The 50 Countries Where Christians Face the Worst Persecution

2015 Open Doors WORLD WATCH LIST - Persecuted Christians

Open Doors’ annual list of 50 countries where Christians face the worst persecution

Each year, Open Doors releases a list of the top 50 countries where Christians are facing the worst persecution because of their faith. The Open Doors World Watch List (WWL) is the only annual survey of religious liberty conditions of Christians around the world, and measures freedom in five key areas of life: private, family, community, national and church life, plus a sixth sphere measuring the degree of violence.

The Open Doors’ WWL 2015 tracks a marked increase in persecution for Christian communities in a large number of African states. Sudan, Eritrea and Nigeria make their appearance in the Top 10 of the Open Doors WWL 2015. Kenya and Djibouti have marked the steepest climb on the list, and Tanzania and Eritrea also scored significantly higher compared to 2014.

While Africa saw the most rapid growth of persecution, the Middle East saw targeted attacks, resulting in a mass exodus of Christians. In forty countries of the Top 50, Islamic extremism was a major source of persecution. It would be fair to say that the WWL 2015 again shows that the persecution of Christians seems to become more intense in more countries of the world.

Approximately 100 million Christians are persecuted worldwide, making them one of the most persecuted religious groups in the world. While persecution can take many forms, Christians throughout the world risk imprisonment, torture, rape and even death as result of their faith.

Mexico, Turkey and Azerbaijan are entering the WWL 2015, with Morocco, Bahrain and Niger dropping out of the top 50, although no improvement for the situation of Christians was noted.

North Korea remains the toughest state in which to practice Christianity for the 13th consecutive year.

The top ten countries where Christians faced the most pressure and violence in the reporting period of the WWL 2015 were: North Korea, Somalia, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Sudan, Iran, Pakistan, Eritrea and Nigeria.

The Middle East remains one of the most violent areas of the world for Christians. Violence against Christians by the Islamic State and other Islamic terrorist groups increased in countries like Iraq (3) and Syria (4). More than 70 percent of Christians have fled Iraq since 2003, and more than 700,000 Christians have left Syria since the civil war began in 2011. Afghanistan (5) and Pakistan (8) have both increased in persecution.

Another newcomer in the Top 10 is Nigeria, ranking 10, where pressure for Christians in Northern Nigeria is especially high. In the run up to the 2015 elections, religious tensions have risen, while scores of Christians are internally displaced, accounting for a higher pressure. Boko Haram has been blamed for nearly 4,000 deaths in 2014, mostly Christian.

For 60 years, Open Doors has worked to strengthen Christians in the world’s most oppressive and restrictive countries. The WWL has also been independently audited by the International Institute for Religious Freedom to help make the information gathering and calculation process more transparent.

RANK WWL                                                                                                              TOTAL            RANK        TOTAL
2015                    1. Private 2. Family 3. Comm 4. National 5. Church 6. Violence  WWL 2015 WWL 2014  WWL 2014
1 North Korea       16.667       15.476    16.472     16.667        16.667    10.000        92                   1                   90
2 Somalia              16.667       16.228    16.667     16.256        16.667       7.037        90                   2                   80
3 Iraq                      13.921       13.988    14.063     13.651        14.713     16.112        86                   4                   78
4 Syria                    13.068       13.616    12.956     13.103        13.889     16.112        83                   3                   79
5 Afghanistan       15.909       15.923    14.974     13.706        15.799        5.185        81                   5                   78
6 Sudan                  14.205       12.798    13.412     11.513        13.281     15.186        80                 11                   73
7 Iran                      13.163        13.318   13.412     14.200        15.495     10.000        80                    9                   77
8 Pakistan              13.731        13.021   13.998     13.487          9.332     15.186        79                    8                    77
9 Eritrea                 16.667        13.311   12.643     15.461        16.667       3.889         79                 12                    72
10 Nigeria              11.742       11.905   13.347     11.623         12.630    16.667         78                 14                    70
11 Maldives          16.099       14.881   13.151      16.228        15.885       1.482         78                   7                    77
12 Saudi Arabia    14.678       13.616   13.998      14.090        16.233       4.074         77                   6                    78
13 Libya                 14.489       13.467   12.435      12.500        13.889       8.889         76                  13                   71
14 Yemen               14.205       13.914   13.867      14.035        14.453       2.407          73                 10                   74
15 Uzbekistan       15.152        10.938   11.458      12.062        15.364       4.074          69                 15                   68
16 Vietnam            13.324          6.257   11.836       14.205        14.149       7.963          68                 18                   65
17 Central Af Rep 11.269         7.515    12.044       11.623          9.245    15.556           67                16                    67
18 Qatar                  13.258        12.723   11.719       12.336        13.542      0.185           64                19                    63
19 Kenya                11.487        10.119   10.964         7.802        10.100     12.963          63                 43                   48
20 Turkmenistan   15.057          9.673   11.328       12.226        14.713       0.185          63                 20                   62
21 India                  10.606        10.342      9.961       10.362          9.375     10.926          62                 28                   55
22 Ethiopia            11.970        10.938   10.130          8.553       11.102       8.704           61                 17                   65
23 Egypt                 10.511        10.714     9.961          7.237         7.205     15.186           61                 22                   61
24 Djibouti             12.661        10.313  10.208        10.806       13.129       2.593           60                 46                   46
25 Myanmar             9.953           8.266    8.887          7.220       10.100     15.185           60                  23                  59
26 Palestinian Ter 11.174         12.574  10.547       10.855       12.500        0.741           58                  34                  53
27 Brunei                14.299         13.318  10.352         7.127       12.543                0           58                  24                  57
28 Laos                    11.203           6.265  11.543       12.051       14.483        2.037           58                  21                  62
29 China                 10.578            7.701    7.611         9.150        14.275        7.222           57                 37                  51
30 Jordan                 11.648         11.756    9.570         8.991        10.894        3.519           56                 26                  56
31 Bhutan                  9.886         10.037  11.218      10.176        13.932         1.111           56                 31                  54
32 Comoros             11.648         11.682    9.310      10.252        12.847         0.556           56                 42                  48
33 Tanzania             10.701           9.226  12.370        9.265          8.941          5.185          56                  49                  46
34 Algeria                12.879         13.170    8.854        9.814          9.288           1.482          55                 32                  54
35 Colombia             6.600            8.162    9.948        9.315          9.961         11.111          55                 25                  56
36 Tunisia               11.553          11.905  10.612       7.456        10.764           2.593           55                 30                  55
37 Malaysia            11.174           11.905   8.919        9.265       10.460            2.963           55                40                  49
38 Mexico                 8.277             6.369   9.961        6.716          9.818         13.519            55           (new)            (new)
39 Oman                  13.352           11.161   8.333        9.594       12.153                    0            55                27                  56
40 Mali                    11.458           11.830   9.050        8.059         9.505             2.593            52                33                  54
41 Turkey               10.890              8.408   9.115      10.143       10.590            2.407             52          (new)             (new)
42 Kazakhstan       12.027              8.036   7.357      10.197       12.587            1.111             51                39                  49
43 Bangladesh       10.303              8.542 10.020        8.262         6.615            7.407             51                48                  46
44 Sri Lanka             9.233              5.915    8.763        9.699         9.700            7.408             51                29                  55
45 Tajikistan          12.689              8.854    7.617        8.224      11.849             0.741            50                 45                 47
46 Azerbaijan         11.932             7.664     8.399        8.827      12.022            1.111             50            (new)            (new)
47 Indonesia             8.428             9.449      9.701       8.279        7.422            6.482              50                 47                 46
48 Mauritania        10.606           11.235      8.659     11.020        8.116                    0              50                36                  51
49 U A E                  13.258           10.193      8.594       8.608        8.420            0.185              49                35                  51
50 Kuwait                13.352           10.342      6.250       7.785     10.807                    0               49               38                  50

South African Aid Worker and His Two Children Killed in Taliban Attack on Kabul Compound

Received this Facebook message just a short time ago:

Dear friends please pray for our Christian friend Hanelie. Her husband and two teenagers were killed by Taliban in Kabul yesterday evening while they were having a church meeting. Hanelie lost everything, her family and home. We are heartbroken.

They lived in Kabul for 11 years. According to one of my friends, 3 suicide bombers and people with guns stormed the house. Hanelie was not at home. There also died 3 Afghan Christians please keep their families in your prayers as well. 

 The Taliban took responsibility for attack said they targeted this specific Christian ministry.

Building burning last night in attack on foreign compound by Taliban

The News Report:

The latest Taliban strike in Kabul has killed a South African father and his two children, Afghan officials say, as the city's police chief resigns after at least nine militant attacks in two weeks.

As the US-led NATO war against the Taliban nears its end, the insurgents have targeted foreign compounds, embassy vehicles, US troops and a female Afghan member of parliament.

General Zahir stepped down shortly after he confirmed that three South Africans and an Afghan citizen were killed in a Taliban attack on a foreign compound on Saturday evening.

Partnership in Academics and Development, a small US-based education aid group, posted a message on its website, saying three of its staff had been killed in the attack.

"The attack ... by multiple gunmen included one who detonated a personal explosive device killing three and injuring other staff members," the website said.

"In the midst of this unprovoked attack, Partnership in Academics and Development remains committed to providing educational resources for Afghan citizens as they become part of the international community."

Mr Zahir said the organisation's local head, his son and his daughter were all killed.

"The attackers first shot dead the director as they entered the building," Mr Zahir said at a press conference, giving no further details about the victims' age.

Maj Gen Mohammad Zahir - Kabul Police Chief, resigned

Fears growing as international troops depart

NATO troop numbers peaked at 130,000 in 2010 but have fallen rapidly since then. Their combat mission ends altogether on December 31.

Fears are growing that the declining international presence is already fueling the Islamist insurgency.

The mission will be replaced by a 12,500-strong force supporting the Afghan army and police, who have taken over responsibility for thwarting the Taliban.

Kabul police spokesman Hashmat Stanakzai said General Zahir gave notice of his resignation on Sunday.

"General Zahir Zahir told the interior ministry he no longer wanted to continue his job," Mr Stanakzai said. "The minister has accepted his resignation."

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed on Twitter that the compound hit on Saturday was that of a secret Christian missionary group and that a meeting of Australian visitors had been hit.

In the latest attack, gunmen wearing suicide vests stormed the building apparently looking for foreigners.

A neighbouring building was engulfed in flames as security forces took three hours to hunt down the militants.

Saturday's attack came two days after the Taliban struck at another foreign guesthouse, wounding a guard, and a suicide bomber targeted a British embassy vehicle in a blast that killed six people.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani

Afghan soldiers and police have endured soaring casualties on the battlefield, with more than 4,600 killed this year as they take on the Taliban with less assistance from the US military. This is not the first time America has left a country to implode upon itself, unfortunately.

President Ashraf Ghani, who came to power in September, has vowed to bring peace to Afghanistan after decades of conflict, saying he is open to talks with the Taliban who ruled Kabul from 1996 to 2001.

Pakistan Mob Kills Christian Couple over Alleged "Blasphemy'

Previous attacks on minorities over blasphemy allegations have led to protests

A Christian couple in Pakistan have been beaten to death by an angry crowd after being accused of desecrating a Koran, police say.

Their bodies were burned at the brick kiln where they worked in the town of Kot Radha Kishan in Punjab province.

Police identified the victims only as Shama and Shehzad, AFP reports.

Blasphemy is a highly sensitive issue and critics argue the laws are often misused to settle personal scores and that minorities are unfairly targeted.

"Yesterday an incident of desecration of the holy Koran took place in the area and today the mob first beat the couple and later set their bodies on fire at a brick kiln," local police station official Bin Yameen told the AFP news agency.

A security official told the BBC that local police had tried to save the couple, but they were outnumbered and attacked by the angry crowd.

Senior police officials and government ministers have now arrived there to investigate the killings.

In May gunmen in the city of Multan shot dead a lawyer, Rashid Rehma, who had been defending a university lecturer accused of blasphemy. This is how absurdly insane many Pakistanis are about the Quran and the prophet. Apparently, Allah is so weak that he has to be protected by out-of-control people. The God of Christians and Jews is very capable of defending Himself. When one blasphemes against our God we usually only have pity for him knowing that he has a long, painful future awaiting him.

It's curious why Muslims are so fanatic about Mohammed when the Quran tells us about Isa, who was born of a virgin, performed many miracles, and will sit on the Judgement Seat on that great and terrible day. They persecute the children of the Son of God in the name of a mere prophet. How do you think that will serve them when they stand before that very Son of God?

And last month a Pakistani court upheld the death penalty for Asia Bibi, a Christian woman convicted of blasphemy in 2010 - a case which sparked a global outcry.

Since the 1990s, scores of Christians have been found guilty of desecrating the Koran or of blasphemy.

While most of them have been sentenced to death by the lower courts, many sentences have been overturned due to lack of evidence.

However, correspondents say even the mere accusation of blasphemy is enough to make someone a target for hardliners.

Muslims constitute a majority of those prosecuted, followed by minority Ahmadis.

ISIS Identifies Christianity as Its Number One Enemy

Iraq’s Christians have been forced to flee or
face certain death in the path of ISIS terrorists

In an updated version of its propaganda booklet, “Dabiq,” ISIS clearly identifies its No. 1 enemy – Christianity.

The cover photo shows a black ISIS flag flying over the Vatican. The booklet describes the terrorist army’s desires to conquer Rome and “break the cross,” according to Arutz Sheva, an independent Israeli news network.

According to some Islamic traditions, the Islamic prophet Muhammad predicted that the occupation of Istanbul, Jerusalem and Rome would pave the way for the Islamic messiah or mahdi.

The declaration surfaces amid growing concern over the widespread persecution of Christians in the Middle East. ISIS has executed hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Christians throughout Iraq and forced many to flee the country. Up to 100,000 Christians remain in the capital of Baghdad, as ISIS is now within eight miles of the city.

A joint conference between the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem and the World Jewish Congress in Jerusalem was held earlier this week to discuss the dire situation for Christians.

“Across the Middle East, in the last 10 years, 100,000 Christians have been murdered each year. That means every five minutes a Christian is killed because of his faith,” Father Gabriel Nadaf, who has campaigned for Christian Arab rights and for local Christians to support Israel, told the United Nations Human Rights Council in September. “Those who can escape persecution at the hands of Muslim extremists have fled. … Those who remain, exist as second if not third-class citizens to their Muslim rulers.”

An estimated 12 million Christians lived in the Middle East, according to a July estimate in the London Guardian. But that number has been thought to have decreased drastically since the ISIS summer takeover of nearly half of Iraq, including the city of Mosul, which had been home to Christians for 2,000 years.

As Islam jihadists have gained ground throughout the Middle East over the past three years, the Christian community has faced persecution in a number countries, including Egypt, Iraq, Libya and Syria.

In Egypt, Coptic Christians have been targeted by violence from the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafi groups. There have been reports of church burnings and killings of Christians.

In Syria, al-Qaida-linked rebels have threatened to kill Christians who do not join the fight against President Bashar Al-Assad.

Iran has persecuted Christians relentlessly as well, recently making headlines for burning the lips of a Christian man caught eating during the Ramadan fast.

4th Century Depiction of Jesus Found in Spain

Archaeologists in Spain say they have found one of the world's earliest known images of Jesus. It is engraved on a glass plate dating back to the 4th Century AD, reports from Spain say.

The plate is believed to have been used to hold Eucharistic bread as it was consecrated in early Christian rituals. It measures 22cm in diameter and fragments of it were unearthed outside the southern Spanish city of Linares, ABC newspaper reports.

Scientists working for the FORVM MMX project found it inside a building used for religious worship in what remains of the ancient town of Castulo. The find made scientists "review the chronology of early Christianity in Spain", FORVM MMX project director Marcelo Castro told El Mundo newspaper. Maybe Paul did make it to Spain as some believe. The 4th century would be only about 300 years after the Crucifixion of Jesus, and perhaps less than that after the death of Paul.

The pieces were in an excellent state of preservation - 81% of its original area has now been pieced together by scientists.

Hands holding an ancient plate

In the image, Jesus Christ is flanked by two apostles, believed to be Peter and Paul. "The scene takes place in the celestial orb, framed between two palm trees, which in Christian iconography represent immortality, the afterlife and heaven, among other things," ABC writes.

El Mundo notes that Christ looks very different from later depictions: he has no beard, his hair is not too long and he is wearing a philosopher's toga.

Reconstruction of images on plate

PM Warns of IS Threat to UK as Church Leaders Break Media Silence on Christians in Iraq

Islamic State militants could grow strong enough to target people on the streets of Britain unless action is taken, David Cameron has warned.

The PM, writing in the Sunday Telegraph, said a "humanitarian response" to IS was not enough and a "firm security response" was needed.

It comes as Church leaders expressed concern that the UK had no "coherent" approach to tackling Islamic extremism.

IS has seized large parts of northern Iraq and Syria over the summer.

There are also continuing reports of massacres of non-Muslims by the extreme Sunni group, which is seeking to build a new Islamic state spanning Iraq and Syria.

Kurdish forces, supported by US air strikes, said they had recaptured part of Mosul dam from IS fighters in northern Iraq on Sunday. The Pentagon says it destroyed or damaged 19 IS vehicles and a checkpoint near the dam.

An IS video purports to show Reyaad Khan (c) and Nasser Muthana (r)
from Cardiff as two of an estimated 400 Britons fighting with the group

Analysis

By Robin Brant, BBC political correspondent

The language is very strong - "a battle against a poisonous ideology" - and the warning is stark - "a terrorist state on the shores of the Mediterranean" - as the prime minister seeks to make the case for Britain returning to Iraq.

After a week that has seen UK military aircraft drop humanitarian aid, David Cameron makes it clear that alone is not enough to defeat IS. He talks repeatedly about Britain using its "military prowess" and military action, alongside diplomacy, to defeat the group.

The talk is tough, but Downing Street insists this is not an escalation. The Ministry of Defence has been reminding people that the UK has played no role in supporting the latest round of US air strikes on IS targets across northern Iraq.

The prime minister's message is as much about home as well as abroad. People walking around with an Islamic State flag "will be arrested", he says. That is a nod to the growing concern about Britons who have gone to fight jihad, in Syria or Iraq, returning home with the intention of carrying on the struggle.

British PM David Cameron

'Terrorist state'
Mr Cameron said: "True security will only be achieved if we use all our resources - aid, diplomacy, our military prowess - to help bring about a more stable world.

"If we do not act to stem the onslaught of this exceptionally dangerous terrorist movement, it will only grow stronger until it can target us on the streets of Britain."

He warned that if IS was able to "carve out its so-called caliphate", the UK would be "facing a terrorist state on the shores of the Mediterranean and bordering a Nato member".

The UK has made aid drops to people stranded in northern Iraq but the prime minister warned a "broader political, diplomatic and security response" was needed, in addition to humanitarian action.

"We need a firm security response, whether that is military action to go after the terrorists, international co-operation on intelligence and counter-terrorism or uncompromising action against terrorists at home," he wrote.

In Britain, the prime minister suggested, anyone "walking around with Isil flags or trying to recruit people to their terrorist cause" should be arrested.

Mr Cameron also made clear that he did not see this as a "war on terror" but as "a battle between Islam on the one hand and extremists who want to abuse Islam on the other". He's being diplomatic here in order not to fan an anti-Islam backlash in Britain.

Moral obligation
Speaking on Radio 5 live, communities minister Stephen Williams said any British citizen encouraging people to join IS should face "the full force of the law". Is there a law against recruiting for Jihad?

A Yazidi refugee girl in Dohuk, northern Iraq

Mr Cameron's remarks come as the Bishop of Leeds warned "many" senior clergy in the Church of England were seriously concerned about Britain's approach to the handling of the Iraq crisis.

The Right Rev Nicholas Baines has written to Mr Cameron asking about the government's overall strategy in response to the humanitarian situation and to IS.

"Behind this question is the serious concern that we do not seem to have a coherent or comprehensive approach to Islamist extremism as it is developing across the globe," he wrote, in a letter published on his website and backed by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Breaking media silence on Christian refugees
He criticised an "increasing silence" about the plight of tens of thousands of persecuted Christians in Iraq, and questioned whether they would be offered asylum in the UK.

Speaking to Radio 4's Sunday programme, the Bishop of Manchester, the Right Rev David Walker, said the government had a "moral obligation that it is repeatedly failing to rise to".

Shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander said the letter from Church leaders had raised "serious questions" about the government's approach to the Middle East and the plight of Christians facing persecution in Iraq and it was "right that [Mr Cameron] now responded".

"The UK government rightly took steps to help avert humanitarian catastrophe in Iraq and Labour has welcomed decisions to now offer support to the Kurdistan regional government and assist Kurdish forces with technical and logistical military equipment.

"But alongside steps to support the Kurdish forces, the UK must now work to engage regional partners to help build a more inclusive and stable government in Iraq.

"That regional approach must focus on supporting and stabilising Jordan, which now shares a border with the ISIS-held areas, as well as bringing countries like Turkey into efforts to secure regional stabilisation," he said.

'Plotting attacks'
Earlier this year, Mr Cameron warned that fighters from IS - then named Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) - were plotting terror attacks against the UK.

It is estimated the group has up to 400 recruits from the UK, and some 69 people suspected of Syria-related jihadist activities have now been arrested in the UK.

In late June this year, IS declared that it had created a caliphate, or Islamic state, stretching from Aleppo in Syria to the province of Diyala in Iraq.

IS-led violence has so far driven an estimated 1.2 million Iraqis from their homes.

Christian refugee camp in Dohuk

Whole communities of Yazidis and Christians have been forced to flee in the north, along with Shia Iraqis, whom IS do not regard as true Muslims.

Christian Family of 8 Massacred by Isis for not Converting to Islam

With Islamic extremists’ ongoing purge of Christians from northern Iraq, horrific news reports continue to capture the intense abuse and persecution that believers face. And a story recently shared by Canon Andrew White, the vicar of Baghdad, shows just how brutal the tragic crisis is.

White, an Anglican faith leader at St. George’s Church in Baghdad, posted on his Facebook page August 1 that he saw a photo “too awful to show” — an image that depicted the horrors being perpetuated by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, an extremist group that has taken control of Mosul, among other regions.

“You know I love to show photos but the photo I was sent today was the most awful I have ever seen. A family of 8 all shot through the face laying in a pool of blood with their Bible open on the couch,” he wrote. “They would not convert it cost them [their] life. I thought of asking if anybody wanted to see the picture but it is just too awful to show to anybody.”

In this Tuesday, July 22, 2014 photo, a sign is posted at a checkpoint belonging to the Islamic State group, captured from the Iraqi Army, at the main entrance of Rawah, 175 miles (281 kilometers) northwest of Baghdad, Iraq. Arabic reads,”Islamic State, the Emirate of Anbar, City of Rawah.” (AP Photo)

He continued, “This is Iraq today. The only hope and consolation is that all these dear people are now all with Yesua in Glory.”

The graphic story surrounding this photo is only one of the latest to come from a region that is being overtaken by extremists bent on creating an Islamic state known as a “caliphate.”


White, who is also founder of the Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East, an organization that promotes interfaith relations, told his followers that they can help by praying “for the protection of … all the Christians” in Iraq. He also encouraged donations to his organization, which is working to help afflicted Iraqis.

“Pray for our Perseverance that we and our people will not give up the spiritual fight before us,” White added.

As previously reported, believers in Mosul were given an ultimatum last month: convert to Islam, pay a tax or be put to death. It is possible that the family White saw in the photo paid the price for their refusal to comply.

Last month, His Beatitude Ignatius Ephrem Joseph III Younan, overseer of Assyrian Christians around the globe, also spoke out about the crisis, accusing many in the West of turning a blind eye to their plight.

“We are so saddened that the civilized world doesn’t really care,” Younan said. “Surely there are other dramatic problems — wars around us in the Middle East… Gaza or Syria but here it’s … genocide … just because they are Christians.”

An Iraqi displaced family, who fled violence in the northern city of Tal Afar, walks past tents at Khazer refugee camp near the Kurdish checkpoint of Aski kalak, 40 km West of Arbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq on July 27, 2014. (AFP PHOTO/SAFIN HAMED)

The Agence France Presse and Lebanon’s The Daily Star reported Wednesday that extremists are waging fresh attacks on Christians in north Iraq.

According to the outlet, sources claim that the towns of Tal Kayf, Bartella and Qaraqosh — some of the locations places where displaced Christians from Mosul fled last month — have now come under attack by ISIS. Indeed, Qaraqosh has fallen and Christians are fleeing.

Christian leaders in Iraq have reportedly selected August 9 as a day of prayer for those suffering at the hands of the radical terror group. Please join us in prayer, and include the Yasidi people as well who are trapped on a mountaintop and are dying from exposure. (See link just above).

Meriam, A Symbol of Feminism Come Full-Circle?

A beautifully written and thought provoking perspective on the accomplishments of Meriam Ibrahim.

LONDON, England (Catholic Online) - The great news of Meriam Ibrahim's arrival in Italy filled me with so much joy and elation. The images of this graceful and beautiful African woman, babe in hand, stepping out of the plane was a sight to behold especially after her unspeakable pain and suffering in the Sudanese prison.

So I thought I should, in a very simple letter, write down my reflections and thoughts of gratitude for this resilient daughter of Africa whose freedom is being celebrated by the entire world today.

On behalf of all African women, I thank you Meriam Ibrahim, for showing the world the indomitable courage that is at the core of authentic femininity. I say this because your pain and persecution were tied so firmly to your femininity. And so your triumph was a most powerful witness to life, to motherhood, to marriage, to love and to faith.

Meriam and Maya being blessed
by Pope Francis

You are indeed a true picture of faith and virtue, a true symbol of strength and resilience. You are, in my humble opinion, a real woman of substance, an African woman of substance and your story fills my heart with courage and audacity in my own vocation to defend our African culture of life,marriage, motherhood, faith and family, no matter how difficult, no matter how shameful and no matter how painful for me.

For under intense persecution, you refused to deny your Christian faith. Under the threat of the extremists, you stood as a witness and a martyr.

Under the pain of incarceration, you would not deny your husband or renounce your marriage.

Under the heavy shackles of prison you still had the strength and defiance to give life, to give birth.

Under the certainty of a death sentence you had the determination to nurse your precious little baby.

By your powerful example, the world has come to witness the resilience of a young African woman who in the worst conditions bore heroic witness to the virtues of faith, marriage, and motherhood.

Your unspeakable struggles in the last few months have been a most radiant ray of light that has pierced through the darkest clouds to contradict a modern world that is telling us that faith means nothing, that religious freedom is not all that important, that marriage is whatever we want it to be, that motherhood should be a choice we make under the most conducive situations, that our babies should only be born at the most convenient of times.

You, my African sister, have become a lightning rod to the radical feminists of our times who repudiate and denigrate every virtue that you epitomize .

Within your body, you have borne the marks and scars of a true Christian, a wife, a mother and a martyr, and in this way you have shown us what it means to be an empowered and liberated woman, and I'm glad to say it is certainly not what the western radicals and ideologues are telling us.

They try to tell us that for African women to be empowered, they need to be "sexually liberated", selfish, individualistic and fiercely autonomous, but you Meriam, by your own example, have taught us that the liberated African woman is the woman who is free to live and practice her faith, love her husband , and protect her children (born and unborn). A liberated woman is a woman of faith and family. This is the truth that must be spoken throughout Africa.

Today, the world watched you as you breathed the fresh air of freedom and as you made your first stop, not at the Whitehouse, but rather at the House of St Martha (Casa Santa Marta) which is also the house of the Holy Father Pope Francis. Instead of the presidential handshake that many others would have craved first, you chose the papal handshake. And instead of the political reception you chose the apostolic benediction for you and your family. You chose the Pope over the POTUS!

You are a woman of great wisdom and strength and indeed Africa raises, praises and celebrates you.

We rejoice with you and for you.

We rejoice that you are free at last.

And out of our rejoicing, I pray that more women (from our Africa and from every corner of the world) will reflect deeply on your experience so as to emulate you.
I pray for women of faith to rise up and bear courageous witness even to the point of martyrdom.

I pray for women who are pregnant to choose life for their babies at all cost.

I pray for women who are wives and mothers to stay true to their vows and vocations.

I pray that beyond our global rejoicing, we would be adorned with even a portion of the heroic virtue of Meriam Ibrahim's authentic feminism, purified and forged in the fiery crucible of religious persecution.
-----

Obianuju Ekeocha is an African woman, living and working in the United Kingdom as a Specialist Biomedical Scientist. She is also the founder of Culture of Life Africa, an initiative dedicated to the promotion of a Culture of Life in Africa  through the dissemination of good information, sensitization and education. She has written several articles including the "Open Letter to Melinda Gates"  and "Africa in the redefined world (An Open Letter to President Obama)" Her passion and privilege is to continue to work in defense of the sanctity and dignity of life within Culture.

Christians Persecuted in 3/4 of the World's Countries and Growing

Yesterday, on one of my posts, I predicted that the anti-Christian movement would explode across the world with astounding speed. I guess I could claim to be right except that I learn today that it has already happened. 

This excellent opinion piece helps put Meriam's ordeal into perspective, but also documents the 'explosive growth' of anti-Christianity around the world.

WALL STREET JOURNAL  OPINION

Meriam Ibrahim and the Persecution of Christians
Sentenced to death because of her faith—it's a modern story with ancient echoes.

By CHARLOTTE ALLEN
June 26, 2014 6:48 p.m. ET

A 27-year-old Sudanese woman named Meriam Ibrahim seemed likely to become a 21st-century Christian martyr in May when she was sentenced to death by hanging because of her faith. Then this week Ms. Ibrahim was saved when a court overturned her conviction for apostasy from Islam—her father was a Muslim, and under Islamic law she is automatically a Muslim too. (She had also been sentenced to public flogging for adultery because her husband, Daniel Wani, is also a Christian, and Islamic law doesn't recognize marriages between Muslim women and non-Muslim men.) But the day after her release on Monday, Ms. Ibrahim was arrested again. While the Associated Press reported Thursday that she had again been released Thursday, her future remained uncertain.

Her story is harrowing. Ms. Ibrahim was eight months pregnant with her second child when she was convicted in a Khartoum court on April 30 under the Islamic Shariah law that has governed Sudan since 1989. On May 27, while in prison awaiting execution, Ms. Ibrahim gave birth to her daughter, Maya. Mr. Wani reported that his wife was shackled to the floor during labor. Their year-and-a-half-old son, Martin, had been jailed along with her.

Ms. Ibrahim was re-arrested on Tuesday by a government security force as she, Mr. Wani and their two young children tried to leave Sudan for the U.S. The Sudanese-born Mr. Wani has been an American citizen since 2005. The new charges against Ms. Ibrahim—which are reported to carry penalties of up to seven years in prison—consist of falsifying the family's travel documents, which were issued by the embassy of South Sudan, the largely Christian territory that seceded from overwhelmingly Muslim Sudan in 2011 after a decades-long civil war. Mr. Wani hails from what is now South Sudan.

Meriam Ibrahim and Husband Daniel Wani

Ms. Ibrahim's story bears uncanny parallels to another Christian story involving young African mothers who did become Christian martyrs, during the early third century: the story of Felicitas and Perpetua, executed for their faith in the Roman port city of Carthage in today's Tunisia. Vibia Perpetua was a well-educated young woman, not unlike Ms. Ibrahim, who is trained as a doctor. Felicitas was a slave in an advanced state of pregnancy when she was thrown into prison along with Perpetua and other Christians to await their deaths by wild animals in the Carthage arena. Perpetua, like Ms. Ibrahim, went to prison along with a baby son. Felicitas, like Ms. Ibrahim, bore a baby daughter before her execution date.

The most dramatic parallel is the simple affirmation that Ms. Ibrahim gave in court that led to her death sentence: "I am a Christian." Those also were Perpetua's words, as they were of many martyrs in Roman times. Like Perpetua, Ms. Ibrahim, who was brought up in the Ethiopian Orthodox faith of her mother, also refused to recant.

This isn't just a matter of ancient and modern coincidences. More significantly, the Roman world of the third century was strikingly like today's secularized West in its contempt for Christians and indifference to their persecution.

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life has found that Christians are persecuted in more places today than any other religious group, suffering formal or informal harassment in three-quarters of the world's countries. The persecution of Christians, Paul Marshall of the Hudson Institute's Center for Religious Freedom wrote in the June 23 Weekly Standard, "is occurring on a massive scale, it is under-reported, and in many parts of the world it is rapidly growing."

Yet this persecution is mostly ignored. The Sudanese civil war included waves of genocidal mass killings of southern Sudanese Christians by the Khartoum government during the 1990s, but the media looked the other way until the Sudanese started slaughtering Muslim rebels in Darfur in 2003. The recent kidnapping of Nigerian schoolgirls by the Islamic-fanatic group Boko Haram has been portrayed as a war on women's education. You seldom hear that most of the girls are Christians and one of the aims of the abduction was their forced conversion to Islam.

Amnesty International has admirably agitated for Meriam Ibrahim's release, but partly on grounds of Amnesty's opposition to the death penalty. Even many Christian churches in the West seem to be too constrained by ethnic sensitivities to assert themselves on behalf of their persecuted brethren. They haven't paid much attention to the near-extermination of the ancient Christian communities in Iraq during the past decade of turmoil, or to the systematic destruction of Coptic churches in Egypt by Islamic radicals in 2013.

Meriam Ibrahim did manage to gain the attention and sympathy of the West by reason of her courage, her beauty, her status as a mother of two young children and the extreme circumstances of her case. If there are parallels between her experience and a story of ancient martyrdom, the lesson might be that the West's cultured classes' hostility to Christianity, like that of their of Roman forbears, results in a passivity that tolerates attacks on people whose only crime is their faith.

Ms. Allen is the author of "The Human Christ: The Search for the Historical Jesus" (Free Press, 1998).

Shackles Removed, More Comfortable Quarters for Meriam Since Giving Birth

The woman who gave birth in a Sudanese jail after she was sentenced to death for converting to Christianity has had her shackles removed, her lawyer has said.

Meriam Ibrahim's chains were removed on doctor's orders after she gave birth to a daughter in jail in Khartoum's twin city of Omdurman.

She was also moved from the prison cell she shared with other inmates to a prison clinic with a bed and air conditioning, her lawyer told AFP.

The case of the 27-year-old mother of two sparked an international outcry when a judge sentenced her to hang last month after she was found guilty of apostasy and adultery for marrying a Christian.

Born to a Muslim father, she was convicted under Islamic sharia law that has been in force in Sudan since 1983 and outlaws conversions on pain of death.

She gave birth just 12 days after the verdict. It had been thought she was still shackled throughout the delivery and beyond, according to the rules which stipulate the treatment of death row inmates in Sudan.

But Mohanad Mustafa, one of Ms Ibrahim's lawyers, told AFP yesterday that jailers removed the chains after she gave birth to her daughter.

'This is on order by the doctor,' he said, adding that he didn't think the shackles would be put back on again.

'After she gave birth the conditions got better,' said Mr Mustafa. 'She has air conditioning. She has a good bed,' he said after he and Ms Ibrahim's Catholic husband, Daniel Wani, visited her.

'She's fine. Usually her husband brings the food, and he gives her money' to buy any other items she needs.

The couple's 20-month-old son is also in prison with Ms Ibrahim and her daughter. Mr Mustafa said that despite the relative improvement in the conditions they are being kept in, 'a prison is a prison.'

Western governments and human rights groups have pressured the Sudanese to release Ms Ibrahim.

Last week, European Union leaders called for revocation of the 'inhumane verdict,' while U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged Khartoum to repeal its laws banning Muslims from converting.

Prime Minister David Cameron said the way she has been treated 'is barbaric and has no place in today's world.'

Mr Mustafa and four other human rights lawyers handling her case for free have appealed the verdict.

'We're still waiting,' and there is no word on when the higher court's decision may come, Mr Mustafa said.

A church source was optimistic Ms Ibrahim would be freed because of international pressure on Sudan. 'I am hopeful that she will be released,' said the source, who asked for anonymity.

But Muslim extremist groups have been also lobbying the Islamist government over the case, prominent newspaper editor Khalid Tigani has said.

Ms Ibrahim, born in eastern Sudan's Gedaref state on November 3, 1987, is the daughter of a Sudanese Muslim father and an Ethiopian Orthodox Christian mother, according to a statement from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Khartoum.

SUDANESE GOVERNMENT BOMBS HOSPITAL RUN BY AID GROUP
The aid group Doctors Without Borders says an aerial bombing run over a Sudanese village hit one of its medical facilities, partially destroying a hospital.
The group said Tuesday the bombing run in the southern Sudanese region of South Kordofana occurred Monday. The group said five people from the village and one Doctors Without Borders staffer were wounded.
The group's head of mission, Brian Moller, said the group is shocked that its medical facility was hit, especially since it is clearly identified with a flag and a cross on the roof. He said Khartoum's government knows where the hospital is.
Residents in the region say the Khartoum government has increased bombing runs in recent weeks. Sudan's military is fighting soldiers more ideologically aligned with South Sudan.

Her father abandoned the family when she was five, and she was raised according to her mother's faith, it says.

'She has never been a Muslim in her life,' said the statement signed by Father Mussa Timothy Kacho, episcopal vicar for Khartoum. Miss Ibrahim joined the Catholic church shortly before she married the Mr Wani in December 2011, the vicar said.

Mr Wani was born in Khartoum but is now a U.S. citizen, the U.S. embassy confirmed to AFP on Tuesday.

The case against Ishag dates from 2013 when 'a group of men who claim to be Meriam's relatives' filed an initial legal action, the vicar's statement said.

In fact, she had never seen those men before, the statement added, in comments confirmed by Mr Mustafa.

Ms Ibrahim, who is a trained doctor, and her husband own a barber shop, a mini-mart and an agricultural project in Gedaref, the vicar said.

Mr Mustafa did not know if there is a link between the businesses and the case against Ms Ibrahim, but he told AFP: 'Surely there is something behind this'.

The case is the latest problem facing Sudan, an impoverished nation battling rebellions in its west and south, while more than six million people need humanitarian aid. 

This may not be an effective strategy for inspiring humanitarian aid.

Why the Church of England will Never Accept Gay Marriage

A remarkable disclosure by Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, Head of the Church of England.

‘Christians in Africa will be killed if Church of England accepts gay marriage’: Archbishop of Canterbury.

LONDON – African Christians will be killed if the Church of England accepts gay marriage, the archbishop of Canterbury has suggested.

Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury

Speaking on an LBC phone in, Justin Welby said he had stood by a mass grave in Nigeria of 330 Christians who had been massacred by neighbours who had justified the atrocity by saying: “If we leave a Christian community here we will all be made to become homosexual and so we will kill all the Christians.”

“I have stood by gravesides in Africa of a group of Christians who had been attacked because of something that had happened in America. We have to listen to that. We have to be aware of the fact,” Welby said.

If the Church of England celebrated gay marriages, he added, “the impact of that on Christians far from here, in South Sudan, Pakistan, Nigeria and other places would be absolutely catastrophic. Everything we say here goes round the world.”

This reasoning has until now been kept private, although both Welby and his predecessor, Rowan Williams, anguished about it in private.

Welby also condemned homophobia in England. “To treat every human being with equal importance and dignity is a fundamental part of being a Christian,” he said. Although he continued to uphold what he called the historic position of the church, of “sex only within marriage and marriage only between a man and a woman”, he agreed with the presenter, James O’Brien, that it was “completely unacceptable” for the church to condemn homosexual people more than adulterous heterosexual people.

African churches do not share this opinion, and the Anglican churches in both Uganda and Nigeria have given enthusiastic backing to laws which criminalise even the expression of support for gay marriage.

Despite these confusions, Welby denied that the church was woolly in its preaching in a testy exchange with the former Conservative cabinet minister Ann Widdecombe, who left the Church of England over its support of female priests in 1992, but phoned in on Friday to attack it. “I think the opponents of women’s ordination are wrong theologically,” he said.

Welby refused an opportunity to criticise Iain Duncan Smith on welfare reform, but he was unequivocal in support of the church’s work with food banks and against inequality. He cited statistics showing that a third of those coming to food banks were entitled to benefits which had not actually been paid and another third were in employment, but for them “the month is a bit longer than the money”.

“Whatever the causes, those are the people we are dealing with. They need to be treated with human dignity and they need to be loved. I do want to live in a country where the economy works in a way that means that food banks are no longer necessary,” Welby said.

In remarks which showed the clear influence of Catholic doctrine, he said that food, house prices and energy costs were all moral issues that could not be left entirely to the market. “How much you charge for essentials is always a moral issue,” he said. – theguardian.com.

Revelation 12 - It Makes Sense - It's so Simple

Revelation 12 is one of many intriguing chapters in that enigmatic book. But today, I believe God opened my understanding to be able to get a grip on this chapter.

Previously, I tried to make sense out of it thinking that the incidents portrayed were all in random chronological order – going back and forth through the ages from before man to the future. 

Today, I have come to understand that the entire chapter is figurative, not literal. And yet, I tried to understand the chapter while assuming that the time references in it were, in fact, literal.

1260 days (v6) meant 1260 days, or possibly years. And “time, and times, and half a time” (v14) meant 3.5 years – time = 1 year; times = 2 years; and half a time = half a year. Both of these numbers then signify 3.5 years, which is half of the 7 year period of the Great Tribulation. What could be neater?

However, 1260 days does not equal 3.5 years no matter which way you slice it, it's a month short. 3.5 years is closer to 1290 days. 1290 days happens to be one of the numbers prophesied by Daniel in Ch 12:

9 He replied, “Go your way, Daniel, because the words are rolled up and sealed until the time of the end.

10 Many will be purified, made spotless and refined, but the wicked will continue to be wicked. None of the wicked will understand, but those who are wise will understand.

11 “From the time that the daily sacrifice is abolished and the abomination that causes desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days.

12 Blessed is the one who waits for and reaches the end of the 1,335 days.

Of course, 1290 days is not 1260 days, nor is it 1335 days. So what does it mean? I think the answer is in verse 9, “the words are rolled up and sealed until the time of the end.” God wouldn't tell Daniel when ‘these things’ would come to be – He sealed them up. In other words, we are not supposed to know.

Consequently, I have come to believe that the number of days cannot be taken literally or even as referring to years. The entire chapter 12 of Revelation is figurative, why would we assume those numbers to be the only literal references? They cannot be literal.

The number 144,000 (Rev 7 & 14) is considered by most Biblical scholars to be figurative. They believe 12x12 represents a complete number. When God told the martyrs to “rest a while longer until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been, would be completed also', He was referring to a number that only He knows, but when reached will signify that the Tribulation period is about to end. 144,000 is a complete number but it certainly represents another number that is much, much larger.

I contend that these numbers, 1260, 1290, 1335 days, and 3.5 years are representative of the completion of something in the mind of God, and should not be taken literally.

Once you remove the literal reading of those numbers from Rev 12, it becomes amazingly simple to read. It is completely chronological!

The woman clothed in the sun represents God’s chosen people, out of whom came the Christ child. The fiery, red dragon is Satan who stands before the woman in an attempt to destroy the Child. Can you attribute Herod’s ordering the death of every male child under 3 years of age, to being anything less than Satanic?

The woman, still representing the Jewish people, fled into the wilderness. This is quite obviously a reference to the diaspora of the Jews which began in 70 AD and was completed early in the 2^nd century.

War between Michael, his angels, and Satan and his demons. This is not a reference to the original rebellion in Heaven, but occurred after the death of Jesus. Up until then, Satan and his demons had a right to have access to Heaven. References to ‘the sons of God’ in Genesis and Satan standing before God accusing the brethren, (see Job), make it clear that they had access to Heaven.

‘Nor was a place found for them in Heaven any longer’, I believe signifies an end to that privilege which was then enforced by Michael, somehow using the Blood of Christ and the testimony of martyrs. Use of the Blood of Christ and the testimony of martyrs confirms that this war between Michael and Satan occurred after the Crucifixion of Jesus. This could also be an indication that it took many years to accomplish the expelling of Satan and his brood from Heaven.

About the woman’s time in the wilderness, v14 says that she was away from the presence of the serpent, which would mean that Satan could hardly touch her. Jews lived mostly in peace in their new homes until early in the 19^th century, when the first of many Russian pogroms were executed against the Jews.

'The flood from the serpent’s mouth' is almost certainly a reference to Hitler and Nazi Germany’s attempt to annihilate the Jews. Could it be that the reference to 'the earth swallowing up the flood' is an allusion to Hitler’s offing himself in a bunker below ground and perhaps his continued descent into Hell?

'to make war with the rest of her offspring' is obviously a reference to the persecution of Christians, first through communism, then through Islam. That brings us right up to very recently where, I think, Chapter 13 picks up, but that’s for another day.

I would be very pleased with your thoughts and criticisms.

The Rapture - Hope or Hype?

Are you a rapture enthusiast? I think most evangelicals believe in a rapture happening; the Bible has several references to such an event. However, they just don’t agree on when it will happen. The classic view is that it will happen at the end of the Great Tribulation period – seven years of horror that God will plague the earth with.

There is, however, a predominant view in the post-modern evangelical church that the rapture will occur just before the Great Tribulation allowing us Christians to escape the hardships of life during that awful period. The reason the predominant view differs from the classic view is thanks mainly to one man – Tim LeHaye. His “Left Behind” series of books and movies has made the idea of a pre-trib general rapture very popular; indeed, that was his stated intention for writing them. In a recent Facebook discussion with an atheist, he asked me how the books and the movie were not basically brain-washing young Christians. I couldn’t answer him.

Is LeHaye right? Where did the idea come from if it wasn’t part of classical Christian belief? Is there any harm to believing in a pre-trib rapture of the entire church? I’m going to address the last question first because many who preach the pre-trib rapture say that there is no harm in teaching it. They say that we should always live for Christ anyway, so what difference does it make whether we believe in a pre-trib rapture or a post-trib rapture, or even a mid-trib rapture? An old pastor of mine believed in a pan-trip rapture – it will all pan out in the end. In those days, the 1980’s, very few pastors would take a stand on when the rapture would occur. Today, thanks in part to LeHaye, many happily go along with the pre-trib rapture hype.

They are correct in as much as we Christians should always be living for Christ, but, far more importantly, we should all be prepared to die for Christ. Are you prepared to die for Christ right now? How many people have you witnessed to this past week? Most of us are not even prepared to risk embarrassment for Christ, let alone willingly suffer and die for Him. If we are not ready to witness for Christ, we are not ready to die for Christ; and we are not ready for the Great Tribulation.

The Great Tribulation will not only be a time of judgment upon the unbeliever, but it will be a time of trials and testing for the believer, according to Daniel 12:10 “many shall be purified, made white, and refined.” This is similar to the Lord’s letter to Sardis in Revelation 3:4,5 You have a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy. He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life…” and also, His letter to the Laodiceans, Revelations 3:18, I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich: and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed…”

In all seven of these letters, the Lord promises trials and tribulations. The only ones to escape are the faithful from the Philadelphia Church because they have already endured much testing and have overcome. And there is no doubt who is responsible for this testing as the Lord frequently used phrases like, “I am coming quickly” to indicate the pending trial that He expects us to overcome. I do not believe that there will be any easy entrance into Heaven, and the church should be prepared to suffer through much difficulty and even death.

The 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Revelation 6:10,11, “And they (the souls of the martyrs)  cried with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on earth?” Then a white robe was given to each of them; and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer, until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, was completed.” That was the 5^th seal that the Lord opened.

After the 6^th seal was opened, John saw, “a great multitude which no-one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes…” Not knowing who they were, one of the elders informed John, “These are the ones who came out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”

“A great multitude which no-one could number…” Are we talking tens of thousands, millions, tens of millions? Revelation 5:11, “Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands…” Here, John is able to estimate more than 100 million angels, elders and other creatures (although no humans appear to be present!??), yet, in Revelation 7:9, he is unable to give even an estimate because the multitude is so vast. What does that mean? It means the number is at least in the hundreds of millions and quite possibly more than a billion.

Are Revelation 7: 9 & 14 the answer to ch 6: 11? Are these the martyrs whose numbers are now complete. If it is, it will mean the greatest massacre the world has ever seen – quite possibly a billion Christians murdered by the Antichrist and his supporters. Matthew 24:21, “For then there shall be great tribulation, such as has not been seen since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.”

Muslim rape and slaughter in Liberia

When we can’t buy food, or gas, or anything else without taking the mark of the beast, whatever that means, how quickly will we turn from a faith that fails to meet the promise of an abundant life and delivers persecution. Shouldn’t our teachers be preparing us for persecution? Have you ever heard a sermon on being prepared for persecution? Not unless you are planning on being a missionary in a hostile field.

At some point during the Great Tribulation, if we manage to hide for some period of time, there will come a day when we will be starving so badly, or suffering some other way to the point where we just walk in and surrender ourselves to possible torture and certain death. (You figured out by now that this is not a feel-good message.)

Notice, nearly all the passages of scripture above contain references to “white robes,” or “dressed in white.” It is not clear whether the “white robes” referred to frequently in this book, refer specifically to martyrs or to all believers who overcome the trials and tribulations. It could be that the Lord was referring to martyrdom in His letters to Sardis and Laodicea. See also, Daniel 11:34,35; 12:10. Elsewhere, the only reference to white clothing is on God, the transfigured Christ, angels, the 24 elders, and the armies which are in Heaven that accompany Christ on His return. These are almost certainly the martyrs whose numbers were completed.

Nowhere, other than perhaps the two letters mentioned above, does the Bible say that ordinary Christians will be clothed in white. So, if indeed they do refer to martyrdom, then nowhere in scripture are non-martyred believers clothed in white. In fact, nowhere in the Book of Revelation does it indicate that Christians who were not martyred are even in Heaven before Christ returns at the end of the Great Tribulation.

Jesus said, “Enter by the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life (everlasting), and there are few who find it.” Matthew 7:13,14. Never, until recently, in the history of the Christian church, has the concept been taught that all we need do is say the sinner’s prayer and then wait for Jesus to come and “beam us up” like Captain Kirk, when things start to get rough. But that is the gist of what is being taught now in many churches. Do you think such people as believe that are prepared to suffer and die for Jesus? It is more likely that they will be so completely disillusioned with the sudden, remarkable persecution in the Great Tribulation that they will decide that the whole thing is a joke, or just not worth the suffering?

Pre-tribbers aren’t concerned about that because they believe that it will involve people who become Christians during the Tribulation. These same people will tell you that the Holy Spirit (He who restrains evil) will be withdrawn from the earth during the Great Tribulation. How hundreds of millions of converts are going to occur without the Holy Spirit is a question I cannot guess at. They say the 144,000 who receive the mark of God on their forehead, and the two witnesses in Jerusalem, will be responsible for the conversions. Yet, there is no reference anywhere of them going into the world and converting souls. It is circular reasoning, for they think that because all the Christians have been taken out of the world, and millions of Christians are persecuted by the antichrist, that, therefore, millions must have come to the Lord (without the Holy Spirit) during the Great Tribulation. Except for a few thousand people in Jerusalem, there is no indication of anyone coming to the Lord during this time.

Is the Holy Spirit He Who restrains evil? There is certainly some support for that. But isn’t it just as likely that Michael, the Archangel, is the restrainer. It was Michael who fought Satan for the body of Moses, Jude 9. Daniel 12:1,2, “At that time Michael shall stand up, the great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people; and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that time, and that at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone who is found written in the Book.” This, of course, is arguing against my own point here, but it seems to me that as long as there are Christians on the earth that the Holy Spirit will be there.

The consequences of taking the mark of the beast, of denying Christ, are infinitely worse than the momentary affliction that awaits those who persevere. We must be ready and willing to suffer unto death, even death on the cross. Are you ready? I repeat; if you are not ready to suffer possible embarrassment by witnessing of Christ, you are a long ways from being ready to be a martyr. Prepare yourself, for it appears your teachers will not.