"And ye shall be hated of all men [nations] for [M]y name's sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved."

Rarely - in the 'Western hemisphere', that is - have such words been more relevant to the situation we find ourselves in. Yes, as good preachers such as Chuck Misler/Chuck (Charles) Swindoll and others have long since maintained, we are now - indeed long since - living in a post-Christian era...

...and (actual physical) persecution (such as 'Eastern' Christians in the likes of the old Eastern Bloc,  China, the Islamist Middle East have long since experienced) surely cannot be all that far away...

But then, as already noted, the Master Himself gave us plenty of warning thereabouts, didn't He...

"Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted...and then many shall be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another..."

"then shall be great tribulation ["in those days shall be affliction"] such as was not since the beginning of the world ["of the creation which God created"] [un]to this time, no, nor ever ["neither"] shall be." 

The beloved apostle John, however, expresses the matter in a somewhat different but no less stark manner:

"If the world hate you, ye know that it hated [M]e before it hated you.

If ye were of the world, the world would love his[its] own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you...

If they have persecuted [M]e, they will also persecute you...

But try to digest the following words, folks:

"Yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service."

Sobering stuff, eh.

The gist of Jesus' admonition seems to be - don't be surprised, folks; Friday's [day of trial and tribulation, is] comin' (dimly reflecting Jesus' own agonies upon Calvary's cross and indeed prior to that, in His moment of decision in the Garden of Gethsemane).

But so also, as the wag once said, is Sunday (as in the Resurrection Day - for all God's kids).

Yet sandwiched between the two will be those who honour the everlasting Sabbath of the Lord - standing firm and fast in the face of the greatest opposition ever experienced in the history of our world - keeping the seventh-day Sabbath holy still, in obedience to the Lord of the Sabbath, Jesus Christ himself...

May we each be among that blessed company, so that when the aforementioned 'time of trouble such as never was, nor ever will be' transpires, we may indeed find ourselves among that *select few who stand with Him upon the sea of glass, singing the song of Moses and the Lamb...

*'Select' only insofar as they are among **those called out by Christ Himself, and who have responded in humble gratitude and heartfelt faith and obedience.

**As indeed is and has been every single last man, woman and child who has ever lived; yet it is only those who themselves receive/accept God's free gift of righteousness and eternal life in Christ Jesus who will be deemed to ultimately possess it. 

No-one will be coerced into that position. To be truly free one must ever remain free to resist and reject overtures of love, but one will likewise ultimately have to live with the due consequences of one's choice.