Whether they suffer at the hands of radicals or find themselves staring down a menacing brigade of soldiers, persecuted Christian believers face pain and suffering worldwide. While they might not share the same language or background, the one thing that unites them is the fact that these harrowed believers don’t lose their faith despite the incredible odds against them. In many circumstances, it emboldens them to greater acts of loyalty.
Christians Standing Before Their Oppressors
Perhaps the most incredible aspect of this phenomenon is the fact that so many Christians have refused to actually feel hate for the very people who threaten their lives. During the recent anti-clerical purges in South America, soldiers who were tasked with taking the lives of those who dared to preach the Gospel secretly asked them for their thoughts and prayers.
Similar actions have been noted among Islamic communities in Southeast Asia, where Christians have bravely faced martyrdom from organizations that receive official support from the state in many areas.
However, violence against Christians doesn’t have to come from such dramatic circumstances. A more silent form of Christian persecution occurs even in many countries that promise the freedom to worship as one wishes. In these countries, lip service is often paid to certain Christian ideals, but individuals and those in power seldom actually live up to them. That’s why many Christian professionals in the developed world have gotten so frightened of discussing their faith publicly.
Criminal violence has claimed the lives of countless believers in places that would otherwise be deemed civil and peaceful. Citizens of even the wealthiest nations have been killed for their faith. Regardless of where they suffer, however, the underlying reason for persecution is the same.
Roots of the Persecution of Christians
In many cases, it isn’t necessarily a direction rejection of the Gospel’s message that makes people turn against Christianity. They often see the community of believers as a potential threat to their power and therefore feel that they have to do something to put a stop to this perceived hazard. Political bodies adopted this kind of mentality as early as the late third century. Numerous believers suffered during the reign of the Roman Emperor Diocletian, who felt that reinforcing the official state religious bodies would help to shore up support for his administration.
Diocletian’s rule eventually ended every remaining vestige of democratic rule, which presaged later persecutions under more modern regimes. For instance, the Soviet Union’s purges of members of the Christian faithful coincided with more general restrictions on human rights. Christianity provides people with both hope and the aspiration for liberty. Both things are often considered threats to autocratic rulers who often can’t imagine any greater power in the universe than the political authority they wield.
Faith in the Face of Fire
Believers have often shown incredible courage despite the pressure to renounce their faith. Ignatius of Antioch depicted his martyrdom as something of a Eucharistic sacrifice that he was glad to make as an act of penance for a world tainted by sin. In the Acts of the Apostles, Stephen stands up to the Sanhedrin and tells his persecutors that even the prophets of the Old Testament had to face severe treatment from their own people.
These, and many other examples like them, help to illustrate the fact that courage is often the order of the day whenever someone who truly believes faces the worst of punishments. Converts to the faith have sometimes said that they were deeply impressed by condemned people who still witnessed the power of Jesus Christ as they were being sent to die. Those who might never have seen an expression of such strong faith in anything bigger than themselves might find such an action shocking.
Though it’s unlikely that such persecutions will ever stop before the End of Days, it’s obvious that individual Christians will continue to serve as a witness no matter what the cost may be. If anything, then the persecution may only help to make their faith that much stronger.
