First Century Christians Worship Jesus as God

I have provided biblical references that Jesus of Nazareth is not just a man born from a man’s seed, but from the seed of the Holy Spirit therefore God in human form. I have now decided to research evidence outside of the Bible. Evidence that comes from worldly or secular historical references as to what was being said about the first century (primitive) Christians, that they not only practiced the teaching of Jesus, but worship him as God.

I found a number of historical references, but the follow one is what stood out to be the most clear and straight forward reference. What makes this reference stand out the most is from who it comes from and to whom it is being sent to. The following is an excerpt from Pliny the Younger who was governor of Pontus/Bithynia from 111-113 AD an area that is now northwestern Turkey. He wrote many letters to his good friend the Trajan, Emperor of Roman.

One of the issues Pliny had to deal with concerned what to do with the Christians; there was a large amount of Christians in the province where Pliny had been sent to govern. Pliny reported to Trajan that Christianity had not only affected the cities in his jurisdiction but also the surrounding country side and villages. One of the results of the spread of Christianity in this region was that the area had received some economic loss because so many had become Christians and were not buying sacrifices to offer to the gods.

The teachings of the first century (primitive) Christianity were that there was no other God except Christos and that Christians were not to worship any other gods. Their refusal to accept the ancient Roman religion and worship the gods of the state was seen as treason in the Roman world. This was the basis for most of the persecutions against the Christians. Christians denied the existence of the states gods and refused to worship the gods of the Roman pantheon, which lead them to be seen as atheists on the eyes of Roman law.

“Meanwhile, in the case of those who were denounced to me as Christians, I have observed the following procedure: I interrogated these as to whether they were Christians; those who confessed I interrogated a second and a third time, threatening them with punishment; those who persisted I ordered executed. For I had no doubt that, whatever the nature of their creed, stubbornness and inflexible obstinacy surely deserve to be punished.”

Complaints were laid against some Christians that resulted in arrest and being sent before Pliny to be examined; those that refused to “repent” and accept the states gods and religion were executed, because Pliny thought that just their mere stubbornness concerning Christianity and the state religion deserved some sort of punishment. Pliny goes on to state that:

“They asserted, however, that the sum and substance of their fault or error had been that they were accustomed to meet on a fixed day before dawn and sing responsively a hymn to Christ as to a god, and to bind themselves by oath, not to some crime, but not to commit fraud, theft, or adultery, not falsify their trust, nor to refuse to return a trust when called upon to do so. When this was over, it was their custom to depart and to assemble again to partake of food--but ordinary and innocent food.”

The highlighted statement above is the amazing point found within Pliny’s letter to the emperor of Roman. The first century, primitive Christians were not being punished by death because of their Christian practices of meeting for worship and partaking of the Lord’s Supper on a fixed day of the week.

They were persecuted because they worshiped Jesus as God and refused to worship the official gods of the Roman Empire a crime punishable by death.