What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:31-39

When will people in Western nations take notice? Perhaps when professed Christians are being physically slaughtered in America? In England? In Australia? In every Western nation?

Probably not even then, as the people of the world will most likely be celebrating those times, those days they will have become so dark and evil.

Do you not know that when the two messengers from God come to earth and are slaughtered and their corpses left in the street that the people of the world rejoice and celebrate to such a degree — worldwide — that they mark the occasion as a holiday, even going so far as to buy and exchange material gifts with each other. Don’t know this, don’t believe this? Perhaps you do need to spend much more time in the Word of God rather than holding that glowing device or eating your eyes and mind upon a television screen or other distraction.

Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, so that you will be tested, and you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.

Revelation 2:10

Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

2 Timothy 3:12

And Jesus answered them, “See that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”

Matthew 24:4-14

It is time to take persecution seriously. To be aware of what is transpiring in places we may not know how to locate on a globe [which is a sad state of affairs in and of itself], to people we know little or nothing about. It is time to be aware. To pray steadfastly, fervently, and continually for the saints worldwide.

To spend less time on self and in being selfless.

To spend more time in God’s Word, in humble prayer, not amiss, and less time staring into nonsense on a glowing screen or seeking constant entertainment, stimulation, noise, and commotion.

Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

Psalm 46:10

“It shall greatly help ye to understand the Scriptures if thou mark not only what is spoken or written, but of whom and to whom, with what words, at what time, where, to what intent, with what circumstances, considering what goeth before and what followeth after.”

~Myles Cloverdale

The Way of the Righteous and the Wicked

Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.

He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
The wicked are not so,
but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
for the LORD knows the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.

The Reign of the LORD’s Anointed

Why do the nations rage
and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together,
against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying,
“Let us burst their bonds apart
and cast away their cords from us.”

He who sits in the heavens laughs;
the Lord holds them in derision.
Then he will speak to them in his wrath,
and terrify them in his fury, saying,
“As for me, I have set my King
on Zion, my holy hill.”

I will tell of the decree:
The LORD said to me, “You are my Son;
today I have begotten you.
Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,
and the ends of the earth your possession.
You shall break them with a rod of iron
and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”

Now therefore, O kings, be wise;
be warned, O rulers of the earth.
Serve the LORD with fear,
and rejoice with trembling.
Kiss the Son,
lest he be angry, and you perish in the way,
for his wrath is quickly kindled.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him

Psalm 1 & 2

There are many articles to be found on the ever-increasing Christian persecution occurring worldwide in the ARCHIVES here on A Crooked Path, which can be accessed at the very bottom of the HOME PAGE.

Ken Pullen, Wednesday, September 13th, 2023

Western World Sleeping As Christian Persecution Spreads Worldwide

The Genocide Of Christians Is Escalating All Over The Planet, But Most Westerners Don’t Even Know It Is Happening

September 11, 2023

By Michael Snyder

Reprinted from The End of the American Dream

Did you know that vast multitudes of Christians have been killed and hundreds of churches have been attacked in recent months?  If you live in the Western world, there is a good chance that you haven’t heard anything about this.  That is because what becomes “news” is very tightly controlled by a handful of exceedingly powerful corporations.  So you are going to get the “news” that they want you to have.  For example, earlier today Yahoo News posted a “news story” that was entitled “Kim Kardashian Appeared To Accidentally Post An Unedited Selfie This Weekend”.  With everything else that is going on in the world, that is what they want us to focus on?

I couldn’t care less about what selfies Kim Kardashian chooses to post on social media.

But I do care about all of the Christians that are being slaughtered in Manipur state in India…

U.N. experts have appealed to India’s government over the ongoing violence in Manipur state, which has left 187 dead, 70,000 displaced and hundreds of churches destroyed amid ethnic and religious tensions.

India’s government has deployed tens of thousands of soldiers to the region, but they have not been able to completely stop the violence.

Thousands of weapons have been looted from the police, and there is a tremendous amount of concern about what might happen next…

The government has deployed about 50,000 soldiers, armed police and other security personnel to enforce buffer zones between the two communities. Despite these measures, mobs have looted more than 4,000 weapons and half a million rounds of ammunition from police in Manipur, according to official estimates.

Of course, this is not the only area of India where this sort of thing is happening.

Many in India deeply hate the fact that Christianity has spread so rapidly in that nation in recent years, and the level of persecution just continues to get worse with each passing year.

Meanwhile, the U.S. government is being asked to intervene to prevent the genocide of 120,000 Armenian Christians by the Islamic government of Azerbaijan…

A coalition of global organizations announced the launch of a campaign dedicated to ending the Azerbaijani blockade of the Armenian territory Artsakh, and ending the genocide of 120,000 Armenians who have been trapped in their own country for more than 260 days without the ability to access food, fuel, medicine and other life-saving necessities. These prominent organizations unite under the banner “120,000 Reasons” to signal to President Joseph Biden and the U.S. Congress that immediate action is needed to end this genocide, allow the delivery of life-sustaining relief and allow Armenians unencumbered access to their country. Without these actions, America could standby and allow the death and displacement of 120,000 Armenian Christians.

On Capitol Hill, the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission of the U.S. Congress convened a pivotal hearing to address the genocide perpetrated by Azerbaijan against the ethnic Armenians in Artsakh. The ongoing blockade of the Lachin Corridor, the only road connecting Artsakh to Armenia, which began in December 2022, has severed access by approximately 120,000 Armenian residents in Artsakh to essential goods; including food, electricity, life-saving medication and healthcare.

For much more on the horrifying situation that Christians in Armenia are facing, I would encourage you to read an excellent piece posted by Zero Hedge entitled “Slow Genocide Of 120,000 Armenian Christians Happening Under Azerbaijan Occupation”.

If the Biden administration does not take action soon, thousands of Armenian Christians could die.

Do you think that the Biden administration will do the right thing?

Sadly, Biden and his minions rarely do anything to protect Christians around the world.

At this point, Christian communities are being regularly attacked all over the Middle East.  In the Pakistani city of Faislabad, a giant anti-Christian mob recently went on an extremely violent rampage…

A mob attacked a Christian community in Pakistan’s Faislabad over accusations of desecrating a copy of the Holy Quran. Hundreds of people armed with sticks and rocks stormed a predominantly Christian area, vandalising several churches, cemetery and setting scores of houses on fire. Pakistani authorities have launched a probe into the matter and arrested nearly 150 people.

If you choose to be a Christian in Pakistan, you are literally putting your life on the line every single day.

If you were suddenly stopped by hardline Muslims and asked to recite the Islamic profession of faith, what would you do?

One Pakistani pastor was faced with this exact scenario on a recent Sunday evening, and his answer got him shot in the chest…

A pastor was shot and wounded by hardline Muslims on Sunday evening in Jaranwala, Pakistan, a week after Islamist slogans were written on the walls of his church building, sources said.

The Rev. Eleazar Sidhu, pastor of a Presbyterian church in Kukranwala village in the Khanuwana area of Jaranwala tehsil, Faisalabad District, said the assailants ordered him to recite the Islamic creed before shooting him. He was returning home to Rehmat Town with an assistant after pastoral visits to church members when two bearded men stopped his motorcycle near the Khanuwana bus stop, he said.

“One of the attackers pulled out a pistol and asked me to recite the Islamic Kalima, [profession of faith],” Pastor Sidhu stated in the First Information Report (FIR) filed at the Saddar Police Station in Jaranwala. “When I refused and instead started to recite the Apostles’ Creed, the man opened fire, resulting in a bullet wound on the upper half of my chest [on shoulder]. The assailants fled after the attack.”

In neighboring Afghanistan, the Christian population has been reduced to an extremely low level because so many Christians fled the country once the Taliban took power.

Throughout the Middle East and in heavily Islamic areas of Africa, there are relentless efforts to eradicate the Christian faith.

For example, did you know that more than 18,000 Christian churches have been set ablaze in Nigeria since 2009?…

Both Boko Haram and Muslim Fulani herders have targeted Christians in Nigeria; since 2009, at least 18,000 Christian churches and 2,200 Christian schools have been set ablaze, and five million Christians have been internally displaced.

Why doesn’t the mainstream media in the Western world ever talk about this?

Of course, the nation that seems to be the most determined to wipe out the Christian faith is North Korea.

In North Korea, those that are discovered to be Christians are arrested and shipped off to concentration camps where they are literally worked to death…

The most dangerous place in the world to be a Christian is still North Korea, where a 2021 “Law Against Reactionary Thinking” subjects Christians to arrest, confinement in labor camps or even death. Even owning a Bible is a serious crime.

If you live in a Western nation, you should be thankful for whatever level of religious freedom that you still have.

Because things are getting bad all over the globe.

Overall, it is being reported that over 360 million of us “suffer high levels of persecution and discrimination” because of our faith…

More than 360 million Christians suffer high levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith. “In the last 30 years,” write the Open Doors analysts, “the number of countries where Christians suffer high and extreme levels of persecution has almost doubled to 76 countries.”

All throughout history, Christians have faced torture and death.

And it isn’t any different in our time.

In fact, I fully expect that the level of persecution will greatly increase in the years ahead.

Are you ready to lay down your life for what you believe?

For many Christians on the other side of the world, this is a question that they must ponder on a regular basis.