Who Persecute
and Why
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Evil Men
Persecute Righteous
Because Jesus had
not kept the Sabbath according to
their ideas, what did the Jews do?
“So, because
Jesus was doing these things on the
Sabbath, the Jews persecuted him.”
John 5:16.
What kind of fast
is most acceptable to God?
“Is not this the
kind of fasting I have chosen: to
loose the chains of injustice and
untie the cords of the yoke, to set
the oppressed free and break every
yoke.” Isaiah 58:6.
Note – This is
what Jesus did. He, the Author and
Lord of the Sabbath, in addition to
attending and taking part in
religious services (Luke 4:16), went
about doing good, healing the sick,
relieving the oppressed, and
restoring the impotent, lame, and
blind, on the Sabbath day. But this
while in perfect accord with the law
of God, the great law of love, was
contrary to the traditions and
perverted ideas of the Jews
respecting the Sabbath. Hence they
persecuted Him, and sought to slay
him.
Why did Cain kill
Abel?
“This is the
message you heard from the beginning:
We are to love one another. Do not be
like Cain, who belonged to the evil
one and murdered his brother. And why
did he murder him? Because his own
actions were evil and his
brother’s righteous.”
1 John 3:11,12.
Note – If you
will read the Word of God, you will
find that from the beginning all good
people were persecuted because they
were good. Abel was slain by his
brother because he was good, and Cain
could not endure the sight of him.
Commenting upon the
treatment of Isaac, the son of Sarah,
by Ishmael, the son of the bondwoman,
what principle does the Apostle Paul
lay down?
“At that time the
son born in the ordinary way
persecuted the son born by the power
of the Spirit. It is the same now.
Galatians 4:29.
Note – Other
instances of persecution mentioned in
the Bible are:
a. Esau,
who sold his birthright, persecuted
Jacob. Genesis 25:29-34; 27:41.
b. The
wayward and envious sons of Jacob
persecuted Joseph. Genesis 37; Acts
7:9.
c. The
idolatrous Egyptians persecuted the
Hebrews. Exodus 1 and 5.
d. The
Hebrew who did his neighbor wrong
thrust Moses as mediator, aside.
Exodus 2:13, 14; Acts 7: 26,27.
e. Saul,
who disobeyed God, persecuted David,
who feared God. 1 Samuel 15, 19, 24.
f. Israel,
in their apostasy, persecuted Elijah
and Jeremiah, who were prophets of
God. 1 Kings 19:9, 10; Jeremiah
36:20-23; 38: 1-6.
g. Nebuchadnezzar,
while an idolater, persecuted the
three Hebrews captives for refusing
to worship idols. Daniel 3.
h. The
envious and idolatrous princes under
Darius persecuted Daniel for daring
to pray to the God of heaven. Daniel
6.
i. The murderers
of Christ persecuted the apostles for
preaching Christ. Acts 4 and 5.
j. Paul,
be fore his conversion, persecuted
the church of God. Acts 8:1; 9:1,2;
22:4,5, 20; 26: 9-11; Galatians 1:13;
1 Timothy 1:12,13.
The history of all
religious persecutions since Bible
times is but a repetition of this
same story – the wicked
persecute the righteous. And thus it
will continue to be until the
conflict between good and evil is
ended. (See Psalm 37:12, 14, 32.)
What does Paul say
shall suffer persecution?
“In fact, everyone
who wants to live a godly life in
Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”
2 Timothy 3:12.
What is essential
to religious persecution?
Ecclesiastical control
of the civil power, or a union of
church and state.
Since persecution is
invariably wrong, what must be true
of persecuting governments?
They likewise must be
in the wrong.
Note –
“There are many who do not seem
to be sensible that all the violence
in religion is irreligious, and
whatever is wrong, the persecutor
cannot be right.” – Thomas
Clarke, History of Intolerance
(1819 ed.), Vol. 1, p. 3.
“Have not almost
all the governments in the world
always been in the wrong on religious
subjects?” – MaCaulay,
Essay on “Gladstone on Church
and State,” in his Critical
and Historical Essays (1865 ed.),
Vol. 2, p. 60.
God never forces the
will or the conscience; but, in order
to bring men under sin, Satan resorts
to force. To accomplish his purpose,
he works through religious and
secular rulers, influencing them to
enact and enforce human laws in
defiance of the law of God.
Under what terrible
deception did Christ say men would
persecute His followers?
“All this I
told you so that you will not go
astray. They will put you out of the
synagogue; in fact, a time is coming
when anyone who kills you
will think he is offering a service
to God.” John 16:
1,2.
Who is the original
murderer?
“You belong to
your father, the devil,
and you want to carry out your
father’s desire. He
was a murderer from the beginning,
not holding to the truth, for there
is no truth in him.” John
8:44.
When James and John
wished to call down fire from heaven
to consume the Samaritans who did not
receive Christ, what did Christ say
to them?
‘But Jesus turned
and rebuked them, and they
went to another village.” Luke
9:55, 56.
Note - The disciples
did not understand what manner of
spirit they were speaking of, because
Jesus said that the Son of Man did
not come to destroy men’s lives
but to save them.
Some
Who Would Justify Persecution
Has the Papacy
claimed authority to persecute?
Yes!
Note – “That
the Church of Rome has shed more
innocent blood than any other
institution that has ever existed
among mankind will be questioned by
no Protestant who has a competent
knowledge of history. The memorials,
indeed, of many of her persecutions
are now so scanty that it is
impossible to form a complete
conception of the multitude of her
victims, and it is quite certain that
no powers of the imagination can
adequately realize their
sufferings.” –W.E.H. Lecky,
in History of the rise and
Influence of the Spirit of the
Reformation in Europe (1910 ed.),
Vol. 2, p. 32.
“This claim to
exercise coercive jurisdiction has,
as might be expected, been denied by
various heterodox writers. Thus
Masilius Patavinus (Defensor Pacis
II, iv), Antonius de Dominis (De rep.
Eccl, IV, vi, vii, ix), Richer (De
eccl, et pol. Potestate, xi-xii), and
later the Synod of Pistoia, all alike
maintained that coercive jurisdiction
of every kind belongs to the civil
power alone, and sought to restrict
the Church to the use of moral means.
The Holy See has always condemned
this error. Thus, in the Bull
‘Auctorem Fidei,’ Pius VI
makes the following pronouncement
regarding one of the Pistoian
propositions: ‘[The afore said
proposition] in respect of its
insinuation that the church does not
possess authority to exact subjection
to her decrees otherwise than by
means dependant on persuasion: so far
as this signals that the Church
“has not received from God
power, not merely to direct by
counsel and persuasion, but further
to command by laws, and to coerce and
compel the delinquent and
contumacious by external and salutary
penalties”
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