Early Christian Worship of Jesus as God Refutes Roman Invention Claim

The speaker addresses the claim that Christianity was created by Rome with a specific narrative, reshaping Jesus's teachings to serve the empire by deifying him. He argues that the historical problem for this claim is that Christians believed Jesus was divine centuries before Rome had any interest in making the religion serve the empire.

The speaker presents several lines of evidence. First, Jesus's own statements: he says, "Before Abraham was, I am," claiming preexistence, and "I and the Father are one," claiming unity with the Father. Second, the confession of Saint Thomas, who calls Jesus "my Lord and my God," and Jesus accepts the title without rebuke. Third, the testimony of Saint Ignatius of Antioch, who wrote in 107 AD, "For our God, Jesus Christ, was conceived in the womb by Mary."

This patristic witness comes two hundred years before the Edict of Milan in 313 AD legalized Christianity. Fourth, the historical fact that Rome spent centuries persecuting Christians for worshiping Jesus as God. The speaker concludes that Rome could not have invented the divinity of Christ later for political gain, because the empire persecuted the very belief that the claim says it invented.

The argument rests on the chronological impossibility: the belief predates imperial endorsement by generations and was the cause of imperial hostility, not its product.