On a recent mission trip to Moldova I rejoiced to see the Christians of the city of Balti openly share their faith and gather in large numbers to worship in freedom. It has not always been that way. Religious liberty is a fairly new concept for many of the countries in eastern Europe once held captive by the Iron Curtain of communism. How exceedingly glorious it was to see the Moldovans exercise their freedom to worship God and how wonderfully encouraging it was to see their receptivity to the Gospel.

I spoke to one faithful soldier of the cross in the town of Floresti in northern Moldova who in years past had been imprisoned for his faith in Christ. When reflecting upon his three arrests for preaching the Gospel, it was obvious that he still bore the emotional scars of an oppressive regime that attempted to deny him the freedom to serve God.

There are still people all over the world who are persecuted for their faith in Christ. One organization, The Voice of the Martyrs, states that more than 70 million Christians have been martyred for their faith since 33 AD. Their website estimates that this year approximately 160,000 believers will die at the hands of their oppressors and more than 200 million will be persecuted, arrested, tortured, beaten or jailed.

For example, in China there is a crackdown on unregistered house churches through attempts to disrupt their worship services and arrest their leaders. In parts of central Asia, where Christianity is considered an intrusive import from the West, believers are considered traitors to their country and families. Family members are beaten, and then thrown out of their homes and into the streets.

In the Middle East and parts of India and Africa, laws prohibit Christians from owning a Bible and evangelizing and forbid citizens from choosing Christianity over the religion into which they were born. Christians caught sharing God’s Word are chased out of town, beaten or worse.

Compass, a news agency that provides information about Christians who are being persecuted for their faith, reports that a Nigerian pastor and 48 members of his congregation were among 200 killed in February 2004. Religious militants attacked the church in a rampage within the predominately Christian village. In addition, they went through the village killing Christians and burning down their houses.

Yet throughout the world severely punished Christians do not ask us to pray for their persecution to end. Instead, they ask us to pray that they will have the strength to endure. They ask us to send Bibles, so they may witness more effectively.

Tertullian, a church leader and prolific author during the early years of Christianity, declared, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” And indeed, it has often been said that the church has flourished more in times of adversity than in times of prosperity.

I have often wondered how we as believers would stand up under the kind of persecution Christians in other parts of the world have to endure. Alas, the average church member seems to be taking a nonchalant, blasé, lackadaisical approach to Christianity. Perhaps the message of Amos to the people of his day – “Woe to them that are at ease in Zion.” – would be appropriate for our day as well.

While Christians all over the world are risking their very lives for the sake of the Gospel, so many professing believers in God-blessed America seem to prefer a religion of comfort and convenience. How can we be at ease in Zion when the church is dormant? How can we be at ease in Zion when the world is doomed?

In his hymn “Am I a Soldier of the Cross?” Isaac Watts asked:

“Must I be carried to the skies on flow’ry beds of ease,

“While others fought to win the prize, and sailed through bloody seas?”

Alexis De Tocqueville, the Frenchman who wrote much about life in America, stated, “The prospect really does frighten me that they may finally become so engrossed in a cowardly love of immediate pleasures that their interest in their own future and in that of their descendants may vanish, and they will prefer tamely to follow the course of their destiny rather than make a sudden energetic effort necessary to set things right.”

Hopefully, persecution will not be necessary in order for us to make that “sudden energetic effort necessary to set things right.” And, invariably nothing is set right until it is set right with God.