Lost Letters of Perganum

The Lost Letters of Perineum, describes a collection of fictional letters being exchanged between two fictional characters known as Antipasti and Luke. Antipasti is a benefactor from Rome, and Luke is a physician and author of the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts. Luke is also the main person who Antipasti goes to throughout the novel for knowledge and answers to his many questions. The story is very well written and gives the reader an idea of what the first century Church was like.
The letters also illustrate a vivid picture of Chrism’s life and the effects his addict lifestyle had on the ancient culture. Antipasti, a self-established benefactor, resides from the cities of Tree and Caesar in Rome and is a worshipper of Jupiter and Culprits. Culprits, a nobleman from the city of Ephesus, went away when he suddenly lost his firstborn child. Due to his absence, Antipasti became quickly acquainted with Luke, whom was very wise and passionate about his beliefs in Jesus Christ.
After Antipasti and Luke began writing to each other for a while, their conversations started to lean more towards the topic of spiritual matters and specifically towards Lake’s decision to follow Jesus Christ and his works on Chrism’s life. After much historical and spiritual discussion, the two moved to the topic of the gladiatorial events, in which people were slaughtered in front of hundreds of other people for entertainment. Antipasti was beginning to question the events and the morality of it all.

As the two grew deeper into their spiritual conversation and Luke shared more of his views of Christ, Antipasti grew very curious. He began reading a narrative by Luke about Jesus Christ, and told Luke his thoughts and opinions about his work. Antipasti’ curiosity soon led him to join a fellowship of Christians in his town led by a an named Notations. He met with the group regularly and saw what a huge effect Christ had on their modern culture. Antipasti grew to know more about Christ and believed he was indeed the Son of God.
His passion for him grew, and he knew that he should begin worshipping Christ and not Jupiter. As Antipasti’ faith grew stronger he soon found himself protesting against the gladiatorial events. He discovered that his Christian brother, Demerits, was to be murdered and decided that he could not allow such an act to happen. Antipasti sacrificed himself for Demerits and was killed in his place by being earned alive. The reader knows that Antipasti sacrificed himself for what he believed in, all for the glory of God.
I found it quite interesting that Antipasti had grown so passionate and loyal to the Christian religion in such a short time period. He made himself aware and educated and joined the other Christians in faith even though he knew they were highly unaccepted in their culture. He opened himself up to a new way of life and left behind his old beliefs that he stood by for years. Was amazing how Antipasti could grow so loyal to a religion he just learned of, than o one he had been worshipping most of his life.
He grew so loving and faithful toward his new Christian beliefs that he was willing to die for another man and for a God he had just started to follow. Issues discussed in today’s modern culture consists of many people believing that Christians are harassed for their beliefs and persecuted for their worships. However, whatever conflict they encounter today has no comparison to the effects of being Christian in the first century. Today there are many Christians but few who actually have a strong passion for the Gospel.
There are thousands of people today who are proud to call themselves Christians, but would there still be as much if the consequences were still being beaten or murdered in front of a crowd? Does the passion of Christ lit inside of Antipasti still exist in any Christian today? Although the story was fictional, the portrayal of the first century was accurate. There were many people like Antipasti who were killed for standing up for their beliefs; perhaps the message here is for all modern day Christians to reevaluate the way they’re following Christ, and to use Antipasti’ passion and loyalty as an example to live by.