Albert Mohler has said: Convictions are not merely beliefs we hold; they are those beliefs that hold us.
How to prepare for persecution, we have to have this in mind. We might know what beliefs Daniel held, but what beliefs held Daniel?
Reading Daniel 6:10 we discover that when Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. Daniel didn’t suddenly change his beliefs and his lifestyle because the persecution document had been signed.
In fact, he continued on in his public witness, knowing that everyone would see him.
(When you’re with clients, or with team-mates, or with certain relatives, do you hesitate to pray openly before a meal, even though you always pray before a meal? )
You see Daniel had an ordered life. He had been regularly sharpened day in day out, three times a day, repeatedly, same time, same place— and the order of his life was put to the test at this moment.
If you are worried about the loss of cultural power or influence in society, you can calmly let go of your worry, and instead, prepare for being a Christian witness.
As David French wrote, “We want easy when Christ never promised easy. It’s time to learn to live with (somewhat) hard.”
The ability to be calm and free of anxiety when it’s hard will only come from this kind of orderly discipline of prayer.
Of course no one is calling for rote ritual. Mindless chants and euphoric mantras. This is not what is needed. Rather it is the discipline of the closet (Mat 6:6), that holds true no matter what is going on outside your door.
What you may realize is that the persecution, opposition or social shame isn’t as big of a deal as you initially feared. Or it may be significant and costly, but you will find that God has prepared you for it.
The preparation has nothing to do with political power, but everything to do with the power of the prayer closet.
Nobody wants to stick out. People may want to lead or be on top, but generally speaking few of us like to stick out from the crowd. We certainly don’t like to stick out when there is no noticeable benefit. This is a proverb that exists in many cultures: The nail that sticks out will be struck down, or, The tall poppy will be cut off.
Christians feel this fear too. They don’t want to be left out and they prefer to fit in, even blend in. But that is where the problem lies. Christians will always stick out unless they are Christians in name only.
Sticking Out in the Right Way
One of the first temptations to deal with is the mistaken pursuit of being obnoxious. Christians can think that they need to be brash in order to be bold. They can mistake the negative responses by others as mini-persecutions when really they are just sick of a Christian’s bad manners. When Paul instructed Titus on the subject he said:
Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.
Titus 3:1-2
I have wondered sometimes if pastors (as well as church members) need to take a rudimentary course in manners. To even say it sounds quaint and dated. But the fact is that in any culture the norms of courtesy express honour, respect, care and love. These expressions are all the more important when you are in disagreement with someone else. Since they are not at home in this world, Christians are always in a state of disagreement with it. So we need to figure out how to stick out in the right way without being needlessly offensive.
Sticking Out for the Right Things
If Christians are meant to stick out, like a lamp on a stand or a city on a hill as Jesus described (Mat 5:14-16), then they must stick out for the right things. It ought to be clear that what Christians say and do expresses the imitation of Jesus Christ and the fruition of Jesus’ work in their lives. The right thing to stick out for is that you have been called “out of darkness into his marvellous light” (1 Pet 2:9).
Ultimately, Christians will stick out because they are following Jesus “outside the camp” in order to “bear the reproach he endured” (Heb 13:13). By following Jesus, they are sticking out for the right things. Other things, such as what we eat, drink, and wear shouldn’t be things that we are overly concerned about (cf. Matt 6:31). And they aren’t things that we should prioritize being different in. There is a certain self-forgetfulness that should apply to such things. We may fit in or we may not. But the key idea is that we stick out because we are following Jesus.
Sticking Out and Ready to be Struck Down
In following Jesus, we know we will stick out. So we can expect the hammer. The world, under Satan’s sway, demands conformity (cf “the elementary principles of the world” Gal 4:3, Col 2:20). When we realize how we are perceived because of our allegiance to Jesus, it will help us to understand what to expect.
As believers follow Jesus, they will resemble the apostles who are “a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men.” (1 Cor 4:9). Paul’s experience was that “When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.” (1 Cor 4:12-13). This is not a recipe for becoming cultural champions.
So we need to be prepared to be struck down. Jesus reminds us that the reception of fierce opposition is part of our witness. In the sermon recorded in the fifth chapter of Matthew, Jesus said:
“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Matt 5:11-12
As we receive the blasts of opposition because we are sticking out in the right way for the right things, we join the gospel’s long line of witnesses or rather the “great cloud” of them (Hebrew 12:1). Paul could say:
Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.
Phil 2:14-16
If we stick out in this way, we bear witness that something is wrong with the world, and only in Christ can it be made right.
Could it be that we misunderstand the persecutions which Christians face? On the one hand, we can think that only the imprisoned are persecuted. At the other hand, we can argue that every resistance from the world, the flesh and the devil is a species of persecution.
Degrees of Persecution
I think it’s better to think of persecution on a spectrum. When seen on a spectrum, persecution of Christians is not limited to the extremes of being either non-existent (we’re not persecuted in the West) or state co-ordinated (Stalinist, Maoist, etc). There are degrees. And each degree requires a measured response.
Persecution in the West
In the West, the spectrum of persecution applies. It is not like the overt political co-ordination of other countries, but it is moving along the spectrum in that direction.
Part of what is happening is that there is a vast shift which removes the cultural elites of the past and replaces them with others. Christians are not in the cultural elite anymore. In fact, they are viewed with suspicion. The result is that Christians won’t get preferential treatment. When they enter grey areas, Christians won’t get the benefit of the doubt. Christians were in the habit of feeling they ought to have their voice heard, as much or more so than other citizens. Now when their voice enters the public square, many people are looking for a way to turn off the microphone. It’s not always state co-ordinated. But it is social, informal and real.
Denunciation as Persecution
I was reminded of this when our church posted an announcement on social media about an upcoming conference on biblical sexuality. The comments were hostile. When I tried to be winsome and persuasive, I was accused of being arrogant and not secular enough in my reply.
From this exchange I realized something. The person who was so incensed by our conference did not want to dialogue with me. They wanted to denounce me. Denunciation has been a form of persecution made popular in the twentieth century, particularly in communist countries. There is no physical effect. There is not even a legal component. But denunciation is a more aggressive form of opposition than mere disagreement.
Distorted Views of Persecution
Now if you agree with me that persecution is on a spectrum, the temptation will be to distort the proportions of the persecution that you might feel. It can be easy to dramatize our psychological injuries into massive systemic plots. In fact, across society, this is already happening as people will claim that others are expressing micro-aggressions against them. If we make a co-worker’s denunciation of us into a basis for a rights crusade, we will have lost the battle completely.
Our Adversary
Instead, we have to consider how the early Christians faced varying degrees of persecution. In the first century when Peter wrote to the “elect exiles” in the region of modern Turkey, he reminded them that the first persecutor was the devil. He called him the “adversary” and likened him to a prowling lion “seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).
According to Peter’s logic, a Christian who reads his first letter needs to be watchful for this persecutor, the devil. In fact, Peter instructs:
Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world
1 Peter 5:9
Unless you are going to interpret the passage in a way that limits Satan’s activity only to the work of governments, you will broaden the application. Persecution is on a spectrum. If we don’t recognize the spectrum, we will be “ignorant of his designs” (2 Cor 2:11) and fail to resist the devil when he works in ways other than government-sanctioned persecution.
Not Bitter and Fuzzy
We ought to beware of letting our happy, yet clear witness turn bitter and fuzzy. If we give our best energies to fighting for a cultural seat at the table, we will have little energy left to be faithful ambassadors of another kingdom. If we lobby only for societal rights, we’ll be fuzzy about the superior summons to belief in the gospel. If we are shrill in our replies to sinners who are “without God and without hope in the world” (Eph 2:12), then our bitter witness will only communicate that our gospel is powerless to change hatred to love. The gospel even creates love for enemies (Mt 5:44).
Practice Joyfully Clear Witness
Our gospel witness muscles can practice responding to persecution in the less intense end of the spectrum. That practice will prepare us for more intense sufferings. At least Christians will stop being surprised by the spectrum of persecution. Peter says we shouldn’t be surprised (1 Peter 4:12). We know that it is coming. If we respond with joyful clarity about the truth of the gospel, we can have confidence that we share in some degree with the “same kinds of suffering… experienced by [our] brotherhood throughout the world” (5:9).
Above all, we need to remember that we “share Christ’s sufferings”, with the goal that we “may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed”. (4:13). Let us embrace our joyfully clear witness. This witness is both our duty and our joy across the entire spectrum of persecution.
In the last month, I’ve been told reports about how costly it is to make disciples underground. In a closed Asian country and a closed Middle Eastern country, two friends told me about the same problem in different cultural contexts. It is really hard to make disciples when there are few around, and the governing authorities want you silenced, punished or executed.
Governments That Don’t Like Underground Disciples
In both cases, the friends I spoke with made it clear that their governments did not want their citizens to be underground disciples of Jesus Christ. It was okay for expats– the foreigners who lived in the country for work. It was not okay for locals. Locals had heavy surveillance on them at all times. They live in highly controlled environments. So to use the little freedom you have in order to explore the claims of Christianity, then an inquirer needs great courage.
Discipleship is costly. But it is even more costly for these underground disciples.
Pushing Disciples Underground
Like the disciples of Jesus in the Soviet Union, when public faith is above ground, it can get squeezed out of open society. As Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote in The Gulag Archipelago *:
[T]hey were supposedly being arrested and tried not for their actual faith but for openly declaring their convictions and for bringing up their children in the same spirit.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago, 37.
Solzhenitsyn then quoted from a female poet who received a 10-year sentence for what she wrote:
You can pray freely
But just so God alone can hear
Tanya Khodkevich quoted in The Gulag Archipelago, 37
Those Who Had Not Worshipped the Beast
We know that the threat of the beast is real (Rev 13:15). Regardless of your view of the millennium, Christians can hope in the future reign of the ones,
“beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands.”
(Rev 20:4)
Let us pray for the underground disciples of Jesus Christ as they seek to bear witness to the gospel with their words and their lives.
