Zechariah 12:9

And it shall come to pass in that day, even while Jerusalem was exalted to a degree of strength and glory far transcending anything in its past experience, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem, this being the definite, energetic purpose of the Lord with regard to His people. It is a remarkable fact, one full of glorious comfort, that the Church of God has emerged from all its conflicts with renewed strength and power, that even in the worst persecutions, the blood of the Christians was the seed of the Church.