Who or what "religious" group do you think this scripture is referring to?

Question

John 16:2-4 (NIV)

2...a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God. 3 They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. 4 I have told you this, so that when the time comes you will remember that I warned you.

Wow! I'm enlightened. I didn't realize Christians were killing anyone in the name of God. Could someone give examples, please?

This passage was actually addressed TO Christians.

Answer 1

It is not the Jews or Christians he is referring to it is the Muslims. They have tried it once but were stopped by the Crusades. Then Queen Isabella the Celtic Queen of Spain drove them out of Spain. when they overran defeated any state the inhabitants either converted to Islam or were executed.

Answer 2

Christians killing in name of God= almost the whole middle east.
Serbia, Lebanon in the eighties and nineties, WWII, WW I, All the Native populations of North and South America, The Inquisition, The list does not end.

KKK, Christian Identity and various other groups are killing inside the USA. The Oklahoma City Bombing was carried out by Timothy McVeigh and he was part of a Christian Extremist militia group. There are many stories of this that you are not aware of I think.
http://www.splcenter.org/intel/news/item.jsp?aid=66

Answer 3

This verse, as supported by numerous others in the NT, is referring to the coming persecution of true Christians. Like most prophecies this one has more than one fulfilment. These verses also ring true for those Christians who were viciously persecuted behind the Iron Curtain and the Bamboo Curtain. Even today Christians are killed for their faith in some lands. Why should the servants be any different than the Master? For if they persecuted and killed the Lord of Glory, they will do the same to His true followers.

Answer 4

This passage was referring to Saul (prior to his conversion to becoming Paul) under the authority of the High Priests when he went through the land persecuting the Christians convinced that he was doing the right thing. (Acts 9:1-2; Acts 26: 9-11)

Answer 5

Hi Pamela. Christ is speaking of the body of believers here. Christ is preparing believers for the task ahead. People will hate them,, the kingdom of Satan will assault them, and they may be killed for their faith. When we read a little further in John 16:33 Jesus tells us:

“These things I have spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”

God tells us in Matthew 10:19-20 what we should do when we are perscuted for our faith:

"But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, 20for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you."

God is telling us here that we should use Scripture, His Holy Word to defend our faith. God gives an example of this in Acts 7 with the testimony of Stephen. When he was called before the high priest to give an account of his faith he recounted the biblical history of the nation of Israel. Everything Stephen said was from the Scriptures. God is showing His Children that if they are judged for their faith, that they are to speak what He has written in the Scriptures.

Answer 6

Jews. It was likely a statement inserted into the Gospel by the author to further separate Christians from Jews. The reason John is such a violently antisemitic Gospel is that Jews were suffering great persecution when it was written and the author was likely trying to distance Christians from Jews. All the Gospels were written by people who never knew Jesus or spoke his language and each one has a political agenda which is why they are loaded with propoganda and statements that Jesus probably never actually said.

Answer 7

No religious group but God's elect will be persecuted.

Joh 16:2 They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.
Joh 16:3 And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me.
Joh 16:4 But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them. And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you.

Answer 8

It was referring to the Jews who were first to persecute Christians by stoning Stephen to death, and then Saul of Tarsus brought great persecution on the Church, thinking he was serving God. He found out differently. See Acts chapters 7 thru 9.

Answer 9

Of course today that describes not the Muslims, but a few of the Muslim splinter groups, who choose to follow the bitter writings of the Koran. (Most Muslims follow the harmony half of the writings and instructions in the Koran)

The romans fed the Christians to the lions, but that really wasn't in the name of God. It was the gross form of entertainment in those days of Rome.

However, it also describes the killing done during the Crusades, and it also describes the killing and torture done by the Catholic Church during the "inquisition".

come to think of it: It also describes the Salem Witch hunts.

Answer 10

The Crusades?
British colonialism in the 17th/18th Century?
The past struggles in Northern Ireland?

You cannot just post a quotation to sanction and justify discrimination, this all depends on interpretation and should not be used to further prejudice.