Rich and Powerful American Christians Manage to Please Jesus by Being Persecuted

On Friday, at a Rally for Religious Liberty in Iowa, Ted Cruz lamented the woes of living under liberal fascist tyranny in the United States.
“… their object is to persecute, to punish, to fine any Bible-following,” he said. “And that is profoundly inconsistent with who we are as Americans."

Since the Supreme Court legalized same sex marriage, the nation has witnessed an actual miracle, the ability of Christian leaders and pundits to multiple a handful of fines for discrimination into a national outrage; indeed, crimes against humanity.
 
The persecution of Christians in America is so severe that Family Research Council Tony Perkins is certain that secret Kenyan, Muslim, dictator-in-chief Obama is more committed to destroying Christians than he is to destroying ISIS.
 
“The war on Christians will destroy our military,” Perkins warned.
 
Mike Huckabee has longed recognized that the 70% minority Christian population is in need of special protection calling for hate crime legislation to protect Christians on his Facebook page.

Of course, none of this is a surprise to believers. Their Lord and savior warned them that, “In the world you will face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!" (John 16:33).

In fact, it would be a grave spiritual concern if Christians were not being persecuted. Jesus cautioned them that the world only loves its own:

“If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you. If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. Because you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world—therefore the world hates you (John 15:18-19).

American Christians find themselves in a tough spot. Jesus was not a big fan of the rich, the comforted, the militarist. There is great danger that American Christians may not be blessed given their apparent lack of poverty of spirit, material comfort, bellicosity, lasciviousness and vengefulness” (Matthew 5:1-9).  

If we are not careful, we might get the wrong impression and conclude that their treasure is on Earth (Luke 12:34).

However, Christians constantly remind us that they are blessed because they are in fact persecuted for righteousness. Just when it seemed like there was not a single beatitude that the American Christian could legitimately claim, we discover that they are persecuted for righteousness.

Now, Jesus set pretty stringent standards for being blessed in this clause when he said:  

“Blessed are you when people 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 in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:11).

But then Bill Maher made a mean movie about religion and a Christian baker was fined for bravely refusing to bake gay cupcakes, and all of this is the kind of suffering a liberal wouldn’t dream of inflicting on ISIS so American Christians can rest in peace knowing that they are not of this world because the world hates them.

Non-believers who don’t want to allow Christians to impose their beliefs on them through the nation’s laws can also be forgiven for not realizing that they are oppressing Christians. Even the people who were persecuting Jesus were not always aware of their diabolical plan to kill him, which is why Jesus had to remind them—“Did not Moses give you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why are you looking for an opportunity to kill me?” (John 7:19)

Being hard-hearted sinners, they denied it their murderous intent, saying “You have a demon! Who is trying to kill you?” (John 7:20).

However, it is obvious that Jesus was right about their persecution of him because in the completely historically plausible account of his crucifixion, the Jewish high priest takes time out of his high holy day schedule to have a secret late night trial for Jesus (Matthew 26:57-68).

So, while it might not always be obvious how you are persecuting Christians, rest assure that you are. Also, rest assured that just like Judas, you are the tool that the Lord uses to bring joy to his people by having them endure trials (James 1:2-3).

 

 

 

 

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