PERSECUTION OR A WAVE?

Nigeria has experienced sadness in recent years. Too frequently, burning houses, mosques, and churches have illuminated the northern skyline. Once-thriving agricultural and laughing communities are now silent graveyards. Stories about identity, faith, and survival reverberate throughout Southern Kaduna, Borno, Benue, and the Plateau, and they are not just about insecurity. We are thus forced to consider whether what we are seeing is a persecution of the Church or a wider wave of violence that is engulfing everyone in its path. Since pain is never simple, the answer is not either. The echo of persecution that has followed Christianity since Stephen was stoned outside of Jerusalem can be heard when one sits with widows whose husbands were slaughtered for refusing to reject Christ (Acts 7:54–60). Seeing pastors abducted from the pulpit or children killed during Sunday services forces one to face the fact that, in our society today, following Christ comes with a cost. These are not haphazard incidents. Several of these attacks are deliberate attempts to silence the cross where it has long stood.

However, the story cannot be depicted in a single stroke. In addition, the insurgency has demolished mosques, killed Muslims, and uprooted whole ethnic communities without regard to their belief. In their savage thirst for power and wealth, banditry and terrorism don't always inquire about your religious beliefs. Greed, ethnic rivalries, or pure evil are the motivations behind certain assaults. Our situation is a complex web, with lawlessness and persecution entwined, faith targeted in some places, humanity targeted in others. Let's face it, though, there are obvious religious undertones. It is not purely random when worshipers are murdered in their places of worship, when Christian communities are routinely targeted while others are unaffected, and when survivor testimony repeatedly indicate that assailants demand renunciation of Christ. Persecution disguised as insurgency is what it is.

However, the believer must see these times through the eyes of faith as well as fear. Jesus said to His followers, "Remember that the world hated me before it hated you" (John 15:18). "Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted," Paul said unequivocally (2 Timothy 3:12). Reality is not sugarcoated by the Word. However, it also does not deprive us of sense of hope. The Church has never been destroyed by persecution; rather, it has been refined as history teaches us. The Church has always grown from the soil of suffering, whether it was in Soviet jails or the coliseums of the Roman Empire. * "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church," Tertullian asserted audaciously.  Nigeria won't be an isolated instance. Grieving family members may find these words to be distant. Pain is real; it bleeds, it breaks, and it is not a mere notion. * "We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed"* (2 Corinthians 4:8–9), however, is the hope that Scripture gives us that suffering cannot take away.

So, is this persecution or a wave? Maybe it's both. One thing is certain, though, regardless of the name we choose: God's Church will not be eradicated from Nigeria. According to Matthew 16:18, the gates of hell cannot defeat the Church, regardless of whether they are dressed as banditry or terrorism. The sorrow of today and the optimism of future are two tensions that we should carry in our hands. Grief, while our brothers and sisters are bleeding, displaced, and silenced.  Hope, for heaven is still in charge. Testimonies will emerge from the ashes of communities. New melodies of faith will emerge from the quiet of exiled believers. Strength will come from the tears shed by widows and orphans. Even though the Church in Northern Nigeria is bruised, it is not broken, and as we pray, support, and stand together, we declare that Nigeria's story will not end in darkness because the same God who kept Israel safe in Egypt, supported the apostles in Rome, and walked with the Church through all ages is still walking with us today. This is not the end, but rather the start of a witness that will outlive the flames of turmoil.