New Birth and New Home

When a person first gets saved by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ it is always a powerful and joyful experience. This is because the spiritually dead sinner has now been born-again and made new in Christ. Baby- Christians who experience the new birth want to tell everyone about it and how Jesus has set them free from the slavery of their sin. The joy that comes along with this new miracle is an incredible feeling for the new believer. But as time goes on, the new convert starts to see that life seems to get harder. This is because they are no longer a part of this world. This life is no longer their own, and they now belong to Christ and the Kingdom of God. John 15:19 says, “If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” The new Christian is now at war with the devil, the world, and their flesh, and the sanctification process has begun (ESV).

The Bible makes it clear that, “Indeed, all who desire to live godly lives in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12). And the reason for this is because the unregenerate world hates the truth of Christ and the Bible. Jesus said, “If the world hates you, understand that it hated Me first” (John 15:18). Until God opens the eyes and redeems the souls of the dead sinner, they will automatically hate the things of the true God, and this includes the redeemed. The lost know that the Christian-God will hold them accountable for their sins and judgement will take place. So, when the Christian comes along and says that Jesus commands all men everywhere to repent and believe in Him (Acts 17:30), there is going to be push back.

Christian History

After Jesus rose from the dead, and the Gospel began to spread, the Roman world, including the Jewish Pharisees, wanted to stop it. One of the first examples of this is the stoning of Stephen in the Book of Acts where Stephen tries to preach Jesus Christ is the Son of God to the crowd, and they stone him to death (Acts 7:54-60). This type of persecution has happened since then all the way up to the present day, and it won’t stop until Jesus returns. If one just looks at history, we can see that most of the apostles were killed for their faith. This goes for the early church as well. The Roman emperor, Nero, used to have Christians eaten by lions, burned to death, and hung on crosses to die in public so everyone could see it. But, “to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21). This world is only a temporary place for both the Christian and the unbeliever. Eternity awaits us all.

Current Day

In the present day we are still seeing Christians persecuted for their faith. Many believers are thrown in jail or even put to death. Places like North Korea, the Middle East, China, and Somalia are just some of the locations where this is taking place. America is not yet at this point, but because of its falling away from God at such a fast pace, we are now seeing Christian’s free speech taken away. And a lot of this has to do with the LGBTQ, progressive, radical-leftist agenda. Their ideology is if you don’t agree with their worldview, then you are considered hateful and bigoted. Their motto is progression and tolerance, but they are intolerant to Christians who hold to the biblical view of marriage, which is between one man and one woman. Christians are being harassed on college campuses, social media sites, and even at their churches where protesters will stand outside with picket signs.

Many of the big tech companies like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube are censoring Christian videos, posts, tweets, and blogs if they consider it to be “hateful”. They are all aligned with the radical left to help silence the Gospel that Christians preach. They have basically put their selves in God’s seat to be the standard of all morality. And if you don’t agree with their view of what is right or wrong, you are automatically ousted as a hateful bigot. But the hypocrisy of all this is that they allow for all kinds of graphic content to be posted on their sites by the secular world. This is also the case with the major mainstream media like CNN and MSNBC. They won’t say it, but deep down it is their goal to push their narrative and political agenda. This is all in the name of tolerance, love, and progress. But, the sad thing is that they are not free and progressing, but rather they are enslaved to their sin while digressing. And this is why Christian’s have to continue to fight the battle and preach the Gospel to the lost world; even if that means being hated.

Conclusion

So, if you are a Christian, you need to be prepared for people to dislike you and even persecute you. The Bible says that this world is going to get worse until Jesus comes back, so we have to be prepared. And how we do this is by knowing and learning the word of God. The Bible says, ” For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). We need to be prepared to use the Gospel to change hearts and get people saved because many people are on the broad path and headed to hell. We also need to remember that it is not the people we are fighting against, but the dark spirits in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12) who have these people in bondage. The Bible does warn us that these times will come, and that we need to be prepared. It says:

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power

2 Timothy 5:1-5

So, pray for the lost and preach the Gospel in love and truth so the message of salvation can continue to flourish in this fallen world. Let’s keep our eyes on the one who sits on the throne. And when we face trials remember to “count it all joy” (James 1:2) because it is a blessing from God to be persecuted for Christ (Matthew 5:10).