Article by Tyler O'Neil in "PJMedia":
Christians facing the
coronavirus today would do well to remember how the selfless love of the
early church helped spread the gospel in a world much more hostile to
Jesus' message than our world is today. Christianity spread in the face
of persecution for many reasons, but in two cases it spread in the midst
of deadly plagues — because Christians risked their lives to save
others.
Two historic plagues
ravaged the Roman Empire: the Antonine Plague (165-180 A.D.) and the
Cyprian Plague (249-262 A.D.). The plagues killed roughly a quarter to a
third of the population, striking down emperors (Marcus Aurelius,
Hostilian, and Claudius II Gothicus), and ravaging the empire. As in the
case of the coronavirus today, panic spread because the society did not
understand the disease.
As sociologist Rodney Stark noted in The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World's Largest Religion, Christians responded to the plagues differently than their pagan neighbors.
"During
the first plague, the famous classical physician Galen fled Rome for
his country estate where he stayed until the danger subsided. But for
those who could not flee, the typical response was to try to avoid any
contact with the afflicted, since it was understood that the disease was
contagious. Hence, when their first symptom appeared, victims often
were thrown into the streets, where the dead and dying lay in piles,"
Stark wrote.
Bishop
Dionysius recounted the events in Alexandria, Egypt, during the Cyprian
Plague: "At the first onset of the disease, they [pagans] pushed the
sufferers away and fled from their dearest, throwing them into the roads
before they were dead and treated unburied corpses as dirt, hoping
thereby to avert the spread and contagion of the fatal disease."
Yet
Christians sought to help the sick, even risking their own lives. As
Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, put it, "Although this mortality had
contributed nothing else, it has especially accomplished this for
Christians and servants of God, that we have begun gladly to seek
martyrdom while we are learning not to fear death."
"Heedless
of danger, they took charge of the sick, attending to their every need
and ministering to them in Christ, and with them departed this life
serenely happy; for they were infected by others with the disease,
drawing on themselves the sickness of their neighbors and cheerfully
accepting their pains," Dionysius recalled of his fellow Christians.
"Many, in nursing and curing others, transferred their death to
themselves and died in their stead ... [a death that] seems in every way
the equal to martyrdom."
Even basic care likely powerfully reduced the death rate. As William McNeill pointed out in Plagues and Peoples,
even "quite elementary nursing will greatly reduce mortality. Simple
provision of food and water, for instance, will allow persons who are
temporarily too weak to cope for themselves to recover instead of
perishing miserably." It is entirely plausible that Christian care for
the sick would have reduced mortality by as much as two-thirds, Stark
argued.
This
Christian charity did not just save lives — it also spread the gospel.
Historians have long struggled to understand how a small group of
Christians after Jesus's ascension — Acts puts the numbers at 120 and
5,000 — eventually outnumbered all other faiths in the Roman Empire
(with an estimated population of 60 million).
Using
estimates from historical sources, Stark found that growth from 1,000
Christians in 40 A.D. to 33 million Christians in 350 A.D. required a
growth rate of 40 percent per decade. While this growth seemed
miraculous to Christians at the time and historians afterward, it can
also be explained through the expansion of social networks.
When
Christians risked their lives to help their pagan neighbors during the
plagues, two things happened. Pagans who did not come into contact with
Christianity were more likely to die, and pagans who received Christian
charity were more likely to live — and to develop relationships with the
Christians who saved them. A pagan saved from death may befriend the
Christians who saved him, and he may have lost his previous friends from
the plague. By saving pagans, Christians not only demonstrated the love
of Jesus but also spread social influence.
Stark has long found that social networks are essential to religious conversion.
While new believers say they are satisfied by true doctrine,
friendships with other believers are also essential when it comes to
choosing a faith. This is not to say that faith doesn't matter or that
the Holy Spirit is not involved in conversion — the process in each
person's heart is still a mystery — but from a social science
standpoint, relationships are key to understanding a person's decision
to publicly identify with a religion.
Christians
in the second and third centuries A.D. lived countercultural
lifestyles. They stood out because they refused to sacrifice to Roman
emperors (who were considered gods) and they stood out because they
cared for the sick, the orphans, and the widows. They saved children who were left to die (an early form of abortion/infanticide) and they founded the first hospitals.
When
early Christians risked their lives to save pagans during the plagues,
they lived out the teachings of Jesus Christ, providing concrete
evidence that their lives had been changed by the Holy Spirit of
charity. Their sacrifice was a witness to those around them, and it
helped spread the gospel by expanding their social networks.
Christians
today should adopt the same spirit of charity, although it may look
entirely different in practice. Social distancing helps limit the spread
of the coronavirus, and Christians should value the lives of others
more than the comfort and social opportunities of daily life.
Christians
can also support charitable enterprises doing God's work in this
difficult time. The Christian charity Samaritan's Purse airlifted a field hospital
and other supplies to Italy on March 17 to help that country's
overwhelmed health system care for coronavirus patients. Samaritan's
Purse's DC-8 aircraft carried roughly 20 tons of medical equipment, a
respiratory care unit developed for the coronavirus, and 32 disaster
relief personnel, including doctors, nurses, and respiratory
specialists, who will stay in Italy for at least a month.
"We
are going to Italy to provide life-saving care to people who are
suffering," Franklin Graham, the charity's president, said in a
statement. "There is a lot of fear and panic around the country, but we
trust that God is in control. We continue to pray for everyone affected
by this global health crisis and for our medical team as they respond."
Edward
Graham, youngest son of Franklin Graham and assistant to the vice
president of programs for Samaritan's Purse, put it succinctly:
"Medicine is a magnet for the Gospel."
Not
every Christian can or should get up and fly to Italy to help with the
crisis — there will be work to do in your own homes and neighborhoods.
But Christians around the world should help however they can, with the
same spirit as the early church. Acts of charity can reap a tremendous
harvest for the gospel.