What Will Happen To The American Christian?

Our church just finished a study on the book of Daniel.  One of the things that stood out to me was that Daniel prayed and fasted for twenty-one days to find the answer of what was going to happen to his people in the future.  God answered his prayer and gave him a vision of the future.  In the book of Revelation, John was given a vision of what was going to happen to the followers of Jesus Christ-Christians.  That vision confirmed what Jesus said, If the world hates you, remember that they hated me first.  If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as it loves its own people. But I have chosen you to be different from those in the world. So, you don’t belong to the world, and that is why the world hates you.

Today, all over the world Christians are public enemy number one.  The hatred is seen daily in the Islamic countries where Christians are beaten, tortured, raped, beheaded, or driven from their homes.  Christians in these Muslim countries are going through significant tribulation right now.  The blood of these Christian martyrs is crying out from under the altar, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge those who live on the earth” and avenge our blood? The majority of the world’s Christian believes scattered over two-thirds of world face this persecution every day. In some areas, it is nothing short of genocide.

Meanwhile, back in America in our safe and secure, air-conditioned churches, where we still have the freedom to worship if we choose, we ignore the plight of our fellow Christians, and believe that the LORD will take us out of all the coming “tribulations” that our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ are now going through.

It is estimated that as many as 160,000 a year die for their testimony with more martyrs in the 20th century than in the previous nineteen. Occasionally a high-profile case gets the media's attention, but most die in closed countries, often buried in graves known only by the LORD.

As I was scanning through some news articles one caught my attention. In the country of Chechnya, this Islamic State has urged its Muslim followers to kidnap and murder Christians in “Russian-occupied Muslim areas,” according to a letter published by an intelligence group that monitors the terrorist organization’s online communications.

ISIS says Russian rule there is an occupation.  Now here is what I find very interesting, the Muslims claim that Russia has intentionally occupied Muslim-majority areas in the Caucasus and Central Asia to convert Muslims to Christianity or forcibly displace them.

After the killing of five women in a church, ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.  The killer, who the ISIS describes as an “extraordinary mujtahid,” used a hunting rifle to kill people attending the Russian pre-Lent festival Maslenitsa. The man reportedly donned a beard and yelled, “Allahu akbar.”

In a letter from those claiming responsibility they stated, “Allah permitting, this will be the spark for more bloody attacks that will destroy a larger number of the Christian combatants in all the Russian-occupied Muslim areas. Many of them will be killed as a punishment for their disbelief in Allah the Great, and it will plant fear and horror inside the hearts of hundreds of thousands of their brothers and make them flee with fear.”

In this same letter, there is a call for Muslims to kidnap and kill Christians living in Russia, and to use extortion.  “Let every Muslim know that the blood of those combatant Christians and their money is permissible and that taking any of them as hostages for ransom or to swap with a Muslim prisoner is also permissible. So, let the good deed be for everybody.”

Today, religion-based governments allow no tolerance for anyone labeled "Christian." These include countries where there are Communist, Islamist, Hinduism, Buddhism and other Eastern beliefs. Christians living under any of these are either unwelcome or shot on sight.

Millions have died in Islam's bloody campaign to control continental Africa. In Sudan alone 1.3 million have been killed, some by crucifixion. Tribal warfare in other African nations have caught Christians in the crossfire.

In the vision given to John, he writes about what would take place in the end-times. The testing of faith, and the persecution for being a follower of Jesus Christ would be faced by those faithful to the LORD.  Yet, those who remained faithful would be blessed.  The blessing contained in the vision given to John was that we would know what was coming, and could prepare ourselves spiritually.  The problem is the American Christian believes that they will not see the suffering the rest of the Christian world is going through.  For some unscriptural reason, they think they will not be here when all hell breaks loose.  The problem is the forces of hell have already broken loose, and many are dying everyday for their faith in Jesus Christ.  It is time that the American Christian open their eyes to what is happen now.  We are not talking about the distant future; we are facing the reality of the present.  

Paul writing to the Church at Ephesus admonished them to, Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.  See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

In both the vision of Daniel and John we have been given the knowledge of what will happen to us in the end-times.  We need to use that knowledge to prepare for the coming trials that we not find ourselves like the five foolish virgins who were unprepared for the coming of the bridegroom.