Persecution Then and Now: Are you ready to fight for the faith? By Kelly Durant
Acts 5:29 Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.
2. How many of you have ever been in a fight over your faith? Has someone every attacked you, insulted you, hit you, or tried to get you fired over your faith in Jesus Christ? If you have a real faith, it will happen! It has happened to me and it will happen to anyone who opens their mouth to proclaim Jesus as the Lord of Lords! I have even been arrested and put in jail a few hours a few times over passing out salvation tracts! I remember one time in Brazil the policeman detaining me was very upset because I was giving out evangelical tracts and not Catholic ones! He called me a blasphemer and that I should rot in jail but I was freed with no charges! There were no laws restricting evangelizing then there but today too many laws are in place everywhere! According to Jesus there will be a final great persecution. (Matthew 24)
When I was a young Christian and got to know my Bible there were verses that seemed disturbing such as, 2 Timothy 3:12 Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Another one is what Jesus said, John 15:20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. Mark 13:11 But when they shall lead you, and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate: but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost. 12 Now the brother shall betray the brother to death, and the father the son; and children shall rise up against their parents, and shall cause them to be put to death. 13 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
My first reaction was, what have I gotten into, what now? You and I certainly will be hated by a few over professing Jesus and there is nothing we can do about! And I still am disturbed that even family may betray you to death! Historically people have proven to be loyal to Hitler, Stalin and to any Satanist murderer rather than to the loving harmless Christians! God sees all and each will reap what they sew!
3. Why am I bringing this subject of persecution up? Because as Christians we need strength and unity! Because all the news outlets are bringing it up! They point out that certain political positions in this land clash with our Biblical values, and already in the works is a plan to go on to the next steps of persecuting those of faith. Remember in the Salvation Army there have been martyrs and we should be proud of those who go in the streets to bring lost ones Jesus!
Certain activists already have announced they plan on suing churches in order to eliminate religious freedom altogether for those who oppose their political, religious, or atheistic worldviews. Suing Christians, or exuberantly fining them, is already a lucrative endeavor where corrupt judges prevail perverting the laws. In the works also are proposals to change the current laws to impose taxes on churches (currently exempt) in order to bankrupt them. Another thing some activists declare is they want the Bible categorized as a ‘hate speech’, a book that needs to be expunged from all the public sectors! Already certain U.S. schools children are taught to recite prayers to Alla and learn about the Satanist’s religion!? The separation of church and state is obviously being violated! This is an imposition by wicked people in high places that need to respect God’s view and innocent Christians.
Certain people rapidly brought about the expunging the confederate flag from the conservative southerners with rapid execution! Many contest that it is not a racist symbol but rather a historical reminder to not repeat the past. I observe that this flag was just a pretext to see how far the experiment would go, to see how much resistance, or not, a cultural symbol would endure attack. We must see it, things will get uglier as the Bible is being targeted! Rev. Graham Jr., and a few like him expose this, but it is not a popular message. Sadly, the bulk of Christianity has compromised into a complacent state as the Laodiceans in Revelation 4.
4. Haters seem to persuade the masses easily with half-truths and distorted information. We must recall that the majority of the people in the world do not have the love of Jesus, nor the discernment of the Holy Spirit! Sadly, when awakened, the evil side of human nature is passionate and aggressive to satisfy an appetite for destruction! The ones who hate something seem to live obsessed, dedicating 24/7 until they accomplish their dominion. But our hope is Jesus who gave us power to cast out demons and defend the kingdom of God. They can lie about us, defame us, make us illegal, imprison us, charge us huge fines, harass us, use psych ops on us, even torture and kill us but one thing I know is that they will not get rid of us as Jesus and Christians remain strong! Despite all current persecutions and despite all barbaric attacks in world history, His truth keeps marching on! Glory, glory, hallelujah!
It is so evidently hypocritical in society that those that abide by certain religions, or fringe groups, endorsing hateful destructive acts, calling upon their members to attack with violence God’s true followers, are not reprimanded as haters and perpetrators by the bulk of society. People are already preconditioned by the media and government to fear so they do not oppose evil! But people with values and guts who hint a little they will go against the current trends of the world are instantly demonized as racist nazi haters and are defamed by the powerful evil propaganda systems!
Who are those that persecute God’s children today? The same class of opulent, hedonistic despots as those that were ruling in the Romans times when the persecution began with the Early Church! Deceived people today are described well in these verses, 2 Timothy 3 :1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. 2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; 5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
5. Getting back to our verse of today in Acts, what was the situation? Peter and the apostles were filling the city with the gospel of Jesus, preaching daily in the temple and in every house and thousands were being converted until the murderous city fathers found out. People in power always seem to live tormented with paranoia, jealousy, and insecurity and are overcome with passionate convictions to crush anyone opposing their deceitful authority. In this case it was the Jews imprisoning them, as they only wanted control over the people by their ways and traditions not realizing that God had moved on abandoning them for their rejection of his Son, Jesus. They even stoned Steven to death, do you recall?
To encourage you as a Christian, recall that no one will ever do anything to anyone of us without a divine retribution punishing the offenders. Jesus forgave his crucifiers, but Christ rejecters still have to pay with eternal torment! Notice this fact, mockers and persecutors identifying with a group, tribe, people, religion, or geographical region cause them to be included when severe divine retribution comes down. This is why you and I must be very careful who we identify with and accept! Today you can identify with whoever you like but the consequences of supporting, endorsing, or being complacent to an evil group activity that is against God’s will… will provoke the Most High to anger!
Look in Acts 5. This is a persecution of the believers of Jesus in Jerusalem and what happened? God made his people to get out! Acts 8:1 And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles.
6. This persecution from Saul and zealots actually provoked God’s people to leave Jerusalem for two motives. One was to get the new Christians out into the rest of the world preaching the gospel! It fulfilled the prophecy in Acts 1: 8 ‘But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth”.
And the second motive I see was to save the Christians from a dying a horrible death that was soon to come from the Romans invading Jerusalem in 70 AD. Jesus prophesied in Mark 13:2 And Jesus answering said unto him, “Seest thou these great buildings? there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” And this is exactly what happened, the city, and Herod’s glorious massively huge temple built for the Jews was totally torn down!
The Roman invasion of Jerusalem in 70 AD was horrific! You can read about it in the writings of Josephus, a Roman historian who recorded the event. The city was surrounded for 2 years and when almost dead from starvation the Romans went in burning the city and crucifying almost every living thing. An entire forest was used to make the crosses and the stench was for miles! This was the way the Romans dealt with rebellion as they would not allow the Jews or anyone to defy them with independence. The Romans were experts in iron rule and to not submit to their authority was to invoke relentless rage. What a horrible fate for these Jews who rejected Jesus! That event provoked the great dispersion, ‘diaspora’ of the Jews causing them to have to hide their identity for a few thousand years in different countries all around the world. Only in 1947 were they able to reunite as a people again in Israel.
7. But the Early Church, despite persecution, thrived meeting secretly and prospered in many cities and lands despite the general persecution over the next several hundred years. We are familiar that in Rome the Christians were tortured and killed for sport but we may forget to notice that many other Christians reached many people in faraway places for Christ anyway. During the persecutions under certain Cesars their numbers still increased and not everyone was taken with imprisonment and death. We need not fear persecution so much really because, ‘the body they may kill, but God’s truth abideth still’.
And in secular and church history we know that the ruler Constantine got converted to Christ and the persecution ended, at least government persecution ended for a while. But what happened to the church after a few more hundred years? The church became too big and powerful, corrupted, self-serving, rich and abusive, disobedient and indifferent to the poor and it was then the scourge of Islamic invasions ravaged Europe and Africa. The cycle of the church seems to follow this pattern: 1. Persecution: destruction & suffering 2. Repentance, evangelism growth 3. Prosperity & righteousness 4. Pride and wickedness (complacency & apostasy)
Even Spain, being so Catholic today, was governed by the Moors from 711 to 1472, which is more than 760 years of Islam! Persecution has always been around and it is not going away! The final endtime persecution will be horrific but we know many will survive it because of 1 Thessalonians 4:17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
8. So how do we get ready for the persecution? Here are 3 suggestions of mine. For one, as Christians we must be exemplary and live holy, pure, honest, and loving lives so we will be filled with passion to stand up for the right when needed! When evil people want to accuse us of evil, let us be like Jesus, innocent of any crime, so they will not be able to pinpoint any evil on us! In Acts it says Steven had the face of an angel while they were stoning him to death!
We all know that people of low intelligence tend to generalize, stereotype, and pick and choose the arguments that they select in order to justify their evil aggression against another. As Christians we must denounce the false representatives of the faith, the mainline churches that accept sin, the prosperous doctrine ones as on TV, so others know we are not in this same category to be judged according to their excessively rich lifestyle full of hypocrisy. Satan’s most damaging method is that of getting wolves in sheep’s clothing to subvert and embarrass the faith. Lately he has been too successful! Stay pure, expose evil within false Christianity!
Second, we must be prepared with the scriptures (memorize!) in our hearts to answer people who attack us. Psalm 119:42 So shall I have wherewith to answer him that reproacheth me: for I trust in thy word. 2 Timothy 4:2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. We cannot deny what the scriptures say, and sadly people often want to kill us, the messagers, just for telling them the truth of God’s word! But it is not our message, it is God’s! The word of God has undeniable power!
9. And the third suggestion, we must be active in society exposing evil for what it is or in our apathy we will shame our Lord! How often do you criticize Satan’s governing systems that are fomenting poverty, slavery, sex trafficking, drug addictions, and destructions? Forget being PC, (politically correct) being conformed to this world and rise up with the power of the Holy Spirit!
One example of a man who with convictions that brought about an impacting change to this world by exposing falsehoods and evil is Justin Martyr (St. Justin). Justin was born to a pagan family and lived from 100 to 165 AD. He studied world philosophy but accepted Christ with an elderly Syrian Christian. He became an apologist for the faith and was known in many cities to challenge pagan priests, Christians following errant doctrines, and the pagan magistrates. His ‘First Apology’ (many more apologies and writings followed) was addressed to Antoninus Pius, his sons, and the Roman Senate. His dare was to attain an appeal to express, ‘It is unjust to condemn a Christian without first hearing his cause’. He fought for morality (or as we define it: holiness) challenging Romans, Jews, and false sects. Before martyrdom, he was ordered to sacrifice to the Roman gods but he replied, “No person in his right thinking mind moves from piety to impiety’. He convinced many that Christians were not atheists and flesh eaters.
Here is one quote of his: Philosophy is the full knowledge of reality and the clear perception of truth. Happiness is the reward of such knowledge and wisdom. He was foundational in establishing correct doctrinal interpretations of the Holy Scriptures. He was scourged and then beheaded. His death provoked an unexpected interest and respect for his writings which were conserved and studied by Christian scholars for 18 centuries. (Look up his works and read!) Haters and persecutors never take into account that their murderous victories are shallow and short lived. Where’s the pride and gods of Rome today? Gone!
10. Up until this point of history in this country we have been given the right to worship as we choose, but now there are growing groups of Islamists, Atheists, Communists, and bitter haters of all kinds that are getting corrupted judges and politicians to eradicate this freedom! They actually want to kill us, the Christians, just as the demon possessed jealous religious leaders wanted to kill Jesus in his day! We never accept evil and must make waves and be heard so that we will do as the apostles did in Acts, and quote, “We ought to obey God rather than men!”
For victory, be reminded, we must fight first! Ephesians 6: 12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. 13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
If any of you, my brothers or sisters, were to get harmed in the near future it would really break my heart! I feel my blood pressure rise daily as I read articles, or see on TV something concerning the persecution killing or enslavement of men, women, and children who are Christians! But these murderers will reap the hell they are causing! Our hope is in the promise of eternal life in Jesus! His Kingdom is forever and it is coming soon! Obey God above men! You are an overcomer if you stay close to Jesus! John 16:33These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.
