Twenty years ago, Professor Paul Marshall of the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto, Canada, wrote a book with a particularly uninviting title, “Their Blood Cries Out.” This tome, not unlike the 16th century John Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, described the persecution of multiple Christians around the world.
Mr. Marshall goes country by country and he does not hold back in his graphic descriptions of how 20th century martyrs met their fate because of their belief in Jesus Christ: women raped, then disemboweled; their breasts mutilated and cut off while they were alive; children beheaded; whole families murdered; followers of Jesus burned and roasted alive; Christians tortured, allowed to live just enough so their suffering would be catastrophic. “Their Blood Cries Out,” written in 1997, is a text filled with sadness.
As we are now 16 years into this new millennium and new century, we can conclude that nothing has changed in the world today as we retrospectively look at Marshall’s book written twenty years ago. With what is called the Islamic State rearing its Christ-hating head and currently destroying and decimating what is left of the Christian fold in Syria and Western Iraq, the world has changed: It is getting increasingly dangerous to name the Name of Jesus in many countries around the globe. We read of ISIS beheading 22 Coptic Christians in Libya; Christian college students shot in cold blood by Al-Shabaab in Kenya; dozens of schoolgirls in Nigeria taken captive by Boko Haram; multiple regular imprisonments of pastors in Sudan; of young Christian girls raped by multiple Muslim terrorists in Iraq and Syria and sold into sexual slavery for pennies — just because all of the above love Jesus the Messiah. Dying for the Christian faith is nothing new as we read the account of Stephen’s death in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles — and, as mentioned above, John Foxe in his book recounted some 1,500 years of Christians dying for their faith.
What is different, perhaps, is the inability of the church in the West to be seemingly unresponsive to the plight of Jesus believers in these many nations. Yes, we pray; yes, we are concerned; yes, we respond with sadness when we hear of yet another tragedy; yes, we may even weep; yes, we may even have fasted for those who are being persecuted. But, alas, perhaps the biggest element that has yet to be carried out is actually going to those who are facing death.
Didn’t Jesus command those who follow him to “go into all the world”? As one who is going, I find it strange that, of all people. Pastors in the West are my greatest critics. “Why are you going there to (fill in the blank)? My response? Why would we not go? Is not that the going, the command of the One we serve? And why do we think we are doing anything for the Persecuted when we add our name and email to Internet petitions (some organizations who do online petitions would admit that their intentions for doing so will lead you to receiving multiple requests for financial help — the somewhat “dark side” of web petition signing).
There is a reason professor Marshall titled his book the way he did. “Their Blood Cries Out” takes us back to Genesis 4:9-10 to the story of the murder of Abel. Abel, perhaps, was the first follower of God who was persecuted for his faith — Abel’s following of God was repugnant to his brother Cain thus Cain murdered Abel because of his faith in God. God said that Abel’s blood was crying out from the ground and that Cain had a responsibility to be his brother’s keeper. What has happened to the church in the West that we have forgotten this principle that from the beginning of time, we as followers of God have a commanded responsibility to take care of our brothers; and when our brothers blood is spilled, we then have a responsibility to be our brother’s’ keeper. That means me; that means you — we share this heavy responsibility. But the church in the West has grown menacingly comfortable — we will not go to take care of our brothers whose blood is being spilled. We talk, talk, talk but when will we go, go, go?
In his introduction, Mr. Marshall stated, “Evangelical and Catholic communities in the Third World are acutely vulnerable, are proudly worthy of our actions and prayers, are the people whose present fates can easily become ours if we remain indifferent to their fates.” Indeed, their blood cries out; their blood cries out. One day the persecution may come to your door — and who will you look to for help?
The persecuted church is looking to you, my sister and my brother. Now, go. Jesus said it clearly in Luke 9:23: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me” and visit the oppressed and persecuted.
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