The finished product

You are Cestius Gallus, and have been given the job of stopping the Jewish rebellion. But you don’t have enough soldiers to take the Temple Mount, a crucial part of Jerusalem. Do you…

1.       Send a small group off to get reinforcements. Keep the rest of the army near Jerusalem, defending itself

2.       Just keep fighting and hope for the best

3.       Withdraw completely and take the whole army away until reinforcements arrive

Gallus chose option 3. But his army was followed by a bunch of Jewish rebels who ambushed them and completely wiped Gallus’ army out. This meant that there was a short period where Jerusalem was not under attack. This gave chance for Christians to escape Jerusalem.

Emperor Nero sends Vespasian to crush the Jewish rebellion once and for all. You can pretend to be him now… you take many of the towns and villages easily, but before you get to Jerusalem you hear that Emperor Nero is dead. Do you…

1.       Keep fighting anyway.

2.       Go back to Rome and try to become emperor yourself

3.       Stop bothering to fight now that your boss is dead. Take a holiday.

Vespasian chose to return to Rome (option 2), and he did become emperor. This lead to another break in the fighting, and another chance for Christians in Jerusalem to escape. Vespasian’s son Titus lead the army that eventually took Jerusalem, leading to great suffering for the people before the city finally fell.

Jesus had warned his followers that when they saw armies near Jerusalem, they should flee away to the mountains. God made sure that the Christians had chance to do exactly that.

The Ruthless Romans were the last big Evil Empire to rule over the nation of Israel. About 40 years after the time of Jesus, the Jews rebelled and tried to kick the Romans out. The Romans fought back viciously, torturing and killing many of the Jews. The ones that survived were sold to be slaves all over the empire.

The Jews remained scattered throughout the world for about 1900 years, and there was no nation of Israel – the land was occupied mainly by Arabs. In the past 100 years or so, many Jews have returned to the land and the nation of Israel exists again. This is exactly what God promised would happen in the Bible, and God is fulfilling this promise before our eyes today.

The Romans were in charge of Israel at the time of Christ. It was the Romans who crucified Jesus, mainly because the Jewish leaders asked them to. Jesus’ followers lived and preached all over the Ruthless Roman Empire.

The Romans hated the Christian converts, and persecuted them by putting them in prison, torturing them and killing them in horrible ways – such as burning them alive or feeding them to hungry lions.

But around 300 years after Jesus, the Evil Emperor Constantine claimed he had become a Christian! He didn’t get much less evil, and the empire didn’t get much less ruthless – but it’s because of him that most of Europe is Christian today.

The New Testament of the Bible was all written and takes place inside the Evil Roman Empire. Here are 10 top Bible characters who were Romans.

1.       Caesar Augustus – the evil emperor at the time of Jesus’ birth. He fought with other Romans Mark Antony and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus for control of the Empire, eventually becoming the supreme ruler.

2.       The Centurion with the sick servant servant – a powerful member of the Roman army living in Israel. When one of his servants became sick, he asked Jesus to heal him, which Jesus did.

3.       Pontius Pilate – the prefect over Palestine at the time of Jesus crucifixion. The Jews asked him to crucify Jesus. He agreed to do it even though he knew Jesus had done nothing wrong.

4.       The Centurion at the cross – another powerful member in the Roman army, this Centurion was in charge of watching over the crucifixions. He was so amazed by the way that Jesus died that he said, “surely this man was the son of God”.

5.       Cornelius – another centurion. This man believed in God and helped the Jews, but had not heard of Jesus. The Apostle Peter preached about Jesus to him, and Cornelius believed, was baptised, and become the first gentile to join the early church.

6.       Claudius Lysias – another Roman soldier. In the Empire, Roman Soldiers acted like a brutal police force. Claudius arrested the Apostle Paul and had him whipped. But he started to worry when he discovered that…

7.       The Apostle Paul was also a Roman citizen! Being a Roman citizen meant he had rights under the law that most Jews didn’t have. You couldn’t whip a Roman citizen – only commoners deserved that kind of treatment!

8.       Antonius Felix – the Roman governor who dealt with Paul following his arrest. He kept Paul in prison but treated him fairly well, until the next Ruthless Roman governor took over.

9.       Porcius Festus was the next Ruthless Roman governor. Paul told him that he wanted to “appeal to Caesar” and have his legal case heard in Rome. Festus agreed, so Paul was sent off to…

10.   Nero – an extremely dangerous and crazy emperor.  He has plenty of claims to fame – including possibly setting fire to Rome and then blaming it all on the Christians, leading to their first great persecution.

The last big Evil Empire in my visions were the Ruthless Romans. Their empire lasted a long time. Unlike the empires before them, the Roman Empire didn’t fall to a new powerful invader. Instead it got weaker and weaker over hundreds of years. In some ways it never disappeared – we are still influenced by the old Roman Empire today.

Alexander the Great didn't have an heir to take over his Evil Empire. So when he died (at only 33 years old), his four generals each tried to take a share of the empire. They fought between themselves over who got what parts of the Evil Empire for 40 years -- nearly four times as long as Alexander took to build the Evil Empire in the first place! In the end, the general Seleucus got control over the area around Israel. The Seleucid Dynasty ruled over the area for about 250 years, until the new Evil Empire took over... the Ruthless Romans.

Like the Babylonian and Persian kings before him, Alexander liked to party. When he wasn't fighting wars, he was usually drinking. And it sounds like he drank as fast as he fought. He died at just 33 years old. Many historians say the alcohol killed him.