The Metamorphosis from Persecution to Suffering

Since hearing it in Handel's Messiah, I have been pondering a prophecy from Isaiah for several weeks:

"I gave my back to smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting" (Isa 50:6).

In this case, Jesus willingly and willfully endured the shame of the cross (and its preamble) because He was the herald of the Good News of salvation. He was suffering for the gospel as an example to all those who would follow Him and tell of Him!

And yet, there is a substantive difference between the doctrine of persecution and a theology of suffering. Suffering can involve self-imposed pain and hardship in a Buddhist, Stoic, or Monastic sense. Whereas, persecution for the proclamation of the gospel is not self-imposed. It is acted out by others out of a hatred for the gospel.

Paul referred to this same persecution for the gospel in Romans 8:16-17: "The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs--heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together."

As the Early Church moved from an evangelism emphasis to a lifestyle emphasis, so morphed its doctrine of suffering. When the church became a state-church--state-sponsored, state-supported, state-promoted, and state-protected--then this change became inextricably entrenched. In a state church system, is not the general population considered a part of the church? If everybody is a Christian, then who is left to persecute Christians? The doctrine of persecution had morphed to adapt to a state-protected church.

But persecution for the gospel did and does exist. And in part, the state-church became a chief source in persecuting others for the gospel. And yet state-church theology continued to adapt, develop, and be passed down. Perhaps this is why a doctrine of persecution is not part of the regular diet of study in a course in systematic theology.

"Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with us in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God" (2 Tim 1:8).