Matthew 10:39

Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Matthew 16:25

For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Mark 8:35

For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it.

Luke 9:24

For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

Luke 17:33

Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it.

It has become a constant refrain that I am not the reference, the Lord is. The joy we have as fellow followers of Christ is to engage each other in dialog, to point each other to what the Scripture tells us, and then to examine the Scripture to see if these things are so (Acts 17:11). What I set before you is an attempt to live that model.

I have been engaging a friend on the difference between Matthew 10 and 24. We have a lot in chapter 10 that might be summarized with “acknowledges me before men” which is a stay put mentality. Then chapter 24 has “flee to the mountains” which is rather different. However, 10 is due to the fear of man and 24 is the fear of the Lord. There is much to be reviewed on this. Considering the refrain “The fear of the LORD” appears over two dozen time in Scripture, we might have a real clue!

Chris mentioned Voice of the Martyrs. A line from Richard Wurmbrand in “Tortured for Christ” has hit home with me when his wife states “I don’t need a coward for a husband”. Especially considering Revelation 21:8, it should be a concern for all of us. To what degree do we see a model in that story of staying put and making a public stand versus exiting to a safer place?

We see the history of the Soviet Union that disallowed Christ, but it collapsed and Christianity thrives there today. We see a similar example today in China and Islamic countries, but again which will outlast the other? If the Lord is who He claims He is, then the answer is obvious. We see a different model in Rome in the 300s where instead of fighting the Christians, they bought them by establishing what we now see as the Roman Catholic Church, and gained control of a submissive flock.

In the US today we see the same weakening of what it is to follow Christ. Much of the institutional church has become a place to be entertained, find a wife or business connections, or simply feel good about ourselves. Techniques vary from the “name it and claim it” mentality so you can have the things of this world (1st John 2:16), to lets embrace everyone, such as the homosexual community, to get our numbers up or strive for a political objective. Encouraging one another to be obedient to Christ and find our joy in Him seems to be too harsh of an idea for the snowflake Christian.

Much has been said about the recently destroyed Georgia Guild Stones and the keep population under half a billion line. There is the question of how do you eliminate 90% of the world population. It can’t be done by bombs, but rather encouraging people to do things that will shorten their life or reduce reproduction. We see numerous examples of this being successfully done today, such as encouraging an immunization that does not immunize, but does radically reduce longevity and sterilizes many.

How do you apply those same ideas to reducing the Christian Community? Kill them might work, but since once that is known that you are attacking them, there might be a bit of a resistance. A better solution is to pacify them with pseudo-Christianity. Give them the things of this world and put a Christian wrapper around it. Consider again 1st John 2:16. The list of examples of this in Europe, Canada, and the US is huge, so why would you want to escape the obvious enemy to only be embraced by a false friend?

Another option is to proclaim religious freedom, but reality might be a bit different. First it should be noted that the Bible is a book of reality, not a quaint story if you want to believe it. But then in some places, such as the UK or Canada, if you point out things like the Lord’s less than favorable description of homosexuality, you might be arrested, as many have. Or you could have an overtly Christian country, such as Ukraine, that has a state sponsored kill list of those to do not fit the mold. But they are amateurs, as the US is much better at killing. We have started more wars and killed more foreign civilians than any other country, but that is OK since we are a “Christian country”, right? We might be concerned for the Christian in a Muslim country, but the number of Christians the US kills is huge and perhaps larger.

Our trust is not in the state but the Lord. We do not turn to a military or legal option, but proclaim Christ, live in obedience to Christ, encourage one another in Christ, and keep love at the forefront.

I came to the conversation with no funds to offer as I am broke. I will not point to a military, political or legal solution, as they are useless. Rather it is my hope to offer communications tools, and a way to hand someone the Bible with much lower risk than a cellphone version. In the early 1990s I met a Russian man who was a Bible smuggler during the Soviet time. He had the personality, the courage, and the love to put himself at risk to physically bring the Gospel to people while ignoring the risk of the Gulags. As stated before, I can do the technology, but where it that other man?

It is my hope to encourage others to be guided by the Scripture, and to hear from others where I am wrong, as we both use the Scripture as our reference. One of my favorite Greek words is “sumparakaleō” which is seen once in Romans 1:12 and translated as “comforted together” or “mutually encouraged”. It is made of three words: “together call near”. You can easily visualize how calling someone near to you is encouragement, and to do that mutually is fantastic! This is my purpose in this email.