We've been studying Ancient Rome in school over the last few weeks and, as can be expected, it's a pretty fascinating subject for young boys. There's no shortage of battles being fought and those Romans certainly were impressive in their art of war. Even a herd of Carthaginian elephants couldn't stop them! But just as they were beginning to be really wowed by those brave Romans, we began to read of their treatment of early Christians. They had felt threatened by the Christians worshipping only one God instead of the many gods of the Romans and were determined to squelch the growth of Christianity.
We read about one man named Polycarp who was burned at the stake for refusing to denounce his love and devotion to Christ. All the way to the very end of his life, as flames were growing around him, he was praising God, thanking him for the privilege of dying for him and expressing joy at the thought of being with him that very day. The kids were silent and entranced through the whole story and when it was finished Ben said quietly, "I feel happy for Polycarp."
It was clear that Ben was conflicted. On one hand, he wanted to love those Romans for their fierce and admirable war tactics. But on the other hand, the greed and devotion to personal power that fueled their drive for war, combined with their disdain for Christians, made them pretty hard to admire. I decided to lay it all out there and then let him mull it over for himself for a while.
It became clear to me that he had formed his opinion one night while I was putting he and Jack to bed. Ben said, "Do you think that while we're on our way to heaven God will let us walk by hell and wave to the Romans?"
We read about one man named Polycarp who was burned at the stake for refusing to denounce his love and devotion to Christ. All the way to the very end of his life, as flames were growing around him, he was praising God, thanking him for the privilege of dying for him and expressing joy at the thought of being with him that very day. The kids were silent and entranced through the whole story and when it was finished Ben said quietly, "I feel happy for Polycarp."
It was clear that Ben was conflicted. On one hand, he wanted to love those Romans for their fierce and admirable war tactics. But on the other hand, the greed and devotion to personal power that fueled their drive for war, combined with their disdain for Christians, made them pretty hard to admire. I decided to lay it all out there and then let him mull it over for himself for a while.
It became clear to me that he had formed his opinion one night while I was putting he and Jack to bed. Ben said, "Do you think that while we're on our way to heaven God will let us walk by hell and wave to the Romans?"