Prayer for the Persecuted Church

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International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church
November 12, 2006

Around the world, millions of christians in tens of thousands of churches will lift up special prayers for their persecuted brothers and sisters around the globe. Please join us in prayer for those who suffer for the name of Jesus Christ.

Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners,
and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.
- Hebrews 13:3

Persecution Takes Many Forms:

• Loss of job, unable to get government assistance, denied your basic rights;
• Not allowed to meet publicly for worship;
• You cannot find a spouse you can marry; your children are taken away from you;
• Your house or church is ransacked or burned, your crops are destroyed;
• Imprisonment, kidnaping, torture, rape, slavery.
• Death: yours or your family's.

Worst 10 Countries for Christian Persecution

Burma, China, Egypt, Iran, Laos, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Vietnam

So Peter was kept in prison,
but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.
- Acts 12:5

The Purpose for The International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church is to:

• Awaken the Church and concerned others to the reality of Christian persecution worldwide.
• Lead in prayer for those who are being persecuted.
• Direct people to appropriate activities and organizations that support, aid, and encourage the persecuted Church.

How Should I Pray?

• Pray for the families of those imprisoned or martyred.
• Thank God for the faithful witness of the persecuted.
• Pray for the love and forgiveness of Christ to conquer hate and fear.
• Ask strength for new believers who must immediately face hardship.
• Pray for church leaders and scripture where the church is growing.
• Pray for the salvation of all those who persecute Christians.

While Christians are perhaps the most persecuted, men and women of most faiths are persecuted for their beliefs depending on the context. As we focus on prayers for our brothers and sisters in Christ, let us not forget others who suffer unjustly as well. All persecution grieves the heart of God.

Rescue those being led away to death;
hold back those staggering toward slaughter.
If you say, "But we knew nothing about this,"
does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?
Does not he who guards your life know it?
- Proverbs 24:11-12

As you petition God on behalf of Christians in peril around the globe, remember these countries as you pray:

• Sudan: Christian women and children are being sold into slavery, and the muslim north is trying to eradicate the church in the south.
• India: Christian schools and churches have been attacked by militant Hindu groups.
• China: The underground church operates under constant fear of government crackdowns.
• Vietnam: House churches are being torn down by authorities.

Persecution Has Many Faces:

Pakistani Christian Nazir Masih was arrested and imprisoned. Masih was accused of making derogatory remarks against Fatima, daughter of the prophet Mohammed. This is becoming a popular way for Muslims to get back at Christians who displease them.

The government of Laos has forced Christians in 15 villages to sign a document renouncing their religious faith. Christians held out against signing the document for several months, but gave in during planting season, since the harvest is critical to feeding their families. Some groups are reportedly meeting secretly in the forests.

Although Shen Xianfeng was released for medical reasons, 15 other leaders of the China Evangelical Fellowship are still in prison after being sentenced to 2-3 years in a labor camp. The government labels house church movements as "cults" in order to criminalize them. Most house church movements cannot join the official state sanctioned church because of theological grounds.

In Sudan, 6 year old Athak Diok Deng was abducted from his Christian family by the National Islamic Front (NIF) militia. He was stripped, beaten, and taken north to be sold as a slave to a Muslim master

Modern-Day Persecution of the Church

from an article in Focus on the Family

The United Nations reports that the militant Islamic government of central African Sudan has declared a systematic battle against Christians. Since 1982, 300,000 Sudanese Christians have been killed. Each year hundreds of Christian believers are sold into slavery and taken where they have to work as slaves or as concubines for their Muslim masters. - Religious Liberty Commission of World Evangelical Fellowship

The Nuba Mountains in Sudan "...which have had a Christian population since the 6th century, are littered with mass graves...Nuba women are systematically raped by Arab soldiers in order to produce non-Nuba offspring. There have been reports, including from Catholic bishops, of crucifixions of Christians by the army." Muslim troops from northern Sudan have sold tens of thousands of Christian children and women from the south into slavery. Many have been branded or mutilated to prevent escape; many more have been tortured, brainwashed or starved until they converted to Islam. - Jeff Jacoby, "Christian Suffering is on the Rise," Boston Globe, 1996

Pakistan: "The Muslim population of Khan Jajja was incited in May 1994 by the local Muslim cleric to drive the 60 Christian families of the region from the 'land of the pure' and to demolish their church. The Christian men were beaten and the women were stripped naked..., while three girls were kidnapped and raped. These Christians' homes were razed and their possessions looted or destroyed." Pakistan's 1986 blasphemy law makes it a capital crime to insult the Prophet Mohammed "by any imputation, innuendo or insinuation." The law has been used repeatedly to justify a reign of terror against Pakistani Christians. - Jeff Jacoby, "Christian Suffering is on the Rise," Boston Globe, 1996

Pakistan recently passed a blasphemy law that forbids speaking or acting against the prophet Mohammed. The punishment for violators is death. A 12- year-old Christian child was recently sentenced to death under this law and was freed from Pakistan only by international pressure. He is now hiding in a Western country with a bounty on his head similar to that which keeps Salman Rushdie on the run. - Mona Charen, The Washington Times

When I see something like this [Christian persecution], my heart aches because the believers here don't even know about it, don't care. We're not expressing moral outrage; we're not indignant of the indifference of the United States government towards this. And we ought to be marching in the streets because our brethren are being persecuted, imprisoned, beaten, sold into slavery, and butchered and we don't seem to care in this country.

See also:

• International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church
• For more information, you can follow the links found in the "Concerning Persecution of Christians" section of the links list.
• NV: International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church (2002)