Captive Faith

Why are Christians persecuted? What is God’s purpose for it? Why do people do it? How are believers to meet it? Roy Stults has compiled the church’s reactions and responses to persecution from its earliest centuries. Chapter eight offers deeply perceptive insights into persecution from theologians of the last sixty years. Download your free copy of the entire book in PDF format now.

Firmin Abauzit was born into a Huguenot family in France in 1679. After King Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes in 1685, depriving Huguenots of civil liberties and the right to worship as Protestants, Firmin’s mom helped the ten-year-old escape from France. For two years he and a brother hid out before making their way to Geneva. Firmin went on to become an internationally-known scholar and scientist (unfortunately, family with different religious views destroyed most of his works after his death). His mom, however, went to prison for her role in helping her sons leave France where authorities had attempted to force a Catholic education on them. She eventually escaped herself and joined her sons.

William Prynne, a Puritan lawyer, wrote Histriomastix, or the Player’s Scourge, directed against the sinfulness of play-acting, masques, and revels. This aroused the indignation of the British court because he unwisely declared actresses were whores. Since Queen Henrietta Maria enjoyed plays and sometimes took part in performances herself, his statement was considered seditious.

George Whitefield was a well-known evangelist during the Evangelical revival in England in the eighteenth century, a co-laborer at times with John and Charles Wesley. Although he did not suffer martyrdom, he suffered ridicule and knew what it was to be excluded from pulpits. Therefore he could speak first hand of persecution. One of his more famous sermons was titled, “Persecution Every Christian’s Lot.” In it he presented a biblical perspective on Christian suffering.