Dealing with Persecution
by Cowboy Bob Sorensen
Although some sidewinders try to deny it, persecution of Christians is increasing in Western nations. Some professing Christians think that they are promised a life of giddy happiness, but we should expect persecution (1 Peter 4:12-14, Matt. 5:10-12, Matt. 24:9, John 15:20, 2 Tim. 3:12) , and we've had to deal with it since the beginning.
Some of the persecution is nonviolent, having to do with having our rights to freedom of religion and free speech eroded. We also have to deal with bullying, defamation, misrepresentation, criminal cyberstalking, and so on. Reports of direct, personal violence against Christians, such as this one, are more frequent.
Do you know the origin of the word persecution? We got it from the French, who in turn got it from the Latin. It means to follow with hostility. Some make a point of following us on the Web, then lying about us on forums, weblogs, harassment on our own social media accounts, and so on. (One poltroon complained about being "talked about behind is back" on weblogs and such, even though he was not named. Then he did the same thing by maligning Christians by name on atheopath sites. He's blind to his hypocrisy. But what do you expect from someone who calls God a liar?) It's interesting that follow has taken on a new meaning with the internet, since you can follow people on social media.
Atheists and anti-creationists get on the prod and attack Christians and biblical creationists with unfathomably bad logic and terrible science. They also like to pretend that they are trained psychologists. Instead, they are plagiarists of Wikipedia and atheistic propaganda clearinghouses, trying to build up their egos and justify their rebellion against God.
When standing up to them, Christians often encounter accusations of the "Dunning-Krueger Effect", which is essentially saying that atheists are smarter than us because they see how stupid we are, and we cannot see it. Similarly, when we point out their errors in logic or how they do not understand certain aspects of science, they accuse us of projection, which is a defense mechanism found in paranoid people. Basically, a person "projects" his or her feelings onto someone else, often anger or blame.
Related to those is when we point out the realities of persecution, even providing links to news stories, atheopaths brush it off and accuse us of being "paranoid". That is a dismissal of the reality of the situation (often by those doing the persecution), and moving the goalposts so that the Christian is at fault. (Folks like that like to attack the person instead of dealing with concepts.) Last I knew, paranoia is supposed to be diagnosed by trained professionals, and not by anonymous, uneducated people who are doing the persecuting. I suggest that they get examinations and treatment, and they should check for paranoia, the Dunning-Krueger Effect, and projection within themselves.
I did things a bit backward on this article. That follows below is a video by the late Adrian Rogers, "How to Prepare for Persecution". The material I wrote above is probably nothing that Dr. Rogers experienced, since he died in 2005. This message was in a series on the book of Revelation, but it is a good stand-alone sermon. Below the video is a link to the MP3 if you would rather just hear it.
MP3 direct download, click here.
Although some sidewinders try to deny it, persecution of Christians is increasing in Western nations. Some professing Christians think that they are promised a life of giddy happiness, but we should expect persecution (1 Peter 4:12-14, Matt. 5:10-12, Matt. 24:9, John 15:20, 2 Tim. 3:12) , and we've had to deal with it since the beginning.
 |
| Credit: Pixabay / Gerd Altmann |
Do you know the origin of the word persecution? We got it from the French, who in turn got it from the Latin. It means to follow with hostility. Some make a point of following us on the Web, then lying about us on forums, weblogs, harassment on our own social media accounts, and so on. (One poltroon complained about being "talked about behind is back" on weblogs and such, even though he was not named. Then he did the same thing by maligning Christians by name on atheopath sites. He's blind to his hypocrisy. But what do you expect from someone who calls God a liar?) It's interesting that follow has taken on a new meaning with the internet, since you can follow people on social media.
Atheists and anti-creationists get on the prod and attack Christians and biblical creationists with unfathomably bad logic and terrible science. They also like to pretend that they are trained psychologists. Instead, they are plagiarists of Wikipedia and atheistic propaganda clearinghouses, trying to build up their egos and justify their rebellion against God.
When standing up to them, Christians often encounter accusations of the "Dunning-Krueger Effect", which is essentially saying that atheists are smarter than us because they see how stupid we are, and we cannot see it. Similarly, when we point out their errors in logic or how they do not understand certain aspects of science, they accuse us of projection, which is a defense mechanism found in paranoid people. Basically, a person "projects" his or her feelings onto someone else, often anger or blame.
Related to those is when we point out the realities of persecution, even providing links to news stories, atheopaths brush it off and accuse us of being "paranoid". That is a dismissal of the reality of the situation (often by those doing the persecution), and moving the goalposts so that the Christian is at fault. (Folks like that like to attack the person instead of dealing with concepts.) Last I knew, paranoia is supposed to be diagnosed by trained professionals, and not by anonymous, uneducated people who are doing the persecuting. I suggest that they get examinations and treatment, and they should check for paranoia, the Dunning-Krueger Effect, and projection within themselves.
I did things a bit backward on this article. That follows below is a video by the late Adrian Rogers, "How to Prepare for Persecution". The material I wrote above is probably nothing that Dr. Rogers experienced, since he died in 2005. This message was in a series on the book of Revelation, but it is a good stand-alone sermon. Below the video is a link to the MP3 if you would rather just hear it.
MP3 direct download, click here.
Comments