The Signs Part 2: Following on after last month and following Christs discourse in Matthew 24, Jesus stated that persecution would increase as a sign of His return. The early Church had a great deal of persecution to contend with. With the declaration by Emperor Constantine in AD 310; that Christianity would be the national religion of the Roman Empire, not only did the Gospel spread more rapidly throughout the Empire, but persecution decreased. For many many years the Christian faith spread in Western Countries with little opposition or pain. The continual use of Latin in the Church however restricted many from knowing the true Gospel, also many traditional and false teachings were spread throughout the established Roman Catholic Church. After the Reformation with the Gospel being preached and the Bible translated into the common language of the people, it made Christianity widely believed and followed.
It was in the 18th century that the realisation of the need to evangelise, and due to the discovery of new countries and islands by the explorers, the Church began to send out the first missionaries. Although parts of America had been evangelised by the Roman Catholic Missionaries in the 15th and 16th centuries, it was not until later that the world started to get evangelised with the simple Gospel of salvation through being born again through the Gospel of redemption by faith in Christ. With the onset of the reformation and the formation of various missionary societies Christianity really made its mark.
However early in the scheme of things a newcomer had put a problem in the way of the Gospel. In 570AD Muhammad was born in Mecca, and later in life he said he had had a vision from God. God is supposed to have told Muhammed, that he was the latest prophet and to point people to the one true God of creation. Muhammed wrote the Quran, which was supposed to reveal Gods latest truth to mankind. The rest we say is history, soon the Muslim faith had spread through the Middle East and North Africa. With the Muslim faith spreading into Turkey, and with the spread of the Ottermen Empire throughout the Middle East, Christianity and Christians started to become oppressed by this new belief. Many Christians in several countries suddenly became persecuted and pressured by this new faith. The Otterman Empire formed in 1299 lasted until 1917. It not only controlled the Middle East, but Western Asia, North Africa and the Horn of Africa. Defeated by the Allied Armies during the First World War the Middle East then became mandated territories of Britain and France. Meanwhile in the 600 years of the Otterman Empire, the Muslim faith had converted many in its area of jurisdiction. Remaining Christians became second class citizens along with the Jews, many of whom had escaped to Europe.
The relief of Jerusalem by General Allenby in 1917, made a long expected return of the Jews to their original homeland, long promised by God, a great possibility. The local Arab nations thought differently and protested long and hard to the British and French against any return of Palestine to the Jews. As Britain wanted the Arab oil, Britain deviated from what Lord Balfour and his government had promised. Originally it was intended that the Jews would have Palestine and the Arab’s would have Jordon. As it worked out the Arab’s had Jordon and Palestine was again divided between the Arab’s and the Jews, and remained under Britain’s ultimate rule. However God had promised and says: “For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land.” [Ezek 36:24 KJV]. Also [Zech 8:1-8][Isa 27:11][Isa 11:10-12] and many other places in the Bible. It was not until 1948 that the United Nations agreed on a divided Palestine and agreed finally the birth of the Nation of Israel. At Midnight on the 14th of May 1948 by majority vote Israel became a UN Authorised Nation. [Isa 66:8].
Under the British, Christians in Arab lands, were protected and given tolerance. However with the overthrow of Sedum in Iraq, the Shah of Persia in Iran and spread of a more militant Islam in recent years, persecution to the point of execution has become prevalent in many nations in the Middle East and Northern Africa. Rebel groups targeting Christians has occasioned serious persecution even further South in Africa to Nations such as Kenya, Sudan, and Nigeria. With the arrival of ISIS on the scene many Christians have had to flee for their lives.
With the flood of refugees into Europe, many militant Muslim’s have also settled in Europe and shootings and bombings in the name of Islam have become a world-wide threat. Meanwhile Satan has been at work on the Western Establishment with the pressure on to Governments to separate Church and State, and the process removing the Law of God and the old established truths and standards that have taught our children right from wrong for years, and removed the place of God in our society. They have encouraged many things contrary to Gods laws and replaced them with a loose sort of code where everyone does what is right in his own eyes. For the Christian standing their ground on issues contrary to God’s will, it is inevitable it will affect our lives as Christians, and I can see in not a too distant future, these changes will cause persecution to Christians throughout the world. With Communist persecution in China and North Korea, Burma, Indonesia and other Muslim areas, Christians are being persecuted as never before. But Satan is not winning, he will meet his end and no one will mourn him.
Brian D. Papworth
P.W.M.I. Representative for New Zealand, Australia and the South Pacific.