More than 360 million Christians live in places around the world where they experience high levels of persecution. That’s more than the population of the United States.
Persecution can be considered in at least two ways: persecution of others, personal persecution, and persecution intersects with freedom of religion and belief.
I hear someone claim the American Church or Christians are experiencing “persecution.” But I don’t use “persecution” to refer to incidents in the US. Frankly, while churches in the US have been harassed by government or other entities, and while genuine persecution will likely someday come to this country, it’s not now.
Meanwhile, persecution of the Church, Christians, Muslims, Jews, or several religious minorities is rampant elsewhere in the world. Indeed, restrictions on religious freedom is now a global crisis, in autocratic and religiously dominated regimes but also in democratic countries.
What does the Scripture say about persecution?
