Reflections on Persecution

Excerpted from a new book by Nik Ripken called Insanity of Obedience

When persecution comes, the reaction from both individuals and organizations is fairly uniform.

Most believers are drawn to five specific responses.

First, we want the persecution to stop. In fact, this might be our first and greatest hope. This response is so obvious that even calling it into question seems ridiculous.

The assumption is that persecution is a bad thing, and we simply want it to end. So we pray for persecution to end and we work for persecution to end.

Second, we are inclined to rescue the persecuted. We want to remove them from harm and to put them in a safe place. We might even want to ensure their safety by

extracting them to another country. Again, this often seems like a completely obvious

response. The assumption, again, is almost beyond question: if I care about someone,

then I want that person protected from harm. According to Scripture, strategic

extraction can be an appropriate step, but not in most cases. For example, through a

vision, God led Joseph to take the young Jesus to Egypt for a season. Then in a

second vision, God led Joseph to take the child Jesus back to His own homeland.

Sometime later, Jesus Himself gave instructions to His followers and suggested that

sometimes they should flee to other towns and cities. Extraction, when it did happen,

was to be strategic. At the same time, extraction was not always the proper response.

Rescuing and church planting are not the same goals.

Third, we desire that the persecutors be punished. Once again, this is a response that most people would barely question. We assume that, since persecution is evil, it

deserves to be punished. We have been in numerous meetings led by well-known

Western Christians that have focused on a call for military intervention on behalf of

believers in persecution. Our commitment to stop persecution and punish the bad guys likely says more about the condition of our own hearts than about the needs of believers in settings of suffering.

Fourth, we tend to believe that Western forms of democracy and the concomitant civil rights will usher in the kingdom of God and create an environment where persecution

will simply not happen anymore. We tend to believe that spiritual brokenness can be

healed through political means. Wars have been foughtand continue to be foughtbased on the belief that Western styles of government and the kingdom of God are,

essentially, synonymous. This is a dangerous, non-biblical assumption.

Fifth, we tend to focus on raising financial support so that believers in persecution might be rescued and helped. Interestingly, we tend to rely on the power of financial

resources to accomplish the highest goals and aims of both individual believers and

mission organizations.

All five of these responses are perfectly normal. They all make human sense. These are all common responses to persecution at both personal and organizational levels. In fact, these

responses are so normal and so common that they are almost beyond question.

Significantly, however, all five of these responses fail on biblical grounds.

First, Jesus has clearly told us that persecution is normal and expected. The only way to stop persecution, in fact, is to be disobedient to His call. How can we pray that

persecution will stop when the only way to stop persecution is by refusing to share

Jesus and keeping people from coming to Jesus as their Lord and Savior? How can

we pray for persecution to stop when Jesus has told us that it is an inevitable and

unavoidable result of obedient witness? Working to stop something that Jesus told us

would happenor praying for it not to happenputs us in a strange place!

Second, is it possible that God has purposes that are tied to the suffering of His people? To put it simply, as attractive as extraction might sound, is it possible that

Joseph should be left in jail? In our desire to be helpful, could we find ourselves

working against the ultimate purposes of God?

Third, how does our desire that the persecutors be punished fit with Jesus clear instruction to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us? Persecuted

believers in China have told us time and time again that being in prison was a

tremendous evangelistic opportunity. Churches were started among prisoners. Beyond

that, persecutors often encountered the grace of God through the witness of

imprisoned believers. Suffering believers did not pray that their persecutors would be

punished; they prayed that their persecutors would come to experience Gods grace! Persecuted believers discovered that the best way to deal with persecutors and to stop

their persecution was to pray and witness so that their persecutors would become

brothers and sisters in Christ!

Fourth, as much as we might cherish Western, democratic forms of government, it is humbling to know that the vast majority of movements toward Christ today are in

countries and among people groups where persecution abounds. There is less

kingdom growth in the Western, democratic, and so-called Christian countries today. The horrible fact is; in almost every Western environment Christianity is in

decline.

Fifth, while we must find creative ways to stand with our brothers and sisters who are in settings of persecution, our primary way of identifying with them is by being

consistent witnesses in our own environments. It is impossible to replace witness

with money. We identify with those in chains for their witness by sharing Jesus in

our own particular environment. We identify with their persecutors by keeping Jesus

to ourselves. Financial resources will never replace the faithful witness of Gods people

As noted above, many suffering believers told us that the best response to persecution is to

work for the salvation of the persecutors. In salvation, they explained, persecutors will cease to be

persecutors and they will become brothers and sisters in Christ! For these suffering believers, the

goal was not the punishment but the salvation of their persecutors.

Typically, we want the persecution to stop.

Typically, we want suffering believers to be rescued.

Typically, we want the persecutors to be punished.

Typically, we equate Western forms of democracy with the kingdom of God.

Typically, we try to do with money what we should do with witness.

And in those perfectly normal responses, we can find ourselves out of step with the purposes

and plans of God.

Much to our surprise, believers in persecution did not ask us to pray that their persecution would

cease. Instead, they begged us to pray that they would be obedient through their suffering. And

that is a very different prayer.