Quotes About Persecution

I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, ëSaul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?í

ëWho are You, Lord?í I asked. ëI am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting,í He replied.

ëLord,í I answered, ëthey know very well that in one synagogue after another I imprisoned and beat those who believed in You.

And when the blood of Your witness Stephen was shed, I stood there giving my approval and watching over the garments of those who killed him.í

The crowd listened to Paul until he made this statement. Then they lifted up their voices and shouted, “Rid the earth of him! He is not fit to live!”

the commander ordered that Paul be brought into the barracks. He directed that Paul be flogged and interrogated to determine the reason for this outcry against him.

At this, the high priest Ananias ordered those standing near Paul to strike him on the mouth.

When daylight came, the Jews formed a conspiracy and bound themselves with an oath not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul.

More than forty of them were involved in this plot.

They went to the chief priests and elders and said, “We have bound ourselves with a solemn oath not to eat anything until we have killed Paul.

Now then, you and the Sanhedrin petition the commander to bring him down to you on the pretext of examining his case more carefully. We are ready to kill him on the way.”

This man was seized by the Jews, and they were about to kill him when I came with my troops to rescue him. For I had learned that he is a Roman citizen,

he said, “I will hear your case when your accusers arrive.” Then he ordered that Paul be kept under guard in Herodís Praetorium.

We have found this man to be a pestilence, stirring up dissension among the Jews all over the world. He is a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes,

Paul replied, “I am standing before the judgment seat of Caesar, where I ought to be tried. I have done nothing wrong to the Jews, as you yourself know very well.

Then Festus said, “King Agrippa and all who are present with us, you see this man. The whole Jewish community has petitioned me about him, both here and in Jerusalem, crying out that he ought not to live any longer.

“King Agrippa, I consider myself fortunate to stand before you today to defend myself against all the accusations of the Jews,

the promise our twelve tribes are hoping to realize as they earnestly serve God day and night. It is because of this hope, O king, that I am accused by the Jews.

So then, I too was convinced that I ought to do all I could to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth.

And that is what I did in Jerusalem. With authority from the chief priests I put many of the saints in prison, and when they were condemned to death, I cast my vote against them.

I frequently had them punished in the synagogues, and I tried to make them blaspheme. In my raging fury against them, I even went to foreign cities to persecute them.

In this pursuit I was on my way to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests.

We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice say to me in Hebrew, ëSaul, Saul, why do you persecute Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.í

ëWho are You, Lord?í I asked. ëI am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,í the Lord replied.