The Christian martyrs of Lyons

By Rex Butler, Professor of Church History and Patristics at NOBTS

In his book on contemporary martyrs, Faith that Endures, Ronald Boyd-MacMillan observed, “It is the devil, the demonic hatred that is behind all anti-Christian violence.”

The devil is “waging his cosmic battle of spite against Jesus Christ.” The early Christians who faced persecution held that same view: that their ultimate enemy was not the Roman government or the mob but Satan.

One account of persecution in the second century reported that “with all his strength, Satan fell upon us, giving us a foretaste of the future, unrestrained activity against us. The enemy used every means to goad his own subjects against the servants of God.” (The Letter of the Churches of Lyons and Vienne as preserved in Eusebius, Church History 5.1.5).