THIS CORRUPT GENERATION
THIS CORRUPT GENERATION
“With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, ‘save yourselves from this corrupt generation’. Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day” (Acts 2:40-41).
It is a fact that the church began in the midst of a “corrupt generation”. Furthermore, it even thrived in the midst of such corruption.
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The church began with 11 disciples meeting in an upper room (Jn. 20:19-31).
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In a few weeks it grew to 120 disciples (Acts 1:15).
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After only one sermon 3,000 more were added (Acts 2:41).
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Soon their number had grown to about 5,000 men (Acts 4:4).
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Then more and more people were added, both men and women (Acts 5:14).
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Next we are told that the number of disciples was increasing (Acts 6:1).
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Then we are told that the number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith (Acts 6:7).
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When the church was scattered by the persecution that arose after the stoning of Stephen, those that were scattered preached the word wherever they went (Acts 8:1-4).
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When Paul was in Ephesus the church had so much success that all the Jews and Greeks in Asia heard the word of the Lord (Acts 19:10).
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In a brief ten years Paul fully proclaimed the Gospel of Christ from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum (Rom. 15:19).
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By the time Paul wrote to the Colossians the Gospel had been proclaimed to every creature under heaven (Col. 1:23).
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Remember! All of this happened in a “corrupt generation”!
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“Corruption” was everywhere but it didn’t stop the church!
THE JEWISH PRIESTS WERE CORRUPT
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The Jewish leaders were corrupt, that’s why Jesus cleansed the temple on the first Passover of His public ministry (Jn. 2:13-22).
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On the last Passover of His public ministry He cleansed it again (Matt. 21:12-13; Mk. 11:15-19; Lk. 19:45-47).
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They devoured widow’s houses and for a pretense made long prayers (Mk. 12:40).
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They turned the temple into a den of robbers (Matt. 21:13).
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They were like whitewashed tombs that looked beautiful on the outside, but within were filled with dead men’s bones and everything unclean (Matt. 23:27).
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They had planned to kill Jesus for many months (Matt. 12:14, Jn. 5:18; etc.)
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When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, however, the chief priests planned to kill both Jesus and Lazarus (Jn. 11:9-11).
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They used the testimony of false witnesses to convict Jesus (Matt. 26:59-61).
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When Jesus was raised from the dead they bribed the soldiers with a large sum of money to say that His disciples came by night and stole His body (Matt. 28:12-13).
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If word of the resurrection got to the governor they promised to bribe him too and thus keep the Roman soldiers from being executed for dereliction of duty (Matt. 28:14).
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Remember! The church grew rapidly in spite of corruption in the highest levels of the Jewish religion.
PILATE WAS CORRUPT
Pilate was the fifth governor of the Roman province of Judaea. He served during the reign of the emperor Tiberius. Josephus states that Pilate governed for 10 years. Because the Romans allowed a certain degree of local control, Pilate shared a limited amount of civil and religious power with the Jewish Sanhedrin. As governor, Pilate had the right to appoint the Jewish High Priest and also officially controlled the vestments of the High Priest in the Antonia Fortress. Pilate retained Caiaphas as high priest for his entire tenure. Caiaphas was removed as high priest when Pilate's was removed as governor. This suggests that Caiaphas and the sect of the Sadducees worked together as reliable allies to Pilate.
After interviewing Jesus, Pilate was convinced of His innocence and tried to set Him free. His allies in the Sanhedrin, however, said: “If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar” (Jn. 19:12). The corrupt Pilate then publicly washed his hands, proclaimed his innocence, and handed Jesus over to be crucified (Matt. 27:24). Pilate was not only corrupt, he was a coward!
The church prospered in Judea, however, even though the governor of Judea was corrupt!
HEROD WAS CORRUPT
There were many men named Herod who were descendants of Herod the Great. While all of the Herod’s were corrupt, we refer now to Herod Antipas who played a minor role in the crucifixion of Jesus. When Pilate heard that Jesus was from Galilee, he sent Him to Herod Antipas, the governor of Galilee, who just happened to be in Jerusalem at that time. Herod Antipas had heard of Jesus and wanted to see Him perform some miracles. When Jesus didn’t do so, Herod ridiculed and mocked Him, and the chief priests and elders vehemently accused Him. Then they mocked Jesus by dressing him in an elegant robe and sending Him back to Pilate (Lk. 23:6-12).
Herod Antipas was also the same corrupt ruler who married his brother Philip’s wife and beheaded John the Baptist (Mk. 6:14-29). Ultimately he was exiled by Caligula, and his money and power were handed over to Herod Agrippa.
In spite of Herod’s corruption, Jesus recruited eleven of the twelve apostles from Galilee. Judas Iscariot was the only one of the twelve who came from Judea.
THE CAESARS WERE CORRUPT
There were many Roman Caesars in the first century. All of them were corrupt!
Jesus was born during the reign of Caesar Augustus (Lk. 2:1). Augustus was the adopted son of his maternal great uncle, Julius Caesar, who as assassinated by corrupt politicians in 44 B.C. Augustus took public funds to raise an army to fight Mark Antony, and without official permission also illegally took other public funds. In 31 B.C. his mercenary army won the Battle of Actium against Mark Antony. Augustus then returned to Rome as a hero and proclaimed himself as the Caesar. After his death in A.D. 14 this corrupt man was proclaimed a god.
Augustus was followed by Tiberius who reigned from A.D. 14 – 37. Tiberius became Caesar because his mother divorced and married Augustus. Augustus then insisted that Tiberius get a divorce so he could marry his widowed daughter, Julia. It was an unhappy marriage but it put Tiberius in line for the throne. The last year of his life Augustus shared his rule with Tiberius. Just as Augustus groomed him to be Caesar, Tiberius appeared to be grooming Sejanus to succeed him. Then he changed his mind and Sejanus, his family and friends, were all executed or committed suicide.
When Tiberius died on March 16, 37 A.D. Caligula came to power. Caligula was cruel, indulged in many sexual aberrations, and was considered insane. He was killed by the Praetorian Guard on Jan. 24, 41 A.D.
Claudius became the next emperor and reigned from Jan. 24, 41 A.D. to Oct. 13, 54 A.D. Adopting Nero, his fourth wife’s son, turned out to be a fatal mistake. Agrippina, the emperor’s wife, and Nero’s mother, poisoned Claudius now that the future of her son was secure.
Nero reigned from A.D. 54 to his death on June 9, 68 A.D. He was one of the most degraded monsters who ever lived. He ordered the murder of his brother, the assassination of his mother, the murder of his first wife, and the death of thousands of innocent Christians. The Christians were killed because Nero blamed them for setting fire to Rome. Actually, Nero set the fire himself as an inexpensive way of cleaning out the slums. He wanted Rome to be more beautiful than Constantinople and burned the slums was the first step in preparing Rome for renovation. The Christians were merely convenient scape goats to divert attention from his own guilt. Nero also was also guilty of ordering the deaths of both Peter and Paul. Nero committed suicide June 9, 69 A.D.
Galba was the next emperor but only for a short time. He was succeeded by Otho who came to power by promising financial rewards to the praetorians. As the Emperor, Otho had Galba put to death Jan. 15, 69 A.D.
Otho also reigned only a few months for the troops in Germany defied him and made Vitellius the emperor. Otho offered to reign jointly with him, but the offer was rejected. Otho committed suicide on Apr. 14, 69 A.D.
This was a time of turmoil. While some soldiers swore their allegiance to Vitellius in April, by July other soldiers in Egypt made Vespasian the emperor. Vitellius was then tortured, killed, then dragged by a hook into the Tiber River.
Vespasian was emperor from A.D. 69 until his death ten years later. He died of natural causes June 23, 79 A.D. Vespasian had two sons, Titus and Domitian, both of whom became emperors.
Yes! The emperors of Rome were all corrupt, but this did not keep the church from growing!
SOCIETY WAS CORRUPT
Paul reminded the Ephesians that the Gentiles lived “in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity they have given
themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more” (Eph. 4:17-19).
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It is estimated that 30 - 40% of the people in Italy were slaves. The average life span for a male slave in Italy was only 17.2 years, and for a female slave was 17.9 years. It is estimated that 10 – 15% of the entire Roman empire were slaves. Slaves were the property of their masters and had no rights. They could legally be abused sexually or killed by their masters.
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Public pornography was rampant. It was crude beyond description. It not only included graphic displays of human genitalia, but also every possible sexual perversion including sex with animals.
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Pornographic graffiti also abounded. When they dug up Pompeii archeologists were shocked by the sheer volume of pornographic graffiti defacing virtually every public wall.
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Sexual depravity even corrupted the cemetery with X-rated tomb stones.
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Their literature also reflected every sort of sexual perversion.
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Sex with children was common and bore no stigma of being improper.
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Sexual orgies were also associated with the worship of their fertility gods and goddesses. •
With so many unwanted babies being born infanticide was rampant.
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Sadly, the emperors often led the nation into depravity. Caligula, for example, converted his palace into a brothel and pimped out his sisters. Elagabalus became emperor at age 14 and died at 18. He was married three times, cruised the red light districts dressed in drag, and tried to get physicians to turn him into a woman. He sometimes put people to death as entertainment at his parties. At age 18 he and his mother were stabbed to death by Roman soldiers, dragged through the streets of Rome, and then thrown into the Tiber River.
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While some believe the existence of vomitoriums in Rome is a myth, Seneca, the Stoic (4 B.C. - A.D. 65) wrote of slaves cleaning up the vomit of drunks at banquets, and in his Letter to Helvia, he summarized the vomitorium idea succinctly but metaphorically, referring to what he saw as the excesses of Rome: "They vomit so they may eat, and eat so that they may vomit." •
Drunkenness was also common in ancient Rome. Paul wrote to Rome saying: “Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather clothe yourself with the Lord Jesus Christ and do not think about how to gratify the desires of your sinful nature” (Rom. 13:13-14).
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Divorce was also rampant in the Roman world. Stanford University Prof. Susan Treggiari, has written a book on Roman Marriage (Oxford University Press). She states: “By the first century B.C., either spouse could divorce the other or they could agree mutually to divorce. Since marrying another person was an indication that someone considered him or herself divorced from a previous spouse, bigamy was impossible.”
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Unemployment left many Roman Citizens homeless, because they could not pay their rent, and half starved. The emperor had grain imported to feed 100,000 unemployed people in Rome alone. The rest of the Empire sufferedas well.
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Public entertainment was introduced to keep the people content and to prevent uprisings. There were chariot races at the Circus Maximus, musical and theatrical performances, public executions, beast hunts, and gladiatorial combat. Rome’s most famous amphitheater, the Colosseum, could accommodate up to 50,000 spectators.
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Soon, watching people die lost it’s allure and gladiators had to devise new weapons and routines to keep the people entertained.
- Yes! There is no doubt that Roman society was corrupt!
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Not only were there Christians in Rome, however, but they thrived to the point that their faith was being reported all over the world (Rom. 1:8).
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It is possible for the church to thrive in the midst of corruption!
DON’T BE DISCOURAGED
These references to corruption are not meant to discourage you, just the opposite. Corruption is nothing new and God designed His Church to cure corruption. Just as the most corrupt soil can produce the best garden, so also the most corrupt societies can produce the strongest churches. The beauty of a diamond is best seen on black velvet.
Take, for example, the example of Ephesus. Ephesus was as corrupt as Rome but the church there was also strong. Ephesus was the site of the infamous Temple of Diana which was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The special corruption in Ephesus, however, brought forth special miracles. Please note: Paul “took the disciples with him and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. This went on for two years, so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord. God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and evil spirits left them” (Acts 19:10-11).
Corinth was perhaps the most corrupt city of all. In fact, to “Corinthianize” was synonymous with living a corrupt life style. Yet, when Paul came to Corinth the Lord spoke to him in a vision and said: “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you, and no one is going to harm you, because I have many people in this city” (Acts 18:9-10).
Please do not be discouraged by corruption. The Lord has promised to be with you always (Matt. 28:18-20. He will never leave you or forsake you (Heb. 13:5). Remember! He that is within us is greater than he that is in the world (1 Jn. 4:4). As long as we stick with Jesus we will be “more than conquerers” through Him Who loves us (Rom. 8:37).
“They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him” (Ps. 126:5-6 KJV).
(This study was written by Boyce Mouton. No rights are reserved! You are encouraged to use this material in whole or in part for the glorification of Christ and the advancement of His Kingdom)