9 “Then they will hand you over to be tortured and will put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of my name.
5 The beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months. 6 It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven. 7 Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them.
- Pseudo-Persecution:
The result of “doing it wrong” by being judgmental, by turning every conversation into a conversation about accepting Jesus Christ, openly communicating that your relationship with them is conditional on their acceptance of your message, treating the “unsaved” as a target or a trophy rather than as a person, treating them by your very singling them out for proselytizing that you consider them amongst the pre-damned, being insufferably boring to be with or - if all else fails - simply being an ass.
Pseudo-Persecution provokes social disapproval, turns family holidays into horror shows where your physically distant relatives remember why they only see you on holidays and - at worst - getting yourself fired for creating a hostile workplace environment for your co-workers. In short, communicating in every possible way that your “evangelism” has much more to do with you and your needs rather than the needs of others. So don’t be afraid: the verses quoted above don't apply to you.
- Preparing for Actual Persecution:
Preparation begins by understanding how truly threatening the gospel is to Christians as well as to the alleged “lost.” If you have any doubt on that score, read the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament. Jesus’ disciples never did understand his message, his family thought him insane, one of his own betrayed him, the religious authorities thought him demon possessed, and the Romans crucified him for subversion. All after a ministry that historical Jesus scholars believe lasted between one and three years. Odd that a message that, when it actually presents itself in a person’s speech and actions, is called “gospel”, meaning good news, would bring about such an outcome.
But, never fear, merely being an insufferable, overbearing, pain-in-the-butt at Thanksgiving is insufficient to get you tortured, killed and hated by all the nations. You have to do something more.
- Enacting the “Something More” That Will Get You Persecuted:
I believe our response to death, whether or not one is a Christian, is as unique as our fingerprint. And death does not just embrace us on the last day of our lives, but in all the myriad ways death is prefigured in our life’s disappointments, broken relationships, suffering, evil, poverty, sickness or disability: as it is for every person - young or old, rich or poor, irrespective of race, ethnicity or religious belief - every day of our lives.
Our response to the reality of death and its presentments in the private and public arenas of life is our religion, whether we express that religion in explicitly religious or secular language and ritual.
And all of us, Christian or non-Christian, are heavily tempted by and ultimately seccumb to a lifestyle that embodies some sort of fantasy in response to that threat, fantasies that often revolve around the use of power to defeat death, the use of evasion to escape death, or the use of dealmaking to negotiate some sort of separate peace with death. Speaking and living a life that challenges a person or a family or a community or a nation in their death-denying fantasy will provoke the reactions described in the biblical citations above.
So, evangelize everyone, Christian or not. Hell, evangelize yourself while you’re at it.
And if the Holy Spirit in her wisdom chooses you to be the instrument she uses to pierce someone’s immortality fantasy (particularly if that “someone” is a corporate entity, such as a nation) and you will indeed prove worthy, like Paul before you, to be hated by all the nations and handed over for torture and death.
So rejoice! :-)
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