Would Jesus say you and I are faithful and true to Him in the face of great opposition? He said that about the Pergamum church.
Revelation 2:12-13, & 17 12 “To the angel of the church in Pergamum write:
These are the words of him who has the sharp, double-edged
sword. 13 I know where you live—where Satan has his throne. Yet you
remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, not
even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in
your city—where Satan lives.
17 Whoever
has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one
who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also
give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only
to the one who receives it.
Do you and I openly identify ourselves as a child of
God? What if we knew we would be killed if we said we were a Christian? Antipas
was supposedly burned for refusing to renounce his faith. Jesus called him His
faithful witness for living a consistent faithful life in the face of satanic evil.
As a family, we just read about recent missionaries
to Africa that were threatened to be sacrificed on altars if the tribal
community wasn’t convinced in three days that the God of the missionaries was
the only true God. The missionaries risked their lives and stayed the 3 days
under severe satanic attack. While they were experiencing horrendous
opposition, behind the scenes the tribal community witnessed a series of events
where God’s powerful hand was clearly at work. It was so unmistakable to the
tribal community that they came and admitted to the missionaries that their God
was the real true God!
