Persecution a Promise

Posted by Michael Bunker
editor@lazarusunbound.com

But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it; Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended (Matthew 13:20:21).

June 4, 2006 - You know, I have to say that I have received a lot of communications in the last couple of weeks... some from new acquaintances, and most of those communications have been eerily similar. Every once in awhile, I can respond once with an update or a short article and it will apply to virtually everyone who reads it. This will be one of those times. Before you read much further, I would like you to take a moment and focus your mind, and pray that God will give you ears to hear and eyes to see how what I am going to say applies to YOUR life

Now, I want to apologize to some of you who might feel as if I have violated your confidence by writing this letter. You may feel like that I am writing this to you and to you alone... well good. It is good that you feel that way, but it is not true. I have received so many letters covering the same topic that I am going to be hitting a lot of people with this update and you may just be one of them. Now, if in your letter to me you said something in such a way that represents the whole of what I am seeing, then I may borrow your phrase or words in order to apply the remedy to the whole... the sickness I see is so pervasive and overwhelming that a severe remedy is necessary. First, so that we can have some perspective, I am going to give you a snapshot of persecution so that you can get a glimpse what real persecution is.

In 1519 a monastery in Antwerp had received the glorious doctrines of the Reformation and had embraced them with joy, teaching the doctrines to all who would hear. By 1521 the leader of the monastery and an assistant had been arrested and taken to Brussels. The leader retracted his opinions, but the other escaped death by use of some verbal trickery. Those who had stayed in the monastery at Antwerp, however, kept firmly to the faith they had received. Before long, the walls of the Church were too small to hold in the massive crowds who came to hear the truth. The Catholic Church reacted with fury and locked up the Church, throwing the monks into prison where they were condemned to death. Some were killed, others escaped, but the monastery itself was razed to the ground. Luther said, "The cause which we defend, is no longer a simple game; it looks for blood, it seeks for life."

Many of you know the story of John Huss, the follower of Wycliff who became a leader in the early Reformation movement 100 years before Luther. Huss was promised safe passage by the emperor to answer for his “crimes” of preaching and living the truth of Jesus Christ. When he went to answer, he was arrested despite the promise of safe passage. He was tried and condemned to death for the truth of God. Here is a snippet that relates the rest of the story, from an article in The Reformer from November/December 2001:

“On the 4th of July he was, for the last time, brought before the council. After a long examination he was commanded to abjure, which, without hesitation, he refused to do. The Bishop of Lodi then preached a sermon concerning the destruction of heretics, the text of which was, "Let the body of sin be destroyed," the prologue to Huss’s punishment. After the close of the sermon his fate was determined, his vindication rejected, and judgment pronounced. The council censured him for being obstinate and incorrigible, and ordained that he should be degraded from the priesthood, his books publicly burnt, and himself delivered to the secular power. He received the sentence without the least emotion; and at the close of it kneeled down, and lifting his eyes toward heaven, exclaimed, with the magnanimity of a primitive martyr, "May thy infinite mercy, O my God! Pardon this injustice of mine enemies. Thou knowest the injustice of my accusations: how deformed with crimes I have been represented; how I have been oppressed with worthless witnesses, and a false condemnation; yet, O my God! Let that mercy of thine, which no tongue can express, prevail with thee not to avenge my wrongs."

But these excellent sentences were received as so many expressions of treason, and only tended to inflame his adversaries. Accordingly, the bishops appointed by the council stripped him of his priestly garments, degraded him, and put a paper mitre on his head, on which were painted three devils, with this inscription "Heresiarch." This mockery was received by the martyr with an air of unconcern, and seemed to give him dignity rather than disgrace. A serenity appeared in his looks, which indicated that his soul was approaching the realms of everlasting happiness; and when the bishop urged him to recant, he turned to the people and addressed them thus –

"These lords and bishops do counsel me that I should confess before you all that I have erred; which thing, if it might be done with the infamy and reproach of man only, they might, peradventure, easily persuade me to do; but now I am in the sight of the Lord my God, without whose great displeasure I could not do that which they require. For I well know that I never taught any of those things which they have falsely alleged against me, but I have preached, taught, written, and thought contrary thereunto. Should I by this my example trouble so many consciences, endued with the most certain knowledge of the Scriptures and of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ? I will never do it, neither commit any such offence, that I should seem to esteem this vile carcase appointed unto death more than their health and salvation." At this most godly word he was forced again to hear that he did obstinately persevere in his pernicious errors.

The ceremony of degradation being over, the bishops delivered him to the emperor, who handed him over to the Duke of Bavaria. His books were burnt at the gates of the church; and on the 6th of July he was led to the suburbs of Constance to be burnt alive.

Having reached the place of execution, he fell on his knees, sung several portions of the Psalms, and looked steadfastly towards heaven, saying, "Into thy hands, O Lord! Do I commit my spirit. Thou hast redeemed me, O most good and faithful God." As soon as the chain was put about him at the stake, he said, with a smiling countenance, "My Lord Jesus Christ was bound with a harder chain than this for my sake why, then, should I be ashamed of this old rusty one?"

When the faggots were piled around him, the Duke of Bavaria was so officious as to desire him to abjure. "No," said he, "I never preached any doctrine of an evil tendency and what I taught with my lips I now seal with my blood." He then said to the executioner, "You are now going to burn a goose (the name of Huss signifying goose in the Bohemian language), but in a century you will have a swan whom you can neither roast nor boil." If this were spoken in prophecy, he must have alluded to Martin Luther, who came about a hundred years after, and had a swan on his coat of arms.

As soon as the faggots were lighted, the martyr sung a hymn, with so cheerful a voice, that he was heard above the cracklings of the fire and the noise of the multitude. At length his voice was interrupted by the flames, which soon put an end to his existence. His ashes were collected, and, by order of the council, thrown into the Rhine, lest his adherents should honour them as relics.”

Now, these are only a few of the thousands and thousands of stories of the persecution of God's children. If you think you might want to be a Christian, you might first consider what that requires.

You think you are a Christian? Maybe you are, but time will tell. What is it you love dearer than Christ? What is it that you fear to lose? Can you possibly place your own hardships and trials in the same category as those of God's elect?

My mail is now full of persecution stories. And, let me say that I am not rebuking anyone for sending or telling their stories. Frankly, I am sorry to see that so many of you are suffering at the hands of your friends and family members. A few of you are truly being viciously attacked for what you have come to believe concerning the Gospel and because you are seeking to live a truly Biblical Worldview. In discussing this topic with a friend he wrote, “I know that my family will not disown me for my beliefs....they would disown me if I acted on them.” Have you not heard it said, "Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution? (2 Tim. 3:12).

I will tell you this; if you claim to be a Christian, and if persecution is linked inextricably to living “godly in Christ Jesus” (and it is), then you certainly are not suffering as much as you should. It is LIVING as a Christian that brings persecution, not CLAIMING Christianity. No man suffers because he claims Christ. The murderers of John Huss claimed Christ. A man suffers because he desires to LIVE as a Christian, and to follow Christ. The assassins and henchmen of the Pope claim Christ. The office of the Inquisition claimed Christ. Christ hath said that following him is the taking up of the Cross. “And he that taketh not his cross and followeth after me, is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10:38). He that has not taken up the cross is not a follower of Jesus, and what is the cross if it is not the “emblem of suffering and shame”. You say you are shocked that you are persecuted by your friends and family, but I say, “And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.” (Mat 10:21-22).

Now, only a few verses later in the same chapter of Matthew ,Jesus says that if we confess him before men that He will confess us before the throne of God, but that if we deny him, then He will deny us before the Father. What is it to deny Christ but to live other than how He has directed us to live? What is it to hate Christ but to live as the world lives while you take His glorious name? You think you are suffering for Christ? Well I say, “Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin” (Hebrews 12:4).

Some of you have forgotten what you have signed up for. You still have the worldly religious view of what it is to be a Christian, and now you are saddened and sickened that you are being attacked by your own parents, your friends and your loved ones. Are you sure that it is Christianity that you have believed? Why, true Christians die many deaths here on earth, that they need not be killed by the second death. You think you are suffering for Christ? You may well be, but not as much as you should!

Christian, you love the world and you know it is true, lest why wouldn't you separate from it and strive against it? Your war is not with sin and the world, but with your own pride. Who do you think you are? The servant is not greater than the master. “It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?” (Mat 10:25).

This may shock you, but I am embarrassed that those who study and learn from me are not persecuted more! You all still love the world. You still love the praise of men, your family ties, your comfortable life, and you love a bunch of religious worldlings who hate God! If you say your parents or your friends or your old church friends reject the truth of the Gospel, then you are saying that they hate God, because you cannot hate the truth of God's Gospel and still say you love God. These people are God haters, and there you go crying that they are attacking you and calling you a terrorist. You say that your parents say you are no better than an Islamic Fundamentalist? It is THEY who are the terrorists! They are killing people all over the world for their faith in fascism and the corporate “jesus”, and they call YOU a terrorist? How can you be called a terrorist when you cower at the feet of God haters? Who is the persecutor here? Who is the fundamentalist tyrant? When I tell a man the truth of God's sovereignty, power, election, law and the duty that is due Him, and He attacks me and calls me names... just who is it that hates God? When I merely say that Christians ought to live deliberately separate lives and that they should rely less and less on the world that hates God, just who do you think is going to attack you? True Christians? NO. Those who hate God and who love the culture of death will attack you. These people are not your friends and are not your family. Jesus Christ Himself rejected his mother and brethren so long as they rejected Him (Matt. 12:48). They tell you that you are crazy? They said the same of Christ (Mark 3:31).

Your problem is that you love the world, and you don't love God near enough. If you loved God, then you would hate those who hate Him:

“For they speak against thee wickedly, and thine enemies take thy name in vain. Do not I hate them, O LORD, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies” (Psa 139:20-22)

Like I said before, I am not rebuking anyone for emailing me and telling me your stories. I really appreciate it. I do want to hear about your life and what is going on with you, but don't ask me “Why is this happening?” or “What should I do?”, because you should already know!

“Now the brother shall betray the brother to death, and the father the son; and children shall rise up against their parents, and shall cause them to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved” (Mar 13:12-13)

With all this modernist talk of the “promises of God” you should know that the most evident and inarguable promise of the New Testament is that all those who truly follow Jesus Christ will suffer for it. “Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.” (Luk 6:22-23).

So, Just who is your mother, brother and sister? If they are not the brethren of Jesus Christ then neither are they your brethren. You have heard it said, “Taste and see that the Lord is good”, but some of you are eating of the wrong Christ, and your worldly ways and love of the world's things gives you away. If you tell me that you have embraced the truth, and that you love God, and that you are obeying the Gospel, but that your worldly friends and your apostate family members do not persecute you and come against you, then I must come to the conclusion that you are probably decieved. Time for repentance lest you be a castaway with the rest of the world. If you choose to live Godly in Christ Jesus, then you better get ready for the storm. Do not be dismayed when the world rises against you, and when the forces of intimidation and threats come against you, and when you lose all your family and friends... for if you endure you have a friend who will never leave you nor forsake you, and if you love Him today you will not falter:

And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like: He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock. But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great. (Luk 6:46-49)

The flood will rise.
The stream will beat vehemently upon your house,
but if you are founded on the true Christ of scripture
then your house will not fall.

Ruin is on the horizon for many who now claim to love Christ. I pray that we will all be found worthy to suffer for His sake. Amen.

Your servant in Christ Jesus,

Michael Bunker

 
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