The Signs of a Suffering Church: The Garments of Persecution

Guest Commentary by Rev. Dr. Wilfred A. Bellamy

We are not being alarmist, or conspiracy theoreticians, when we look at the tapestry of history, spread over time, and recognize again the signs of coming persecution for the Church of Jesus Christ. Because the persecution itself is not already upon us we may decide not to consider it, or reckon with it, but that doesn't mean that the tide of persecution is not gradually advancing. By ignoring the evidence there is a strong possibility that we will find ourselves unready and ill-prepared if persecution does come our way.

Persecution has historically worn a number of garments. It has appeared in the form of a required religious conformity, or in the persuasions of a political system that denied non-conformity. There have been times when economic stringency made being a Christian a daily struggle, to care for home and family, and to suffer discrimination. Many are the countries in which the sound of marching boots on a hard surface have been the precursor to suffering and imprisonment as the people of God have been called upon to stand firm in the truths they hold dear. The Church has had its martyrs throughout the ages and in several countries is having them even as we write.

The signs of a suffering Church are all around us. The News is replete with stories of myriad locations in which Christians are paying the ultimate price for their faith, while one type of marauder or another decimates their homes, or villages, and bombs their cities. This is not imagination. There is no fiction in the narrative. This is true. There are more Christians being persecuted for their faith, with the approval of the law, today, than ever occurred previously in the history of the world.

So why should we expect not to be included? Are we religiously protected? Do we imagine that the culture of tolerance and diversity that pervades American society will somehow protect us? Or can we anticipate that our own failure to be tolerant could lead to our persecution? Are we politically protected? A government of the people, and by the people, and for the people, must surely serve as a guardian to the freedoms of the people. Yet already our democratic neighbor to the North has discovered that a preaching Pastor will be prosecuted, under the law, if he broaches certain unapproved topics in his sermon. While further afield the defense of the Christian faith is interpreted as an offense to an alternate religion and that is not acceptable.

The soft under-belly of the Church is economic. She is seriously vulnerable where giving to the Church is tied to a tax benefit, and the local church itself is tax exempt, and Ministers of Religion have other certain tax advantages. Do we hope or imagine that this situation can continue unhindered for generations to come? Recent American history would deny that possibility. Already close scrutiny is being given to the economics of Christian organizations, and that will doubtless continue until a workable resolution is found ... one that can be implemented without too much of a national outcry. The squeeze to the family in the pew and to the organized church, will produce widespread economic hardship, forcing smaller congregations to close their doors.

This writer recalls a conversation with a Nigerian Pastor, some fifty years ago, in which the gentleman was startlingly prophetic when he stated that he believed that the primary task of a Minister in his country was to prepare the Church for persecution. This has been proven true in West Africa and is also true in many other countries of the world. Will it prove true in America? The signs are all around us. We must learn from history. We who stand week by week before the people of God who listens faithfully to our prepared messages from the Lord, must begin now, if we have not already done so, to prepare our people for persecution. We must so ground them in the truths of the Word of God, that by His grace, and with the aid of the Holy Spirit, when they are called upon to stand, they will do so with indomitable courage and fortitude for Christ and His Gospel.

--Wilfred A. Bellamy, Ph.D. is the preaching supply pastor of Thomson Presbyterian Church in Thomson GA, an ordained minister, a former missionary to Nigeria, and the former Coordinator of the General Synod of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church.

Our Sufferings...

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. (Romans 8.18 ESV)

When life is hard, sometimes it seems unbearable and unprofitable to even step out of bed in the morning.  Work is a chore.  The house is a mess.  It can be so discouraging.  Is life even worth living?  

Another perspective: Life truly is hard.  It is difficult to wake up thousands of miles from my wife and children.  I hope to have a day without being beaten.  Maybe I will get food that is fresh.  Will I get a letter from family or friends? A visit from a lawyer?  I know my captors will demand I deny Christ.  I cannot do that. Christ is my life.  I am bruised and may never fully recover from my injuries.  Will I even live to see the outside of this prison?  Will I ever see my home again?  Will I ever hold my children or kiss my wife again?  This life is difficult.  

Both instances show the struggles of a Christian life.  For us in our current freedom in the United States, the first is more relatable.  Our sufferings come within the bounds of religious freedom.  Our sufferings of persecution are normally within the legal realm or weathering disparaging comments.  

The second instance is how I imagine Pastor Saeed Abedini feels being locked up in Iran's infamous Evin Prison.  His offense? Being an active Christian.

Picture from a WND article

The above Scripture may well mean more to Pastor Saeed Abedini than it does to us.  However, no matter how bad it gets for Christians here in the U.S.A. (or how relatively good we have it), nor how bad it is for men like Pastor Abedini, our sufferings pale in comparison to the wonders God has in store for His children.  

When we get frustrated with the daily grind, we can rejoice that this place is not our home.  If we belong to Jesus, our reward (paid for by Jesus, not us) is great.  Such a great gift comes from an unfathomingly* great God.  His blessing will out-shine the darkness of even our worst sufferings.

Pete Garbacki is a minister with Time for Truth Ministries and Mission.Brasil. Follow him on Twitter @mission_brasil or FaceBook at http://www.facebook.com/pete.garbacki.

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*Apparently, according to spellcheck, this is a word I made up.  However, I am sticking to it, because it should be a word.

Reflections on the Reelection of President Obama

There we sat in the comedor (cafeteria) of the Shalom Children's Home in Santiago Texacuangos, El Salvador on November 6th. We were huddled around the dinner table around 10:30pm after a long day serving the orphans, eagerly waiting to check our smart phones on a hit-or-miss WIFI connection.  The agony of waiting for the results of the election was both thrilling and excruciating (mostly because I would not allow the mission team to check the news sites until AFTER our corporate worship and Bible study).

And then came the result: Obama Wins Reelection.

I don't think any of us will soon forget that night. Walking back to our dorm rooms on the orphanage campus, some of the team members were visibly frustrated. Some had hoped that this might be the beginning of a change of trajectory for our nation. Apparently, that moment has not yet come.

But now, ten days away from Obama's reelection, I have had time to process the result and distill my feelings into a few bullet points. Here are a few random thoughts in bullet-point format.

1). God remains sovereign over the whole course of human affairs. Scripture says, "Kingship belongs to the Lord and He rules over the nations" (Psalm 22:28). It also reminds us that God "works all things according to the council of His will" (Eph 1:1), and that "The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will" (Proverbs 21:1). 

No, Obama's reelection does not mean the end of God's reign, nor the cession of Christ's Kingdom on earth. The Kingdom of God and the United States of America are NOT one and the same.

Our confession states as much about the sovereignty of God over all things (including presidential elections): "God, from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass: yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures; nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established" (WCF 3.1).

We may not like it: but God has ordained that this particular world leader have a second term. Note: this does NOT mean God approves of Obama's rule or policies. It only means that God has deemed it necessary to fulfill His plan.

2).  It does seem evident, now, that our children will grow up in a very different moral climate than their parents. Our children will grow up in a world very different from the one in which we grew up.

• Our children will be raised during a time when heterosexual marriage will be increasingly seen as irrelevant, puritanical, and outmoded. 
• Sexual mores will be increasingly skewed and distorted such as that no boundary lines will be visible at all (at least in the public square). 
• Even work and labor, a duty given to Adam before the fall into sin, will be increasingly viewed as optional as undesirable. 
• Public education will likely slide further and further left, as tax dollars are spent by the millions to shape children's worldviews. 
• The church will be increasingly shoved to the sidelines of public life.

All of this will demand greater diligence on our part as Bible-believing Christians to catechize our children and bring them up under the instruction of the Lord. 

3). Christianity often waxes strong where it exists as a persecuted minority, and wanes shallow when it enjoys a majority. This is counter-intuitive. For instance, while the Church was arguably strongest during first and second century times of oppression, church historians have often identified a correlation between the weakening of the Christian church in the fourth century and the ascension of the first Christian Emperor of Rome, Constantine.

The marginalization of the Christian Church today may actually result in a more vivacious, nimble, athletic, and serious brand of evangelicals. Like the "underground church" in Dietrich Bonhoeffer's day, being driven out of sight may actually strengthen the resolve of the committed believers to refuse to be co-opted by the secular state.

This is good news, if we have eyes to see it. In this coming century, the smaller confessional Church will likely have more in common with the Early Church, the Reformers, and the Puritans than the shallow evangelicalism of the late twentieth century that produced such things as televangelists, mega-churches, the seeker-sensitive movement, and Joel Osteen.

4). Viewing Obama's reelection as a "sure sign of the apocalypse" is myopic and lame. Yes, I have heard that Obama's reelection is a sure sign of the end times on more than a few occasions in the last ten days. But that seems to suggest that the United States of America is the central pin on God's eschatological map. I don't think it is.

It also seems to smack of our inextricable self-centeredness to suggest that this must surely be the end of all history because our sitting President is leading from a secular worldview. Many of our Christian brothers around the world have suffered tremendously under the brutal regimes of far worse and evil men: Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, Nero, Stalin, Hitler, Mao, and Kim Jong Il just to name a few. 

Let's be sure not to add our names to the ever-growing list of fools who predicted the end of the world based on current events they read in the newspapers. Jesus warned us not make such predictions at all (Matt 24:36).

This point came across to me strongly on the Wednesday after the election. We went out in a pickup truck to feed the poor of a tiny village called Oasis. The community centered around one central running water connection that supplied hundreds. An octopus of hose connections ran water to some (but not all) of the dirt-floor homes. There were no working toilets to be seen. Most came filthy and dirty--yet joyful--to eat a meal consisting of rice and beans.

As I watched a people stricken by a poverty that I have never personally experienced myself, God struck me with a profound thought: Only an American would believe the whole world is ending because the stock market is down and the tax code is up. 

We press on. 


Matthew Everhard is the Senior Pastor of Faith Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Brooksville, Florida.

Christianity: "Everywhere Spoken Against"

When the Apostle Paul finally made it to the city of Rome in Acts 28:14, it probably wasn't what he had imagined. He came in the chains of a prisoner.

At Rome, Paul and Luke found a small enclave of Christians. But it was the Jews, to whom Paul always brought the Gospel first, who had an unusual report: "We have received no letters from Judea about you, and none of the brothers coming here has reported or spoken any evil about you. But we desire to hear from you what your views are, for with regard to this sect [i.e. Christianity] we know that everywhere it is spoken against" (Acts 28:21-22, emphasis added).

Why is this true? Why is Christianity "everywhere spoken against"? How is it possible that a message consisting of  (1) a loving God (2) who sent His son to die for our sins (3) and forgives us by grace, while (4) giving us His Holy Spirit to live lives of love, joy, peace, patience, and kindness--can be the subject of such sustained, organized, and vitriolic resistance?

At least three factors explain this ubiquitous resistance to the Gospel.

First we remember that the Gospel is an attack, a direct assault really, against the spiritual forces of evil. Every sinner that is freed from sin by the Gospel is a slave freed from the clutches of the enemy. As it happens, most masters don't let their slaves go easily. Satan kicks and screams against every one of his captives who are loosed.

Secondly, remember the very nature of the Gospel itself. The Gospel is only good news when the "bad news" is first heeded. The "bad news" of course is that we are totally depraved sinners, hopeless to save ourselves outside of the grace of Christ (cf. Romans 3:10-18). As it turns out, many people don't like to be told that they are sinners! The Gospel itself begins with the offense of declaring the truth about our own human nature.

Finally, our lives of committed obedience are also offensive. Sure, we cannot live perfect this side of Heaven, even in the redemptive grace of Christ. Our opponents are quick to remind us of our many failures. But the very fact that we even pursue holiness is a stick-poke in the eye to those who have no such motive as grace. Our desire to live as holy persons, pursuing the life of our Master, will always be an offense to those still captive to sin.

As long as these three factors are still true--and they will be until Christ returns--we can expect that "everywhere Christianity will be spoken against."

Matthew Everhard is the Senior Pastor of Faith Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Brooksville, Florida. 

Is Your God Able to Fight His Own Battles?

Gideon is a great person in the history presented in the Bible.  He was from a family that was the weakest in Manasseh, and he was the least in his family.  However, the angel of the Lord called him "mighty man of valor".  Gideon was instructed to pull down the idols made to the false gods in his area.  He followed the command at night.  

When the followers of the false gods saw what had been done, they were irate.  They demanded Gideon be executed for what they saw as his crime.  Here is that exchange as recorded in Judges 6:

When the men of the town rose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was broken down, and the Asherah beside it was cut down, and the second bull was offered on the altar that had been built. ²⁹ And they said to one another, “Who has done this thing?” And after they had searched and inquired, they said, “Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing.” ³⁰ Then the men of the town said to Joash, “Bring out your son, that he may die, for he has broken down the altar of Baal and cut down the Asherah beside it.” ³¹ But Joash said to all who stood against him, “Will you contend for Baal? Or will you save him? Whoever contends for him shall be put to death by morning. If he is a god, let him contend for himself, because his altar has been broken down.” ³² Therefore on that day Gideon was called Jerubbaal, that is to say, “Let Baal contend against him,” because he broke down his altar. (Judges 6.28-32 ESV)

This is a great passage of Scripture.  It is a challenge only the One true God would be able to satisfy, because only He is real.  All other gods are false.

Sometimes I feel like going into battle for God when someone disrespects Him.  When someone opposes God it seems like we should fight for Him.  Let's have a crusade!  Not like Billy Graham, but like the crusaders of old!  Conquer and pillage, rape and murder.  Make them pay for dishonoring our God!  However, that is not what we are called to do.  What I described is Islam, not Biblical Christianity.  When popes ordered people to be killed they showed the evil of their hearts and the lack of true spiritual authority in their office.

If you think about it, the Gospel is most effective in places where there is persecution.  The saying goes, "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church."  The Gospel prospers not when we conquer, but when we allow God to conquer us and surrender our will to His.  When we do that we can realize that we do not need to fight His battles for Him, we just need to do His will.  The followers of Baal and Asherah (as well as those who follow allah and the papacy) have to fight on their gods' behalf.  That is because their gods are powerless.  The God of the Bible is all-powerful.  He does not need our defense.  If we stand bold, it is not to protect God, but to honor Him and to be a witness of His greatness.  

Surely, our God is able to fight His own battles; we, Christians, are the only ones who can truthfully say that.

Pete Garbacki is a minister with Time for Truth Ministries and Mission.Brasil.  Follow him on Twitter @mission_brasil or FaceBook at http://www.facebook.com/pete.garbacki.