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Question Summary:

I will be combining and summarizing several questions on the same topic into this one question summary. Additionally I have chosen to omit information that I believe too personal to the individual to make known publically or publish here.

There have been a number of questions regarding persecution. People who have seen an increase in injustice and mistreatment as they have grown in their walk with God and/or taken steps to follow God in a particular direction or action that He has requested of them. In each occurrence I read, they seem to be legitimate cases of persecution against the godly who are behaving in ways that honor God. One incident of which I will address more specifically in answering another question.

Overall, the general feeling these people express is a feeling of aloneness among their brothers and sisters in Christ as well as aloneness within their families and society. I am pleased to report that each individual indicates that although they are alone in the natural, they do sense God’s presence with them.

The primary question seems to be why the persecution is happening.

Reply:

I will answer this question in a general way. There are forces that attack specific people for a specific purpose, attacks that can be deemed persecution. However, addressing publically the possible reason for their specific persecution is not profitable to all. This is why I have chosen to limit my reply to generalities.

If an individual is truly walking with God, following the Holy Spirit, they can and should expect persecution from the people within the church who are the religious, those whose godly spirituality is shallow and is about form and practice more than lifestyle and relationship, as well as persecution from the world.

Jesus, the apostles, and Jesus’ disciples were persecuted by the religious community of their day, the government of their day, and the worldly people of their day. Sadly, we can expect no less. The frequency and degree of persecution will rise again as the end draws nearer and America (for those of you in America) strays further and further from God.

Some of the attitude I have read approach persecution as meaning something is wrong with them. Persecution comes to them as a surprise and they view it as a negative thing. Suffering persecution, when suffered because of godliness, is a good thing and in some ways should be considered a badge of honor for the faithful. For if you were not faithful, you would not be persecuted. The world and Satan does not bother with individual who are not going to make any impact on their environment for Christ. People with nothing to say, no examples to give, no cause, no compass of Christ, who take no stand, and who generally make no difference for the Kingdom of God are not going to be bothered or messed with. Therefore, if you are being bothered, if you are being messed with, or if you do find yourself in persecution rejoice someone deems you a godly threat to ungodliness.

Jesus during His Sermon on the Mount ends His teaching, which we call The Beatitudes, addressing the issue of persecution.

Matthew 5:10–12 (NKJV) – Jesus speaking

10 Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,

For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. 12 Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Jesus made it clear persecution would be part of the environment for the faithful.

Matthew 24:9 (NKJV) – Jesus speaking about the signs of the end.

“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake.

Instead of asking why we are being persecuted we should be more concerned if we are not being persecuted.

That said we might also seek the comfort and encouragement of a more mature Christian who has gone through persecution themselves. Only someone who has been persecuted for their godliness can truly understand the complex feelings involved in being maltreated and/or falsely accused for doing what is right, for doing what is godly, or for doing God’s Will. We are human, it hurts at times, and we need God’s help and the help of those who understand persecution in order to ensure it does not damage our faith.

"You can never really possess the Kingdom of God until the cause of God becomes more important than your own life." Charles Allen

When God’s Will, God’s desires, God’s Ways, and God’s agenda becomes more important than anything else to in our lives, then we can truly experience God in ways beyond the ability to describe in words.

2 Corinthians 4:7–10 (NKJV)

7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. 8 We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed—10 always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.

Philippians 3:12–14 (NKJV)

12 Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. 13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

What choice does a devoted Follower of Christ have but to press on and go forward? We have none, because, if we take our focus off following God, we will lose our purpose for existing as individuals and as the Body of Christ.

 

Regarding worldviews:

Secular sources – self-help, advice, mass media – some of these resources can be useful in obtaining knowledge about what is going on in our world but they are not credible sources for a Believer when it comes to establishing beliefs, opinions, and directives for life. The gap between the two foundational platforms (biblical vs. secular) is too vast at this point in our present day society to bring reconciliation between the two. A Believer should seek out Christian lifestyle training, godly counsel, and Christian forms of mass media using those to shape their approach to life.

Spiritual/Political Disclaimer:

This blog will not be for the faint of heart or the easily offended. It will not be in any way politically correct. It will make every effort to share the truth in love, [Ephesians 4:11-16], to a decaying and dying society and church. I share what I share not to hurt, harm, or offend any person[s] or group; I do it because Christ’s Standard and Truth is not being represented by enough of His Followers and I do it out of love. I love enough to tell His Truth.

Ephesians 4:11-16 NKJV

¹¹And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, ¹²for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, ¹³till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; ¹⁴that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, ¹⁵but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— ¹⁶from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.