It is commonly believed that persecution might be the greatest thing for the church in the west. The thinking goes like this:
“Calling yourself a Christian in our society is too easy. We don’t back up what we believe with true Christ-like action, so if a persecution became widespread there would a separation between who is a true Christian and who is false.”
This is probably true, and it’s also a really dumb thing to say; because how do you really know what persecution would do to YOUR faith? Postulating on persecution from the comfort of your sofa is easy, but it would be quite another thing to those your job because you are a Christian. What if your house foreclosed because you were a Christian? Or your family was killed or taken from you? What if raising your children to love Jesus was considered child abuse?
Most of us have no idea what persecution would mean — but we can ask a few questions that are pointers to how we would react:
- How do you react now when you are disrespected? (If you don’t know, ask your spouse or a good friend). Do you respond with love and prayer, seeking reconciliation, or do you complain and speak evil of the offender?
- How do you react if something is taken from you unfairly? Do you get bitter? Or do respond with joy knowing that you have a better city (Hebrews 10:34)?
- Would you attend church services in basements, with no childcare, no sound system, very little music? Would you begrudge it?
And many more questions could be asked – so if we want Christians in the west to be more authentic, more faithful, then let’s pray and work towards a gospel renewal — not smugly proclaim that we need a good persecution. Because are you really so sure your faith will last?
If the church in North America actually came under persecution, most of us would think it was the tribulation……
[...] Is Persecution Really What We Need? — American Christians are sometimes fond of wishing for more persecution. Is this really wise? (HT: Z) [...]
It is interesting that we should start such a topic. Because the majority of the persecution in the West is coming from the “Church” or Christians….examples:
The early Catholic Missions in the south west, The Salem Witch Hunts, The extermination order of the Mormons(who I might add are christian), Churches that hold how to bash other religions classes, More recently burn a Koran Day…the list goes on. Christians here should stop the persecution and start looking to Christ, and seeing people not as non-Christian but children of God.