Hidden Author: "...For as a reader of the New Testament knows, the Sanhedrin, the scribes and the Pharisees persecuted the Christians as heretics..."
If you knew your Scriptures as you claim to, you would know that all of Jesus' disciples were Jews, and the "crowds and multitudes" which believed in him and followed him were almost entirely Jews as well.
Jesus was a Jew, as was Mary and Joseph and John the Baptist.
It's so blatantly obvious the trouble you're trying to cause, Hidden Author.
But you've missed the meaning and message of the Salvation which you claim to have received: Had your Lord and Saviour not been persecuted and crucified, there could have been no resurrection to conquer death and atone for the sins of all mankind.
If as you believe, Jesus was G-d made flesh, then his plan to save you and the rest of the world could not have been an "accident of being born at the wrong time and at the wrong place".
Jesus, at his Pesach observance, told his disciples that one of them was to betray him.
He also told his disciples that he was to be handed over to the authorities, tried, and crucified.
Furthermore, Jesus told all of his followers that they would be persecuted and killed for their beliefs.
Jesus, when asked by his disciples when would be the time of the coming of Messiah & Final Judgement, compared his nation Israel to a barren fig tree in his "Parable of the Fig Tree"...claiming that the barren tree was his nation Israel, and when his followers would see the tree once again blooming with leaves and fruit, they should know that the time of The Final Redemption was very near.
Jesus also taught that there would be many to come in the name of Jesus, but at the time of The Judgement he would tell them "I knew ye not".
It just seems to me like you seem to have a problem with G-d's Plan for Christian Salvation.