Message of the day; The Good-News – Really
Matthew 5:10-11 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
It seems we don’t have to wait long before we hear of the next violent act of persecution against Christians. Jesus predicted this, and taught that Christians can still count themselves blessed because this life is not to be compared with the glory that is to come.
However, there is something in what Jesus does not say we should also be listening to, if we have ears to hear. Where is the kingdom of heaven or the reward for those who are doing the persecuting? Not only do they bring great shame on both themselves and their creed for the deeds they do, but they also reveal the poverty of ideas that their creed has to offer. If the best they can come up with are burnings, beatings, rapes and murders, what are the rest of us to conclude about the creeds they so seek to defend?
If one wants to establish the superiority of a creed, put it to a proper test. Let us examine the truth of its claims and the benefits it brings for the adherents. But if all it offers is a pretext for political domination, then it is unworthy of being a creed at all, and needs to change.
If that means that the national religions of nations have to change, so be it, if it is to the good. At present, no nation seems to have Christianity as their national religion. Perhaps the age we live in is really the Age of Rejection, where all the nations of the Earth are united in agreement in rejecting the faith in Jesus Christ; only they cannot agree as to the reason for their rejection.
Nevertheless, the Christians know that their God has given them a Kingdom, in Heaven, and the behaviour of their persecutors on earth only serve to underline that truth.