Post 16: Persecution from a childhood best friend
Image: Graphic drawing of one person yelling at another person
Summary: Summary: This post discusses one of the first ways I experienced Christian persecution, in which one of my childhood best friends lashed out against me after I began witnessing to him about Christ.
Another glaring incident of Christian persecution came from my childhood best friend. We grew up in the same neighborhood, went to the same elementary, and high school, but don’t recall if we went to the same middle school. Throughout our school years though, we were always in constant contact with each other, hung out very often, and played video games together as well. We seemed to be really close growing up and often had deeper conversations about life and some of the things we were experiencing.
We stayed in contact in early college years but after I moved away to Seattle, we fell out of regular contact. We would check on each other basically holidays only and also talk about when he would finally visit Seattle or when I would be visiting home again.
When Covid hit in Feb 2020, he checked in on me and conversation did increase a bit surrounding that and potentially planning a visit to Seattle. Eventually, communication fell back into holiday rhythms, and when we would text, the conversations seemed to become more shallow and cursory. This pattern of texting would continue over the next few years leading into early Jan 2024.
Then, around Mid July 2024, he messaged me to check how I was doing. I hadn't texted him since I had gotten saved back in mid Feb 2024 so I was excited to share this with him. He initially seemed excited about it and was congratulating me on getting saved. He mentioned that he thought that I was already saved and then regarding salvation, he asked "What brought this on"?
I explained to him that it was God's conviction that lead me to see my sinfulness/sinful nature (John 16:8). I also mentioned how we all have sinned against God in thought or deed and deserve God's punishment for our sins(Romans 1:32, Romans 3:23). I also told him about Christ having died as a ransom to cover the sins of all those who would believe in his sacrificial, attoning death on the cross(Romans 5:8, 1 John 2:2, Mark 10:45). I also shared a video that breaks down how a person obtains salvation and urged him to at least look at it and consider it since eternity is at stake.
His mood changed immediately from congratulations to outright rejecting my witness of Christ. He began shutting me down by retorting "we don't believe the same thing" and sending me away to "have a good life". I mentioned that he seems like someone who is at least curious of the truth and he should be at least willing to look into the biblical claims Jesus made about himself to explore what true christians know as the truth of Christ.
After a bit more back and forth, I got him to admit that he is more agnostic. He claims that he has neither faith nor disbelief in God and thinks there is no definitive proof of God's existence (Genesis 1:1, Psalm 19:1, Romans 1:20) . He replied that he does believe in a higher power but does not subscribe to any religion or church and he thinks that all religions are wrong. He thinks that humans were put on this planet to learn and grow and be kind to others, not bringing chaos or disruption into others lives. To this, I replied that God does also show His truth to those who seek and inquire after Him, as His word says (Psalm 145:18, Proverbs 8:17, Jeremiah 29:13).
Then, he brought up Near Death Experiences, or NDE's, and said he frankly believes that over any religion. He also said basically said that "Jesus won't work for many people", seemingly indicating that Jesus will not work for him. I had not heard much of anything about NDE's until this point but asked him "How do you know Jesus won't work for you if you're not even willing to give it a try?"
Throughout our text conversation, which lasted over the course of the next few days, I would continue to share videos and information attempting to answer some of his many counter points. He would reply with a self-serving rebuttal for every point I tried to make. All of my points were to trying direct him to look to the bible to find the answers for the questions that he had, but he remained resistant throughout the entirety of the conversation. He maintained that he doesn't need to follow any religion to be a good person and said if that is not enough, then he doesn't care if it leads him to hell. He also argued that Christianty is a white man's religion and that if God wants followers, He should show Himself. He also accused me of trying to force religion onto him.
He says having faith in Christ won't work for him because he won't believe something that does not have proof. It seems he doesn't recognize the irony in that he claims not to want to believe something that does not have proof, while in the same breath, saying he believes more in NDE's which also cannot really be proven. NDE's essentially rely on the honesty of the person telling the story and more importantly, have no power to save a lost soul. He shared a couple of videos about NDE's trying to imply that NDE's are more believable than the bible. He staunchly believes the bible is not divinely inspired by God but merely written by man.
To one of my bible-centered replies about NDE's, he retorted "God already has his back" to which I replied "God does not have our back if we reject Christ". This seem to set him off and start a tyrade of cursing and name calling. He hurled many insults and cursing at me and also cursed God, calling me a bigot, a cultist, a jesus freak, and several other unwholesome things. He began say things like "you've only been saved for 5 minutes, how dare you judge me", or "I go off of a book that has no validity", and for me to "Enjoy the cult and not expect to hear from him again". He continued with "How could I know anything about what God wants", and " I'm just another false prophet who is brainwashed", and "how can I have the gaul to say the things I've been saying to him." He also called me a "theiving pastor", "a text book bible thumper" and ending his final text with more cursing at me.
Despite all of his rebuttals over the course of that days long conversation and sharing multiple videos, I stayed firm in pointing him towards the love of God shown in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son. The devil is deceiving him to think that God has his back when he mocks that same God a few breaths later and hates those who bring the message of Jesus Christ.
Our last contact was in early Aug 2024, and I have not reached out to him anymore since then. I did not feel compelled to reconnect with him in person during my time back home from November 2024 through March 2025. Like my next-door neighbor mentioned in Post 13: Persecution from a Neighbor, he too is a scoffer and mocker of God (Proverbs 9:7-8). All of his replies showed that he was not even willing to try to look towards the bible, which would answer some of the questions he has. He showed that his heart was hardened towards God and he was completely unresponsive to the message of Christ I was sharing with him.
This interaction with my old friend brought to my attention Matthew 7:6, where Jesus, speaking to his disciples, says " Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces". Upon digging into the context of this verse, I came to learn that the phrase "pearls before swine" is a metaphor. "Pearls" represent something of great value, like spiritual truths, wisdom, or precious gifts. "Swine" represent those who are unappreciative, disrespectful, or unable to understand the value of what is being offered. Essentially, what I gathered from this was a warning not to waste time or efforts sharing spiritual truths with those who are hostile or unreceptive to them.
I was also reminded of Mark 6:11 (NKJV) which reads "11 And whoever will not receive you nor hear you, when you depart from there, shake off the dust under your feet as a testimony against them." After more research, I came to realize that this meant that "shake off the dust" served as a testimony against the people who reject the message of Christ. This demonstrated that the disciples had fulfilled their duty to proclaim the gospel and that the rejection (and the consequences of that rejection) was a conscious choice of the person who rejects the message.
Regardless of his attitude and behavior against me, I still pray for him as I pray that God would convict all those who are lost and draw them into His salvation. Stay tuned for the next post, where I discuss returning back home for the first time since finding the true salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ and the reactions from family members.