Release International logo Open Doors Map of Levels of World Persecution of Christians in 2025
The Warfare at The Natural & Supernatural Levels
Major challenges confront Christians living in countries where there is state-organised physical persecution by imprisonment, torture and execution of Christian pastors, the destruction of churches, and deportation of individual Christians and their families to slave labour camps.
The Challenge of Global Warfare for Christians 2 Corinthians 1:8-11; 1 Peter 2:11-25
1. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
2. Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. For it is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people.
3. If you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.
A Christian Response to Tyranny
In Luke 13:1 some folk came to Jesus and told him about the massacre Pilate’s troops had perpetrated against some Galileans, who were only trying to worship God. The people were hoping Jesus really was God’s promised Messiah and would rid them of Roman tyranny. But Jesus disappointed them by his response. Below is a summary of what he said.
1. The Real Cause of Suffering In The World Is Human Sin
We all sin and need God’s forgiveness, including Pilate. When we are hurt by others, we find it difficult to forgive them or realize we need to be forgiven as well. It’s not what happens to you but how you respond is the issue. If you do not repent of your sin, you too will perish like the Samaritans.
2. The Answer To Injustice Should Not Be Anger But Grace
Anger and hatred simply multiply the destructive nature of sin. Instead, when we remember God’s mercy in forgiving our sin, we realize love and mercy are healing in the face of injustice.
3. God Is The Ultimate Judge Of Injustice & Will Judge Justly
God gives sinners time to repent but will punish the sinner who refuses to acknowledge we all need his forgiveness. We need to endure the injustice in the knowledge that one day there will be a reckoning.
4. Jesus Did Not Challenge Pilate’s Authority Or Resist By Force
He pointed out to Pilate that his authority came from above and one day he would be answerable. God is sovereign over the whole world. Disciples of Jesus are governed by a higher authority to whom they are answerable. Suffering for doing the right thing has to be endured.
5. Standing Up For The Truth Of The Gospel Is Costly
Sometimes non-violent confrontation against tyranny will cost our lives as it did Jesus. But death is not the end. If we die with him, we shall be raised with him, Paul reminds us in 2 Timothy 2:11. [Based on an article by Elias Ghazal Confronting Tyranny The Jesus Way https://abtslebanon.org]
The Challenge of the Battle for Truth
The enemy's ultimate tactic is the same as he used with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, when he questioned what God had said: "Did God say?" This is his major tactic for trying to prevent the message of the Gospel from being shared to the ends of the world. He is doing this by both the physical/natural means of totalitarian state persecution, including control of the media, and in the supernatural realm as the ruler of the cosmos through lies and misinformation in cyberspace and the jamming of the Gospel by sophisticated cyber technology.