The Assassination of Christians

Assassination and martyrdom are regular Christian experiences in history and around the world. In every century and in every part of the world where there are Christians. And the number of martyrs haven’t lessened as the world has modernized. When David Barrett first came out with his World Christian Encyclopedia—a massive work trying to number the Christians in the world—he said that the 20^th century had seen more martyrs than any other century. In fact, he said, more Christians died for Christ in the 20^th century than all other centuries in history combined.

All of this is in the news again because of the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Kirk was killed by a leftist pro-transgender 22-year old because of his constant insistence on the biblical view of men and women. I have seen at least two articles recently comparing Kirk to the first martyr, Stephen, in Acts chapter 8. One writer said, As was Stephen in the early church, Kirk was slandered by his opponents who were unable to answer his arguments. He was called a racist and a fascist. Today, a racist is someone who is winning an argument with a liberal. And a fascist means someone who can be justifiably murdered for his political views.

Charlie joins a long line of Christians who have been murdered because of their faith. Currently there are two films out about Christian martyrs. Maximillian Kolbe is a well-known figure who gave his life for others in a Nazi concentration camp. The film is still in theaters and is called Triumph of the heart. And another film is entitled Last Days and is about John Allen Chau who died trying to reach a tribal group on an island in the Indian Ocean.

I remember as a boy sitting in my little Baptist church and hearing the announcement that five of our missionaries had been murdered in Ecuador.

Last year I produced a video about Davy and Natalie Lloyd, two American missionaries murdered by a Haitian gang.

Moody Bible Institute keeps a record of their graduates who have been martyred for the Christian faith. The most recent that I know of is a young woman killed by Islamists in Jordan for ministering to the urban poor.

Then, of course, there is Nigeria, the worst place in the world for Christians. Even the infidel Bill Maher has taken notice. On a recent show he said, “I’m not a Christian, but they are systematically killing the Christians in Nigeria. They’ve killed over 100,000 since 2009. They’ve burned 18,000 churches. These are the Islamists, Boko Haram…This is so much more of a genocide attempt than what is going on in Gaza. They are literally attempting to wipe out the Christian population of an entire country.”

Writing for World magazine A.S. Ibrahim said, The global outrage machine is selective, and one of its favorite targets is Israel. When it comes to the relentless slaughter of Nigerian Christians by Islamist terrorists, the silence is deafening.

 According to Open Doors, a leading NGO tracking persecution, more Christians are currently being killed for their faith in Nigeria than in the rest of the world combined. Open Doors calls Nigeria the epicenter of targeted violence against Christians.

I recommend you go to Open Doors’ website. They rank the worst 50 countries in the world for anti-Christian persecution.

1800 years ago the great early church father, Tertullian, looked across the landscape of the Roman Empire, saw the Christians dying for their faith, and uttered the famous words, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” God used the death of Christians to produce more Christians.

Nothing has changed. Go online and listen to hundreds of testimonies of people who have given themselves to Christ because of Charlie Kirk’s death. In Psalm 116 we read, “Precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of his saints.” They were precious 3,000 years ago and they are precious today. Now is the time to renew our commitment to devoting every breath we take to the cause of Christ.

More: The martyrdom of Davy and Natalie Lloyd: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6BCw-JQxX4

From Joe Rigney in World, a modern American Stephen:

https://wng.org/opinions/an-american-stephen-1757813619?mkt_tok=NzEwLVFSUi0yMDkAAAGc65ZaH6It7m8i_9djJDvh9Lq4o-EbIfJDJx1ler96MY4Hh4wdV8LA5g2xpqbdYNYfNvSiNdcP1r8TcIgx_vw-07-0Je8NF7wLMRACDA0nh0vWtg

The Federalist on the new film about Maximilian Kolbe: https://thefederalist.com/2025/09/22/a-new-film-pays-fitting-tribute-to-the-christian-martyr-of-auschwitz/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=a-new-film-pays-fitting-tribute-to-the-christian-martyr-of-auschwitz&utm_term=2025-09-22

The life of St. Maximilian Kolbe is the world’s foil. His triumph is not of worldly conquest or acclaim, but of surrender to God. It is precisely this paradox of victory through sacrifice that the Triumph of the Heart brings to the screen beginning with Kolbe’s final chapter in a starvation cell in Auschwitz.

Even Bill Maher has noticed the assassinations in Nigeria: https://www.christianpost.com/news/bill-maher-rebukes-media-silence-genocide-christians-nigeria.html?utm_source=Daily&utm_campaign=Daily&utm_medium=newsletter

And A.S. Ibrahim weighs in in World: https://wng.org/opinions/the-silent-genocide-1760072058?mkt_tok=NzEwLVFSUi0yMDkAAAGdbFWwMnQonV9ee6ZGxuaeXzDTzdN5gVjFgHuH1o62g1Owk4J1eGY-YifY9mn-DLdKIiG7IKbmW4S5slMS0YrH6jj3mwiRJ52hO9mJk6dp-u-TGQ

Open Doors website: https://www.opendoors.org/en-US/