Once the enemy has all his pieces in place and persecution commences, any presumption of innocence goes out the window. It has been a pattern since the early church, continuing into our modern day, and it will be so until the return of Christ.
Because of the freedoms we’ve enjoyed in America for as long
as this nation has been a nation, we’re naturally inclined to believe that if
we are innocent, then all this talk of persecution shouldn’t concern us because
we will have recourse in a court of law whereby we will be shown to be
innocent.
What were Peter and John’s crimes? They had committed none,
yet the captain of the temple, along with the Sadducees, laid hands on them and
put them in custody. They weren’t cordially invited, they weren’t asked to
cooperate, and chances are that when hands were laid on them, it wasn’t gentle.
The day will come, and in many instances, it’s already evident, wherein the law
will be perverted to such a degree that those putting you to death will think
they are doing something noble and virtuous.
They’ll be doing God’s work by golly, ridding the world of
people who just won’t go along with, accept, and embrace the new paradigm. I
mean, why won’t they trust the science? It’s science, after all; what do they
know that scientists don’t? Well, obviously, that men can’t get pregnant, girls
can’t be boys, and gender is fixed and absolute, but there I go, being a
science denier all over again.
In their minds, you are already guilty. You have already
committed the unpardonable sin of questioning their narrative or, worse still,
their perceived authority. Even when they are proven to be wrong about a given
thing they insisted was essential for human survival or about an existential
crisis that would only be solved by face diapers and repeated chemical
injections; they’ll never apologize or admit they were wrong. Rather, they’ll
double down and dare you to imagine how bad it would have been had they not
scared the world half to death and arrested mothers for the high crime of allowing
their children to breathe fresh air and play on some monkey bars.
They know full well they have no way of proving it would have
been worse, but that’s their story, and they’re sticking to it because the
story is all they’ve got.
The devil doesn’t need proof or justification to persecute
the children of God; he just needs an excuse. The devil is not interested in
playing fair, above board, or being consistent about his accusations or whether
they’re true or fabricated. You healed a lame man in the name of Jesus? How
dare you? Unacceptable is what that is. You’d better stop it if you know what’s
good for you.
They didn’t hurt Peter and John because they couldn’t, not
because they didn’t want to. They feared the people’s reaction to the point of
deciding to let them go because they’d been around long enough to know that
people are fickle, opinions change, and today’s hero can become tomorrow’s
villain with the right narrative and backstory. They chose to bide their time
and began recruiting henchmen, muscle, and those who would go out and become
the scourge of the followers of Christ for decades to come.
To their credit, Peter and John understood what was going on,
so they didn’t sigh in relief and go off singing Hillsong for a few hours, thinking
that it was a close one. They knew this was the shot across the bow, the moment
everything changed, and they went in search of the brethren.
Once you know what’s coming, it is incumbent upon you to
prepare for it. If you need boldness, strength, grace, faith, or know of any
other thing you are lacking or short on, use the time of freedom you have left
to pray for those things and do so consistently.
Acts 4:23-26, “And being let go, they went to their own
companions and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them.
So when they heard that, they raised their voices to God with one accord and
said, “Lord, You are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that
is in them, who by the mouth of Your servant David have said: ‘Why did the
nations rage, and the people plot vain things? The kings of the earth took
their stand, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against
His Christ.’”
When everything changes in an instant, it’s always good to have
someone to run to, someone to share the burden with, someone to draw strength
from, fellowship with, and lean on. Yes, God is ever present, always there to
listen and comfort, but that does not mean we are called upon to be the lone
wolves of Christendom, wandering the wilderness, absent of camaraderie and
brotherhood. We will yearn tomorrow for the things we forsake today, and the
assembling of ourselves together is one of those things.
Upon being let go, Peter and John went to their own
companions. They didn’t go to the courthouse to file briefs or in search of a
lawyer to sue the Sanhedrin for mistreating them. They understood that they
would not find justice from men because corrupt systems do not produce just
outcomes, and corrupt men do not lend their ears to the truth. It’s a hard
lesson that some will learn shortly, and the injustice they will suffer at the
hands of those supposedly doling out justice will be like an unexpected gut
punch to the solar plexus.
If those making the laws despise God, hate Jesus, and detest
His followers, what makes you think that their laws will be just? Great
atrocities have been committed by those whose justification was either that
they were just following orders or they were just following the law. Prepare your
heart for a time when you will have no recourse and when you will suffer for
doing good because it is coming.
With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea, Jr.
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