Persecution

Wednesday December 3, 2008

Redefining Normal Christianity

The definition of “normal Christianity” in persecuted countries contrasts so starkly with our Western notion, and I believe the LORD wants to reconcile that difference. For us in the West to understand Jesus more, we have to understand persecution more.

One of the defining characteristics that deeply marks the persecuted church is a sincere, life found, realization of a need for God. The prayers of desperation, the ones that make you say, “If God doesn’t come through for us… if these prayers aren’t answered, we cannot make it. We can do none of this on our own”. These are the prayers of the persecuted church.

The underground Cuban churches are the fastest growing churches in the persecuted church world. Period. A single church planter on average plants a fully self-sustaining and replicating church in about sixteen months. The Cuban church is marked as a church that is constantly on its knees pleading with God and has a strong sense of unity regardless of denomination. They have a “we are all in this together” mentality.

I asked one church planter what it would take to see the Gospel radically transform this small communist country. “About 20 more years of socialism,” was his surprising answer. Especially because Christians caught witnessing are charged for “counter revolutionary activities”. This charge is very severe and can lead to long sentences without trial.

This is normal in Cuba, and it takes me to a new understanding just how extreme “normal Christianity” can be.

I have never witnessed such a degree brotherhood in such a small amount of time. I found instant camaraderie, instant acceptance and deep brotherly love. Proverbs 17:17 says, “a friend loves at all times and a brother is born for adversity”. You instantly have brothers and sisters. In times of adversity you need brothers, brothers who would do whatever was in their power to help; who would quite literally do prison time for you. These are the intensely self-sacrificing characteristics of persecuted believers that I have seen the world over, from Egypt to Vietnam and Cuba.

It is easy to remember to pray continually when your pulse is racing and the pounding of your heart is ringing in your ears. When smuggling bibles we were met by constant roadblocks and the unmistakable shot of adrenaline which reminded us that this was Way out of our hands, and there was a definite need for prayer and divine intervention.

You’ve crossed the Line, there’s no turning back.

Another characteristic is the absolute, unashamed hold the Gospel has on their lives. I met a quiet and soft-spoken Pastor and I struck a conversation with him. It turned out he was the leader of a group of cell churches with over two thousand members. He was arrested two years ago and had just been released a month and half earlier. He had been spending his time with his wife and children, but he had a deep conviction that God was calling him back to the village that had him arrested. I met him at a leaders’ meeting, being commissioned to go back to share the gospel to this very village. Another pastor who had been imprisoned eight years said that before the Communists took over, Christians were only allowed to preach in prisons on Tuesday and Thursdays. After the Communists took over, there was Christians preaching in the Prisons 24/7.

In Orissa, India, the persecution and outright violence specifically targeting Christians has reached a boiling point. The results have been curfews, police paralyzed by fear, and mobs of rioting Hindu extremists that are burning churches, Christian homes, and NGO buildings, and also killing Christians.

The government in Orissa is led by the Hindu nationalist party Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). They have done very little, and in various cases nothing at all, to stop the violence against Christians. The Federal government is now threatening to institute martial law. Initially the police did very little to protect the Christians from violence or the churches from arson. In fact, there are many reports that the police acted as mere spectators. Recently, due to outside and federal pressure in response to human rights violations, the police can no longer turn a blind eye.

Gospel for Asia reports that an estimated 28 percent of the Orissan population profess Christianity. One major complaint by the extremist groups has been that many people have become Christians, which violates the 1967 “anti conversion law”. Recently there have been many reports of “re-conversions” to Hinduism at knife point.

According to the BBC, the Indian Government estimates that at least 50,000 people from 300 villages have been affected by the violence directed at Christians, with hundreds still hiding in the forest, and 4,000 houses and 115 churches burned or destroyed.

... Because they Believe in Christ, this is Normal in Orissa…

A Vietnamese pastor said, “We deal with imprisonments and persecutions, but in North America the church deals with temptation”.

Ez 16:49 “Now this was the sin of your sisters Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me.…”

Do not confuse average with normal. I believe God wants to take us from Average Christianity to Normal Christianity. I petition you… do not take this lightly. Do not be an unconcerned spectator.

I do not want to seem harsh, but I think if we want to experience the “normal Christian life” that God has for us, which is pretty radical if you read Mark sixteen, I think we could take a few tips from the Persecuted church

Love deeply and recklessly. Choose to trade church acquaintances, into brothers and sisters in Christ. Trade smooth knees and infrequent, powerless prayers for knees of faith. Trade fear of what others think, to the freedom of living for God’s approval.


“it is hard not to follow Christ, when he is with you”

– a underground Cuban pastor

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