Proof The Bible Is True

 When the future is crystal clear and what is to follow is evident, as a child of God, you will have two choices: submit, surrender, give up, and hope to blend into the background, or persevere, endure, and commit all your ways to the Lord. You can’t avoid the hard thing forever. You can’t avoid making a choice, thinking that the storm will pass you by.

When Jesus said that all would hate us for His name’s sake, He meant it just as readily as He meant it when He said He would return. We tend to gravitate toward the positive declarations Jesus made while avoiding the ones that have a negative connotation or foretell of suffering and grief. They are no less important, however, and a wise servant takes the whole counsel of Christ to heart and not just the parts that are pleasing.

Matthew 10:21-22, “Now brother will deliver up brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved.”

Peter and John were present when Jesus spoke these words so what was happening didn’t come as a surprise, yet they were self-aware enough to know that they needed God’s help in order to endure what was coming. When they returned to their companions and reported what had gone on, they didn’t set about seeing what compromises they could make to appease the high priest, nor did they proceed with an endless celebration that they’d been freed. Rather, they raised their voices to God in one accord and cried out to Him. They knew where their help would come from, and it would not be a government body or any man but God Himself.

If you’ve ever been desperate, then you know the type of prayer this was. This was no subdued, formulaic prayer. It was a heart cry borne of a desire to see God's power and presence and to be equipped for the challenges that lay ahead. They knew what was coming, and they knew what they lacked. They didn’t beat their chests telling each other how great they were or quibbling about whose name would go on the ministry header. They never made it about them. It was always about God and about having the boldness and fortitude to continue preaching His word when the world was set against them.

Whether it had started due to jealousy or fear of losing market share, the followers of Christ were now in the crosshairs of the Sanhedrin, high priest, Pharisees, and all the other religious luminaries of their time, and the disciples understood what this meant. It’s funny how, during the days of the early church, the Pharisees and their ilk spoke of miracles in the past tense, just as some speak of them in the past tense in our day.

If asked directly, all of them would likely have agreed that God was a God of miracles, but they would point to the days of Moses and Elijah and say He did miracles, but in those days, during that time, not so much today, so just come and bring your offerings and nevermind all that supernatural stuff. When confronted with the true power of God and the reality that God remained the same as He’d ever been, able to heal, restore, and do miracles because they could not humble themselves or wrap their minds around the idea that though they thought themselves spiritually superior a couple of fishermen had outshined them, they chose the attempted eradication of those whom God had chosen to turn the world upside down.

There’s a lesson in this we would do well to heed because history has a way of repeating, and though they might go by a different name, a Pharisee can’t change its stripes.

A Pharisee will be content with an emotional response rather than insist upon a transformed life. It makes for good television to see a thousand people raise their hands at a crusade, but how many of those thousand come back the next day, humble themselves, repent, and submit to Christ? How many of them deny themselves, pick up their crosses, and become true disciples of Jesus?

Those who had gathered together to cry out to God were not interested in superficial religiosity. No one lays down their lives for something superficial or something they can get in any other religion without the threat of reprisal. I hear Buddhists are great on the tambourine, too, as are the Hare Krishna, and if you’re looking for positivity or structured purpose, there’s always Hinduism or Scientology. There are nearly four thousand recognized religions in the world, but only one faith whose head died on a cross rose from the dead on the third day and then ascended into heaven. There is only one faith that insists upon a relationship with God rather than blind adherence to a set of rules.

Those who had gathered together had found truth, had found light, had found life, and they were not about to capitulate and surrender this greatest of treasures. When we understand the value of something, we are more likely to hold it near, protect it, prioritize it, and sacrifice for it. The early church knew what they had, and no amount of threats or persecution would sway them from following Christ. Jesus is the treasure. He is the pearl of great price, and those who come to the knowledge of Him are no longer their own but surrender their lives to Him in all things.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

 Once the enemy has all his pieces in place and persecution commences, any presumption of innocence goes out the window. It has been a pattern since the early church, continuing into our modern day, and it will be so until the return of Christ.

Because of the freedoms we’ve enjoyed in America for as long as this nation has been a nation, we’re naturally inclined to believe that if we are innocent, then all this talk of persecution shouldn’t concern us because we will have recourse in a court of law whereby we will be shown to be innocent.

What were Peter and John’s crimes? They had committed none, yet the captain of the temple, along with the Sadducees, laid hands on them and put them in custody. They weren’t cordially invited, they weren’t asked to cooperate, and chances are that when hands were laid on them, it wasn’t gentle. The day will come, and in many instances, it’s already evident, wherein the law will be perverted to such a degree that those putting you to death will think they are doing something noble and virtuous.

They’ll be doing God’s work by golly, ridding the world of people who just won’t go along with, accept, and embrace the new paradigm. I mean, why won’t they trust the science? It’s science, after all; what do they know that scientists don’t? Well, obviously, that men can’t get pregnant, girls can’t be boys, and gender is fixed and absolute, but there I go, being a science denier all over again.

In their minds, you are already guilty. You have already committed the unpardonable sin of questioning their narrative or, worse still, their perceived authority. Even when they are proven to be wrong about a given thing they insisted was essential for human survival or about an existential crisis that would only be solved by face diapers and repeated chemical injections; they’ll never apologize or admit they were wrong. Rather, they’ll double down and dare you to imagine how bad it would have been had they not scared the world half to death and arrested mothers for the high crime of allowing their children to breathe fresh air and play on some monkey bars.

They know full well they have no way of proving it would have been worse, but that’s their story, and they’re sticking to it because the story is all they’ve got.

The devil doesn’t need proof or justification to persecute the children of God; he just needs an excuse. The devil is not interested in playing fair, above board, or being consistent about his accusations or whether they’re true or fabricated. You healed a lame man in the name of Jesus? How dare you? Unacceptable is what that is. You’d better stop it if you know what’s good for you.

They didn’t hurt Peter and John because they couldn’t, not because they didn’t want to. They feared the people’s reaction to the point of deciding to let them go because they’d been around long enough to know that people are fickle, opinions change, and today’s hero can become tomorrow’s villain with the right narrative and backstory. They chose to bide their time and began recruiting henchmen, muscle, and those who would go out and become the scourge of the followers of Christ for decades to come.

To their credit, Peter and John understood what was going on, so they didn’t sigh in relief and go off singing Hillsong for a few hours, thinking that it was a close one. They knew this was the shot across the bow, the moment everything changed, and they went in search of the brethren.

Once you know what’s coming, it is incumbent upon you to prepare for it. If you need boldness, strength, grace, faith, or know of any other thing you are lacking or short on, use the time of freedom you have left to pray for those things and do so consistently.

Acts 4:23-26, “And being let go, they went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. So when they heard that, they raised their voices to God with one accord and said, “Lord, You are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them, who by the mouth of Your servant David have said: ‘Why did the nations rage, and the people plot vain things? The kings of the earth took their stand, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against His Christ.’”

When everything changes in an instant, it’s always good to have someone to run to, someone to share the burden with, someone to draw strength from, fellowship with, and lean on. Yes, God is ever present, always there to listen and comfort, but that does not mean we are called upon to be the lone wolves of Christendom, wandering the wilderness, absent of camaraderie and brotherhood. We will yearn tomorrow for the things we forsake today, and the assembling of ourselves together is one of those things.

Upon being let go, Peter and John went to their own companions. They didn’t go to the courthouse to file briefs or in search of a lawyer to sue the Sanhedrin for mistreating them. They understood that they would not find justice from men because corrupt systems do not produce just outcomes, and corrupt men do not lend their ears to the truth. It’s a hard lesson that some will learn shortly, and the injustice they will suffer at the hands of those supposedly doling out justice will be like an unexpected gut punch to the solar plexus.

If those making the laws despise God, hate Jesus, and detest His followers, what makes you think that their laws will be just? Great atrocities have been committed by those whose justification was either that they were just following orders or they were just following the law. Prepare your heart for a time when you will have no recourse and when you will suffer for doing good because it is coming.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 Only in our day and age would the godless have the gall to insist that what people are seeing really isn’t and what they’re hearing is likewise not as it is. If they can’t convince you that you imagined it, they’ll revert to arguing that your experience was anecdotal and so cannot be trusted to establish something as fact. That is until the shoe is on the other foot, and they insist that anecdotal evidence is science, and if you deny it, you’re a murderer of the worst sort.

Those who had put Peter and John on trial didn’t even bother trying to convince them that they were mistaken, that perhaps they’d imagined Christ rising from the dead, or that it was a hallucination brought upon by grief. You can tell when someone will not be moved from their position when their faith is solid and true and rooted in the divine.

Despite the threats they faced, Peter and John stood their ground. Their response was not one of fear or subservience but of unwavering faith. The authorities, who were accustomed to manipulating, intimidating, or browbeating others, could not read fear in their eyes. This display of courage likely left the authorities planning their next move in frustration.

If you fear dying for Jesus, you’re never going to truly live for Him. If the goal is to spare your life and not to faithfully follow after Him, you’ll always find a way of avoiding confrontation with the darkness but at the expense of compromising your values, beliefs, ethics, and morals.

It’s a slippery slope. One compromise will lead to another, and one omission will lead to ten. Because the focus is on preserving the flesh rather than the preaching of the gospel, you will justify any compromise, including denying Him before men.

I’ve seen it happen even in the best of times, where men compromised themselves for something as trivial as being glad-handed by Oprah or appearing next to someone they know full well is an enemy of the cross. The justification is always that it’s a bigger platform, and they can reach more people, but somehow, they never get around to preaching a risen Christ once that occurs.

If you’re lukewarm and mealy-mouthed before your sit-down interview with Larry King, then you’ll be lukewarm and mealy-mouthed during your sit-down interview as well. Boldness is birthed in the hearts of those who have seen and heard, who have known the Christ and not just known of Him, and there are many today who have been elevated to the heights of fame, even deemed spiritual authorities, who’ve only heard of Jesus but have never had an encounter with Him.

We must accept the reality that although we do not intend to offend the world by preaching a risen Christ, the world will take offense nonetheless. This does not mean that we should cease preaching Him or, worse, deny Him before men so we might retain their favor or approval. Our goal and purpose is not the world’s approval but Christ’s approval.

Acts 4:21-22, So when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way of punishing them, because of the people, since they all glorified God for what had been done. For the man was over forty years old on whom this miracle of healing had been performed.”

That their frame of mind was to punish Peter and John for having healed a lame man is telling. There was no wonder in being unable to explain how the miracle had occurred; there was no pause or contemplation that perhaps they should allow the truth spoken to them to take root in their hearts. They just wanted to do away with the inconvenience and potential danger of it all, but they couldn’t because of the people.

The people had likewise seen the miracle, and they were glorifying God. If Peter and John happened to disappear mysteriously, there would be questions, perhaps even an uprising, and they just couldn’t risk it.

The devil learns from his mistakes. He’s realized that in order to be able to persecute the followers of Christ at will, he first has to demonize and marginalize them to the point that public opinion is turned against them. Granted, they hadn’t had enough time to foment hatred against those of the way. It had been less than a day between the lame man being healed and Peter and John being brought before them for trial, but time was on their side, and although they couldn’t punish them on that day, their sleight would not be forgotten or forgiven.

From this day forward, they would always be considered foes, adversaries, and enemies of the status quo and would have to be dealt with. Once they had the people on their side, all pretense of civility would disappear, the mask would slip off, and their true nature would be revealed.

It’s a ruse the church has fallen for over and over again. The enemy plays nice until the moment he has consolidated power in any given generation; then, the persecution commences in earnest. People believers thought to be allies and friends turn on them in an instant, and the whole notion of coexisting goes out the window, memory holed, with the godless pretending as though they never subscribed to such infantile theories. Why would we want to coexist with those standing in the way of progress? Why would we want to coexist with those standing in the way of a brighter tomorrow and a glorious future?

By the time they realize tomorrow is darker rather than brighter, that the future is bleak rather than glorious, the plans have already been put into motion, the children of God have already been crushed beneath the weight of their animus, yet what remains when the dust settles, is a refined, purified, tested, and glorious church. We tend to fear the fire, the hammer, and the anvil, but only until we realize that without these, iron can never be shaped or sharpened. We tend to fear persecution only when we fail to acknowledge that a martyr’s reward awaits those who are called upon to lay their lives down for the gospel’s sake and endure to the end.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

 The presence, power, and authority of God are disruptive to the religions and religiosity of men. The reason it’s disruptive is twofold: first, it opens the people’s eyes to the reality that there is more than empty ceremonies and dry homilies to be had when serving God, and second, it reveals the impotence of the figureheads who’ve grown comfortable and slothful in their feigned worship. It’s the difference between seeing a picture of a roaring fire and sitting by one as the logs pop and crackle in the hearth and the heat warms your face.

Those who are simply religious and not in a relationship with Jesus see everyone else as their competition rather than their brothers and sisters in Christ. It’s all about market share and their piece of the pie. It’s not about serving God but themselves and retaining the power base they’ve amassed. When they deem someone a threat to the status quo, they will do their utmost to silence or otherwise do away with them altogether. No self-awareness was present, and there was no introspection as to how Peter and John had healed the lame man or whether their words had credence. All the ruling religious class knew was that they had to be silenced.

Peter and John weren’t out to make a name for themselves. They weren’t out to start some sort of cottage industry or elevate their individual status, but through it all, they pointed to Jesus and credited Him for all that had been done. There’s a valuable lesson in this, one we should take to heart, because any man who points to himself, elevates himself, honors himself, or deems himself the author of wisdom, power, or miracles is a fool and one who has not humbled himself in the sight of the Lord.

Peter and John had not set out to do anything more than go to the temple together at the hour of prayer. This is likely what they did week in and week out because their desire was to worship God, not engineer a revival of their own making. God provides the opportunities. We don’t have to manufacture them. What is incumbent upon us is to be ready to be used when God sees fit to do so, in whatever capacity He might deem.

It’s doubtful that either Peter or John woke up thinking that this would be the day that changed everything. They were going up to the temple to pray. That was all they’d intended on doing. Yet, God facilitated the encounter with the lame man and, thereby, the opportunity for them to preach, resulting in about five thousand men who believed. It doesn’t matter how many posters, fliers, advance teams, or radio spots they would have availed themselves of; they could never have matched the success of what occurred that day on their own.

In our day and age, we try very hard to manufacture revival rather than focus on growing our faith and obedience, and the results are less than ideal. A flash in the pan is just that. It dies down just as quickly as it flares up because there is nothing to sustain it. Peter and John were just going about their daily lives, and in an instant, the ordinary became extraordinary.

Another worthwhile lesson is that if God presents us with an opportunity to share the gospel, to preach Christ and Him crucified and risen, we should avail ourselves of it even if we know full well there will be consequences to doing so. A soul is worth more than my job, my comfort, my reputation, or my freedom. That is the mindset we must possess as true followers of Christ that we might never squander an opportunity or miss a chance to step out in faith and further the kingdom of God.

We are on a lifelong mission to preach the gospel to all men. It’s not exclusive to those with a degree or those with a title but everyone who is a follower of Christ. When we are mission-focused, we will recognize when God brings someone into our path and when He creates an opportunity to share our faith.

Although the early church was prepared for persecution because of the words Jesus spoke to them, the suddenness with which it descended likely came as a surprise. One day, they were beloved by the people; the next, they were being hounded and hunted, vilified and demonized. Life turns on a dime. It can happen that quickly, and if you’re not expecting it and prepared for it, it will catch you by surprise.

Deer in headlights is not a good look for the children of God. Knowing what we know of what the Bible says regarding how the world will view us, what the last days will look like, and that we would be hated by all nations for His name’s sake, we should never be in a position where we didn’t anticipate something or didn’t see it coming from a mile away.

Peter and John had already committed to their course. There was no hesitation or indecision when it came to declaring the risen Christ, nor was there any temerity in their answer to the high priest and his ilk when threatened not to speak the name of Jesus.

In the simple words of simple men, Peter and John made it clear that their choice was binary. Either they would obey men or God, and they’d chosen to obey God no matter what the men might say in order to dissuade them from this purpose. They didn’t try to obfuscate or explain their reasoning behind it. They didn’t try to lessen the blow of telling the high priest that his threats had fallen on deaf ears. They weren’t being rude or disrespectful, just direct.

When the enemy comes to threaten you or attempts to keep you from preaching Jesus, be direct in your declaration that no matter what he might throw your way, your allegiance is to Christ and Him alone. You don’t need to explain yourself to the devil. You don’t need to try and ingratiate yourself to him by trying to see his side of the argument. What he wants is either your denial of Christ or your destruction. Why play nice with someone like that?

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 Studies have shown that when you’re trying to perpetrate fraud or pull the wool over someone’s eyes, such as a pyramid scheme, multi-level marketing, or a church-run investment fund, there are three points along the way where you’re vulnerable. The first point someone is vulnerable is during the groundwork stage, where you’re putting all your pieces into place. The second is when you’re getting it off the ground before you have enough people on board so they can vouch for the return you promise the dupes, and the third is toward the end stage when you’ve been found out and fear that someone close will roll over on you and spill the beans.

There is a moment during the third stage when the individual sees the writing on the wall and pulls the chord. They push the eject button and attempt to disassociate themselves because keeping up the ruse means suffering consequences they are not willing to suffer. Politicians are masters at this, saying one thing today and another tomorrow and denying that they said either of the two so passionately that one would think the video of them saying the things they deny saying was a hoax of some kind.

I’ve been asked on occasion why I believe Jesus is the Son of God and that He rose from the dead, but the caveat was to exclude the say-so of the disciples or the eyewitness accounts. Those doing the asking are usually college-aged kids who took some introductory course on agnosticism or are parroting their communist professor who insists that gods are a human construct necessary to alleviate the pain of being human.

There’s always some veiled dig about how I seem too bright to believe in spaghetti monsters and how any reasonable person would be skeptical of two-thousand-year-old stories. They go into this long litany about how it all got passed down from word of mouth and how you can’t trust eyewitness accounts, and my answer is always because of the actions of those who’d been with Christ after His crucifixion.

If Peter and John had been perpetrating a fraud or playing a long con the moment they were brought before the ruling religious class, they would have pulled the chord on their scheme. You don’t keep to your story when not only don’t you have anything to gain, but you have everything to lose if you stick to it. If it was just a fabrication, a lie, a well-orchestrated sleight of hand where they took the body of Christ and hid it somewhere, this was the time they would have cried, Uncle, and confessed to their misdeeds. To proceed any further would be to stir the ire of the most powerful people of their day, and con men don’t want to get on the wrong side of the powerful if they can help it.

They were offered an out. We’ll let bygones be bygones if you promise not to speak to any man in the name of Jesus. We can pretend as though this never happened; we’ll find some way of spinning the once-lame man leaping about, but you have to promise not to bring up Christ again.

The only surprise in this exchange is that they didn’t try to bribe Peter and John. They skipped over the bribery and went straight to the threats, so somewhere in the deep recesses of their darkened hearts, those making the threats knew the authenticity of their claims. If they’d supposed it was a con job from the start, and the end goal of this con job was some sort of payoff, they would have likely offered them silver and gold just to be rid of the problem.

If Jesus is your everything, then nothing can sway you from your faithfulness and conviction, whether offers of wealth or threats of death, praise from men, or their hatred. You have all you’ve ever wanted and all you’ll ever want. You have Jesus, and He is sufficient. Because He is the treasure, the end goal, and not just a means to an end, once you are His and He is yours, nothing can beguile or tempt you away from His love.

The threats only work when men try to have divided loyalties or situational commitment to Christ. It’s when men are not wholly committed to daily denying themselves and picking up their crosses that the enemy’s schemes and machinations are effective. They compromise the truth for the sake of baubles, fame, or the adulation of those who secretly despise them because their heart's desire was never Christ but something other.

The dividing line is clear, and the sifting is inevitable. Even among those of the early church who preached the truth and proffered no promise of wealth and riches and taught it as gospel, there were those who walked away, and Paul speaks of such men, as do John, Peter, James, Jude, and even Christ.

Acts 4:18-20, “So they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.”

Peter and John didn’t have to confer with each other about whether they would take the deal. Neither was afraid that his brother in Christ would throw them under the bus and take the offer while hanging the other out to dry.

You can’t choose your family, but you can choose whom you call your brother or sister in Christ. The only metric that suffices when doing so is whether they are as committed to the way of righteousness as you are and if they are as willing to lay it all on the line. If not, there will always be that nagging question of whether they will stand or fold when the road gets hard and the pressure mounts.

It’s one of the reasons attacks from within the body are often so successful and destructive. If you can’t trust the person in the foxhole next to you, if you have to watch your back as well as your front, then the chances of victory are slim to none. However, when you have a common foe and know that it’s either them or you, your only concern is engaging the enemy, knowing that the others are doing likewise.

Peter harbored no doubts about John, and John harbored no doubts about Peter. They were of one mind; they had seen what they had seen and heard what they had heard and would not be swayed from the truth no matter the threats or by whom the threats were being leveled.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 Their problem was Jesus. It had been from the beginning, and they thought they’d solved their problem by conspiring to have him crucified. Now, it was His followers doing miracles in His name and teaching that there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Simple men were doing what the most learned men of the time couldn’t, and that ate at them.

This couldn’t be of God; surely it couldn’t; if God were going to use anybody, it would surely be someone like a Pharisee, a member of the Sanhedrin, or even the high priest. They weren’t special enough to be used by God in such a manner. They were naïve in the ways of the world and didn’t have the first clue about marketing their gift, starting a television ministry, growing the fanbase, and monetizing. The gift of miracles was being wasted on people who had no inkling of how they could use it to elevate their own names and positions—doing good just for the sake of doing good? How quaint.

If being nice was all Christianity was about, Peter and John would never have gotten in trouble. For that matter, if helping the poor, or being charitable, leaving big tips, or not complaining when the service is sub-par was all Christianity was about, Peter and John still wouldn’t have gotten in trouble.

It wasn’t even so much that the lame man had been healed; it’s who they attributed the healing to. It doesn’t matter what the devil claims his problem is with the children of God. When you boil it down and you strip away all the isms, feelings, new science, and nonsense, the devil hates God’s children because of Jesus and His name’s sake.

The Pharisees could have even lived with Peter and John, healing the odd person here and there, but what they couldn’t abide was that they taught men of Christ and Him crucified and risen from the dead.

A few weeks back, one of the most popular churches in America declared that during resurrection Sunday, there would be no mention of Calvary, the blood of Jesus, or the resurrection. Not that they mention these things regularly the rest of the year; it’s one of those self-improvement clubs masquerading as a church, but to go out of your way to declare to one and all that you won’t be mentioning the resurrection on resurrection Sunday is a new level of cowardice. Congratulations! You’ve done what the Pharisees demanded of Peter and John without even being threatened or given a dressing down by powerful people.

That’s the troubling thing with the over-inflated sense of self that most churchgoing folk in the West have. You’re voluntarily censoring the message of the cross, the name of Jesus, His resurrection, and His ascension without ever being threatened by the agents of darkness. I wonder what they would omit if real threats by individuals who had the wherewithal to follow through on them were ever leveled against such people. You’re telling me they’ll finally discover they have a backbone? An amoeba in the sun will be an amoeba in the snow, just a shivering one.

You’ll know it when you see it, and you’ll remember someone warned you about it, but when the sifting comes, the greatest enemies the true followers of Jesus will have to contend with are the social justice congregations masquerading as true believers. They’ve already capitulated, stopped preaching Christ and the cross, and see you as an affront to their sensibilities because you are unwilling to cower and surrender as they have.

While the godless will raise them up as examples of what they believe a real Christian should be: docile, inoffensive, easily swayed, malleable, and compromised, they will point to you as the roadblock standing in the way of unity. What they fail to mention is that for there to be unity between the light and the dark, the light must die out. Yes, you, too, can avoid being persecuted; just deny Jesus, and we can be friends. But if we deny Jesus, what is left of our faith? If we marginalize the Christ and refuse to boldly declare that He is the risen savior of mankind, what sets us apart from all the other religions of the world that are just trying to be good and kind and accepting of the most depraved of practices?

When Communism took root in the old country, the first thing those in power did was make a list of government-approved churches. The leaders of those churches were vetted to ensure that what they taught was obedience to the motherland and nothing more. There was no talk of Jesus, His power, the Holy Spirit, or the way of righteousness, just general tropes about how the greater good was the paramount goal and how refusing to comply would be deemed rebellion against God.

The churches the government approved of were left alone, neither harassed nor persecuted. Nobody was showing up in the wee hours of the morning to arrest their pastors, nobody was terminating the employment of their parishioners, nobody was showing up to church with a black eye or missing teeth, and because those in authority had been compromised, they pointed to their absence of persecution and sacrifice as a grace and a blessing from on high rather than the fruit of their betrayal of Jesus.

Eventually, the narrative became that it served those people being persecuted right because they didn’t know when to keep their heads down and go along to get along. Does that particular narrative ring any bells? It should. Whether it’s abortion, homosexuality, transgenderism, or any of a dozen aberrant practices, whenever a church, a pastor, or a believer gets run through the mud by the godless, has their livelihood threatened and painted as the worst human since Hitler, and in some instances even worse than Hitler, there’s always some non-binary pastor of some Unitarian church showing up on television insisting that it serves them right. Jesus is all about love and acceptance, after all, so those people talking about sin and righteousness or holiness unto God are just not being very Christ-like and deserve to be shunned by society.

The message of the cross has been twisted by the wolves who have crept in unnoticed, the character of Jesus has been redefined, and those who continue to cling to truth and pursue righteousness continue to be vilified and demonized by those claiming to be of the household of faith. It only adds fuel to the fire and emboldens the godless to take ever-increasing violent measures. How do you think this is going to end?

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

 It’s not as though those who conferred on what Peter and John’s punishment should be didn’t want to throw them in a dark cell and forget about them, or better still, silence them permanently. There were ways, and surely, they were privy to them because it wasn’t the first time they had to deal with people they perceived as a threat to their power and authority.

They would have gladly done either or both, but they had the people to think about. They had to consider those who had seen the miracle and witnessed the power of God, and they couldn’t figure out a way of explaining Peter and John’s disappearance without stirring their ire.

They understood the pressure the crowds could exert and weren’t willing to endure it just to get rid of two fishermen. You can tell a lot about an elder board or a group of men in authority by what they prioritize and deem existential. The absence of reflection as to what it meant that two uneducated men with no formal training were able to do what their entire retinue could never dream of doing, that Jesus of Nazareth, whose murder they’d had a hand in, was identified as the source of the power, or that Peter and John insisted God had raised Him from the dead on the third day didn’t factor into their decision. One thing mattered above all else: how to keep it from spreading.

These were not seekers of truth, open-minded souls looking for the light. They just wanted to retain the power they’d consolidated, and if that meant ignoring bonafide, demonstrable miracles, so be it.

When those in power, whether religious or political, are confronted with something they can’t explain away, their first recourse is to ignore the thing they can’t explain. The second is to silence and do away with anyone they deem to be in opposition. They know they can’t win in a fair fight, and a fair fight is not what they’re interested in. It’s all about the win. How they get there is not a concern. If they have to lie, cheat, steal, obfuscate, and gaslight, so be it. The ends justify the means, and if a few lives have to be ruined and a few innocents have to spend the rest of their days in dank cells eating skewered rats, so be it.

Because of what Jesus had told them about their future, Peter and John understood that there was a noble purpose for which the fires of persecution were being stoked. This is one of those perception-altering revelations that the Western church has yet to glean because we’re too busy worrying about our flesh to be concerned with our spiritual man.

Often, fire is necessary to burn away the things we are bound with. In order for us to move freely in the midst of the furnace and be unencumbered, the fire must do its part and burn away those things that choke off our ability to grow.

If you’ve read the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego carefully, you’ve noticed that the three weren’t simply marched into the furnace but bound in their coats, trousers, turbans, and other garments, like so many human burritos that were set to be grilled alive. It would not make for a civilized spectacle to have three human torches leaping about trying to put the fire out, so they were bound and hurled in.

It seemed like all was lost—three men bound and falling in the midst of the burning fiery furnace—yet God had other plans. Whether the world counts you out is irrelevant as long as God is still on your side. Even when the enemy is getting ready to pop the cork on the champagne and celebrate your demise, God can turn the situation around in such a way that it will leave everyone who knew of it speechless and befuddled.

It may not have been pleasant for them at the moment, but the fire was a necessary component of their victory. It was the fire that burned away the garments with which they were bound so that they might walk freely among the flames. The fire freed them, and the thing the enemy attempted to use as the means of their destruction was used as the means of their freedom.

 To know the character of our God is to know that He is with us even in the fiery trials. To know the character of our God is to know that He will use any situation or circumstance for the good of those who love Him, even if, at the moment, it seems unlikely or impossible to human reason.

Rather than fear the flame and obsess over how to best avoid it, our time would be better spent discovering its purpose and resting in the knowledge that there is a purpose to it that God knows of beyond what we can see in the moment.

There was nothing Peter and John could have done to affect their current situation. There was no higher authority in the land they could entreat, there was no powerful or influential person they knew who could put in a good word, and they didn’t have money to buy their way out of their predicament. All they could do was trust in God and be faithful to the message of the cross, boldly proclaiming the risen Christ.

Our hope is not in politicians, political parties, people of influence, denominations, or net worth. Our hope is in Christ, and if our hope is in anything other than Christ, whatever else we place our hope in will fail us at some point or another. We are faithful to Him! Not the televangelist on television or the sleep-deprived guy on the internet who posts long-winded articles before the crack of dawn. Jesus is Lord; everyone else is either a servant and co-laborer in His harvest field or someone sowing tares among the wheat.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

 If there were no purpose to discussing persecution and ultimately being prepared for it other than an intellectual exercise, I’d be wasting your time and mine as well. The ultimate objective in being prepared for the advent of persecution is so we might be equipped to endure it, weather it, and ultimately be living testimonies to the power of God to preserve and keep us whole through whatever the agents of darkness might throw our way.

It may have fallen out of favor with the modern-day church, but I take Christ’s words seriously and at face value. Between what He said and what others say He meant by what He said, I’ll believe Jesus meant it as He said it and go from there.

The ultimate goal of persecution is to break the individual and bring them to the point of renouncing their faith and denying Christ as Lord and King. Yes, I’ve heard the insinuations that you can deny Him as long as you don’t mean it or as long as you cross your fingers behind your back, but the reality is that Jesus told us what would become of those who deny Him before man, and it’s nothing to gloss over or take lightly.

Matthew 10:32-33, “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before my Father who is in heaven.”

Untested faith is unproven faith. We’d rather God take our word for it and believe us when we say we are faithful to the utmost, but sometimes He chooses to test our faith and, at other times, allows us to go through a situation that, although uncomfortable for the flesh, will bring glory and honor to His name.

The prism through which many view persecution today is a negative one. They would do anything to avoid the possibility of persecution because they associate it with pain, privation, lack, and powerlessness. I’m not here to convince you it’s a walk in the park, but I will point out that Jesus said those who are persecuted for righteousness's sake are blessed.

They’re not being punished, taught a lesson, on the outs with God, or cursed, as I heard a preacher once claim in between asking for money for his second private jet. Jesus calls those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness blessed!

Matthew 5:10-12, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

The truth will always have enemies in a world of lies. The light will always be at enmity with the darkness. It’s the reality of the world we live in, and if you believe that the godless play fair or that they’d never go so low as to accuse anyone falsely, you’ve been living under a rock for the better part of a decade.

If there is no friction between the church and the world, it only means that the church has thrown in the towel, given up the fight, and acquiesced to the enemy's demands. Light and darkness cannot coexist peaceably. It’s an impossibility. 

If you are a believer actively working out your salvation with fear and trembling, pursuing righteousness and being light, the darkness will eventually target you, harass you, threaten you, and ultimately persecute you. It is an inevitability. It is certain and absolute.

If the devil is leaving most modern-day Christians alone, it’s because he has nothing to fear from them. They are in a state of such lethargy, lukewarm, and indifferent when it comes to spiritual matters that the enemy knows they pose no threat. When someone belongs to Christ in name only, they belong to the enemy in action and deed. When there is no action behind the words men utter in affirmation of being followers of Christ, they are likened to a spouse who, although they took a vow to be faithful until death do they part, is cheating their way through the telephone book.

If we cannot deny ourselves, pick up our crosses, and follow Him in times of plenty and ease, when we have no opposition and no threat of persecution, what makes us think that we will do so when hardship, famine, and the threat of losing one’s freedom and even life become ever-present?

If we can’t be faithful in the good times, what makes us think we will be in the hard ones?

When we are instructed to build up our most holy faith, to pursue righteousness and spiritual growth with the single-minded focus of someone who has no other goals but to know the fullness of Christ, it’s not just for the present, but that we might be prepared for the future so that when we are called upon to endure we will have the wherewithal to do so.

God doesn’t issue baseless warnings. He is not a fear-monger, nor is He interested in views or clicks. When God warns, it’s with the singular intent of His children being in a state of preparedness, ready to give a defense to everyone who asks them a reason for the hope that is in them.

Nobody decides to run a marathon today and then does it tomorrow. They have to work their way up to it, running a little more each day until they are physically and mentally ready. If there is no preparation involved, then we risk being a cautionary tale like Pheiddipides, who ran from Marathon to Athens only to drop dead after delivering his message. Build up your spiritual endurance before your greatest test arises. Once it comes, there will be time for nothing more but to endure. 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

 It begins with threats. It escalates from there. Somewhere along the way, you will be offered the option of crying uncle, pulling the chord, and severing ties with Jesus, but know that betraying Jesus will be the cost of your flesh being spared and nothing less. If the enemy can’t compel you to deny Christ, then he’ll settle for destroying your flesh. It’s out of pettiness more than anything because he knows what is written about those who suffer for Christ’s sake and the reward they receive when He returns, but he can’t help himself.

If you’ve ever seen a group of children playing and one petulant child being denied a toy setting about destroying it because if he can’t have it, no one should, you understand the devil’s mindset when it comes to his anger and rage toward those he is unable to bend and break.

I’ve collected enough stories to know that until the moment you’re faced with the idea of having your fingernails yanked out with pliers, sitting on a toasty electric chair, and waiting for the current to zap you senseless, or watching four men strip down to their undershirts in preparation for beating you to a pulp, it’s easy to beat one’s chest and declare how you’re bold and unflinching.

The reality is that no matter how brave an individual might be, it’s God who sustains them through those moments. Otherwise, none would stand, and all would fold. There’s only so much the human form can take before it breaks. No one can hold out indefinitely or endure torture for months and years. Eventually, something snaps, something gives, and the human psyche fractures just to disassociate itself from the pain the body is enduring. This is why you will never see someone who has endured such things boast in themselves or of themselves but rather give all glory to God, for they know who sustained them and carried them through.

Man is inventive. Especially when causing pain to his fellow man. The pain isn’t always physical either because there have been documented instances when someone was able to endure untold physical pain but broke when confronted with psychological torment. One of the cruelest things the Securitate used to do back in the day had nothing to do with beatings or physical torture. They would confine a married pastor, preacher, Bible smuggler, or someone they deemed unsavory in a cell for a week or two, even better if they had children, and every day go into graphic detail about what was being done to them all because the individual in question refused to cooperate.  They could go and save their families. All they had to do was write a few names on a piece of paper or give the location of the next shipment of Bibles.

The psychological weight of that possibly happening to loved ones was enough to get many a soul to betray their brothers and sisters in Christ and name them as co-conspirators. Those who remained strong did so because they trusted that God was protecting their families, their wives, and their children because they were suffering for doing good.

I’m well aware that this is an uncomfortable topic. Every time it’s brought up in a public church setting, there’s always at least one individual who admits that they are afraid of the possibility of having to endure persecution, especially physical torture, and to that, I say, so was every individual who has ever had to go through it.

This isn’t the movies; this is real life, and everyone I’ve talked to who was tortured for the sake of Christ confessed to having the selfsame fear all of us share, but their love for Jesus overrode their momentary fear, and with the aid, help, and comfort of the Holy Spirit, they endured. That perfect love casts out fear has become an overused trope readily found stenciled on pieces of driftwood in your local crafts store for a nominal fee, but in moments such as these, wherein fear threatens to engulf one’s senses, it is that perfect love that keeps the faithful steadfast and determined.

For me, it’s not so much the fear of death but how long it might take for me to die that I find myself dwelling on when contemplating suffering for the faith. The dying part is easy enough. I’ve seen enough people breathing their last to know that it’s as easy as breathing your last. It’s the journey toward that final breath that might get a bit bumpy, but I know that if I falter, He will be there to see me through.

I have done what Peter counseled; I have sanctified the Lord God in my heart, and now all I can do is pray for strength to endure to the end. I can’t control what tomorrow will bring, but I can control how I meet it. Neither can you, but you already know that, so why fret and worry about what you can’t control?

Although we cannot know what we will be called upon to suffer, we can do our utmost to prepare earnestly for the eventuality thereof. Today, I can pray. Today, I can grow in God. Today, I can learn to stand on His promises and sanctify Him in my heart. There is a lot we can do today that we put off until tomorrow because our minds are too busy wondering what tomorrow will bring.

See it for the snare that it is. The weaker you are tomorrow because you have not matured in God today, the easier it will be to shake, intimidate, and scare you.

Peter and John, along with the early church, did not squander their time of relative peace. They didn’t take it for granted that they were loved by the people because they cared for the widows and the poor, but they came together daily in prayer and fellowship, knowing that it was a momentary respite. They knew it was momentary because they believed Jesus when He’d warned that eventually, they would be hated, maligned, scourged, and put to death.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

 The early church didn’t set out looking to be persecuted, but persecution found them nonetheless. If you live your life according to the Gospel and obeying Jesus is your singular goal, in time, persecution will find you as well. Jesus said as much, and even though this present generation is doing its utmost to ignore that particular reality, pretending as though Jesus never said the things He did, eventually, His words in this regard will be proven true, as were all the other things He said.

At some point during Peter’s discourse, the powers that be realized they’d bitten off more than they could chew. They’d hoped this mock trial, because that’s what it was, would remedy the situation, Peter and John would be cowed, and they could go back to business as usual.

It’s not that they didn’t put effort into it. Arranging for an overnight trial in which the highest ruling religious class in the land would be in attendance was no small feat. Schedules had to be reorganized, meetings had to be canceled, and high-ranking individuals who were shown deference in all things had to be put out, all because two fishermen had performed a miracle they could not explain or hide from the public eye. At least, that’s how they saw it. They could not allow this to continue, and pressure had to be brought to bear.

They never once considered the substance of what Peter had said or allowed for the idea that he might be correct, and they’d crucified the Son of God, who later rose from the dead. They were too set in their ways for any of that, even with all the anecdotal evidence pointing to the veracity of Peter’s claims. They knew of the empty tomb; the once lame man was standing before them in full health; those responsible for his healing, at least in their eyes, were simple men of low status, yet their singular concern was how to keep the message of a risen Christ from spreading to the masses.

Acts 4:13-14, “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus. And seeing the man who had been healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it.”

It’s not so much that they denied Jesus; they didn’t want to acknowledge Him. Jesus leaves a mark. You can’t be with Jesus and remain the same as you were before you knew Him. They realized they’d been with Jesus by the sheer fact that the things they said could not be said outside of some event taking place in Peter and John’s lives to make them more than the sum of all they’d been prior to it.

We have two guys who smell like fish, who are neither educated nor trained, yet here they stand, boldly declaring that save for the name of Jesus, there is no salvation in any other. Those who had put Peter and John on trial were astute enough to understand that it was not of themselves that they possessed such wisdom but that they had been with Jesus, and that makes all the difference. To complicate matters, the man who had been healed was standing with them, and as the adage goes, the proof is in the pudding.

In our modern age, we’ve somehow managed to disassociate from reality and pretend as though what we’re seeing really isn’t there, but they hadn’t mastered that particular skill during the time of the early church. The undeniable reality that two simple men were speaking profound truths and that a once lame man was standing before them was too much for those judging Peter and John to ignore or disregard.

Although we can’t draw any conclusions about John, we know that boldness was not characteristic of Peter. This man who now stood before the most influential people of his time and declared unequivocally that they had crucified Christ and that the lame man was healed by His name had denied Christ no less than three times months prior.

The source of their boldness was twofold. First, the presence and indwelling of the Holy Spirit that they’d received in the upper room, and second, they’d sanctified the Lord God in their hearts, and would no longer be swayed by any external forces.

Acts 4:15-17, “But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves, saying, ‘What shall we do to these men? For, indeed, that a notable miracle done through them is evident to all who dwell in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. But so that it spreads no further among the people, let us severely threaten them, that from now on they speak to no man in this name.’”

Even though it was evident that a notable miracle had been done, and they could not deny it, not one of them desired to know the truth of it. Jesus, it turns out, was right again, and some people will not be persuaded even if someone was raised from the dead.

In the aggregate, it would be difficult to envision someone seeing another come back from the dead and not be moved to repentance, but here were men, admittedly religious, who’d just witnessed a bonafide miracle done to a man known to have been born lame from birth, and they were not moved. Their only concern was covering it up and preventing it from spreading any further among the people.

The gravy train must keep chugging forward, the biscuit wheels must remain on the track, and if they had to severely threaten men whom they knew to be innocent in order to achieve their goal, so be it.

One would think we’ve grown past such things, but the selfsame self-serving actions are being undertaken today in many churches, ministries, and denominations the world over. Men will ignore egregious sin in the lives of figureheads just to protect the brand, and anyone who would call it out is summarily ostracized and cast out. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

 Hindsight and context are two powerful tools that we can use to better understand the Word of God. The interconnectedness of Scripture is one of those things even the rational among the godless have a difficult time explaining away because for there to be some sixty-five thousand cross-references throughout sixty-six books written over four thousand years is something only a supercomputer can accomplish, and that with great difficulty.

The fingerprints of God are evident throughout Scripture for anyone willing to look and see. But once you’ve seen, once you’ve looked and honestly assessed that there is something beyond mere chance to the universe, then comes the reckoning, where the individual must determine what they do with this newfound knowledge. It’s because men want to avoid the reckoning that they refuse to look and see.

Given what happened to Peter and John in the book of Acts, it lends greater gravitas to the words Peter wrote in his first epistle. Looking back on his lived experience, we realize he wasn’t speaking out of turn or being hyperbolic to make himself look good but that he’d gone through the testing and had seen the presence and power of God in the midst of it.

While ‘those who can’t do teach’ is an apropos mantra for college professors and dating coaches, there’s no substitute for lived experience. Between someone who can recite the theory of flight and someone who’s actually piloted a plane, I’ll listen to the guy who had his hand on the yoke and felt the excitement of being in a metal tube soaring above the clouds and landing it safely afterward.

Between someone who can tell you what it may be like to take a beating for the sake of Christ and someone who removes their shirt to show the scars of the experience, it’s the man with the scars that I will lend my ear to ten out of ten times.

Not to go off-topic, but I take personal offense when some pampered, coddled, drug-addled cat mom wearing the net worth of the congregation they’re looking down their nose at in jewelry starts to bloviate about how they’re suffering because they haven’t unlocked the storehouse of prosperity. To this day, there are men who bled, suffered, sacrificed, and endured among us, living simple lives of obedience and faithfulness, whose stories will never be told because they didn’t go through the experience so they could get a book deal on the back end, but because it was their duty to remain steadfast and committed to the way of Christ.

Rather than seek such men out, the modern-day church is enamored with stories of pet dinosaurs in heaven and how some clown is claiming that God used a port-a-potty to teleport her to heaven. If this is the peak of spiritual maturity in the West, I dare say the coming persecution will devastate what we’ve come to call the church to a level we dare not imagine. Will there be a remnant who will endure? Yes, most definitely. Will that remnant be smaller than most think? Most assuredly.

1 Peter 3:13-17, “And who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you are blessed. And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled. But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed. For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.”

Everything Peter wrote was not theoretical. He’d lived it. He’d suffered for doing good, he’d given a defense to those who asked a reason for the hope that was in him, he’d been slandered as an evildoer, and his good conduct had been reviled. None of these things came as a surprise to him because he’d walked with Jesus and had heard His words regarding the way the world would view those who followed Him, as well as how the religious elites of the time would react to seeing those of Christ walking in power and authority.

By the time he wrote his epistle, Peter had already seen all that Jesus foretold regarding suffering for His name’s sake come to pass and, with the benefit of hindsight, concluded that the most important thing one can do to endure faithfully was to sanctify the Lord in one's heart. To sanctify something is to consecrate it, to set it apart, to make it the pinnacle of your focus, attention, desire, and purpose, with everything else in life becoming a distant second. When Jesus is your all in all, you will be able to endure whatever the world throws at you, whether it’s hatred, derision, or outright persecution. If He’s not your everything, then whatever is competing for preeminence in your heart will be used against you when the time comes.

It’s easy for the enemy to whisper in someone’s ear that they can have the next best thing without having to endure pain if the Lord is not sanctified in their heart. If we allow for the possibility that something is approaching equal value with Jesus, then it becomes an issue of tradeoff. If only Jesus would satisfy us, if He alone is our portion, then though the world’s treasure would be laid at our feet, we would still cling to Him, for His presence in our lives would be priceless.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

 There was a good twenty years during the Communist rule of Romania where anyone who turned in an individual suspected of being a believer would get extra food rations as a reward. It may not seem like much to us today since, for the most part, a fully stocked grocery store is a few minutes drive away, but back in the day, the shelves of every store were bare, and all you had was what the government gave you as far as foodstuffs were concerned.

Those living in the country and the villages had an easier time because they could raise chickens, goats, pigs, or cows, plant some vegetables, or have a couple of fruit trees on their property, but even they had to count on the system for things such as flour, sugar, oil, and other essentials for survival.

There was no shortage of people being turned in to the secret police for an extra ration of sugar or oil, many by their kin, by wives, husbands, daughters, and sons, and though those individuals were only supposed to be called in for questioning, if they remained faithful to Jesus, and did not deny their faith, being put to death was not outside the realm of possibility. When you get sent to a work camp where the survival rate is less than half, you could say you were being put to death at least half the time.

People keep talking about the guillotine as though it were the pinnacle of suffering, but there are far worse ways to go than by beheading. There are countless souls whose names we will never know who endured to the end, being slowly starved out of existence, beaten, tortured, and abused in ways few of us can imagine. We may never know their names, but God does, and one day, they will receive their martyr’s crown as is fitting.

Just because we have it easy doesn’t mean everyone else does, nor does it mean that we will have it easy in perpetuity. There is such an animus being fomented against the children of God currently that those turning you in won’t need any incentive than to be rid of you to go and report your anti-social activities. How dare you not stand on the street waving a rainbow flag while perverts and pederasts perform lewd acts in public? How dare you try to avert your children’s gaze when grown adults are walking other adults on leashes naked as the day they were born? There’s got to be something wrong with you. Why don’t you want to be loving and inclusive?

If you don’t participate in the experiment, you are automatically against it. There is no neutral party, no conscientious observer, not with something so important. Pick a side, and you better pick the right one; otherwise, you’ll suffer the consequences of your actions. What is the new narrative? Free speech is free, but it’s not consequence-free. You can say whatever you want, but if you say the wrong thing, we’ll take away your bank account, your platforms, your voice, and sooner than some might think, your freedom and your life. Don’t say no one ever warned you because I just did. Do with it what you will!

The sad reality is that most of the church has been cowed and brought to heel even before the persecution has started. The holdouts will now become the target, with the aid of those who name the name of Jesus but are not of Him, and your persecution will be justified because you will be demonized, ostracized, and branded an enemy of the common good.

If we have to prune the tree of a few bad apples, it would be criminal not to, wouldn’t it? Even though the bad apples, the instigators, the troublemakers they’ll be referring to are little old ladies who just want to be left alone, the narrative will be spun in such a way that you’d think that arthritic octogenarian was a blood-thirsty psychopath.

We can’t have you disrupting the indoctrination of the masses with common sense and reason. That just won’t do! Little Billy is a poodle because he says he is. Look at the little darling; he’s even trying to lick himself clean and everything. How dare you, you unfeeling, uncaring, intolerant monster?

Before you think it could never come to that, I would ask that you look back and see how far we’ve come in the last decade. That should put a hitch in your giddy-up. Understand that evil doesn’t have an end in mind. It devours, corrupts, and destroys until there is nothing left to devour, corrupt, or destroy. There is no end in sight to the depravity, and anyone who believes otherwise is fooling themselves.

We’ve already seen the test runs, and they seem promising. Generally speaking, for the most part, people will do what they’re told by perceived authority, even if what they’re told to do makes no rational sense. Shrink wrap grandma’s head so she doesn’t cough on you, stand six feet apart because seven feet is one foot too far, become a shut-in, and have no contact with the outside world. Churches are a danger zone, but liquor stores and weed shops are as safe as a mother’s bosom. Need I go on? And people obeyed; they submitted, and anyone who questioned any of the lunacy was summarily ostracized.

During the peak of the craziness, I told the ministry staff that I would agree to go and speak in any church, anywhere, that asked for me to come and that was still holding live services. It would be on my own dime, and although I never do, I would not require an offering or anything of the sort. There was one church in Michigan that asked for me to come and speak, and I did it gladly because I have the utmost respect for Shepherds who shepherd not only when life is good, and the sun is shining but when times get hard and the threat of reprimand for doing good looms large. Yes, there were others who defied ordinances and rules created from whole cloth by petty tyrants, and they proved their mettle by doing so.

At the risk of sounding conspiratorial, I would wager that every one of those pastors and churches who kept their doors open and did not obey without question are on a list somewhere for the next time an existential planetary threat that has now been declared no more dangerous than the common flu arises. After all, you must beta-test a program before going live and work out the bugs along the way. What was pales compared to what will be, and those who folded once will likely fold again.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 When the rubber meets the road, the choices one has at their disposal are binary. We either do one or the other: stand our ground, flee, remain faithful, or renounce our faith. Bookish people call it an acute stress response, but it boils down to having only two choices at your disposal and availing yourself of one or the other.

Of all the emotions Peter and John may have felt as they stood before the high priest and his retinue, I don’t believe fear or surprise was among them. They’d been forewarned that such things were in their future and told not to worry about what they should say. Even while Jesus still walked the earth, He spoke to them of the time of persecution that was coming, a time when they would be brought before people of power and influence. Had they not heeded Christ’s warnings, they would be beside themselves standing there, being accused of what amounted to heresy in a land ruled by religious elites.

Matthew 10:17-22, “But beware of men, for they will deliver you up to councils and scourge you in their synagogues. You will be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. But when they deliver you up, do not worry about how or what you should speak. For it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you. Now brother will deliver up brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved.”

There was no ambiguity in Christ’s words. He prepared His disciples for a time when they would be brought up before councils, governors, and kings, when they would be scourged and put to death as a testimony to all who would witness their faithfulness, whether Gentile or Jew.

What Jesus warned was not for a specific time period, but rather, it was a warning to all who would follow after Him until the day of His return. Persecution did not end with the age of the early church. It continues to this day, and if you happen to live in a nation where, as yet, persecution has not been ratcheted up, be thankful for this grace, but prepare for its eventuality, for Jesus said you would be hated by all for His name’s sake.

The day will come when there will be no safe haven, no peaceful harbor to keep us cocooned and carefree from the enemy's machinations because when Jesus said all, He meant all, and not just some or most. Persecution should come as no surprise to the modern-day church if the modern-day church heeded the words of Jesus. It’s not something that will come out of left field, unbeknownst or unexpected. When it arrives, we will have the same binary choice as the early church, wherein we either renounce Him or endure to the end, for no third option will be available to us.

Because, for the most part, the church has been driven by profit and growth over the last few decades, we’ve been sold a bill of goods and taught to believe that Christianity is this big tent where inclusivity and acceptance rather than repentance and righteousness were the driving forces. We’ve consistently compromised the truth of Scripture for the sake of numbers, ignoring the words of Jesus when He said that He did not come to bring peace on the earth but a sword and that a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.

There is a dividing line between those of the world and those of the household of faith, and try as some might to blur that line or insist it does not exist, Jesus said otherwise.

The only reason the godless are playing nice with the church is because they have yet to amass the necessary power to try and destroy it. The only reason you are not being brought before governors and kings as yet is because those who would see you put to death do not possess the necessary clout to do so.

That’s just fearmongering; that’s all it is. I see plenty of people with COEXIST stickers on their cars, and we’ve evolved since the times when, just because you held a different view or had a different opinion on a matter, you were considered someone’s lifelong enemy. Oh, really? Have you seen the world you live in lately? Have you seen how polarized everyone has become? Have you noticed how willing some are to resort to violence when you make a compelling, logical argument against their pet dogma?

The point of this study isn’t to tell you where we are but where we’re headed. If you’ve ever shot skeet, it’s called leading the target. If you aim at where your target is, you’ll always miss it. You have to aim for where your target will be, not where it is. We’re discussing future events, and by future, I don’t mean decades down the road, but rather more near-term because all the pieces are in place, and the wheels are beginning to turn.

Before continuing our journey, I also want to make it clear that the purpose of discussing the topic of persecution isn’t to cause fear but to prepare you and flesh out the topic through a Biblical prism. We can either believe what the Word says and prepare for it or hope the Bible is wrong and the things of which it warns will never materialize. The disciples had the same choice to make in their day. Peter and John could have ignored the warnings of Jesus and been dumbstruck when they found themselves standing before the religious upper crust of their time, but they did the wise thing and heeded His warnings. They had been prepared for what was unfolding, and that kept them from being anxious, fearful, or trepidatious. 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 If the history of the early church teaches us anything, it’s that there is no compromising with the darkness. Watering down the message of the gospel will not engender the world’s acceptance, nor will minimizing Jesus, the cross, the death, the blood, and the resurrection rally those who hate Him to our cause. We are different because we’re supposed to be, and attempting to become more like those who hate us will only make us less than the One we serve.

That’s not to say the world hasn’t picked its champions from among those purporting to be followers of Jesus, elevating them to positions they’d never dare to dream of because the godless will always need someone to point to as the example of what they think a true Christian should be. The only problem is that the ones the world praises as spiritual luminaries are far from what the Bible says a true Christian ought to be.

Even though they stood before men of renown for their time, Peter and John were unwavering and uncompromising in their conviction and faithfulness. Jesus was their all; they’d surrendered fully to the call on their lives and were content with whatever happened to them from that point forward.

It’s sad to see that the world has more conviction about the positions it holds than the church has about its convictions, but it’s a sign of the times if we’re willing to read the warnings of the Book and believe them at face value.

The devil learns from his mistakes, but the church rarely does. The devil figured out that in order to weaken the church, it must be done from within. The threat of persecution and even persecution itself only served to strengthen the true followers of Christ. No matter what the godless threw at them, it served not only to embolden them but also to grow the number of those who responded to the message of a risen Lord.

It’s imperative that we determine the modern-day church’s level of conviction and commitment because, in so doing, we can ascertain the true number of those who will stand for the truth, though the world might stand against them.

If the average Christian today were as committed as those of the early church, this study would not be necessary. The storm would come, the church would weather it, the church would grow strong from it, and the church would continue to do great exploits in Jesus' name.

We can beat our chests and claim spiritual superiority until we are bruised. Still, the fact remains that this is the most lethargic, lukewarm, compromising, and double-hearted generation of believers the world has ever seen.

Furthering the kingdom of God is the last thing on our minds because we’ve been lulled into a false sense of security and swallowed the lie that the purpose of our being here is our own comfort and ease and to retain and maintain our creature comforts, we can readily abandon the truth and compromise with the godless regarding anything, at any time. Harsh? Perhaps. True? Most assuredly.

Avoiding persecution is easy; compromise your values, morals, and ethics, betray Jesus, and deny Him as the only way to the Father, and you’ll be in the club. Money will rain down from heaven, new cars will sit idling in your driveway, and you will be loved by the same people who despise your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ to the point of reveling in their demise.

You can choose to stand or fall in line, but you can’t do both simultaneously. The current spiritual environment, especially in the West, is a petri dish perfectly tempered for the greatest falling away the world has ever seen.

But what about the sweeping revival? Show it to me in the Bible. That is all. I can show you where Jesus speaks of a great falling away, but I can’t find one reference to a great end-time revival. It’s a good story, though. Here we are, fat, lazy, lukewarm, and indifferent, but man, oh man, when that end-time revival hits, we’re going to have so many more fat, lazy, lukewarm, and apathetic people warming those empty pews. Is that the story we’re trying to sell? Is that the goal? Are more ambulatory corpses throwing a few bucks in the bucket the sole purpose of calling ourselves a church?

A handful of people turned the world upside down without the benefit of airplanes, cell phones, landlines, steam engines, the internet, rail, or any of a thousand things we take for granted on a daily basis. Yet billion-dollar Christian outfits can only garner the world’s mockery because some guy sweating buckets is throwing his coat on people for no apparent reason other than putting on a show.

There was no showmanship in what Peter and John did. A lame man asked them for spare change; they told him they had none to give but that they’d give him what they had. There was no pontificating; Peter didn’t say, “Behold, I shall make this man whole! Witness the power of my gifting!” He grabbed the lame man by the hand, raised him up, and let him go leaping about.

Could you imagine how long a televangelist would have milked that exchange if they had the power of Peter and John and ran across a man lame from birth? That’s also why so few possess true power nowadays, and so many are nothing more than snake oil salesmen. When God heals, it’s not to bring glory to a man or for the man to intimate that he had a hand in it. God doesn’t heal for entertainment purposes; He heals as He wills to bring glory and honor to His name.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

 It’s essential to know the character of those who stand beside you and that they share your convictions. This may not seem so important when everything is going swimmingly and when there is no opposition, persecution, or threats of violence and death. However, when you’re standing next to someone, and you’re both facing the most powerful religious authorities of your day, it’s important to know that they’re not going to throw you under the bus to try and save their own hide.

Before you say that could never happen, I would ask if you’ve ever been in such a position. If not, then you don’t know unless you know the character of the individual in question. In the season to come, one that will be marked by chaos and persecution, knowing those you stand with is a must.

Be judicious in whom you associate with, whom you lend your name to, who you congregate with, and who you call a brother or a sister in Christ. Fair-weather friends are just that, and when the day comes that a fair-weather friend sees a benefit in betraying you, they will.

It’s happened before, and it will happen again because those who follow Christ only for what they were told He will do for them will abandon Him when the going gets tough, and all those baubles and trinkets don’t materialize.

If you’ve ever wondered how dangerous the current crop of doctrine is to the individual believer, look no further than an entire generation being sold on prosperity and easy living only to be faced with persecution and privation.

I’m not saying that these doctrines don’t sound pleasing to the flesh; they do. Unfortunately, they are not Biblical, for while the Word tells us that the just will live by faith, they sell dreams of mansions and diamonds in the sky.

If those selling this doctrine can come up with one solid example of a follower of Jesus riding off into the sunset with saddle bags full of gold strapped to their saddles to live out the rest of their days in opulence and ease, I’d love to see it. If not, then take the words Jesus spoke to heart and prepare to endure to the end.

Peter and John, along with the core group of believers who learned from Jesus, knew what to expect. They didn’t know how it would come about or what would precipitate the persecution, but there was no doubt in their hearts that it would find them because Jesus warned of it over and over again.

The only thing Peter was dumbstruck by was that they fell under the lens of the ruling class because a lame man had been healed. That was the only part of their circumstance that was befuddling to him because it was so out of left field. They’d done a good deed, a noble deed, and this is why they were now being put to the question by the high priest.

When they begin to tighten the noose on the church, it will be for reasons that will be surprising. We will share Peter’s befuddlement because we will deem the things we are being ostracized, excluded, and threatened for as something good, noble, and of pure intentions. To the godless, it will be perfectly reasonable to seek your silencing and shunning, but to believers, it will likely be something out of left field that won’t make sense at the time.

I can think of ten things off the top of my head that the household of faith can become vocal about, stand against, and make their voices heard that might be the spark that sets off the powder keg of persecution in the West. I’m sure you can too if you apply yourself.

Even if they don’t have a valid reason, they’ll make one up because reasons don’t matter; only results do, and as long as they believe their efforts will lead to the destruction of the church, the ends will justify the means.

To persecute someone for a perceived crime, you must first establish a narrative that the people can get behind. It’s become easier to do this in our day and age because since the advent of the internet, cable news, and all manner of data-driven means of getting you to see and read what they want you to see and read, the world has gotten much smaller than in the days of the early church.

If you want to understand the drive behind some of the agendas being foisted upon the unsuspecting populace, you must view them through the prism of religious fervor rather than as the machinations of some benevolent force that wants equality for all, a tofurkey in every pot, and a trans kid in every home.

Time and again, when a certain corporation has pushed this agenda, the public has slapped it back down, and a nice chunk of their market share disappeared overnight, but they don’t care. They’re still at it, more fervent than ever, because to them, the cause is more important than the bottom line. That’s what zealotry is—an uncompromising pursuit of an ideology or religion.

Whether it’s the people making a nuisance of themselves because they want us all to live in caves and read the collected works of Karl Marx by candlelight while snacking on roots and bulbs or the child mutilators who want no child happy in their own skin but each one pumping hormones or hormone blockers into their bodies until they can’t take it anymore and try to find a final solution for their pain, the goal overrides everything including common sense. They are unconcerned about the harm they might cause to others because their ideology is preeminent in their actions, and they’ve already concluded that they are on the side of right, beyond reproach, with no limits placed on their actions as long as their actions have the desired effect.

The modern-day church still thinks it can reason with zealots, just as Peter attempted to reason with Annas and his lot. He attempted to point out that they were being judged for doing a noble thing, but alas, his argument fell on deaf ears.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

 It is an understatement to say that it didn’t go the way the Sanhedrin, Pharisees, Sadducees, Annas, Caiaphas, and all the rest hoped it would. They were fully assured that Peter and John would be cowed by their presence, that they would obfuscate and beg off the great insult they’d committed by healing the lame man, but instead, Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, came out swinging.

Even the mild-mannered among God’s people can be like lions when filled with the Holy Spirit. It doesn’t take an outward appearance of toughness or an intimidating posture. All it takes is the Holy Spirit residing in the heart of a man to make him a fearsome and fearless defender of the faith.

Acts 4:8-12, “Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, ‘Rulers of the people and elders of Israel: If we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well, let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stand before you whole. This is the stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone. Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

At this point, the man who came up with the idea of arresting Peter and John and bringing them before the rulers of the people and elders of Israel shrank in on himself just a bit, and all the smugness fled from him like rats fleeing a sinking ship. It would have been a sight to see. All those dreams of being counted among the wisest of elders, the hope of getting noticed by Annas, and perhaps even being called to a greater position of authority all dashed the moment Peter opened his mouth, and his words were neither apologetic nor conciliatory.

The early church had committed the cardinal sin of outshining the ruling religious order. Peter and John had overstepped every norm by doing something not even the High Priest himself could hope to replicate, and rather than try to say it was an accident, a fluke, or that it had been done by mistake, here was Peter declaring that it was by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom they had crucified that the lame man was leaping about as though he were a young doe in the summer grasses.

The news had already spread, and they couldn’t deny the reality of what had happened. They couldn’t pretend as though this lame man was not walking about or that countless hundreds had seen him do so. The next best thing they could hope to do was put a lid on it, limit the damage and blowback, get Peter and John to cower and shy away, apologize, and promise they’d behave.

Within the span of a few words, they realized that wasn’t going to happen either.

When all the other side has is the threat of violence or death, but you no longer fear either because you were buried with Christ in God, you’re a force to be reckoned with. You’ve taken away the enemy’s power to make you retreat, cower, or otherwise shrink back from his not-so-veiled threats.

They’d already sold everything they had and divided it among the brethren. They couldn’t be threatened with the confiscation of their earthly possessions any longer, so all they had were the husks of flesh. Given that they’d received the power from on High, they had already concluded that for them to die was gain.

It’s nearly impossible to threaten someone who doesn’t fear death. The more things we have in our lives that we fear the loss of, the more buttons the enemy has to push, hoping that one will succeed in making us back down, retreat, and surrender.

If you fear losing your influence, the enemy will threaten to deplatform you. If you’re afraid of being publicly ridiculed, the enemy will threaten to shame you by orchestrating coordinated attacks against you. If you’re afraid of losing your possessions, the enemy will threaten to take them away, lawfully, mind you, because the people who make the laws ultimately determine what is lawful.

Philippians 3:7-8, “But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.”

Once we’ve adopted this mindset as children of God, there is nothing the enemy can do to sway us from our purpose. When opposition arises, and it begins with threats, we will not blink or waver in our stride. It’s all forfeit anyway. It’s all rubbish, or at least we should count it as such that we might know the fullness of Christ Jesus and all His glory.

The question we must tackle, and it requires honest introspection, is whether we love anything in this world more than we love God. Do we love our possessions more than Him? Do we love our positions more than Him? Do we love the comfort and commodities of this life we live here in the West more than God, and are we willing to give all of them up for His name’s sake?

That’s the question that must be answered before we can know if we will be able to endure persecution and do so until the end.

If anything holds sway over you more than the will of God, if you prize and value anything more than the presence of Christ, be sure the enemy will ferret it out and use it as a weapon against you.

Be sure the elders, Pharisees, Sadducees, and the rest had thoroughly researched Peter and John. They knew everything there was to know about them and had concluded that the best they could hope for was that they feared their baseless threats. It was not to be.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

 As long as the Apostles and those of the primary church did nothing to draw the attention away from the Pharisees, as long as they didn’t do something the Pharisees couldn’t match, whether feeding the hungry or caring for orphans, they were unperturbed by these new additions to the cacophony that was Jerusalem at the time. But then, everything changed.

There was a certain man, lame from his mother’s womb, who would be carried daily and laid at the gate of the temple, which is called Beautiful, to beg for alms. Whether willingly or unwillingly, this was the man’s job, his lot in life, and every day, someone brought him, laid him at the gate, and begged for spare change. On that particular day, Peter and John passed by, and the man, who after a life lived begging likely had his bequest well-rehearsed, asked them for alms as well. If they’d been prosperity preachers, they’d likely have ordered their personal assistants to peel off a couple of twenties and hand them to the man. It would have made for a good photo opportunity, after all, but they weren’t, so there was no exchange of legal tender to be had. They did have something, though, something not of themselves, something more precious than a couple of shekels, and they willingly gave it to the lame man.

Acts 3:4-9, “And fixing his eyes on him, with John, Peter said, ‘Look at us.’ So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. Then Peter said, ‘Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. So he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple with them – walking, leaping, and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God.”

The man had been a staple at the gate called Beautiful all of his days. Everyone who passed through knew him, and they knew of his condition from birth. This wasn’t someone who was brought in for the sake of spectacle; he just happened to be in the right place at the right time, and Peter and John, knowing the authority and power they possessed in Christ Jesus, gave him the gift of healing.

This is what had the Pharisees and Sadducees up in arms. This is why they saw the followers of Jesus as an existential threat. They had done something that they themselves could never hope to replicate, and to someone whom everyone knew to have been lame since birth. It’s one thing to hear about something happening somewhere else to someone you’ve never met, but everyone knew this man; they’d always seen him lying in the dust of the earth begging for alms, yet here he was, walking, leaping, and praising God.  

These followers of the Way were walking in a power they couldn’t possibly match, and they realized the danger they posed to their authority. They were healing the sick and preaching the Christ, and people were responding. They were repenting of their sins, they were getting baptized, and word of these new people of the Way was spreading faster than ever the Sadducees, scribes, and elders thought possible.

Then one of them, since it always starts with one, had an Eureka moment, an epiphany of sorts. Why don’t we just have them arrested? We can deal with them at our leisure then, maybe have some faux trial with some trumped up charges, but they have to be something more than we’re just scared that we can’t match the power they wield or the tenacity with which they go about preaching this Jesus. Didn’t we deal with Him already? Wasn’t that what the whole thing with Judas and Barabbas was all about?

There was likely some basking in the afterglow of the brilliant idea that one individual came up with because evil is usually self-congratulatory to a fault. Once it was settled that this was the best course of action, they apprehended Peter and John, and all that remained was for them to be brought up on charges and put before the highest religious authorities in the land.

Perhaps that would be the end of it. All it might take for them to be scared straight and fall in line was to see the pomp and grandeur of Annas, the high priest, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and the high priest's family to boot.

To liken it to a practicing Catholic being brought before the Pope and all the highest-ranking bishops and asked to answer questions relating to heresy would not be overstating the matter. There was no greater religious power during that time than Annas, the high priest, and his entourage. Even with the apropos comparison, we must remember that the high priest and his cadre of henchmen held immense power, able to do everything from throwing people in prison to orchestrating the execution of someone they deemed as their competition. The point must be made lest we think Peter and John had an easy time of their experience or that it was inconsequential.

It’s a general rule that those whom the masses perceive to be in spiritual authority over them are heeded when they give a specific instruction. It’s why, in the not-so-long-ago past, the powers that be had to employ the services of known spiritual leaders to tell the people to be good little boys and girls and roll up their sleeves, you know because it’s what Jesus would do after all. Yes, I’m being snarky, but for good reason. If the West survives, and that’s a big if, we will look back on that as the lowest point of Christianity in America by far. You used Jesus, the Jesus, as a lever and cudgel to convince people to do something against their best interest and contrary to their long-held beliefs. When all the dirty little details of what occurred come out, and they always do, you will understand the true measure of evil that was visited upon the household of faith by those whom the household of faith holds in high esteem. Granted, it was a test run for something much worse, and the same people will be employed to sell the church on that worse thing. It worked the first time, didn’t it?

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 Even though they finally organized a mob to arrest Peter and John, it was already too late. By the time they got around to it, five thousand new converts had been added to the early church, and the ruling class, the priests, elders, and the upper crust of the religious order were beside themselves. How dare a handful of upstarts undermine the authority of the Sanhedrin? Didn’t they know who they’d picked a fight with? Didn’t they know who they were dealing with? They had no power structure to fall back on, no authority to approach for redress; they were just meeting in homes and preaching in the streets, and they needed to be taught a lesson.

In all fairness, none of those things had crossed the Apostles’ minds. They didn’t set out to pit themselves against the religious power of their time; they were just preaching the truth of Christ and Him risen. However, by the nature of their mission, they were now the sworn enemy of the ruling religious sect of their day.

There is a deep and profound lesson to be learned here because although you may not see others as your adversary, they see you as their nemesis. After all, you are becoming a danger to the tenuous power they hold or the perceived authority they have over those to whom you are preaching the gospel. Individuals who know they’re not preaching the whole counsel of God or fleecing the sheep for their own profit will go to war over one whose only interest is the gospel because they would upend their entire business model and endanger their income stream.

Just as it was in the days of the early church, those only interested in numbers, the bottom line, and the number of pews being filled have much animosity toward those whose only interest is to preach the gospel of the kingdom of Christ. It was never your intent to become their adversary; it’s not what you set out to do, but by nature of being a disciple of Jesus and preaching the truth of Scripture, you have nevertheless become their enemy.

You’re messing with their business model, and that’s something that cannot be allowed. The early church was viewed as an invasive species that would disrupt the entire ecosystem if it was not corralled or eradicated. They could not be allowed to continue performing miracles and preaching a risen Christ because you didn’t need to be a mathematician to realize that three thousand converts one day and five thousand in another made for an unsustainable paradigm for the priests and scribes whose fortunes hung on the faithful coming to the temple regularly. When you see the corporate church side with the persecutors of the brethren, don’t be surprised; it won’t be the first time. It’s just history repeating.

The one thing the lie hates more than anything is the truth. The one recourse left to those in thrall to the lie is to silence those speaking the truth. It’s not complicated; it’s just heartbreaking because those you might have once called brother will call for your demise just as vociferously, if not more so, than the godless. This isn’t revelation; it’s just deductive reasoning based on past events. Times may change, but people don’t, and those with the power want to retain power at all costs, even if the price is your freedom or life.

One standout difference between the early church and our present age is that everyone was there for one purpose. Nobody was trying to hock their particular denomination or newest T-shirt design; no one was saying that their home group was more exciting than the other home groups; they were there for the glory of God and worked as one toward that end goal. They were united in purpose, and that purpose was not self-aggrandizement or the promulgation of one individual over another. It didn’t take long for that to become an issue, and Paul addressed it in his first letter to the Corinthians, but it started off pure, and noble, and true, and it is one of the reasons they had such monumental success early on.

Acts 4:5-7, “And it came to pass, on the next day, that their rulers, elders, and scribes, as well as Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the family of the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem. And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, ‘By what power or by what name have you done this?”’

And herein, their question betrayed their true fear. It wasn’t that they preached a risen Christ that tormented them so, but that signs and wonders followed them, confirming and bearing witness to their words. People were being healed and delivered, and the high priest, rulers, elders, and scribes knew they couldn’t match the power. The best they had were stale words. These men walked in power, and they either needed to control it themselves or stomp it out altogether before it became a threat to the established order. When you threaten the status quo, be prepared for pushback. It is inevitable.

As long as they were feeding the hungry and helping the widows, they were no threat. But now they were healing the sick and preaching a risen Jesus, and that just couldn’t stand. When the doctrine being preached to the masses begins to fail them en masse, and those preaching the truth are still at peace, full of joy, and walking in the way, the modern-day Pharisees will rise up and demand answers. When they get answers they don’t like, they will react in a manner similar to the Pharisees of old.

I get that we’ve been sold on the idea that we’re all children of God just worshipping from different kinds of pews, in a different type of way, honoring a different sort of god, but that illusion is about to be shattered into a million pieces, and the truth of Christ’s words that many are called but few are chosen will be made all the more evident. 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 Even though things seemed to be going swimmingly, and they had favor with all the people, as far as the core group was concerned, they did not forget the words of Jesus, nor did they forget His warnings about the world hating them because they hated Him. We can know this based on their reaction to the persecution they had to endure once it commenced because they didn’t shrink back in fear, nor were they looking for ways out of the situation, but rather they welcomed it and reveled in it knowing that the words of Christ were coming to pass before their eyes.

It didn’t take long for the established religion and the forces of darkness to catch on to what was happening, and since the adage that my enemy’s enemy is my friend held true even in those days, they joined forces and aimed all of their considerable power at a now growing movement of people who didn’t play by the rules of avarice they were so accustomed to, who weren’t swayed by the promises of wealth or influence, because they’d already sold everything they had, divided up amongst the brethren, and ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart.

These upstarts, these people who didn’t have coffers or influence with the Roman overlords, these simple men and women were cutting into their bottom line, and that was something they could not abide. They needed an excuse to be rid of them; they needed something they could go before the high magistrates with, and the resurrection of the dead in Christ was what they landed on.

They were willy enough to intuit that people tend to fear what they don’t understand, and the resurrection of the dead was one of those things.

Acts 4:1-3, “Now as they spoke to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came upon them, being greatly disturbed that they taught the people and preached in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they laid hands on them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening.”

When you have the muscle and numbers on your side, it’s far easier to manhandle the opposition than to come up with a cogent argument against them. Having seen the character of the priests, Sadducees, and captain of the temple throughout the gospels, one could readily conclude that their teaching on the resurrection of the dead in Christ was the excuse they were looking for rather than something that genuinely disconcerted and disturbed them. These were the same people who offered Judas thirty pieces of silver to betray Jesus, the same salt of the earth folks who pulled the strings necessary for the people to pick Barabbas over Christ.

All the enemy ever needs to persecute the children of God is an excuse. It doesn’t need to be a good excuse, a viable excuse, or a genuine excuse, just a passable one for the time being.

When they began going after Christians during Communism, the excuse was that Christians were an impediment to the general good because their teachings confused people and caused them to become resistant to the system. It didn’t matter that they were generous, open-handed, or big-hearted; it didn’t matter that they kept to themselves, were non-political, and helped their neighbors; they were competition. They were another source of hope, independent of the system, and that just couldn’t be.

It wasn’t that the brutes who ran the Communist party back in the day hated Jesus as a person; they didn’t know Him, and most of them could barely spell their own names, but they understood that Jesus meant hope, and they couldn’t have the peasant class hope in anything else except for the motherland. Hope is a dangerous thing, especially to tyrants, especially to those who would rule with a fist of iron and allow for zero dissent.

We’re beginning to see the hate foment against Christianity here in the West, and it’s not because the masses suddenly decided Jesus wasn’t alright with them. It’s because Jesus stands in the way of their utopia, and the followers of Jesus refuse to go along with the hedonism that’s being foisted upon the masses with such glee. History might not always repeat, but it often rhymes, and whatever excuse will be used to persecute the church anew, be sure that it is being poll-tested even now.

The one dramatic difference between now and then is that the early church heeded Christ’s warnings and was prepared to endure persecution; the modern-day church seems to ignore His warnings altogether and only sees calm seas and soft winds for as far as the eye can see. Even if some are seeing troubled seas ahead, they soothe their worried conscience with the ever-present mantra that though the storm may be coming, they won’t be here to go through it.

I am already aware that this series of teachings will not be popular. I know that it will not garner me new friends, and I will likely lose some friends along the way, but I’m the one that will one day have to stand before my Maker, and I would gladly lose every friend to the last than stand before Him with blood on my hands.

I can only tell you what I see coming, how to prepare for what is coming, and not of my own machinations, but using the prototype of the early church, those men and women who stood even when it meant their lives.

Of all the people one could have a conversation with when they get to heaven, many choose Abraham, Paul, Joseph, or David, but few choose someone like Stephen, widely known as the first martyr of the early church, a man who was not known for being a king, someone who wrote a quarter of the New Testament, or a man of means, but one of seven appointed by the Apostles to care for elderly, the widows, and the orphans.

Greatness in God’s eyes is different than greatness in men’s eyes. May we aspire to be great in His eyes and indifferent to the opinions of men.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

It didn’t take long for persecution to begin in earnest. Once the early Church was established, so too was persecution a common thing among the brethren, for wherever the light is, the darkness is there to try and prevent it from spreading, if not to extinguish it altogether. The devil prefers the latter, but he’ll settle for the former because he knows the power of the God on the side of those he is trying to destroy. He is not ignorant. He knows he can’t win in the long run, but the kind of hate he harbors towards the children of God blinds him to his situation, and so he rages.

Since the enemy concluded they could not be tempted away from the truth, he hoped they could be scared away from it, threatened into silence, and after the advent of the Holy Spirit and the pouring out thereof, the organized persecution of the followers of Christ began to take shape.

That we would read the book of Acts and expect our lot in life as children of God to be any different than those who came before us take some kind of entitled egotism that I can hardly imagine. Some among us even lean toward arrogance and conceit, looking down our noses on the men and women God used to perform signs and wonders the likes of which we only hear stories of because they weren’t prosperous and didn’t have the best of everything and save for one here or there, all died gruesome deaths at the hands of their persecutors.

John the revelator got to retire on the island of Patmos, but only after being thrown in boiling oil. It wasn’t so much retirement as it was exile, and God kept him alive so that he might be the scribe for what would later be known as the Revelation of Jesus Christ.

I don’t know whether it’s the fact that we allowed the Scriptures to get so twisted in our day and age or that so many people believe the twisted gospel that bothers me more. One thing is certain: because so many believe another gospel, when persecution commences in the West, there will be a stampede for the exits the likes of which Christendom has never seen. Jesus warned it would be so since before a handful of people met in the upper room of a nondescript home and prayed until they received the promise.

The promise they were waiting on had nothing to do with advancement, earthly treasures, estates, mansions, jets, or fineries, but rather something infinitely more valuable, priceless even, something that could not be purchased with all the gold or silver in the world.

The sad reality is that when we focus on earthly things, on prosperity and possessions, we settle for less, far less, than what God has reserved for His children and those who call Him Father.

When we read the Acts of the Apostles, we must do so through the prism of seeing it as the prototypical church. This is what God intended the church to be, this is how God intended the church to operate, and it is what ought to have been used as a blueprint and guidepost for all the churches going forward.

It was never meant to be about positions and acquisitions; it was never meant to be about hoarding wealth or forming our cliques within cliques; it was meant to be about fellowship and brotherhood, about the presence of the Holy Spirit and the attitude of selflessness that defined the primary church.

Because the Book of Acts is the prototype for the church, we would do well to begin our study of persecution and how we must prepare for it there. I can’t promise we will cover all the angles or that it will be the most in-depth work on the topic, but Lord willing, we will endeavor to cover all the necessary points and discuss the oft-ignored benefits of persecution, which are plainly enumerated within the pages of Scripture.

Once the Holy Spirit descended and the Promise had been received, the handful of people, some 120 to be exact, the core of what was the early Church, or the primary Church, hit the ground running.

They didn’t spend the next six months congratulating themselves on having waited until they received the power of the Holy Spirit; they didn’t sit around telling each other how spiritual they all were; they began the work of the Kingdom and went out preaching the risen Christ.

That same day, in fact, that same hour, as the people gathered to see what all the commotion was about, Peter, the man who once denied Christ before a servant girl, now stood before the glut of people gathered together and fearlessly preached the Gospel to those who would hear. Did all receive it? No, some mocked and said they were full of new wine, but others heeded Peter’s message, and three thousand souls were baptized on that day and added to the number of the household of faith.

Not bad for a day’s work. Three thousand is a solid number, what one might deem a mega-church nowadays, and the hundred and twenty could have spent the rest of their time consolidating their positions, starting a building fund, doing a bit of marketing, and coasting on the tithes for the rest of their days. That, however, was not their purpose. Their purpose wasn’t self-glory; it was God’s glory. Their purpose wasn’t to consolidate a group of three thousand souls and garner a reputation for themselves; it was to tirelessly preach the gospel to all who would hear, for as far and wide as they could reach, hoping that more would come to the saving knowledge of Jesus.

Their growth was not contrived; it was not something they had to have five-year plans for; the core group didn’t get together to see what they could tweak in the message to get more people to show up; they preached Christ, Him crucified, Him Risen, Him Lord, and trusted that God would stir the hearts of those who heard, and cause them to seek redemption through faith in Jesus.

Acts 2:46, “So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.”

The Lord added to the church daily, and no man can destroy what the Lord has built. That’s how you know it was God and not the work of man, for though all might be against a work, if God is for it, and if He has built it, it will remain. 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 Some doctrines within Christendom are readily debatable, and unless it becomes acrimonious and people start sending each other to Sheol because they disagree on some tertiary issue, discussion, debate, and deliberation are healthy within a church body and among believers in general.

Iron sharpens iron, not because they are each in their little cubby, safe and sheltered from contact with anything that might change its form, but by collision and often great violence. Iron doesn’t sharpen iron accidentally or without intent. There is always intentionality when one takes a piece of iron and desires to hone it to a fine edge, and it’s a process that can’t be rushed or done haphazardly.

Even after a blade is sharpened to a fine edge, it requires constant sharpening lest it grow dull and overall useless for the purposes it was sharpened for in the first place. There’s nothing worse than a dull knife when you require a sharp one. Have you ever tried to slice a tomato with a dull knife? All you’re likely to end up with is a smooshed tomato and the dream of the perfect sandwich that will never materialize.

While some things the Word foretells are probable for a segment of believers, some are certainties that they will experience to some degree, without exception or exemption. Persecution is one of those things that the Bible warns all believers they will experience to some degree or another, something that they can’t avoid or circumvent no matter how much their flesh may desire to do so.

2 Timothy 3:12, “Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.”

By all, Paul means all, at least all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus. If that is not your desire, you likely wouldn’t be reading these words anyway. The only way for someone not to suffer persecution is to be void of the desire to live godly. There’s no other way of reading this text, and there is no other conclusion we can come to based on what it says.

Knowing that if we desire to live godly in Christ Jesus, we are likely to experience persecution of some kind, the only question that remains to be answered is whether or not we are prepared to suffer it. Yes, I know it’s an uncomfortable topic and one we would rather avoid, but by being prepared for the eventuality of something, we will be far likelier to come through it victoriously, having endured and overcome as the Bible says we ought.

We have an entire generation of believers that was raised with the false notion that they would never have to endure for the sake of Christ, that they would never be called upon to sacrifice or even suffer for the cause of the gospel, and that the only things in their future were prosperous tomorrows. Whenever the prospect of persecution is raised, they are quick to point to the people whose teaching they’ve been sitting under and use them as the counterargument to what the Bible says, insisting that the individuals in question couldn’t have possibly gotten it so wrong.

By whose estimation? If it’s by the Bible, then they most assuredly got it wrong, and horribly so, because while others throughout the world are being persecuted even unto death, only nations in the West can still ignore Paul’s warnings, along with the warnings of Jesus, Peter, John, and a handful of other Biblical writers who all warned that if your desire is the fullness of Christ, then His presence in your life will cause the world to hate you.

It begs the question of why the godless are so in love with some of the most prominent evangelists gracing your television screens today, but we’ll get to peeling that particular onion at some point in this teaching as well.

At some point, the world will be divided into the persecuted and the persecutors, those holding the hammer and the nails, and those laying on the beam because God is not a liar, and His word is true. That much of the church is doing nothing to prepare for that eventuality is a testament against it and reveals the true motives of many in the church.

The household of faith was never meant to coddle, spare feelings, or make people feel warm and fuzzy, but to preach the truth, to rightly divide the Word, and to be a place where we can come together in fellowship, growing in God, and knowing that there are others who share in our travails and hardships. When Aunt Margie’s feelings took precedence over the truth, the whole thing started going sideways, and the more sensitive people became, the less of the truth was being preached from the pulpits. 

Perhaps we need to be reminded that some of the most ardent persecutors of Jesus and His followers were those who claimed to be religious, even the most religious people of their day. Just because someone claims to be religious, it does not eliminate the possibility that at some future time, they’ll be the ones throwing you into prison and passing sentences as though being a follower of Christ was the most heinous and odious thing one could be found guilty of.

It’s easy to ignore the coming storm while the sun is shining. It’s easy to put the notion of persecution out of our minds while we revel in freedom, but our current freedom does not nullify the Word of God nor the warnings He so lovingly proffered to those who would follow in His way.

If God warned of coming persecution, it was so we might prepare for its advent. It wasn’t so we would ignore or doubt His warnings because we currently aren’t experiencing the persecution He warned of. Only fools ignore the warnings of a coming storm because they see no storm clouds, especially when the one doing the warning is the Word of God.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

 For those who want nothing of personal accountability and insist upon the best of both worlds, living as they will but still retaining the promise of eternal life, the epistle of James is controversial and uncomfortable. Some of the points James insists upon are grating and discordant to the religion they’ve fashioned for themselves, and they would rather deny the Word than look in the mirror thereof and make the requisite changes.

They would rather believe the words of men, which have no Biblical foundation and are void of truth, than humble themselves and seek a true and lasting relationship with God. But remember, the Word of God remains the Word of God, unchanging and steadfast. It will not change for anyone, no matter how unfair they think it to be or antithetical to their personal beliefs.

We are called upon to submit to God in all our ways, not attempt to convince Him that our ways are better than His because they are not. They might be better for your flesh, easier on your pride, or fuel your arrogance, but as far as being better for your spiritual man, your spiritual growth, and your adherence to His will, your ways will never be better than His way.

We look at the world around us and readily see that the loudest among us are usually the most wrong. Some within the church have adopted the same mindset, and they think they can change God’s mind by being obnoxious, loud, irreverent, and unpleasant. They have their position and think that if they can outlast everyone else and talk over them, they’ll win the argument, thereby compelling God to see it their way. He won’t. No matter how much they bluster and pontificate, no matter how much they insist that the way they see it is the only way it can be, the Word remains true from age to age, and nothing man can do will change that.

Any man or woman who insists that God cannot do or will not do something when God Himself said He would and could has neither the understanding of the fear of the Lord nor do they possess it. Ananias and Sapphira told one lie, and they were dragged out dead as doornails from before the apostles. Yet, men are telling lies to God and about Him to hordes of people day in and day out without once considering that judgment is not just a possibility but an inevitability. It’s not a matter of if judgment is coming; the only unknown variable is when.

Hebrews 10:31, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

That should scare most self-titled prophets mute and unable to utter a word to save their lives, yet, every day, more lies about things the Bible is very clear and explicit about.

Within the five chapters of his epistle, James paints a portrait of a complete Christian, a healthy body, and a spiritually mature believer who understands that we are responsible for living out our faith, guarding our hearts, walking in His ways, submitting to God’s authority over man’s, and diligently keeping ourselves pure and undefiled from the world.

He reminds us that the Christian walk isn’t one of rose petals and starry skies but one in which we suffer things that are common to man, where storms are a normal part of life, where hardships and trials are the means by which we are honed and sharpened, but also that the day will come when we will look back on the journey and consider it all worth it.

James is also quick to make the distinction that while those of the world suffer alone, having no one to turn to and no one to lean on, we have our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. We have God who hears our prayers and supplications, and we have unwavering hope that one day, we will stand before Him in glory and be welcomed into His kingdom.

You can live this fleeting thing called life in pursuit of ease, possessions, positions, and men's praise, or you can live it in obedience, supplication, and faithfulness to God. Every day, you choose one or the other. You choose to either deny yourself, pick up your cross, and follow after Jesus, or find a hundred reasons why tomorrow works better for you.

A good tree bears good fruit. A bad tree bears bad fruit. This is self-evident and cannot be camouflaged. A bad tree can’t trick someone into thinking it’s producing good fruit, no matter how much it tries, and taking its word for it is not a passable standard. A bad tree can insist it’s producing good fruit until the first person takes a bite, and you see their eyes water and mouths puckering as though they’d tasted something foul. The fruit can look good from a distance; it can have all the appearance of good fruit, but once it’s tasted, there’s nothing left to debate. The reality of what it is becomes all too evident.

If you’re going to be a child of God, be a child of God. Don’t go around pretending to be one because it won’t do you any good in the end. Eventually, someone will spot the difference just as readily as they spot the difference between real and counterfeit currency. If we know the way but don’t walk in it, all we’ll have at the end of the day is a greater judgment, for having known and not done it carries a greater condemnation than never having known at all.

Although looked down upon and readily dismissed by much of the church in essence, all James's epistle aims to do is encourage those who would read it to a victorious walk in Christ and a deeper intimacy with Him.

If we are unwilling to forfeit the world and the things thereof for the glory that is to be revealed in us, then we are unworthy of the name of Jesus, no matter how many people might insist otherwise.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

 Kicking people while they’re down might make the one doing the kicking feel superior physically and spiritually, but only in their eyes. If anyone witnesses the altercation, chances are they’ll have a different take on it than the sanctimony-fueled individual wagging his finger and showering the crumpled figure with spittle. We don’t like bullies. That’s a general statement, obviously, but all available evidence, anecdotal as it might be, points to the veracity of it. Even bullies don’t like bullies. Ultimately, there’s something broken in an individual who revels in the idea of victimizing someone smaller, weaker, and incapable of defending themselves.

As the adage goes, there’s a time and place for everything. When someone acknowledges their shortcoming, sin, or fallen nature, when they are seeking restoration and repentance is no time to keep kicking at them as though they were a soccer ball. By all means, defend the truth with all your might, but once someone has seen their error and is seeking a way back, that is the time to show mercy and grace and aid them as we are able.

It’s easy to show love to the lovely and loveable. Everyone wants to cuddle up to a pug, but few, if any, want to make kissy faces with a blobfish. It’s more difficult to look upon a bloody, broken thing who might have done you wrong in ways that left a scar and have the character reach out a hand to help them get back to the truth. It is, however, what we are called upon to do, what we must do if we are members of the Body of Christ.

Another thing to be wary of when attempting to turn a sinner from the error his way is that you are actually pulling them up out of the mire, and they are not dragging you down into it. The best way to do this is to know yourself, know your weaknesses, know the things the enemy will use to try and disrupt your growth and avoid them altogether.

If you know someone is in sexual sin and that they need to be brought back from their wayward wandering, but you, yourself, fight the same temptations, find another brother who does not share in the same vulnerability and have them approach the individual, or do it together so that the enemy will have no way of turning a good plan into a horrible execution.

If you were once a gambling addict, perhaps going to casinos to preach the good word isn’t the best place for you. Perhaps avoiding them is in your best interest because when what once was common becomes uncommon, it can readily become common again if you give it the opportunity. Does it mean you’ll automatically start scrounging in your pockets for change to feed the one-armed bandit if you step into a casino? No, that’s not what it means, but why not avoid the things you knew had you shackled and desperate once upon a time?

Don’t put yourself in a position to do something foolhardy that will necessitate someone else coming along and turning you back. If your mission is to get someone out of a ditch but end up in the ditch yourself, you’re at the mercy of another to come and pull you both out.

You’d be surprised at the excuses and justifications some people can devise for doing what they’re doing and living how they’re living because they have wandered from the truth, and it is no longer their standard and plumb line.

Usually, when they are doing something antithetical to the Word of God, they’ll use their own rebellion as anecdotal justification. Well, we’re doing such and such, and so it must be okay with God because we’re doing it. Hold on a minute, though; the Word of God says you shouldn’t be doing that one thing you’ve just admitted to doing. Wouldn’t it be more prudent for you to repent of the thing you’re doing than to justify it to yourself? Just asking for a friend.

You can’t save anyone from drowning if you’re doing all you can to keep your own head above water. First, you must gird up the loins of your mind. First, you must know the truth. First, you must walk in His way before you try to turn a sinner from the error of their way.

Yes, men wander from the truth, and it begins as a seed of doubt planted in the heart at a moment when they’re distracted or otherwise disengaged from being vigilant and watchful. We are most likely to let our guard down around those we consider of like mind. When we’re among the brethren, or what we deem to be the brethren, we’re not as vigilant as when we’re out in the world, expecting attacks and deceptions from every direction. We don’t want to consider that not all who are in the household of faith are of the household of faith or that certain men have crept in unnoticed, turning the grace of God into lewdness and teaching things contrary to Scripture.

It’s usually within a church setting that a lie can take root in a heart because we are likelier to equate a church setting with the whole counsel of God, and so less frequently question what we are being taught or what we hear.

When our walk is superficial, without pursuing righteousness and the virtues that the Word describes as pure and undefiled religion, we are willfully wandering from the truth. We excuse our rebellion by telling ourselves that, in that particular instance, the Bible meant something other than what it said or that we already know the truth and need not test what we believe against the Scriptures to see if it is proven.

Our excuses and justifications will hold water only for a season, for when we stand before the great I Am, He will use the Word as the plumb line by which our lives will be judged.

 As children of God, the last thing we should be is disingenuous when attempting to defend a given position or something we believe that the Bible is clear on. We must allow the Gospel to have the final say even when it compels us to admit we may have been wrong about a particular thing rather than try to explain it away using such roundabout, twisted, and illogical explanations as to cause flashbacks to the infomercials of yesteryear that promised acne free skin, the perfect beach body, and whitened teeth all with one pill and at the low price of a few bucks a day.

If, perchance, someone complained that it didn’t work or that they did not receive the promised results, they would retort that you just didn’t follow the directions. You didn’t do it right. What exactly didn’t I do right? Take one pill every morning upon waking with a glass of water. It wasn’t rocket science. I wasn’t supposed to take it while balancing on one foot or while suspended upside down by my legs. One pill, one glass of water, every day, and the results would beggar belief.

James is explicit in the way he phrases the exhortation: Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back. There are only so many ways you can read this honestly, and one of those ways isn’t that the individual was never in the truth or that they never knew the truth.

Here we are, at a crossroads of sorts. Either we believe the word of God or the words of men, and if we choose to believe the words of men, then trying to explain away this passage will become a cumbersome exercise where we try to convince ourselves that James was wrong because someone once said you couldn’t wander from the truth once you’re in it, and so they must have never been in it in the first place; otherwise, the person would have been wrong. We can’t allow for that particular possibility, now can we, because the person wrote books and was on television, and others came along and taught the same thing, and now there’s an entire movement of people who insist that salvation is likened to a gilded cage you can never leave. You’re locked in, and that’s that, and no matter what you do when you’re in it, you’re still in it, even if it’s against your will.

It doesn’t matter how many people echo this sentiment; we still have to contend with James and the undeniable fact that he said that if anyone wanders from the truth, those who are still in truth must do their utmost to turn them back.

This isn’t splitting hairs. It’s a matter of life and death, as serious as anything we will have to contend with. If someone doesn’t allow for the possibility that they can wander from the truth and so keep vigilant, awake, on guard, and ever aware of the foundation they are standing upon, then no matter how far they stray, they will still convince themselves that they haven’t because they can’t.

James makes it clear that within a given congregation, you are likely to find those who are in the truth and those who have wandered from it, and it is the duty of those who are in it to turn those who have wandered back to the truth.

It’s not an issue of anecdotal evidence, of which there is plenty, but of what the Bible says. Men wander from the truth. For whatever reason, their love for God no longer burns bright, being in His presence no longer satisfies them, and they wander. No, they’re not being snatched out of God’s hand; they remove themselves from under His covering and seek things other than God's will and way to give them purpose.

Jesus Himself said that if we abide in Him and His words abide in us, we will ask what we will, and it shall be done unto us. For such a small word, ‘IF’ has significant implications, and it’s one of those words we choose to ignore due to its aforementioned implications.

John 15:7, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.”

Herein lies the wondrous interconnectedness of abiding in Him, His words abiding in us, and asking what we desire. For if we are in Him, we will desire nothing of this world but more of Him, and He will gladly reveal more of Himself to those who ask because it is His joy to make Himself known to those who are His.

Another word for abiding is to remain or stay in perpetuity. Take what Jesus said, insisting that if we abide in Him and His words abide in us, and couple that with what James said regarding someone wandering from the truth, and the picture that begins to come into focus isn’t one of sloppy grace, and an automatic cementing in the truth no matter what the individual does, what he pursues, or how far he wanders from it.

Abide in Christ, remain in Him, and you will not wander from the truth. Chase after fads and spiritual fantasies, spend more time getting sun blindness looking for aliens to come and perform a cavity check than you do in the Word, and yes, you run the risk of wandering from the truth. If that occurs, those who remain in truth have a duty before God to warn you, and whether you respond positively to their warning and return to the truth, or label them unloving for daring to say that messing with astrology, messages in the stars, and soul casting isn’t profitable for your spiritual man is on you. You never know who will receive the truth until you speak the truth to them. Some who will receive it will surprise you, and some who will reject it will likewise come as a shock.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

 It’s easy to get lost when you don’t have a map. Or if you happen to be hiking, which I hear is a thing people do if the trail is not properly marked, with arrows pointing the way for the intrepid and surefooted, it’s easy to wander and get turned around, especially if you’ve never been there before. I like taking walks as much as anybody, but I tend to get a bit leery when I see people strapping on fifty-pound backpacks and talking about eight hours each way. There are mosquitos and bugs in the woods, and eight hours of trekking through the underbrush, hoping you don’t get lost, and checking to see if you have cell service every few minutes in case you do just isn’t my cup of tea. Neither is tea, for that matter. I’ll take coffee any day, even gas station coffee. Now I’ve offended the English. Some days, you just can’t win.

Not everyone enjoys the same thing. We must allow for each other’s differences in these matters, but just because you went for a hike doesn’t make you Meriwether Lewis or William Clark. The route was already mapped out for you, the markers were freshly painted, and other than poison ivy, you didn’t discover much anyway. This isn’t me being testy; I’m just fresh off a conversation I had with a hiking enthusiast whose story was so self-congratulatory and grandiose one would have thought they climbed Everest blindfolded. Relax, Chucky, it was the kid’s nature walk in a middling national park. I think the backpack and water gourds were a bit of an overkill.

The only way to get lost on a clearly marked path is to wander off, whether because you think you know better than those who blazed the trail or because you saw something shiny off in the distance that you couldn’t help but go and investigate. No one made you wander off the path; you did it willingly, voluntarily, and of your own volition. If you were traveling in a group, perhaps there were even others who warned against going off into the thicket, insisting that it was smarter just to stick to the path itself, but you rolled your eyes, called them a prude, asked them where their sense of adventure was, and went off into the wild.

The way is the way; it has been since Jesus walked the earth, and it has not changed. Although people have attempted to find easier paths, ones that did not require a climb or any exertion on their part, the destination was always different than that of the old path because it’s the only path that leads to that particular destination. It’s not whether a trail is easy that matters; it’s whether it will lead you to where you want to go.

Whenever I’ve flown over the last couple of years, the announcement has added a new wrinkle that at first I thought was for the benefit of levity, but given the common sense deficit we’ve seen of late, I get the impression they’re as serious as a live round on a movie set.

The new addition informs you of that particular plane’s destination, then the announcer says, if this is not your destination, please let a flight attendant know so we can get you off this plane. There was one instance where a lady wearing pajamas and a ten-gallon hat got frantic and said she was supposed to be going to Chattanooga while the flight she was on was going to Dallas, but thankfully, that was the only one.

Are you headed in the right direction? Is your destination firmly affixed in your mind, and is the destination the thing that drives you ever onward?

If we notice someone wandering from the truth, our attitude should not be one of indifference. Once again, James highlights the importance of brotherly love and seeing the household of faith as a body that must take steps to restore a weak, sick, or lethargic member.

To notice that someone has wandered from the truth, you, yourself must know it and walk in it. Someone already in error will not be bothered by another who likewise walks in error. Someone walking in truth, possessing the love of Christ, will always show concern when another wanders from it.

Your duty isn’t to let them wander off further and further into the dark but to try to turn them back. Yes, you may be deemed unloving, intolerant, bigoted, a zealot, and a legalist when you approach someone and lovingly warn them of their error, but that can’t be helped.

I can’t control another’s actions, but I can control my own. I can’t control how someone will react to being warned of the error of their ways or that they are wandering from the path of righteousness, but I can do what the Word instructs and risk being mischaracterized, maligned, and hated. The wages are too high for you to keep silent because it’s a matter of a soul being saved from death.

James 5:19-20, “Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.”

It’s not self-righteous to warn another that they have wandered from the truth. It’s not holier than thou or sanctimonious; it’s biblical. Anyone who accuses you of being smug, haughty, or supercilious for pointing to the Word and warning that they are wandering from it simply does not want to acknowledge their error and is lashing out with personal attacks.

Tell me where I’m wrong Biblically, not that you didn’t like my tone or that I could have been gentler in my delivery. If I care more about your soul than you do, then there’s a problem, and it’s not the manner in which a warning was delivered.

We should care more about our souls than a scratch on our new car or a stain on a new shirt. We should, but there are many things we should be doing that we aren’t, and that’s to our shame.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.