“Then you will be handed over to be
persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of
me. At that time many will turn away
from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets
will appear and deceive many people.
Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold,
but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be
preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end
will come.” (Matthew 24:9-14)
Jesus predicted that a time would come when
fierce persecution would overtake the church and many would desert the faith
they said they had embraced. Has that
time come? I don’t know if the
particular time Jesus was speaking of has come or not, but many times like that
have come in the 2,000 year history of the church and we are in a time like
that even today. Worldwide the church is
experiencing as much persecution as it ever has. More Christians died for the faith last
century than in any other century in history.
Two important lessons strike me from Jesus’
prophetic words:
We have to hang on to Him. Whether life is easy and comfortable or we
are threatened with torture and death, we need to cling tightly to Jesus. There isn’t any magic formula for doing that
or any hidden secrets that can be shared.
It’s a matter of staying in the Word, maintaining a life of prayer,
being in fellowship with other believers, and walking in obedience to the steps
He lays before us. These have always
been the keys to a strong and growing relationship with Jesus and they always
will be.
Even in the midst of the persecution, the
importance of spreading the gospel remains.
Before the end will come Jesus promises that the Gospel will be preached
in the whole world. Persecution can
never halt the spread of the Gospel and we must never allow it to.
The Second Coming may well be around the
corner or it may be another thousand years away. Whichever, the truths remain the same: hang on no matter how tough it is and keep being
involved in spreading the Gospel.
His, by Grace,
Steve
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