Re: The Early Christians: In Their Own Words

This conviction (which grew stronger in later Christianity) was never 
lacking, not even in the most radical circles during times of severe 
conflict. With the world as it is, even the most extreme were not 
anarchists in the sense that they wanted to abolish the state as it
existed 
then. The early Christians knew only one form of disobedience to
government 
authority: passive resistance which endures everything, even death. There 
was no other way to demonstrate their certainty that the powers of the 
State can and will be abolished by a new order – by God alone. They took 
their stand firmly on the side of this new order of God.