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245187 Disc Missions ins 9/6/07 1:04 PM Page 198 198 Future Church Intensified Persecution At the same time mission organizations are seeing new cooperation, finding new inspiration, and experiencing new expansion, believers also are experiencing an increase in persecution, especially in that area of the world called the 10/40 Window (see plate 14.1). Sadly, the 20th century saw more Christians killed for their faith than had been martyred in all the first 19 centuries of Christian history combined. That pace does not seem to be slackening. A research report in the International Bulletin of Missionary Research said that 169,000 Christian believers lost their lives in one recent 12-month period. 13 In one instance guerrillas surrounded the home of <strong>Nazarene</strong> Pastor Peter Nyabusa. They tied up his wife and forced the pastor to sit on her. They then slit his throat. Blood flowed all over the wife as she and the guerrillas watched Pastor Nyabusa die. In recent years Christians have encountered severe persecution in China, India, Indonesia, North Korea, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia. Conscious of the dangers they face, Pakistani Christians often sing with one hand on their neck to signify that they are ready to die for Jesus. In another nation, news cameras took photos of a large banner being waved by some young people. On the banner was written: “TOLERANCE IS NONSENSE; SLAUGHTER CHRISTIANS.” “‘Burn churches!’ shouted others in the restless crowd, estimated at upwards of 200,000. Although it sounds like something from Nero’s persecution of Christians in the first century, this particular scene took place not long ago.” 14 It is difficult for most Western Christians to imagine living under the constant threat of being punished or killed even though every day many Christians throughout the world live with that threat. There are parts of the world where just trying to share one’s faith with a nonbeliever is punishable by death. An example of what believers face in parts of the world can be seen in the following report: This week the Lord once again allowed me to meet men and women that are committed to God even through tremendous persecution. This nation has gone through extreme political unrest over the last several months . . . The streets around our churches became hot-beds of riots, killings, burnings and destruction. Our pastors told stories of [religious extremists] surrounding their church during services and demanding them to stop the services or face the burning of their church. They have been forced to meet in homes to hide from danger. One pastor . . . was lured to his church because of a plea for help—only to find that the [religious extremists] had set up an ambush. They executed him on the spot. They knew that his son [who was also a pastor] would come to the funeral and tried many times to take his life, too. 15
245187 Disc Missions ins 9/6/07 1:04 PM Page 199 Suffering and Growth One of the realties of our world today is that in areas where material resources are abundant, the church is growing little if at all while in areas where resources are few, where there is conflict and persecution, and where trained pastors are in short supply, the church is growing rapidly. Is there a relationship between affluence and spiritual vitality? Robert Coleman wonders, “Can it be that in our preoccupation with the good life, we have missed the church-growth principle of suffering woven all through the New Testament?” 16 —Terry Read Future Church 199 In spite of situations like this, the Christian church in that particular country is growing rapidly—so rapidly that the government of that country has stopped publishing religious affiliation statistics! Though persecution of God’s people has intensified in the last century, it is not something new. Elisabeth Elliot has reminded believers, “Christians who think they should never suffer forget that God allowed John the Baptist to be beheaded, Stephen to be stoned, and his son to be hung on a cross as a love gift to the world.” 17 Elijah, Zechariah, Jeremiah, Daniel, James, Peter, Paul, and John all suffered persecution. Hebrews 11 talks about the persecution of God’s people in both Old and New Testament times. All this suffering does, however, bear fruit for the Kingdom. Terry Read, missionary to Haiti and Rwanda, has joined others in noting that suffering has often accompanied the expansion of Christianity (see sidebar “Suffering and Growth”). Indeed, Tertullian, an Early Church leader, said that “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” 18 The rise in the physical persecution of Christians has affected many churches and mission organizations. One horrific example is what happened to Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two young sons, ages six and nine, who were killed while on an evangelistic mission in India. Staines, director of the Leprosy Mission in the state of Orissa, had served in India for more than 30 years. Fluent in several languages, he had been influential in getting the New Testament into the Ho dialect. Just after midnight on January 23, 1999, Staines and his sons were sleeping in their jeep when Hindu extremists arrived with the intention of burning them alive. The windows were broken out of Staines’ jeep; gasoline was poured on and ignited; the jeep was then enveloped in flames. The screams that were emitted did not incite sufficient help to prevent the horror from continuing. But they may have awakened the nation. There are at least two obvious things
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