Newsweek‘s current cover-story is “The Global War on Christians in the Muslim World,”
by Ayann Hirsi Ali, who fled her native Somalia and served in the Dutch
Parliament before taking a position at the American Enterprise
Institute. As the article points out, widespread anti-Christian
violence is exploding even in countries with Muslim minorities. How do
we respond wisely as Christians to this growing threat?
1. Prayer
First, the crisis calls for concerted prayer on behalf of our
brothers and sisters under the cross. More Christians have been
martyred in the last several decades than in all of the centuries
combined—including the early Roman persecutions. We are directed by
Christ to pray first and foremost for the coming of his kingdom, come
what may. But we also are called to pray for the “daily bread” and
protection from temptation that become especially critical needs under
persecution. Corporate and private prayers for all the saints,
especially those under the cross, should be high on our list.
2. Faithful Witness
Second, instead of watering down the faith, Christians in the West
should stand with fellow saints who are witnessing to Christ even to the
point of death. It’s striking that when Paul, writing from prison,
asks for prayers on his behalf, he does not even mention better
conditions. The gospel is his overriding passion. The “prisoner of
Christ” asks for prayer “that words may be given to me in opening my
mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an
ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak”
(Eph 6:19-20). Continue at Michael Horton
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