The extent of Christians being persecuted is reaching a scale that is historically unprecedented. Most evangelical Americans who flinch at the slightest incursion on religious liberties, and protest they should, have little idea regarding the scope of worldwide attacks on the church, especially from Islam. Dr. Walter Russell Mead, distinguished scholar in American strategy and statesmanship at the Hudson Institute, has written an incisive account of the slow death of Christianity in its cradle, the Middle East. His views are too voluminous to recount here, but the facts he cites are profoundly disturbing.
For example, early Christianity took root in Syria and Iraq and has survived there for 2,000 years. Even under Saddam Hussein there were still 1.5 million Christians. Today less than 20% of that amount remain. As recent as the 1920s, one-third of Syrians were Christian. Today it’s less than 10% due to the persecution of Islamist radicals. In 1900, most of Constantinople’s (present-day Istanbul, Turkey) residents were Christian. Today about 1% claim any faith other than Islam. And the nation of Turkey recently refused to acknowledge the genocidal slaughter of 2 million Christian Armenians in the early 20th century.
Perhaps the devil really does know that his time is short (Revelation 12:12) and has pulled out all the stops. One thing we certainly can learn from this is that the church must be very serious about its mission in these Last Days. All Christians everywhere are combatants in an openly declared war, and we must be prepared for battle. That’s the mission of our International School of Exorcism?. If you haven’t yet enrolled, do so NOW! Learn the strategies of spiritual warfare before it’s too late to protect yourself and those you love. (To enroll CLICK HERE.)
An encouraging word: THE MESSAGE OF CREATION
We should all be grateful for the Bible. But what about those who had no scriptures available while the 66 books were being compiled for more than 1,500 years? And what of those who didn’t speak Hebrew or Aramaic or Greek and had to wait for St. Jerome and others to start the process and Guttenberg to make it available to the masses? Psalm 19:3 in the Living Bible makes the obtuse more understandable. Of the glories of creation the psalmist says, “Without a word or sound their (the heavens) message reaches out to the whole world.” God has spoken through creation to every living soul so that none may be excused from comprehending His might and power.
Bob Larson has trained healing and deliverance teams all over the world to set the captives free and Do What Jesus Did (Luke 4:18). You can partner with Bob and support this vision to demonstrate God’s power in action by calling 303-980-1511 or clicking here to donate online.
