Balderdash! LoL. My quote was "those allowed to suffer for him make themselves worthy of greater reward in eternity." The Old Testament contained numerous promises about earthly wealth and prosperity because they were carnal promises made to a carnal people. Our Lord revealed in the New Testament that these were just foreshadowings of the greater promises waiting in eternity for those who laid down their lives in this life.
Me thinks thou shouldst be ashamed, LoL.
I'm not at all.
Oh yeah?
Well if that's not what Matthew 5:11-12 is saying, I invite you to present your counter interpretation. We'll see whose horse runs the farthest, LoL.
Perhaps then you should travel to those regions where Christians are persecuted to death to feel blessed when it comes your turn. It's easy to sit in a western nation and somehow glorify martyrdom that shall not pass here in your lifetime upon you.
We think because a group of rabid anti-Christian atheists, led by a damned apostate former Evangelical, threatening schools that dare allow any there to pray or invoke God, as persecution.
It's a violation of civil rights, and the first amendment and its further guarantee of separation of church and state. It is not persecution.
We think damned unrepentant radical LGBTQ zealots descending upon a private business for daring to be grounded in Christian principles is persecution. It's not! Their efforts are harassment, a violation of civil right, and religious liberty. A situation which was quelled in Texas.
We know our reward in Heaven awaits us. Why would God say, if you're killed for my sake you'll be better paid? Don't glorify being tortured to death for God. The Bible doesn't. And interpreting scripture to argue it does is wrong. We will be assailed for our faith, yes. The point of the message God sends about that is, don't fear if this happens. Because the Christian knows this life is a moment as dust. While the truth of the soul is eternity with the light.
God is not saying, be happy and love it, when terrorists peel your skin like a grape and command you renounce me. Feel joy when your children are boiled alive before your eyes one by one unless or until you renounce Christ and accept Allah! LOVE IT!
No! NO! God is telling us that if those evils befall us, we are to take comfort and rejoice in our KNOWLEDGE that what is happening is fleeting and impermanent. Because we are not of this world and shall depart it , if tortured to death, for a better one. Don't let the terror others bring lead the Christian to fear! There is Heaven that awaits.
You sound as one who can't wait to be tortured for Christ. You'll love it. Welcome it! It is not I who should be ashamed of that.
Westerners who glorify torture because of our faith , when we live in a country where it will never happen in our lifetime, fail to take in the very real fact that every day there are Christians in other places in the world who wish they were anywhere but in the hands of those ripping their bodies apart in the name of hatred for our God. I promise you, they don't endure while saying aloud or in silence, I LOVE THIS! LOVE IT! I'M GONNA BE SOOOOOO PAID WHEN IT FINALLY KILLS ME! PRAISE JESUS!
They're wiser than that. You speak ignorantly from a place of privilege, not experience.
This is Christian persecution: The Countries Where It’s Most Dangerous to Be a Christian in 2019
MAPPED: The 50 countries where you CAN'T be a Christian in 2017
MILLIONS of Christians across the world are facing punishments including imprisonment, torture and death for practicing their faith, shocking new research has revealed. [Note: Notice? America isn't highlighted]
Well, well. Aren't we digging deep, and quickly! LoL. Alright then, let's get into a teaching on warfare principles.
No, I'm not digging deep into warfare principles. I'm trying to reach someone who thinks to lend the example to those who read, and may be new Christians or considering the faith, that God doesn't need our help to remain sovereign. And, just as importantly, doesn't want us to be tortured to death for thinking we'll get more reward in Heaven for having perished from the life he blessed us to have. He especially doesn't want us to glorify the very idea while sitting comfortably at home behind a computer, with a refrigerator full of food, a comfortable bed, clean clothes on our back, promoting the idea as something we should strive for! When there isn't a plane ticket on the desk departing in eight hours for Somalia, and a new tee shirt beneath it that reads:
"Waan jeclahay Ciise
Ciise waa jidka keliya
"
Yes, I agree. You pick your battles, which is why I would choose Option C personally until I'm near or at the end of my life. But now, here's the reason many will and should choose B if the Lord so calls them to do it, and I have met a few who have told me they believe they are called to it. There's something to be said for the principle of ATTACK in warfare. When done properly, it throws the enemy into utter confusion. There's a popular saying in boxing that, "Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face." The reason is because all the greatest planning in the world goes out the window when you are no longer in control of the situation, i.e. "God in in control."
There's no principle of attack, when one is defending being persecuted for being a Christian save on the persecutors end of it. Further, your advocacy above was renounced the moment you countered it by stating, God is in control.
When God is in control, mere mortals need not fight his battles. Nor perish to insure his sovereignty over his creation. When called to be tortured to death for Christ? That's a misnomer. Those who go on the attack against Christians aren't suffering because God called them to. That would make Omniscient Omnipotence OmniSadistic. While expecting the faithful to assume the spirit of glad Masochism.
That dear brother is the domain of the other guy.
This is why some of the greatest generals in history have sworn by the philosophy of constant attack:
Bad reference and analogy concerning this issue. It's the adversaries to Christianity for whom your analogy applies. NOT the Christian.
Also, "No one ever defended anything successfully. There is only attack, attack, and attack some more." - George S. Patton
The problem with this, however, is that you will nearly always take heavy losses early on. But the rewards will outweigh the cost.
Look what happened during New Testament times. You had some of the greatest leaders in the early church lose their lives early on. Why? Because they were going into attack mode. The speech Stephen gave in Acts 7 made the Sanhedrin look SO bad that they had to drag him out of the Sanhedrin and put him to death immediately. But they were exposed for their evils and spiritual blindness in the process, not only through what he said but by their killing a just and righteous man. James was killed by King Herod around a decade later (Acts 12:1-2), for similar reasons.
He was exposing the Jewish leadership for their sins. In James 5:1-6, he was laying into the Jewish leadership and the Pharisees in particular for their greed, just as Jesus before him exposed them for being covetous (Luke 16:14). So God was now using James to deliver the people from deception and take enemy territory, winning souls away from the enemy and into the kingdom of God. Satan had no choice but to retaliate by killing James, but as I stated earlier, God allowed this because those called to martyrdom receive greater reward from Him in eternity. They would have killed Peter too had the saints not prayed for God to deliver him (Acts 12:3-19).
Now, did the rest of the apostles die in the years following? No. After this, most of them lived out their full lives, and died martyr's deaths only AFTER their ministries had completely run their courses. The same will take place in the end times. The religious leadership of the false church will be exposed in the same way, and you can't just wade into the enemy and not expect to take some losses. But those who die will become the seed for the great harvest to take place; a seed abides alone unless it dies, but if it falls into the ground and dies, it will produce a great harvest (John 12:24).
We on the same page yet, or no?
Do you know how General Patton, a great leader in the field, died?
He was assassinated by agents of the leadership he followed all the days of his military life.
