Persecution: The Grace of Fearlessness

Posted by Kirk M. Wellum @ http://redeemingthetime.blogspot.com/

At the beginning of a new year, we Christians who live in the affluent West, need to remember our brothers and sisters in other parts of the world who will suffer severely because of their allegiance to Jesus in 2007. According to Daniel Blake, a correspondent for the Christian Post, 250 million Christians will face persecution in 2007. This grim dose of reality is based on numbers supplied by Release International, a U.K. -based group that tracks the persecution of Christians around the world. Not surprisingly, persecution is growing the fastest in the Muslim world with one of the worst persecutors being Saudi Arabia where people who convert to Christianity can be sentenced to death for apostasy and anyone who brings someone to Christ can face jail, expulsion or execution.

Beyond Saudi Arabia, Christians are also persecuted in Nigeria, China, Cuba, Laos, Vietnam and North Korea. Persecution of Christians also goes on where there are large concentrations of Hindus as in India and Nepal. In India, Hindu extremists associated with various nationalist groups target both Muslims and Christians. And in the Buddhist world, Christians are persecuted in Bhutan, Burma and Sri Lanka.

In one sense the persecution of Christians is not new or unexpected. Jesus pronounced a blessing on those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Then he went on to elaborate further: "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you" (Matthew 5:10-12).

In other words, persecution because of our loyalty to Jesus is one of the marks of the members of the kingdom of heaven. The world which hung our Lord on the cross, or which denies the need for the cross, will certainly not want much to do with those of us who glory in the cross of Christ and all that it secured for us. We should be able to understand this because we were once among that crowd. Our sins nailed him to the cross. But by God's grace we have come to see that the one we initially rejected is both Lord and Christ; and we have turned from our sins and put our trust and hope in him.

All this "religious talk" would not be a problem if we Christians would only keep our "religion" to ourselves! If we would be quiet and worship God in secret, we would probably be left alone. But this is not something we can do. We are commanded to take the gospel to the nations. Our Lord is the only Lord and his authority is universal even over those who refuse to acknowledge his claims. Because of who Jesus is and all that he has done for us, we must speak up boldly and clearly. Salvation is at stake. Heaven and hell are at stake. This is not a polite discussion about the fine points of theology or world religions. These are matters of eternal life and death. Consequently, we get ourselves in trouble, even in the politically-correct West which has turned its back on the truth of the Bible.

But press forward we must. Love for Jesus and others demands it. Nevertheless, in our struggles, we must remember to pray for one another after the example of the apostle Paul: "Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should" (Ephesians 6:19-20).