Christian
Persecution
is Rampant!
Daily we read
the news of violent persecution that is directed toward professing
Christians in the world. India
particularly has seen the murder of many and the burning
of thousands of houses of these professing believers. I
understand that over a hundred meeting houses have been burned
to the ground. Militant
Hindus have led in this wholesale slaughter. We
know that many of those who have faced the Hindu wrath are
not true Christians, for most are Catholics and different
kinds of Protestants. However,
the fact that they do profess to follow Christ in some form
or fashion shows that persecution is active in our world!
Indonesia,
the country with the greatest number of Muslims in the world, is
a place that has witnessed the murder and persecution of
vast numbers of professing Christians. Rioting
and burning of meeting places occur, incited and carried
on by radical Muslims.
China has had
a miserable record on the violation of “human rights,” and
part of this entails the extensive persecution of professing
Christians in the underground church. These
are the ones who refuse to be part of the acceptable state
church that is regulated by the Communist government. They
fear that their freedom of worship and belief will be compromised,
thus they would rather suffer physical, economic, and social
persecution than leave their faith. Fearing
some opposition to their leadership, the Communist leaders
have conducted massive raids of Christian gatherings and
consigned leaders to prison sentences, while family members
are left to languish without protection or support.
We used to
think that the Communist persecution of Christians in the
former Soviet Union was extreme—and it was. Today’s
persecution seems to be found primarily in Islamic lands. One
of the basic commands of the Lord Jesus was to preach the
gospel to people around the world. He
declared, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to
all creation” (Mark 16:15). Again,
Jesus commanded that “repentance for forgiveness of sins
should be proclaimed in His name to all the nations” (Luke
24:47). Sharing
our faith in Jesus Christ and the truth of God as well as
Jesus Christ is at the heart of our commitment to Him. It
is not an option. It
is basic to our life.
This seems
simple enough, but through the years it has been hard to
implement! In
the first preaching of the gospel in Jerusalem, the Jewish
leaders persecuted the apostles (Acts 3-5). This
persecution reached out to the common Christians, as far
away as Damascus, and they sought to bring the Christian
faith to an end through violent persecution, even to the
point of death (cf. Acts 8:1; 9:1-2, 14; 22:4-5; 26:9-11). Wherever
Paul traveled and preached, he received persecution from
both Jews and Gentiles (Acts 13:50; 14:19; 16:22-24; 2 Corinthians
11:23-29).
Today, in many
countries, it is impossible to carry out Christ’s final command
without facing the threat of death. This
may be difficult to understand in America or in Europe, but
it is true in multiple nations in the world. In
a number of Islamic countries today, “proselytism” is illegal. They
define this as preaching the gospel of Christ to Muslims
with the hope of winning them to the Lord and His kingdom. This
is absolutely forbidden, under the pain of death! Even
open Christian meetings are forbidden in some radical Islamic
nations. Saudi
Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, and Iraq are among the
most repressive.
They assert
that it was good and praiseworthy for Muhammad and his followers
to march across the Middle East, Africa, and even into Europe,
bearing the sword, and forcing vast multitudes to accept
the religion of the Koran, but conversion to any other religion
is absolutely forbidden.
Today the news
carries a pathetic report of a young, 34-year-old girl by
the name of Gayle Williams. This
girl was a dual British-South African national who was part
of SERVE (Serving Emergency Relief and Vocational Enterprises),
a professing Christian organization with this expressed purpose: “SERVE
Afghanistan’s purpose is to express God’s love and bring
hope by serving the people of Afghanistan, especially the
needy, as we seek to address personal, social and environmental
needs.”
As a Christian
who is wholly oriented to the way of God found in the New
Testament, I may have some reservation on this. In
the New Testament, we have no impression that the early Christians
went into the entire world to do charitable work. They
expressly went to preach the good news of a crucified and
risen Lord who offered forgiveness and eternal life to all
who would repent and believe the gospel. Their “charitable” work
was primarily directed to poor Christians in need (cf. Romans
15:25-27; 1 Corinthians 16:1ff; 2 Corinthians 8:4; 9:1, 12).
However, we
do not wish to pursue that point now. Whether
Scriptural or unscriptural, this organization sent a young
woman “to express God’s love and bring hope by serving the
people of Afghanistan.” This
seems innocent, but the militant Muslims didn’t see it this
way. As Gayle
walked to work at 8 AM, to help handicapped Afghans, she
was mercilessly shot to death! The
report says that “the militants said she was killed for spreading
her religion.”
“A spokesman
for the militants said the Taliban ordered her killed because
she was accused of proselytizing.” Aabiullah
Mujahad told the Associated Press, “This woman came to Afghanistan
to teach Christianity to the people of Afghanistan. Our
[leaders] issued a decree to kill this woman.” Douglas
Alexander, Britain’s secretary of state, had a different
opinion: “To present her killing as a religious act is as
despicable as it is absurd—it was cold blooded murder.” We
would agree!
Afghanistan’s
highest Muslim council said that for the past couple of years
rumors have spread that “Westerners have been preaching Christianity
to Afghans.” They
cannot or will not tolerate this preaching, lest some of
their Muslim flock might be persuaded to come to see that
Jesus is indeed Lord, the very Son of God, and the only way
of salvation. Council
member Jebra Ali asserted, “We have heard rumors that houses
have been rented to preach Christianity in Kabul and some
provinces, but we have no evidence that this is taking place.”
The report
gives some of the background of this killing. “Afghanistan
is a conservative Islamic nation. Proselytizing
is prohibited by law and other Christian missionaries or
charities have faced severe hostility. Last
year, 23 South Korean aid workers from a church group where
taken hostage in southern Afghanistan. Two
were killed and the rest were eventually released.” (This
report came from the article, “Taliban Gunmen Kills Christian
Aid Worker in Kabul,” World News, Oct. 21, 2008.)
Regardless
of George Bush’s assertion that Islam is “a peaceful religion,” we
must understand that the Koran is a bloody book. This
document offers many commands for Muslims to kill (murder)
people of other faiths. Anything
other than Islam is not to be tolerated. We
are grateful that many Muslims are of the liberal variety,
ones who do not take their own “inspired” book seriously,
otherwise there would be more than one billion people on earth intent on slaying Hindus, Buddhists,
Jews, and professing Christians. While
only 10 percent of Muslims may be considered radical Muslims,
this is still a staggering 100 million people! Even
if only 10 percent of this number are extremist enough to
choose to die for their false beliefs, this yet is a huge
number of people—10 million!
We don’t want
to be placed in a position of defending every professing
Christian who is in Islamic lands. As
we take the New Testament as our authority, we must conclude
that the great majority of these people are not truly saved,
not truly under Christ’s Lordship, and not true Christians. But
we should be very aware of the extreme opposition to all
preaching of Jesus Christ the Son of God, all commitment
to the Bible as the exclusive Word of God, and all commitment
to the Christian way of life.
This world
is not a friendly place for the committed and true follower
of Christ Jesus. The
Christian who enters any one of these conservative Islamic
lands, and is determined to preach the good news of Christ
and win others to Him, will definitely face almost immediate
opposition, imprisonment, and perhaps even death. It
is nearly fatal for a Muslim to accept the truth of Christ
and be born again—and live a consistent and uncompromising
life in Christ—without extreme persecution, including death. One’s
baptism is virtually a death sentence.
Let us pray
for those who are mistreated by unbelievers everywhere. Let
us remember the persecuted people who claim to be Christians—whether
they are genuine or not—that the will of God may be done
and that the world may come to know the truth that will set
them free from sin, from death, and from hell! Muhammad
is death. Christ
Jesus is alive!
Richard
Hollerman
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