Blessed are you when mankind hates you!

Matthew 5:11 “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.”

The next Beatitude covers several areas but one in general and that is mans hate for the Christian. The Lord uses such words as revile, persecute, evil, and falsely; these are things that mankind loves to do to the Christian, simply because they hate them. Christian such as Baptist and a few others were grossly persecuted by others that called themselves Christians but were not acting as though they were Christians. I am about to get myself in trouble with someone I love very much as I did a couple of weeks ago; but what I am about to say is very provable in history so therefore I can say it with confidence. In what is known as the “dark ages” (that is a period between 500ad – 1700ad) some fifty million Baptist and other Christians were killed by the Roman government, Catholicism, and other that were the product of the reformation period. It was natural for those such as Martin Luther, and many other who left Catholicism who are known as Protestants to hate, revile, and even hurt and kill Christians not associated with them or Catholicism. History will prove out that the early settlers here in America were fleeing from the “Church of England” and other haters of the Baptist and other Christians. Now let me please reiterate this is all very provable if one would simply do an internet search on this subject. I would also recommend one read a book entitled “The Trail of Blood” by J.M. Carroll which is also found on the internet. I understand that Catholicism of today does not seek to kill Baptist and other Christians not associated with them but it is in their past and not denied by the Catholic Hierarchy nor by anyone else that knows Catholic history. I have several Catholic friends and some of my family is Catholic and I love them all but the facts are the facts and history is history.

So today we want to take some time and will most likely we will extend this to another week because it covers such a wide area we simply cannot cover this in just one article. Last week we look at another beatitude “persecuted for righteousness' sake” blessed are them that suffer for doing acts of righteousness but here we see and addition to that which covers a very wide area. This verse basically speaks against those that hate Christians and them that the Lord calls blessed. We sometimes find it hard to understand how we can be blessed when men hate us, but we are because they hated Jesus Christ first and because of that they will hate all other Christians. The world is against us and even in our own Nation today we are most hated by many other Americans. There are many Americans today that would love for the Christians to walk two by two into the sea and disappear. If you are a member of either political party there are those inside of that party that hate and revile you, and would rather you were not a part of their party. Our own government hates us because we disagree with their political laws such as abortion and homosexuality. We are known as “hate mongers” if we disagree with them. But we that are Christians need to “pull up our boot straps” and keep marching forward no matter what is said or done. When we see religions of the world allowed doing things, when it is forbidden for the Christians; please never forgetting it is not you they hate; it is He whom you believe in as your Saviour. You are the only one that they can exercise their frustration on; yes you because to them Jesus Christ is dead. Beloved every time you hear of another Christian being persecuted please remember it is Christ Jesus they truly hate and blessed are you and all other Christians around the world that suffer for the cause of Jesus Christ.
We will continue this verse next week.