People often feel threatened by those whose views are opposed to their own. They may not have the skills or patience to debate and dialogue with these people, so they resort, out of frustration and fear, to some form of coercion to get their way. It may be a violent demonstration or a personal attack, but it seldom bears the mark of the lowly Jesus.

Opposition to our faith causes us to cry out to God for justice, for God to deal not only with personal pain but also with those who perpetuate evil against us. The various authors of the Psalms vent their deepest desires regarding the enemies of God who were also their enemies. In Psalm 83:15, the Psalmist asks God to pursue them with a tempest just as a fire consumes a forest. Or, in Psalm 79, the writer asks God to pour his wrath upon the nations who resist God and who have menaced God’s people. The Psalms recognize that God punished and disciplined Israel for its sin and these writers desired to see the same justice applied to the pagan nations who had defied God.

A criticism leveled at Christians is that we are narrow-minded because we believe in one God, the Creator of the material world and also a spiritual realm that is beyond this world. Because we believe in a spiritual realm, we are accused of being superstitious. Belief in the spiritual world and in an unseen God can be a cause for persecution because it challenges the pervading worldview in many places of the world. Our belief put a lot of Christians into prisons in the old Soviet Union, and it continues to do so today in other world areas.

We have been repeatedly asked about a recently published book called The Myth of Persecution: How Early Christians Invented a Story of Martyrdom, by Candida Moss, professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at Notre Dame University. In the book, she asserts that early Christian martyr stories (first three centuries of the church) either were forgeries (“pious fraud”) or that the original stories were edited, rewritten, and altered to fit personal, theological, ecclesiastical, and/or political agendas. She writes that stories of an afterlife for martyrs were invented to protect God’s reputation since God did not come through and save them before death. The stories, she believes, are unreliable at best, obscured by being worked over, or were made-up. “The purpose of this book is to show that the foundations for this idea [that there were legitimate martyrs in the early church] are imaginary,” she writes. They are “inspirational fiction.”

We live in a very practical-oriented world. Pragmatism was born in the US—although it is probably that we just gave a name to something that already existed. The main theme of pragmatism “if it works, use it” has opened the door to a lot of good things since the opposite “if it doesn’t work, don’t use it” seems like an obvious truth.

We all suffer—it is a part of life since the Fall of mankind in the Garden of Eden. Some suffer because of their testimony to their belief in Christ. As long as Christians are silent, there are few repercussions. A holy life may give away your secret, but if you are a silent Christian you may be able to escape rejection and hostility, if that is your goal. If you articulate that Jesus is Lord and not people (even yourself) then the likelihood of rejection is exponentially increased.

The Bible teaches that we were created in the image of God, so we have personhood and our personhood reflects the nature of God. We are not only individuals but we also are a part of families and communities. We are designed to live in community because God is like that.

Different regions of the world have different histories and also different traditions about freedom, especially freedom of religion. Some areas of the world have never known freedom, or very little of it, so society’s disapproval of people who turn to Christ or witness for Christ is somewhat expected. The idea of “tolerance” is not in their thinking. In Western thought, however, the idea of tolerance is well known, and it sometimes evokes emotion in Christians who believe it indicates turning one’s back on biblical truth.

It is very appropriate to have an emotional response to persecution. That is how many of us began in ministry to and with the persecuted church. We deeply identify with their pain and loss, and we are driven to help.

It's that time of year again, when parents are sending their children back to school. Some of you may have already done this and others of you may still have a few weeks before school begins, which is why, I wanted to remind you that The Voice of the Martyrs offers a GREAT classroom experience that anyone can partake in by simply signing up for a free class.