Wednesday, March 18, 2020

Early Christians and Plagues

I'm seeing some chatter about this current virus possibly having "prophetic" portent. I wonder what the chatter among futuristic premils would have been during the two world wars of last century. Let's not jump the gun. Anyway, I thought this PJ Media article was pretty good:
Christians facing the corona virus today would do well to remember how the selfless love of the early church helped spread the gospel in a world much more hostile to Jesus' message than our world is today. Christianity spread in the face of persecution for many reasons, but in two cases it spread in the midst of deadly plagues — because Christians risked their lives to save others.
Two historic plagues ravaged the Roman Empire: the Antonine Plague (165-180 A.D.) and the Cyprian Plague (249-262 A.D.). The plagues killed roughly a quarter to a third of the population, striking down emperors (Marcus Aurelius, Hostilian, and Claudius II Gothicus), and ravaging the empire. As in the case of the coronavirus today, panic spread because the society did not understand the disease...keep reading

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