Commentary: Per the Open Doors organization, 360 millions Christians suffered persecution in 2023 to date, with 5,621 martyrs. Likely you will not hear a whiff of this from a great many churches, let alone from the rest of the world. Persecution was something that happened in the Days of Yore, not in today's modern world.
The fact that the modern world is not bothered does not surprise me. The fact that the Church is not bothered bothers me greatly.
A troubling and needed point TB. More than one Church is being pulled down from within.
ReplyDeleteWe read The History of The Church by Eusebius and Foxe's Book of Martyrs and only think such things can happen far away and gosh darn it, the 21st Century Modern world is just too darn advanced for it.
DeleteOr to coin a narrative from today's society, the unconscious bias of individuals is coming to the fore.
We're being assaulted from all sides it seems. Will it be stopped? I don't know.
ReplyDeleteSarge, your post today was extremely helpful in this matter.
DeleteMy perhaps (?) comforting thought would be that lots of what goes on now goes on because we live in an affluent society that can afford to engage in such things. Hard times - physical, economic (especially economic) tend to focus the mind on what is important wonderfully.
Seems to have been mentioned before in that:
ReplyDeleteBasic
Instructions
Before
Leaving
Earth
Book
Matthew 24:9-12 NIV
“Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold.
And Revelations 20:4
And Matthew 24:9-12
Matthew 10:34-36
English Standard Version
Not Peace, but a Sword
34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 And a person's enemies will be those of his own household.
And plenty more.
The Church is a living structure that lives within the hearts of believers. It's not a building (Statue, Charismatic Leadership, etc.) that often seems to be worshipped instead of God.
Matthew 18:20
King James Version
20 For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.
God honors His promises.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
New American Standard Bible
Those Who Died in Christ
13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who [a]are asleep, so that you will not grieve as indeed the rest of mankind do, who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose from the dead, so also God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep [b]through Jesus. 15 For we say this to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive [c]and remain until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a [d]shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who remain, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore, [e]comfort one another with these words.
Plenty more for those that read His Word. But I'll stop here:
Luke 6:22-23
English Standard Version
22 “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! 23 Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.
Michael, I would argue Chesterson's point is different: not that persecution will or will not come, but rather the modernist (define that as you will) will not recognized persecution for what it is. My suspicion - and this is only my own thought - is Chesterson would suggest the modernist sees actual persecution as nothing different than ways to enforce societal compliance and conformance.
DeleteThen perhaps Chesterton's point is close to irrelevant in the increasingly violent anti-Christian world.
DeleteCoffee Table concerns about Christianity isn't really viable IMHO.
So short version the persecution of the Children of God isn't going to end but increase until the End of Time and God's Kingdom on Earth is established.
ReplyDeleteJohn 15:18-20
New King James Version
The World’s Hatred
18 “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.
Modernists hate Christianity almost as much as they hate themselves.
ReplyDeleteHate must a terrible way to live on a daily basis.
DeleteYour post and the comments remind me of a conversation with a young Chinese woman (college educated and in our process of working together she was looking for employment as a nurse). She had worked in (and, I believe met her American husband) in what she referred to as an international hospital, where she had lots of opportunity to hone her English. Anyway... I was a short-term ESL tutor/conversation partner for her, and I don't remember how the conversation happened that allowed me the opportunity to ask her about her thoughts of Christian pastors being persecuted in some places in China (that I had come to learn of in my readings), and she was at first confused that that was even possible. Her thoughts then went to "they must have been doing something wrong." Indeed. When the topic of China's one-child policy came up another time, she happily informed me that was no longer the case. They could now have two children. I was oddly tickled when one time she good-naturedly told me that Chinese people tend to be very compliant. Indeed. I loved my time spent with this young lady, and she was a delightful person.
ReplyDeleteBut back to the Chesterton quote. I am sobered by it. While our church readily publicly recognizes that religious persecution happens, it is hard in our comfortable place to remain attentive to, and consider what we can actually do about it. To even stay committed to praying seems hard for some reason. Not quite indifferent, but helpless feeling, perhaps. Which can start to look like disinterest.
China is an interesting case Becki, in which you have an "official" church which is (depending on how you see it) indirectly or directly controlled by the State and and underground church. To be fair, the idea of a "state" church and other churches being at odds with the state is not just limited to China. And like many things, we are dependent on the news that we receive.
DeleteThe "Modern" church (Lord knows it is a generality) only recognizes certain kinds of persecution as valid; others are simply acknowledged. The struggle you have is my own; I should be better about it.