Two thousand years ago, Jesus of Nazareth brought new hope to man by preaching that this life was not all men might hope for, that man was more than only flesh and would continue to live, even after death. Implicit in his message was the promise of salvation from suffering and a promise of eternal peace.

At odds with the teachings of Jesus was traditional rabbinical belief that salvation would not come until the advent of a distant Messiah. Hence, the special appeal of Christ’s message that the Kingdom of God was not only at hand, but lay within all those with faith.

Long fearing popular revolt, the Romans equated Christ’s words with political insurrection.

Rome had decreed that nothing should be held above imperial order and thus viewed Christ’s wholly spiritual message as dangerously revolutionary, particularly his talk of the coming Kingdom.

Though crucified, the hope that Christ brought to man did not die. Instead, his death became symbolic of the triumph of the spirit over the material body and so brought a new awareness of man’s true nature.

The Romans, however, continued to insist that man was just a material object. The psyche (a word meaning “spirit” or “breath of life”) was thought to be given up when the man “himself,” his body, had perished.

For all their military strength, the Romans never acknowledged or found ways to develop man’s true potential and so, as did so many empires before them, they too perished.