The one minute to look at culture from a Christian worldview I'm John Stone Street with the point.

In the recent blockbuster Dune Part 2, a character says something like that they shouldn't try to suppress a religious movement because martyrdom only makes it stronger.

It's a common claim that's actually a backhanded

compliment to Christianity because in most cases throughout history, repressing religion worked.

Among the many religions that failed under the pressure of persecution are Zoroastrianism, once the ruling faith of the Persian Empire.

And many former strongholds of Christianity in the Middle East are now Muslim strongholds because of oppression.

Not to mention decades of communism in East Germany

virtually wiped out the church there to this day. When people claim that repressing

religion makes it stronger, they're referring to the rare time in which persecution did not work.

The experience of first century Christians, however, is not the norm.

Still, Christ first followers did not grow from an obscure sect in Jerusalem to become the largest religion on the planet because of persecution.

They grew because the founder of the religion didn't stay dead.

For the Colston Center, I'm John Stone Street.