During my studies, I interviewed Ronald Boyd-MacMillan, author of the book 'Where Faith Costs the Most', and my first question was: How many persecuted Christians are there in the world? Well, he said, we reckon that half of nominal Christians profess a personal faith in Jesus, and we assume that they are all persecuted. I thought he needed a little help understanding the Danish context, so I explained to him that we have freedom of religion in this country, so even those of us who profess personal faith in Jesus are not persecuted to any significant degree. Boyd-MacMillan replied: "So the devil doesn't work in Denmark?" Alas, it wasn't Boyd-MacMillan who needed help understanding what persecution looks like in Denmark; it was me. He continued: "The persecuted church is those who profess personal faith in Jesus, for Jesus' adversary, the Devil, is the great persecutor. The persecution looks different, but his aim is always the same; that we should reject Jesus."
The call of the persecuted church to us, said Boyd-MacMillan, is not to pity them, but to become one of them. The church of Jesus is always persecuted by the Devil, who walks around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour - whether it be by torment or he is content to smother us in materialism and a good life. Let us be vigilant and on guard so that we can expose him and resist him.
Christian Rasmussen is Secretary General of the Christian Student Union
