"The wicked plot against the righteous
and gnash their teeth at them."
For at least three reasons, the contemporary persecution of Christians demands attention: It is occurring on a massive scale, it is underreported, and in many parts of the world it is rapidly growing.
That’s how Paul Marshall, of the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom began an article he wrote for the Weekly Standard a decade ago. Just two years ago. Christianity Today started an article this way: "Every day, 13 Christians worldwide are killed because of their faith. Every day, twelve churches or Christian buildings are attacked. And every day, twelve Christians are unjustly arrested or imprisoned, and another five are abducted."
Sitting here in my basement in northwest Iowa, that kind of persecution is almost impossible to believe.
For its 25th anniversary, Open Doors released an analysis of persecution trends over that quarter century--where persecution is a daily problem. The top ten nations were: North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Somalia, Afghanistan, Maldives, Yemen, Sudan, Vietnam, and China.
I am far less a citizen of this world than I should be. It’s almost impossible for me to imagine a place in which one’s faith could be the sole cause for bloody persecution and death. But there are places where it is—and where David’s assertion in this psalm rings as true as it did for him, plagued as he was by those who would bring him down. There are places in the world—and there are many—where the wicked plot against the righteous, their teeth gnashing.
A quarter century ago who could have guessed the world would spin into the direction it has today? The Enlightenment is history, some say, very much behind us. The assumption that religious faith was a remnant of our barbarism and would eventually fade into oblivion was dead wrong. Yet, today, the world’s most incendiary battles are religious in character today. Look for yourself. Even politics in these United States are infused with religion, a specific kind of Christianity.
David’s sense of things sounds sadly familiar in some places around the globe.
There are those among us who would say that verses like this one should grab our attention because we may well be coming to a time during which the idea seems not a wit old-fashioned or silly—as it certainly is not in many places.
I remember a preacher friend saying to me, years ago, during a particularly upsetting situation in the church where he was serving, that after ten years in the ministry, nothing really surprised him anymore.
Who knows, really, what the future will bring? Someday this verse may sound the same to me as it does today some weary saints in Vietnam or Indonesia—in Iraq or Saudi Arabia. Check out that list again yourself.
May the Lord our God be with us. May he bless us all with peace.
For its 25th anniversary, Open Doors released an analysis of persecution trends over that quarter century--where persecution is a daily problem. The top ten nations were: North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Somalia, Afghanistan, Maldives, Yemen, Sudan, Vietnam, and China.
I am far less a citizen of this world than I should be. It’s almost impossible for me to imagine a place in which one’s faith could be the sole cause for bloody persecution and death. But there are places where it is—and where David’s assertion in this psalm rings as true as it did for him, plagued as he was by those who would bring him down. There are places in the world—and there are many—where the wicked plot against the righteous, their teeth gnashing.
A quarter century ago who could have guessed the world would spin into the direction it has today? The Enlightenment is history, some say, very much behind us. The assumption that religious faith was a remnant of our barbarism and would eventually fade into oblivion was dead wrong. Yet, today, the world’s most incendiary battles are religious in character today. Look for yourself. Even politics in these United States are infused with religion, a specific kind of Christianity.
David’s sense of things sounds sadly familiar in some places around the globe.
There are those among us who would say that verses like this one should grab our attention because we may well be coming to a time during which the idea seems not a wit old-fashioned or silly—as it certainly is not in many places.
I remember a preacher friend saying to me, years ago, during a particularly upsetting situation in the church where he was serving, that after ten years in the ministry, nothing really surprised him anymore.
Who knows, really, what the future will bring? Someday this verse may sound the same to me as it does today some weary saints in Vietnam or Indonesia—in Iraq or Saudi Arabia. Check out that list again yourself.
May the Lord our God be with us. May he bless us all with peace.
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