in a new religious sect known as the Christians.

There were many reasons to admire the followers of a young, crucified Jew from the backwaters of the empire. These individuals lived peaceably and paid their taxes. They cared for the sick and the poor \u2013 even those who had expressed no interest in their beliefs. Slaves and women felt particularly at home in this movement, since it openly appealed to both upper and lower classes.

But there were also reasons to suspect that Christians might be up to no good.

They gathered to eat the body and drink the blood of their hero. Were they cannibals? Their common meals were called \u201clove feasts.\u201d Were they morally degenerate? They refused to recognize the divinity of the emperor and bow before his altar. Were they enemies of the state?

Romans, in general, offered at least a passing acknowledgement of hundreds of deities. The troublemakers were those who insisted on the existence of just one. Because Christians refused to pray to the pantheon of Roman gods, they were branded (interestingly enough) as atheists.

Followers of Jesus had long been associated with the Jews, earning them the same umbrella of protection granted to that faith. But as more and more Jews insisted, \u201cThese heretics aren\u2019t with us,\u201d the noose began to tighten around the Christian community.

In the aftermath of the fire, Nero decided to pounce.

He launched what became history\u2019s first major wave of persecution. Nero hunted down hundreds of Christians. Some he soaked with oil and set afire to illuminate his garden parties. Tradition tells us that the emperor eliminated two of Christianity\u2019s earliest leaders. Paul, a Roman citizen, was beheaded (a more humane punishment), while Peter was crucified \u2013 although he apparently insisted, as an act of humility, to be crucified upside-down.

Identifying the Antichrist (also known as \u201cthe Beast\u201d in the book of Revelation) has long been an object of evangelical fascination.

Who is this God-defying tyrant? Insert here the name of your least favorite politician, one of your exes, or the coach of the team you just can\u2019t stand.

In the minds of many Bible commentators, the number one candidate for this ultimate dishonor has already come into the world and inflicted profound damage. We\u2019re speaking of none other than Nero.

In the ancient world, alphabets often served double duty as numbering systems. Think of Romans letters like X (10), L (50), and C (100). The Hebrew spelling of Nero\u2019s name was Nrwn Qsr (pronounced Neron Kaiser). When converted to numeric equivalents, those letters add up to a figure that is well-known to Bible readers: 666.

Were the New Testament authors insinuating that Nero was the \u201cman of lawlessness\u201d predicted to swagger onto the stage of history at a particularly dark moment? Perhaps.

What we know for sure is that his persecution represented a turning point for the Church \u2013 the first time that it clearly became publicly dangerous to be a follower of Jesus. Nero\u2019s persecution came to an end in A.D. 68 when he took his own life. But spasmodic bursts of persecution would recur in various corners of the empire for the next 250 years.

Jesus said it would happen, and it did.

\u201cAll this\u00a0I have told you so that you will not fall away.\u00a0They will put you out of the synagogue;\u00a0in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God.\u00a0They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me.\u00a0I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember\u00a0that I warned you about them\u201d (John 16:1-4).

Rome\u2019s emperors would ultimately make a surprising discovery: Every time they turned the heat up on Christians, more of them seemed to appear.

Tertullian, the second century theologian, famously declared, \u201cBlood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.\u201d

It\u2019s still dangerous to be a follower of Jesus. It\u2019s estimated that more Christians died for their faith in the 20th<\/sup> century than the previous 19 centuries combined \u2013 even as Christianity continues to explode in Asia, Africa, South America, and the Pacific islands.

And what of those of us who live in places where there is virtually no threat of martyrdom?

One of the church leaders who emerged in Eastern Europe following the late 20th<\/sup> century collapse of communism has reflected, \u201cFor many years I knew what it meant to be ready to die for Jesus. Now I know what it means to have to live for Jesus. I can assure you: It is much harder to live for Jesus than to die for him.\u201d

It is hard to live for Jesus.<\/em>

Long after the waves of persecution in the early centuries petered out, Christians learned just how hard is to \u201ccarry one\u2019s cross\u201d every day.

Day by day, step by step, we die to ourselves so we might live for the Lord \u2013 giving up a life we cannot keep in order to gain a life we cannot lose.

Which means it can be just as dramatic and consequential to live in Las Vegas, Miami, or Terre Haute, Indiana, as in ancient Rome.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here Each day this Lent we\u2019re looking at major \u201cturning points\u201d in Christian history \u2013 moments or seasons in which the story of God\u2019s people took an important turn. \u00a0 The next time you experience a surge of despair concerning the chaos and unpredictability of America\u2019s political landscape, or perhaps hear someone… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4457,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[874,112],"class_list":["post-4456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-persecution","tag-suffering"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4456"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4456\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4458,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4456\/revisions\/4458"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}