The Reason Men Persecute

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 12, 1895

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 21, No. 36.

The Reason Men Persecute

The Reason.—The reason why men persecute, why they pursue a course which leads to persecution, is given in connection with both of the scriptures quoted above. Paul says, “I thought with myself.” Jesus said of those who would kill his disciples, “These things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me.” See Acts 26:9; John 16:3. The difference between persecutors and non-persecutors is not so much a difference between ages, or epochs, or men; for men in all ages are naturally the same. Mere intellectual knowledge will not prevent man from being a persecutor. The difference between Saul and Paul was one of motive and life. When a persecutor, he thought with himself, he did not know God and Christ. If Pilate and the Jews had known the Gospel, the mystery of God, “they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” 1 Cor. 2:8. The reason is simply this: The Gospel of Christ to him who receives it puts Christ within, the hope of glory (Col. 1:27), and the soul thus converted can not lift his hand against Him who rules within.