FINAL WARNING: Setting the Stage for Destruction
to him on the Tiber, between the two bridges, bearing the inscription
‘Simoni deo Sancto’ (‘the holy god Simon’).”Besides his attempt to dilute Christian teaching, Satan zeroed in on its
leaders.Stephen, who was a deacon in the first Christian church in Jerusalem,
was stoned to death in 29 A.D.; James, the son of Zebedee, was
beheaded in Jerusalem in 45 A.D.; Philip was tied to a pillar at Phrygia
in 54 A.D. and stoned; James, the son of Alpheus, was dragged from
the Temple, stoned, and beaten to death with a club in 63 A.D.; in 64 A.
D., Mark (author of one of the Gospels) was seized by a mob of pagan
priests and idol worshipers, who tied a rope around his neck, and
dragged him through the streets of Alexandria till he died; Paul (Saul
of Tarsus) was persecuted, then beheaded in Rome, in 69 A.D.; Simon
Peter was crucified upside-down in Rome in 69 A.D.; Andrew was tied
to a cross, and left there three days before he died; Bartholomew was
severely beaten in Armenia in 70 A.D., then beheaded; at Calaminia in
70 A.D., Thomas was thrown into a furnace, then speared to death with
javelins; at Nad-davar in 70 A.D., Matthew was nailed to the ground,
then beheaded; Simon, the Canaanite, was crucified in Syria in 70 A.D.;
Judas Thaddeus was beaten to death with sticks in 70 A.D.; Matthias
(who replaced Judas Iscariot as a disciple/apostle after Judas
committed suicide) was tied to a cross, stoned, and then beheaded in
70 A.D.; Luke (another writer of the Gospels) was hung from an olive
tree in Greece in 93 A.D.; and Timothy was stoned to death by idol
worshipers in 98 A.D.Being that Rome, who ruled the known world, was under the influence
of a form of Baal worship, Christians who refused to worship the
Emperor were persecuted, beginning with Nero, in the middle of the
first century. They were arrested and put to death in various ways,
such as crucifixion, being tied inside animal skins and attacked by wild
dogs, fed to lions, and tied to stakes to be burned as human torches to
light Nero’s gardens at night. These persecutions, which lasted until
early in the fourth century, caused the Christians to literally go
underground, to worship secretly. They took refuge in the
subterranean catacombs of Rome, which extended for miles
underneath the city. There are said to be over two million Christian
graves in these caverns. This persecution of the Christians was