Kerby Anderson

The World Summit in Defense of Persecuted Christians was held earlier this month in Washington, D.C. More than 600 victims and advocates from 130 countries gathered to raise awareness of the plight of persecuted Christians. Franklin Graham said that he “spent time this week with two men whose brothers were among the Coptic Christians marched out on the beach in Libya and viciously beheaded by ISIS for refusing to deny Christ.” Some were surprise to hear the story of one of the men who actually was from Chad and had NOT been a Christian prior to the day of his beheading. As the terrorists gave each Christian a choice to deny Jesus or die, they came to this man from Chad. He answered, “Their God is my God.” He was moved by the faith of these Christians and chose to die with them. Vice President Mike Pence spoke at the summit. He observed, “The reality is, across the wider world, the Christian faith is under siege. Throughout the world, no people of faith today face greater hostility or hatred than the followers of Christ.” He also added that he believed “ISIS is guilty of nothing short of genocide against people of Christian faith and it is time people called it by name.” During the summit’s final session, the organizers put forth a declaration that called for all believers to declare their allegiance with those who suffer for Christ’s name. They pledged to promote awareness of persecuted Christians as well as pray and urge other believers to pray for those being persecuted. It also called for churches and individual Christians to provide practical assistance to the persecuted church. There was also a call for believers to follow the biblical mandate to comfort and edify one another. That includes proclamation evangelism spoken boldly without compromise. Let’s all consider what we can do to encourage persecuted believers around the world.