We Need To Be Prepared

It’s going to be brother killing brother, father killing child, children killing parents. There’s no telling who will hate you because of me. (Mark 13:12-13, TMG)

I have told you these things so that you won’t be staggered by all that lies ahead. 2 For you will be excommunicated from the synagogues, and indeed the time is coming when those who kill you will think they are doing God a service. (John 16:1-2, TLB)

Everyone will hate you because of me. 18 But not a hair of your head will perish. 19 Stand firm, and you will win life. (Luke 21:17-19, NIV)

So, this isn’t the most uplifting of messages I could deliver now, but we can’t just close our eyes and ears to what Jesus told us in these verses. While not new, this hatred of believers and Jews is ramping up in new ways now and, according to Jesus, is a sign of the times before He returns. Yes, the church has been persecuted before and yes, persecution is rampant all over the globe, but we are seeing, how shall I put it, creative ways of coming against believers. Our Lord and Savior even told us why it will happen:

If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. 19 The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you. 20 Do you remember what I told you? ‘A slave is not greater than the master.’ Since they persecuted me, naturally they will persecute you. And if they had listened to me, they would listen to you. 21 They will do all this to you because of me, for they have rejected the one who sent me. 22 They would not be guilty if I had not come and spoken to them. But now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 Anyone who hates me also hates my Father. 24 If I hadn’t done such miraculous signs among them that no one else could do, they would not be guilty. But as it is, they have seen everything I did, yet they still hate me and my Father. 25 This fulfills what is written in their Scriptures: ‘They hated me without cause.’ (John 15:18-25, NLT)

Thought Police?

I did mention creative ways to hate, and we have such an example from England as we read from an article from Yahoonews.com written by Caroline Downey:

A pro-life woman was arrested earlier this month for silently praying outside an abortion clinic in Birmingham, U.K. on the grounds that she had breached a speech buffer zone established by the local city council.

Police told Isabel Vaughan-Spruce that she would be taken into custody for violating a Public Space Protection Order. Video footage of the arrest was captured by AllThingsProLife and circulated by Alliance Defending Freedom, which is hosting a fundraiser for Vaughan-Spruce’s legal defense.

When officers asked whether she was part of a protest, she replied “no.” They then asked if she was praying, to which she said she could be doing so “in my head.” Police then searched her, and patted down her hair, before handcuffing her and escorting her to the station.

In a separate article by Charles Creitz for Foxnews, Vaughan-Spruce goes on to mention how bad this can be:

That in itself is very encouraging to hear, that it's not necessarily about people who support abortion or don't support abortion. This is more to do with freedom of thought here," she said. "It's even gone further than freedom of prayer. I mean, we all talk about the cancel culture and the concerns we have about people being canceled [for] speaking in public."

Vaughan-Spruce said the idea of arresting somebody over what they are thinking, not visibly doing, is surreal, and that her supporters invoke George Orwell and his novel, "1984."

Public Outcry

As expected, social media was in an uproar over the arrest with the expected free speech laments and comparisons to the aforementioned Orwell novel. Here are some of those comments from another Foxnews article by Gabriel Hays:

Pro-life advocate Emily Rarick wrote, "This is absolute madness. How can someone be arrested for praying?"

Virginia GOP delegate Nick Freitas took the opportunity to remind users of George Orwell’s dystopia, tweeting, "1984 was a warning, not a guide."

Another tweet from the same article raises an interesting question:

RedState deputy managing editor Brandon Morse made the point, "If abortion advocates don't believe in God and think prayer is actually silly then what are they so afraid of?"

While it would be a stretch to say it, Jesus was arrested right after praying in the Garden of Gethsemane so maybe that was a foreshadowing of this moment. In any event, the prophetic fulfillment of the verses cited at the start of this lesson could not have described what we are seeing any better. Thought police are now a reality adding yet another way to be hated and persecuted.

The Best Response

Which leads us to how we are supposed to respond when something like this happens to us and rest assured, it will come to a city near you. Jesus was also very clear how to handle such hatred:

There is a saying, ‘Love your friends and hate your enemies.’ 44 But I say: Love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! 45 In that way you will be acting as true sons of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust too. 46 If you love only those who love you, what good is that? Even scoundrels do that much. 47 If you are friendly only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even the heathen do that. 48 But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect. (Matt 5:43-48, TLB)

We must remember that Jesus was talking to Jews in these verses from the Sermon on the Mount as well as the ones from the various Olivet Discourses. They didn’t know it at the time, but around six million of their people would be slaughtered by an anti-Semitic dictator who encouraged such hatred and actually got the churches in his country to do the same. In Western culture we abhor such tactics, but the hatred persists in the halls of so-called higher learning where this kind of indoctrination still is used. Jesus saw it because He is outside of time as the Son of God. Looking back, He was preparing future generations of both Jews and Gentiles for what we are seeing now. And His advice was radically different than even people espouse today.

And Stop Hating Each Other

Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. 10 Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. 11 But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them. (1 John 2:9-11, NIV)

Social Media is rife with people shouting at others over theological questions that should just be left alone. But hating other believers for having views that differ from yours is clearly wrong. So, the advice from the Apostle John is clear: stop it! We must not be in the habit of airing our dirty laundry for all the world to see. Jesus told us that they will know us by our love which was an outward facing characteristic that we seem to forget when posting online our criticisms of each other, mostly over differences over the Bible. If you want to have a debate over the Rapture or the Tribulation, that’s all good and well, but do it in private conversations, not public ones. And certainly, leave these discussions on good terms. However, when debating with an unbeliever, tread carefully if you see the need to debate at all. The Bible tells us to live perfectly which we can’t do without Holy Spirit helping us. I like how the web site gotquestions.org sums this up:

Loving others can be difficult; even those who genuinely love God and walk in His light still struggle against sinful tendencies (1 John 1:8–10; Romans 7—8). But God is faithful to give us His heart for others if we seek Him. The more we understand His great love, the more we’ll desire to share it with the world through our words and deeds. Love speaks truth and genuinely seeks the benefit of the other (John 15:13; Romans 5:8; 12:9–21; 1 Corinthians 13; Ephesians 4:15). God can give us the desire, wisdom, and anything else necessary to love others with His love. As we continue to walk in His light, we will continue to live out His love.