{"id":4786,"date":"2025-07-31T09:51:35","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T13:51:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=4786"},"modified":"2025-07-31T09:51:35","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T13:51:35","slug":"a-secret-code","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/31\/a-secret-code\/","title":{"rendered":"A Secret Code"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>

During the first two centuries after the birth of Jesus, the P.R. department of the Roman Empire was continually cranking out press releases.

There was good news!\u00a0The term they actually used was the Greek word euangelion<\/em>, or \u201cgospel.\u201d\u00a0

The Gospel according to Rome is that God was alive and well on planet earth.\u00a0The Lord of All had appeared in human form.\u00a0He was merciful.\u00a0And just.\u00a0And He would provide for all the people.

His name was Caesar.\u00a0

That\u2019s the world into which Christianity was born.

As Rome struggled to hold together its ethnically, religiously, and geographically diverse empire, it became clear to the succession of totalitarian leaders who claimed the title \u201cCaesar\u201d that they would need something \u2013 one central reality \u2013 that everybody could affirm.\u00a0The answer they came up with is that they themselves were divine \u2013 the very presence of God on earth.

Once a year, residents of Roman-occupied lands participated in a simple ritual to demonstrate their fidelity to the Empire.\u00a0

In the presence of a local magistrate, citizens and slaves alike were to take a pinch of incense, sprinkle it into an open flame, and speak just two words:\u00a0Kaisar Kurios.\u00a0<\/em>\u201cCaesar is Lord.\u201d

Those two words are Greek, by the way. Why wouldn\u2019t the Romans insist that this ceremony be performed in Latin, their native tongue? The Romans, famously, were pragmatists. For centuries, Greek culture, Greek ideas, and the Greek language held sway in the Mediterranean world. The Romans, recognizing a good thing when they saw it, utilized All Things Greek as a unifying influence.

They even \u201cborrowed\u201d the Greek gods and made them their own, sometimes doing little more than changing names. Thus Zeus became Jupiter, Aphrodite became Venus, Hermes became Mercury, and so forth.

The Ceasar-is-Lord ceremony was crisp and clean, no caffeine, as the old Seven-Up ads used to say.\u00a0Just sprinkle the incense, speak the words, and walk away.\u00a0That\u2019s how you checked the box that you were one of the good guys.\u00a0

But followers of Jesus, in droves, refused to do so.\u00a0

The only thing they could affirm with their hearts and their heads were two other Greek words:\u00a0Christos Kurios.\u00a0<\/em>\u201cChrist is Lord.\u201d\u00a0

By and large, Roman magistrates found this behavior baffling.\u00a0What was the big deal?\u00a0Just say that Caesar is Lord.\u00a0You don\u2019t even have to believe it.\u00a0Let\u2019s put it this way:\u00a0You don\u2019t want the Empire as your enemy.<\/em>

Christians did not make things easy for themselves.\u00a0

They pointed out that the very term that Caesar\u2019s press secretary used \u2013 euangelion, <\/em>or \u201cgospel\u201d (which is the origin of the word \u201cevangelism\u201d) \u2013 had been on the lips of Jesus and his biographers.\u00a0The good news they<\/em> believed is that the Lord of All really had appeared on earth.\u00a0But it had happened in Bethlehem, not Rome.

In certain parts of the Empire, for certain periods of time, professing trust in Jesus became a death sentence.\u00a0If you won\u2019t comply, then you must die.\u00a0

At some point, Christians began to use a code.\u00a0If you met a stranger in the street and wondered about his spiritual convictions, you might draw a single line \u2013 an arc, actually. The stranger might respond by silently drawing another arc, one that connected with the first line to form the rough outline of a fish.

This ichthus<\/em> (the Greek word for \u201cfish\u201d) was a bit like a fraternity handshake.\u00a0Are we in fact brothers or sisters secretly committed to the same world-changing mission?

Ichthus <\/em>was more than just a secret symbol.\u00a0It was also a theological statement.\u00a0Just as the word FISH in English can be an acrostic (for instance, FISH might stand for Fellowship in Somebody\u2019s House), \u00a0\u201cIXTHYS\u201d communicated five things about Jesus of Nazareth:\u00a0

I<\/strong> (the Greek letter iota) stands for Iesous<\/em>, or \u201cJesus\u201d \u2013 that\u2019s actually the Hebrew name \u201cJoshua,\u201d which means \u201cGod saves.\u201d
X<\/strong> (the Greek letter chi) represents Christos<\/em>, or \u201cChrist\u201d \u2013 that means, in Jewish tradition, the one who has been anointed by God as Messiah.
\u0398<\/strong> (the Greek letter theta) is the first letter of Theou<\/em>, which means \u201cGod\u2019s\u201d (the possessive form of theos<\/em>, where we get the word \u201ctheology\u201d).\u00a0
\u03a5<\/strong> (the Greek letter upsilon) starts the Greek word Yios<\/em>, which means \u201cSon.\u201d
\u03a3<\/strong> (the Greek letter sigma) is the first letter of Soter<\/em> \u2013 that\u2019s the Greek word for \u201csavior.\u201d

FISH therefore, in the minds of many ancient world Christians, came to mean:\u00a0\u201cJesus Christ, God\u2019s Son, Savior.\u201d\u00a0

That brings us to the contemporary practice of placing an Ichthus <\/em>symbol on the back of one\u2019s car.\u00a0Darwinists have satirically countered with a fish symbol of their own \u2013 one that is evolving legs.\u00a0Certain Christians, not to be outdone, have responded with the word \u201cTruth\u201d devouring the Darwinist missing link \u2013 and on and on.\u00a0Call it a mild form of theological road rage.

Contemporary Christians might be fighting the battle of magnetized plastic symbols, but Christians in the waning days of the Roman Empire were literally \u201cfighting\u201d for their lives.\u00a0

In his epic volume Christ and Caesar<\/em>, historian Will Durant (whom, we might note, was not a person of faith) came to this conclusion:

\u201cThere is no greater drama in human record than the sight of a few Christians, scorned and oppressed by a succession of emperors, bearing all trials with a fierce tenacity, multiplying quietly, building order while their enemies generated chaos, fighting the sword with the word, brutality with hope, and at last defeating the strongest state that history has known.\u00a0

\u201cCaesar and Christ had met in the arena, and Christ had won.\u201d

A secret code had been part of their shared life.

For us \u2013 at least in this part of the world \u2013 one of the best aspects of the Good News is that we no longer need to be secret about the Lord we love.
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here During the first two centuries after the birth of Jesus, the P.R. department of the Roman Empire was continually cranking out press releases. There was good news!\u00a0The term they actually used was the Greek word euangelion, or \u201cgospel.\u201d\u00a0 The Gospel according to Rome is that God was alive and well on… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4787,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[967,968,969,874],"class_list":["post-4786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-caesar","tag-early-church","tag-ichthus","tag-persecution"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4786","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=4786"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4788,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4786\/revisions\/4788"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}