Dr. Mike Murphy
August 5, 2023
Logan Brookes had the opportunity of a lifetime, an opportunity that he could not have dreamed of. As a young journalist at a major newspaper, these opportunities did not fall into your lap often. Logan felt his career was going nowhere fast. He had shown such promise at his past assignment, but now he found himself at what he thought was a dead end position. He was given the position of religious reporter, one he did not know what to make of, and one he knew little about. But today, he felt fate had smiled on him. Today was the day he could make a name for himself.
As Logan watched the television coverage of the recent events, he knew that religion would be coming front and center. The sudden disappearance of many Christians brought with it many questions. These were questions the world would soon ponder, questions that would allow Logan to bring his name to the forefront.
Logan listened to the commentators, looking for an angle that would separate him from all the others covering this story. He heard them discuss the who. He heard them talk about the what. He heard the reports that stated the where, and addressed the when. But as he listened to every channel, not once did he hear the why. Why had many people throughout this world suddenly vanished? This would be Logan’s approach, he would seek to answer the why.
As Logan began to investigate the story, he soon discovered the why would not be an easy question to answer. For the past several years, Christians had grown to be despised. A religion that relied on what the world had come to see as failed past events, a religion the world saw based more on fairy tales and myths than on science. A religion that restricted the progress the world seeks, and taught standards the world would never accept. Obstructionist that stood in the way of the evolution of man. As the years had past, those who practiced this belief had dwindled greatly in number. Many had left the faith, realizing that Christianity did not hold the answers the world sought. Many had been forced out, as the world could no longer tolerate their views. And many had been eliminated, obstacles disposed of as other beliefs had come to the forefront. But even with all their faults, the question still lingered. Why had Christians suddenly been taken out of this world? This was a question Logan was determined to find the answer to.
For days Logan sought the advice of the experts. Experts who could tell him what Christians believed, but could not tell him why they were gone. Professors and scholars who could tell him the principles behind their thoughts, but did not have a clue why they had vanished. Questions that as he asked, he not only did not get answers to, but soon discovered these were answers that no one sought. The reality of the matter soon became aware to Logan. He had the story of a lifetime, a story that sought an answer. But it was a story that no one cared to read. It was an answer in search of a question. Logan soon perceived that no one really cared, no one gave a second thought as to what had happened to all the Christians. Most were just glad to see them gone.
As we read this story, the fiction of the situation soon becomes apparent. But as I look at the world around us today, I soon begin to wonder just how much is fiction, and how much is reality waiting to develop?
If you were asked, “Who are the most persecuted people in the world today?”, what would your answer be? Most would guess many times before they came up with the right answer. Christians! Christians are the most persecuted people of this world today. Over one hundred million Christians suffer persecution for their faith. Whether imprisonment, abuse, hostilities, or death, more and more Christian lives are impacted because of their belief in Christ.
Over one hundred thousand Christians are martyred each year. That equates to eleven men and women of faith who give their life in the name Christ each hour. Eleven every hour! That number is not just growing each year, it is exploding. In over seventy-five percent of all the nations of this world today, Christians face some form of discrimination. And across the world today, eighty percent of all persecution and acts of religious discrimination are directed toward Christians. Those numbers are not just staggering, they are overwhelming!
At the same time we see these startling facts, we must also face the fact that the influence the Church has in this country and throughout the world is diminishing. Every recent poll shows that more and more people are not turning to God for their answers. They do not trust the accuracy of the Bible, and do not see it as inerrant. They do not understand the principles of Christianity, and most no longer seek to understand those principles. More and more tell the polls that they do not believe that Christ was God, nothing more than a simple man. And fewer and fewer feel the Church has any influence in their life.
We are watching as the world no longer wants to hear what the Church has to say. At the same time they are speaking loudly back, telling us to be quiet or face the consequences. And as we are watching this happen, we see the Church in the western world unaware of the anger the world is spouting at us. As much of the Christian world cries in anguish, the western Church ignores their pleas. We sit in our pews ignorant of the predators that roam around us, predators that will soon be gathering at our very doors. Predators that will soon seek new prey.
Our enemies feed on our silence. Our silence as we watch the predators of this world gathering to devour us. The words of Martin Luther King speak with volumes to the Church today. “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” A prophetic warning that may well apply more to the Church today, than it did to the generation in which these words were spoken. Words that echo the warning that Christ had for this generation. “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.”(John 15:18-19). The words of Christ foretold us, the hatred of this world wants nothing more than to have us out of this world!
As we near that glorious day, a day that will call each of us to spend an eternity with the Lord. A day in which we will be changed in the blink of an eye, a day that will change this world forever. A day the Church often discusses, and a day we often reflect upon. We wonder what that day will hold for those left behind, those that will face a time of tribulation unlike any this world has ever seen. How will this world face that day? How will they explain the one event that will change their lives forever? What theories will the world create to illustrate it? What explanations will be devised to explain why those who follow Christ have instantly vanished from this world? Or will they even look or care to explain it at all? Maybe they will just be happy to see us gone.
Praying each of you will not be here to find out the answer to my question.