They Cry in Silence Sep/Oct 2004
“We will not deny Christ!”
That stand has led to extreme persecution in Communist Laos. Since 1975, Laos has been under the control of the Communist Pathet Lao. As is the norm for Communist-controlled countries, there is a one-party, single-candidate system. This is bad news for people of non-Communist persuasion, particularly Christians.
Communist Laos is high on the list of severe abusers of religious rights. It is, in fact, one of the few countries in the world where the government has expressly declared its intent to eliminate Christianity. A recent report illustrates the government’s determination to carry out its mission.
According to World Help President Vernon Brewer, twelve Laotian Christians have been thrown into prison because they refused, under pressure, to renounce their faith in Jesus. On May 15 three others believers “were forced to appear before police . . . and were arrested,” Brewer wrote. Nine others were imprisoned over a three-week period.
At issue in every case was the Communist demand to forsake the faith. In every instance, these believers steadfastly refused to do so. Their resolve so enraged the authorities of the prison where they were being held that many were forced into around-the-clock hard labor while being fed only one meal per day, Brewer reported. Others were bound in wooden stocks, as if they were common criminals.
Such brutal treatment of believers is reminiscent of the practices of tyrannical, pagan atheists two thousand years ago. Often the matter simply held out two options: Renounce the faith or die. And it is striking that no matter who makes the demand—be it Communists, as in much of Southeast Asia; militant Islamists, as in a host of other countries; or fanatics from other religions—the modus operandi is the same. Believers can either reject their allegiance to Jesus Christ or face death; torture; imprisonment; starvation; slavery; or expulsion from their homes and, in many cases, their country.
And what does this persecution prove? First and foremost it confirms the existence of Satan who, since the Garden of Eden, has conspired to eliminate any semblance of faith in Jehovah and His Messiah. History tells the story. The war on biblical Judaism and the Hebrew people, followed by the relentless obsession to stamp out Christianity, confirms the fact of a personal devil and his demonic cohorts. This war—this demonic terrorist-attack pattern, if you will—has been pervasive, vicious, and carried out to one degree or another in virtually every empire, nation, and society in the world.
With each issue of Israel My Glory we walk the world, reporting only small fragments of the campaign to destroy Christians and everything we stand for. Coupled with this is the incomprehensible tide of anti-Semitism rising in disparate areas of the globe. And the fact that many liberal Christian theologians and clergymen deny there is a personal devil, profess belief in the inherent goodness of man, and ignore the war against believers underscores yet another biblical reality: the total depravity of fallen humanity. That people pursue a passion to slaughter innocent fellow human beings while claiming superiority of sophistication, education, and devotion to the welfare of mankind places an explanation point after the word fallen.
