“And Jesus going up to Jerusalem took the twelve disciples apart in the way, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death, And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him…
Then came to him the mother of Zebedees children with her sons…She saith unto him, Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom. But Jesus answered and said…Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able. And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with: but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father.” (Matthew 20:17-23)
Saul / Paul exemplifies for all who claim to witness of the Christ by bearing his name / identity as a Christ-One that this entails suffering, and a self-sacrificing love for people whatever ethnicity they may be, however much they may have harmed us.
“he is a chosen vessel / messianic one unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel…great things he must suffer for my name’s sake.” (Acts 9:15-16)
“there came thither certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium, who persuaded the people, and having stoned Paul, drew him out of the city, supposing he had been dead. Howbeit, as the disciples stood round about him, he rose up…Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom / ministry positions of God.” (Acts 14:19-22)
As the author of the vast majority of the letters to the churches, Paul rightly exhorts members of the body of Christ to follow his lead. Those who merge their identity in YHVH’s Savior’s death and resurrection to spiritual life have the same purpose in this life – to bear personal witness of transformation using the eternal truth in scripture regarding freedom from sin’s destruction in this life and resurrection to eternal life to come.
Trust me, even as a secular psychiatric provider I can assure you that people do not like hearing that they, themselves – not society or their partner or their mother – are responsible for their misery, and that they themselves need to change in order to fix their problems.
- “If the world hate 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…therefore the world hateth you…
- 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 [identify with] NOT him that sent me.” (John 15:18-21)
Christianity...a strange, new cult…spread across people groups and geographical boundaries…
Claudius Nero…reigned from A.D. 54-68…following the Great Fire of Rome in A.D. 64…people suspected that Nero started the fire himself, so he pointed the accusing finger at Christians. The fact that he felt confident in doing this indicates the low regard in which people held Christians already. Historian Philip Schaff says that “Their Jewish origin, their indifference to politics and public affairs, their abhorrence of heathen customs, were construed into an ‘odium generis humani’ (hatred of the human race), and this made an attempt on their part to destroy the city sufficiently plausible to justify a verdict of guilty.” Schaff says that “there began a carnival of blood such as even heathen Rome never saw before or since….A ‘vast multitude’ of Christians was put to death in the most shocking manner.” Some were crucified, some sewn up in animal skins and thrown to the dogs, some were covered in pitch, nailed to wooden posts, and burned as torches.It was in the fallout of this that Peter and Paul gave their lives for their Savior, probably within a year of each other…
Nobody can deny the persecution that all the apostles did in fact experience, including suffering and martyrdom, and that their Christ-likeness is what spread the Gospel through the known world.
They were killed because they claimed to be eyewitnesses of Christ’s death and resurrection. The gruesome death of the apostles…is one of the greatest gifts God ever gave to the Church. It contributes much to Christian apologetics by answering the question “How can you be sure of the resurrection of Christ?”
ALL followers of YHVH’s Savior are called to witness of the resurrection of Christ through our faith that we too will be resurrected. The greatest evidence of our faith in resurrection to a higher quality of life is our willingness to give up the lesser, though admittedly valued, benefits of this life, to be despised, rejected by family and friends, to lose our self-importance to identify with YHVH and his Savior, even to die if called to follow in that path.
“Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; And…became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him…to become the sons of God…we are the children of God:…if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” (Hebrews 5:7-8, John 1 :12, Romans 8:16-18)
“I would ye should understand, brethren, that…unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake; Having the same conflict which ye saw in me, and now hear to be in me.” (Philippians 1:12-30)
“Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. He that hath an [even just one] ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the [Gentile] churches. (Revelation 2:9-11)
Emperor Trajan ruled from A.D. 98-117…Persecution was especially bad in Syria and Palestine during Trajan’s reign. In 107 he went to Antioch and demanded that everyone sacrifice to the gods. Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch and pupil of the apostle John, refused and was martyred by being thrown to wild animals. Ignatius wrote this to Polycarp, another disciple of John, on his way to Rome: “Let the fire, the gallows, the wild beasts, the breaking of bones, the pulling asunder of members, the bruising of my whole body, and the torments of the devil and hell itself come upon me, so that I may win Christ Jesus [quoting Paul.”
Sooo…to avoid suffering, many Christians bent the rules to fit in with their surroundings.
Barely two decades after YHVH’s death and resurrection, the apostle Paul wrote that many believers were already “turning away . . . to a different gospel” (Galatians 1:6). He wrote that he was forced to contend with “false apostles, deceitful workers” who were fraudulently “transforming themselves into apostles of Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:13). One of the major problems he had to deal with was “false brethren” (2 Corinthians 11:26).
By late in the first century, as we see from 3 John 9-10, conditions had grown so dire that false ministers openly refused to receive representatives of the apostle John and were excommunicating true Christians from the Church!
It wasn’t long before true servants of God became a marginalized and scattered minority among those calling themselves Christian. A very different religion, now compromised with many concepts and practices rooted in ancient paganism (such mixing of religious beliefs being known as syncretism, common in the Roman Empire at the time), took hold and transformed the faith founded by Jesus Christ.
By the second century, faithful members of the Church, Christ’s “little flock” (Luke 12:32), had largely been scattered by waves of deadly persecution. They held firmly to the biblical truth about Jesus Christ and God the Father, though they were persecuted by those who professed Christianity but were in reality teaching “another Jesus” and a “different gospel” (2 Corinthians 11:4; Galatians 1:6-9).
Marcion rejected the theology of the Old Testament entirely and regarded the God depicted there as an inferior being. In the Antithesis, he claimed the theology of the Old Testament was incompatible with the teaching of Jesus regarding God and morality…[and] refused to accept Yahweh, the deity described in the Old Testament, as the “Heavenly Father” proclaimed by Jesus.
Marcion concluded that the Old Testament god was…a mere tribal god of the Jewish people, while Jesus preached of a God marked by compassion, love, and mercy.
Marcion’s opinion is antithetical to Moses, Jesus’ and Paul’s words.
Moses:
“I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life.” (Deuteronomy 30)
Jesus:
“And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love / cleave to the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.” (Mark 12:28-34)
Paul:
“But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise…The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord YHVH’s Savior, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved….there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name / attribute of the Lord [as YHVH Singularity God of Life] shall be saved.” (Romans 10:6-13)
Kingdom Come 