Our culture looks as though its being reshaped into the image of empire. Like Rome of old, it molds humans to look and act less like image-bearers of the Creator and more like subjects of the beast. The latest iteration of Empire continues to rob us of dignity and redefine our very humanity—calling for allegiance that should belong only to the King of Kings. And when people mirror empire, they no longer reflect God’s image but the distorted image of the beast.

This is the central crisis of our time. We are witnessing a culture shift where the foundations of Judeo-Christian faith have been dismantled and replaced with empire’s values: power without justice, pleasure without restraint, freedom without accountability. This isn’t new. Empire has always sought to remake people into its own image. And when God’s people forget their calling, they too can begin to look more like Rome than like Yeshua.

Life Under Empire

The early church knew this tension firsthand. Their lives were ruled by fear, subject to the whims of emperors who demanded loyalty not just politically but religiously. Caesar was worshiped as “lord and savior.” To refuse was scandalous, treasonous, even dangerous.

For Christians, faith was not a private matter of conscience but a bold declaration of allegiance to God’s kingdom in defiance of Rome’s order. To declare “Yeshua is Lord” was to renounce Caesar’s lordship. It was both a political and spiritual statement rolled into one.

Believers were branded as atheists for denying Rome’s gods. They were charged with cannibalism for celebrating the Lord’s Supper—eating the body and drinking the blood. They were slandered with incest for calling one another “brother” and “sister.” Suspicion hung heavy in the air. A knock in the night could mean betrayal, arrest, or execution.

Persecution was not occasional. Under emperors like Nero or Diocletian, Christians lost property, were exiled, tortured, or publicly executed. Crucifixions lined the highways. Others were burned alive as human torches. Still others were thrown to wild beasts in the arena while crowds cheered. These were spectacles of humiliation meant to remind everyone that Caesar, not Christ, was lord.

The Paradox of Persecution

But there’s a paradox: persecution did not crush the church. It purified it.

Believers cared for widows and orphans, shared food with those who had lost jobs and property and welcomed in the stranger. Facing death, they sang hymns, prayed for their executioners, and held fast to hope. To be baptized was to risk your life. Faith was not cultural habit—it was a costly allegiance.

Tertullian’s words still ring true: “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” Rome tried to humiliate Christians, but instead the church grew stronger. Humiliation became humility, humility became strength, and strength became bold witness.

Empire’s Playbook

Empire’s methods have never changed. It always follows the same playbook:

• Dehumanize: Reduce people to tools of production, soldiers for conquest, or consumers for profit.
• Desensitize: Numb consciences through entertainment, distraction, addictions and violence.
• Dismantle the family: Undermine the God-given structure of marriage, parenting, and community.
• Reshape society: Reprogram culture to reflect the beast’s values instead of God’s.

This is not unique to Rome. Abraham lived under the rule of the Chaldeans. Israel endured Pharaoh’s tyranny in Egypt. Judah suffered exile in Babylon. And the early church walked faithfully under Rome. Every generation of God’s people has faced the same challenge: will we bear the image of the beast, or the image of God?

The Image-Bearers’ Call

The Bible declares that humans were created in God’s image, designed to rule creation under His authority with justice, righteousness love, and wisdom. But empire aims to twist our divine vocation. It convinces people that their worth lies in power, status, devotion to the system. It robs humans of their calling to reflect God’s reign.

That’s why the issue is not just survival under empire but identity. Who do we reflect? Who do we serve? The serpent’s deception in Eden was to distort human image-bearing. Pharaoh tried to enslave it. Babylon tried to erase it. Rome tried to humiliate it. And empire today tries to desensitize us until we forget who we are.

Lessons From the Past

So how do God’s people live faithfully under empire? The Bible gives us a roadmap:

• Abraham trusted God enough to leave his homeland and step into the unknown, building a covenant family in a land he did not know.
• Israel trusted God to deliver them from Pharaoh, then learned covenant life in the wilderness, where they had to be reshaped and reprogrammed.
• Exiles in Babylon gathered faithfully, praying, keeping covenant, refusing to bow to idols even when threatened with fire or lions.
• The early church carried the Gospel into cities across the Roman world, knowing it might cost them their lives, but confident in their true allegiance to Yeshua.

Each generation resisted assimilation by remembering their true foundation.

Our Foundations

Paul put it this way: “For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 3:11). If empire has robbed us of our foundations, then we rebuild on Him. We don’t return to Caesar’s circus games, Pharaoh’s bricks, or Babylon’s idols. We build on the Cornerstone—the crucified and risen King.

Our current culture has been systematically dismantling the Judeo-Christian guardrails that once protected and held society together. The family is now so fractured. Truth is distorted. Dignity is cheapened. Entertainment desensitizes, politics polarizes, and the economics or corporatism enslaves. But Scripture calls us to resist. To reclaim our true vocation. To be reshaped not by empire but by the Spirit of God.

The Kingdom That Cannot Be Shaken

The book of Revelation presents the great unmasking of empire—showing what it truly is: a beastly power destined to fall. No matter how powerful, no matter how terrifying, empire is temporary. Yeshua is the true ruler whose kingdom will never end. His resurrection broke the back of empire and unveiled the only kingdom that lasts.

That’s why the call of the early church still stands for us: resist desensitization, resist dehumanization, resist the destruction of our covenant life. Cling to Yeshua, the King of Kings.

The choice is clear: will we look like Rome—or will we look like Christ?