discovering missions - Southern Nazarene University

245187 Disc Missions ins 9/6/07 1:04 PM Page 39
cuted Christians, the political unity these emperors gave to the Mediterranean
world, the roads they built, and the doubts their cultural dominance induced
about local religions spread the very faith those emperors tried to stamp out.
The First 500 Years
In July of the year 180 a number of very insignificant people, led by
a man named Speratus, coming from the small, now unidentifiable
townlet of Scillium, were brought before the proconsul Saturninus
in Carthage and charged with the practice of an illicit religion. The
proconsul was reluctant to order their execution and begged them
to “return to a right mind,” or, at least, think it over for 30 days, but
they remained adamant in adherence to “the religious rites of the
Christians.” They insisted that they lived in the most moral way, abhorred
murder, theft, and bearing false witness. They willingly paid
tax but absolutely refused to do as the proconsul required and
“swear by the genius of our Lord the Emperor” because they did not
recognize “the empire of this world” but served instead the “God
whom no man has seen nor can see.” Such are the simple words of
Speratus. Donata, one of his companions, added “Give honour to
Caesar as unto Caesar, but fear to God,” while Secunda remarked
that “I wish to be none other than I am.” Speratus had brought with
him a bag containing letters of St. Paul, in case, perhaps, they might
need to refer to them, but there was no need. As they persisted in
their obduracy, Saturninus read out a sentence of execution and the
twelve of them, seven men and five women, were immediately beheaded.
They reign, concluded the undoubtedly authentic account
of their martyrdom, “with the Father and Son and Holy Spirit.”
It may seem surprising that already in the year 180 one could
find a little group of highly committed Christians in some obscure
corner of North Africa. . . . [This] demonstrates how fast this new religion
was spreading across the Roman world and, in fact, already
beyond it. 2 —Adrian Hastings
Christian Mission 39
One way of dividing up Christian history is to think of A.D. 1 to 500 as a
period of expansion, 500 to 1500 as a period of uncertainty, 1500 to 1800 as a
renewal of expansion, and 1800 to 1914 as the great century of Christian missions.
At the beginning of that first period, not long after Christ’s resurrection
and ascension, Paul of Tarsus became one of Christianity’s chief persecutors. A
transforming encounter on the Damascus road turned Paul (then called Saul)
into the most visible cross-cultural missionary of the New Testament. Paul and