When do we leave America?

[Barnpreacher]

I don't think he is denying it, but it is not sound hermeneutics to posit that as normative for the church. For if it is, then:

1) Those who are not being persecuted are not true Christians.
2) Therefore, they must seek persecution.

J,

In thinking more about what you said here I can appreciate and understand what you're saying, however Paul says that all that live godly in Christ Jesus SHALL suffer persecution. So, it is the norm for the church to suffer persecution. We may not seek persecution, but we do seek to live godly in Christ Jesus and therefore Paul says that brings about persecution.

So, while I stop short of saying that those who are not being persecuted are not true Christians we must not ignore what Paul was saying in II Timothy 3. Now I don't think Paul was trying to say that all Christians will face the same kind of persecution as he did or even the kind that will cause us to leave the country, but all that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution of some sort.

 

[RamistThomist]

By persecution I think people here mean stripped of all rights and systematically eradicated. Paul surely can't mean that, otherwise no one here is godly.

 

[ZackF]

I am new (past two years) to the reformed faith to get the disclaimer in. However, I have always been suspicious of physical seperatism. At the end of the day, in my extremely limited knowledge, I find it unbiblical. It doesn't seem to fit the NT pattern. Christ and the apostles to my knowledge never relocated because of immoral behavior of their surroundings. At times they were arrested and thrown out or even killed but they didn't run in the sense the American and Dutch puritans did. If the salt doesn't loose its savor, I don't see how we should be afraid of those around us. I work with a homosexual, a nominal eastern orthodox supervisor, a tatooed emergant type and a garden variety pagan. I wouldn't trade them for the world. I feel honored and unworthy to be put in this situation though I don't feel called to this particular occupation permanently. Not to mention my pagan relatives, neighbors and friends.

 

[x.spasitel]

Where to go? The grass always looks greener...

...but as a start, you can consider Tonga or Tuvalu, or if you fancy political conservatism Poland or Estonia; maybe Northern Ireland if you want to have two thousand Reformed Presbyterians within an hour's driving on the left side of the road. I've heard there are very few infidels in Greenland. Perhaps China in fifty years. Start learning the language now so you can miss the rush.