Preparing For Persecution VIII

 If the history of the early church teaches us anything, it’s that there is no compromising with the darkness. Watering down the message of the gospel will not engender the world’s acceptance, nor will minimizing Jesus, the cross, the death, the blood, and the resurrection rally those who hate Him to our cause. We are different because we’re supposed to be, and attempting to become more like those who hate us will only make us less than the One we serve.

That’s not to say the world hasn’t picked its champions from among those purporting to be followers of Jesus, elevating them to positions they’d never dare to dream of because the godless will always need someone to point to as the example of what they think a true Christian should be. The only problem is that the ones the world praises as spiritual luminaries are far from what the Bible says a true Christian ought to be.

Even though they stood before men of renown for their time, Peter and John were unwavering and uncompromising in their conviction and faithfulness. Jesus was their all; they’d surrendered fully to the call on their lives and were content with whatever happened to them from that point forward.

It’s sad to see that the world has more conviction about the positions it holds than the church has about its convictions, but it’s a sign of the times if we’re willing to read the warnings of the Book and believe them at face value.

The devil learns from his mistakes, but the church rarely does. The devil figured out that in order to weaken the church, it must be done from within. The threat of persecution and even persecution itself only served to strengthen the true followers of Christ. No matter what the godless threw at them, it served not only to embolden them but also to grow the number of those who responded to the message of a risen Lord.

It’s imperative that we determine the modern-day church’s level of conviction and commitment because, in so doing, we can ascertain the true number of those who will stand for the truth, though the world might stand against them.

If the average Christian today were as committed as those of the early church, this study would not be necessary. The storm would come, the church would weather it, the church would grow strong from it, and the church would continue to do great exploits in Jesus' name.

We can beat our chests and claim spiritual superiority until we are bruised. Still, the fact remains that this is the most lethargic, lukewarm, compromising, and double-hearted generation of believers the world has ever seen.

Furthering the kingdom of God is the last thing on our minds because we’ve been lulled into a false sense of security and swallowed the lie that the purpose of our being here is our own comfort and ease and to retain and maintain our creature comforts, we can readily abandon the truth and compromise with the godless regarding anything, at any time. Harsh? Perhaps. True? Most assuredly.

Avoiding persecution is easy; compromise your values, morals, and ethics, betray Jesus, and deny Him as the only way to the Father, and you’ll be in the club. Money will rain down from heaven, new cars will sit idling in your driveway, and you will be loved by the same people who despise your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ to the point of reveling in their demise.

You can choose to stand or fall in line, but you can’t do both simultaneously. The current spiritual environment, especially in the West, is a petri dish perfectly tempered for the greatest falling away the world has ever seen.

But what about the sweeping revival? Show it to me in the Bible. That is all. I can show you where Jesus speaks of a great falling away, but I can’t find one reference to a great end-time revival. It’s a good story, though. Here we are, fat, lazy, lukewarm, and indifferent, but man, oh man, when that end-time revival hits, we’re going to have so many more fat, lazy, lukewarm, and apathetic people warming those empty pews. Is that the story we’re trying to sell? Is that the goal? Are more ambulatory corpses throwing a few bucks in the bucket the sole purpose of calling ourselves a church?

A handful of people turned the world upside down without the benefit of airplanes, cell phones, landlines, steam engines, the internet, rail, or any of a thousand things we take for granted on a daily basis. Yet billion-dollar Christian outfits can only garner the world’s mockery because some guy sweating buckets is throwing his coat on people for no apparent reason other than putting on a show.

There was no showmanship in what Peter and John did. A lame man asked them for spare change; they told him they had none to give but that they’d give him what they had. There was no pontificating; Peter didn’t say, “Behold, I shall make this man whole! Witness the power of my gifting!” He grabbed the lame man by the hand, raised him up, and let him go leaping about.

Could you imagine how long a televangelist would have milked that exchange if they had the power of Peter and John and ran across a man lame from birth? That’s also why so few possess true power nowadays, and so many are nothing more than snake oil salesmen. When God heals, it’s not to bring glory to a man or for the man to intimate that he had a hand in it. God doesn’t heal for entertainment purposes; He heals as He wills to bring glory and honor to His name.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.