44 Bible Verses about Persecution, Nature Of

And there I saw a horse the color of ashes, and its rider's name was Death, and Hades followed him. They were given power over one quarter of the earth, to kill the people with sword, famine, death, and the wild animals of the earth.

In appearance the locusts were like war-horses armed for battle; on their heads were what appeared to be crowns like gold; their faces were like human faces; they had hair like a woman's; their teeth were like those of lions; their breasts were like iron breast-plates, and the noise of their wings was like the noise of a great number of chariots and horses rushing into battle.read more.
They had tails and stings like scorpions; it was in their tails that their power lay to harm men for five months.

But Satan entered into Judas, who was called Iscariot, a member of the Twelve. And he went off and discussed with the high priests and captains of the Temple how he could betray him to them.

Be calm and watchful. Your opponent the devil is prowling about like a roaring lion, wanting to devour you.

Do not be afraid of what you are going to suffer. See! The devil is going to put some of you into prison to be tested there, and for ten days to endure persecution. Prove faithful even unto death and I will give you the crown of life.

If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first.

You must not be surprised, brothers, if the world hates you!

But the tenants said to one another, 'This is his heir! Come on, let us kill him, and the property will belong to us!'

On account of this the Jews were all the more eager to kill him, because he not only broke the Sabbath but actually called God his Father, thus putting himself on an equality with God.

If you belonged to the world, the world would love what was its own. But it is because you do not belong to the world, but I have selected you from the world, that the world hates you.

I have given them your message, and the world has come to hate them, for they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world.

reassuring the disciples and encouraging them to stand by the faith and reminding them that we have to undergo many hardships to get into the Kingdom of God.

For you, brothers, followed the example of God's churches in Judea that are in union with Christ Jesus, for you in your turn had to bear the same ill-treatment from your neighbors as they did from the Jews, who killed the Lord Jesus and persecuted the prophets and us; who displease God, and in their hostility to all mankind

Think what love the Father has had for us, in letting us be called God's children, for that is what we are. This is why the world does not know what we are??ecause it has never come to know him.

But you must be on your guard; they will hand you over to courts and you will be taken into synagogues and beaten, and you will be brought before governors and kings on my account, to testify to them.

But be on your guard against men, for they will give you up to their courts, and have you flogged in their synagogues,

About that time King Herod laid violent hands upon some who belonged to the church. He had John's brother, James, beheaded, and when he saw that this gratified the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter too, at the time of the festival of Unleavened Bread.

We for our part constantly thank God for another reason too??ecause when you received God's message from our lips, you welcomed it not as the message of men but as the message of God, as it really is, which does its work in the hearts of you believers. For you, brothers, followed the example of God's churches in Judea that are in union with Christ Jesus, for you in your turn had to bear the same ill-treatment from your neighbors as they did from the Jews, who killed the Lord Jesus and persecuted the prophets and us; who displease God, and in their hostility to all mankindread more.
try to keep us from speaking to the heathen so that they may be saved, so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But God's wrath has overtaken them at last!

This is why I am going to send you prophets, wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and hunt from one town to another; it is that on your heads may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth from the blood of Abel the upright to the blood of Zechariah, Barachiah's son, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar! I tell you, all this will come upon this age!read more.
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem! murdering the prophets, and stoning those who are sent to her, how often I have longed to gather your children around me, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you refused!

For they have assembled here in this city against your holy servant Jesus, whom you had consecrated??erod and Pontius Pilate, with the heathen and the peoples of Israel, to carry out what your hand and will had destined should happen. And now, Lord, take note of their threats, and give your slaves the power to utter your message fearlessly,

This aroused the high priest and all his supporters, the party of the Sadducees, and filled them with jealousy, and they had the apostles arrested and put in the common jail.

I persecuted this Way even to the death, and bound both men and women and put them in prison,

It was allowed to make war on God's people and to conquer them, and it was given authority over every tribe, people, language, and nation.

I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of God's people, and the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. When I saw her I was perfectly amazed,

and a man's enemies will be in his own household.

One brother will give up another to death, and a father his child, and children will turn against their parents, and have them put to death.

His relatives heard of it and came over to stop him, for they said that he was out of his mind.

But just as then the child born in the ordinary course of nature persecuted the one born through the influence of the Spirit, so it is today.

That is why I am pleased with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and difficulties, when they are endured for Christ's sake, for it is when I am weak that I am strong.

I am hard pressed on every side, but never cut off: perplexed, but not driven to despair; routed, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed; never free from the danger of being put to death like Jesus, so that in my body the life of Jesus also may be seen.read more.
For every day I live I am being given up to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus may be visible in my mortal nature. So it is death that operates in my case, but life that operates in yours.

If they are Christian workers?? am talking like a madman!?? am a better one! with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, vastly worse beatings, and in frequent danger of death. Five times I have been given one less than forty lashes, by the Jews. I have been beaten three times by the Romans, I have been stoned once, I have been shipwrecked three times, a night and a day I have been adrift at sea;read more.
with my frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from the heathen, danger in the city, danger in the desert, danger at sea, danger from false brothers,

And why should I go on? For my time would fail me if I told of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets, who by their faith conquered kingdoms, attained uprightness, received new promises, shut the mouths of lions, put out furious fires, escaped death by the sword, found strength in their time of weakness, proved mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.read more.
Women had their dead restored to them by resurrection. Others endured torture, and refused to accept release, that they might rise again to the better life. Still others had to endure taunts and blows, and even fetters and prison. They were stoned to death, they were tortured to death, they were sawed in two, they were killed with the sword. Clothed in the skins of sheep or goats, they were driven from place to place, destitute, persecuted, misused??38 men of whom the world was not worthy wandering in deserts, mountains, caves, and holes in the ground.

But everyone who wants to live a godly life as a follower of Christ Jesus will be persecuted,

but it takes no real root in him, and lasts only a little while, and when trouble or persecution comes because of the message, he gives it up at once.

Jesus said, "I tell you, there is no one who has given up home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or land for me and for the good news, but will receive now in this life a hundred times as much in homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and lands, though not without persecution??nd in the coming age eternal life.

for when we were with you, we told you beforehand that we were going to have trouble, and it came true, as you know.

For nation will rise in arms against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes here and there. All this is only the beginning of the sufferings. Then they will hand you over to persecution and they will put you to death, and you will be hated by all the heathen because you bear my name.read more.
Then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another.

You must not let anyone deceive you at all. For that is not until the rebellion takes place and the embodiment of disobedience makes his appearance??e who is doomed to destruction, the adversary of every being that is called a god or an object of worship, and so overbearing toward them as to enter God's sanctuary and take his seat there, proclaiming himself to be God??5 do you not remember that when I was with you, I used to tell you this?

Then each of them was given a white robe and they were told to be quiet a little while longer, until the number of their fellow-slaves and their brothers, who were to be killed as they had been, should be complete.

This was why the Jews used to persecute Jesus, because he did things like this on the Sabbath.

but will receive now in this life a hundred times as much in homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and lands, though not without persecution??nd in the coming age eternal life.

But before all this, men will arrest you and persecute you, and hand you over to synagogues and prisons and have you brought before kings and governors on my account.

Remember what I said to you: No slave is greater than his master. If they have persecuted me they will persecute you too. If they have observed my teaching, they will observe yours too.

and he fell to the ground. Then he heard a voice saying to him, "Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute me?" "Who are you, sir?" he asked. "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting," said the voice.