Thoughts on Christian Persecution (Part 2)

Click here to read Part One.

The Offense of Christ

Nothing and no one is more offensive than Jesus Christ Himself. 

From More Than a Carpenter by Josh McDowell
The very name Jesus seems to bother people. It embarrasses them, makes them angry, or makes them want to change the subject. You can talk about God, and people don’t necessarily get upset, but mention Jesus, and people want to stop the conversation. Why don’t the names of Buddha, Muhammad, or Confucius offend people the way the name of Jesus does? 

Christians who stick to safe topics like God (the inoffensive, do-gooding, self-empowering God of Touched By an Angel and The Purpose-Driven Life) will never face persecution because they are not touching at the root of Who God is. 

Jesus Christ touches at that root, because no one can think of Jesus Christ without thinking of why He came. No one wants to admit that He came because of their sin. People get offended because the name of Jesus Christ pricks their conscience, but instead of asking themselves why their consciences are so stricken, they turn their venom on the Christian who spoke the name of Christ and act like the Christian is a hate-mongering, fanatical bigot who accuses everybody of sin. 

(For example, a young woman of my acquaintance was known at her workplace as a committed Christian. When her co-workers learned that she would not involve herself physically or emotionally with a man unless she planned to marry him, one co-worker, who was living with her boyfriend, automatically cried, "I'm not a whore!" The Christian woman was astonished that her own commitment to chastity was automatically considered an accusation toward everyone else.)

Confessing Christ

Romans 10:9
If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus Christ, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Christians are not persecuted because they do not confess Christ unashamedly. They hide Him. The world is becoming a harder and harder place to hide one’s Christianity, for Christ is under an attack at the workplace, in the media, in the legal system, and everywhere else. 

There are choices that must be made every day. There are indoctrination programs at workplaces to remind everyone to not only tolerate but whole-heartedly accept things such as homosexuality, which God clearly forbids. There is the slow, steady grinding down of the Christian’s standards; sins like lying, adultery, witchcraft, and stealing are so common that the Christian becomes desensitized to them, and even enjoys movies and books where these sins are displayed without shame and without repentance. There is the desperation to succeed at the workplace or in the academic sphere; Christians literally fear losing jobs or failing their classes unless they hide their light under a bushel.

The Miracles Of Persecution

If a Christian were to boldly proclaim the truth, regardless of the context, that Christian would see two things: more persecution and more miracles. If we want to see great things, we will have to suffer great things, for the devil gives no ground easily.

From The Overcoming Life by Dwight L. Moody

A great many are willing to accept Christ, but they are not willing to publish it, to confess it… A young man enlisted and was sent to his regiment. The first night he was in the barracks with about fifteen other young men who passed the tie playing cards and gambling. Before he retired, he fell on his knees and prayed, and they began to curse him and jeer at him and throw boots at him.

    So it went on the next night and the next. Finally the young man went and told the chaplain what had taken place and asked what he should do.

    “Well,” said the chaplain, “You are not at home now, and the other men have just as much right in the barracks as you have. It makes them mad to hear you pray, and the Lord will hear you just as well if you say your prayers in bed and don’t’ provoke them.”

    For weeks after, the chaplain did not see the young man again, but one day he met him and asked, “By the way, did you take my advice?”

    “I did, for two or three nights.”

    “How did it work?”

    “Well,” said the young man. “I felt like a whipped hound, and on the third night I got out of bed, knelt down, and prayed.”

    “Well,” asked the chaplain. “How did that work?”

    The young soldier answered, “We have a prayer meeting there now every night, and three have been converted, and we are praying for the rest.”

    Oh, friends, I am so tired of weak Christianity. Let us be out and out for Christ; let us give no uncertain sound. If the world wants to call us fools, let them do it. It is only a little while; the crowning day is coming. Thank God for the privilege we have of confessing Christ.