The Persecution Paradox Series

The Jesus Manifesto: The Persecution Paradox

Matthew 5:10-12

Chenoa Baptist Church

Pastor Jefferson M. Williams

It Has Begun

It’s been fourteen months since that fateful day in September 2026. In a landmark, unprecedented seven to three vote, the Supreme Court labeled Christianity a “hate group,” and outlawed the practice of Christianity in the United States.

When we first heard the news, no one was certain what would happen. There were so many questions but they were all answered on Black Sunday. The weekend after the court decision, tensions were running high. Would churches make the decision to meet anyway? And if they did, what would happen?

Many churches defied the court ruling and gathered to worship. I’ll never forget that day. Pastors were drug out of the pulpit by the authorities. Many of the better-known pastors were executed in front of their congregations, some of them on live TV, as a warning.

After that day, chaos reigned. Anyone who claimed the name of Christ was subject to arrest. People lost their jobs. Businesses were burned. Homes were ransacked.

Prison camps popped up all over the place. They came to be called, “Doberman Camps,” because prisoners were housed in dog cages.

Closer to home, the churches in Chenoa were all burned and looted. First Baptist Chenoa was hit especially hard. Several bombs were denoted on a Sunday morning, killing many and wounding many more. Bulldozers showed up the next morning and razed the building to the ground.

Maxine was told to stop mentoring her high school girls and she refused. She is now in heaven. The boys sent my grandchildren to live with their grandfather in the new nation of Texas, which succeeded from the U.S. six months ago.

A worship pastor friend of mine has been in the Peoria camp for the last six months. A neighbor informed the authorities that he was singing worship music. He was dragged out of his house and we haven’t seen him since. His guitar was bashed to pieces and left in his front yard.

The Chenoa church, denominations are now irrelevant, meets at a house in the country at 2:00 am Sunday morning. We can’t come at the same time or that will raise suspicions, so it takes a few hours to get everyone in the basement.

Our host brings Bibles, now illegal to possess, out of a hidden compartment and passes them around. We can’t access the Bible on our smartphones because the authorities can trace that activity.

Church is different. Every one of us has lost everything we owned. Most of us have lost a loved one or had a family member inform on us. [if you have lost a love one in the last purge, please stand up] Prayers are more like groaning – whispered in the common language of suffering. We quietly sing, “Lord, I Need You,” and it is no longer just a good song that we used to hear on the radio, (Christian radio and television are no more), but a cry of hurting hearts to a listening God.

I’ve been arrested three times, beaten and tortured. They found out I was a runner and took a crowbar to my left knee. They told me if they caught me preaching again, that would be my death sentence. I struggle to my feet as this small underground church looks to me expectantly. We make the sign of fellowship to each other. What do I say to people experiencing so much suffering? Where do I turn to give them a word of hope? I open my Bible and close my eyes and thank God that we will all be home soon.

Obviously, my introduction was fictional. It hasn’t happen in our country, yet.

But it’s not fiction for millions of Christians who live in places in the world where persecution and suffering are a normal part of following Jesus. In fact, more Christians have been killed in the last 100 years for their faith than in the last 1900 combined.

Beatitudes Recap

Ten weeks ago, we began this series on a gentle sloping hill on the Sea of Galilee. Jesus was surrounded my two concentric circles of people. The inner circle was comprised of His disciples and the outer circle was the crowd who were listening in on Jesus’ sermon.

The crowd was anticipating a Messiah – a political revolutionary that would rise up, overthrow Roman rule, and establish the Kingdom of Israel to its former glory.

Jesus’ words cofounded the crowds. He didn’t sound much like a revolutionary. In fact, He didn’t sound like anyone they had ever heard before.

He sits comfortably with a smile on face and opens with:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.” (Matt 5:3)

I can just see people turning to each other with looks of confusion on their faces.