The Modern Persecuted Church

The Church was born in persecution.  Its founder, Christ, was its first martyr (though he didn't stay that way).  He was soon followed by Stephen, all the Apostles (except for John, who died on the prison island of Patmos), and unknown thousands of others.  And that was just the first century. 

Most people tend to think of Christianity as a Western religion because it survived in Europe, while the expansion of the Muslim empire all but eradicated Christianity from the Middle East and North Africa.  Today, however, the vast majority of Christians live in Asia, Africa and Latin America. 

The rise of non-Western Christianity has come as a huge surprise [to those who don't read and/or believe the Bible ~ OS]. Christianity outside of the West was thought to be a product of European imperialism, and it was expected to wither and die in the post-colonial era. Just the opposite happened. Consider the huge change in Africa. There were only about 9 million Christians in all of Africa in 1900. Today, there are an estimated 397 million African Christians. Says historian Philip Jenkins, the Christianization of sub-Saharan Africa is probably “the largest religious change in human history.”

The spread of Christianity in Asia, Africa and Latin America began with Western missionaries, but it's long been driven by local missionaries and pastors.  Most of our Christian brothers and sisters in these lands live much like their neighbors - desperately poor, never knowing if there'll be enough to eat the next day, much less how they'll send their kids to school.

And many of them live with constant persecution.

Imagine the unspeakable fury that would erupt across the Islamic world if a Christian-led government in Khartoum had been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Sudanese Muslims over the past 30 years. Or if Christian gunmen were firebombing mosques in Iraq during Friday prayers. Or if Muslim girls in Indonesia had been abducted and beheaded on their way to school, because of their faith.

Such horrors are barely thinkable, of course. But they have all occurred in reverse, with Christians falling victim to Islamist aggression. Only two days ago, a suicide bomber crashed a jeep laden with explosives into a packed Catholic church in Kaduna, northern Nigeria, killing at least eight people and injuring more than 100. The tragedy bore the imprint of numerous similar attacks by Boko Haram (which roughly translates as “Western education is sinful”), an exceptionally bloodthirsty militant group.

Other notable trouble spots include Egypt, where 600,000 Copts – more than the entire population of Manchester – have emigrated since the 1980s in the face of harassment or outright oppression.

So, why do we in the West hear so little of this?

One result of this oversight is that the often inflated sense of victimhood felt by many Muslims has festered unchallenged. Take the fallout of last month’s protests around the world against the American film about the Prophet Mohammed. While most of the debate centred on the rule of law and the limits of free speech, almost nothing was said about how much more routinely Islamists insult Christians, almost always getting away with their provocations scot-free.

That's a good start, but doesn't quite cut it.

One reason why Western audiences hear so little about faith-based victimisation in the Muslim world is straightforward: young Christians in Europe and America do not become “radicalised”, and persecuted Christians tend not to respond with terrorist violence.

Bingo!  Christians don't blow things up and chop people's heads off when insulted or persecuted, therefore they deserve only mockery and scorn.  When Muslims feel offended, they riot, burn embassies, kill nuns, etc.  Therefore, they deserve respect.

Think about that for a minute.

Still, I think there's one more reason.  Here's a description of the average modern Christian.

The average Christian in the world today, historian Dana Robert reminds us, is a woman from Africa or Latin America. Her family has little money. Her husband farms, and he scrounges up short-term cash jobs when he can. She tries to sell a few things at the market. The children haven’t had their shots, and they get sick. She struggles to keep them in school, where there are no textbooks. The political situation is fragile, and the national government doesn’t get much done, while local officials demand bribes. Our sister reads her Bible, and its accounts of famine, plagues, poverty, displacement and exile, tyranny, cronyism, and corruption — which seem distant to most of us in the global North and West — are immediately relevant to her. The Bible is her book.

How, exactly, does this fit with the "Health Wealth and Prosperity Gospel" most popular in the modern American Church?

It doesn't.

I contend that most American Christians don't want to hear about their persecuted brothers and sisters in Christ because those facts expose the "Health Wealth and Prosperity Gospel" they hold dear as a sham.

I used to wonder where are the modern giants of the faith; the modern Paul, Peter, John, Silas, Stephen, etc.

Having traveled to the Middle East, central Asia and East Africa, I don't wonder anymore.

The modern giants of the faith are not on any "Christian" network in the US.  They live obscure lives, poor, persecuted, imprisoned and sometimes murdered for their faith, just like the Apostles.  And just like the Apostles, they "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds", and continue to spread the Gospel because they know that "it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for Him".

So, here's my challenge to Western believers in the "Health Wealth and Prosperity Gospel".  Use some of your wealth to buy a plane ticket to Pakistan, South Sudan, Northern Nigeria, Iraq, etc. find one of these impoverished, persecuted Christians (if you can... they may be in hiding) and explain to them that the reason they're not healthy, wealthy and prosperous is that they don't have enough faith.

Go ahead.

I dare you.

If, on the other hand, you want to help your persecuted and impoverished siblings in Christ, I recommend the following organizations.

Samaritan's Purse
Gospel for Asia
Voice of the Martyrs
The Barnabas Fund

There are probably more, but those are the ones with which I'm familiar.