When Killing God's Children is 'Service to
God'?
“I have said all these things to you to keep
you from falling away. They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the
hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.
And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me.
But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember
that I told them to you" (John 16:1-4).
The
fact that people today think that killing Christians is "offering service to God," is not reason to turn from
following Jesus in these last days, but one more evidence that Jesus' brothers
can live “by every word that proceeds
from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).
Of
course, Jesus spoke many words about the heavenly prize that he promises to all
who follow him. He told us:
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in
God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not
so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and
prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that
where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going” (John
14:1-4).
Jesus
is preparing the home we have always wanted. We have "an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading,
kept in heaven for you" (I Peter 1:4). In other words, the people who
kill Jesus' brothers, believing that such murderous actions are service to
their God, can never deny us our inheritance. It is waiting in heaven, where
the red dragon cannot touch it.
The
same Jesus who said that he would die and rise again (Luke 9:22), whose death
and resurrection have been confirmed by many witnesses, promises that He will
come again and take his brothers to himself, so that we can be where he is with
his Father. He died at the hands of those who believed they were doing service
to God in his murder, and he lives to receive all his brothers who also die at
the hands of such evil men.
Sight
of another wicked beheading does not tell me that Jesus' church is being
destroyed, but that the red dragon is filled with wrath because he knows that
his time is short (Revelation 12:12). Since Jesus has already suffered to save his
brothers from the wrath of God against our sin (Romans 5:9), even the wrath of
the red dragon against our righteousness by faith is not big enough to snatch us
out of our Savior’s hands (John 10:28-29).
The
people who think that killing God’s children is doing service to God are still
under the wrath of God. Jesus said, “Whoever
believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not
see life, but the wrath of God remains on him” (John 3:36).
All
who believe in Jesus with the faith that gives new life (John 3:3), have
eternal life. The wrath of God against our sin has already been poured out on
our Lord Jesus Christ (I John 2:2). The grace of God that gives faith in Jesus (Ephesians
2:8-9) will enable us to continue standing firm even while the red dragon pours
out his wrath against our growing likeness to Jesus Christ our Lord, and
Brother (II Corinthians 3:18).
“For to me to live is Christ, and to die is
gain” (Philippians 1:21).
© 2014 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, Canada, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
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