Mt. 10:
Jesus says … Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.
For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.
He that loveth father or mother more than ME is not worthy of ME: and he that loveth son or daughter more than ME is not worthy of ME.
And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after ME, is not worthy of ME.
He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.
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The following is a story of persecution for the Word’s sake.
This astounding report was given to us by Pam Padgett, a woman in our little church group. This happened to her at a church she was attending near Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA. Pam was a young woman at the time this happened and a relatively new Christian, coming to God from an upbringing in Catholicism.
Pam says …
During the last months of college, I rented a room in a house owned by a woman I met in the singles group of the church group I attended at the time. This woman had been divorced twice and had a young daughter. At first she seemed content to remain unmarried and raise her daughter. But then she started looking for another husband. I shared with her scripture that tell us that a divorced woman commits adultery if she remarries, such as:
Matthew 5:32 ... I (Jesus) say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.
Mark 10:11-12 ... And He (Jesus) saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her. And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery.
Romans 7:2-3 ... For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.
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I was shocked when she told me that she didn't care what the Bible says, she said she knew what she believed.
I moved from her house shortly after this.
The place I moved was quite a distance from where this church group met. Although I continued to attend the Sunday services and would sit in the area of the auditorium where the singles group sat, I no longer attended the singles meetings.
I heard this divorced woman was engaged to a man I also knew from the singles group. I went and spoke with him, sharing scriptures such as Matthew 5:31-32 showing that they would commit adultery if he married her since she was divorced. He said he would consider these things, but he did not stop the engagement.
Then I heard that the maid of honor at the wedding was to be a woman I also knew. I went and spoke with her, sharing scripture about the adultery that would be committed by this marriage. She said she knew it was wrong for them to marry but they would get married whether or not she was the maid of honor, so she was going to do it.
(I Tim. 5 … neither be partaker of other men's sins: keep thyself pure.)
About this time, I went to one of the Sunday morning services. I arrived before any of the other singles, and sat in the area where we usually sat. But no other singles came to sit there. Right before the service began, I looked around and saw that the singles were sitting a few pews behind me. I thought this strange, but didn't think a lot about it.
The next Sunday I sat in the "new" singles area, but they sat in the "old" singles area.
The following week, I got there shortly before the service began, and went to where the singles were sitting. Without saying a word, those I sat next to got up and moved away from me.
It was obvious they wanted nothing to do with me, but I had no idea why. I cried out to God asking what was going on?
“Had I done something wrong?”
For a few weeks I didn't hear anything from God, and didn't know why I had become an outcast from the singles.
Then after the service one Sunday morning, a woman I didn't know very well stopped me and said she had a message from God for me. The message she delivered was that God knew how I was being treated by those in the singles group, and that I needed to know it was because of what I had spoken about this divorced woman remarrying and that this was what HE had wanted me to do.
I was so helped by this message, now knowing why I was being shunned and that it was for doing good in the sight of God. It was also very helpful to realize so strongly that God was watching over me, and the mercy and kindness God had shown to me in having this woman deliver this message to me.
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Comments by Joan Boney
As Christians we are excited over the Bible. We love the Word of God. We know the Bible shows us the way of God and the way we are to go on the present earth.
It is very shocking to encounter people from a church group who do not care what the Bible says.
But it is not unusual in today's churches. For many specific scriptures have been explained away to set up another doctrine which approves various sins inside the church.
The restraint of the specific scripture is removed with that scripture thus allowing antichrist to move into the church group, approving lawlessness against God inside the church group. If someone speaks against that lawlessness, that person is often shunned in the church group.
This is the end time antichrist in the churches and the apostasy spoken of by the apostle Paul in II Thess. 2.
(NASB)
Let no one in any way deceive you, for it (the day of the LORD) will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.
Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things?
And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed.
For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. Then that lawless one will be revealed
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The Holy Scripture restrained antichrist, holding him back from the churches, until the scripture was removed and then the restraint against antichrist was removed so sin could move into the church group itself.
Antichrist is not one man but is a spirit in many men, just as the devil is not one man but a spirit within many men.
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Concerning enduring suffering for the Word's sake, Peter says to us:
I Peter 4 … Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when HIS glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part HE (The Word) is evil spoken of, but on your part HE is glorified.
But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men's matters.
Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.
For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?
Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to HIM in well doing, as unto a faithful creator.