What problems were faced by the early Christians?

Answer 1

Persecution along with the 'pagan' religions of the time. Pagan meaning religion of a farmer. Early Christianity had to compete with local religions and deities. Religion was a way of life, and Christianity was changing those ways of life.

They also had to compete with the rise of Islam, and before the rise of Islam, the division of Classical Rome into The Byzantine Empire and what would later be called The Roman Catholic Empire. The Future Roman Catholic Empire would then face the Huns, along with the burning of Rome, after numerous invasions, because of the Huns (who wished to take The Byzantine Empire) This division would lead to the Dark Ages, and the Crusades, a failure for the Western Christian society.

Answer 2

There were occasional periods of official, widespread persecution of Christians by the pagan emperors, estimated to total perhaps twelve years in total, over a period of around three hundred years.

After Constantine gave state patronage and support to one branch of Christianity, Christians in all other branches of Christianity suffered. The Edict of Milan was taken not to apply to the Gnostic Christians, who had formerly formed a major block of Christians in the early empire. In support of his Church, Constantine ordered the persecution of the Donatist Christians in North Africa, but later rescinded the edict because it was not having the desired effect. Decades later, Arian Christians were to suffer because of the intolerance of what had become the major branch of Christianity. In 380, Theodosius made Christianity, "as taught by the bishops of Rome and Alexandria" the state religion of Rome, to the specific exclusion of all other versions. From that time, it was no safer to be a 'heretic' than to be a pagan in the Roman Empire.

Answer 3

Early Christians faced many threats. Namely, until 313 C.E., Christianity was illegal under the rule of the Roman Empire. Christians were crucified, beheaded, fed to wild animals and burned at the stake (to name a few horrible ways they were killed). The Roman Emperor Nero is rumored to have lit his Imperial Garden by lighting the impaled corpses of Christians on fire. Outside forces were not the only threats that faced early Christians, however. There are many accounts of fellow Christians betraying other Christian families to the authorities to save their own lives. Although they faced these dangers, the threat of a painful death was not enough to weaken the faith of the Christians. They developed secret symbols, such as the ICHTHYS (IXOYE) fish to communicate with one another and to share in their "agape meals" without alerting the authorities to their presence. An important thing to note is that Christians are still being persecuted today. All over the world there are Christians in prisons and being killed for the same reasons as the early Christians were. For the most part, in "first world countries," the worst that a Christian will have to endure is a bit of heckling and teasing, but there is no doubt a great deal of persecution of Christians still going on today.

Answer 4

The Romans would want to kill them so they had to worship God in houses of people at night.

Answer 5

Until 311 AD the Christians were recurrently persecuted.