Results

Roughly 70% of Christians worldwide live without the right to worship freely, notes Karen Ellis, director at Reformed Theological Seminary’s Center for the Study of the Bible & Ethnicity. It is getting worse. Open Doors, a group that monitors worldwide persecution says that last year 1 in 9 Christians…

The Chinese government in Beijing keeps adding restrictions to the house church movement in China. The reason for the government’s concern is the continual rapid growth of Christianity throughout the country. When Chinese Christian leader, Ying Fuk-Tsang was asked about his hope for the future of the…

According to Open Doors, In 2020 there were: • Over 340 million Christians living in places where they might experience persecution and discrimination • 4,761 Christians martyred • 4,488 churches and other Christian buildings attacked • 4,277 believers detained without trial, arrested, sentenced or imprisoned.…

On November 17, 2017 the on-line version of Christianity Today reported that several months in advance of the implementation date for several nation-wide religious restrictions, Chinese Christian villagers in Hangzhou province were told to take down displays of Jesus, crosses, and Bibles verses from…

In almost every generation, true believers in Christ face persecution. Just before he died, Roman Catholic Cardinal Francis George of Chicago put it simply. “It is likely that I will die in my bed. My successor will die in prison. His successor will die executed in the public square. His successor will…

In his book, The Insanity of God, Nik Ripken writes, “. . .people flocked to Christ in greater numbers during difficult days of persecution because that’s when they could recognize how God sustains and strengthens His followers through times of trouble.” —Jim L. Wilson Nik Ripken, and Gregg Lewis. Insanity…

In Iran Christians are coming under extreme persecution for observing the Lord’s Supper. One received 80 lashes and others sentenced to less lashes. Their crime was drinking communion wine. It may not seem like it at the time, but when believers are persecuted for the Lord’s sake, they are really blessed.…

Chinese pastor Samuel Lamb summarized his life and ministry: “more persecution, more growth.” Lamb was imprisoned in 1958 for refusing to register his house church with the government. Sentenced to 20 years of hard labor, he spent two decades working in the coalmines. He used the time to teach Christianity…

In Religulous, Bill Maher says, “Faith means making a virtue out of not thinking. It’s nothing to brag about, and those who preach faith and enable and elevate it are our intellectual slaveholders keeping mankind in a bondage to fantasy and nonsense that has spawned so much lunacy and destruction! Religion…

In Matthew 5:10 Jesus says those persecuted for righteousness are blessed, and will receive the kingdom of heaven, with great reward. The Christian community of Ethiopia must remember these blessed words. Four thousand of them have had to flee their homes. Muslim violence is responsible for the burning…

I do not know how blessed Christians in Iraq feel right now, but they are enduring a tremendous time of persecution. During Mass at Baghdad’s Our Lady of Salvation Church, five or six gunmen burst into the building and set off two suicide vests filled with ball bearings. “The remaining gunmen took some…

In Iran, the persecution of Christians continues. It is especially tough on Christians who dare to evangelize and upon Muslims who convert to Christianity. Iranian pastor Wilson Issavi is one of the former, he converted Muslims to Christianity. The authorities have released pastor Issavi on bail but…

PERSECUTION The Thirty Year’s War, A timeline of Iran’s theocracy, documents the persecution of Christians and Christian churches. Recent events show that the time of persecution is not passed. In February 2005, Pastor Hamid Pourmand was sentenced to three years in prison for apostasy. In November of…

COURAGE Who do you think would win a fight between a pitbull and a poodle? Before you pick the aggressive pitbull and say the docile poodle doesn't have a chance, you might want to consider a news report coming out of the Swedish TT news agency. They are reporting that a poodle attacked a pitbull in…

Persecution A few years ago at a Mission's Conference at Glorieta, New Mexico I met one of our missionaries to China. She told me about a Christian friend of hers who was attending the "three self" church. Three self stands for Self governing, self supporting and self propagating-it is the official church,…