The Church Under Rome
Rome fills this whole spread as one pink field, from the fall of Jerusalem to the councils. Follow the ten red crosses left to right, then watch a gold cross appear in the column of the last one.
The numbered pins of this stretch, walked in order, are in the book (pp. 90–91). Here you can zoom and explore it freely.
Ten Red Crosses and One of Gold
The great round arena on the left of p. 90 could seat, Adams says, 80,000 to 100,000 people, and tells you who built it: commenced by Vespasian in 75, finished by his son Titus about A.D. 79. Keep that second name in mind, because near the top of the same page Titus is taking Jerusalem. Adams writes “Jerusalem taken & destroyed,” adds the date, Sep. 8, 70 A.D., and in his note at the left edge counts 1,100,000 who “miserably perish.” Lower on the page sits the gold coin Rome struck for the victory, IVDEA CAPTA, with Judea mourning under a palm tree. The men who built Rome’s arena also put out the medal for the fall of the city Jesus had wept over.
That empire is the pink field that fills the whole spread. Rome’s band is so broad here that everything else sits inside it, Key 2 · Nations are broad bands, and every year on these pages is A.D.: the big figures over the pillars count the centuries of the Christian era, from A.D. 1. Christians would not sacrifice to Rome’s gods or to the emperor, and for that refusal they were treated as enemies of the state.
So Adams scatters small red crosses across the field, ten of them, the number old church writers counted, each with an emperor and his years. The first is Nero’s, 64 to 68, with the word Persecution beside it and, just below under the smoke of Vesuvius, Martyrdom of Paul. The second is Domitian’s, 95 to 96, beside Banishment of John to Patmos. Under the cross of Decius, 250 to 253, Adams copies the emperor’s aim, to remove Christianity “from the earth!! by sword and fire,” and the two exclamation marks are his own. The last cross is Diocletian’s, 303 to 313, and a small black cross above it marks 284, the start of the “Era of the Martyrs.”
Put one finger on Diocletian’s cross and slide straight down the same column. You reach a gold cross with the words In hoc signo vinces, “in this sign conquer,” and Adams’ note that Constantine saw a luminous cross in the sky in 313. The last persecution and the first Christian emperor stand on one line: Key 6 · Same column, same moment. Rome had tried for two and a half centuries to stamp the faith out, and now the faith had reached the emperor himself.
After that the church lives in the open. Its bishops meet in councils, which Adams draws as red circles at the top right: Constantinople in 381, with 350 bishops, and Ephesus in 431, while the first, at Nice in 325, stands just above the spread. Julian goes back to the old gods for two years. Theodosius pulls the heathen statues down in 379 and divides the empire between his sons in 395, and at the right edge the pink field narrows.
Keep this stretch in mind when Revelation’s letters to suffering churches feel far away. The chart lays the cost out cross by cross, and then shows the gates of hell failing to prevail, exactly as Jesus said. The last word on p. 91 belongs to the Goths, “Alaric and Goths in Rome 410,” and the next section opens with Rome in other hands.
“Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; … be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.”Revelation 2:10 · KJV
Think it through
Keep your Bible open. There are no wrong answers here; the worksheet in the free Companion gives you room to write.
- Find Adams’ picture of Jerusalem taken and the coin Rome struck for it. What does it add to see Jesus’ warning and its fulfillment on one chart?
- Count the ten red crosses, then look up the emperors in the table. Why might a ruler Adams calls “a virtuous stoic philosopher” still persecute Christians?
- Find “Banishment of John to Patmos” beside Domitian’s cross. What did God give the whole church through that exile?
- Decius meant to remove Christianity “from the earth.” Look at what stands to the right of his cross. How does the chart itself answer him?
- Diocletian’s red cross and Constantine’s gold one share a column. Did the end of persecution only make the church stronger, or did the emperor’s favor bring dangers too?
- The first council, at Nice, formed the “Nicene Creed” in A.D. 325. Why would a church just out of persecution need to write down what it believed?
Find “331, Heathen temples in Rome destroyed” on p. 91, just under the words “Roman Galley.” Then look straight down to the gold cross. Which key tells you how the two belong together, and what does it say?
Show the answer
Key 6 · Same column, same moment: the note stands in nearly the same column as Constantine’s cross of 313. Within a generation of his conversion, Rome’s own temples are coming down.
When the Persecutor Becomes the Patron
Jesus told Peter that the gates of hell would not prevail against his church. On pp. 90–91 you can watch that word tested by the strongest power the chart has shown so far. Rome’s pink field fills the spread, and inside it Adams sets ten red crosses, from Nero to Diocletian, one for each persecution the old church writers counted. Paul is martyred under the first, John banished under the second, and Decius vows to wipe the faith from the earth. Count the crosses with your finger and you are counting two and a half centuries.
Then the column turns gold. The cross of light that Constantine saw in 313 stands directly below Diocletian’s cross, and the church that had been hunted begins to meet in the open. Within a generation Adams is noting heathen temples destroyed in Rome, and the bishops are gathering at Nice to set down the Nicene Creed. It is right to give thanks for that. The prayers of the persecuted were answered in a way none of them could have pictured.
Yet the chart itself raises a quieter question. Julian, a later emperor, returned to the old gods for two years; favor that comes from a throne can be taken away by the next man on it. The psalmist had warned God’s people long before: “Put not your trust in princes.” A church that had learned to stand without the emperor now had to learn to stand with him without leaning on him.
John knew both sides of that lesson. He wrote Revelation in banishment on Patmos, “for the word of God,” and among his first readers was a church told to be faithful unto death. Read his book with this spread open, and you will see that the crown of life was never Rome’s to give or to take away.
Read and reflect
“And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
Count the ten red crosses on pp. 90–91: where on the spread do you see this promise kept?
“Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.”
What is the difference between giving thanks for a ruler’s favor and putting your trust in it?
“I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God …”
John calls himself a “companion in tribulation”: whose companion can you be this week?
Quiz: ten questions
Pick an answer to see whether it is right and why. Each explanation names the page of the book.
Read the whole chart, stretch by stretch
This site lets you wander; the book walks you through. All seventeen stretches on full spreads at 75% of the real chart, numbered pins explained in order, Adams' Six Keys on every page and a study page for every stretch. Large format, full color.