Be Faithful Until Death

FORGET NONE OF HIS BENEFITS
volume 23, number 15, April 11, 2024

And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even to death, Revelation 12:11.

The Reverend and Mrs. Thomas Jones of the Welsh Presbyterian Church (also called the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists) in 1841 came to the town of Cherrapunji in Northeast India to plant churches among the Khasis people. The Calvinistic Methodists were a group of believers born from the ministry of George Whitefield, Daniel Rowland, and Howell Harris, powerful Reformed and evangelistic preachers from the Great Awakening of the 18th century. Thomas Jones and his wife faced immediate opposition from this local tribe. In spite, however, of the opposition and lack of interest by the Khasis people, the Joneses persevered by preaching the gospel of grace and calling the people to turn from their idols to serve the true and living God. 

Converts to Christ were required to:

—reject completely all traditional religious practices and rituals

—observe faithfully the Lord’s Day by attending church and not doing any work

—gain a growing knowledge of the basic principles of the Christian faith

—live in a manner befitting the gospel.

Local and indigenous elders and deacons who had been well schooled in the Westminster Confession of Faith were required to subscribe fully to all that the Confession taught as the doctrinal standard for their church. 

Soon the work spread to the Jaitias people and by 1866, only twenty-five years after the church planting had begun, a strong system of Christian schools and churches was established. The Holy Spirit was at work in a powerful converting and sanctifying manner, drawing these dear superstitious, idolatrous, and illiterate people to saving faith in Jesus Christ. The church planting effort then spread to Mizoram in 1897. In 1906 and again in 1913 a Holy Spirit revival broke out amongst the Mizos who heard the free grace of God joyfully and eagerly, and by 1929 the Christian community of Mizoram had nearly 28,000 members. Today there are nearly two million Presbyterians in Northeast India. At one point the Presbyterians there were connected to the Presbyterian Church USA but since the latter has departed from the Scriptures on the issue of homosexuality the Presbyterians in Northeast India no longer have that connection. They still are closely connected with the Korean Presbyterian Church. 

Today at least fifty to sixty percent of the people from four Northeastern states (Mizoram, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland) are confessing Christians. Both Nagaland and Mizoram have more than ninety percent professing believers. The progress of the gospel there has brought a great transformation in those societies. Where once the people lived with their pigs, cattle, and chickens, they now as Christians have learned to separate themselves from their animals. Where once at their pagan festivals they drank rice beer which resulted in violence and gross sexual immorality, now they drink tea and celebrate Christian holidays. Where once there was no written language, now, through the work of the missionaries who reduced these languages to the written word, they have the Bible in their own tongue. Christianity ended tribal wars and headhunting which has enabled the gospel to flourish even more. I remember years ago teaching at a college in India and at least half of the young students were from Northeast India. They were very zealous and fervent Christians.  

Sadly, however, for several years now the Hindu nationalist government of India has presided over a systematic effort to eradicate Christianity in their country. The persecution of Christians, especially in Northeast India, has escalated significantly since early 2023. The worst of the violence in 2023 occurred in Manipur, Northeast India, where members of the majority Hindu Meitei tribe went on a rampage against majority Christian Kuki-Zo communities throughout the spring and summer, often filming their atrocities. 

The recent outburst of anti-Christian violence in Manipur followed a protest by Christians in New Delhi in February in which a crowd of between 15,000 and 20,000 people demanded the right-wing nationalist government act to protect Christian communities. It is ironic that the Christians of Manipur, and surrounding states, largely supported the conservative government only now to find that the government has turned against the believers. A Christian political activist said recently, “We’ve gathered here peacefully because we want to share the anguish of our fellow citizens who follow the Christian faith in the states of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and so many other places where their basic fundamental rights are being snatched.” When attacked, these humble Christian believers have not retaliated with weapons. They have fled to safety where possible and when that was not possible, they have stood and suffered together. Large-scale riots by radical Hindus in Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh displaced thousands of Christians and destroyed hundreds of homes and churches earlier this year, beginning in the late fall of 2022. There have been more than six hundred attacks within the last year.  

David Curry, the president and CEO of Global Christian Relief has said, “Christians suffered greatly under the brutal attacks and hundreds of churches were targeted. While it’s been difficult to get accurate information from the region because of the government’s lockdown, by summer of 2023 between 200-400 Christian churches, including at least two dozen Meiti churches, and dozens of temples had been destroyed along with more than 3,500 houses. Just in the last 12 months, there have been massive riots in Chhattisgarh against churches and of course in Manipur in the north, where over 350 churches were destroyed.”

We should always view geo-political events with “Great Commission Eyes.” In other words, what impact does the persecution of believers in Northeast India have on the progress of the gospel there and in other nations? The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. Without question there is more persecution and martyrdom of Christians than in any other time of human history. And what is the result? The people do not love their lives even to death. They are overcoming the devil and his minions by the blood of Jesus and their solid testimony. They are like the church at Smyrna where Jesus told them they would suffer and be tested for “ten days.” They were to be faithful until death and if they were, He promised to give them the crown of life, the reward from their King, “Well done good and faithful servant.” 

Please pray for our brothers and sisters in India and so many other nations of the world, especially in Muslim majority countries. Jesus prayed, “Father, I do not ask Thee to take them out of the world but to keep them from the evil one,” (John 17:15). In the midst of their persecution which God has clearly ordained, pray that God will sustain them with the hope that He will never leave them nor forsake them, that they have a glorious inheritance awaiting them on that day.