- Mar 5, 2024
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Satan's Strategy Of Vilifying Christians In Order To Have Them Murdered
During the persecution under Nero, Christians were tied to stakes and burned alive at dinner parties as a form of entertainment. Treatment so cruel could have only arisen from Satan himself. But how were tortures like these justified in the eyes of his guests? As discussed in Studies #1 as #2, the lifestyle of true Christians was on par with that of the Vestal Virgins, women looked up to within Roman society as paragons of virtue. So why would a society who valued such things not object to genuine Christians being murdered so horrifically?
The answer is that Satan was using the Gnostics - a sexually licentious cult who only identified themselves as "Christians" but were practicing witchcraft and stealing away spouses to exploit them sexually and financially - to completely misrepresent Christianity. Satan's intent here was to tarnish the image of the church, and then convince the Romans that all who named the name of Christ were equally immoral, and therefore worthy only of ridicule and being publicly executed in the cruelest ways possible. The Gnostics were false Christians, however, but most Romans did not know this. All they knew for certain were the rumors going around that "Christians" were amongst the most contemptible and despicable people on earth, and as the apostle Peter would now warn, the true faith would be increasingly "blasphemed" and vilified because of it.
But there were false prophets among the people, as there will be false teachers among you as well, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, and denying the Master who purchased them, bring swift destruction upon themselves. And many will follow after their sexually licentious ways, though which the way of truth will be blasphemed. And through covetousness, with well-turned words they will make merchandise of you, regarding whom the judgment of old is not idle, and their destruction does not slumber. (2 Peter 2:1-3)
As the accuser of the brethren, Satan told God that Job would curse Him to his face if allowed to suffer hardship. It was a lie, of course, but Satan lies all the time. He is the father of it, and the Bible says he comes only to steal, kill and destroy, so he slanders Christians in the public eye to incite people to hate them and if possible kill them. He did this with Christ, using the Pharisees to tell everyone He was casting out demons only by the power of Beelzebub, the prince of demons, meaning He was nothing more than an occult sorcerer and not a true man of God. This was then used to justify attempting to kill Him (Matthew 12:22-30; Matthew 12;14, Matthew 26:1-5).
Satan was now attempting to do the same thing with the church in Peter's time. He was using sexually licentious magicians who identified as "Christians" to paint all believers as sexual predators and sorcerers as well. This is apparently what justified Nero's persecution of the church, for when some suspected he had started the fires in Rome himself to build a larger palace, Tacitus records that he deflected attention from himself by starting the rumor that Christians did it; something many apparently found believable since Satan had already framed them as evildoers who committed the most detestable sins imaginable. Here were his exact words.
"Therefore, to stop the rumor, [Nero] falsely charged with guilt and punished with the most fearful tortures those persons commonly called Christians, who were hated for their enormities. Christus (i.e. Christ), the founder of that name, was put to death as a criminal by Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea in the reign of Tiberius. But the pernicious superstition, repressed for a time broke out yet again, not only through Judea where the mischief originated but throughout the city of Rome as well, whither all things horrible and disgraceful flow from all quarters as to a common receptacle, and where they are encouraged. Accordingly first those were arrested who confessed they were Christians. Next, on their information, a vast multitude were convicted, not so much on the charge of burning the city as of "hating the human race." (Tacitus, Annals)
Why were the Christians hated? Because of "their enormities," meaning they were committing sins so contemptibly evil that only those who "hated the human race" could possibly commit them. It is clear Tacitus was talking vile things, for he referred to them as just more evidence for how "all things horrible and disgraceful" flow to Rome. By this, he meant the city attracted detestably immoral people, like filth flowing towards a common sewer from all directions.
What sort of sins were they supposedly committing which led to them being hated? Minucius Felix’s Octavius describes the kind of accusations that were being leveled against Christians in the first centuries. Like modern Satanists, they supposedly sacrificed and ate children. As the following paragraph states, those being initiated into the cult were systematically deceived into hacking babies to death without knowing it, after which everyone consumed the infant:
The story about the initiation of young novices is as much to be detested as it is well known. That it may deceive the unwary, an infant covered over with meal is placed before the one who is to be stained with their rites. This infant is slain by the young pupil, who has been urged on as if to harmless blows on the surface of the meal, with dark and secret wounds. Thirstily – O horror! - they lick up its blood. Eagerly they divide its limbs. By this victim they are pledged together, and with this consciousness of wickedness they are covenanted to mutual silence. (Minucius Felix, Octavius, 9)
Also like modern Satanists, they supposedly participated in mass orgies where entire families of "brothers and sisters" from youngest to oldest (and even animals) engaged in perversion with each other. These "nocturnal rites" were supposedly carried out in secret after a human sacrifice was made, and after the lights were extinguished each lay with whoever they encountered in the dark, "as fate would have it."
Certainly suspicion is applicable to secret and nocturnal rites... such "sacred" rites as these are more foul than any sacrileges. Of their banqueting it is well known, as all men speak of it everywhere. Even the speech of our Cirtensian testifies to it. On a solemn day they assemble at the feast with all their children, sisters, mothers, people of every sex and of every age. There after much feasting, when the fellowship has grown warm and the fervor of incestuous lust has grown hot with drunkenness, a dog who is tied to the chandelier is provoked by throwing a small piece of entrails beyond the reach of a line by which he is bound, to make him rush and spring. And thus the conscious light being overturned and extinguished in the shameless darkness, the connections of abominable lust involve them in the uncertainty of fate. (Minucius Felix, Octavius, 9)
And who was the cause for all these evil rumors circulating about what all the "evil" Christians were doing? The Gnostics. They too were naming the name of Christ, but they were actually engaging in orgies like this, as is clear for the writings of early church historians like Epiphanes.
To this end they taught (sexual) liberation to be obligatory, as a law, and not only lawful but necessary to salvation; not only compatible with the Savior's religion but an essential part of it... Prodicus added this to the tenets of Carpocrates that fornication ought to be open and public and the use of women common. For which reason, in their feasts when the candles were extinguished, each lay with the women as chance appointed, and they called this lasciviousness a mystical initiation, a mystical "communion." (Occult Theocracy, Queenborough, P.119-120).
A Return To Lies
The things which took place during New Testament times were mere precursors of what that will take place in the end-times, only on a much larger scale, which means Gnosticism will be returning in its ancient form, and the stage appears to be already set for this coming to pass. So again Satan will use Gnostics to smear the good name of Christ, and by their behavior depict all Christians as licentious, detestable individuals. And eventually he will likely use Islam like he did the Romans. They will be the moral knife he puts to the throats of true Christians to put them to death for supposedly engaging in every debased sexual activity under the sun as well, and just as Ireneaus stated about their predecessors, the coming Gnostics will again be sent forth by Satan to vilify and blaspheme the church as immoral.
These men have been sent forth by Satan to bring dishonor upon the Church, so that in one way or another, men hearing the things which they speak and imagining that we all are such as they, may turn away their ears from the preaching of the truth. Or again, seeing the things they practice, may speak evil of us all who have in fact no fellowship with them either in doctrine or in morals, or in our daily conduct. They lead a sexually licentious life, and to conceal their impious doctrines they abuse the name of Christ as a means of hiding their wickedness, so that their condemnation is just when they receive from God a recompense suited to their works. (Ireneaus, Against Heresies, XXVII, 4)
They set forth, indeed, the name of Christ Jesus as a sort of lure... but destroy multitudes, wickedly disseminating their own doctrines by the use of a good name, and through means of its sweetness and beauty, extending to their hearers the bitter and malignant poison of the serpent, that great author of apostasy (Ireneaus Against Heresies, XXV, 3).
During the persecution under Nero, Christians were tied to stakes and burned alive at dinner parties as a form of entertainment. Treatment so cruel could have only arisen from Satan himself. But how were tortures like these justified in the eyes of his guests? As discussed in Studies #1 as #2, the lifestyle of true Christians was on par with that of the Vestal Virgins, women looked up to within Roman society as paragons of virtue. So why would a society who valued such things not object to genuine Christians being murdered so horrifically?
The answer is that Satan was using the Gnostics - a sexually licentious cult who only identified themselves as "Christians" but were practicing witchcraft and stealing away spouses to exploit them sexually and financially - to completely misrepresent Christianity. Satan's intent here was to tarnish the image of the church, and then convince the Romans that all who named the name of Christ were equally immoral, and therefore worthy only of ridicule and being publicly executed in the cruelest ways possible. The Gnostics were false Christians, however, but most Romans did not know this. All they knew for certain were the rumors going around that "Christians" were amongst the most contemptible and despicable people on earth, and as the apostle Peter would now warn, the true faith would be increasingly "blasphemed" and vilified because of it.
But there were false prophets among the people, as there will be false teachers among you as well, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, and denying the Master who purchased them, bring swift destruction upon themselves. And many will follow after their sexually licentious ways, though which the way of truth will be blasphemed. And through covetousness, with well-turned words they will make merchandise of you, regarding whom the judgment of old is not idle, and their destruction does not slumber. (2 Peter 2:1-3)
As the accuser of the brethren, Satan told God that Job would curse Him to his face if allowed to suffer hardship. It was a lie, of course, but Satan lies all the time. He is the father of it, and the Bible says he comes only to steal, kill and destroy, so he slanders Christians in the public eye to incite people to hate them and if possible kill them. He did this with Christ, using the Pharisees to tell everyone He was casting out demons only by the power of Beelzebub, the prince of demons, meaning He was nothing more than an occult sorcerer and not a true man of God. This was then used to justify attempting to kill Him (Matthew 12:22-30; Matthew 12;14, Matthew 26:1-5).
Satan was now attempting to do the same thing with the church in Peter's time. He was using sexually licentious magicians who identified as "Christians" to paint all believers as sexual predators and sorcerers as well. This is apparently what justified Nero's persecution of the church, for when some suspected he had started the fires in Rome himself to build a larger palace, Tacitus records that he deflected attention from himself by starting the rumor that Christians did it; something many apparently found believable since Satan had already framed them as evildoers who committed the most detestable sins imaginable. Here were his exact words.
"Therefore, to stop the rumor, [Nero] falsely charged with guilt and punished with the most fearful tortures those persons commonly called Christians, who were hated for their enormities. Christus (i.e. Christ), the founder of that name, was put to death as a criminal by Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea in the reign of Tiberius. But the pernicious superstition, repressed for a time broke out yet again, not only through Judea where the mischief originated but throughout the city of Rome as well, whither all things horrible and disgraceful flow from all quarters as to a common receptacle, and where they are encouraged. Accordingly first those were arrested who confessed they were Christians. Next, on their information, a vast multitude were convicted, not so much on the charge of burning the city as of "hating the human race." (Tacitus, Annals)
Why were the Christians hated? Because of "their enormities," meaning they were committing sins so contemptibly evil that only those who "hated the human race" could possibly commit them. It is clear Tacitus was talking vile things, for he referred to them as just more evidence for how "all things horrible and disgraceful" flow to Rome. By this, he meant the city attracted detestably immoral people, like filth flowing towards a common sewer from all directions.
What sort of sins were they supposedly committing which led to them being hated? Minucius Felix’s Octavius describes the kind of accusations that were being leveled against Christians in the first centuries. Like modern Satanists, they supposedly sacrificed and ate children. As the following paragraph states, those being initiated into the cult were systematically deceived into hacking babies to death without knowing it, after which everyone consumed the infant:
The story about the initiation of young novices is as much to be detested as it is well known. That it may deceive the unwary, an infant covered over with meal is placed before the one who is to be stained with their rites. This infant is slain by the young pupil, who has been urged on as if to harmless blows on the surface of the meal, with dark and secret wounds. Thirstily – O horror! - they lick up its blood. Eagerly they divide its limbs. By this victim they are pledged together, and with this consciousness of wickedness they are covenanted to mutual silence. (Minucius Felix, Octavius, 9)
Also like modern Satanists, they supposedly participated in mass orgies where entire families of "brothers and sisters" from youngest to oldest (and even animals) engaged in perversion with each other. These "nocturnal rites" were supposedly carried out in secret after a human sacrifice was made, and after the lights were extinguished each lay with whoever they encountered in the dark, "as fate would have it."
Certainly suspicion is applicable to secret and nocturnal rites... such "sacred" rites as these are more foul than any sacrileges. Of their banqueting it is well known, as all men speak of it everywhere. Even the speech of our Cirtensian testifies to it. On a solemn day they assemble at the feast with all their children, sisters, mothers, people of every sex and of every age. There after much feasting, when the fellowship has grown warm and the fervor of incestuous lust has grown hot with drunkenness, a dog who is tied to the chandelier is provoked by throwing a small piece of entrails beyond the reach of a line by which he is bound, to make him rush and spring. And thus the conscious light being overturned and extinguished in the shameless darkness, the connections of abominable lust involve them in the uncertainty of fate. (Minucius Felix, Octavius, 9)
And who was the cause for all these evil rumors circulating about what all the "evil" Christians were doing? The Gnostics. They too were naming the name of Christ, but they were actually engaging in orgies like this, as is clear for the writings of early church historians like Epiphanes.
To this end they taught (sexual) liberation to be obligatory, as a law, and not only lawful but necessary to salvation; not only compatible with the Savior's religion but an essential part of it... Prodicus added this to the tenets of Carpocrates that fornication ought to be open and public and the use of women common. For which reason, in their feasts when the candles were extinguished, each lay with the women as chance appointed, and they called this lasciviousness a mystical initiation, a mystical "communion." (Occult Theocracy, Queenborough, P.119-120).
A Return To Lies
The things which took place during New Testament times were mere precursors of what that will take place in the end-times, only on a much larger scale, which means Gnosticism will be returning in its ancient form, and the stage appears to be already set for this coming to pass. So again Satan will use Gnostics to smear the good name of Christ, and by their behavior depict all Christians as licentious, detestable individuals. And eventually he will likely use Islam like he did the Romans. They will be the moral knife he puts to the throats of true Christians to put them to death for supposedly engaging in every debased sexual activity under the sun as well, and just as Ireneaus stated about their predecessors, the coming Gnostics will again be sent forth by Satan to vilify and blaspheme the church as immoral.
These men have been sent forth by Satan to bring dishonor upon the Church, so that in one way or another, men hearing the things which they speak and imagining that we all are such as they, may turn away their ears from the preaching of the truth. Or again, seeing the things they practice, may speak evil of us all who have in fact no fellowship with them either in doctrine or in morals, or in our daily conduct. They lead a sexually licentious life, and to conceal their impious doctrines they abuse the name of Christ as a means of hiding their wickedness, so that their condemnation is just when they receive from God a recompense suited to their works. (Ireneaus, Against Heresies, XXVII, 4)
They set forth, indeed, the name of Christ Jesus as a sort of lure... but destroy multitudes, wickedly disseminating their own doctrines by the use of a good name, and through means of its sweetness and beauty, extending to their hearers the bitter and malignant poison of the serpent, that great author of apostasy (Ireneaus Against Heresies, XXV, 3).
