Eric Metaxas &
Stan Guthrie.
September 15, 2017
If you think North Korea’s dictators are bad for
the world, just imagine what
it’s like to be a Christian there.
Anyone
who knows anything about world missions and the global church knows about the
Christians of South Korea. According to the
Operation World prayer guide, “From the first Protestant church planted in 1884,
South Korea now has possibly 50,000 Protestant congregations,” and 15 million
Christians of all kinds. It’s also a missionary powerhouse, currently sending
more than 21,000 missionaries to about 175 countries. Amazing!
But
the Christians of North Korea? They’re virtually
invisible—though of course not in the eyes of the Lord Jesus! Operation World
says that although no one really knows their true number, there could be as many
as 350,000 underground Christians living in the slave state of 24 million
people. When you consider that the government there—whether run by the Japanese
occupiers during World War II, or the current cult-like, totalitarian
leadership—has been trying to stamp out all vestiges of Christianity for about
70 years, that’s alsoamazing.
Tragically,
and infuriatingly, up to 100,000 of these brothers and sisters in Christ are
locked up in harsh prisons or work camps.
Where
did they all come from, and how do they survive? Well, in answer to the first
part, it’s a fascinating story. Did you know that from the late 19th century
until 1942, Pyongyang, North Korea’s Orwellian capital city today, was known as
the “Jerusalem of the East”?
According
to Providence journal, “a Presbyterian medical doctor named Horace Allen …
became physician to the king of Korea and received royal permission to
proselytize after saving the life of a royal family member severely wounded
during an attempted coup. Presbyterian and Methodist missionaries from the
United States followed, and along with Catholic and other Protestant
missionaries from other countries, they found Koreans to be receptive to their
message in large numbers. A quarter of a century later in 1910, Korean
Christians numbered over 200,000, two thirds of them Presbyterians and
Methodists, in a country of approximately 13 million people.”
If
the city of Seoul was receptive to the gospel, and it was, Pyongyang was even
more so. Following a series of revivals in and around the “Jerusalem of the
East,” by 1910 the region was the most heavily Christian in all of Korea.
Of
course, most of us know what happened next. After World War II, the communist
regime of Kim Il-sung attempted to stamp out all foreign religions, especially
Christianity, which was branded a tool of “Western imperialism.” Missionaries
were thrown out, churches closed, and many Christians executed for their faith,
with many more pouring into democratic South Korea at the end of the Korean
War.
So
how do those who remain survive? As with all of us, by God’s grace. Today, Open
Doors USA reports, North Korea is the most oppressive place in the world for
Christians. “Due to ever-present surveillance,” the agency says, “many pray with
eyes open, and gathering for praise or fellowship is practically impossible.
Worship of the ruling Kim family is mandated for all citizens, and those who
don’t comply (including Christians) are arrested, imprisoned, tortured or
killed. Entire Christian families are imprisoned in hard labor camps.”
It’s
no wonder that one North Korean Christian lady who escaped continues to pray a
simple prayer she learned from her mother: “Lord, Lord, please help!”
And
the Lord, through agencies such as Open Doors, is answering that prayer,
providing Bibles and emergency relief inside the country as well as to fleeing
North Korean Christians. They’re not invisible to Him—and now, I hope, not to us, either.
The Invisible Christians of North Korea: Surviving by
God’s Grace Alone
There
is a deep history of Christianity in North Korea, despite the present-day
government’s crack-down on believers. Learn how you can pray even more
effectively for our brothers and sisters inside this totalitarian country. Click
on the links in our “Resources” section. Breakpoint.