was the one and only Lord worthy of worship. Justin therefore challenged the authorities to not convict Christians on the basis of invalidated rumors. Second, the charge of atheism was leveled against the early church, because of the Christians’ refusal to worship the pantheon of Roman gods. Consider the story of Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, who, in his late eighties, was brought before the emperor Marcus Aurelius on charges of atheism. The emperor, not wanting to make a martyr out of the venerable