North Korea Executes Christians

“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, therefore 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. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.” John 15:18-22

From the Institute on Religion and Public Policy, comes the following:

“The BBB reports that Human rights groups in South Korea say North Korea has stepped up executions of Christians, some of them in public.

The communist country, the world’s most closed society, views religion as a major threat. Only the founder of the country, Kim Il-Sung, and his son, Kim John-Il, may be worshiped, in mass public displays of fervor. Despite the persecutions, it is thought that up to 30,000 North Koreans may practice Christianity secretly in their homes.

A report by a number of South Korean groups highlights one particular case of a woman allegedly executed in public last month, in a northern town close to the Chinese border. She was accused of distributing Bibles, spying for South Korea and the United States, and helping to organize dissidents. Her parents, husband, and children were sent to a prison camp.

Such reports are hard to verify, but North Korea is known to be intolerant of religion - it views any form of alternative social organization as a competitor for its own, religion-like ideology. The US government says that just owning a Bible in North Korea may be a cause for torture and disappearance.”

Pray for your brothers and sisters around the world who are suffering persecution and death for the cause of Christ. If the Bible is right, and it is, this will get worse the closer we get to the Second Coming.