Comfort under persecution

By Jim Killebrew

[January 09, 2015]  In recent years we have seen hostility and violence spreading throughout the world. The ideology of hate and destruction has created wars, genocide, systematic murders, rapes, kidnapping, and specifically persecution against Christians. We have seen news segments and read media accounts of ISIS in Syria and Iraq moving into towns gathering up the families of Christians and publically requiring children to deny the name of Jesus and their faith in Him or suffer death. Their refusal to deny His name has resulted in their beheading while the rest of their family watched. Hundreds of Coptic Christians were routed from their homes and sent running for their lives by the ISIS forces simply because of the Christian beliefs held by those families.

In this 21st century world in which we live, even living in the freedom of America, it is not beyond the realm of possibility that persecution of Christians will someday be a reality. The continued drip, drip, drip effect of incremental offense at Christian beliefs encouraging the offended to rise up and call for all public display of those beliefs to be stricken has an effect on the decimation of Christian values. With the so-called "separation" of anything spiritual from the public political infrastructure to be replaced by the less than neutral secular, humanistic ideology is having an effect on removing Christian symbols from the public eye. Especially since the national educational system has successfully supplanted the Christian morality with the relativism of morality based on the survival of the fittest. Generation after generation of children are being socialized away from the truth of right and wrong, to the relativism of accepting whatever is currently situational, individually right within the perception of situations at the moment. It should not be a surprise to 21st century Americans when they begin to come face-to-face with real, actual persecution for their Christian beliefs; that day may be sooner rather than later.

"But if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but glorify God that you bear such a name. For it is time for judgment to begin, starting with the house of God. And if it starts with us, what will be the fate of those who are disobedient to the gospel of God? And if the righteous are barely saved, what will become of the ungodly and sinners? So then let those who suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls to a faithful Creator as they do good." (1 Peter 4:16-19)

When we read or know about someone being insulted because of some Christian principle brushing up against their sensitivities, and they form a coalition of like-minded persons to ban some Christian practice as a result, then the ethnocentric non-Christian groups across the country rise up in protest. Sometimes we hear these stories in the context of "Christians being persecuted."

When the Apostle Peter wrote to the Christians in his first recorded letter, the Christians were being persecuted for real. They were hated by the Roman government and officials as well as the Jewish hierarchy at that time. Their persecution included real harm personally to them and to their families. During the time of the Caesar, Nero, the persecution included death to Christians. Through the centuries since then we have all read about the atrocities committed to others in the name of religion, and in particular even the name of Christianity. That is being repeated all over our world even as we live in our modern times.

For sure when sensibilities are ruffled and we believe we are being persecuted we should speak up and challenge those who are trying to stifle anyone's faith. In the Western world it is generally accepted that there is a freedom extended to all citizens to practice their perspective faith. In America especially there is an individual freedom to practice one's faith. So, at least in the current, modern era, we are not as yet in America experiencing the same type and intensity of persecution experienced by the people who listened as the Apostle Peter's letter was being read. But other parts of the world are experiencing those kind of persecutions as we have seen in the Islamic world. As with all history and the passage of time, however, this may not always be the situation in our own country. We have listened to the chilling effect of the pronouncements from the ISIL leaders they will someday soon be flying their Islamic State flag over the White House.

In our tinder-box world of radicalism and explosiveness that executes war with weapons up to, and including, the atomic weapons we have, it is not completely out of the question that many who call themselves Christian will be targeted for persecution, even to the point of death. As the radicalism of other cultures who repeatedly call upon the annihilation of various people groups continue to flourish, the words of the Apostle Peter will become decidedly more comforting.

It is possible that as Christians we might be called upon to glorify God and not be ashamed to bear the name Christian. In the midst of the most severe persecution we must accept the fact that God's judgment will start with the epicenter of Christianity. Peter warns us, "if the righteous are barely saved, what will become of the ungodly and sinners?" ( a quote from Proverbs 11:31) So no matter what happens there is nothing we can do to save ourselves; our task is to remain righteous by remaining in Christ. Only then will the Apostle Peter's words be the most comforting: "So then let those who suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls to a faithful Creator as they do good." (1 Peter 4:19)

[By JIM KILLEBREW]