Persecuted

      I have heard so many pastors and Christian leaders lately talk about how American Christians are weak, and have never been persecuted like the rest of the world.  "But it's coming, so watch out!" they conclude.  This doesn't set well with me.  People in other nations are painted as being more spiritual than Americans.  Are we, as American Christians, weak?  Is the rest of the world earning treasures in Heaven by being persecuted, while we're enjoying the good life in a lazy hammock?  Is that a realistic picture?  I'm going to establish, using factual evidence and the Word of God, what constitutes persecution, who is persecuted, and what makes someone a "strong Christian." 

     Second Timothy 3:12 tells us, Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.  This is telling us that every believer who is walking with the Lord will face persecution.  It doesn't specify what country they're from.  It doesn't have it.  Every godly believer will face it.  In fact, I believe every godly believer has, unless they are very newly saved.  

     Let's look at what persecution is.  According to the dictionary, it is: hostility and ill-treatment, especially because of race or political or religious beliefs.  It doesn't say that it's being beheaded or thrown in prison.  Those are the extreme things we tend to associate with persecution.  They can definitely be part of persecution, but they are not the entirety of what it is.  It only takes a moment to die for Christ, but it takes a lifetime to live for Him daily, and accept all that goes with that.  That's what Jesus meant when He told us to deny ourselves, take up our crosses and follow Him (Matthew 16:4).  Persecution is part of living.

     There are several biblical examples of persecution.  Abel was obedient to God and was murdered by his jealous brother.  Noah was disbelieved by his neighbors, the Israelites were enslaved, David was hunted down, Elijah was threatened, many of the prophets were rejected, threatened, or killed.  

     What did Jesus say would happen to believers for their stand?  In John 16:2-4a, He told His disciples: They will ban you from the synagogue, yet an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering a service to God. These things they will do because they have not known the Father nor Me.  But these things I have spoken to you, so that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told you of them.  Notice that first part.  They would be banned from the synagogue--the center of religious life.  If anyone knew what it was like to have a supposedly God-fearing culture, it was the disciples.  Israel had a very special relationship with God, and has received so much from Him, but had strayed multiple times.  Sounds a lot like the US, doesn't it?  I'm not suggesting the US has the same covenant relationship with God that Israel does.  I am saying that their culture had a lot in common with ours.  They had a godly history and were still God-fearing on the surface.  Yet these disciples, once they received the Holy Spirit, would reveal the falseness of the religious system by preaching the truth, and this would have them put out by those who supposedly knew God.  I will return to this.

     I think I have fairly established that persecution isn't simply being jailed or killed for the faith.  It can be that, but isn't necessarily.  It isn't always from an oppressive government either.  It can be from people we know and love.  It can be from those who claim to speak for God.  Now let's examine who can rightly claim to have been persecuted.  

         I think one thing that is a little bit complicated about the US (and many other Western nations) is that we have much more Christianity woven into the fabric of our culture, so many things are seen as Christian, when they aren't biblical at all.  People in Eastern nations see Madonna (or some other sexualized diva--Madonna is the only one I know, I am dating myself!) wearing a cross necklace above her skimpy outfits, and think that's what American Christianity is all about.  Many people try to pay lip service to Jesus in our supposedly Christian culture.  If faced with real persecution, they would never stand up for their so-called faith.  Those people are weak.  Are true believers weak?  

     Being a Christian--truly going the distance with Jesus--is going against the grain, even in a Western "Christian" nation.  Even in the Bible belt.  Sometimes, even in the pews of our churches.  The religious freedom enjoyed in the US and many other nations is a blessing, but also makes it easier for people to fake it.  That is the problem people are really referring to when they make these statements about American Christians being weak.  But what about those of us who are not faking it?   

     As an American Christian, the biggest hurts I have experienced haven't been from the government or from atheists or someone pushing an agenda.  They have been from so-called fellow believers.  I think the church in nations like ours is in a unique position to attack its own.  Christians in Communist or Islamic nations have to band together.  They might be persecuted from without, but at least the church is a safe place to be.  We have the opposite problem.  We don't have the government banging on our doors, but we have so many professing Christians who are so comfortable in their mediocre lives that they attack true believers who make a stand.  These true believers are shedding light on the mediocre professing believer's fakery, and they can't have that.  They treat them the same way the Pharisees treated Jesus.  Are these professing Christians really saved?  Some probably are.  Many, I would guess, are not.  They're like the wheat and the tares (Matthew 13:24-30).  I would say the majority who attack God's people aren't saved, because, as stated earlier, John 16:3 says, These things they will do because they have not known the Father nor Me.  These people don't know God.  They don't like the light of the Lord being exposed on their sin, so they attack the bearers of that light.  

     One of the most obvious "persecution from fellow believers" stories for me was that seven years ago, I was a leader in a community Bible study.  This study was all women, and, unfortunately, it could get a bit catty.  In the course of my involvement, I made a stand about something.  I didn't make it in any sort of combative way.  It was stated in how I shared what I had gotten out of the passage we were studying that week.   The next thing I knew, I was kicked out, told not to return.  The woman in charge was very patronizing, and told me, "You're just too good of a Christian for this study."  Huh?  In the days following, I kept thinking, "How can Christians do that to each other?"  I know I am not alone in having faced something like this.  After all, Jesus forewarned us that persecution would come from the supposedly God-fearing.  Am I suggesting this woman wasn't a Christian?  Not at all.  God knows hearts.  I do not.  But she wasn't acting in accordance with God.  I lost friendships and my standing in that community.  

     Sometimes, it's the small stuff that just shows us this world isn't our home.  I was in another Bible study (not the one I got kicked out of!) many years ago.  A woman in my small group shared how she was part of a moms group, with other women who got together while their kids played.  They were trying to set up some sort of activity, and they wanted to have it on the day of Bible study.  This woman shared that she had Bible study.  The other moms all looked at her funny, and several said, "That's not that important.  You can miss it."  Yet they were bending over backwards to accommodate the other people's schedules and activities.  Was this woman being thrown to lions?  No, but she was making a stand, and it was affecting her relationships.  Just because that is seemingly small doesn't mean it didn't hurt her, or affect her life.  She made her choice, took her stand, and pleased God.    

     When I was on a mission trip in New England several years ago, a woman didn't like the fact that we were doing a Bible club in the park near her home.  She called the police on us!  We weren't breaking any laws, so they told her they wouldn't even show up, so this woman came down herself and shouted at us in front of the children we were teaching.  The law was on our side, unlike in some nations, but the hostility was still there.  

     We are maligned by the media.  Religious/Christian people are made to look stupid, out of touch, or hiding big, dirty secrets.  When I was in my mid-20's the movie Saved hit theaters.  It was an attempt to mock conservative Christianity by making the characters hypocritical, foolish, vindictive, and cruel.  Just seeing the ads for it hurt my heart.  If they made a movie mocking any other religious group, or any other group of people at all, it would have been considered hateful.  Yet it's okay to mock Christians.  First John 3:1b is such a comfort to me, The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.  They don't know our Savior, so of course they don't understand His followers.  It hurts to be misunderstood and mocked.  Jesus warned His disciples about this too, in John 15:20: Remember what I told you: 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.  It looks to me that American Christians are experiencing persecution exactly as the Bible has said. 

     Then, there are the very strong cases.  Cases like seventeen-year-old Rachel Scott, at Columbine High School, who was asked if she believed in God, replying, "You know that I do," and being shot to death for it.  That happened right here in America, folks.  Still think American's don't experience persecution? 

Rachel Scott, 1981-1999

     This year, with the pandemic, some governors took the opportunity to close churches, deeming them as "non-essential."  However, rioting wasn't stopped (in some cases it was even encouraged).  Strip clubs were allowed to remain open.  Christians in these states have made a stand, some defying the governors, and others cleverly finding ways around the restrictions.  One pastor in San Diego, California turned his church into a "family-friendly strip club" by removing his tie before the sermon.  Very clever.  But these governors are persecuting the believers in their states.  

     We also tend to talk about the rest of the world as if they are fighting for their lives every minute and we have it so much easier than all of them.  That isn't the case in every nation.  Open Doors ministry lists eleven nations nations that are very dangerous for Christians, thirty-four that are moderately dangerous, and five that are somewhat dangerous.  These nations are mostly Communist or Islamic.  In the top ten BEST nations for Christianity/religious liberty, the US is ranked number 5.  In my own international travels, I have seen countries with more freedom to share the gospel than the US, such as in public schools.  There are other nations that aren't being fed to lions either.  And yet all of us who truly live for the Lord are facing persecution in one way or another.  The world doesn't know us.  

     I think some of the hurts American Christians go through are the untold stories.  Many people pray for the persecuted church (as they should) but never think about the Christians in "free" nations who are living godly in Christ Jesus, and paying for it daily in terms of broken hearts, mistreatment, unfulfilled desires, loneliness, rejection, and other struggles.  Our stories are often minimized.  We are part of the body too, and we are in pain.  Many years ago, I started to write a book about this called The Persecuted Church in America.  I conducted interviews with several Christians who had been hurt by other so-called Christians, as well as pastors who had had people leave their churches.  I still have all that research.  Maybe one day, I'll finish it.  At the time, God led me to lay off for a while.  I was too intensely involved.  

     Christians everywhere face some level of persecution.  What makes someone a strong Christian, and therefore a candidate for persecution?  What has happened in that person's life to make them so?

     I said it earlier, but Jesus told us to deny ourselves, take our our crosses daily, and follow Him (Luke 9:23--earlier I quoted it out of Matthew, as it is also stated there).  Denying ourselves means choosing God's way, in spite of our own desires.  Choosing to forgive, when hate is a strong temptation.  Choosing to be humble, when the tendency is to be puffed up.  Choosing to be celibate when your desires can't be righteously fulfilled.  Choosing not to engage in ungodly talk when everyone around you is having fun doing it.  Choosing to let God alone meet your emotional needs, rather than drugs, food, relationships, or hobbies.  Choosing not to reply in anger to that email.  Choosing to get up and go to church instead of sleeping in.  These are just a few ways we deny ourselves.  Maybe there are some you face that I didn't touch on.  Taking up your cross is the next part.  That involves taking everything that comes with that choice of self-denial.  Maybe it's unfulfilled desires.  Maybe it's being ostracized.  Maybe it's a threat to your physical safety.  Maybe it's seeing others succeeding while you wait and wait.  No matter the specifics, it is being willing to accept what comes with godly choices, trusting God to make it right one day.  The final step is to follow Jesus.  Once you've done those first two steps, the third one is a joy to do, because you're not alone.  He is with you, and He leads you to others who are also on this narrow path. 

     Hebrews 11 talks about some people we often call heroes of the faith.  These were Old Testament believers who walked by faith, and pleased God.  In verses 13b-16, we are given their secret: having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.  For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own.  And indeed if they had been thinking of that country which they left, they would have had opportunity to return.  But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.  These believers (and those of us living for the Lord today) have made a choice.  We have decided to live for what waits beyond this life, rather than for this world.  This world is not our home.  When we have chosen that, we are "strong Christians."  Don't let anyone tell you you're weak because you haven't been in jail or had your life threatened.  

     James 1:12 tells us: Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love Him.  Continuing to walk with the Lord, in spite of difficulties, will bring eternal rewards.  Also, God will one day make all things right, and avenge all wrongs.  Hang in there.  God sees you.