60. 2 Final Condemnation For Persecutors

(Revelation 18:21-24)

Then a mighty angel picked up a stone the size of a large millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, "This is how the great city Babylon will be violently thrown down and will never be seen again.  The music of harps and of human voices, of players of the flute and the trumpet, will never be heard in you again!  No workman in any trade will ever be found in you again; and the sound of the millstone will be heard no more! Never again will the light of a lamp be seen in you; no more will the voices of brides and grooms be heard in you.  Your businessmen were the most powerful in your world, and with your false magic you deceived all the peoples of the world!"

Babylon was punished because the blood of prophets and God's people was found in the city; yes, the blood of all those who have been killed on earth. 

60.1 Persecutors Will Be Punished

(Matthew 23:32-39)

Go on, then, and finish up what your ancestors started!  You snakes and sons of snakes! How do you expect to escape from being condemned to hell?  And so I tell you that I will send you prophets and wise men and teachers; you will kill some of them, crucify others, and whip others in the synagogues and chase them from town to town.  As a result, the punishment for the murder of all innocent men will fall on you, from the murder of innocent Abel to the murder of Zechariah son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.  I tell you indeed: the punishment for all these murderers will fall on the people of this day!

"Jerusalem, Jerusalem! You kill the prophets and stone the messengers God has sent you! How many times I wanted to put my arms around all your people, just as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you would not let me! And so your temple will be abandoned and empty.  From now on, I tell you, you will never see me again until you say, 'God bless him who comes in the name of the Lord.'"

59.4 A Prayer For Help

(Psalm 70)

Save me, O God! Lord, help me now!
May those who try to kill me be defeated and confused.
May those who are happy because of my troubles be turned back and disgraced.
May those who make fun of me be dismayed by their defeat.

May all who come to you be glad and joyful.
May all who are thankful for your salvation always say, "how great is God!"

I am weak and helpless; come to me quickly, O God.
You are my savior and my Lord-- hurry to my aid!

59.3 Happy The Man Who Perseveres

(James 1:2-4, 12)

My brothers, consider yourselves fortunate when all kinds of trials come your way, for you know that when your faith succeeds in facing such trials, the result is the ability to endure.  Make sure that your endurance carries you all the way without failing, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

Happy is the person who remain faithful under trials, because when he succeeds in passing such a test, he will receive as his reward the life which God has promised to those who love him.

59.2 If God Is With Us, Who Can Separate Us From His Love?

(Romans 8:31-39)

"In view of all this, what can we say?  If God is for us, who can be against us?  Certainly not God, who did not even keep back his own Son, but offered him for us all!  He gave us his Son--will he not also freely give us all things? Who will accuse God's chosen people?  God himself declares them not guilty!  Who, then, will condemn them?  Not Christ Jesus, who  died, or rather, who was raised to life and is at the right side of God, pleading with him for us! Who, then, can separate us from the love of Christ?  Can trouble do it, or hardship or persecution or hunger or poverty or danger of death?  As the scripture says,  "For your sake we are in danger of death at all times;  we are treated like sheep that are going to be slaughtered."

No, in all these things we have complete victory through him who loved us!  For I am certain that nothing can separate us from his love: neither death nor life, neither angels nor other heavenly rulers or powers, neither the present nor the future, neither the world above nor the world below--there is nothing in all creation that will ever be able to separate us from the love of God which is ours through Christ Jesus our lord.