The prophetic word will not be silenced
The voice that must not be silenced
Belfast
Recently, the news reported a shocking incident from north Belfast. A 30-year-old Sudanese man attacked a random passerby on the street with a kitchen knife and attempted to decapitate him. Thanks to the heroic intervention of bystanders, who immediately subdued the attacker, the police were able to save the life of the seriously injured victim. Emergency services rushed him to the hospital.
This violent news brings to mind another story—not an attempt, but an actual beheading—that we read in the New Testament: the story of John the Baptist.
John the Baptist
John the Baptist was a prophet of God who spoke the truth, without regard for person, both to ordinary citizens and to the king and priests. He did not shy away from holding up a mirror to King Herod Antipas because of his marriage to Herodias, the wife of his own brother. During a visit to Rome, Herod Antipas stayed at his brother’s house. Antipas fell hopelessly in love with his sister-in-law Herodias. The two began an affair and agreed that they would both divorce their current spouses so they could marry each other.
In response to this serious warning from John, Herod imprisoned John in Machaerus, a heavily fortified mountain stronghold, to silence his voice. Ultimately, Herodias’s bitter hatred led to the final act to stop the prophetic word: the beheading of John.
This pattern—prohibiting the prophetic word, silencing the messenger, imprisoning or killing him—is seen in several places in the Bible. It is not an isolated incident, but a pattern that recurs throughout the centuries.
Prophets in Peril
The censorship that befell John the Baptist was not the first time a prophet in the Bible was silenced. Amos spoke out forcefully against social injustice and false religion, until the priest Amaziah forbade him to speak and sent him out of the country. Amos was no longer allowed to prophesy.
The prophet Jeremiah faced similar attempts to silence him. Because he prophesied that Jerusalem would fall to the Babylonians, the rulers regarded him as a traitor who was undermining the soldiers’ morale. They threw him into a muddy pit—literally burying him—to drown his warnings in the mud and silence the prophetic word once and for all.
The same fate befell Micah, who stood up against King Ahab and proclaimed the word of God in the face of hundreds of false prophets. That protest earned him a prison sentence, with the express intent of locking the prophetic word away.
However, the Bible shows in all these stories that, although those in power physically silenced the prophets, no one could stop the word of God. The prophecies came true unchanged, and God’s word continued to resound.
The prophetic word today
Are there also prophetic words with a serious message today? And is the prophetic word still allowed to be heard among us? Three current themes deserve our attention here.
The unborn child
The number of abortions in the Netherlands last year was approximately 39,438, a figure that was virtually the same as the previous year. The statistics show that 1.9% of these abortions occur when the fetus is 21 to 24 weeks old, which amounts to approximately 750 children. Such an unborn life is already 28 to 30 centimeters long at that stage. At that point, the eyes are still closed, but the baby can already perceive the difference between light and dark through the abdominal wall. The little heart beats and pumps liters of blood daily to supply the rest of the body with oxygen and nutrients. Hearing is developing rapidly. The baby hears loud sounds from outside and registers the mother’s heartbeat. The muscles and nervous system are becoming increasingly coordinated. The baby makes reflexive movements such as kicking, grasping, pulling on the umbilical cord, and sucking its thumb, which the mother can clearly feel at this stage.
This life is being cut short. May a prophetic voice be raised against this? People who demonstrate at abortion clinics and stand up for the rights of the unborn child are often viewed as a nuisance. The police are increasingly turning them away. In contrast, there is a movement that uses the slogan “boss of my own belly,” a feminist cry from the 1970s that is being heard again today. It is argued that a woman has the right to control her own body, thereby ignoring the fact that every human being, no matter how small or unborn, also has a right to life. A prophetic protest is called for here.
Persecution of Christians
A second prophetic voice that receives hardly any support is that concerning the persecution of Christians. In the House of Representatives, politicians regularly raise this issue, including Don Ceder and, in previous years, Joël Voordewind. Every year, Open Doors publishes the World Watch List, a ranking of countries where Christians suffer the most severe persecution. It invariably includes countries such as Nigeria, Pakistan, and India, where large groups of Christians are exposed to violence and oppression.
Yet this voice is also being silenced. In the House of Representatives, there is a reluctance to speak explicitly about it. Left-wing parties view it critically and approach an organization like Open Doors with suspicion, not because they deny the facts about the violence, but because of the organization’s conservative Christian character. This is painful, because human lives are at stake. In particular, the left-wing parties PRO, D66, and DENK never vote in favor when attention is sought for this issue. The prophetic voice heard in the House of Representatives is one they prefer to silence as quickly as possible. The NOS news rarely, if ever, reports on Christians persecuted by Muslim groups, preferring instead to speak euphemistically of “tribal conflict” rather than brutal persecution.
The stumbling stone
The greatest prophetic voice being silenced is the testimony of Jesus Christ. It is said of Jesus that He is a stumbling stone over which people stumble, whose name must not be spoken, and whose name people prefer to use as a curse or an insult rather than as the way to salvation. The Bible says about this in Romans 9:33: “Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. And whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame.”
Recently, a Muslim in Amsterdam attacked an evangelist because he did not want the name of Jesus to be heard in the capital. In English city centers such as London and Bristol, bystanders physically attacked street preachers and jeered at them because they disagreed with their message. Only police intervention prevented things from getting worse. In France, priests have been murdered, one of them even in his own church. In Canada, preachers are no longer allowed to speak freely in public spaces, which led to shoving and aggressive protests, while the police looked on passively. Churches are being set on fire with increasing frequency. The name of Jesus is a name that causes offense.
Thus, the name of Jesus is seen as a nuisance, and people are not allowed to freely proclaim this prophetic word: that there is only one way that leads to salvation, and that is the name of Jesus. That voice must be silenced; that name must not be spoken in public spaces.
The prophetic word continues to resound
From Amos to Jeremiah, from John the Baptist to the street preacher in Amsterdam: the pattern remains unchanged. The prophetic word is banned; the messenger is imprisoned, exiled, or killed. And yet, as the Bible teaches, no one could ever stop God’s word. The prophecies came true. The word continued to resound.
There is a fear that resistance to everything related to the Kingdom of God and to the name of Jesus Christ will only increase in the coming years. That is why the prophetic word must not remain silent about unborn life, about persecuted Christians, and about the name of Jesus Christ as the only way to salvation. The prophetic word will not be silenced.
@wimvanputten