Posted on 01/21/2015 7:56:24 AM PST by xzins
While in 2014 the days of throwing Christians to wild beasts in the arena may be behind us, the persecution of Christians around the world isn't. In fact, the number of our brothers and sisters subjected to imprisonment, torture, and death for their faith in just the last twelve months dwarfs the number who suffered during the entire tenure of Nero.
As a new report from a leading ministry to the persecuted church shows, last year was one of the most violent on record for believers worldwide—and 2015 could be worse.
Open Doors International released its World Watch List earlier this month, ranking the top 50 most dangerous and difficult countries for Christians to live in. Here are the results:
For the 13th year in a row, North Korea ranked as the worst persecutor of Christians. Amid executing relatives and presiding over the disappearances of his political rivals, North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un has reserved his special wrath for Christians.
Open Doors estimates that 70,000 believers are currently imprisoned for their faith in this hermit kingdom. And considering North Koreans outside of jail live in a state of semi-starvation, I shudder to think what it's like behind bars.
Executions for crimes of owning Bibles or evangelizing are commonplace. News agencies reported last year that Kim Jong-un personally sentenced 33 church planters to death.
“Christians,” explains Open Doors president David Curry, “are the No. 1 enemy of the state in North Korea.”
And that's just one frontier in the battle between the Gospel and modern Neros.
In west-central Africa, the Islamist group Boko Haram has just leveled several towns, with Christians as their new target of choice. Militants have ambushed worshipers in at least a half a dozen churches on Sunday mornings, and human rights groups report a Christian body count of over 3,000 in Nigeria alone.
And then there's the Middle East. From Iraq and Syria to Pakistan and Afghanistan, Christians are suffering for their faith on a scale not seen in living memory. Some of the world's most ancient church communities have been wiped out or displaced by the rise of ISIS, and tens of thousands of Christians have fled the Islamic State's onslaught—most likely never to return home.
“We have seen the sharpest jump in violent attacks against Christians in the modern era,” says Curry, estimating that upwards of 100 million Christians worldwide are suffering persecution as we speak.
“[And] while the year 2014 will go down in history for having the highest level of global persecution of Christians in the modern era,” Open Doors elaborated, “current conditions suggest the worst is yet to come.”
Now I know it's easy to shrug and say, “Well, what can I do about this?” But we're not helpless—not by a long shot.
Christians in America have options for extending help to our hard-pressed brethren by supporting organizations devoted to serving the persecuted church and pleading her cause—organizations like Open Doors, Voice of the Martyrs, and International Christian Concern. So please, get involved. We'll link you to all of these ministries at BreakPoint.org.
And of course, we need to pray—all the harder as the situation worsens. And while you're praying, remember this: The same Gospel that Nero thought he could extinguish went on to conquer his empire. His fires died—but the Holy Spirit's fire did not. And as the Apostle John wrote, very likely in the context of Nero's persecution, Christians who confessed their Lord despite the cost “triumphed...by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.”
So take action with me. And folks, don't despair. If the gates of Hell and Rome can’t prevail against the Church, modern persecutors don't stand a chance.
BreakPoint is a Christian worldview ministry that seeks to build and resource a movement of Christians committed to living and defending Christian worldview in all areas of life. Begun by Chuck Colson in 1991 as a daily radio broadcast, BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on today’s news and trends via radio, interactive media, and print. Today BreakPoint commentaries, co-hosted by Eric Metaxas and John Stonestreet, air daily on more than 1,200 outlets with an estimated weekly listening audience of eight million people. Feel free to contact us at BreakPoint.org where you can read and search answers to common questions.
A legitimate question: What can we do?
We could always begin by praying.
If you pray with caring love in your heart, you will soon get answers.
It’s not every single time that the Lord will want to just immediately stop a persecution situation. He may want to use it in order to raise consciousness among both believers and unbelievers. If I were suffering, I would certainly have a dual wish, which is to be done with the situation as soon as possible, but that while I was there the suffering would be a visible demonstration of my commitment to the Lord (and in turn the power of the Holy Spirit of God to keep me committed).
Indifference to Christian persecution abroad will soon be followed by persecution here at home.
Can you give me a citation for the Greek representation of 666?
Is that real?
Rev 13:18 is the 666 verse. It is not just 3 characters in my Greek bible. The entire word is spelled out like we would have it in English: six hundred sixty six....
eksakosioi eksekonta eks (only in greek letters which I don’t know the html for to post them on free republic)
WE already have ‘soft’ persecution.
Nuns forced to fund abortion, Christians forced to create gay messages, fire marshals fired for Christian speeches on their own time, Christian magistrates told they’ll be breaking the law if they don’t perform gay weddings.
Pope Urban II for President!
Charles Martel for French President
Presumption of God's mercy is saying "I can do whatever I want and God will save me in the end". It is the opposite of what St. Paul said "Work out your salvation with trembling and fear."
The 'six sins against the holy spirit' include presumtion of gods mercy, despair, resisting the known truth, envy of another's spiritual good, obstinency in sin and final ipenitence.
To assume a tribulation as an act of god - as part of a plan of his victory over Satan may not work out well.
Thirty thousand praying Cathars and Christians were sheltered in Christian Churches in Carcasonne when Simon De Montfort (Sr.) slaughtered both Cathar and Christian. "Kill them all and God will know his own" started in 1209 in Le Languedoc.
God helps those who help theselves
**“We have seen the sharpest jump in violent attacks against Christians in the modern era,” says Curry, estimating that upwards of 100 million Christians worldwide are suffering persecution as we speak. **
BTTT!
Thanks CB.
How do you do the HTML for greek?
OBAMA: AMERICA IS NOT LONGER A CHRISTIAN NATION
I’ve never seen that before, very interesting.
So Allah will be AntiChrist? His religion sure acts in line with the prophecies.
The letter d - is π would be & # 960; but leave out the spaces. So if I wanted the word "therefore" I would type this.
& # 959; & # 8022; & # 957; - again, leaving out any of the spaces. When it prints it looks like this - οὖν or transliterated is oun.
So the Greek for the 666 words you posted would look like this.
ἑξακόσιοι - ἑξήκοντα - ἕξ
& # 7 953; & # 958 945; & # 954; & # 972; σ & # 953; & # 959; & # 953; - & # 7953; & # 958; & #942; & # 954; & # 959; & # 957; & # 964; & # 945; - & # 7957; & # 958;
Again, I have put spaces in between each symbol and number so it would actually show the html rather then the Greek letter. Where the Greek letters are shown there are no spaces in the html.
Confused yet? :-)
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