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Three sources of persecution, v17,18,21.
o Religion. We can speak with some experience on this
matter. In Israel the law provides for freedom
of religion; but the primary opposition to the gospel is, of course, from
Judaism. Next door, in Jordan, again
there is freedom of religion. The
opposition comes from religion, especially Islam. In many other countries of the Middle East
the opposition of Islam is, of course, even stronger. When we have been in Ukraine the primary
opposition to the gospel is from “Christians,” from the Orthodox Church. In villages, when we would come for a week
offering to help the needs and to provide Bible classes and wholesome
activities, the Orthodox priest would warn parishioners about the “Baptists” or
“Evangelicals”, telling them to keep their children from contact with them
because they are a “cult” and that they do terrible things to children and so
forth. In some Eastern European countries, the Orthodox has such influence that
they have been able to get laws passed that forbid or discourage conversion to
another faith. We have been in Sri Lanka
where, again, the law provides for freedom of religion, but opposition comes from
Buddhists and Buddhism. In India it’s from Hindus, in the West it comes from
humanists or progressives (yes, those are religions), and in the New
Testament Church it was Judaism.
o Government. Typically, and by God’s will, the goal of
government is to keep the peace. In the
NT, what Paul experienced in Corinth illustrates this (Acts 18:11-17). What he experiences in Philippi also shows
this (Acts 16); the city government, wanting to protect their special
relationship with Rome, moved (too) quickly to deal with Paul and Silas whom
they saw as stirring up trouble. There
may be some persecution of Christians because the government considers it to be
a problem. China might be an illustration
of this, where the government is the primary opposition (although you could
properly say it is because of the religion of Communism which is
atheistic; the persecution is of Christians but also of Muslims and others the
government deems to be a problem). But
as we noted was the case in Eastern Europe, and is true in many Muslim nations,
when one religion is dominant in a country they can coerce the government to do
their persecuting for them. In a sense,
this happened in the NT Church. The
initial opposition was from Judaism, until Christianity came out of the shadow
of Judaism and was seen by the Romans to be a separate entity.
o Family. Family ties are inseparable unless
someone (religion) tells the family something is more important. Indeed, in the Mosaic law, families as well
as the community were to deal with those within who would try to introduce
idolatry (Deut. 13:6-11). Jesus did not
advocate the same method of dealing with this (we are called to peace, 1 Cor.
7:15), but He warned His followers about opposition coming from within one’s
own family.
The reason opposition to the gospel comes from those who are supposed to be close and supportive of us is that we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. The opposition pre-dates the establishment of governments and began within the first family (Gen. 3). Thus, today, in our own situations, we should not be surprised by opposition.
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