Life is today as it was back then.
Back when?
Back then when He came and left us with 12 maybe 13 apostles with the power to heal and give sight to the blind., they where looked upon as being part of an evil sect and where all persecuted for believing in one God.
The Emperor Nero (37AD – 68AD) killed thousands of the first Christians trying to eliminate them all. He burned half of Rome and blamed it on them in order to be able to persecute them with the approval of the citizens but he was so cruel in his verdict regarding them (burning them as human torches and much more), that eventually he was viewed upon as a brutal emperor. Even with this, Christians where seen as belonging to an evil sect.
(He divorced his wife Octavia, who was later executed (ordered by Nero himself), and married his mistress Poppaea. Two years later, much of Rome was destroyed in a fire, for which Nero was blamed, although this is now regarded as unlikely. (The old influence from back then, still is today)
Nero diverted blame from himself by accusing the Christians - then a minor religious sect - of starting the fire, leading to a campaign of persecution
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/histori...res/nero.shtml
Going back into this time and era, I understand that for superstitious people healing and giving sight to blind people was feared and this mainly because the Roman Empire was conditioning people to believe that these powers where not from a good God but rather from evil sources. This way of thinking continued on even when the idea of Jesus as the messiah was accepted and this is the reason women and men where burned at the stake for witchcraft by the churches of Jesus Christ himself.
Because of Rome’s influence on the church, it was corrupted from the start.
The citizens of this huge empire that did not get to be touched by Jesus while he was here (which was most of them) thought of Jesus as a monster with the head of a donkey.
Rumours of all kinds surrounded Him and people that believed in Him. This is the reason why He said that His coming would cause division amongst us.
Because He knew that this was going to happen, he warned all of His apostles as to what awaited them for staying true to Him and prepared all of them in advance for the persecution they would be subjected to.
Yet, His words lived and lives on.
Many roman Emperors tried to eliminate this faith completely by eliminating its believers. But they did not succeed.
This faith in 1 God lived on.
This “sect” could never be destroyed and I think it’s mostly because Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit which lives within.
But the more I learn about the past, the more I realise that nothing’s change.
Romans believed in 12 Gods. Today, these 12 Gods are still talked about, for some even venerated. We tend to give more belief to alien life forms then to the existence of God. Some even think aliens will save this earth from destruction.
I am not saying they don’t exist, but I guess if you believe that a spiritual being is “alien” then anyone from the heavens or hell can be considered alien to this planet. We are starting to even believe we come from an alien life form (which I agree with, to the extent that I believe we come from God which is to this planet, an alien life form).
Old cults are starting to return, astrology is still very much in vogue and his still used to predict future events. As was back then, is today.
The more I learn about the impressions of the people back then concerning Jesus and one God the more I realise that the “old” influences of the past are still very present to this day.