by | Jan 17, 2024 | Uncategorized
Latest report on Christian persecution chronicles the rising danger of Islamic militants and autocratic regimes, from Nigeria to Nicaragua.
Almost 5,000 Christians were killed for their faith last year. Almost 4,000 were abducted.
Nearly 15,000 churches were attacked or closed.
And more than 295,000 Christians were forcibly displaced from their homes because of their faith.
Sub-Saharan Africa—the epicenter of global Christianity—remains the epicenter of violence against followers of Jesus, according to the 2024 World Watch List (WWL). The latest annual accounting from Open Doors ranks the top 50 countries where it is most dangerous and difficult to be a Christian.
The concerning tallies of martyrdoms and abductions are actually lower than in last year’s report. But Open Doors emphasizes they are “absolute minimum” figures. It attributed both declines to a period of calm in advance of Nigeria’s last presidential election. Yet Nigeria joined China, India, Nicaragua, and Ethiopia as the countries driving the significant increase in attacks on churches.
Overall, 365 million Christians live in nations with high levels of persecution or discrimination. That’s 1 in 7 Christians worldwide, including 1 in 5 believers in Africa, 2 in 5 in Asia, and 1 in 16 in Latin America.
And for only the fourth time in three decades of tracking, all 50 nations scored high enough to register “very high” persecution levels on Open Doors’ matrix of more than 80 questions. So did 7 more nations that fell just outside the cutoff. Syria and Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, entered the tier of “extreme” persecution, raising its count to 13 nations.
The purpose of the annual WWL rankings is to guide prayers and to aim for more effective anger while showing persecuted believers that they are not forgotten.
The 2024 version tracks the time …
Continue reading…
by | Jan 17, 2024 | Uncategorized
End-of-life decisions are wrenching and ever more medically complex, but we can honor both God and our loved ones as death nears.
When Roger, a gentleman in his late 80s, arrived in the ICU, he was already suffering from the end-stage effects of multiple diseases. His health had so declined that even reading the Bible proved difficult. Already worn from illness, he agreed to an attempted resection of his cancer only to please his family, and he urged his wife not to allow CPR or a ventilator if he worsened after the operation. “I want you to let me be with God when he calls me,” he told her.
Tragically, after the surgery his lungs failed. In accordance with his wishes, rather than proceed with a ventilator, his care shifted to a focus on comfort. His wife spent that evening by his side, caressing his hand, praying over him, and singing to him softly.
But later that night, the couple’s estranged son stormed into the ICU. “You’re not going to kill my father!” he shouted at the staff. “I know my dad. He was a God-fearing man who until six months ago went to church every Sunday. He would not be okay with this!”
The heart-wrenching situation of Roger’s family is frightfully common. The shroud of medical technology that surrounds death increasingly confronts families with baffling dilemmas about end-of-life care. Up to 70 percent of people cannot vouch for themselves at the end of life, and in such cases the burden of decision-making falls to loved ones, many already reeling with fear and grief. The toll on families is heavy; loved ones often suffer from depression, anxiety, and even PTSD for up to a year after making end-of-life decisions.
As only one-third of Americans have an advance directive, most families navigate these conflicts rudderless. Those of us who follow Christ instinctively lean into our …
Continue reading…
by | Jan 17, 2024 | Uncategorized
The primary goal of Zhongguo hua is not cultural assimilation but political domestication. Yet I’m more confident than ever that house churches will survive.
December was the most challenging yet most hopeful month for Christians in China.
Before Christmas, the 11th National Chinese Christian Congress (NCCC) was held in Beijing. The quinquennial congress elected new leaders of the officially sanctioned National Committee of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement and the nominal China Christian Council. Top political advisor and politburo member Wang Huning charged these groups with strict oversight of churches and with maintaining an unwavering allegiance to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Under the party’s instruction, the NCCC passed a new five-year plan to “continue to promote the Chinanization of Christianity and run Chinese churches well in accordance with the socialist society.” Meanwhile, the new and sweeping Patriotic Education Law, which took effect on January 1, requires religious leaders to conduct patriotic education and guide their religion by the socialist principles of the CCP.
Persecution continues to be real
Throughout December, the authorities once again tried hard to contain and curb Christmas celebrations inside and outside churches, prohibited students and others from participating in Christmas activities, and detained some house church leaders to prevent them from organizing congregational gatherings.
Yet most churches, both the officially sanctioned churches and unregistered house churches, held Christmas Eve and Christmas Day worship services. The online evangelistic galas by Beijing Zion Church and other house churches on Zoom and other platforms are of high artistic quality. Christians shared discreetly on social media that church leaders baptized a number of new believers despite the current “bitter winter” for churches in China. …
Continue reading…
by | Jan 16, 2024 | Uncategorized
On the heels of a disappointing showing in Iowa, Trump’s rivals are in the make-or-break weeks of their campaigns.
Donald Trump’s blowout win in Iowa left both Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis, who declared they’d continue their race for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, to do their best to spin the outcomes in a positive direction.
“We got our ticket punched out of Iowa,” DeSantis told supporters. “I am not going to make any excuses and I guarantee you this: I will not let you down!”
DeSantis, who spent big in the state and traveled to all 99 counties, outperformed his polls, but the Florida governor only bested Haley by a middling two points and fell far shy of Trump at 21 percent of the votes.
“Given where DeSantis started the campaign last spring, and the time and money he spent in Iowa, his performance was devastating,” said Mark Caleb Smith, a Cedarville University political science professor.
DeSantis didn’t perform as well with white evangelicals as he had hoped, with Trump holding on to half of all votes and taking a majority of the evangelical Christian bloc.
“It is fascinating how they’ve come to put such trust and hope into Trump,” said Smith. “They’ve rationalized—justified—that Trump is the one that is kind of this instrument of God. He’s the King Cyrus, right, that’s going to ‘look out for us, even though we don’t necessarily embrace his own personal piety or lack thereof.’”
Trump’s 30-point margin was enough for two candidates to drop out. Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who garnered 7.7 percent of the vote, read the political winds and, just a few hours into the night, suspended his campaign and endorsed Trump instead. Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson also rolled up his campaign after winning …
Continue reading…
by | Jan 16, 2024 | Uncategorized
Our new year’s resolutions won’t get very far if we neglect the object of our transfiguration.
Spiritual formation is simply the way the human spirit, or self, is formed into a definitive shape—and ultimately how each of us is formed to be like Jesus. In doing so, we become our deepest, truest self—the self that God had in mind when he willed us into existence before time began.
Put another way, spiritual formation is the process of being formed into people of love in Christ. Let’s parse this out—starting by defining what this process entails.
Formation into the image of Jesus is a long, slow process, not a one-time event. There’s no lightning bolt from heaven. Spiritual growth is much like bodily growth—very gradual. It takes place over a lifetime at an incremental, at times imperceptible rate. Yes, we experience periods of dramatic change like birth or a teenage growth spurt, but those key inflection points are the exceptions, not the rule.
As the Regent College professor James Houston often said, “Spiritual formation is the slowest of all human movements.” This is a provocative challenge to our instant-gratification culture; we’re used to fast and faster—the entire world just a swipe of our thumb away. Click the button and get it delivered within hours. But the formation of the human soul doesn’t work at digital speed.
If we lose sight of this, we will either grow discouraged and give up, or settle for mediocre: “Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven.” (As if the best we can hope for is a little tune-up on the way to the afterlife.) But we cannot lower the horizon of possibility that was set by the extraordinary life of Jesus and the gift of his Spirit. Instead, we must stay with the process for as long as it …
Continue reading…
