What is the persecution complex? There are two opposing beliefs about persecution which I refer to as the persecution complex. The first one says that just because you are being persecuted, you must therefore be doing the will of God, while the second one says that because you are not doing the will of God, you are therefore being indirectly punished by God! Almost all of us have experienced or even fallen for at least one of these two beliefs if not both through the different seasons of life. In this article, I'm going to expand on these two beliefs and expose their falsehood and the danger that they pose to our walk with God, as well as our testimonies.
The first radical and wrong view of persecution resorts to scare mongering tactics to scare people of the consequences of following Christ to the point that most people they witness to falsely conclude that they'd be better off without Christ in their lives. The only people that they manage to convince are the people who easily fall for this type of persecution complex, and they think that just because they are being "persecuted", that it somehow proves that they are the true church, or that they are the true believers while ignoring all the other people in the world who are also being persecuted for different reasons!
The second one, only talks about the blessings of following Christ and creates the illusion that God is not going to let anything bad happen to us if we decide to follow Him. This group usually preaches about what is known as rapture where they teach that God is going to rapture the true believers during the tribulations of the last days so they won't have to deal with the anti-Christ! There's even another group that teaches there's no such a thing as anti-Christ and anti-Christ has already come and gone in 70 A.D. and we are now living in the kingdom time, both of which are completely false, unbiblical and easy to debunk. This group manages to convince the people who prefer fantasy to reality, because it doesn't take a genius to read through the Bible and see that bad things happen to believers all the time even though God tends to bring good out of evil. You don't really need to read through the Bible for this one; you just need to look around!
These two radical groups are one of the most destructive groups among Christians that I have seen. The reality is that the Bible promises both blessings, prosperity as well as persecution and suffering for Christ's sake, and yet at the same time it makes it abundantly clear that we would live a much better, blessed, joyful and fulfilling life if we allow God into our life than not! Perhaps Mark 8:35 is one of my favorite verses to go to, when it comes to this topic where Jesus says, "For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it." He doesn't say whoever wants to save their life will save it, neither does he say that whoever follows him will not lose their life as a result of following him!
The amount of deception in this world is mind-blowing and can be depressing and crippling if we focus on what our enemies are doing. This is where we can take a step back, breathe in and find rest in God's promises by focusing on what God is doing. Romans 8:28 is one of my favorite verses when it comes to what God is doing. Paul says, "For we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose."
