Categories
Faith

Faith and aggressive opposition

One of the striking things about the spread of the Gospel in the early days of the church is the extent of aggressive opposition that was raised. Paul himself had started out as an aggressive opponent of the church, and when he changed sides he encountered all sorts of hardships and persecution, being imprisoned, flogged and banished from numerous towns. The aggressive opposition typically experienced by new converts is highlighted in the second chapter of Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians:

As you know, we urged and encouraged and called upon every one of you, as a father does to his children, to live lives which are worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory. So we never stop thanking God that when you received the message of God which you heard from us, you accepted it, not as a message of human origin, but as it really is, the message of God, which is working in you believers. Friends, you followed the example in Christ Jesus of God’s churches in Judea. You suffered the same persecution from your own people, as they did from the Jews, who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and chased us away.

It seems that the Gospel message spreads fastest when it encounters aggressive opposition, and slowest when its main opponent is merely apathy. Most Christians in the West today would agree that the extent of aggressive opposition to the Gospel is on the rise, replacing centuries of apathy. Could this be a good sign for the church, rather than a bad sign? As Paul’s example demonstrates, a particular type of courage and strength of character is required to prevail in the face of persecution, and it is yet to be seen whether Christians in the West will develop such characteristics.