Loyalty to Jesus & Christian Persecution: Different Sides to the same Coin?

Persecution of Christians is not limited to Communist and Muslim countries, or tyrannical dictatorships.  It is happening everywhere, from Jesus Christ's lifetime to even today.  Is this sad state of affairs prophesied by Jesus?

Luke 14:25-27

And there went great multitudes with Him [Jesus], and He [Jesus] turned and said unto them, “If any man come to Me and hate not his father and mother, and wife and children, and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.  And whosoever doth not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple."

For centuries, Christians have puzzled over and been affronted by this shocking statement by Jesus.  Non-Christians who look for an easy target have used this and similar statements against Christ and Christians, rather than trying to understand the true meaning and purpose of Jesus Christ in saying this.  The puzzlement and misunderstanding continues to today (see here, here, and here).

Are we sure we understand what Jesus was trying to say?  The sentence contains a double negative.  Double negatives can be confusing, that's why double negatives are frowned upon as bad English grammar.  Perhaps Jesus meant that we must love all of our family members if we are to become a discipline of Christ?

The Greek word used here is "miseo".  Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Word 3404 provides other possible translations for the Greek word as "...to love less..."  Is this what Jesus meant?

Poor Biblical Translation?

Did Christ actually say what is recorded in Luke 14:25-27?  

I used to think the Bible may have been in error.  Today, I know better.  Today, I know that the original Biblical manuscripts in Hebrew and Greek are 100% true and correct, inspired and protected by God down through the centuries.  However, the various translations are not protected by God, so could this be a poor translation?

As good as the King James Version is, I know of some confusing passages, where a poorly placed comma totally changes the sense, and corrupts Christian dogma when that comma was added by biblical editors trying to "improve" the Bible.

For example, see Luke 23:43 which says:

 "And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise."

In many places elsewhere in the Bible, we are clearly told that Jesus wasn't going to be in Heaven until 3 days and 3 nights after his crucifixion, so how could both the thief and Jesus go immediately to Heaven on the same day He is crucified (ie. "Today")?  There were no commas nor capitalization in the original Biblical manuscripts in Greek; all punctuation was added at the point of translation into English.  Therefore I believe (as taught me by Biblical scholars) this passage should correctly read as follows:

And Jesus said unto him, "Verily I say unto thee today, thou shalt be with me in paradise."

Could this mandatory "hatred" (or less love than what is offered to Jesus) toward our family be merely a bad translation, bad English grammar, misunderstanding of the Greek, or poorly placed punctuation?  All that could be possible. However, this passage in Luke is remarkably similar to Matthew 10:34–37 where Jesus said:

"Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.  For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me."

Therefore it does not appear to be a 1-off fluke nor mis-translation of Jesus.  Jesus obviously wants us to have clear "Chain of Command" and loyalities; God first, families second.

However, I'd like to propose an additional explanation.

Persecution of Christians

Could Jesus be referring to the wholesale persecution that will befall upon the Disciples of Jesus?  When the State realizes that the Disciples care not about persecution of themselves, the State could start persecuting the family members of the Disciples so as to try forcing a Disciple to leave his faith behind.

Sad Case of Tommy Robinson

Below is an interview of Tommy Robinson of England.  Tommy was a plumber who woke up when he learned of Rochdale Child Sex Abuse Ring (ie. a secret Muslim gang of men in England that were profiling and recruiting more than 1,000 young English girls, as young as 11 years old, for brutal rape, kidnapping by these Muslim men during multiple years), and other problems caused or contributed by Muslim immigration into the UK.  The government knew or suspected the Rochdale Sex Ring crimes were ongoing, but did little to nothing to stop it; mainly because the government was afraid of the backlash against the British Muslim community.  Tommy Robinson however, wasn't willing to be silent.  He became involved in a big way.

I don't endorse what Tommy Robinson and others did, but I bring to your attention what Tommy Robinson reports in this interview that the UK government did to him and all his family members surrounding him (ie. Tommy, his pregnant wife, Tommy's parents, Tommy's brother-in-law, Tommy's cousins, Tommy's friends, etc) so as to coerce Tommy from his political activism.  I have no way of knowing if any or all of Tommy's allegations against the UK government's coercion against Tommy are true.  However, if these allegations are even somewhat true, and Tommy's story becomes well known, who would be willing to follow in Tommy's footsteps and subject all of their family members with government persecution?

I would suggest that only if someone hated their family and friends would they subject themselves and persecution by the unlimited powers of a misguided, unjust State.

When Brittany Pettibone, a US citizen who is an independent YouTube reporter, tried to enter the UK for doing an interview of Tommy Robinson, she was banned from entry to UK, was imprisoned for 3 days, and then evicted from UK. Tommy Robinson subsequently met Brittany in Vienna to do this interview.

Are you fully prepared to give up everything for Jesus Christ?  As strong willed as Tommy Robinson is, he eventually caved in to persecution of him and his family by the UK government.  Will the Devil even better at persecution of Christians than the UK government was towards Tommy?

Jesus says He will be there in our moment of truth, but no doubt there will be much refining and dross that we will have to lose in this refining and purifying process to prepare us all for Heaven. 

Watch the video, and decide where, if it had been you instead of Tommy, and the persecution was about your faith in Jesus, you would have caved in, submitted, and taken the Mark of the Beast.