Wake-up to Christian Persecution

Being a subscriber of Open Doors USA, let this blogger provide you with some startling information recently announced by the just mentioned organization. Open Doors, one of the leading organizations serving the persecuted Christian church released the 24th World Watch List, which lists the 50 nations that most aggressively persecutes Christians. The 2015 Watch List documents the most dramatic increase in violence and persecution of Christians in the modern era. Open Doors President and CEO, David Curry, unveiled the World Watch List in Washington, but he, like many other like-minded Americans are very concerned that leaders in the U.S. and elsewhere in the Western world fail to grasp the significance of this dramatic rise in the targeting of Christians and what it means for believers and nonbelievers down the road. As the Western world stands in shock at the brutal murder of magazine employees and police officers by radical Muslims in Paris, the new World Watch List suggests Islamic violence throughout the world is spawning the most significant increase in the persecution of Christians on record and that likely means more intense repression of all kinds is not far behind.

I, like others really feel like the Washington and the world just does not get it (or maybe they do and don't care). They don’t understand that the persecution of Christians is a major story, is a major issue. It’s growing, and it’s a lead indicator that oppression is coming for everyone else. Everywhere you look where there’s a major outbreak in the world today, first it was Christians. If the world does not wake up to this, it’s going to come their direction.

Several African nations witnessed the most dramatic increases in Christian persecution over the past year. “Kenya soared from 43 to 19” on the list. “Djibouti rose from 46 to 24”. Nigeria is now in the top 10, and "Sudan jumped from 11 to 6". The reasons for the jump are simple. “The Islamic extremists that have been residing within Africa are learning the lessons of the Islamic State. They’re taking the tactics, the strategies of the Islamic State, and seeing the success that they have had with this leadership vacuum in the Middle East from Western governments. Now they are implementing it in Africa. Let it be known that Muslims are not the only persecutors of Christians. But in 40 of the Earth’s 50 countries where Christians are made to suffer because of their faith, Muslims are the culprits.

Need it be said again; we are not safe in the West from radical ideologies. Regrettably, In the near future we are more than likely going to see assaults on churches, malls, sporting venues etc. in the West. Are we not now witnessing outbreaks of radical Islamic violence in the West? Just to put it in perspective, the French and much of the West mourned the loss of 12 lives cut down by jihadists. Boko Haram kills 10 Christians every single day. ISIS often murders dozens, if not hundreds of Christians in a single day. And the list goes on. Google it up and look for yourself.

Now, I ask you the reader, is there hope for the Church in a world full of radical ideologies? I contend there is hope because God gives hope, but these situations are very dismal in human terms. When is enough, sufficient for action?