Persecution More Than Plausible It Biblical

Thank you to everyone who took the time to comment on the controversial issue of how we're expected to respond to the coming One World Government system of oppression. I thank God for bringing such a diverse and international community of believers together to share their unique insights. If you want on in the discussion be sure to check out the COMMENTS SECTION.

I must say that your fellowship through the Comments Section and via email has brought clarity to this debate (at least for me). The truth is so simple, but it's the harsh reality of that truth that I think gives most of us problems. We've never been called to experience -- even remotely -- the types of things we know are coming just for believing in Jesus Christ, and so we can't fathom any reality that flings us into the face of hard-core religious persecution.

While I still believe in a literal Rapture event, I think the responsible thing to do is to prepare spiritually as if we expect to face some sort of intense persecution for our faith in Jesus Christ to some extent. I don't believe that's exhibiting a lack of faith in the "escape" do you? What escape?

Luke 21:36 (KJV) Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to ESCAPE all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man (emphasis mine)

I'm also not above admitting that I may be wrong in my interpretation and understanding of what this escape constitutes. By that, I simply mean that some have argued that while they certainly believe God's Word (as in this verse above) about there being an actual, future escape, they caution that perhaps this escape is something else entirely, and not what we commonly think when we connect it to the Rapture.

They say that this verse could simply mean that when the Tribulation begins and the Saints are persecuted worldwide for their faith, the escape could simply be God providing His supernatural protection over us by giving us a way out of even the most hopeless situations that we'll encounter (think of Paul and Silas shackled in prison, the earthquake, and their miraculous release that we read about in Acts 16).

All that is to say that I don't think believing in an "escape" (whatever form that "escape" takes) and believing that the Body of Christ (as it exists today) will have to face brutal persecution soon are mutually exclusive. You can certainly hold to both positions -- and should -- because both are Biblical.

So, in my follow-up study to this entire issue of the appropriate response by Christians to tyranny (see "Defiance Or Disillusionment?"), I came across a commentary written just a few weeks ago in late August by Greg Musselman published over at The Voice of the Martyrs Persecuted Church Weblog. I want to include this short, but hard-hitting piece in its entirety in an effort to keep this discussion going.

"Are You Taking Bible Verses Out Of Context?"

By Greg Musselman

Thursday, August 27, 2009

"Context, context, context" is what one of my professors said many times during my three years at Bible College. He warned the class that if he ever heard one of us preaching and taking the passages out of context we would be in big trouble! In the twenty years that have passed since I graduated I've tried to always remember the context of the scriptures I'm teaching and preaching from. Who wrote it? Who is the intended audience? Why was it written?

In my almost ten years of involvement with The Voice of the Martyrs Canada, I often remind the churches I have spoken at in Canada that much of the New Testament was written by persecuted Christians to persecuted Christians. Think about the letters of Paul, Peter and John. Jesus also spent a lot of time teaching his followers about what they would face by preaching His message. He promised that they would suffer for following Him!

So why don't we hear more about suffering for righteousness sake during our Sunday morning services, or from our favorite radio or TV preacher if it is one of the main themes of the New Testament?

Let me suggest that perhaps because most Christians in the West have little or no experience with persecution it affects our ability to deal properly with the passages that speak about persecution when we read them and especially when we are trying to preach on them from the pulpit in some sort of relevant way. As our CEO Glenn Penner says, in our pursuit of relevance, we end up being less than accurate in how we handle the Word of God.

Here is just one example of what I am talking about. When Peter wrote to the Christians who had been scattered throughout much of Asia Minor due to persecution, he encouraged them to stand strong in their faith in the face of the persecution that was the consequence of their decision to follow Jesus. He wrote: "In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith - of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire - may prove to be genuine and may result in praise, even glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed" (1 Peter 1: 6, 7).

In most sermons I've heard on this passage, it is used to exhort believers to stand firm in their faith in all of life's problems and difficulties such as sickness, financial crises, family issues, and the like. While I understand why preachers in a society where there isn't intense persecution would use those verses that way, it is not, however, their original context or meaning. In the context, the passage referred specifically to suffering for being a Christian. In fact, the context of most of the verses that address suffering in the New Testament is one of suffering not because of sin or because we live in a fallen world but because of righteousness.

Like most Christians in Canada, I've never faced the level of persecution of those we serve as a mission. I've never even lost of a job or been held back from a promotion because of my faith in Christ. That does not, however, give us the liberty to misapply the passages that deal with suffering in the New Testament.

Bold, but convicting because it's true.

Look, I've never been one to subscribe to the thought that As Christians, we all must suffer because Christ suffered because that seemed completely foreign to me, or that you're somehow not a genuine Christian if you don't suffer some trials in life, but how can we ignore the truth of what God's Word really says?

We will suffer because the Bible says so. We will face trials the closer we're walking with the Lord. It's when we stray from the righteous path that the suffering and the trials cease. I guess it makes sense when you think it through apart from the Biblical proof. I mean, it stands to reason that the closer we are to God, the farther we are from Satan. Why wouldn't Satan ramp up his attacks on us to try and "get us back in the fold with him" -- he most certainly will as much as God allows him to!

Except for one small fact. What Satan intends to use to destroy us, God intends to use to sanctify us! God allows such trials and tribulations knowing they will perfect our faith even further and bring us that much closer to Him; it has the reverse effect.

So, how to with connect this with today's discussion? CORRIE TEN BOOM, a Dutch Christian Holocaust survivor who helped many Jews escape the Nazis during World War II, was once quoted as saying, "Hold loosely to the things of this life, so that if God requires them of you, it will be easy to let them go. Before she died she told Corrie, "There is no pit so deep that God's love is not deeper still." Corrie was released on Christmas Day of December 1944. In the movie "The Hiding Place", Ten Boom narrates the section on her release from camp, saying that she later learned that her release had been a clerical error! The women prisoners her age in the camp were killed the week following her release. She said, God does not have problems. Only plans."

Great advice and an even more relevant story that can provide us with so much valuable insight about the dark times ahead for us. You know, I gotta admit that whatever He did to me over the course of that last month, when I was on hiatus taking a break from all of this and sorting out my own despicable spiritual condition, it's been a complete adjustment! I can't say that I've even gotten used to this "new" me yet.

In fact, there have been a few occasions where I wished the Holy Spirit wouldn't have opened my eyes so widely because I can now see many things that I had wrong, had overlooked, or had simply ignored. And you know what? It can be frightening at first because it's all so new to you especially when it comes to this topic of religious persecution.

Take this entire study for example. I go on and on about how God's Word needs to be read, digested, and understood so that we can apply it to our daily lives and any situation that might come up. Furthermore, I stress how we need to take the literal interpretation of the Scriptures over any symbolic or secondary meaning too, and despite all of that, here I was "blatantly" (willingly) ignoring those portions of Scripture that had anything to say about persecution and our response to such persecution just because it all made me feel uncomfortable and I couldn't quite reconcile it with my own concept of what the "Christian lifestyle" was supposed to be like.

I have to say that this all seems so clear to me now and I know that's not going to be a popular admission. How am I supposed to just turn a blind eye to all of this though? The evidence is a bit daunting! Plus, I was the one who sought, and I was the one who came knocking looking for answers on this subject because I was wondering what I should do if I ever get a knock at my front door in the middle of the night with an all-expenses-paid trip for me and my family to Camp FEMA in Buffalo, NY. Of course, I shouldn't be the least bit surprised that this happened:

LUKE 11:9 (KJV) "And I say unto you, ASK, and IT SHALL BE GIVEN YOU; SEEK, and YE SHALL FIND; KNOCK, and IT SHALL BE OPENED UNTO YOU. "(emphasis mine)

Where do we go from here? Well, I think the best course of action is for all of us to seek the Lord's guidance on this and get our spiritual house in order just as we've all been trying to do for weeks now. A special thanks to Peniell for sharing the following link to a commentary that sheds some additional light on all of this in case you're inclined to go deeper with this study:

THE SWORD OR THE CROSS?

The opening line of that article gives us some idea of what we're in for:

"When Peter used the sword to keep Jesus from going to the cross, He said, "All they that take the sword shall perish with the sword." Even though the true saints will not agree with much that is about to happen in this world, they will not take "the sword" of man and break their covenant with God as the apostates and their leadership will. God's plan for His people is demonstrated by Jesus."

Later on, we read:

Tertullus, speaking against Paul's revolution, said, "For we have found this man a pestilent fellow, and a mover of insurrections (revolutions) among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes" (Acts 24:5). Jesus and Paul's revolution was to use the Word to separate the chosen from the carnal church. Neither of them had anything to do with wrestling with a flesh and blood beast system. That was the harlot's revolution. We are to be patriots of the Lord's Kingdom, not the U.S. Like Jesus, "My kingdom is not of this world."

Heed these warnings in the Bible and do not listen to those who come as "patriots" to stir up Christians to rebel against this country. Those who do, God will destroy by the hand of this government. In this way, God will cleanse His body of those that refuse to obey by going to their cross.

Also, this is not a salvation issue, which is to say that I'm not for an instant suggesting that if you don't respond this way when things get bad you somehow won't end up in Heaven. I'm just trying to make sense of what I'm just seeing now for the first time despite reading these things many times over.

Yes, innocent Christians in our day (you and I might fall into this category) will be falsely accused as rebels and imprisoned or even killed. If that's our fate, then who are we to try to change it? If God has ordained such a fate for us, then to rebel and resist would be an act of disobedience and showing a lack of faith in Him and a complete rejection of His will for our lives.

Who are we to assume that God won't supernaturally protect us when that time comes as long as we live obediently and trust Him and His Word? "Perhaps" the coming "escape" is God blinding the eyes of those who come for us so that they won't see is when they arrive to look for us. What does it say about us and our faith if we doubt that He has the power to perform such a miracle should He choose to? Many will fight to keep from going into captivity, but only God determines if one needs this for their maturing:

REVELATION 13:9-10 (KJV) If any man hath an ear, let him hear. If any man [is] for captivity, into captivity he goeth: if any man shall kill with the sword, with the sword must he be killed. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.

Only God gives authority to the beast to bring His people into bondage or death. Again, we should not put it beyond God's ability to supernaturally hide those who do not need more crucifixion. To clarify, by "crucifixion" I mean to say that there are a good number of us who still need to go through the fiery furnace so that we can be purified as part of the sanctification process.

I will end by restating that I still believe in the Rapture, but I am open to the possibility that the coming "escape" can possibly take a completely different form. I am going to try to prepare myself and my family spiritually as if we will face intense persecution just in case. I will try to nurture a faith that believes it's possible for God to perform miracles even in this day and age and in these types of situations. I will pray for my Heavenly Father to grant me His grace and wisdom to know how to respond appropriately.

I pray that we all continue to seek the Lord for His wisdom so that our response will be consistent with the Scriptures when our time comes.