Ye Shall Be Hated Of All Nations For My Namesake

The very fact that we resent persecution, fight it, and even hate and wage a social media war against our would-be persecutors, shows in itself that we have lost not just our purpose here but our identity as well.

Not a single section, line nor word, in the entire scriptures, exists to back up such a direction we have chosen to take as a church.

The prophets, Christ Jesus, his disciples, and all the Apostles never, for a single moment, prayed against, moved against, nor advocated against persecutions. They never tried to remove their persecutors from a position of power to curb their sufferings. They had no preference for any government because it afforded them more comfort and convenience. They had no better or worse political leader. To them, the world was simply what it is, THE WORLD! And it made no difference whether it was good or bad.

Strangers and pilgrims they were, and their testimony — “The Kingdom of God is at hand”, carried the same ominous tone against a world system built and governed by Satan. They preached, taught, and lived out this strange kingdom. They knew the consequences — The Lord Jesus had explicitly warned them about it:

“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.”

“Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me.”

They were told to “rejoice and be exceeding glad” when persecuted for his sake and the sake of the Gospel of the Kingdom.

Even when they were told about the threats of Herod and the High priests what did they do? Campaign against them? Pray for them to be dethroned and to lose the elections? Put forth and campaign for a Christian king, president, or leader who will make their lives safer and more convenient? Pray for their plans to not succeed? Pray for a “wind of change” and all the other religious jargon the deceiver has sold to us?

Nay!

“And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word, By stretching forth thine hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus.

And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.”

Where are we getting our leadership from?

Who is commanding our forces? Who ordered this direction in which we are currently marching?

Who is freaking responsible for this mess!

Who concocted this insane notion that campaigning, by any means, whether by prayers or by words, against radical Islam is the way forward for the Church anywhere in the world?

How, why, and when did pitching against a northern or Islamic takeover of any part of the world become the mission of the Kingdom of God? What happened to both being and “making disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you”? Is that not how we are to wage our warfare?

Who told us that Islam is our peculiar enemy?

Who fed us such a stupid lie? Did we not hear when the Lord said that we will be “hated of ALL nations for my namesake”?

Who made us believe that there is any nation on this earth that is more friendly to Christ, his Kingdom, and his Gospel than the others?

Who ordered us to single out Islamic sectors of the same Satan-driven world to be exclusively branded as the enemy?

Please wake up, my people! Islam alone is not your enemy! The ENTIRE world’s system is!

The only reason we don’t know this is that we have long ditched Christ, his Kingdom, and his Gospel. “Hey bro! What are you talking about? Can’t you see all the evangelism?” Yes, I do. But the question is: who and what are we preaching? What kingdom are we advancing? Whose identity are we hiding?

Where is our treasure?

Wondering why this question? Simple! Because it is where our heart truly is, and it forms the content and integrity of the gospel we preach, “for out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh,” and “where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

Go ahead and let Christ, his Kingdom, and his Gospel be your true center, then you will know in a snap instance that this is way beyond Islam. Islam did not kill Jesus Christ the Son of the living God. Islam did not persecute His Apostles in Jerusalem, Rome, Greece, Spain, Africa, and everywhere. In fact, Islam is the latest in a long line of Christ’s persecutors.

Let us go ahead and live as “pilgrims and strangers” in this world, then we will know in less than a second, that it is EVERY NATION, and not just the radical Islamic ones, that hate The Son of God.

Remember why the Lord said we will be hated?

“If the world hated you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.”

Do you see his point? He says unequivocally that We are hated because of who we are.

Because we are neither of nor like them. The moment we become conscious of our alien and Divine nature of Righteousness and True Holiness, and as such, our passions and affections begin to conform to that of Christ, hence setting them in sharp contrast with and in a deadly disagreement with those of the World, we will in a flash taste the wrath of their prince — the dragon.

Then if in such a state of heart and mind, we start preaching the Kingdom of God like Our Lord Jesus and the Apostles of old did, we will be hunted like animals across not just Islamic nations, but ALL NATIONS.

Do you think we are either making this up or exaggerating the backlash? Well, see for yourself:

“And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.

But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come.”

Are we seeing this?

Number 1:

“…hated of all men…”

Ye shall be hated of all Muslims, right? Na! It is: “Ye shall be hated of ALL MEN”. For why? “My namesake.”

We are hated because of our association with him — The Son of God.

This means that all we need to do to avoid the hate is to simply disassociate from the Lord Jesus and like Peter, deny him, or like the Pharisees who believed in him but did not confess him in public because they loved the praises of men, we would withhold or suppress the truth of our associations with him. Do this and you are free from their hatred.

But let it be known, by your words, preferences, and actions, that you are his disciple, you will know there and then that it is not just Islam, but your very family will wish you dead. Think this is also not true? This is what Christ himself says:

“Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.”

Number 2.

“When they persecute you…”

Not “if” but “When”. He is saying that it is 100% certain the entire world, all nations, all men, will hate us because of him, and will persecute us for the same reason.

THE LORD makes it very clear that it is not a matter of if it will happen. No! Nope! Nay! He says it is a matter of when.

It will happen for sure! Unless as we have stated above, we disassociate from him and no longer, from a Holy(pure) heart, live nor identify publicly as his disciples.

Number 3.

“But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another…”.

Need we explain what this means? Well, I’ll just copy and paste what has been said before: “we will be hunted like animals across not just Islamic nations, but ALL NATIONS.”

Come on Christians! We were destined to live on the run here on this earth. Yes! That’s why “the Son of Man hath nowhere to lay his head,” even when the birds he made have nests. That is why the Apostles announced that they have “here no certain dwelling place”. That’s why the Holy Spirit in Hebrew says:

“Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. Why? “For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.”

Wait! Did he say “his reproach”? Oh no! God forbid! How we dread such words — like “reproach”. We? Reproach? We, the “head and not the tail,” will bear his reproach?

One would wonder, whether our Bibles still contained things like these:

“By faith Moses, when he came to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; Choosing to rather suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward.” By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.

Or this:

“Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.”

DO WE STILL HAVE THEM IN OUR BIBLES? DO WE!!

One does feel strongly inclined to believe that things like this have somehow jumped off and away from the pages of our Bibles, and all we have left are things like “I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper…”, and a load of old testament shadows from which we can scramble a bunch of wealth nuggets with which to articulate, justify and facilitate our lust for Mammon. Such scriptures as that Hebrew passage above must certainly be lost from our copies of the Bible, or don’t we think so?

See how these precious brethren were chased around? They wandered in deserts, mountains, dens, and caves of the earth. Moses fled Egypt, opting for the reproach of Christ rather than all our mouthwatering “Abraham’s blessings” and “wealth of the gentiles”

Oh see how God considers them:

Of whom the world was not worthy

And honestly neither are we. Or do you think it will be a just thing for us to share the same privileges with these? Are we even worthy to gain access to them? Do we honestly believe we are all going to sit on the same platform as these? God must be truly unjust to let that happen. For if the world is not worthy of them, why should friends of the world be? Why should enemies of God be? Or “…know ye not that friendship with the world is enmity with God?”

Number 4

“to the end…”

“Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man come.”, “but he that endureth to the end…”

Do you need any explanation? Here: It means there will be no break, no rest, no relief until He returns.

No such nonsense as “the days of persecution are gone, the world is now civilized”. Sorry, but it cannot be gone. It will only be gone along with the world. As long as this world is here and disciples of Christ are here in it, there will be persecution till he returns. So, we better brace for impact, for “all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” And no civilization will change it.

Civilization did not remove the persecution.

Friendship with the world did.

Let us go on and break up with her(The World), then deny ourselves and take up our cross daily and follow Christ Jesus, and then see what happens.

Please brothers and sisters let us come out from this deception. We are not at war with any group of people on this earth. We are at war with the Kingdom of darkness fighting through the world’s system over which he — the prince of darkness rules. All you have to do to partake in this system is simple:

• Love self.
• Love money.
• Love earthly pleasures.

But then, the very fact that we are no longer persecuted means only one thing:

We love self, we love money, and we love the same pleasures Moses forsook for the reproach of Christ.

Brothers and sisters, WE ARE NOT OF HIS WORLD!

Let us repent of our adultery, deny ourselves, take up our cross daily, and follow Jesus Christ where ever he goes.

Let us seek first the Kingdom of God — Oh my! The Kingdom of God! — and all his Righteousness, and let us live for Him, his Kingdom, and the Gospel of This Glorious kingdom alone.

Let’s rejoice when we are persecuted for his namesake, for “great is our reward in heaven”, for Christ also, “for the joy set before Him”, endured.

Moses also had “respect unto the recompense of the reward,” and hence “endured, as seeing him who is invisible.”

In the same spirit, let us look at the invisible, eternal things, and not at the visible world which is temporal and vain. Let us, therefore, set our affections on things above where Christ our Life sits on the right hand of the Father, and let us press on toward the mark of the high calling of God, heavenward in Christ Jesus.

And finally, let us put an immediate ceasefire to our self-imposed war with the Muslims. We do not wrestle against flesh and blood.

We are at war alright, but it is not a fight against Muslims. We are at war with “principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

We are at war, not against, but for the Souls of the Muslims and that of the world at large whom God so loved that he gave his only begotten Son so that they might have Life.

We owe them nothing but to love them, and as true disciples of Jesus Christ, lay down our lives for them, and as such see them come to the knowledge of the Son of God.

The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is with His Holy Saints Amen.