15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, 16 having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame (1 Peter 3:15-16).
In Acts of the Apostles, Paul and others are described doing the following:
Acts 9:22, Paul “confounded”
Acts 17:17 …show more content…
Moreover, the situation suffered more complications by the Roman practice of a loyalty oath by worshiping or presenting an offering to an idol and declaring Cesar as Lord app. This practice propounded itself as anathema to the Christian. However, Roman adduced it as an act of disloyalty. Roman’s valued stability in the provinces and districts. Oftentimes, the presentation of Christian beliefs precipitated a ruckus among the pagans who wanted to protect the status quo or the Jews who viewed the Christians as heretics. Thus, the general population had an advantage of leverage over the ordinary Christian. A rival Jew or even a businessman could leverage the fact that someone is a Christian to remove them by either causing a ruckus or even a straightforward accusation. Moreover, they tacitly understood the Christian would not renounce their faith and faced …show more content…
Rivals exploited this to their respective advantage. Christians often referred to each other as brother or sister. Indeed, married Christians remarking to each other in this manner led to the charge of incest. The Eucharistic meal where the Christians ate the flesh and drank the blood of Christ led to the ignorant charges of cannibalism. Furthermore, many sects arose that took the title of Christian, but practiced sexual immorality, and these charges were enumerated to the true Christian church.
Justin attempted to bring true Christian practices to the light. He undertook to build a bridge between Christianity and the Roman leadership, Judaism, the pagans and the heretics. His 1 Apology addressed the emperor himself. While his Dialogue with Trypho, Justin endeavored to explain Christian practice with respect to Judaism. Justin’s work strove to intellectually explain the Christian belief system by exhibiting its merits to society.
Tacitus charged Christianity for “’hatred of the human race.’” Remarkably, this charge proffers itself today by the world. The world pleas for tolerance meaning that we compromise our beliefs for another’s beliefs. I exhibit a definition of tolerance by Fulton