Preparing For Persecution XIX

 Only in our day and age would the godless have the gall to insist that what people are seeing really isn’t and what they’re hearing is likewise not as it is. If they can’t convince you that you imagined it, they’ll revert to arguing that your experience was anecdotal and so cannot be trusted to establish something as fact. That is until the shoe is on the other foot, and they insist that anecdotal evidence is science, and if you deny it, you’re a murderer of the worst sort.

Those who had put Peter and John on trial didn’t even bother trying to convince them that they were mistaken, that perhaps they’d imagined Christ rising from the dead, or that it was a hallucination brought upon by grief. You can tell when someone will not be moved from their position when their faith is solid and true and rooted in the divine.

Despite the threats they faced, Peter and John stood their ground. Their response was not one of fear or subservience but of unwavering faith. The authorities, who were accustomed to manipulating, intimidating, or browbeating others, could not read fear in their eyes. This display of courage likely left the authorities planning their next move in frustration.

If you fear dying for Jesus, you’re never going to truly live for Him. If the goal is to spare your life and not to faithfully follow after Him, you’ll always find a way of avoiding confrontation with the darkness but at the expense of compromising your values, beliefs, ethics, and morals.

It’s a slippery slope. One compromise will lead to another, and one omission will lead to ten. Because the focus is on preserving the flesh rather than the preaching of the gospel, you will justify any compromise, including denying Him before men.

I’ve seen it happen even in the best of times, where men compromised themselves for something as trivial as being glad-handed by Oprah or appearing next to someone they know full well is an enemy of the cross. The justification is always that it’s a bigger platform, and they can reach more people, but somehow, they never get around to preaching a risen Christ once that occurs.

If you’re lukewarm and mealy-mouthed before your sit-down interview with Larry King, then you’ll be lukewarm and mealy-mouthed during your sit-down interview as well. Boldness is birthed in the hearts of those who have seen and heard, who have known the Christ and not just known of Him, and there are many today who have been elevated to the heights of fame, even deemed spiritual authorities, who’ve only heard of Jesus but have never had an encounter with Him.

We must accept the reality that although we do not intend to offend the world by preaching a risen Christ, the world will take offense nonetheless. This does not mean that we should cease preaching Him or, worse, deny Him before men so we might retain their favor or approval. Our goal and purpose is not the world’s approval but Christ’s approval.

Acts 4:21-22, So when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way of punishing them, because of the people, since they all glorified God for what had been done. For the man was over forty years old on whom this miracle of healing had been performed.”

That their frame of mind was to punish Peter and John for having healed a lame man is telling. There was no wonder in being unable to explain how the miracle had occurred; there was no pause or contemplation that perhaps they should allow the truth spoken to them to take root in their hearts. They just wanted to do away with the inconvenience and potential danger of it all, but they couldn’t because of the people.

The people had likewise seen the miracle, and they were glorifying God. If Peter and John happened to disappear mysteriously, there would be questions, perhaps even an uprising, and they just couldn’t risk it.

The devil learns from his mistakes. He’s realized that in order to be able to persecute the followers of Christ at will, he first has to demonize and marginalize them to the point that public opinion is turned against them. Granted, they hadn’t had enough time to foment hatred against those of the way. It had been less than a day between the lame man being healed and Peter and John being brought before them for trial, but time was on their side, and although they couldn’t punish them on that day, their sleight would not be forgotten or forgiven.

From this day forward, they would always be considered foes, adversaries, and enemies of the status quo and would have to be dealt with. Once they had the people on their side, all pretense of civility would disappear, the mask would slip off, and their true nature would be revealed.

It’s a ruse the church has fallen for over and over again. The enemy plays nice until the moment he has consolidated power in any given generation; then, the persecution commences in earnest. People believers thought to be allies and friends turn on them in an instant, and the whole notion of coexisting goes out the window, memory holed, with the godless pretending as though they never subscribed to such infantile theories. Why would we want to coexist with those standing in the way of progress? Why would we want to coexist with those standing in the way of a brighter tomorrow and a glorious future?

By the time they realize tomorrow is darker rather than brighter, that the future is bleak rather than glorious, the plans have already been put into motion, the children of God have already been crushed beneath the weight of their animus, yet what remains when the dust settles, is a refined, purified, tested, and glorious church. We tend to fear the fire, the hammer, and the anvil, but only until we realize that without these, iron can never be shaped or sharpened. We tend to fear persecution only when we fail to acknowledge that a martyr’s reward awaits those who are called upon to lay their lives down for the gospel’s sake and endure to the end.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.