Martyrdom by Relativism

Who killed the martyrs? We may think the answer obvious: evil people did.

Yet in today’s Gospel (John 15-26-16:4a), our Lord says,

Yea, the time cometh,
that whosoever killeth you
will think that he doeth God service (or worship).

This was fulfilled in the very first generation of Christianity as Stephen and others were martyred by Jewish people upholding their faith. Likewise pagans would martyr Christians to defend their own religion. Even today, terrorists depict themselves as doing God service by slaughtering Christians and others who do not believe exactly as they do.

Sadly, there have also been Christians throughout history who have depicted themselves as doing the work of God by killing enemies of Christianity (or even their own version of it).

Upon closer examination, many if not most of these “religiously-motivated” slaughters were not really about religion or serving God, but about preserving or enhancing earthly power while hiding under the banner of religion (and often cynically so).

But there have also been people who sincerely thought that these slayings were “serving God” – even if “God” was the State or some other higher power or cause. Often these well-meaning murderers were just foot soldiers in whatever cause they espoused.

It is easy to say that these genuinely devout perpetrators of martyrdom were misled or were ignorant in some way, but it is harder to grapple with the reasons why some good people could do such bad things.

One reason is the natural inclination to want to establish the kingdom of heaven as an earthly kingdom. It makes sense: earthly realities should be aligned with spiritual realities.

What has been difficult for some believers to accept, however, is that the perfect alignment of earthly and spiritual realities will only happen with the final return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We cannot bring this about - only God can – and we most certainly cannot bring it about at the point of a sword, gun, or electrode.

* * * * * * *

In our own time and culture, however, religious oppression is not carried out by religious people alone, but very often by those who serve some other power or cause – most especially the “god” of personal autonomy and whim.

This is a perversion of human freedom, leading directly to a deeper and often more insidious oppression, as we have too often seen over the past hundred or so years.

Human freedom comes neither from the power of the individual nor from the power of the state, but from the gift of God, who gave it to us so that we might freely love him.

True religious liberty is therefore not an aspect of human autonomy for its own sake, but rather a fundamental aspect of God’s creating us to respond to him.

Relativism is actually the enemy of religious liberty by making everything subjective and detaching it from the reality that exists beyond ourselves, including God. Relativism thus attacks the very foundation of liberty.

Religious liberty based on relativism is no longer a quest for truth or a reaching out to the Creator, but rather a barely-masked worship of self and an alienation from anything that is outside our own skulls.

Thus the irreligious persecute the religious, thinking that they doeth God (i.e., their selves) service.

They attack people and institutions who hold fast to revealed truth. They do this in the name of "freedom," but actually open the door wider to unfettered tyranny.

We for our part must stand for true human freedom, which comes from God so as to be directed to God.

We must avoid the extremes both of religious oppression and of relativism, respecting the giver of perfect freedom who calls us all to faith, truth, and eternal life in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.