Church Identity and Perpetuity Part 18

 The seventh mark of the Apostolic Church was that, although there were a few exceptions, the members were generally poor, obscure, unlearned, afflicted, despised, and persecuted. –Hassell

The seventh mark is different from the others because it isn’t about a principle that the church chooses to hold onto, but it’s equally as important when it comes to identifying the Lord’s Church.  It is a description of the church that is found in scripture. We have examples of this starting with our Lord as the head of the church and including his saints from the entire Bible. Being despised of the world is not something that we or any of our examples enjoy or wish for but is nevertheless a very meaningful characteristic of the church; it ultimately reflects God’s choice and what he values compared to what the world values.

Consider our Lord, although he is verily God and ever has all the rights and privileges of his glory, he made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross (Phil 2:5-8).

He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. –Isaiah 53:3

Jesus declared to those wishing to follow him, that unlike the foxes and birds, he had no where to lay his head (Mt 8:20). He was raised in Nazareth where no one expected anything great (Jn 1:46), and was uneducated by the institutions of men (Jn 7:15). What a character! Not at all what folks of that day admired and even today the real Jesus is not acceptable to the world.

Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him? –James  2:5

It pleases God to bless folks that are despised of this world (Mt 5:3-12). That’s His sovereign choice. We should remember this well-attested pattern when we read history about groups that were labeled radicals and fanatics by a church-state establishment and dismissed as heretics with a broad-brush by the esteemed academic historians of our day. Not that being rejected by distinguished academics means a group was the church, but it is at least one thing that group would have in common with Jesus and his unlikely apostles. See also 1Cor 1:26-29.

One final thing we should note is that being persecuted by the powers of the world is a mark of identity with Christ and his Apostolic Church. From the time Constantine’s adoption of Christianity as an official state religion to today, not only did catholic churches not have that mark of identity, they were many times sanctioning and cooperating with the great persecuting dragon, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan (Rev 12). Regardless of the nature and character of the various weak groups persecuted throughout church history, the men advocating for corporal punishment for “heretics” are not identified with the Lord. Again, not everyone who is persecuted is in the church, but the Lord indicated that it would be the lot for those that follow him (Mt 5:10-12, Jn 15:20, Jn 16:2). Cain killed Abel because Abel was more righteous and that is a repeating pattern throughout history.

But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. –Gal 4:29-30