The persecuted church

Acts 8:1-8

When a person has no personal understanding of a subject, at best we would refer to them as uninformed, unconscious, or oblivious, and this writer would agree that he is ignorant in the area of the persecuted church.  That has not happen at this time in history to the church in America, but I do believe it is soon to happen, unless we Christians begin to act like whom we are.  It has become painfully clear that many of us have lost our way; we have become lazy in our daily walk with the Lord and need to know what real freedom is.  Many a Christian looks to the Constitution of the United Stated of America and it’s amendments as their hope and freedom, but freedom can not come from a document that is not honored by a later generation.  It comes to this question: Who has set you free?  As way of reminder, look at 2 Corinthians 3:17, “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”

In the USA few of us understand how intent our adversary, the one that is referred to as devil’s schemes, and the powers of this fallen world, to steal, and kill and destroy all that we call freedom.  Once not that long ago Germany was a nation much like us, but they began to listen to the enlightened teachers and preachers of their day, and when evil came they chose comfort over confrontation.  And this is the account of how one man caught up in that web chose freedom in the middle of hell.  This is the account of Viktor Frankl; “As a long-time prisoner in bestial concentration camps he [Viktor Frankl] found himself stripped to naked existence. His father, mother, brother, and his wife died in camps or were sent to gas ovens, so that, excepting for his sister, his entire family perished in these camps. How could he - every possession lost, every value destroyed, suffering from hunger, cold and brutality, hourly expecting extermination - how could he find life worth preserving?  Even in the degradation and abject misery of a concentration camp, Frankl was able to exercise the most important freedom of all - the freedom to determine one's own attitude and spiritual well being. No sadistic Nazi SS guard was able to take that away from him or control the inner-life of Frankl's soul.”

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When Stephen was stoned by the very religious Jews, they were totally outside of the law governing them, but we have this understanding about religion: “Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.”  (Blaise Pascal)  Though Blaise lived in the 1600’s he nails the evil in the hearts of religious man, and one such man was a guy named Saul, in Acts 7:58 it is said that the ones stoning Stephen laid their garments at his feet. 

As we begin Acts chapter 8, doctor Luke gives this account: “And Saul approved of his execution.  And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.  (Acts 8:1-3 ESV)

As an American Christian it is very hard to grasp what is taking place, and most might even say, how could God allow this to happen to a church that is so young and doing so much good?  I am reminded that a soldier does not question his orders, but he goes and does what he is ordered.  This young church scattered, but in doing so they brought the gospel of love and life, found only in Jesus Christ, to the rest of the world.  If only the church of America will awake to this truth: “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice