Any believer who truly wants to obey God will make trouble. Someone who merely wants to avoid conflict and maintain the status quo will not achieve much for the Lord. The structures that keep countless millions of people enslaved to sin and Satan must be confronted before they will crumble, and when you confront evil there will always be trouble.
This is the main reason house church Christians in China have been persecuted for decades. They are not persecuted just because of their faith in God. If they chose, they could all settle down in a government-controlled Three-Self church, worship God each Sunday, and live relatively stress free lives as long as they keep their beliefs to themselves and don’t try to share them with others.
The reason house church Christians are arrested and imprisoned in China is because they cannot keep quiet. They cannot possibly keep their mouths shut because Jesus has revealed himself to them and they have been radically changed from the inside out. They understand how the prophet Jeremiah felt when he said: “If I say, I will not mention him or speak any more in his name, his Word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.” Jeremiah 20:9
Western Christians often ask us why there is persecution in China and other countries and not in the West. There are several possible responses to this question, but we would like to start by asking one question in return: “Do you boldly preach the truth of God’s word to sinners inside and outside your churches?” If you do, you will soon find out that there is persecution wherever you are .. Persecution may take different forms from one country to another, but there will be persecution.
The Muslim and Buddhist nations can torture us, imprison us and starve us, but they can do no more than we have already experienced in China for many decades. Thousands of young men and women will go as missionaries who are not afraid to die for Jesus. They are not afraid to bleed, for they know their bodies are merely temporary tents to be used in the Lord’s service and that one day they will be in paradise where there is no pain and no tears. They are not only ready to die for the gospel, they are expecting it.
(From the book Back to Jerusalem, pg 100-101)