John 15:18-20 (NIV) 18 "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. 20 Remember the words I spoke to you: 'No servant is greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.
According to the Apocalypse, Christ desires a militant church that will absorb suffering rather than accommodate the powers that be. Indeed, to preach Christ by employing the same tactics as the Beast would give Rome the victory... None of the seven letters [to the churches in Revelation] ever suggests revenge or violence as an appropriate response to the situation in which Christians find themselves. Christianity is an alternative way of life —Ellen T. Charry
Today's Best Illustrations – Volume 5, (Carol Stream, IL: Christianity Today, 1997), WORDsearch CROSS e-book, Under: "LAST DAYS".
