We just returned from two weeks in southern India. Down is still up and up is still down. And I’m not just talking about jet lag (although that is very real, too). India is a country that is not only physically distant, it is spiritually distant. That is both a hard thing and a good thing.
India is one of the most antagonistic nations on earth toward Christians. In Open Doors’ recently published World Watch list, India is listed as the 11th most persecuted nation on earth for Christians including a 99% rating for violence.[i] For the past ten years, Narendra Modi has served as the Prime Minister of India. Modi is part of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a Hindu nationalist party with many in the party who have pressed for India to be a Hindu-only nation. BJP’s president and Modi’s right-hand man, Amit Shah called Muslim immigrants “infiltrators” and “termites” and promised to “remove every single infiltrator from the country, except Buddha, Hindus, and Sikhs.”[ii]
In this environment, religious hate crimes have risen dramatically. A group of leaders have vowed to rid the country of Christians and Muslims. The group’s leader and member of the BJP party, Rajeshwar Singh proclaimed, “The Muslims and Christians don’t have any right to stay here. So, they would either be converted to Hinduism or forced to run away from here.”[iii]
And yet, in the midst of this hostility, God’s church is flourishing in India. Only 2% of Indians are Christian, and yet even that number is miraculous. Many of those who have come to Christ out of Hindu backgrounds have suffered rejection and beatings from their families.
This was my fourth trip to India, where we have the blessing of serving an exploding network of indigenous Indian pastor-missionaries in Southern India. While there, we met hundreds of Indian pastors and heard dozens and dozens of their stories of how they came to believe in Jesus Christ (many of them are miraculous stories) and of the persecution they have faced and are facing in their ministry.
Almost all of the pastors have been beaten and many of their families and congregations had been beaten as well. The threat of violence hangs over these men and their families. And yet they persevere joyfully.
Church Father Tertullian once said, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.”[iv] Tertullian’s statement is true today. And the church in India is living proof. I don’t believe Tertullian was suggesting that the church will rapidly grow numerically during such times of persecution, but rather that such persecution is the soil for a prayerful and spiritually deep community of believers and that such a family of faith is unstoppable.
One of the ways I felt my faith particularly challenged this time in India is the boldness of the prayers of our brothers and sisters. They don’t flinch to pray for healings and salvations in circumstances that I might shrink back. They see persecution not as an obstacle to the growth of the gospel, but as a necessity of its growth. I’m humbled, chastened, and inspired. May my faith be stretched by these dear brothers and sisters’ faith.
Mission Voice Network’s heart is to plant churches where 80% of India’s 1.4 billion people live: in the rural communities of India. This is needed because 80% of funding for church planting in India is being sent to India’s cities. If you feel led, would you consider financially partnering with Mission Voice Network?
[i] https://www.opendoors.org/en-US/persecution/countries/
[ii] https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/29/asia/india-modi-muslim-fear-intl/index.html
[iii] https://www.opendoorsusa.org/christian-persecution/stories/hindu-leader-demands-all-christians-leave-india-in-publicized-video/
[iv] Apologeticus, Chapter 50.
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