There has been a lot of discussion about the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Rightly so, those on the side of desiring to honor God have lamented his brutal end, but also predicted what good might arise from the ashes of his earthly grave. Those on the side of evil have made their intentions quite clear: they hate God and intend to use his murder as a springboard for further violence. Given these two polar extremes what can we determine of all this from a prophetic perspective?
Martyrdom isn’t a rare event in the world. Yes, in America we react in absolute shock because we’ve essentially closed our eyes to that which occurs elsewhere around the globe. Our easy Christian life hasn’t really prepared us for the worst, yet that happens every day, multiple times a day, in nations such as Nigeria, China, India, North Korea, and so many more. In fact, the church in America has been pretty determined not to see those atrocities; the result being that we are spectacularly unprepared for what is still to come.
Not long after I was saved, I learned about Christian persecution for the first time. That led to my volunteering with Voice of the Martyrs. In that role I spoke at a variety of churches concerning the troubling opposition Christians had, primarily, in the 10-40 Window, i.e. the area generally between 10 to 40 degrees latitude north of the equator. My speaking opportunities came through churches inquiring about having someone visit to speak to their congregations and through my own initiative in creating contacts. I also worked the yearly conferences VOM held in my area where I served in a variety of ways.
Over time a distressing reality became apparent: fewer churches had any interest in learning about their brothers and sisters in Christ who were persecuted around the world. Finally, literally all speaking opportunities dried up. When Covid came along, that stopped the regional conferences, and VOM had to go online to present information. One of the major sentiments that I heard regarding the potential of having someone like me from VOM speak at churches as time went on was that learning about persecution was too hard – too distressing – and people simply didn’t want to listen.
I was quite interested in Bible prophecy even in those early days, and one of the warnings I gave regarding persecution and being too comfortable here in our nation was that a day was coming when we would also have to face it. I stressed that I didn’t believe it would be of the nature that Christians faced daily in Third World countries, but that it was going to reach us in some way. I knew this because the Bible told me so. I don’t know how many really heard that warning, but as we’ve seen over the years now, Christians in the US have been targeted in many ways and the hatred fueling the attacks is increasing.
The horrors of Christian persecution are very real. Entire villages are laid waste with tens, even hundreds, of believers – both simply professing and those truly sold-out for Christ – raped, tortured, kidnapped, maimed, or murdered. The persecutors don’t make a distinction. If Christ’s Name is attached to you in some manner, you will be targeted in those locales.
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American churches have succumbed to wokeism, in other words having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof. It's up to the individual believer once saved leading their families, relatives. friends and anyone who will listen to the message of salvation through Jesus Christ. Harvesting of souls priority #1 in these last days of the church age.
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