There has been an serious increase in persecution of Christian communities in China in the last months.

According to World Watch List, released today by Open Doors International, 4,305 people died in 2018 because of their Christian faith. Christian persecution has drastically increased.

Six countries sign an agreement to create the “Coalition for Happiness”. Among its members, there are countries where Christians are increasingly persecuted: the United Arab Emirates, Mexico and Kazakhstan.

How will we react if God calls us to take a step of faith which could have drastic consequences?

Military Police used excavators and dynamite to destroy the Golden Lampstand Church. “This might be a new pattern against any independent churches”, Christian advocacy groups warn.

Intolerance against Christians is highest in Central and Southeast Asia, after North Korea. The situation worsens dramatically in Africa. In Europe, two people were murdered bacause of their faith last year.

Around 1800 people from 160 churches gathered throughout Spain to pray for the persecution of Christians. “There are no closed borders, prisons or doors when we pray”.

“It is a well-planned conspiracy against the Christian community”, pastor Johnson Sathyanathan, president of the Synod of Pentecostal Churches of Coimbator, says.

Other shipments of Bibles at Port Sudan have also been detained over the past two years. “It is difficult to get Bibles in the country”, a church leader says.

The UN Security Council holds an emergency meeting. “Dialogue and understanding is the right and moral way forward”, says World Evangelical Alliance.

The government often uses this accusation against converts instead of the charge of apostasy, in an attempt to avoid international scrutiny.

One minor was held for 25 days, another is  still in custody, along with five adult volunteers.

According to Open Doors, 215 million Christians suffer “high, very high or extreme persecution”. North Korea continues at the top of the World Watch List. Africa is the region in which more Christians are killed because of their faith.

The situation of Christians in North Korea does not seem to have improved during this past year.

Syria, Central African Republic, Egypt, Iraq, and Vietnam are also among the “countries of particular concern.” For the first time, Western Europe is in the list as a place that “deserve monitoring.”

The regime claims Billy Graham told a North Korean newspaper Kim Il Sung was “God” who “rules the human world.” Voice of the Martyrs says the controversy is an example of why religious figures should not travel to the isolated country.

Assemblies of God pastor: “There is no security, our non-Christian neighbours insult us almost daily, and we are scared.” 

“We can be the voice of those who cannot cry out by themselves”, the Director of Open Doors Spain says in an interview. “Nigeria is the country where most people have died because of their faith.”

North Korea is still the most difficult place in the world to be a Christian, according to new report by Open Doors. Jihadism, Hindu and Buddhist extremism are the greatest sources of persecution.

More than 600 cases of violence against religious minorities have been registered in the last fifteen months.

Open Doors has published a list that ranks the 50 toughest states for Christians to live. Islamic extremism is the main cause of persecution.

An interview with Ted Blake, director of Open Doors Spain, about the persecution of Christians worldwide, and the effects of the Islamic radicalismin our society.