Sunday, November 5th, was the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. Why do we need such a day?
In The Global War on Christians, John Allen calls the worldwide persecution of Christians “the most dramatic religion story of the early twenty-first century, yet one that most people in the West have little idea is even happening.” According to him, “Christians today indisputably are the most persecuted religious body on the planet.”
According to the evangelical group Open Doors, one hundred million Christians face interrogation, arrest, torture, and/or death because of their religious convictions. While 30 percent of the world’s population identifies as Christian, 80 percent of all acts of religious discrimination around the world are directed at Christians. One scholar estimates that 90 percent of all people killed on the basis of their religious beliefs are Christians. There have been seventy million martyrs since the time of Christ, forty-five million of them in the twentieth century. In other words, more Christians died for their faith in the last century than in the previous nineteen centuries combined. Persecution against Christians is especially prevalent in the Muslim world.
What about the allegation that the West, post-9/11, has become Islamophobic? Newsweek notes: “A fair-minded assessment of recent events and trends leads to the conclusion that the scale and severity of Islamophobia pales in comparison with the bloody Christophobia currently coursing through Muslim-majority nations from one end of the globe to the other. The conspiracy of silence surrounding this violent expression of religious intolerance has to stop. Nothing less than the fate of Christianity—and ultimately of all religious minorities—in the Islamic world is at stake.”
Christians worldwide must pray. Intercede for your persecuted sisters and brothers, “making supplication for all the saints” (Ephesians 6:18). Pray for their oppressors as well: “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44).
Knowing that our sisters and brothers are facing torture and death for our Lord, what price will we pay for our faith? When last did it cost you something significant to follow Jesus?