A Sign of God's Judgment? Part 7

A Sign of God's Judgment? Part 7
Wednesday, April 1, 2026 by Dr. James W. Walraven

Categories: Apostasy / Contemporary issues / Scripture discussion / Spiritual deception / The church / Thought for Today / Truth telling

Biblically, how are Christians to treat others? From those who cause division, to groups that deny core biblical tenets, how is the church to respond? Does the historical Eastern Church serve as an example to follow? According to Scripture, the answer is a resounding, “No.”

First, what about those who claim to be Christians, but are living a life deep in sin? 1 Corinthians 5 makes it clear that we are to remove them from the church, not to associate with them or even eat with them.

1 Corinthians 5:11 (NAU): “But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler — not even to eat with such a one.”

It is one thing to not associate with someone who calls themselves a Christian, it is another thing entirely to actively persecute that individual. The hope is that by taking those severe sorts of actions, the person will repent. As the passage makes clear, these actions are to be taken only with those who claim to be Christians; it does not apply to how Christians treat non-Christians.

Jesus, in Matthew 18, outlines the discipline process. The passage concludes, Matthew 18:17 (NAU): “If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.” In essence, if the person refuses to repent, he is to be treated as a non-believer. That is it, no persecution.

Second, for those who are divisive, for those who cause schisms, once more, one is to have nothing to do with them. Titus 3:10 (NAU): “Reject a factious man after a first and second warning, knowing that such a man is perverted and is sinning, being self-condemned.”

For sectarian groups that denied the central tenets of the faith, as the Arians, Nestorians, and others did, they are to be rejected. One must warn against them and their teachings, but still, nowhere does Scripture speak of persecuting them. When Jesus sent his twelve disciples out to proclaim the gospel, for those towns that rejected the message, his disciples were to wipe the dust of that town from their feet as a sign against them and then move on. That is it.

1 Peter 3:15–16 (NAU): “But sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence; and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame.”

Regardless of how the world may react to others, do we still treat those who oppose the truth of Jesus Christ with gentleness and reverence (think respect)? That is about as far away from persecution as one can get, isn’t it? Are Christians to respond in kind to those who revile and slander them? No. That has implications for how we react to others in our own times.

When looking at the Byzantine empire and the Eastern Church prior to the Islamic conquest, one almost sees a preceding example of what the Muslims became, of what the Qur’an was to require: theocratic rule.

Given what we’ve seen, from syncretism to their belief in theosis, from using the church as a dumping ground for political enemies, to active persecution of Jews and others, from the veneration/worship of icons, to diminishing the place of the Gospel, the success of the Muslim conquests should not take us by surprise.

There is good reason to suspect that the Muslim conquest was a sign of God’s judgment against the Eastern Church and the Byzantine empire. Was that conquest often brutal beyond description? Yes. But surviving accounts from dedicated Christians of that time confess exactly that: the success of the Muslim conquest was the direct consequence of their sin: their sin, meaning the Christians’ sin.

We, those of us in the church today, would be wise to take heed.

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