Piety and Persecution

 

“Bus stop Christianity” was a phrase used by a previous Pastor of mine. He would talk about people who had received salvation who were now just waiting for Christ to return. “Got my ticket; just waitin’ on the bus.”

As they wait they are especially mindful not to do anything that might ruin their “chances.” They are Christians who learn the rules and do their best to follow them. They show up in church every time the doors are open and are quick and happy to teach other Christians how to live as they do. Personal piety has a real element of pride.

In the meantime, they are not concerned with God’s kingdom here. They are not all that interested in seeing the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. (Psalm 27:13). These “bus stop Christians” are not worried about what life is like for others. They live day to day concerned about their own “walk” but not about the culture we live in.

I think I Isaiah would call them complacent Christians (Isaiah 32:9, 11).

Today I received an email that talked about the persecution Christians around the world face. It was sent from “Frontline Fellowship,” a ministry in South Africa that ministers in the hardest places, on the front lines, around the world. Here is an excerpt from that email:

The Aim of Persecution

The aim of persecution is not to kill Christians. There is no victory to the kingdom of darkness for Christians to go to Heaven. The aim of persecution is to intimidate Christians into silence. To persuade believers to compromise. To terrify Christians, to giving in to cowardice. If the devil cannot stop us being converted, he at least wants to divert us and distract us so that we are not effective in fulfilling the Great Commission and winning other souls to Christ. As long as you refuse to be intimidated into silence, neutrality and compromise, persecution fails. 

“Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘if anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? And what will a man give in exchange for his soul?'” Matthew 16:24-26

I was struck by these words. As American Christians, are we so focused on our personal piety that if we were to face this persecution, we would be weak-willed in the face of our persecutors? Would they be successful in intimidating us because, most of the time, our passion is only about our own sin, our own piety, and maybe that of someone close to us?

Part of the “bus stop” mentality seems to be that we need to be quiet Christians, always loving, never pointing out the sin of others, as that is offensive to them. Our concern needs to be about “me” and letting Jesus take care of everyone else.

This kind of Christianity  has been “intimidated into silence, neutrality and compromise.”Where does this teaching come from? Persecution will win if we don’t stop waiting for the bus and start “going and making disciples” (Matthew 28:19) right here, in the land of the living.