It’s no mystery. The Scriptures clearly states that in the last days the church of Jesus Christ will suffer persecution. Heck, we don’t even need to be in the end times before the church experiences persecution & tribulation. 2 Tim. 3:12 states, “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (KJV). Websters dictionary defines persecution as hostility and ill-treatment, especially on the basis of ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation or political beliefs. Certainly this was witnessed recently in the assassination of Charlie Kirk. The greek word - dioko - in the New Testament defines persecution as: to put to flight, drive away; to pursue. It is a prolonged and causative form of a primary verb dio (meaning to flee) where the base of it originates from the word deos meaning timid (by implication) faithless - fearful. What does this mean? It gives the impression of pursuing someone, driving them away and rendering them faithless through the tactic of fear. So…to simplify it let me paint a picture for you to help you understand it better. The kingdom of Satan is ruled by fear. If you choose to live a godly life in Christ Jesus, the Bible is telling us that Satan will pursue us & try to drive us away, with the goal of putting us in flight, getting our eyes off of Christ, succumbing us to the spirit of fear that is caused by threats of such things as: physical harm, physical harm resulting in death, ending of relationships, cast out of families, and getting fired from our jobs. Basically, if the devil fails in stopping us from preaching the good news of Jesus Christ to a lost, perverted & dying world, he result in threatening us with violence & death…and this is exactly what happened to Charlie. People have asked, But why didn’t God stop this from happening to Charlie? I ask that with another question: Why didn’t God stop Paul from getting his head cut off? Why doesn’t God stop all the murders of unborn children? You see, God loves us enough to give us a choice. He told us things like this were going to happen if we choose to live as Jesus did when He was on the earth. Today, a further breakdown on the persecution of the body of Christ, in this 20th episode of The Vine!

Blessings in His Name!

Shawn