Persecution Works

Despite the "Blood of the Martyr's Theory" religious persecution mostly works

On a hill going up from river that snakes its way down the center of the city of Sarajevo is a graveyard. It is called the “Staro jevrejsko groblje,” or “The Old Jewish Cemetary.” During the Spanish Inquisition, Jews were rounded up and put on boats, sent out to sea with no destination. It was that fateful year, 1492, in which Columbus set sail for the New World. A Muslim Ottoman Sultan opened the door for these refugees to settle in Bosnia. Thus, Muslim Sarajevo became home to a Jewish population which eventually made up close to 20% of the population at the start of World War II. Today, there are probably less than a few hundred Jews in Sarajevo. Around 10,000 were taken to Auschwitz or similar camps in Croatia. The rest became refugees again, and very few returned.

With Evangelicalism, there is a view that persecution causes the church to grow. This is what has been called the “Blood of the Martyrs Theory.” It stems from a phrase that reads, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of Christians,” found in… wait, that is not a Bible verse! That was Tertullian, and he was writing at a time of persecution.

The broader sentiment comes from the book of Acts. The way we often interpret the persecution of the first-century church is that this became the de facto reason for its growth. In Acts 8, we find Saul causing great havoc in the church, and the leaders thus scattered. This scattering resulted in the preaching of the gospel message in new places. In Philippians 1, Paul notes that the persecution waged against him enabled witness to the Praetorian guard. There are other examples as well.

History has examples of Christians overcoming persecution. Rome tried to stop the nascent movement but ended up itself becoming the center of Christianity. Christians in Iran are persecuted, yet the church there grows. The church in China has seen incredible growth, yet it has been a persecuted church.

Sociology also suggests that movements flourish when persecution comes along. When I did my PhD dissertation, I summarized the elements found in most movements. They are:

1. Affinity Group Recruitment (you tell your friends)

2. Common Experience (you go through similar rituals, like baptism)

3. Opposition (this is where persecution comes in and it may real or perceived)

4. Contextualized yet prophetic message (the message is both culturally comfortable while challenging the status quo)

5. Network structure (movements are not led through formal structures)

6. Set of favorable circumstances (the time is right for the movement’s message)

As you can see, opposition aligns with persecution. Often, when there is no real persecution of a group, they create a sense of persecution by “othering” those outside the movement. This is quite common in fundamentalist movements.

Despite this, I believe we need to be careful with the “Blood of the Martyr” theory.

History teaches us that persecution more often than not stops the growth of religious movements. Like the Jews in Sarajevo, sometimes persecution overwhelms the church and does, in fact, stop its growth.

Persecution against religious minorities throughout the ages has worked quite well. You can ask the Armenians in Turkey, the Anabaptists (there used to be a whole lot more of them), and the Nestorians. At one time, the Nestorian church dominated Christianity. This “Church of the East” was overrun by Islam and today is mostly an archaeological reality with a small handful of adherents. There are many other examples as well.

Just this past week on X, somebody highlighted this report on the church in China. It claims that Christianity in China has peaked and is now retracting. I tend to think this is true. The form of persecution in China has bypassed what was seen in past decades. Social networks on mobile phones limit and track the ability of Chinese Christians to meet. This level of persecution may be successfully beating down the church to the point where it is in decline, perhaps not in spirit, but numerically.

To be fair, this study is citing the Chinese General Social Survey, which is produced by the government. This would lead me to discount the study, but they use a few other data points as well. It is the level of persecution in China that makes me think that there is some truth to the claim of declining church numbers.

Jesus was a martyr. The cross is a symbol of martyrdom. Christianity is inexplicably and intractably linked to persecution. Do not think, though, that persecution is an overall good for the church. It is an evil menace that haunts the lives of millions of believers each day.