The concept of Christian persecution in North America is a mirage, an abstraction. People wrongly believe that only happened in the ancient past. A few senior citizens may remember it occurring under Communism, or Muslim countries.
We need to wake up to Christian persecution.
Alexander Ogorodnikov: A Christian Dissident in the USSR
Alexander Ogorodnikov was a Russian citizen, an Atheist, a student at Moscow’s Institute of Cinematography who suddenly become Russian Orthodox Christian after watching Pasolini’s 1964 film “The Gospel According to St. Matthew”. He set up a number of Christian groups all across the USSR called the Christian Seminar. Eventually, the KGB finds him, threatens him, and persecutes him for his Christian beliefs. The KGB finally gives him an ultimatum to leave the USSR, or be arrested and jailed forever. He decided to stay in USSR, and be a martyr. In 1978, the government sent him to Habarosk Prison, to a large cell of hardened criminals, hoping the hardened criminals will “take care of him”. He remained in prison as a Christian martyr until 1987 (9 years in jail), then was released, and emigrated to the West. The Berlin Wall came down in 1989. The USSR collapsed in 1991.
The following is an excerpt from "Live Not By Lies: A manual for Christian dissidents", Rod Dreher, (c) 2020 Rod Dreher, Sentinal Penguin Random House, P. 160-161.
The Miracle of the Cigarettes
If you believe that God exists, then you must also believe that miracles are possible. Christians live by faith, but sometimes, God sends a message to remind us that he exists and has not abandoned us. Drinking tea in the lobby of a Moscow hotel, Alexander Ogorodnikov tells a story about an extremely improbable thing that happened to him upon entering a Soviet prison---something that signaled to him that God led him to that vault of human misery for a higher purpose.
"When they put me in the cell with the other inmates, I said, 'Peace be with you!"' Ogorodnikov remembers. "One of the prisoners asked if I was a Christian. I said yes. He told me to prove it. Another inmate said, 'We are the scum of the earth. We don't even have cigarettes. If your God will give us cigarettes, we'll all believe in him."'
Ogorodnikov told his fellow prisoners that the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, and smoking fouls it. But, he continued, God loves you so much that I believe he would even give you cigarettes as a sign of his mercy. Ogorodnikov asked them all to stand and pray together for this. Everybody laughed, but they stood respectfully as he led them in prayer.
"That cell was very crowded, but it became very quiet,'' he recalls. "We prayed for fifteen minutes, then I told them the prayer was over and they could sit down. At just that moment, the guards opened the cell door and threw a bunch of cigarettes into the cell."
"That really happened?!" I ask, astonished.
"That really happened," he answers. "It was incredible. There was the sign I had prayed for. The prisoners shouted, 'God exists! He exists!' And that is when I knew that God was speaking to me too. He was telling me that he had a mission for me here in this prison.''
Alexander Ogorodnikov thus began his life hidden behind the walls of the Soviet prison system. But he was not hidden from God. And because of that, as the Christian dissident would learn, God manifested through his fidelity to those damned to die before a firing squad who were desperate for a sign of hope. Ogorodnikov's connection to God would be, to these wretched men, their only lifeline.
Cigarette Miracle References
Pasolini's 1964 film "The Gospel According to St. Matthew" (Italian, English sub-titles): https://youtu.be/OpX5dD5jtaw?si=8NkYi8Vh22CPTgTB
Pew Research Data on Christian Persecution
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| Pew Research data on Christian persecution for 2007 to 2019 finds an average increase of 3.93%/yr, which doubles and re-doubles every 17.8 years. |
News Reports on Christian Persecution
CBN News Report on Christian Persecution
[1Co 12:12-13 KJV] 12 For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also [is] Christ. 13 For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether [we be] Jews or Gentiles, whether [we be] bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
We are commanded to remember those in jail, especially fellow Christians who are unjustly persecuted for their faith
[Heb 13:3 KJV] 3 Remember them that are in bonds [prison], as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.
OpenDoor
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| OpenDoors 2023 Christian Persecution Top 50 Countries |
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| OpenDoor Christian Persecution Data for 2023 |
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