If you love Jesus, and you are a citizen of the United States, you may not carry scars on your body (like Paul and many others in the NT did); but you may very well bear scars on your heart and soul—and all of them are the scourges of God’s enemies who do the devil’s work in persecuting the precious children of God.

A lot of times we hear people say, “There is no persecution of the church in America.” This statement, though understandable on one level, is entirely false. In fact, every truly regenerated (born again) Christian does get persecuted; and it depends not at all on where we live, or in what era of human history we live.

Here are Paul’s Holy Spirit-inspired words of 2 Tim. 3:12: “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,” (ESV/italics mine). This means that if you are a real Christian you will be persecuted–and it does not matter where you live. There is simply no way around this inevitable spiritual law of the gospel.

Somebody might say, “Yes; but Christians in America are not thrown in jail for preaching the gospel, and for worshipping the one and only God in spirit and truth as Christ’s church.” And, God be praised, this is pretty much the case, (though there may be some exceptions somewhere). We should be thankful for this; and give God praise and glory for it. Only a fool would want (or “pray” for) persecution, on the alleged basis that this will fuel the spread of the gospel around the nation. People that say such things are both liars and hypocrites. They would be the first to abandon the faith upon the propagation of overt state-sponsored persecution. (But enough about that/that is an aside.)

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