Sometimes I wonder why nobody is persecuting me. Jesus promised his disciples that persecution would always be a byproduct of true faith, and that was certainly the case for most of them.
If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.
– John 15:19-20
History testifies to many multitudes of Bible-believers being thrown to the lions – both metaphorically and literally – but aside from the occasional angry mob on Twitter, I’ve rarely been persecuted for my faith in Jesus Christ. Perhaps you’ve had a similarly comfortable experience as a Christian living in 21st Century America.
So what should we make of this? First, we should be grateful to live in a time and place in which following Jesus is not a crime. Many (if not most) Christians throughout the last two thousand years have necessarily worshiped God in secret, and many still do so in some parts of the world today.
Second, we should be willing to honestly examine whether the lack of persecution we’re experiencing has anything to do with a deficit of boldness in our faith. The way of Jesus is so viscerally counter-cultural that it cannot be squared with modern-day norms and values, so if we find ourselves being accepted by the world, it begs the question: Are we following Jesus faithfully, or have we assimilated to fit more comfortably into the culture?
The Book of Daniel shows us that true allegiance to God will always come at a cost to the believer. As it was for Daniel, so it is for us. Believers in 21st Century America aren’t being thrown to the lions, but I believe we are under increasingly immense pressure to assimilate to the culture or else. Refusing to bend the knee to our culture’s idols and gods may not cost you your life, but it’s bound to cost you something.
In 587 BC, Babylonian military forces struck Jerusalem and left the holy city in ruins. In the aftermath of their conquest, Babylonian officials took the best and brightest people in Jerusalem as captives and forced them to live in Babylon in exile for 50 years. Among the exiles was a young man named Daniel, who was around 20 when he was taken captive and carted off to Babylon.
A couple of years ago, my wife and I had the opportunity to visit Berlin, and one day, while strolling through a museum, we stumbled upon this massive, ancient wall with a prominent entrance, which is called the Ishtar Gate.
Ishtar was the goddess of sex, love, and beauty, and she was often portrayed as a curvy woman, clutching her own breasts. Her cult was led by priests, most of whom were men who dressed like women and changed their names to traditionally female names. A practice called sacred prostitution – in which men would bring financial gifts to Ishtar in exchange for conjugal rights with a girl or young woman in the temple – was a common practice throughout Babylon when young Daniel lived there.
The Babylonian king dedicated his majestic gate to Ishtar, which explains why it’s covered with images of lions, Ishtar’s patron animal. Historians are fairly certain that this very gate is the one that Daniel – along with thousands of other Israelite exiles – were forced to walk through as they entered Babylon.
Daniel was extraordinarily smart and faithful, so Babylon’s king appointed him to be trained to serve as a royal advisor. As part of his training, Daniel was introduced to the dark arts of Babylonian astrology and mysticism. As you’ll see in this passage, although Daniel stood out because of his godliness, in a hostile culture like ancient Babylon, godliness always puts a target on your back.
Now Daniel so distinguished himself among the administrators and the satraps by his exceptional qualities that the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. At this, the administrators and the satraps tried to find grounds for charges against Daniel in his conduct of government affairs, but they were unable to do so. They could find no corruption in him, because he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent. Finally these men said, “We will never find any basis for charges against this man Daniel unless it has something to do with the law of his God.”
So these administrators and satraps went as a group to the king and said: “May King Darius live forever! The royal administrators, prefects, satraps, advisers and governors have all agreed that the king should issue an edict and enforce the decree that anyone who prays to any god or human being during the next thirty days, except to you, Your Majesty, shall be thrown into the lions’ den. Now, Your Majesty, issue the decree and put it in writing so that it cannot be altered—in accordance with the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be repealed.” So King Darius put the decree in writing.
Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before.Then these men went as a group and found Daniel praying and asking God for help. So they went to the king and spoke to him about his royal decree: “Did you not publish a decree that during the next thirty days anyone who prays to any god or human being except to you, Your Majesty, would be thrown into the lions’ den?” The king answered, “The decree stands—in accordance with the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be repealed.” Then they said to the king, “Daniel, who is one of the exiles from Judah, pays no attention to you, Your Majesty, or to the decree you put in writing. He still prays three times a day.”
So the king gave the order, and they brought Daniel and threw him into the lions’ den…
– Daniel 6:3-13, 16
From any rational point of view, this was religious persecution, but from the Babylonians’ perspective, Daniel’s refusal to get in line with the king’s order represented a threat to Babylonian unity. Daniel’s punishment wasn’t about religious persecution – it was about Daniel’s refusal to accept ‘us’ and ‘our ways’.
“We weren’t telling Daniel not to worship his God,” the Babylonians may have said, “we were simply asking him to worship his God as one of us! We are very tolerant people, but we simply cannot tolerate people who refuse to tolerate us…”
The king decreed that everyone in Babylon should worship together, under one Babylonian banner. Jews like Daniel could still worship their God, but only if they allowed their God to be placed alongside Ishtar and the pantheon of other Babylonian deities.
In other words, Daniel could continue to worship YHWH, as long as it was within the tolerant framework of Babylonian polytheism. That’s exactly what many Israelites in Babylon chose to do, but Daniel refused. He knew that the one true God can’t be assimilated alongside the false gods of Babylon.
There was a price to pay for Daniel’s disobedience. When people are led to redefine love to mean lust, perversion, or promiscuity, as the Babylonians were, and when people make up their minds that unity and tolerance are more important than truth, as the Babylonians did, they’ll do anything to purge those deemed to be intolerant and unloving. And in a context like that, anyone who stands up and says, “Hey, that’s not what love is, and that’s not who God is!” will soon become public enemy number one.
That’s what happened to Daniel, and it’s also what happened to the first generation of Christians. Six hundred years after Daniel was thrown to the lions, followers of Jesus were persecuted by a new Babylon – the Roman Empire – which sought to unify the world under one banner by way of Pax Romana – Roman peace. Peace by force.
It’s not just the New Testament that tells us how the Romans persecuted Christians; Roman officials at the time made it no secret:
“Nero falsely accused and executed with the most exquisite punishments those people called Christians, who were infamous for their abominations. The originator of the name, Christ, was executed as a criminal by the procurator Pontius Pilate during the reign of Tiberius; and though repressed, this destructive superstition erupted again, not only through Judea, which was the origin of this evil, but also through the city of Rome, to which all that is horrible and shameful floods together and is celebrated. Therefore, first those were seized who admitted their faith, and then, using the information they provided, a vast multitude were convicted, not so much for the crime of burning the city, but for hatred of the human race. And perishing they were additionally made into sports: they were killed by dogs by having the hides of beasts attached to them, or they were nailed to crosses or set aflame, and, when the daylight passed away, they were used as nighttime lamps. Nero gave his own gardens for this spectacle and performed a Circus game, in the habit of a charioteer mixing with the plebs or driving about the race-course. Even though they were clearly guilty and merited being made the most recent example of the consequences of crime, people began to pity these sufferers…”
– Annals, written in AD 109 by Tacitus, a Roman historian
Again, from a reasonable perspective, it was religious persecution, but from the Roman point of view, those Christians needed to get in line with the Roman way of life. It’s fine that they’re Christians, but they need to be Romans first. Tacitus later wrote, “In the event that a Christian agreed to sacrifice to the Roman gods, the Emperor decreed that all would be forgiven.” Throughout the period of Roman persecution, several emperors offered amnesty to imprisoned Christians in exchange for just one sacrifice made to a Roman god. Some Christians – including some clergy – took the deal by making one sacrifice to one Roman god, and then they were given certificates which proved their compliance.
Nevertheless, most Christians were faithful in the face of persecution. Through the first two centuries, untold thousands of believers were beheaded, crucified, burned to death, or torn to shreds by the lions in front of stadiums full of cheering Romans.
One Christian who stands out was Perpetua, a well-to-do Roman citizen who, in the year 203 AD, converted to Christianity. She was 22 years old and pregnant with her first child at the time, but that didn’t stop Roman officials from arresting her. She gave birth while in prison, and nursed her newborn inside her cell. Her wealthy parents came to visit her multiple times, begging her to renounce her faith and to make one sacrifice to a god or goddess, but Perpetua refused and was sentenced to death along with several others who were with her. On her last day on earth, Perpetua handed her baby over to her father, and then Roman guards led her into a packed arena, where she was attacked by wild animals and eventually beheaded. Through it all, Perpetua never renounced her faith in God.
Just like Daniel refused to renounce his, even as King Darius sealed the door, seemingly sealing Daniel’s fate. There was no way out, or so it seemed. But nothing is impossible for God. He is able to shut the lion’s mouths, and that’s exactly what He did. The next day, Daniel emerged unscathed, but we must understand that, even if the lions had devoured him, Daniel would have accepted his fate without compromising his faith in God.
Daniel’s faith under pressure provides a framework for us today. He was:
1. Devoted behind closed doors. He didn’t just perform his faith at opportune times; he was genuinely faithful, even when no one but God was watching.
2. Blameless before God and neighbor. Daniel’s character was impeccable, so by the time the world pointed its guns at them, he hadn’t provided them with ammunition.
3. Victorious, even in what looked like defeat. He entered the lions’ den with the kind of confidence and security that only comes from faith in God.
Jesus’ brother James put it like this:
Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.
– James 1:12
When you’re completely faithful to Jesus, persecution will come your way. Daniel, along with Perpetua, James, and the rest of the early believers, showed us how to persevere through persecution and to overcome a hostile world, instead of assimilating to it.
