Imagine speaking to a crowd of people, talking about the Bible and sharing what Jesus says to them. Then, those listening respond to your words by saying, “Amen”. Because of these two actions, everyone in the crowd, and yourself, are now arrested for committing a crime. What crime did you commit? Hate speech. Six years ago, Francis Chan spoke of the days that are ahead of us. His words are powerfully prophetic and you will be amazed as to how he arrived at such a revelation. “Now, I’m not trying to be prophetic right now. I’m just using my logic…I think there is going to come a time, and It’s probably going to be sooner than later, when what I do in a public forum is going to be labeled as a hate crime.”
Chan highlights two significant pieces of history that underwent the same type of oppression and persecution. He looks at both Russia and China, and what happened when persecution arose. When the government stepped in, removing the leadership of the Church, these two had vastly different outcomes. In Russia, “The people didn’t know where to turn. They didn’t know how to grow. They didn’t know how to disciple, and so the Church basically died.” For China, The government oppression was the same, the removal of Church leadership was the same, but in the case of the outcome, it was an entirely different story. “In fact, under Mao Zadong, the persecuted Church grew from 2 million to an estimated, about 80 million in these underground gatherings. Why? Because the people, they understood how to minister to other people. They knew how to teach other people.” In the case of the Church in Russia, the focus was upon the buildings and the priests. In the case of the Church in China, the everyday Christian was empowered to know the simple things of the Gospel; what it means to know Christ, how to lead others to Christ, etc. We are to honor government, yes, but we are not to bow down to it. We are only to bow before Jesus Christ. Continue Reading…
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