(1 Peter 4:19) ““So then, those who suffer according to the will of God should entrust their souls to their faithful Creator and continue to do good” (1 Peter 4:19).
According to the Open Doors World Watch List of 2026 the persecution of Christians rose by 8 million compared with last year and so far this year has risen to 388 million. Of these 388 million, 201 million are women and girls; while 110 million are minors under the age of 15.
North Korea remains the country where it is most dangerous to be Christian. The list of countries with an alarming level of persecution also includes Somalia, Eritrea, Libya, Afghanistan, Yemen, Sudan, Mali, Nigeria, Pakistan, Iran, India, Saudi Arabia, Myanmar, and Syria. Apart from India they are all Muslim countries.
As for Syria there are around 300,000 Christians remaining there. This is hundreds of thousands fewer that ten years ago. With the new regime in Syria there is still alarm among the Christian communities that have already felt the backlash of Jihadist Islamic tyranny that seems to be going unchecked to a great degree by the current regime of the self-appointed President Abu Mohammad al-Julani.
According to the report from Open Doors the centre of gravity of Christianity has shifted to Africa, but it is there that it is primarily under attack.
The continent of Africa is where about one-eighth of the world’s Christian population lives. Sudan is among the particularly critical countries, due to the civil war, but also Nigeria, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Mozambique.
In his first letter the apostle Peter wrote…
“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of the Messiah, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation. If you are reviled for the name of the Messiah, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you” (1Peter 4:12-14).
When Peter wrote this letter faithful New Covenant believers in the Lord Jesus were being sown into pig skins and burnt alive to light up Nero’s garden parties. For them it was a fiery ordeal indeed. At this time there were Peter’s fellow brothers and sisters in the Messiah who were uncertain about what was happening to them.
Surely many, when they became New Covenant believers, were not prepared for what was happening to them and were thinking that something strange had come upon them. How could God allow this they might have been thinking?
Their faith was certainly being tested in the furnace of affliction and it was an ordeal they needed to persevere in. Peter encouraged them to recognise that what was happening to them was not something strange at all, but that they were participating in the suffering that the Messiah Himself experienced during His earthly ministry and ultimately at the cross.
The Messiah our Lord Jesus said that this would be the experience of all who have a saving faith in Him as their Lord and Saviour.
“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. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me” (John 15:18-23).
Peter then continued to say that those who were still to face this fiery ordeal that had seen many of their fellow brothers and sisters martyred, were to keep on rejoicing in their suffering for the Lord Jesus, knowing that at His Second Coming they would rejoice with a joy incomprehensible to the human mind, a supernatural joy of the Holy Spirit, unspeakable, and full of the glory of our Triune God Himself (1 Peter 1:3-9).
He also encouraged them by saying that if they were insulted because of their confession of faith and allegiance to the Lord Jesus and to His name, that they were truly blessed because the Spirit of glory and of God rested upon them.
As the Lord Jesus also said…
“But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you to the synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for My name’s sake. It will lead to an opportunity for your testimony. So make up your minds not to prepare beforehand to defend yourselves; for I will give you utterance and wisdom which none of your opponents will be able to resist or refute. But you will be betrayed even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death, and you will be hated by all because of My name. Yet not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your lives” (Luke 21:12-19).
Dear brothers and sisters in the western democracies as the Body of Messiah we have as yet to face the terrible persecution and suffering being experienced by our faithful brothers and sisters around the world in North Korea, China, Russia and in every other Islamic country.
Very soon the Body of Messiah in the west is going to experience persecution. It begins with government legislation overriding Biblical Judeo-Christian teaching and values through enforcing standards of living that run contrary to Biblical truth. Following this fines and imprisonment and marginalization from society starts to happen. After this comes mental and physical suffering and martyrdom.
One thing to keep in mind is that seeking to suffer and be martyred is not natural. If we cannot escape then we will be given the great grace of God to endure to the end through the power of the blessed Holy Spirit.
The Lord Jesus Himself said; “You will be hated by everyone because of My name, but the one who perseveres to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next” (Matthew 10:22-23a). When we flee we need to take the gospel of the kingdom to reach the unsaved and to strengthen our fellow brothers and sisters.
In the Book of Acts after the martyrdom of Stephen a great persecution broke out against the Body of Messiah and the believers were scattered as they sought refuge from the persecution.
However, that did not stop them from preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom as we read; “Those who had been scattered preached the Word wherever they went.” Persecution actually produces spiritual revival. The preaching of the Word of God in the Spirit’s power occurs followed by many being genuinely saved, healed and delivered from evil spirits followed by the joy of the Holy Spirit as new converts are filled with His power (Acts 8:1-4).
If we have to face persecution in the west, and the way things are moving this is a high probability before the Lord Jesus comes back, we have the assurance from our Triune God that the glory and the Spirit of God will rest powerfully upon us if we have to face persecution, and that the blessed Holy Spirit Himself will give us words to say, and that we are not to anticipate beforehand what we will say when that time comes (Luke 21:13-15).
Suffering for our faith is part and parcel of being a New Covenant believer and a companion of the Messiah our Lord Jesus. God allows persecution, not to destroy us, but to purify us in body, soul and spirit to make us ready to meet the Lord Jesus when He comes back for us (2 Peter 3:11-13).
When Rabbi the Apostle and his companions in ministry were passing through Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch strengthening their fellow brothers and sisters in the Messiah and encouraging them to continue in the faith, they were telling them “through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:21-22).
And so Peter writes; “So then, those who suffer according to the will of God should entrust their souls to their faithful Creator and continue to do good” (1 Peter 4:19).
