If Today’s Churches Are Preaching Genuine Christianity,
Then Why Are They Never Persecuted?

by Stuart DiNenno

Now here is a question that surely reveals the infidelity of the modern-day Christian ministry: If they are preaching genuine biblical Christianity, as they claim, then why are they never persecuted? If we were living in a society that had already experienced a strong revival of Christianity and a comprehensive reformation of the church, then we might expect the churches to be unmolested. But should we expect them to be at peace in an utterly depraved and anti-Christian culture such as we have today in Western countries?

To ask this question is to answer it. There is an undeniable inconsistency here. The early Christian church was surrounded by a degenerate pagan culture, just as we have today, and it was bitterly persecuted. The Bible tells us in 2 Timothy 3:12 “all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” It testifies that John the Baptist was beheaded, Stephen was stoned to death, James was slain with the sword, Paul received the “forty lashes minus one” five times from the Jews, Peter was imprisoned twice and beaten by the authorities at least once, and all the apostles suffered persecution of some sort.

Likewise, the recorded history of the early church in the first few centuries after the time of the apostles tells us that many Christian ministers were martyred for their faith, and there is no doubt that many more of them suffered other forms of persecution. The same happened during the Protestant Reformation when the Reformers stood against the apostate church of Rome.

In stark contrast, today’s professional ministers are at peace in nations that have not seen similar levels of public wickedness since ancient Rome. It is certain that none of the Christian ministers in this generation are going to be added to Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. In fact, except for a very few pastors in Canada who were jailed recently for refusing to close their churches during the so-called Covid pandemic, it is doubtful that anyone watching this can name even one so-called Christian minister in a Western nation who has suffered any real persecution of any kind. The fact that such persecution is almost non-existent today is, in itself, damning evidence that today’s professional ministers are not preaching authentic Christianity but only an eviscerated counterfeit.