| Spiritual warfare Lesson #3 We need to take a look back at history for just a moment to see how satan worked back then. With all of the evil that is going on in our world today, One would think how could it be worst back in the days of Jesus then it is now. Believe me it was worse. Satan wanted to destroy the early church before it could destroy him. Intense hatred grew so rapidly under the reign of Nero the the Christians would be burned to death, boiled in oil, or eaten by wild beast such as lions. Nero made a sport of this. This was his sick for of entertainment. They had a coliseum back in those days that seated 87,000 seats. Massive crowds would assemble for a whole afternoon to watch this sick sport. Wild beast would be released through Tunnel like passages and then they would place the Christians in these same passages to be hunted down by these wild animals. They would not feed the animals for days in order to make them even more hungry. They were chased until they were caught and then they would be eaten alive before 87,000 cheering people. At first these events only took place about once a year usually during the month of January as a dedication to the gods. However during the sick rule of Nero such afternoons greatly increased. They would then string the dead bodies of the Christians upon a pole, and then they would set them on fire to be as huge lanterns, and then they would set them on the road side to be used as lights to help them see as they worked. So you see satan's mission has been to destroy The church from the very beginning. Since the devil has did this in the past, It should be no great surprise that he would try to do the same to us now. Even with all of this he did not stop the church from growing. The Old Testament is full of true life stories of how God's army, Israel defeated both physical and spiritual adversaries. 1st Corinthians 10:11 1. Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. By studying the Old Testament we can learn a lot about conquering the spiritual world. |