The Hope of Our Faith – Baptist News Global

Faced with the reality of government oppression, Early Christians foresaw inevitable suffering as a form of imperial reaction and suppression of the revolutionary movement of the church. Living under an autocracy, any person or movement that contradicted that empire was willing to suffer retribution, retribution, or repression.

These trials arose when Christianity, or better said, the “Jesus movement,” contrasted with the Greco-Roman world and the control of the Roman Empire, which sought to “dominate” the people. It was a culture that sought to dictate the existence and customs of the people through the maintenance, formation and promotion of cults that they considered necessary to control communal identity and welfare.

This was the equivalent of the state religion of the empire, and their gods had to be invoked as they kept Roman imperialism alive. Consequently, the monotheistic revolutionary movement of Jesus became a threat to the Roman motive.

The Empire posed a critical question: “How could this movement, born of a martyr, promoted through a massive marketing campaign and supported by the testimony of the people, triumph over an autocratic system?”

This is a question for the inhabitants of a world system that has decided to prohibit holistic liberation. This is our present world if we consider the circumstances facing us.

There is no shortage of problems in America. There is no shortage of trials facing humanity. There is no shortage of persecution faced by those who inhabit this land.

It is clear to us what people have done do it and you will suffer. Not by choice or chance, but most often by the conditions created in this world.

Consider the climate crisis. Think about mass incarceration. Look at the death toll from gun violence. Mourn the state-sanctioned murder of innocent children as a result of war. Follow food deserts. Consider housing inequality. Consider the lack of quality schools. Note the abolition of women’s bodily autonomy. Question the dismantling of black history and the downgrading of public education. Inequalities in access to health care and medications should not be overlooked.

The list goes on ad infinitum of different ways and methods of suffering. As well as the plunder of white supremacy, Christian fascism, and the vicious response and response to those who dare challenge his ideas and the global empire that supports him.

The question facing professing Christians is: “Are you willing to use your faith to destroy our current social order?

“The present trouble of our world demands that prophets, living witnesses of Jesus Christ, change the structure of our actual existence.”

This faith we proudly proclaim not intended to be worn as an item of exclusivity or exclusivity. This faith, which we boldly profess, is not a shortcut or a sign of protection from the intense struggles and stresses of life. This faith which we are commissioned to share is not reserved for the few and the chosen. This faith, which we embody and lead by example, is based on love and community, not individuality and selfishness.

This faith is born in struggle, lived through resistance, strengthened through resurrection, sustained through suffering, proclaimed through eternal hope, determined by the willingness to bring salvation to earth, and must be restored in the midst of the problems of our world. This is an opportunity for radical faith and bold prophetic witness to the true essence of Jesus.

Aubery Hendricks, author Politics of Jesuswrites: “There has never been a conservative prophet. Prophets were never called to preserve social orders that shared inequalities of power, privilege and wealth: prophets were always called to change them so that all could have access to the fullest fruits of life.”

The current problem of our world it takes prophets, living witnesses of Jesus Christ, to change the structure of our real existence. There is a need to denounce white supremacy, reject Christian nationalism, confront the lies of this government, reject the priests of empire, dismantle allegiance to greed and manipulation, protest genocide, and voluntarily isolate close to power.

Therefore, prophets of this faith must anticipate and endure potential suffering, since doing the work of Jesus requires salvation to be made tangible. However, failure to resist gives the modern Caesars, Pilates and Nero the freedom to conquer, dictate and violently eliminate “threats” to their rule. A lesson learned from the early church, the ancestors, and the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Against the backdrop of occupation and dictatorship, people have found a living hope, “who are protected by the power of God through faith in the salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” Their hope was formed in the darkness, revealed to the light, embraced by the bold, proclaimed by the community, focused on the present and future, embodied in the resurrected, confident in Christ, and lived with purpose despite trials that tested them like fire.

This is the hope of our faith revealed through the desire for the rebirth of humanity. Requirement of prophetic testimony.

“We cannot be obedient and quiet in this hour of political evil as gospel deception raises up false gods and king worship.”

We cannot be obedient and quiet in this hour of political evil as gospel deception erects false gods and king worship.

We cannot be apathetic and dismissive of unpredictable global chaos while our Palestinian, Congolese, Sudanese and Haitian relatives are being massacred.

We cannot be indifferent as vulnerable people suffer loudly and silently every day.

Alternatively, there is radical hope to share.

This hope Johnny Kinney defines as “a cup that everyone can access and drink from.” This is hope, which Mama Itihari Toure defined as “a table where no one is left out or excluded.” Aubery Hendricks states that hope “treats the needs of people as sacred.”

Surely true followers of Jesus are disciples of a radical faith, gifted by a radical God, exemplified by a radical older brother, and living by the radical Holy Spirit. It is in this radical that our hope resides, remains and will always remain until salvation comes to earth.

Jamar A. Boyd II serves the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference as senior manager of organizational impact. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in sports management and business from Georgia Southern University and a Master of Divinity degree from Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology at Virginia Union University. He is a former justice reform organizer at the Interfaith Center for Public Policy of Virginia. He is also a graduate student at the Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology.