What Hope Looks Like Under Persecution
As many as 380 million believers around the world face high levels of violence or discrimination for their faith in Jesus. That’s more than the population of the entire United States. That’s also hard to grasp.
The numbers can feel overwhelming. How can we stay connected, informed, and engaged with so many believers in so many places?
One place to start is with individual voices. We can’t know everything about every believer in Iran, but we can meet a brother who spent 29 days in a dark jail cell and still clings to the hope of Christ for his homeland.
Or a sister in Japan who doesn’t face physical persecution, but has known deep loss and cultural pressure for her commitment to following Christ, and finds that loss brings gain.
We can sit with a Christian from Nepal who watched authorities literally burn Bibles. Or a refugee from North Korea who testifies to the brutality of the regime and the goodness of the God who saved her.
This is where we start when we want to learn about the persecuted church—and learn from the persecuted church. Because in their suffering and hope, they point us to Christ, who is still at work among all nations.
Transcript
News Anchor 1:
Terrifying moments at a church in Central Nigeria.
News Anchor 2:
Vast numbers of Christians are being killed at one time, and these are horrific things.
News Anchor 3:
Millions of Christians are persecuted by Islamic terror groups.
News Anchor 4:
Christians are suffering discrimination and persecution in various parts of the world and among-
News Anchor 5:
Tens of thousands of Afghan civilians are scrambling to get out of the country. Among them are Christian believers who face certain death.
Ramazan Rafee:
When the last airplane left Afghanistan, I said, “Okay, it’s over.” Probably, God wants us to die here. According to Islamic Sharia, if a Muslim were to convert to Christ, you have to die. You have to be killed. The only thing I was praying that the Taliban would shoot at all of us, not only shoot me and take my wife and kids.
News Anchor 6:
The Iranian regime, this current regime, has been brutal. Women have been blinded. Young men have been hanged in the middle of the streets. The prisons are filled with those who have merely spoken up.
Iman:
In Iran, they said that we have freedom of religion. And because in Iran, we don’t have the Christian punishment, you are blamed as a spy for Israel. Two big guys came and opened the door, and they brought me to jail. I’ve been 29 in one room. I didn’t know if it was morning or at night, or what.
News Anchor 7:
In the mountains of Western Nepal, the Maoists have their stronghold. The area is well-suited to guerrilla warfare. It’s mountainous and covered with thick forests, and the unarmed population can hardly resist any demands put on them by the rebels.
Anonymous Nepali Christian:
You just see a bunch of army-looking guys show up at your house and snatch your dad. As my mom and I were hiding under the bush and as we watched the church, we just saw the army bringing all the books, and it was just the Lhomi Bible, songs, and hymns. We just saw fire lit up there, and it just burned all night. And I think it was probably one of the longest nights of my life.
News Anchor 8:
The suicide rate among young people in Japan has risen to a 30-year high. A survey from Japan’s Ministry of Education found 250 elementary and high school aged children died by suicide on September 1st each year, the typical start of a new school year in Japan.
Yumi:
Even though there’s no physical persecution happening, there is a lot of social economical darkness happening here.
Chad Farmer:
You can look in every bus, every car, every person, even below the ground, there are people. 99% statistically are on their way to a Christless eternity.
News Anchor 9:
Oh, North Korea has been ranked number one in oppressing Christians worldwide. In political labor camps, they’re tortured, they’re beaten.
News Anchor 10:
Food crisis in North Korea. A United Nations report had more than six million people there who urgently need food aid. The country lost a million people to famine in the 1990s.
Grace Jo:
The North Korean regime hates that people find out the true God through the Bible. So when we got caught, we lost our father to our regime. My mom was tortured and gave birth to a premature baby. Also died after two months from starvation. And my younger brothers died of hunger. And my oldest sister was sold to China by a human trafficking ring.
When I see the current North Korea, I just feel like man has limited power and God has supreme power. God still loves people in North Korea. That’s why we still need to pray for that country so that light can spread all over North Korea.
Yumi:
Even though, yes, Japan is such a hard ground. Somebody says Japan is a graveyard for missionaries. That might be true, but because it’s hard, I want to encourage people to come to see how God is stronger, and God is better, and God can do anything that we think is possible in a hard land. That’s where you can taste the goodness of God.
Anonymous Nepali Christian:
The gospel is needed in every corner of the world. And not a lot of people show up at the hard places. Now, we have a church. We have a Bible in our own language. The church, being even when burned down, is thriving even more. And the same church is sending people to even harder places that most people can’t go. And this is literally what God does: he does hard things.
Iman:
We see how the people are hungry for the truth. And this is encouragement, because I believe that Iran is a country that can send a missionary out to the whole Middle East. Because it is not the Americans who should come to the Middle East. It’s good, but we are near the Afghan people. We are closer to the Arab people. And this is our job to go to different nations, and this is our job.
Ramazan Rafee:
When I think about some of these Christians back in Afghanistan, and I see that they’re in jail and prison and difficulties, and God is working with the chosen heart. Those people who are thirsty and looking for him. And God is, as he says, “I am behind the door of your heart and knocking on the door. If you open, I will get in.”
