Persecution Of Believers By Judaism

The killing of Stephen signalled the start
Of persecution against the new sect;
Led by Saul, temple guards searched ev’ry part
Of town, jailing all those they could detect!
Believers scattered, abandoning home;
New churches sprang up wherever they went---
Antioch and Ephesus, Egypt, Rome,
In the Orient and the Occident!
The good news of Jesus’ living waters
And His resurrection spread like wildfire
In a dry and thirsty world of squatters
Doomed to live fore’er in the Lake of Fire*!
The more severe the harassment became,
The more widely believed grew Jesus’ name!

*Revelation 20:14-15

“On that day [the day Stephen died] a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. And Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison.” (Acts 8:1-3) [Brackets added]

A seemingly odd phenomenon has accompanied each great persecution of Christianity---the faith grows more during those terrible times than occurs in times of relative acceptance. Despite the tragedies and suffering of many believers in Jerusalem, new churches began to spring up in places where refugees went to start over. They carried the gospel with them and told others about Jesus. God must have known this would happen, not that He would incite persecution. Looking at humans from His viewpoint, those who make the decision to believe in Jesus Christ have made the most important decision possible for them to make; how long they live after trusting in Jesus is not as significant to Him after that. He loves His children, though, and heals their illnesses and gives them blessings; His heart, however, aches for those who are lost and who need to come to Christ.

This persecution marked the beginning of the rift between Judaism and Christianity, which widened and became permanent in the years that followed. Nevertheless, most believers at this time were Jews, and it was difficult to get them to drop their adherence to circumcision and other traditions and practices of Judaism; many continued to practice the old rituals and tried to add the doctrines of salvation through grace, not of works, to the works they had grown up with. The same Saul that led the persecution of the new believers eventually made an 180 degree turn, became a believer himself, and is largely responsible for the final cleavage