I Thessalonians 1: 14-15 and the Martyrdom of Christians

Posted : 18 Sep, 2011 06:15 AM

I Thessalonians 1: 14-15 and the Martyrdom of Christians



Paul says in I Thessalonians 1: 14-15 that "For ye, brethren, became

followers of the churches of God which in Judaea are in Christ

Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen,

even as they have of the Jews: 15. Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and

their own prophets, and

have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men:"



At that time, in the First Century, it was the Jews who troubled and

persecuted Christians, not the unbelievers. The Pharisees

as leaders of the Jews were the religious establishment in Paul's time.



From the point of view of 2011, it may look like those who trouble

the Christians will be the Islamics. For example, see:



http://www.jihadwatch.org/2011/06/archbishop-of-canterbury-christians-in-the-middle-east-face-extremist-atrocities.html



Here it says " The Archbishop of Canterbury has warned that there are

extreme forces at work that have turned the Arab Spring into a "very

anxious time" for Christians.

Dr Rowan Williams told the BBC that the vacuum left by the end of

autocratic regimes was being filled by extremists. He claimed there

had been more killings of Christians and burnings of churches in Egypt

than people were aware of. Life was unsustainable for Christians in

northern Iraq, and tensions in Syria were nearing breaking point, he

added. There have been extremist atrocities already, especially in

Egypt," he said."



But the Scriptures do not emphasize a mass martyrdom of Christians

only at the hands of a rival religion. Instead, Luke 21: 16 says that

Christians will be persecuted and even caused to be killed by

brethren, kinsfolk and friends. John 16: 2 says the religious

establishment, the "synagogues," will put "you" out, indicating that

at the time of persecution those persecuted will not only be thrown

out of the churches, but they will be killed by those who think they

are doing the will of God by having these people killed. This does

not mean that the Islamics, or totalitarian governments within the

northern alliance (Daniel 11) and under the influence of the

anti-Christ spirit, will not also kill Christians because of their

faith. Most likely, when the Martyrdom of Christians begins in America

there will then be a totalitarian government - perhaps still

pretending to be a "democracy" - which for reasons of its own is

willing to jail and execute Christians. Those within Christianity who

want to kill other Christians because of a difference in doctrine will

take advantage of this more totalitarian government which has become

anti-Christian to deal with Christians who do not accept their

doctrines.



Matthew 24: 9 says that "Then shall they deliver you up to be

afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations

for my name's sake."



John 16: 2 says that "They shall put you out of the

synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth

you will think that he doeth God service,"



Aposunagogous here is from Strong's number 656, meaning,

"excommunicated, put out of the synagogue.



Luke 21: 16 says: "And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and

brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they

cause to be put to death." "Some" has been added to the King James

English in Luke 21: 16, because the Greek word "tis", or "men",

meaning some is not in the Greek Textus Receptus, from which the KJV

is translated.



"And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates,

and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or

what ye shall say:" Luke 12: 11



The reference to synagogues is not limited to Jewish synagogues.

Synagogues is Strong's number 4864, meaning "an assemblage of

persons, a Jewish synagogue, by analogy, a Christian church, assembly,

congregation, synagogue." Sunagoge in the Greek, or synagogue,

can mean a Christian church.



Matthew 24: 22 - "...except those days should be shortened,there

should no flesh be saved" can be interpreted

to mean that Christians will not only be killed by natural and

man-made disasters, but by governments, rival religions and by other

Christians because of differences in doctrines.



The first persecution of Christians was at the hands of the Jews.

Jews described in Acts 6: 9 stoned Stephen to death. Paul as an

orthodox Pharisee (Acts 8: 3) made havoc of the Christians, for

example, before his encounter with the risen Christ on the road to

Damascus. Some Christians were beheaded like James. Others were

tortured to death at times in history. The Roman authorities took up

the persecution and killing of Christians after the period in which

Christians were persecuted by the Jews.



During the Inquisition which began in the 12th century, the Catholic

Church tortured and murdered thousands of Christians who did not

accept the Catholic doctrines and rituals. Following the the twelfth

century, the Church set up Grand Inquisitors to persecute, have

tortured and to kill "heretics," an institution which went on until

the 19th century. Often, the Church itself would not carry out the

sentences against the "heretics,", but handed over them over to the

secular authorities to be tortured and killed. And generally, the

Church dealt with Christian "heretics," and not with Jews or Islamics.



In much of Europe before the Reformation fully established itself, the

Catholic Church had control over the people and could in a political

and military way get by with having Christians tortured and murdered

by the secular authorities.



The Church invented something called "the Church Militant," which

might have been just a metaphor. But in view of all the torturing and

killing that the Church caused, the "Church Militant" was literal and

not just metaphoric for the "Church" still on earth before Purgatory

and Heaven.



A look in Strong's Exhaustive Concordance shows there is no "Church

Militant" anywhere in scripture.



So, to use the metaphor of the "Church Militant" is too suggestive of

killing and destruction. In Luke 9: 52-56 when James and John saw that

a village of the Samaritans did not receive Christ they asked Christ

if they could call down fire on the village, like Elijah did in II

Kings 1: 10, 12. But Jesus said to them "Ye know not what manner of

spirit ye are of. For the Son of Man is not come to destroy men's

lives, but to save them." So much for the metaphor of the "Church

Militant." The Catholics made the "Church Militant" too literal in

killing and torturing faithful Christians. While being militant was

sometimes acceptable under the Old Covenant, it was not acceptable

under the New Covenant.



Christ says in John 10: 10 "I am come that they might have life, and

that they might have it more abundantly." Violence, except in some

instances of necessary self-defense, is not accepted under the New

Covenant.



What can accurately be called postponement theology, which is usually

known by the name dispensationalism, places emphasis upon "all Israel"

of the Old Covenant, and honors them. The dispensationalists often

quote Old Testament prophecies on the restoration of physical Israel

and claim these will be fulfilled during their seven year tribulation.

They do not acknowledge Acts 15: 8-17 where James says the prophets

agree with Peter's statement that God puts no difference between

Christian Jews and Christian Gentiles, indicating the New Covenant.

James quotes Amos 9: 11 as an example of the several Old Testament

prophecies on the restoration of Israel. His teaching is that all the

Old Testament prophecies on the restoration of Israel were fulfilled

in the New Covenant.



This tendency to reject a New Testament interpretation of Old

Testament prophecy shows that the dispensationalists are still

operating in part by the Old Testament. In other words, they do not

fully accept Hebrews 10: 9, "He taketh away the first, that he may

establish the second." They are not fully in accord with the New

Covenant.



The point is that postponement theology, or dispensationalism, honors

"all Israel," which means Israel of the Old Covenant. And under the

Old Covenant, violence was sometimes more acceptable than under the

New Covenant., as when Elijah called fire down on the priests of Baal.

Dispensationalism as one of several Israel-First movements of the end

time, can become allied with other Israel-First movements such as

Hebrew Roots and groups within the Messianic Judaism movement, which

are even more clearly mixing the Old with the New Covenant. Christian

Zionism is not limited to John Hagee and his Christians United For

Israel.



In a very possible near future coalition of dispensatiolnalism with

other Israel-First movements, the mixing the covenants, and going back

to the Old Covenant in this end time coalition might become a literal

"Church Militant," and contribute in some way to the martyrdom of

Christians as predicted by Matthew 24: 9, Luke 21: 16 and John 16: 2.

At a time when the secular government, like in the Dark Ages prior to

the rise of the Reformation, will itself become thoroughly under the

anti-Christ spirit and willing to kill Christians, then the martyrdom

of those who oppose the doctrines of this coalition could began.



Christians who have come to disagree with the Israel-First doctrine

and do not have the protection described in Luke 21: 36 might be in

danger or martyrdom. "Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye

may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to

pass, and to stand before the Son of man."

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