If you ever read Paul's letters in the Bible, you get the impression he's expecting the Second Coming to be imminent. It's because when Jesus comes, the dead will rise again and be judged: "For a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned." (Jn.5:28-29). Early Christians interpreted this to mean everyone's soul is waiting in their grave for Christ to appear, so in the meantime Christians should convert as many people as fast as possible so that they'll be saved when this happens, which could be any day now. It's why you hear about the earliest Christians hanging out in the catacombs so often; not only are they hiding from the authorities, they actually believed their families' souls were still there and in the room with them because they couldn't move on yet. There was a crisis of faith when the first generation started dying; much like when Harold Camping's prediction on May 21, 2011 failed to come to pass, people just stopped believing. However Christians managed to hold on and realized it may not come as soon as they expected, so they settled down for the long haul.

But the idea that no one can move onto heaven or hell until the Second Coming remained for quite some time. As the Roman persecutions picked up, one of the psychological methods Christians employed to deal with the situation is the belief if you were a martyr, you skipped the whole End Times thing and got a free pass to heaven. It helps to know that you're going to be with God soon as you're being torn apart by lions and having hot tar being poured down your back. But once Christianity was legalized, this ticket to paradise was closed off and you had to wait in your grave like the rest of us.

This is where the Circumcellions come in. Out of all the craziness in the early days, they're one of my favorites due to their hilarious logic. The Circumcellions were a Berber group who wanted to achieve martyrdom... but there wasn't any anymore. So what they would do is hide around roadways like a bunch of bandits, jump any travelers who passed by, and, instead of demanding your money or your life, insist the traveler kill them all so they could become martyrs. Imagine for a moment you just left the train station late at night, you're walking home and there's no one on the street, and suddenly about six guys surround you with bats. You think you're about to be beaten for your cell phone and wallet. But then they give you a gun and start threatening you to kill them. It's gotta be one of the most perplexing events of your life. I read one account of a man who said he was worried that the rest would turn on him after killing one, so he insisted on tying everyone up first. They agreed and once he did, instead of slitting their throats he just left and continued on his way. Honestly, what do you do in that kind of situation?