The first Christians to be persecuted, were Jewish people who heard and believed in Jesus. God chose Paul, who was Jewish, to go to Rome and spread the words of Jesus to non-Jews. Those Christians were also persecuted. The persecution only stopped after the Roman government itself converted to the Christian religion. Today, Christians are still persecuted to different degrees in many different nations — and Christians are still killed because they are believers in Jesus.
America, which is still predominantly Christian, has long been a silent battleground as anti-Christian forces has sought to use the law to suppress expressions of Christian faith. The ACLU has regularly used the courts to stop prayer in schools, stop prayer in state legislatures, to prevent the display of Christian symbols of Christmas and of the Crucifixion.
The Washington state government is now using the courts to persecute a Christian for expressing their religious belief (http://mynorthwest.com/646/2248363/Washington-flower-shop-refuses-order-for-gay-couple?google_editors_picks=true).
As the children of the Beast continue to make progress on their political agenda, and especially should they gain a majority on the Supreme Court, Christians will increasingly find themselves the target of legal persecution by the government for expressing their Christian beliefs. The final expression of this trend could very well be the forced imposition of the mark of the Beast should America find itself under his dominion.
The children of the Beast are playing a long game. They are preparing the way for his ascension, but that may still be decades away. There can be no compromise, as any compromise still represents one step closer to his final goal.