SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/16/2021 12:28 PM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-3 “Persecution
by Government”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
10:18
Message of the verse: “18 and you shall
even be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them
and to the Gentiles.”
We
begin what is our last SD on this subject of persecution by the government, and
once again I want to remind our readers that what Jesus is saying to His
Apostles has a telescope effect as all the things that He is speaking of to His
Apostles at this time did not happen to them right after He spoke these words
but in effect these words of our Lord are prophetic in nature as they go from
the time that He spoke them all the way to the end of the tribulation period. We can see this as Christianity began to
spread through the empire, Rome became especially fearful if its slaves. There were many millions of slaves in the
Roman Empire and in the eyes of Rome these slaves were not even people, and so
as these slaves became believers it could create a big problem for Rome. I am sure that they worried about a rebellion
that the slaves could bring against them.
However when slaves and free Romans alike became Christians, they
discovered there was no longer any barrier between them, that they were equal
in Christ. Christianity therefore came
to be looked on as a threat to the entire Roman social system and economy, and
consequently false charges were repeatedly made against the true
believers. They were even accused of
cannibalism because they claim to eat Christ’s body and to drink His blood
during the Lord’s Supper. They were
accuses also of immorality in their love feasts and of promoting revolution by
preaching about the return of Christ to establish His earthly kingdom. The result was that many were martyred.
MacArthur
adds “Throughout church history, various governments have been involved in
persecuting the church, sometimes for purely political reasons and sometimes as
an enforcer of state-recognized religion.
During modern times, communist governments alone have slaughtered millions
of Christians and persecuted and imprisoned countless millions more. Because atheism is a central tenet of
Communism, it has always sought to suppress and eliminate religion, especially Christianity.”
I have mentioned that when this book
was written and before that when the sermons were preached it was in the 1980’s
and if one looks around since then we see the Muslims have been a big part of
killing believers. I have friends who
have served as missionaries in the Central African Republic and the Muslims
have killed many believers in that country as resent as last week.
I
have mentioned many times that I became a believer studying the end times and
in those times persecution of the saints will reach its climax, both by
religion and by government, and will apparently be wielded as on great powerful
arm of the Antichrist. We can read about
him in Revelation 13:1, 6-7. “1 And he
stood on the sand of the seashore. And I saw a beast coming up out of the sea,
having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns were ten diadems, and
on his heads were blasphemous names.”
“6 And he opened his mouth in blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His
name and His tabernacle, that is, those who dwell in heaven. 7 And it was given to him to make
war with the saints and to overcome them; and authority over every tribe
and people and tongue and nation was given to him.” We know the end and what will happen to him
and his leader Satan and also his side-kick the false prophet as they will be
thrown alive into the lake of fire.
We
conclude this SD with another quotation from John MacArthur: “Although government is established by God to
preserve social order, it has also become an instrument of Satan to promote his
own work and to oppose the Lord’s.
Government is ordained by God but manipulated by Satan; and Daniel,
Isaiah, and Ezekiel all report demonic forces behind governments that were
especially wicked. When its citizens turn away from
the Lord and His standards, even the freest and most democratic of governments,
including that of our own Untied States, will eventually inhibit the free
expression and practice of the Christian faith in hostility to Christ and His
Word.”
10/16/2021 12:52 PM
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