Viewpoint Brief Bible Study #23 |
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JESUS calls US to be |
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The Christian religion is the worship and service of Jesus Christ. It’s not Mary we worship, but her Son. We worship neither saints, angels, a law code, nor even God’s Spirit. It’s JESUS who is to be honored. The Bible is our guide. |
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The Global War On Christians
by Ralph Kinney Bennett
from the Reader's Digest
For August 1997<<Ralph Kinney Bennett is a Christian journalist, a long-time editor for the Reader's Digest. Here I discuss his article.>>
Police, returning her battered body, claimed Zhang Xiuju had caused her own death by jumping from a moving vehicle. It may be that she had done so. Likely not. Age 36, this Chinese sister had been dragged away from her home by the police for the crime of being a Christian. Now she's dead.
Munir Khokher, in Pakistan, was shot and wounded when he tried to prevent the desecration of a Christian cemetery by Muslim mobs. He didn't die yet.
When Marzina Begum and her family wouldn't join in the celebration of a Muslim holiday, her husband was brutally beaten and his leg was broken. That's in modern Bangladesh.
Did you read about these recent incidents in your newspaper, or hear about them on TV news broadcasts. No chance. The victims were Christians, only three of many thousands of men, women, and children who in recent days have been (and more are being) tortured, imprisoned, and executed for the crime of believing that Jesus is the Christ, the unique Son of God.
An estimated 200,000,000 to 250,000,000 Christians today are at serious risk of dying for their faith, being killed unless they deny that they do believe in Jesus. Today. In many countries of this world. And what can be done?
The largest nation where active persecution of Christians is pursued today is China. Millions there are at risk unless they deny their faith. Wherever Muslim governments are in power, there is risk, though some are much less militant than others. Throughout northern Africa (particularly in Nigeria, the Sudan, Libya, and in Egypt) Christians are at risk of losing property, life, and limbs to mobs who have been taught that Christians are sub-human infidels whose property should be taken and who are good only to be slaves to those of other religions.
Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Vietnam, and certain countries carved from the former U.S.S.R. are among other nations where Christians are being attacked for the crime of believing that Jesus is God's unique Son and Savior of the world.
Please get this issue of Reader's Digest and read the details spelled out by Ralph Kinney Bennett. Don't suppose that it's none of our business. These are our sisters and brothers. We'd better do whatever we find we CAN do, and do it swiftly. At least we can pray. But the article suggests other things we might also well be doing.
And 11/14/99 is another day set aside in many churches throughout the world for Christians to pray especially concerning our persecuted brothers and sisters. Let us pray that WE will be bold when the persecution reaches even to OUR towns and cities.
Brief Bible Study #23 from Ray Downen. To go back to Viewpoint's first page, click < here. Or here to go on to Viewpoint Study 24.
For Ray's concluding remarks, click HERE.