by Raymond Ibrahim<\/p>\n
Originally published by World Magazine<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n One of the traditional purposes for studying History has been to learn from it, to see how past events can shed light on the present.\u00a0 This is possible assuming the history presented is true.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, in our postmodern era of relativism, history has become a malleable tool to justify one\u2019s philosophical and\/or political inclinations\u2014with all the wild anachronisms, projections, and conjectures that entails.<\/p>\n Happily, there is a little known antidote to these distorted revisionist histories. Ironically\u00a0we can often<\/em>\u00a0learn about the past by looking at the present<\/em>\u2014for the patterns of human nature do not change.<\/p>\n Consider the book\u00a0The Myth of Persecution: How Early Christians Invented a Story of Martyrdom<\/em>, by one Candida Moss.\u00a0 Despite the fact that Christian martyrdom under the militant Roman Empire has long been an unquestioned historical fact, Moss claims that it was largely a \u201cmyth,\u201d that many of history\u2019s best known narratives of Christian martyrs were entirely fabricated.<\/p>\n This thesis, as most modern-day academic theses concerning early history, is fundamentally based on conjecture, projections, and above all, anachronisms\u2014the sort that earlier turned\u00a0Christ into a homosexual hippie and Muhammad into a humanitarian feminist<\/a>. Neither Moss nor anyone else can prove or disprove what the primary historical texts say\u2014that Roman persecution of Christians was very real, widespread, and brutal.<\/p>\n We weren\u2019t there.<\/p>\n But from an objective point of view, is it not more reasonable to accept the words of contemporary eyewitnesses, than it is the conjectures of a politically charged book that is separated from its subject by 2,000 years?<\/p>\n Among other ideas unintelligible and inapplicable to the ancient world,\u00a0Moss invokes<\/a>\u00a0\u201cT-shirts,\u201d \u201cfavorite athletes,\u201d and \u201cbrands of soda\u201d to \u201cprove\u201d that the ancient narrative of Christians tortured and killed for their faith was all a gag to make a profit: \u201cMartyrs were like the action heroes of the ancient world,\u201d Moss says. \u201cIt was like getting your favorite athlete endorsing your favorite brand of soda. \u2026Of course, the prices were completely jacked up.\u201d<\/p>\n In short, the merit of Moss\u2019 thesis rests in the fact that it satisfies a certain anti-Christian sentiment\u2014that it satisfies a modern-day political perspective\u2014and not that it offers any facts or serious arguments. Indeed, by projecting cynical postmodern perspectives onto the mentalities of people, both Romans and Christians, who lived worlds and centuries away, the thesis is ultimately farcical.<\/p>\n Even so, let\u2019s tackle the myth charge from a different angle.\u00a0 Let\u2019s leave the question of eyewitnesses, texts, and traditions, and instead rely on\u00a0common sense<\/em>\u2014that which is in short supply in the academic community\u2014by considering the following question: If at least\u00a0100 million Christians are currently being persecuted today<\/a>, in an era when Western ideas of humanitarianism and religious tolerance have permeated the rest of the world, thanks to globalism, \u00a0is it not reasonable to conclude that 2,000 years ago, when \u201cmight made right\u201d and brutally prevailed, that Christians were\u00a0also<\/em>\u00a0being persecuted then, especially when contemporary sources clearly indicate as much?<\/p>\n Consider the modern Islamic world alone, where today\u2019s overwhelming majority of horrific Christian persecution occurs, as documented in my new book\u00a0Crucified Again: Exposing Islam\u2019s New War on Christians<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0 Today in the 21st\u00a0century, Christians under Islam are still being tortured, imprisoned, enslaved, and killed; their churches and Bibles are routinely banned or burned.<\/p>\n Why is that?\u00a0 Because Islam is a supremacist cult, which brooks no opposition and demands conformity, one way or the other: Islamic law (see Koran 9:29) teaches that those who come under its hegemony must either convert, or keep their faith but live as ostracized third-class citizens (dhimmis<\/em>), or die.<\/p>\n The supremacist culture of the Roman Empire\u2014an even older martial cult devoted to the gods of war\u2014was not much different and demanded compliance from the subjugated, regardless of how modern, armchair historians try to romanticize it.<\/p>\n If today\u2019s Muslims\u2014who are acquainted with modern ideas of humanitarianism and tolerance\u2014are\u00a0still<\/em>\u00a0brutally persecuting the Christian minorities in their midst, are we seriously to believe that the warlike Roman Empire, which existed at a time when brutality and cruelty were the expected norm, did not persecute Christians,\u00a0especially when the records say it did<\/em>? The Roman punishment of crucifixion alone sheds light on the ruthless severity of the ancient empire.<\/p>\n Moreover, Christianity was and still is the one religion that refuses to comply with its supremacist overlords, that puts its beliefs above the preservation of life.\u00a0 Unlike other religions which approve of dissembling and outward conformity\u2014Islamic law permits Muslims to outwardly renounce Muhammad<\/a>, if doing so will save their lives\u2014Christians have long had a habit of \u201cannoying\u201d their superiors by refusing to comply, even to save their lives.<\/p>\n