Dear Brethren and Friends,
How spiritually strong are you, really? With escalating hate and violence against America and its allies around the world, we all need to strengthen ourselves for the tough times ahead. And as God’s Work grows and our impact grows on this God-rejecting world, religious persecution will also be an increasingly obvious part of our lives. After describing the end-time wars, earthquakes, famines and disease epidemics, Jesus said: “For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many” (Matthew 24:7–11).
When the going gets tough, will you be one of those who turn aside to a seemingly easier path—perhaps influenced by some false minister? If we who are God’s true servants are indeed to be “hated by all nations,” it will be easy to grow discouraged. It will be natural to look for an easy way out!
But somewhere on this earth will be the true Philadelphians (see Revelation 3:7–13) who will “hold fast” to what they have been taught (v. 11) and will have a zeal to go through the “open doors” to preach the gospel to the world. Being with this “little flock” will seem, to many, the most unlikely place to be. For its members will suffer a great deal of indignation and persecution from the world and even from the religious leaders of this world—just as Jesus, Peter and Paul did.
Jesus Himself warned: “And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed” (John 3:19–20).
We in the Church of God have the opportunity and the responsibility to preach the Truth with power. And that Truth—the “light”—will infuriate large portions of this present society! We will preach heartfeltly about the need to obey the God of the Bible and keep all ten of the Ten Commandments—including God’s holy Sabbath. We will occasionally need to point out particularly vile sins of this world—such as practicing sexual perversion (Romans 1:24–27). And we will continually lift up our voices as God commanded: “Cry aloud, spare not; lift up your voice like a trumpet; tell My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins” (Isaiah 58:1).
So we will be called a “cult.” We will be singled out collectively and individually for ignominy and persecution.
Therefore, dear brethren, we will truly need to “feed on the Bible” and be genuinely close to God in active obedience and living faith. We must always remember Jesus’ own words: “Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you, and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of Man’s sake. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy! For indeed your reward is great in heaven, for in like manner their fathers did to the prophets” (Luke 6:22–23).
In addition to this religious persecution, we will also be affected—along with our countrymen—by the growing resentment, envy and even hate that increasing millions of people feel toward the United States, Britain and their allies. As most of you know, the radical Muslims are turning the entire Middle East conflict into a war between the entire Arab world and America and its allies. The Charlotte Observer (August 21, 2003) described the reaction to the recent truck bomb that destroyed the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad: “‘The U.N. is just a puppet of the U.S., and anyone who is angry with the U.S. is likely to consider the U.N. a target.’ The hardline Iranian newspaper Kayhan was even more blunt. ‘Destruction and killing the result of Bush’s policies in Iraq,’ ran its front-page headline. Throughout the Arab world and Iran, the bombing was chalked up—tacitly or explicitly, depending upon who was talking—as the result of a blundering U.S. occupation, an organic outgrowth of the untenable instability in Iraq. Moreover, many Arabs argued, the U.S. invasion endangered the United Nations by rendering it irrelevant.”
Finally, it appears that God is using the recent war in Iraq—and its fallout—to begin the process of truly “breaking” America’s power and prestige (Leviticus 26:19). This process may take several more years. This prophecy in Leviticus goes on to indicate that we will be visited with drought and famine. Food supplies will run short, and there will be times of panic in the general population as a people previously unaccustomed to hardship realize that absolute starvation is drawing close, even in the United States, Britain, Canada and Australia! Next will come the horrifying disease epidemics that will shake our society to its foundations (v. 20, cf. Matthew 24:7).
As untold millions of people in our previously affluent society are scrambling to get enough to eat, and are then moved to desperation by the “incurable” disease epidemics and plagues that begin to strike, how “popular” do you think our warnings will be? People will perceive our predictions of God’s coming wrath—no matter how accurate—as an “attack” on them and on their cherished way of life. Though our own purpose will be to give them, in love, a heartfelt warning to protect them from future disaster, the vast majority of people will not want to acknowledge their sins, and will furiously reject the warning. Instead, as humans have nearly always done when confronted with an evil report, they will “attack the messenger.”
Jesus powerfully warned the religious leaders of His day: “Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell? Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city” (Matthew 23:33–34). Again, Jesus said, “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword” (Matthew 10:34).
Brethren, how should we as true Christians prepare ourselves for these coming persecutions and hard times?
First of all, we need to build the mindset that Jesus explained in Matthew 10. Notice especially verses 38–39: “And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.” Through Christ within us, we must make ourselves mentally and spiritually prepared to go through the trials, tests and persecutions that the New Testament clearly indicates will come on faithful followers of Jesus Christ. We must meditate and pray about whether we are trying to “find” our lives—our ultimate fulfillment—in this present world, or whether we are genuinely willing to “lose” our lives for the Christ who died for us? Meanwhile, we must ask ourselves whether we are demonstrating this commitment to God by really following the Apostle Paul’s inspired instruction to all Christians: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:1–2).
Let us each ask ourselves: “How am I truly giving my life to God? Am I trying to go all out in giving my time, my talents, my strength and my resources in serving God, in serving His people, in helping and serving in His Work?” Each of us has different ways in which we can serve. God knows this. And He will bless each one of us—for all eternity—to the degree that we actively surrender our lives to Him to serve and sacrifice according to our means. As Jesus said: “For everyone to whom much is given, to him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more” (Luke 12:48).
Also, each of us—by “walking with God” in regular Bible study, fervent prayer and meditation, heartfelt service and sacrifice—should be growing in the living faith we will need during the trials ahead. God states: “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6). And God’s word also tells us: “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:31–32).
Dear brethren, there is no good reason for any of us to become discouraged or to “fall away.” But we all need to carefully think through—ahead of time—the trials, tests and temptations that will surely come upon us, and what our response will be. Then we need—right now—to beseech God for more of His Spirit and for His guidance in doing our part to build the faith and courage that we will surely need in the perilous years just ahead.
