Ancient Rome and Modern China: Religious Persecution and Plagues

A seventeen-year-old girl with incurable cancer in her hip turned to hypnotherapy when nothing else helped. Her life was then traced back to a previous life in a noble family during the ancient Roman Empire.

Under the reign of Emperor Nero, Christians were ruthlessly persecuted, including being thrown into an arena to fight lions. The girl watched the fight for fun together with tens of thousands of people in the arena. She couldn’t help laughing when a young Christian girl was torn apart by lions. Her enjoyment at the expense of another’s life accrued karma for her, and the karma followed her through her reincarnation and caused the cancer and resulting pain that she was suffering in this lifetime.

This story was documented in Edgar Cayce’s Story Of Karma. Considered “the father of holistic medicine” by the Journal of the American Medical Association, Cayce studied over 1,000 people about the association between their wrongdoings in their previous life cycles and their suffering in this lifetime.

Ancient Rome: Religious Persecution and Plagues

The girl’s story is one of the several cases related to Nero in Cayce’s hypnotherapy. Notorious for religious persecution, Nero started the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD and blamed Christians for arson. He went on to persecute Christians, including feeding them to beasts in the arena as mentioned above.

“In their very deaths they were made the subjects of sport: for they were covered with the hides of wild beasts, and worried to death by dogs, or nailed to crosses, or set fire to, and when the day waned, burned to serve for the evening lights,” wrote historian Tacitus in Annals.

Nero was the one who gave the order to have Christians killed. Many ordinary citizens, like the 17-year-old girl in her previous life, may not have directly persecuted Christians in person, but their inaction made them unfortunate accessories to the crime, as they did not step forward to stop the crime and their connivance and participation enabled the persecution to go on.

Several other emperors besides Nero had also suppressed Christians in ancient Rome. The general public again didn’t rise to stop the persecution, and their inaction was followed by several major plagues that claimed many lives. People then awakened and began to reflect on the cruelty against Christians, as well as the general moral decay of society.

In 680, Roman citizens carried the bones of Saint Sebastian (AD 256 – 288, killed during the persecution by Diocletian) and went through the streets. As people repented their wrongdoings, the plagues miraculously vanished in Rome.

Modern China: Persecution of Falun Gong and Epidemic

In modern China, the persecution of Falun Gong has been going on for twenty-one years.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a mind-body practice based on the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. After its introduction to the public in 1992, it quickly drew many people to its profound principles and health-improving benefits.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which thrives on an ideology of class struggle, violence, and lies, deemed Falun Gong a threat as the practice’s popularity soared.

Jiang Zemin, then the CCP’s top leader, launched a nationwide campaign against the practice in July 1999. Since then many Falun Gong practitioners have been detained, imprisoned, and tortured for their belief. Some also suffered from psychiatric abuse and forced organ harvesting.

Like the persecution during the Nero era, the suppression of Falun Gong has also been carried out with cruelty, terror, and massive propaganda, as documented on Minghui.org. As a result of the 21-year-long propaganda campaign against Falun Gong, many Chinese people have been brainwashed to believe in the CCP’s lies and turned against Falun Gong practitioners and the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.

While ancient Rome was hit with one plague after another amid its persecution of Christians, modern China was hit with the coronavirus epidemic amid its persecution of Falun Gong.

The disease first broke out in Wuhan, a place notorious for its role in the persecution of Falun Gong. When Jiang first decided to suppress Falun Gong in 1999, he met with resistance from top communist leaders, including other members of the Politburo.

Zhao Zhizhen, director of Wuhan Television Station, however, acted on Jiang’s order. Zhao dispatched a crew to Changchun in Jilin Province, the hometown of Mr. Li Hongzhi, founder of Falun Gong, and filmed a 6-hour video that defamed Falun Gong and its founder.

This video was played among top communist leaders and later throughout all of China in the news media, including the state-owned China Central Television. Countless other videos were produced over the next 21 years to demonize Falun Gong and its practitioners.

As many people turned a blind eye to or even aided in the persecution of Falun Gong due to self-interest, they have unknowingly become accessories to the CCP’s crime against humanity and freedom of belief.

When people in ancient Rome repented their wrongdoings and stopped the persecution of Christians, plagues disappeared miraculously. As the coronavirus pandemic is still endangering China, we may want to take a cue from ancient Rome and reflect on our attitude towards the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong.

It is time to distance ourselves from the CCP and say no to the persecution of Falun Gong, so as to steer clear of the pandemic.

Chinese version available

(Clearwisdom)