Here is a very strange paradox: The first Christian church would never have succeeded in the way it did unless it had been under violent opposition and persecution – first from its own professed people (the Jewish state-cult) and later the Roman state-cult. You may think that in order to grow a healthy plant you need to nurse it and create the most pleasant conditions. But when it comes to caring for a men and women who profess to be Christians, God introduces trials in their lives. Trials and persecution are the fertilizer that a Christian must live by and mature from. So in this life, there is no peace in the form of “peace with the world”. You can find peace in the midst of trials and persecution but it is of a completely different nature. It is spiritual and it comes directly from Jesus poured into your heart.
God uses persecution of his people to accomplish His purpose.
The efforts of the Jewish authorities and later the Romans, to break up this new movement of Christ-followers proved to be the very remedy needed to develop the Church and to complete and mature its organization. Because of inside and outside pressure, the members of the newly founded church was “pressed together” and became a much stronger army against the evil spiritual forces that sought to destroy it before it had even set sail and begun its long journey through history. Isn’t that a paradox? And that is exactly what will happen in our time, too. God’s true people will be subject to strong opposition first from inside and then from outside. And that opposition will press God’s true people together!
But why has persecution not set in yet, then, of that is the remedy of God? It depends in what part of the world we are talking about. And the BIG fight against evil powers will be fought in the United States and in Europe. And here it has already set in, but yet only from the inside. From the outside, not yet.
Leavening the dough before baking it
The reason is that IF it sets in from the outside now, many millions of true followers of Christ who do not understand why it happens will lose their faith and disillusioned by God fall apart. Therefore the persecution from outside will FIRST be introduced when God has leavened the dough to be ready for baking over a hot fire…figuratively speaking. And what does this leavening process consist of? A clear understanding of present truth. A clear understanding of ones duty. A clear understanding of our enimys strategies (both spiritual and secular forces). A clear understanding about history and prophecy ad the Bible to be able to defend our position. Before this is in place, there will be status quo. And we will perish here on earth and our children has to go through suffering that WE ought to take on our shoulders to end this crazy last chapter of the world.
But nobody likes trials, right? But God knows what is best for his professing people. If you profess to christianity but hates the trials God puts you through
Protestant Christianity the only true global network
All religions in the world – except original Protestantism – has no potential for being a global structure, because all other religions has a tie to building Gods Kingdom on earth. True Christianity is completely untied from building social and politics structures. Its kingdom is not worldly, and it can not be build by the hands of mankind. The bond between all true christians all over the world is based on the fact that we are waiting for Jesus to come back and build his kingdom. In the meantime our duty is bring the invitation from God to his soon coming kingdom. In this world we will be persecuted, but only for a short while.
The Roman Empire was powerless against Christianity
Think about this: This little group of deciples and later the first christians churches were very weak (humanly speakin). It had still not a solid structure, no strong organisation. It was spread across in the Roman Empire because of persecution. But look at a map: It spread all over the world even though that from its very inception it was fiersfully persucuted by the world strongest power at that time. But the Roman Empire was NOTHING compared to the power released by God into this group of men and women.