Persecution

I read a sermon by a reformed preacher that had me mentally shaking my head. This preacher is very knowledgeable in Scripture. I haven’t listened to very many of his sermons, haven’t read very many of them, but the ones that I have…until today…were all very good. But today…I was left wondering about this man’s beliefs.

He spoke about the Supreme Court’s ruling on gay marriage and the ‘persecution’ that did, and will continue, to follow that ruling. What troubled me most in this sermon was how this preacher said that as a result of that ruling…the ‘church’ is being persecuted. He gave examples of ‘Christian’ colleges that changed their policies to be allowed to continue to receive government funding. He spoke of the ‘persecution’ of his ‘church’ building in them possibly losing their tax exempt status. He said they have a nice piece of property and wondered how long they would be allowed to not pay property taxes on it.

I’m going to go ahead and say at this point...the loss of tax exempt status is NOT persecution. I’m going to go further and say that I don’t believe anyone that accepts such a status can truly be a Christian organization.

Shocking? Maybe. But all we need do is look to Scripture to know that this…partnership…with the government isn’t Biblical.

Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? 2 Corinthians 6:14 ESV

Is our government a true Christian government? Is it set up in a way that follows all of Scripture? Is every government official a regenerate believer? Does each person holding a government job understand the entire Truth in Scripture? Is every law instituted in America based off Scripture? Do they all meet with and uphold the laws in Scripture?

Do our government officials live by Scripture?

The answer to all of those questions is…no. We are not a truly Christian country. Our laws are not based on Scripture. Our government officials are not Christians.

We are a country that…at least for a little while longer…prints ‘in God we trust’ on our money, but we, as a country, do not trust in God. Our president isn’t a Christian. Our officials aren’t Christians. Our lawmakers aren’t Christians. Our laws aren’t Christian.

Why then do groups of people that claim to be the ‘church’ spoken of in the Bible make alliances with an anti-Biblical government?

Any alliance with the government is an unequal yoke that joins light…if those in the alliance are truly Christians…with darkness. A government that makes laws where murder is legal and marriage is an abomination to the Lord is a darkened government. It is a government that disregards Scripture and God to write their own laws based on their own depraved minds. It is a form of lawlessness even as it holds the legal status of being the law.

Having a tax exempt status is an alliance with darkness. It is the joining together of what should be light with the darkness. It is mixing righteousness with lawlessness.

Why would a reformed preacher stand in front of hundreds…thousands…and say that Christians are being persecuted because they may lose their tax exempt status? Why would a reformed preacher even hold a tax exempt status?

The same preacher…in the same sermon…spoke of how there is a movement to remove that tax exempt status so that what ‘you’ give to the ‘church’ is no longer deductible.

Why would a Christian need or want their donation to be tax deductible. I understand the reason behind it…understand it helps with their income taxes. I can even understand the reasoning I have heard some people use…in that they would rather give their money to a charity than to give it to the government. I’m not a tax accountant. I know nothing of the laws for that or any other tax write off. Quite simply I’ve never used anything I’ve donated as a tax write off.

But I would have to question the whole idea behind donating to the ‘church’ to have a tax deduction. If a person truly believed that the ‘church’ building is the church spoken of in the Bible, and if they were giving for the purpose of helping others…not what the majority of ‘church’ money is used for…then why…why…would they feel that they needed to use that donation for a tax deduction? Why would they want to use it as such?

It seems to me that we have a system of people claiming to be the church spoken of in the Bible that are yoking themselves not just to unbelievers but to a whole system of darkness in order to line their own pockets.

Shephard the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain… 1 Peter 5:2

If a preacher was truly regenerate…truly saved…truly concerned for the ‘flock’ that was entrusted to him…would he be the least concerned with a tax exempt status? Or does that concern for that tax status not show that they are concerned about ‘shameful gain’?

Did Paul or any of the New Testament teachers concern themselves with a government given status? Did they work to please the government or did they work to please the Lord?

…what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?

Do we see such a partnership in Scripture? Did Christ make an alliance with the government in order to line his own pockets? Did Paul work to please the people? Did either of them worry about whether or not their followers could gain monetarily through them and their teachings?

Time and again we are told in Scripture that money doesn’t matter. We are told…

No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. Matthew 6:24 NIV

What of this reformed preacher? What of his worry over his tax exempt status? Who is he serving? I don’t know the answer to those questions…don’t want to know the answer.  I don’t go to his ‘church’ building, don’t support him in any way. I occasionally enjoy a sermon by him or reading something he has written. The rest…is between him and the Lord.

But I would have to say that for anyone…any organization…to worry over their tax exempt status…it isn’t the Lord they are serving at that moment. They are more concerned with lining their own pockets…with shameful gain…than they are in seeking what the Bible has to say on the subject.

The fact that this preacher spoke of his congregation losing their ability to deduct what they give to the ‘church’ is only…to me…a carefully covered statement that he is worried that he…and his ‘church’ building’…will lose out on the money they receive if the people giving it can no longer gain a tax benefit through that giving.

Is that not serving money?

In that same sermon, the preacher speaks of persecution. He said Christians are and will be persecuted through the loss of the tax exempt status that many ‘church’ and ‘christian’ organizations hold. I have to ask…how exactly is that persecution?

Is losing a government given status…a monetary based status…persecution? Scripture tells us we aren’t to love money. How then can a status that is based on nothing more than a way of gaining…or saving…money a form of persecution?

Based on what I see in Scripture…I can’t see that holding such a status is Biblical. But even if it is…is losing that status persecution?

America has a long history of being both a Christian country and a non-Christian country. In 1492 Christopher Columbus landed in America. I haven’t done the research into his beliefs but I’ve heard that he held reformed Christian beliefs. Historically, Columbus is credited with discovering America. If he truly was reformed…then America was founded by a reformed Christian.

Whether or not Columbus was reformed…the Pilgrims that landed here in 1620 were. They came to America seeking religious freedom. You don’t have to read very much of the puritan writings to know that they are filled with reformed beliefs.

Can you imagine anyone that went to such lengths to seek religious freedom making an agreement of any kind with the government for monetary gain? The pilgrims were a group of people that gave up their homes, most likely family, jobs, and just about everything else to find a place where they could live and worship as they believed. They essentially gave up everything for their beliefs.

Would they have given up any of their religious freedom for money?

These were people that understood what true persecution was. They understood what it meant to have to walk away from everything for the Lord. They knew firsthand what it meant to be persecuted. They wouldn’t have even considered losing a tax exempt status as persecution.

Yet…a reformed preacher in our modern times used the loss of a tax exempt status as his only example of persecution in a sermon. He spoke of losing that status as being the persecution we are warned of in Scripture.

Nelsons illustrated Dictionary of the Bible defines persecution as…

The hatred and affliction that follows the witness and holy life of God’s people in a hostile world.

Does the loss of a status that serves only to line the pockets of those in charge of the ‘church’ buildings qualify by that definition?

If all ‘church’ buildings and ‘church’ organizations today were to lose their tax exempt status…would it cause extreme hardship, death, torture, or anything else that we see as persecution in the Bible?

There are Christians today that are being imprisoned and dying because they believe in Christ.

That’s persecution.

I read an article in a magazine years ago about a woman that had…acid, I believe it was…thrown on her, causing severe burns to much of her body, because she believed in Christ.

That’s persecution.

I watched a documentary on the history of the Bible that showed people being killed…stabbed…beheaded…buried alive…because they owned a Bible.

That’s persecution.

Paul was imprisoned, beaten, and killed because he believed in and taught Christ.

That’s persecution.

Losing a tax exempt status…for any reason…is not persecution. Persecution is torture. It is death. It is the loss of family, friends, belongings, home…even life…for Christ.

‘Church’ buildings were granted tax exemption in 1894 but from what I could gather they were unofficially tax exempt from the founding of America. Regardless of any unofficial tax status, the official tax exemption came with certain agreements that were…and are…entered into between the church and the government. A ‘church’ building isn’t automatically given tax exempt status just because they are a ‘church’. They must fill out forms, go through government requirements to prove they are a ‘church.’

If my husband starts a meeting of Christians, if he leads them in the manner of today’s ‘church’ buildings, he can’t just not pay taxes because his group is a ‘church’. To gain that tax exemption he would have to go through the legal paperwork and meet their criteria. Just being a ‘church’ does not gain anyone a tax exemption. It is the paperwork and the…alliance…that they make with the government that gains them that exemption.

Nowhere in Scripture does it speak of the church being in any kind of alliance with the government. From what little I understand of a ‘church’ tax exempt status…it comes with certain requirements that the ‘church’ must meet to maintain that status. If that ‘church’ fails to maintain those government requirements their tax status can be revoked.

That very system of if –you-do-this-we-give-you-that means that preachers and leaders in those ‘churches’ must do what the government requires in order to maintain that very status that the reformed preacher said losing would be persecution. By entering into those agreements those preachers and ‘church’ leaders are showing who their allegiance is too…they are showing who they want to serve…and it isn’t Christ.

Christ never said we should concern ourselves with taxes. He never said that we should try and provide a tax break to the ‘church’ so that they will…can…donate their money to a ‘church’ building and then benefit from it at the end of the year…or beginning of the next year. He never said that if the church is taxed they are being persecuted. What he said was…

If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. John 15:18 ESV

The loss of a tax exemption isn’t hate. It isn’t persecution.

Over the last few months much has been made about Christian businesses being targeted because it was known…or assumed…that they would refuse to provide whatever service it was that they provided to homosexuals planning to ‘marry.’ Many said that these ‘Christians’ were being persecuted.

They were. And they weren’t.

The fact that they were targeted for their beliefs made what was done persecution but if we compare what those people went through to the torture and death that other Christians have gone through…are going through today…having to close a business or pay a fine, however unfair it is, pales in comparison to being burned alive, imprisoned, tortured, having your children taken or killed.

Right now in countries such as Burma, China, Eritrea, North Korea, Pakistan, Vietnam, and many more Christians are in prison because of their belief in Christ. Some of them are being detained without trial, some of them are tortured. Some are denied the chance to see their families. Many of them live in terrible conditions.

That is persecution.

Those Christians would laugh at the idea that persecution is losing a tax exempt status or being unable to write off a donation to a ‘church’.

There are 100 million Christians around the world being persecuted for their faith as I write this.  Most of that persecution takes place in the form of imprisonment, abuse, and hostilities…some of it comes in the form of death.

Does that kind of persecution not sound more like the hate Christ spoke of? Does it not sound like true persecution? Throughout time there have been Christian martyrs…people that died for their belief in Christ. There are still martyrs today.

Peter was crucified upside down, Mark was torn to pieces, Paul was beheaded. If you could ask them about the ‘persecution’ of losing their tax exempt status…what do you think they would say?

On June 22, 2015 elam.com wrote that there were 90 people in prison in Iran because they believe in Christ. Those that had been sentenced were serving one to eight year sentences. Ask them about persecution. Ask their families if tax exemption is persecution.

Nine year old Heidy watched her parents be gunned down while she held onto her two year old sister. Her parents crime? Her dad was a church leader in Columbia. This happened May 7, 2009. Ask Heidy, her sister, or their little brother (aged 2 months at the time) if losing a tax exempt status is persecution. (source: opendoors.org.nz)

Or maybe…if you could…ask the 74 year old woman from Thailand whose son became so angry that she believed in Christ that he killed her in 2009. Or ask the younger sister of a Christian man that was one of two men ‘hacked to death’ for his belief in and sharing of Christ…is losing your tax exempt status persecution? (source: opendoors.org.nz)

These are only a handful of stories where true persecution took place in our modern world. This form of persecution had nothing to do with money. These martyrs paid the ultimate price for their faith. I doubt their families would consider the loss of a tax write off as persecution. I doubt those that gave their life for their belief in Christ would have considered losing a tax exemption persecution.

By doing an internet search I came across the information that the preacher that said losing his tax exemption was ‘persecution’ makes more than the president of the United States for working just 20 hours a week. That…by the way…is only one part of what this preacher is paid for. That 20 hour a week ‘job’ earns this preacher hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. I can’t imagine that the majority of those that he’s so concerned about them losing their tax deduction for their donation make near that much.

Does this sound like someone that is denying himself? Even his idea of what ‘persecution’ is…is not denying himself. It’s worrying about his bank account taking a hit.

I have no idea what this preacher does with his money. But the very fact that he says losing his tax exempt status is persecution says that he is serving money. And it is very inconsiderate to all those that are suffering through true persecution…whether they themselves are going through it or they are the loved ones forced to watch the true persecution of those they care about.

Would the roughly 180 Christians that are killed around the world every month say that the loss of any tax status was persecution? Would their grieving families say that? What would any of them say about a preacher that stood before a congregation of thousands and said losing a tax status was persecution?

This preacher stood in front of his congregation, within touching distance of his Bible, among a group of people that had…probably…thousands of Bibles in their possessions, many of those people had cell phones, or other electronic devices, with the ability to access any version of the Bible they want…while Christians in North Korea are executed for having a Bible in their possession. And he said that losing his tax exempt status was persecution.

Is that persecution?