A CLEAN SWEEP

THE GOOD NEWS BULLETIN

ENDURING PERSECUTION
-By John Calvin
All the exhortations, which can be given us to suffer patiently for the name of Jesus Christ and in defense of the Gospel will have no effect if we do not feel assured of the cause for which we fight. When we are called to part with life, it is absolutely necessary to know on what grounds. The firmness necessary we cannot possess, unless it be founded on certainty of faith.
It is true that persons may be found who will foolishly expose themselves to death in maintaining some absurd opinions and reveries conceived by their own brain, but such impetuosity is more to be regarded as frenzy than as Christians zeal; and in fact, there is neither firmness nor sound sense in those who thus, at a kind of haphazard, cast themselves away. But however this may be, it is in a good cause only that God can acknowledge us as his martyrs. Death is common to all, and the children of God are condemned to ignominy and tortures just as criminals are; but God makes the distinction between them, inasmuch as He cannot deny His truth. On our part, it is requisite that we have sure and infallible evidence of the doctrine, which we maintain; and hence, as I have said, we cannot be rationally impressed by any exhortations, which we receive to suffer persecution for the Gospel if no true certainty of faith has been imprinted in our heart. To hazard our lives upon a peradventure is not natural, and though we were to do it, it would only be rashness, not Christian courage. In a word, nothing that we do will be approved of God if we are not thoroughly persuaded that it is for Him and for His cause we suffer persecution and the world is our enemy.
Now, when I speak of such persecution, I mean not merely that we must know how to distinguish between true religion and the abuses of follies of men, but also that we must be thoroughly persuaded of the Heavenly life and the crown, which is promises us above, after we shall have fought here below. Let us understand, then, that both of these requisites are necessary and cannot be separated from each other.
The points, accordingly, with which we must commence, are these: We must know well what our Christianity is, what the faith which we have to hold and follow, what the rule which God has given us; and we must be so well furnished with such instruction as to be able to condemn all the falsehoods, errors, and superstitions which Satan has introduced to corrupt the pure simplicity of the doctrines of God.
We now see The True Method of Preparing to Suffer for the Gospel. First we must have profited so far in the school of God as to be decided in regard to true religion and the doctrine, which we hold. We must despise all the wiles and impostures of Satan and all human inventions as things frivolous and carnal as they corrupt Christian purity; therein differing, like true martyrs of Christ, from the fantastic persons who suffer for her absurdities. Second, feeling assured of the good cause, we must be inflamed, accordingly, to follow God whithersoever He may call us. His Word must have such authority with us as it deserves, and, having withdrawn from this world, we must feel enraptured in seeking the heavenly life.
But it is more than strange, that though the light of God is shinning more brightly than it ever did before, there is a lamentable want of zeal. In short, it is impossible to deny that it is to our great shame, not to say fearful condemnation, that we have so well known the truth of God and have so little courage to maintain it.
Above all, when we look to the martyrs of past times, well may we detest our own cowardice! The greater part of those was not persons much versed in Holy Scripture, so as to be able to dispute on all subjects. They knew that there was one God, whom they behoved to worship and serve; that they had been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, in order that they might place their confidence in salvation in Him and in His grace; and that all the inventions of men, being mere dross and rubbish, they ought to condemn all idolatries and superstitions. In one word, their theology was in substance this: There is one God who created all the world and declared His will to us by Moses and the prophets, and finally by Jesus Christ and his apostles; and we have one sole Redeemer, who purchased us by His blood, and by whose grace we hoped to be saved. All the idols of the world are cursed and deserve execution.
With a system embracing no other points than these, they went boldly to the flames, or to any other kind of death. They did not go in twos or threes, but in such band, that the number of those who fell by the hands of tyrants is almost infinite.
What then should be done in order to inspire our breast with true courage? We have, in the first place, to consider how precious the confession of our faith is in the sight of God. We little know how much God prizes it, if our lives, which are nothing, are valued by us more highly. When it is so, we manifest a marvelous degree of stupidity. We cannot save our lives at the expense of our confession without acknowledging that we hold them in higher estimation than the honor of God and the salvation of our souls.
A heathen could say, “It was a miserable thing to save life by giving up the only thing which made life desirable!” And yet he and others like him never knew for what end men are placed in the world, and why they live in it. We know far better what the chief aim of life should be, namely, to glorify God, in order that he may be our glory. When this is not done, woe to us! We cannot continue to live for a single moment upon the earth without heaping additional curses on our heads. Still, we are not ashamed to purchase some few days to languish here below, renouncing the eternal kingdom by separating ourselves from Him by whose energy we are sustained in life.
But as persecution is always harsh and bitter, let us consider, how and by what means Christians may be able to fortify themselves with patience, so as unflinchingly to expose their lives for the truth of God. The text which we have read out, when it is properly understood, is sufficient to induce us to do so. The apostle says, “Let us go forth from the city after the Lord Jesus Christ, bearing His reproach.” In the first place, he reminds us, although the swords should not be drawn over us nor the fires kindled to burn us, we cannot be truly united to the Son of God while we are rooted in the world. Wherefore, a Christian, even in repose, must always have one foot lifted to march to battle, and not only so, but he must have his affections withdrawn from the world, although his body is dwelling in it.
Meanwhile, to solace our infirmities and mitigate the vexation and sorrow which persecution might cause us, a good reward is held forth. In suffering for the cause of God, we are walking step-by-step after the Son of God and have him for our guide. Were it simply said that to be Christians we must pass through all the insults of the world boldly, to meet death at all times and in whatever way God may be pleased to appoint, we might apparently have some pretext for replying. It is a strange road to go at a peradventure. But when we are commanded to follow the Lord Jesus, His guidance is too good and honorable to be refused.
Are we so delicate as to be unwilling to endure anything? Then we must renounce the grace of God by which He has called us to the hope of salvation. There are two things, which cannot be separated, to be members of Christ and to be tried by many afflictions.
It were easy indeed for God to crown us at once without requiring us to sustain any combats; but as it is His pleasure that until the end of the world Christ shall reign in the midst of His enemies, so it is also His pleasure that we, being placed in the midst of them, shall suffer their oppression and violence until He deliver us. I know, indeed, that the flesh kicks when it is to be brought to this point, but still the will of God must have mastery.
In ancient times, vast numbers of people, to obtain simple crowns of leaves, refused no toil, no pain, and no trouble. It even cost them nothing to die, and yet every one of them gambled in a race, not knowing whether he was going to gain or lose the prize. God holds forth to us the immortal crown by which we may become partakers of His glory. He does not mean to fight at haphazard, but all of us have a promise of the prize fore which we strive. Have we any cause then to decline the struggle? Do we think it has been said in vain, “If we die with Jesus Christ, we shall also live with Him?” Our triumph is prepared, and yet we do all we can to shun the combat.

To leave no mention, which may be fitted to stimulate us unemployed, God sets before us promises on the one hand, and threatenings on the other. Do we feel that the promises have not sufficient influence, let us strengthen them by adding the threatenings? It is true we must be perverse in the extreme not to put more faith in the promises of God when the Lord Jesus says that He will own us as His before the Father, provided we confess Him before men.
But if God cannot win us to Himself by gentile means, must we not be mere blocks if His threatenings also fail? Jesus summons all those, who from fear of temporal death shall have denied the truth, to appear at the bar of the Father, and says, that then body and soul will be consigned to perdition. In another passage He says He will disclaim all who shall have denied Him before men. These words, if we are not altogether impervious to feeling, might well make our hair stand on end!
It is vain for us to allege that pity should be strewn us, inasmuch as our natures are so frail; for it is said, on the contrary, that Moses, having looked to God by faith, was fortified so as not to yield under any temptation. Wherefore, when we are thus soft and easy to bend, it is a manifest sign. I do not say that we have no zeal, no firmness, but that we know nothing either of God or His Kingdom.
There are two points to be considered. The first is that the whole body of the church in general has always been, and to the end will be, liable to be afflicted by the wicked. Therefore, on seeing how the church of God is trampled upon the present day by proud worldlings, how one barks and another bites, how they torture, how they plot against her, how she is assailed incessantly by mad dogs and savage beasts, let it remind us that the same thing was done in all the olden times.
Meanwhile, the issue of her afflictions has always been fortunate. At all events, God has caused that though she has been pressed by many calamities, she has never been completely crushed; as it is said, “The wicked with all their efforts have not succeeded in that at which they aimed.” Paul glories in the fact and shows how this is the course which God in mercy always takes. He says, “We endure tribulations, but we are not in agony; we are impoverished, but not left destitute; we are persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but we perish not; bearing everywhere in our body the mortification of the Lord Jesus Christ, in order that this life might be manifested in our mortal bodies” 2 CO.4: 8-10.
I only touch on this article briefly to come to the second, which is more to our purpose: that we ought to take advantage of the particular example of the martyrs who have gone before us. These are not confined to two or three, but are, as the apostle says, “a great and dense cloud.” By this expression, he intimates that the number is so great that it ought completely to engross our sight. Not to be tedious, I will only mention the Jews, who were persecuted for the true religion, and not only under the tyranny of King Antiochus, but also a little after his death. We cannot allege that the number of sufferers was small, for it formed a large army of martyrs. We cannot say that it consisted of prophets which God had set apart from common people, for women and young children formed part of the band. We cannot say that they got off with a cheap rate, for they were tortured as cruelly as it was possible to be, we hear what the apostle says, “Some were stretched out like drums, not caring to be delivered, that they might obtain a better resurrection; others were proved by mockery and blows, or bonds and prisons; other were stoned or sawn asunder; others traveled up and down, wandering among mountains and caves” HE.11: 35-38.
Let us now compare their case with ours. If we so endured for the truth, which was at that time to obscure, what ought we do in the clear light, which is now shinning? God speaks to us with open mouth; the great gate of the kingdom of Heaven has been opened, and Jesus Christ call us to Himself, after having come down to us that we might have Him present to our eyes. What a reproach it be to us to have less zeal in suffering for the Gospel than those who only hailed the promises afar off, who had only a little wicket opened whereby to come to the kingdom of God, and who and only some memorial and type of Jesus Christ? These things cannot be expressed in word as they deserve, and therefore I leave each to ponder them for himself.
In the first place, then, the Christian man, wherever he may be, must resolve, notwithstanding dangers or threatenings, to walk in simplicity as God has commanded. Let him guard, as much as he can against the ravening wolves, but let it not be with carnal craftiness. Above all, let him place his life in the hands of God. Has he done so? Then if he happens to fall into the hands of the enemy, let him think God, having so arranged, is pleased to have him for one of the witnesses of His Son. Therefore, he has no means of drawing back without breaking faith with Him to whom we have promised all duty in life and in death, Him whose we are and to whom we belong, even though we should have made no promise.
Let it be held, then, as a fixed point among all Christians that they ought to hold their lives more precious than the testimony to the truth, inasmuch as God wishes to be glorified. Is it in vain that He gives the names of witnesses (for this is the meaning of the word martyr) To all who have no answer before the enemies of faith? Here everyone is not to look for his fellow, for God does not honor all alike with the call. And as we are inclined to look, we must be the more on our guard against it. Peter having heard from the lips of our Lord Jesus that he should be led in his old age where he would not, asked what was to become of his companion John. There is not one of us who would not readily have put the same question, for the thought, which instantly rises in our minds is, why do I suffer rather than others? On the contrary, Jesus Christ exhorts all of us in common and each of us in particular to hold ourselves “ready” in order that according as He shall call this one or that one, we may march forth in our turn.
I explained above how little prepared we shall be to suffer martyrdom if we be not armed with the divine promises. It now remains to show somewhat more fully what the purport and aim of these promises are, not to specify them all in detail, but to show the principle things which God wishes us to hope from him to console us in our afflictions. Now these things, taken summarily, are three. The first is, that inasmuch as our lives and deaths are in His hands, He will so preserve by His might that not a hair will be plucked out of our heads without His leave. Believers, therefore, ought to feel assured into whatever hands they may fall that God is not divested of the guardianship, which he exercises over their persons. Were such a persuasion well imprinted upon our hearts, we should be delivered from the greater part of the doubts and perplexities, which torment us in our duties.
We see tyrants let loose; thereupon, it seems to us that God no longer possesses any means of saving us, and we are tempted to provide for our own affairs as if nothing more were to be expected from Him. On the contrary, his providence, as He unfolds it, ought to be regarded by us as an impregnable fortress. Let us labor, then, to learn the full import of the expression that our bodies are in the hands of Him who created them. For this reason, he has sometimes delivered his people in a miraculous manner and beyond all human expectation, as Shedrach, Meshach, and Abednego from the firey furnace; Daniel from the lions; Peter from Herod’s prison, where he was locked in, chained, and guarded so closely. By these examples, He meant to testify that He holds our enemies in check, although it may not seem so, and has power to withdraw us from the midst of death when He pleases. Not that He always does it, but in reserving authority to Himself to dispose of us for life and for death, He would have us feel fully assured that He has us under His charge. Whatever tyrants attempt and with whatever fury they may rush against us, it belongs to Him alone to order our lives.
If He permits tyrants to slay us, it is not because our lives are not dear to Him, and in greater honor an hundred times more than they deserve. Such being the case, having declared by the mouth of David that the death of the saints is precious in His sight, He says also by the mouth of Isaiah the earth will discover the blood, which seems to be concealed. Let the enemies of the Gospel, then, be prodigal as they will of the blood of the martyrs, they shall have to render fearful account of it even to its last drop. In the present day, they indulge in proud derision while consigning believers to the flames; and after having bathed in their blood, they are intoxicated by it to such a degree as to count all murders which they commit mere festive sport. But if we have patience to wait, God will show in the end that it is not in vain He had taxed our lives so high a value. Meanwhile, let it not offend us that it seems to confirm the Gospel, which in worth surpasses Heaven and earth.
To be better assured that God does not leave us forsaken in the hands of tyrants, let us remember the declaration of Jesus Christ, when He says that He Himself is persecuted in His members. God had indeed said before by Zachariah, “He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of His eye” ZEC.2: 8. But here it is said much more expressly, that if we suffer for the Gospel, it is as much as if the Son of God were suffering in person. Let us know, therefore, that Jesus Christ must forget Himself before He can cease to think of us when we are in prison or danger of death for His cause. Let us know that God will take to heart all the outrages, which tyrants commit upon us, just as if they were committed upon His own Son.
Let us now come to the second point, which God declares to us in His promise for our consolation. It is, that He will so sustain us by the energy of His Spirit that our enemies do what they may, even with Satan at their head, will gain no advantage over us. And we see how He displays His gifts in such an emergency; for the invincible constancy, which appears in the martyrs abundantly and beautifully demonstrates that God works in them mightily. In persecution there are two things grievous to the flesh, the vituperation and insult of and the tortures, which the body suffers. Now, God promises to hold out His hand to us effectually, that we shall overcome both by patience. What He thus tells us, He confirms by fact. Let us take this buckler, then, to ward off all fears by which we are assailed, and let us not confine the working of the Holy Spirit within such narrow limits as to suppose that He will not easily surmount all the cruelties of men. Of this we have had, among other examples, one, which is particularly memorable. A young man who once lived with us here, having been apprehended in the town of Tournay, was condemned to have his head cut off if he recanted and burned alive if he continued steadfast in his purpose! When he was asked what he meant to do, he replied simply, “He who will give me grace to die patiently for his name will surely give me grace to bear the fire!” We ought to take expression, not as that of a mortal man, but as that of the Holy Spirit, to assure us that God is not less powerful to strengthen us and render us victorious to tortures, than to make us submit to a milder death. Moreover, we oftentimes see what firmness He gives to unhappy malefactors who suffer for their crimes. I speak not of the hardened, but of those who derive consolation from the grace of God, and by this means, with peaceful hearts undergo the most grievous punishments, which can be inflicted. One beautiful instance is seen in the thief who was converted at the death of our Lord. Will God, who thus powerfully assists poor criminal when enduring the punishment of their misdeeds, be so wasting to His own people while fighting for His cause, as not to give them invincible courage?
The third point for consideration in the promises, which God gives His martyrs, is, the fruit, which they ought to hope for from their sufferings, and in the end, if need be, from their deaths. Now, this fruit is that after having glorified His name, after having edified the Church by their constancy, they will be gathered together with the Lord Jesus Christ unto His immortal glory. But as we have above spoken of this at some length, it is enough here to recall it to remembrance. Let believers, then, learn to lift up their heads toward the crowns of glory and immortality to which God invites them, that thus they may not feel reluctant to quit the present life for such recompense. To feel well assured of this inestimable blessing, let them have always before their eyes the conformity which they thus have to our Lord Jesus Christ, beholding death in the midst of life, just as he, by the reproach of the Cross, attained to the glorious resurrection, wherein consists all our felicity, joy, and triumph!