On the whole, the world is less and less friendly to Christianity. We should not be taken in by those who think that all religions are somehow "equal." Most of the world's population enjoys neither freedom of religion nor freedom of speech.

For us who live in freer countries, our response should be one of gratitude, prayer, and urgency for the lost.

The podcast (14 mins) on Global Persecution may help us gain a clearer picture of the trends in our world. Let us not be naïve.

Click on the arrow to play the podcast, or you can use the "download" icon to download the podcast (if available). You can also right click here, in order to save the audio file and listen later.

From Attalia they sailed back to Antioch, where they had been committed to the grace of God for the work they had now completed. On arriving there, they gathered the church together and reported all that God had done through them and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. And they stayed there a long time with the disciples (Acts 14:26-28).

  • An "open door" doesn’t mean there’s not opposition!
  • "For I do not want to see you now and make only a passing visit; I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits. But I will stay on at Ephesus until Pentecost, because a great door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many who oppose me (1 Cor 16:7-9).
  • There are "open doors" nearly everywhere. Yet there are also many nations with restricted religious freedom (66):
    • 26 in Africa
    • 35 in Asia
    • 2 in Europe
    • 3 in Latin America.
    • Note: Asterisked countries (*) have partial religious freedom.

Afghanistan
Algeria
Azerbaijan
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Belarus
Bhutan
Brunei
Burma
Cameroon
Central African Republic
Chad
China
Colombia
Comoros
Cuba
Djibouti
Egypt
Eritrea
Ethiopia
Ghana*
Guinea
India
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Israel*
Ivory Coast
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kenya*
Kyrgyzstan
Laos
Lebanon
Liberia
Libya
Malawi
Maldives
Mali
Mauritania
Mexico*
Morocco
Nepal
Niger
Nigeria*
North Korea
Oman
Pakistan
Philippines*
Qatar
Russia
Saudi Arabia
Sierra Leone
Somalia
Sri Lanka
Sudan
Syria
Tajikistan
Tanzania
Tunisia
Turkey
Turkmenistan
Uganda
United Arab Emirates
Uzbekistan
Yemen

~ 35% of all nations, but majority of world’s population