Persecution and taking the Shield of Faith

 

 



 

A well known hymn says, "If through fiery trials your pathway should be".  The history of the Church has much to say about "fiery trials."   The apostle Peter in the fourth chapter of his First epistle uses that expression in the twelfth verse: "Beloved, he says, "think not it a strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you." 



It is not strange, it is the lot of God's people. It always has been, it always will be.  "Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus," says Paul to Timothy, shall suffer  persecution"( 2 Timothy 3:12, KJV).   The wicked one can bring these things suddenly to bear upon us.  By these means Satan tries to alarm us, tries  to fill us with fears.  Do our enemies intend to kill us?  Do they propose to take everything from us? Am I going to lose my position because I am a Christian?  Or will you be troubled about your wife and family? Will you be troubled about your church, about the whole cause of Christ? Terrible periods of persecution come to the Christian Church.  Again there may be long intervals when there is no persecution except some minor matter, just an occasional shot here and there.  But sometimes the devil, as it were, has been preparing a great mass of fiery darts, and he hurls them all together at the same time; and the onslaught may continue for a period...

The Apsotle's teaching is that there is only one way to deal with these attacks.  W must take and use the shield of faith.  It is the only thing that can quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one..., What you must do is to take you shield.  and hold it up, so they they may hit against that portion of the shield which is specifically meant  to deal with them as they burst against it, and  so do you no harm...  These excerpets are from The Christian Soldier, An exposition of Ephesians 6:10- 20.
The author is D. Martyn Lloyd Jones.  It is published by Kregle Publications, 1978, pp. 303, 304.



» 01/02/2014 10:56
SYRIA
2013, the bloodiest year for Syria with more than 73 thousand deaths
Most of those killed were military or armed rebels , but there are also tens of thousands of civilians among the victims. International community accused of being concerned about use of chemical weapons, but not about massacres.


Beirut ( AsiaNews

The Observatory has also updated the figures on deaths throughout the war period : 130 thousand , mostly soldiers and rebel fighters on both sides. The group criticizes the international community because "it is not in taking serious action to stop the massacres that have been committed and continue to be committed ."

The international community - continues the group - focused on chemical weapons and on their dismantling , but "forgot all the massacres that have killed thousands of Syrians ."

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