Persecution: Coming soon to a church near you

Wherever the church is, it must be prepared for persecution

In recent years, November has become the month in the Western church where there is a special focus on praying for our brothers and sisters in the persecuted church. It should, of course, be an all-the-year-round activity, but it is helpful to have a regular focus and reminder of the scale of the need, as a spur to our faithful intercession.

Many of us in the West have had little experience or encounter with overt and state-sponsored hostility to our Christian faith. My own experience goes no further than having some very intimidating members of Robert Mugabe’s Central Intelligence Organisation in dark sunglasses standing at the back of my church in Zimbabwe for a period, and my telephone tapped. That was disconcerting enough.

But for countless millions of our brothers and sisters the threat of violence, hardship, imprisonment and even death is an ongoing daily reality. I read recently that if the persecution of the church gets no worse, one in every two hundred people alive today can expect to die for their faith. A believer is tortured every three minutes in the Muslim world. Read more

Read also:
Rep. Frank Wolf Asks Why Rick Warren, John Piper Are Silent on Persecution