On the first Sunday of November, the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church (IDOP) is observed every year by innumerable Christian denominations.
Across the world, tens of thousands of believers in over 100,000 congregations heeded that special call to prayer for individuals, families, and churches in locations where Christians are struggling with abuse and danger -- sometimes to the point of martyrdom.
Sunday, November 7, marked that important annual event. But why does it matter?
America's Christian communities face worries of their own, including political issues regarding public school education, questions regarding life-style choices that are incompatible with biblical values, concerns about COVID-related demands, and matters of life and death for the unborn.
But a quick scan across international horizons reveals incomparably dire straits: Christians are facing immediate, desperate, and even deadly circumstances. Open Doors' 2021 World Watch List report revealed that 340 million Christians -- one in eight globally -- face high levels of persecution and discrimination because of their faith. There was also a 60 percent increase in the number of Christians killed for their faith in the past year.
Clearly, it's appropriate that we should pause to pray for those who face real suffering for their belief in Jesus. So let's start by thinking about the worst persecutor of Christians in the world: North Korea.
North Koreans are required to "worship" the Marxist-Maoist Kim family in a peculiar, quasi-religious system called Juche. North Korean Christians -- estimated at some 400,000 people -- face particularly horrendous persecution. Torture. Starvation. Rape. Slave Labor. Public Execution. All this for simply possessing a Bible or otherwise practicing Christianity. READ MORE
