S Orchard
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The Exposing Light of Persecution
The history of the Church of God is useful context and perspective. It has been visible, more or less, for millennia. The period of time from about 600 to 1600 AD – the fall of Rome to the Protestant Reformation – was a time of intense persecution of Sabbatarian Christians. These people – called by various names but “animated by the same principles” – observed doctrines just like our own. But they were hunted and killed by the tens and hundreds of thousands by state and religious institutions. The atrocities they endured were, in many cases, too gruesome to repeat. They sacrificed to keep God’s way, and to take care of each other. This begs questions of us. What is my justification for withholding complete obedience to God? What’s my excuse? What makes COG “us” so different from COG “them”? What petty distinction have I established that excuses me from the obligations of charitable fellowship? Let us consider what others before us have sacrificed in order to illuminate the way we live individually, and the way we treat each other collectively.
