2 Tim 3:12-16 (NLT) Yes, and everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. But evil people and impostors will flourish. They will deceive others and will themselves be deceived. But you must remain faithful to the things you have been taught. You know they are true, for you know you can trust those who taught you. You have been taught the holy Scriptures from childhood, and they have given you the wisdom to receive the salvation that comes by trusting in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.
If those words had originated from me I suspect some of my Christian brothers and sisters would pull me aside and give me the “we love you Pastor Phil but…” speeches. If you are scripturally savvy you would scold me for not being in agreement with some other key verses that talk about the authority of the believer. Even the less scripturally aware might feel my tone was too negative. Listen, I wish 2 Timothy 3:12 and 13 wasn’t in the Bible, but it is. Not only that, but it jives with reality. Globally; Christians are being slaughtered in greater numbers than ever before; nationally Christians are being pressured to remain silent as never before in American history. I am not filled with doom and gloom, (though it might sound like it), but more and more the message of popular culture to Christians and churches is becoming “agree with us or face the consequences.”
The Late David Wilkerson called those who predicted only peace and prosperity for American Christians “pillow prophets.” I am deeply concerned about the impact these “pillow prophets” are having on the Christian church that I so deeply love. I too prefer peace and prosperity. I too prefer being in favor with the people of my community. I honestly don’t know of a church that is more committed to giving indiscriminate service to its community than BCC. I also believe that all good things and all blessings come from God; so I am not entirely resistant to the message of positivity, but what about the validity of the message of suffering for Christ?
If Christians suffer instead of prosper as a direct result of their obedience to Scripture are they to be regarded as failures? Is a persecuted church an inferior church? I actually heard an evangelist say one time, that if Paul’s faith had been fully developed he would not have suffered. Those kind of statements actually come from the very thing that evangelist would have said he was most against; fear. When we have an intense fear of rejection; acceptance becomes our idol and we are ill prepared to be fully committed followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. We cannot make scripture our source of absolute truth if our source of absolute truth is the feelings and opinions of our social circle.
Like Frances Chan in the video below; I do not know if suffering such as we see in the Middle East, Africa and parts of Europe is coming to America; I pray not. However, if persecution for following Christ comes it does not mean that God has let us down, or our faith wasn’t robust enough. Our validity doesn’t come from the approval of our neighbors and community leaders. Our validity comes from the “Holy Scriptures.” My advice to each one of you is to drill down past the shallow good life faith into the bedrock of everlasting transcendent truth that is found in Jesus. We are made for the next world; we must stop making an idol out of the things of this present world. The time may come to America, as in China, where the leaders of the Christian faith are not trained pastors like me, or celebrity pastors like Joel Osteen but individuals just like you. Do you have an authentic faith in the gospel that runs so deep you can honestly sing, “take this whole world but give me Jesus”? Are YOU prepared to love Jesus and share you faith with others if there’s no pastoral staff and key volunteers who sort of, preach the gospel for you. Which will we be like; the Easter European church that nearly disappeared, or the Chinese church the grew exponentially, when the church was in the hands of “non-professionals?” I hope you will pray about this question and not turn away because you think mentioning the negative makes it come to pass.
By the way the title of the Frances Chan video below is incorrect. Frances did not absolutely proclaim that Christianity will soon be hate speech, but simply that it’s possible it will be so. The point of Chan’s words are the same as mine; which is to encourage each Christian to become strong enough to preach the gospel themselves, so if the organized church was forced to disband, the Gospel would still flourish.
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