IN THE MIDST OF PERSECUTION - PART I

Are we, Western Christians, prepared to live in a hostile environment to the gospel of Christ? Today, we live, comfortably, in our society erected under Christian values and principles. However, even on those days, many followers of Jesus, who live in non-Christian countries, suffer restrictions, persecutions and even death because of faith in the Lord. How to live in the midst of tribulation? It is possible to draw some lessons from the experience of Jesus and his apostles who have faced this question.

From the experience of our early church brethren, there is no way to make that famous phrase, "Why am I going through this?" In making the decision to follow Christ, it must be known that this may involve some suffering. Under tribulation, the Apostle Paul and his team, concerned about the Thessalonians, sent Timothy to them to strengthen them and give them courage in the faith, so that they would not be shaken. He said, for you know quite well that we are “designated” for this, “in fact, when we were with you, we kept telling you that we would be persecuted. And it turned out that way, as you well know” (1 Thessalonians. 3: 3,4). “Designated” to suffer for the sake of the gospel.

Another attitude to endure persecution is to avoid early engagement with those who persecute those of faith. The Apostle John recorded, in chapter seven of his gospel, that Jesus acted in this way. According to him, the Lord kept deliberately away from Judea, “because the Jewish leaders there were looking for a way to kill him”. On the feast of the huts his brothers invited him to go to Jerusalem, but he refused the invitation. "However, after his brothers had left for the festival, he went also, not publicly, but in secret” (John.7.10).

It is not cowardice, it is intelligence. The important thing is to last in the act of witnessing as long as God allows. After the Sanhedrin authorities decided to take the life of Jesus, He "no longer moved about publicly among the people of Judea. Instead he withdrew to a region near the wilderness, to a village called Ephraim, where he stayed with his disciples"(John 11:54). Paul also acted in the same way. Soon after his conversion, he began to preach that Jesus was the Christ in the city of Damascus. The Jews who lived there decided to kill him. “But his followers took him by night and lowered him in a basket through an opening in the wall" and he went to Jerusalem (Acts 9.25).

The church today speaks little about the Apocalypse, but there will be a time when those who follow Christ will be vigorously persecuted. However, victory is already guaranteed, as the Apostle John wrote: "After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white hobes and were holding palms branches in their hands... These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."(7: 9,14).

Antônio Maia – M.Div.

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