Vibia Perpetua was the mother of an infant son

Vibia Perpetua was the mother of an infant son. She and her personal slave, Felicitas, who was eight months pregnant, were imprisoned in the Roman city of Carthage, North Africa. Their imprisonment occurred under the rule of Emperor Septimus Severus, the vile emperor who launched the first empire-wide persecution of Christians in A. D. 202. Tucker says, "The emperor himself worshiped Serapis, an Egyptian god of the dead, and he feared Christianity was a threat to his own religion."

Christianity was growing rapidly in Carthage at the time, and the persecution there was the most intense in all the Roman Empire. Perpetua, Felicitas, three men, and their leader, a deacon named Saturus, were arrested. Perpetua’s father, a respected nobleman, endured distress and humiliation when he "was informed that his only daughter had been arrested and imprisoned as a common criminal. He came and pleaded with her to renounce the new faith . . . [and] she refused." When he later heard that Perpetua was to be thrown into a public arena with wild beasts, he came to the prison and tried forcibly to rescue her. He failed and was beaten by the Roman officials. Perpetua wrote, "I was grieved by my father’s plight as if I had been struck myself." Again he pled with her to consider the shame and suffering she was bringing upon her family and to renounce her Christian faith. She responded, "This will be done on the scaffold which God has willed, for I know that we have not been placed in our own power but in God’s."

Perpetua’s greatest sufferings while in prison awaiting her execution were due to her anxiety for her family and especially for her infant son. She said she was "racked with anxiety" almost to the breaking point. Permission was finally given for her baby to be with her in prison until the day of her death. She wrote, "At once I recovered my health, relieved as I was of my worry and anxiety over the child."

When the day of their execution drew near, the condemned believers met for prayer and to share an agape love feast, "more concerned about their worthiness, their loyalty to Christ than about the suffering ahead of them." Perpetua and Felicitas had already experienced five of the seven worst evils mentioned by Paul: tribulation, distress, persecution, famine (prison food was just enough to keep them alive), and peril. They were soon to experience the last two sources of trials, nakedness and the sword.

The men were first tortured for the entertainment of the crowd before their execution "by being mauled by ‘a bear, a leopard and a wild boar.’ Finally they were put to death. The two women were saved for last."

Perpetua and Felicitas, who had given birth to her baby in prison, were stripped (nakedness) and sent into the arena to face a mad heifer. The gory torture soon became too much for the crowd and the people began shouting, "Enough."

When this preliminary exhibition was ended, the young women were brought to the executioner, at which time Perpetua called out to some grieving Christian friends, "Give out the word to the brothers and sisters; stand fast in the faith, love one another, and don’t let suffering become a stumbling block to you."

She was taken to the gladiator to be beheaded. . . . His first blow was not sufficient. Perpetua cried out in pain, and took the gladiator’s trembling hand and directed the sword to her throat and it was over.

Edward F. Murphy, Handbook for Spiritual Warfare [computer file], electronic ed. of the revised and updated edition, Logos Library System, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson) 1997, ©1996 by Edward F. Murphy.

quotes from Ruth Tucker, From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 1983, pp 34–35.

They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy. How he had wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan: And had turned their rivers into blood; and their floods, that they could not drink. He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them. He gave also their increase unto the caterpiller, and their labour unto the locust. He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycomore trees with frost. He gave up their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts. He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them. He made a way to his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence; And smote all the firstborn in Egypt; the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham: But made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

Psalm 78:42-52

In this Psalm the confrontation with the ruler of the nation of Egypt and the fertility god Serapis is recounted. God judged the god Serapis and defeated him in a powerful way, the same god Vibia confronted. Interestingly the Egyptians plan on suing Israel because God defeated a pagan god. This is a predominately Muslim nation that supposedly is monotheistic and yet they are suing Israel on behalf of a pagan god, Serapis. The confrontation today with fertility gods and goddesses is obvious, even pulling a religion that supposedly opposes such things onto the side of the gods who oppose the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Commentary

Psalm 78:42 They did not remember how He had proved Himself strong on their behalf, how He had rescued them from the enemy. Their deliverance from Egypt was the greatest display of divine power in human history up to that time. But they took it for granted.

Psalm 78:43 In verses 43–53 Egypt is in retrospect again, this time with emphasis on six of the plagues in the following order:

First plague—rivers turned to blood (v.44).

Fourth plague—flies (v. 45a).

Second plague—frogs (v. 45b).

Eighth plague—locusts (v. 46).

Seventh plague—hail (vv. 47, 48).

Tenth plague—death of the firstborn (vv. 49–51).

Psalm 78:44 God turned their rivers into blood, so that the Egyptians could not drink from them. The Nile, which they regarded as sacred, suddenly became polluted. But the water supply of the Israelites remained uncontaminated.

Psalm 78:45 He sent swarms of flies into all the houses of the Egyptians. They had worshiped Beelzebub, the "lord of flies," and now this god turned on them to devour them. Interestingly enough, the flies did not invade the land of Goshen where the Israelites were living.

He sent a plague of frogs into Egypt. Respected as a symbol of fertility, the frogs destroyed the people in the sense that they brought normal life to a standstill. But the plague affected only Egyptians; the Hebrews were protected by the hand of God.

Psalm 78:46 God sent locusts to cover the land of Egypt. The god Serapis was supposed to protect the people from these destructive insects. But Serapis was powerless. The crops were ruined; the harvest wiped out. During all this the Israelites saw neither caterpillar nor locust.

Psalm 78:47, 48 The seventh plague involved hail, frost and fiery lightning. It wrought tremendous havoc on man, cattle, flocks, vines, and trees. But it was a discriminating judgment. " ... In the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, there was no hail" (Exodus 9:26).

William MacDonald; edited with introductions by Arthur Farstad, Believer’s Bible Commentary: Old and New Testaments [computer file], electronic ed., Logos Library System, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson) 1997, ©1995 by William MacDonald.

In Exodus 10:1-20 we see that the confrontation with god of fertility was basic to the showdown between God through Moses and Aaron. God demonstrated His power over that of the bull god Apis and that He alone is God.

Moses and Aaron warned Pharaoh of an impending locust plague, but he would agree to let only the men go to hold a feast to the Lord. The women and children had to stay behind. But God would not have the men in the wilderness while their families were still in Egypt. The plague was of unprecedented severity, with locusts covering the land and eating everything edible. This showed that the god Serapis was powerless to protect from locusts. Pharaoh seemed willing to yield, but he would not let the children of Israel go.

Even though Moses and Aaron showed the fact that Yahweh is the one true God and that Apis along with fertility religion is a spiritual counterfeit the people were quickly pulled away even while Moses was with the LORD. The psalmist in Psalm 106 recounts the situation that most of us are familiar with and the confrontation Vibia experienced firsthand.

They envied Moses also in the camp, and Aaron the saint of the LORD. The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, and covered the company of Abiram. And a fire was kindled in their company; the flame burned up the wicked. They made a calf in Horeb, and worshipped the molten image. Thus they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass. They forgat God their saviour, which had done great things in Egypt

Psalm 106:16-21

...Now the psalmist becomes more pointed in his confession of Israel’s sin. He passes to the sin of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram who envied Moses also in the camp and became jealous of his high position, assigned by God Himself (Exodus 3:10; 4:1–17). They also expressed jealousy over Aaron the saint of the Lord. The result of their jealousy was devastating: The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, and covered the company of Abiram (compare with Numbers 26:9–11). Meanwhile, the flame burned up the wicked, a reference to Korah and company (compare with Deuteronomy 11:6).

19–20. The crimes of Israel continue to be described. They made a calf in Horeb, the very place where they had solemnly pledged themselves to obey the Law of the Lord, and worshiped the molten image (compare with Exodus 32:4, 24; Deuteronomy 9:8–16). Thus they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass. This phrase expresses the contempt which the psalmist has for the gods of Egypt. He undoubtedly has in mind not only the golden calf, but Apis, or Serapis, the god of Egypt fashioned as a black bull with a white streak along the back and a half-moon white mark on his right shoulder.

Jerry Falwell, executive editor; Edward E. Hinson and Michael Kroll Woodrow, general editors, KJV Bible Commentary [computer file], electronic ed., Logos Library System, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson) 1997, ©1994.

Unlike Queen Nefertiti, a young Carthaginian woman of aristocratic origin named Vibia Perpetua rejected all of the pantheon of Egyptian gods and goddesses. At the time she lived 1,500 years had elapsed since the time of Nefertiti. As odd as it might seem to some of us the Egyptians had a whole host of gods and goddesses that had to do with the dead that they worshipped. Vibia was a Christian and was singular in that her faith in Christ not only led to her martyrdom, but the gruesome aspects of her torture also led to the end of public spectacles of torture and grisly executions of Christians in Carthage. In Egypt, Carthage, and Rome Christians were persecuted for the simple reason that they refused to worship any of the different gods and goddesses popular in the Roman Empire. The Caesars demanded worship as gods that placed Christians at variance with the rule of law. The idea of being able to freely worship as one chooses in the United States is overlooked in its historical context. Not only this, but Christians in countries like Sudan, the Congo, Rwanda, and other Muslim countries are often persecuted, raped, tortured, and murdered on a daily basis at this moment. Our heritage has been borne to us in this country by centuries of martyrdom that has demonstrated that Christianity is singular in the world. We are hated because we refuse to say that it would be alright to pray to Nefertiti, worship one of the many gods that others deem important and/or supreme, or place anything before our God as a god. The concentration of power into the hands of a select and elite few elicits the worst in human nature. There was not any religion or political system around at the founding of the United States that would agree with the phrase, "the Law is King, the Cross the Light." Rex Lex, Crux Lux. Our liberty and blessings that we now enjoy are due to Christianity. It is difficult to see in the panorama of history that we owe our freedom and wealth to Jesus Christ and the fact that our laws are based on the Bible with a heritage of English Common Law as the basis for juris prudence that in turn was greatly shaped by Christianity along with the recognition of Mosaic Law.

In a way, Vibia Perpetua contributed to who we are by her faith that she lived out until the end. She resisted the temptation offered to her to live if only she would succumb to a god. Instead of celebrating sex as love, the Christians celebrated agape love, the kind of love that only comes from God through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ by His Holy Spirit. Vibia stands in stark contrast to many today. There are many records of similar acts of faith down through the centuries, yet this stands out in contrast to the acquiescence to evil that we see on the part of some who have no time for God, the things of God, or His Kingdom in the modern world. A recent First Lady channeled Eleanor Roosevelt, repeating the mistake that cost Saul his role as the first king of Israel and his life. This is in direct defiance of the admonitions against divination. Another First Lady consulted astrology to gain advice about what to do in matters of state, another example of defiance of God and His Son Jesus Christ. Vibia also stands in contrast to those who chose to fit into the society of their time. There have been Christians in Sudan and other countries that have been crucified, tortured, raped until dead, sold into slavery, had their eyes gouged out, sealed in 55-gallon drums and placed in the sun while someone beat on it and then left to die in sweltering heat. The story of Vibia is an example that was recorded and typical of the many millions of people who have died for their faith in the past 20 years, and the 130,000,00 who have died simply because they are Christians in the past 100 years.

The brutality of mankind is brought out when someone is seen as a threat to having things their way as was Vibia. The worship of the god of the dead and fertility, Apis (Serapis) by the Roman Emperor has an interesting parallel. This god was a bull and bulls are archetypes of fertility and strength dating back thousands of years before Moses as supreme gods to be worshipped. People who worship the Living God are confronted with this from time to time. Our society worships sex and everything about it. Recently Madonna and two other rock idols kissed as if they are lesbians much to the delight of audiences and news commentators. Somehow sex in all its forms have become "liberating". Vibia was confronted because the ruler of her day worshipped a bull. Moses ran into opposition in the camp soon after coming down from the mountain where he had met with Yahweh. Disgruntled Israelites made an image of a golden calf, a fertility symbol. The things of Egypt and the gods of Egypt were still desirable to some who fled the pharaoh.

Artemis was hailed as the most popular goddess of the Roman Empire at the time of Christ and sometime after. She is variously known as Diana, Ishtar, Astarte, and Venus and is in charge of erotic love and fertility. It is interesting that the Apostle Paul nearly lost his life in a confrontation with the artisans and people of Ephesus. The god Apis was worshipped along with Artemis in Ephesus, two symbols of fertility that are found in pagan religions under different names. Although Muslims are monotheistic, the reward for the suicide bombings in Israel and that of the ones who flew planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon is sexual. Jihad is carried out with the belief that they will be rewarded by having the run of honey-eyed virgins after death. The same evil mixture of sex and death in pagan religions is still evidenced in even a religion that claims to be monotheistic. Oddly, Muslims worship unknowingly the gods and goddesses that pagans tout as opposed to the Living God.

Ephesus was the queen city of Asia Minor, situated about three miles from the Aegean Sea on the Cayster River, and had a population of about 340,000. It was the capital of the proconsular province Asia and was one of the most important cities visited by the Apostle Paul. Ephesus was noted for the Great Temple of Diana (Artemis), an open-air theatre seating 25,000, a magnificent stadium, and the shrine of Serapis (an Egyptian divinity). Ephesus was famous for its rich culture: Oriental religion, Greek philosophy, Roman government, and worldwide commerce.