Persecution in Afganistan and the tie to Church History

In case you have not already heard, this sad story is a reminder of how thankful anyone should if they live in a country where religious freedom is the norm. If you are a Christian, please pray for this brother, that God would sustain him and cause him "to set his eyes on things above above and not on earthly things."

Along these lines I have recently been studying Church History, specifically from the time of the Reformation through the present. Before I began this work I always looked back upon that time in history usually with many perplexing questions. Specifically, I looked back upon that time and wondered how "Christians" could be burning people at the stake (think of the brutality of that, ever burned your hand on the stove?) over disagreements concerning the Eucharist, baptism, or the nature of saving faith? How could this happen? Answer: No stark division of church and state. Ecclesiastical law and civil law were essentially one in the same. Since religious beliefs were foundational to the government and it’s laws, a deviation from the norm of religious thinking was deemed a threat to the structure and stability of that country, and thus a deterrent had to be promoted in order to squelch any such up risings of “radical” belief. During this time, fighting for your religious beliefs was way more than just fighting for a right to believe what you believe, it was fighting for the whole structure of how life would be understood in the country in which you lived.

I was reminded of my need to divorce myself from my current cultural understandings and assumptions when attempting to understand a cultural that is different from my own, past or present. The cultural air that I breathe is dominated by the idea of a sharp distinction between church and state. This is was not always the case in the past, nor as we see above is the case in today’s world. When seeking to understand and make value judgments concerning these things it is very important to first understand our own personal frame of reference.