Voices of Dissent
It is said that history has a tendency to repeat itself. If this is truly the case then we should not be surprised when we see ourselves right smack dab in the middle of an age-old problem, facing the same results that the people of the past had to face.
Years before there ever was a reformation there were voices. These voices paved the way for what Luther and Calvin and the rest continued to pursue. But the price they paid in failing to conform to the political and religious powers and influences that ruled in their time led in each and every case to their eventual deaths. Peter Waldo was excommunicated in 1184. John Wyclif died in prison in 1384 and his bones were later dug up and burned in 1415. That same year John Hus was burnt at the stake. Girolamo Savonarola found himself at the end of a rope in 1498. If I had the time I could recount at least a dozen other voices that were silenced because they appealed to the words written in the Bible as final religious authority.
We are living in difficult times when it comes to what is understood to be true. Most of us have been allowed to stand upon the shoulders of those who have paid the ultimate price for our religious freedom. But history tells us that luxury only lasts for a little while when it comes to our ability to stand for what is right without threat of persecution. Eventually the masses get lazy. They leave God for the world and those who stay with God end up in the minority. The more the lies of immorality are accepted the more difficult will be the days for those who wish to defend that which is true.
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To be a true voice of dissent in an era of spiritual darkness means physical death. That’s just how it is. But the blood of martyrs is like seed, and that blood will once again lead to the restoration of truth for a generation of people, even if it is short lived.
With regard to all of these things I have two things for which I am so very thankful. I am thankful that I have been blessed to live for the most of my life in a time of free speech and free religion wherein the majority of what I was raised to believe also happened to line up with what the Bible actually says. And I am thankful for the voices of the past that were never really silenced, even though their bodies were tortured, burned, imprisoned, hung, severed, and everything else imaginable.
I am reminded that every voice in the minority in a wicked and sinful world is more likely to be true than false. There was once a Man who came to bear witness of the truth. But for the truth He proclaimed He was crucified. But he commissioned 12 men and those 12 men turned the world upside down and changed eternity for those who were willing to listen and obey. We are the remnant of that movement. And that remnant will remain, no matter how small, until that Man comes again to reclaim them.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” – Matthew 5:12
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AUTHOR: Jeremiah Tatum
