Preparing For Persecution XVII

 Studies have shown that when you’re trying to perpetrate fraud or pull the wool over someone’s eyes, such as a pyramid scheme, multi-level marketing, or a church-run investment fund, there are three points along the way where you’re vulnerable. The first point someone is vulnerable is during the groundwork stage, where you’re putting all your pieces into place. The second is when you’re getting it off the ground before you have enough people on board so they can vouch for the return you promise the dupes, and the third is toward the end stage when you’ve been found out and fear that someone close will roll over on you and spill the beans.

There is a moment during the third stage when the individual sees the writing on the wall and pulls the chord. They push the eject button and attempt to disassociate themselves because keeping up the ruse means suffering consequences they are not willing to suffer. Politicians are masters at this, saying one thing today and another tomorrow and denying that they said either of the two so passionately that one would think the video of them saying the things they deny saying was a hoax of some kind.

I’ve been asked on occasion why I believe Jesus is the Son of God and that He rose from the dead, but the caveat was to exclude the say-so of the disciples or the eyewitness accounts. Those doing the asking are usually college-aged kids who took some introductory course on agnosticism or are parroting their communist professor who insists that gods are a human construct necessary to alleviate the pain of being human.

There’s always some veiled dig about how I seem too bright to believe in spaghetti monsters and how any reasonable person would be skeptical of two-thousand-year-old stories. They go into this long litany about how it all got passed down from word of mouth and how you can’t trust eyewitness accounts, and my answer is always because of the actions of those who’d been with Christ after His crucifixion.

If Peter and John had been perpetrating a fraud or playing a long con the moment they were brought before the ruling religious class, they would have pulled the chord on their scheme. You don’t keep to your story when not only don’t you have anything to gain, but you have everything to lose if you stick to it. If it was just a fabrication, a lie, a well-orchestrated sleight of hand where they took the body of Christ and hid it somewhere, this was the time they would have cried, Uncle, and confessed to their misdeeds. To proceed any further would be to stir the ire of the most powerful people of their day, and con men don’t want to get on the wrong side of the powerful if they can help it.

They were offered an out. We’ll let bygones be bygones if you promise not to speak to any man in the name of Jesus. We can pretend as though this never happened; we’ll find some way of spinning the once-lame man leaping about, but you have to promise not to bring up Christ again.

The only surprise in this exchange is that they didn’t try to bribe Peter and John. They skipped over the bribery and went straight to the threats, so somewhere in the deep recesses of their darkened hearts, those making the threats knew the authenticity of their claims. If they’d supposed it was a con job from the start, and the end goal of this con job was some sort of payoff, they would have likely offered them silver and gold just to be rid of the problem.

If Jesus is your everything, then nothing can sway you from your faithfulness and conviction, whether offers of wealth or threats of death, praise from men, or their hatred. You have all you’ve ever wanted and all you’ll ever want. You have Jesus, and He is sufficient. Because He is the treasure, the end goal, and not just a means to an end, once you are His and He is yours, nothing can beguile or tempt you away from His love.

The threats only work when men try to have divided loyalties or situational commitment to Christ. It’s when men are not wholly committed to daily denying themselves and picking up their crosses that the enemy’s schemes and machinations are effective. They compromise the truth for the sake of baubles, fame, or the adulation of those who secretly despise them because their heart's desire was never Christ but something other.

The dividing line is clear, and the sifting is inevitable. Even among those of the early church who preached the truth and proffered no promise of wealth and riches and taught it as gospel, there were those who walked away, and Paul speaks of such men, as do John, Peter, James, Jude, and even Christ.

Acts 4:18-20, “So they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.”

Peter and John didn’t have to confer with each other about whether they would take the deal. Neither was afraid that his brother in Christ would throw them under the bus and take the offer while hanging the other out to dry.

You can’t choose your family, but you can choose whom you call your brother or sister in Christ. The only metric that suffices when doing so is whether they are as committed to the way of righteousness as you are and if they are as willing to lay it all on the line. If not, there will always be that nagging question of whether they will stand or fold when the road gets hard and the pressure mounts.

It’s one of the reasons attacks from within the body are often so successful and destructive. If you can’t trust the person in the foxhole next to you, if you have to watch your back as well as your front, then the chances of victory are slim to none. However, when you have a common foe and know that it’s either them or you, your only concern is engaging the enemy, knowing that the others are doing likewise.

Peter harbored no doubts about John, and John harbored no doubts about Peter. They were of one mind; they had seen what they had seen and heard what they had heard and would not be swayed from the truth no matter the threats or by whom the threats were being leveled.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Posted on 23 April 2024 | 10:05 am