Today there is reason to ask what Jesus and the apostles teach us in the New Testament about the persecution of Christians. Prosecutions are the order of the day. Especially in the Korean belt that runs from Indonesia to North and Central Africa and in the surrounding countries where there are atheistic dictatorships. In our own country we are also under pressure as Christians.

Tribulation and persecution of Christians are expressions of a disposition that conveys the following: you Christians should not be here; you must leave us either willingly or unwillingly. You, your God, and your faith should not affect our country, our society, or our neighbourhood. Such a frame of mind is scary and emotionally charged. It leads to uncertainty and sadness. Yet we are not unprepared and untrained. History has seen two waves of faith persecution. The first wave of persecution was that of the Jewish and Roman authorities well known from the New Testament itself, and it lasted until the year 300. The second wave was in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries where persecution of Christians by other Christians took place in the wars of religion in Western Europe and the Netherlands. Now the third wave of persecution is underway with all the force and terror I mentioned above. That wave has not yet reached our country. In case this wave comes upon us, we need to know something of what the Word of God says about persecution.

Not Something Strange⤒🔗

Jesus says in John 16:33 "In the world, you will have tribulation. But take heart, I have overcome the world." In 1 John 5:4, 5 the apostle writes that this is the victory that has overcome the world: our faith. "Who is it that overcomes the world except for the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?" These are the two core texts that summarize what is written in the other Gospels such as Matthew 5 and 10. What do we hear in these texts?

First, nothing strange is happening to us. Jesus has prepared his disciples for the persecution that was to come. We should not think anything strange is happening to us when we experience the fiery flame of persecution. Christ foresaw the tribulation that is coming, and He will not keep it away from us. What happened to him and what he suffered voluntarily will also happen to us as his followers. A disciple is not above his master, he will be like the master. Conformity to the suffering and glorification of Christ are important motives in the letters of the New Testament. Christ himself set the example for us to follow in his footsteps. "For this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so you may follow in his steps" (1 Peter 2:21).

We hear in this text that there is a battle, but there is also a victory. An unbridgeable contrast has emerged between the world and Christians. There is a division between believers and unbelievers. Between those who are born of God and those who are not. The latter is called “world”, not the world of God's good creation, but a lost world that lies in evil.

Our hearts experience some annoyance with this gospel. The spirit of our time finds it intolerable that there are two kinds of people and two ways. The thinking of our time is that we are all equal and that we want the best for everyone. Everyone will come to salvation in their own way. Those who think in such modern terms, avoid tribulation and find it ridiculous that there are people who want to live in purity in devotion to God and who serve, trust, and love him in the light of the seriousness of eternity. From the contrast between Christ and the evil world, the exciting question comes to us: Where do I belong?

Belong to Christ←⤒🔗

Do I belong to Christ, or not? If not, I will never suffer persecution or tribulation. If I do belong to Christ and know him, it is important that:

1. I am convinced and believe in the teachings of Christ to be the only and full truth of God revealed in his Word;
2. I respond to that belief and live a life of sincerity and simplicity in conformity to the pure gospel. After all, not only the death of those who are persecuted, but their daily lives in unison with the gospel build up the church;
3. That I keep far from longing to be a martyr to make a name for myself and gain honour among men, remembering 1 Corinthians 13, "If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have no love, I gain nothing."

Punishment or mistreatment and persecution do not make the martyr, but the cause he stands for, (Augustine). When Christ has become everything to us, our King, our Saviour, and our wealth, and if we have all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge of God in him, then we are able and motivated to suffer persecution and will endure to the end. God will give us his grace and the Holy Spirit and the words to witness to all those who are being persecuted for the sake of Christ. We look to him, the ruler and finisher of the faith, who endured the reproach and the shame of crucifixion. He looked forward to the glory that lay before him, a glory with all the redeemed sinners who are the children of God. A Christian is sure that no persecution, sword, hunger, or anything else, can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. In all this, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Here in Romans 8, we hear the same message as in John 16. "The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs — heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided that we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him" (Rom. 8: 16, 17). "They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering a service to God. And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me" (John 16: 2, 3). All the saints sing the same song of the glory of God and the love of the Lamb amid great tribulation, amid all the taunts, ridicule, and backlashing.

Current World←⤒🔗

Not everyone will stand securely. Paul writes: Demas has left me, he has come to love this present world. This is not a final verdict. He has left Paul; he can still go back. His life shows that he loved the world, so he dropped out. How often are we confronted with this in the church, in the circle of friends and family today. Again that contrast; loving the present world instead of loving Christ. We are not dealing here with negligence, but with faith that saves the soul, so comforts the writer of the letter to the Hebrews, "We are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls" (Heb. 10:39). The burden of tribulation does not outweigh the weight of the glory that is to come. The Christian faith is not a matter of selecting, but a matter of weighing one against the other and choosing what is best. You must weigh against each other this short, earthly existence with all its joys and manifold suffering and cross-bearing against the glory to come where all tears will be wiped away. I fear that the present world with all its luxuries, which we try to hold on to, has more hold on us and outweighs the eternal glory to come.

Joy in Persecution←⤒🔗

In ways that we can hardly follow, Paul and the other apostles speak of their persecution. Paul is certainly an expert by experience because he went from a persecutor of Christians in Damascus to a persecuted one for the sake of Christ. "For the sake of Christ, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Cor. 12:10).

In persecution for Christ's sake lies a powerful identification and affirmation of our faith. The apostles in Jerusalem gladly left the council of the Sanhedrin because they had been found worthy of humiliation for the sake of Jesus' name. "Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonour for the name" (Acts 5:41). However, nowhere are we commanded to seek or provoke persecution. No one should think that he is in a bad state of faith if he is not persecuted. God gives times and places of relief. You must use those times passionately to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ. In his providential guidance, the Lord can give us a heavy cross to bear or suffer severe persecution. How could we ever accuse our Father in heaven of imposing too heavy a burden on us, his children? As much as he deems it necessary for the salvation of our souls to remain with him, he gives us a cross of our own to bear for the sake of Christ in this life. There is then a cry and a fleeing to the throne of God for deliverance when distress and persecution overcome us.

In Psalms 44 we read the following: “Awake, why are you sleeping, O Lord? Why do you forget our misery and oppression? Rise up, come to our help. Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love!" All the saints of the old and new covenants bear the persecution and tribulation and pray at the same time for the good cause of God and the preservation of their lives. That is why we are called more than once to pray for those who persecute us. Not only for the persecuted when we shudder at the depth of their suffering and pray to God to alleviate it. We ought to pray specifically for the persecutors and their conversion so they will repent and submit to God and Christ before it is too late.

Finally, here is a verse from a song that is very dear to me. It shows the depth of the experience of faith of believers who live under the cross of persecution:

“O Jesus, oh treasure hidden in my heart, oh secret ornament that shines in my soul, let us go with you on the way to the morning until the cross with its shadow falls over us. Here we live in reproach and suffering, but with hope in Christ within our souls we move forward because we are loved by You, so we adore You.”