The Barnabas Fund Suffering Church Action Week runs from October 26 to November 2
Each week numbers of tragic stories emerge from around the world where the fires of anti-Christian persecution are raging.
Through most of the Middle East, and in large parts of Africa and Asia, our brothers and sisters continue to suffer because of their love for Christ.
Beaten, shot, killed
In Uganda, a young Christian woman has been beaten to death by her Muslim father after he found out that she and her sister had converted to Christianity. In Pakistan, a wife and two young children grieve after their Christian father was shot in the work place by a Muslim co-worker when he refused to convert to Islam. The office of the Prime Minister in Nepal has asked Christians to ‘reconsider their faith’ before stating their religious affiliation when applying for identity cards.
Research has estimated that around 200 million Christians – about 10% of the total number – are disadvantaged, harassed or actively oppressed for their faith.
The prejudice and discrimination now endured by some Christians in the West is certainly not at the same levels as the persecution experienced by believers in many other parts of the world. But our churches are facing serious challenges of their own: from the shrill voices of the ‘new atheists’ and their secular allies, from a confident and increasingly politicised Islam, and from new laws and regulations that threaten our traditional freedoms.
Anti-Christian hostility, whether severe or slight, may distress us but it should not surprise us. The Bible teaches us that as Christians we are exiles here on earth, living away from our heavenly home. We are bound to be despised and rejected to some extent, because our values and practices are so different from those of wider society.
The New Testament uses the name ‘Babylon’ to refer to the Roman Empire as a place of exile and suffering for God’s people. And still today, Christians everywhere live in our own ‘Babylons’.
Staying faithful
But the Bible reminds us of what we have already received from God in Christ and points us to our glorious future. On that basis it encourages us to hold on to our distinctive beliefs and lifestyle in the midst of our ‘Babylons’. And it directs us to help one another to stand firm for Christ in the face of hostility and suffering.
Barnabas Fund is inviting Christians around the world to consider and respond to this call to persevere, in a special week focusing on anti-Christian persecution. The theme of this year’s Suffering Church Action Week, which will run from October 26 to November 2, will be ‘Living in Babylon: Faithful to Christ in a hostile world’.
Suffering Church services
During this week, Barnabas is encouraging churches to run services based on the theme, to show how we can offer practical and spiritual support to our brothers and sisters in Christ who suffer most severely because of their faith in him, so as to help them withstand the persecutions that they face. These events will also provide an opportunity to build ourselves up in our own faith, so that we too can resist the pressure to fall away.
