Is Christian Persecution on the Rise?
Rev Charlie (October 2025)
For many, the words, ‘Christian persecution’ evoke images of first century Christians being fed to ‘the lions’ under Nero, the fifth Emperor of Rome. However, more Christians were murdered for their faith in the twentieth century than in all the previous centuries combined, and global levels of persecution continue to rise today. In 2019, a report by the then British Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, stated that “the persecution of Christians in parts of the world is at near genocide levels.” According to ‘Open Doors’, today, more than 380 million Christians worldwide suffer high levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith. Christians are by far the world’s most persecuted group.
The high levels of violence against Christians is a hugely underreported phenomenon. For example, in February of this year, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), at least seventy Christian men, women and children were rounded up into their local church and massacred with machetes and hammers. The perpetrators were the so called ‘Allied Democratic Forces’, who have strong links to Islamic State (IS). This atrocity was barely reported by Western media. Likewise, on the 8th of September 2025 (less than a month ago, at the time of writing), at least one hundred Christians were massacred and a further one hundred kidnapped by the same group in the DRC. Again, this monstrous attack on Christians has gone largely unnoticed by the Western world.
So, why do Christians face such high levels of persecution? In answering that question it would be easy to focus on religious, political and sociological factors, however, there is one overarching reason from which all other possible explanations spring. Namely, the world is in rebellion against God.
Jesus, who was and is God, came into the world and lived a perfect life. He was loved personified, and he brought a message of tremendous hope to broken humanity. The world’s response was to crucify him. But Jesus knew this would happen; indeed, it is the very reason he came. He also knew that his followers would face persecution, and he told his disciples as much, saying:
“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. […] If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.” (John 15: 18-20)
If we make a stand for Jesus and his kingdom, we cannot expect to be popular. Here in Australia, we are in the enviable position of being able to live out our faith without threat of serious persecution. However, Western culture has in recent decades become more hostile towards Christianity. We have all heard stories, at home and abroad, of nurses losing their jobs for praying with patients, street preachers arrested, employees reprimanded for the wearing of crosses, and even individuals being arrested for silently praying within a few hundred metres of an abortion clinic. No megaphones, no shouting, no placards or billboards, no physical gestures of any kind, just an individual sitting on a bench, silently praying. Whilst these injustices pale into insignificance compared to recent events in the DRC, it does perhaps indicate that future generations of Western Christians may not have it quite so easy.
Our response to the persecution of Christians is of great importance. First, we must pray for our brothers and sisters in other parts of the world who face the most extreme forms of persecution, whilst doing all we can to shine a light on this routinely underreported issue. When it comes to the sporadic unfair treatment of Christians in Western nations, we must be careful to respond with love, grace and forgiveness, whilst acknowledging that we still have an amazing opportunity to share the Gospel without fear of reprisals. Whether or not this window of opportunity is closing remains to be seen.
