Jumpstarter 10 of 10

Direct Answer Based on the transcript, it would cost the sense of safety that comes from “human means” and require trusting that God, not the sword, protects His people and even restrains evil through Christian prayer and suffering. Bercot’s broader argument is that early Christians believed God preserved the church without violence, and that abandoning that way later was not a blessing.

Support from Transcript:

• Origen says when God permits persecution, “we suffer,” and when God wishes freedom, “we enjoy a wonderful peace,” “trusting in the protection” of Christ who “overcome the world.”
• Bercot describes early Christians under a “death sentence,” yet they did not fight; they either fled or “preferred to die than to kill.”
• He says they stood with “naked hands,” signaling they would not use “human means” to preserve the church, trusting “God and God alone as their protector.”
• He argues God protected them: “The Romans never were able to stamp out the church.”
• He comments Constantine “ended up not being a blessing,” implying a later shift in Christianity’s relationship to power and force.
• The transcript is truncated right as Origen begins answering Celsus directly about helping the king, so the full “divine way” quotation is not fully shown here.