Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Monday October 17, 2005

Over many years I have followed the persecution of the church at home and around the world. It is said and I believe it is true, that more persecution and murder of Christians took place in the last century than in all of the last 2000 years. Little is said about the murder of Christians by Hitler and Stalin, the quietness concerning this holocaust is deafening. The horror suffered by persecuted Christians in China is beyond description. Around the world men and women are suffering torture, displacement and death for their faith. We in our comfortable Western society calmly watch and pray and buy goods and services from those who kill or brothers and sisters in Christ.

While this true carnage is being perpetrated on the body of Christ, some take it upon themselves to proclaim that they too are being persecuted for Christ. When asked to produce the marks from the whip, torture chamber or prison record, there is silence. Many who attempt to wear the martyr's cloak are merely enduring contradiction. They espouse some new or strange idea, usually one long rejected by the body of believers at large and other believers merely point out the error of their heresy. To contradict or be contradicted is not engaging in or enduring persecution.

I am a believer in the Pre-Tribulation Rapture of the church. When someone writes an article in the futile attempt to change my mind, or establish his followers in another view, this is not persecuting me. He is presenting a contradictory view. I read such and pray that God will open his eyes to the truth. If said author has the power to put me in jail for my belief or deprive me of livelihood, or even kill me, then we move from contradiction to persecution.

The tendency to believe you are being persecuted because someone disagrees with you is as old as time. Cain persecuted Abel because Abel's accepted offering contradicted his inferior offering. Error always desires to 'murder' the bearer of truth.

Addressing this issue Emerson stated:

"Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am being persecuted whenever I am contradicted."

A wise person will use contradiction of his or her ideas to dig deeper and strengthen their beliefs. An uncontested idea is just that, an idea. The intensity of your commitment to an idea can only be validated by your willingness to die for it. To be contradicted is mild compared to the stake!

The outrage demonstrated by some men and women due to their being contradicted by a mere mortal is prima fascia evidence of their own weak grasp of said idea. Or it may be an overblown sense of their superior intellect. God knows I have suffered very little persecution and He also knows I have had my share of contradiction by ignorant people.

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2005 Use with credit.

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