by Tad de Bordenave
The details of the persecution in North Korea are shrouded in secrecy. Enough stories have emerged, however, that allow an overview of the suffering Christians and their perpetrators. Many Christians escape to China and beyond, telling the listening world about the atrocities their brothers and sisters face. This article will give a glance at these details. In addition, I will step back from the specifics and examine what provokes the harsh treatment that the church has known for all times and in all places.
But first is the question of how people in this nation without the Internet hear the Gospel. The most common means is for parents who are believers and who pass on their faith to their children. With many Christian prisoners, others in their cells can see their faith and hear their witness. One odd but creative way has been using favorable winds to send balloons over the mountains. Inside the balloons are copies of Bibles and tracts. Though this may sound fanciful to our ears, the sister of Emperor Kim Jung-un, Kim Yo-Jong, objected to this “evil propaganda” to authorities in South Korea and forced them to have this ministry stopped.
For over four decades the government of North Korea has been intent on eliminating all Christians or “re-educating” them. Their agents are trained to find them and move them to the detention centers. The length of stay there can be as short as a month but is frequently much longer. For some, they die before their term ends. Their forms of torture are like those in most places of persecution: sleep deprivation, kicking, beating with a stick, feeding polluted food, and starving. These cruel tortures leave many wishing for immediate execution.
The punishments are severe. Christian prisoners who wish to pray privately in their crammed cells must do so in corners away from CCTV cameras. If caught, the punishment is morning beatings for 20 days. Believers are tortured until they reveal names of others in their small groups. These, then, are rounded up and imprisoned. If a person is caught with a Bible, the penalty can be imprisonment not just for that person but for the entire family.
If persecution has always been part of the life of the church, what provokes it? What is it about our faith that ignites such violent reaction? I have no inside knowledge, but I do find one theme unfolded in the Bible.
But first, we should eliminate some possible reasons. They may be plausible but in close analysis are insufficient rationales. One such idea would be efforts to stamp out religion in any form. In North Korea, for example, shamanism is widespread. Wizards and fortune-tellers abound. These are also hunted down by the Ministry of State Security. Another possibility is a government’s fear of power with unknown people. What might happen if leaders lose control to people with religious principles? There are other options, but none give motives strong enough to account for the lamentable history of Christian persecution.
I find clues for an explanation in the Gospels when Jesus teaches about himself. The eighth chapter of John, for instance, ends with Jesus giving the climax to his self-revelation: “Before Abraham was, I am.” And with that, the Jews picked up stones to stone him. Later in the tenth chapter, Jesus ends a teaching with “The Father is in me and I am in the Father.” At that they tried to seize him. Those are scores of similar encounters when Jesus reveals who he is, with the Jewish leaders rising up in arms against him with intent to kill.
These clues point to a hostility that originated before Christ’s earthly presence. The real conflict opened up with the rebellion by Satan against God. Satan’s rebellion was an all-out warfare with his goal of destroying God. He is determined to unseat the Triune God from his sovereign throne and trample him beneath Satan’s foot. That goal incites the warfare that he is conducting to this day.
At the birth of the Messiah, Satan tried to have him murdered by Herod. At the beginning of the Lord’s public ministry, he tried to divert Jesus from the cross by his three-fold temptations. Failing that, he has turned his strategy to the next level—to see the church so diminished by lies, corruption, and division, that her message is deemed irrelevant. The tactic of that strategy is the persecution of the church. If that is successful, then the church’s voice, the carrier of the gospel, is faint. If the church is not totally eliminated, then at least she can be defanged by praise for leaders with a fervor that is no more than lukewarm.
That strategy we see in two ways: first, the persecution of the faithful to the point that some renounce their faith; second, the watering down of the faith so that God is unrecognizable and his words are garbled. The first of these takes place where faith is forbidden; the second where pulpits are invaded by the culture.
As Paul tells us, we wrestle not with flesh and blood but with principalities and powers.
If we look to the future destinies of the followers and the persecutors, what do we see? For his people, God says this through Zephaniah: “The Lord is with you, and he is mighty to save. He will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with loud singing.”
For the persecutors, Paul writes, “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness.”
As with the other articles in this series, I close with two questions: what can we offer the Christians of North Korea, and what can we receive from them?
I suggest the best we can offer is prayer. There is no power greater and no aid more desired. This coming Sunday is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. The sites below offer formats and guidance for prayer.
What can we receive? Their example of showing that Satan lies and Jesus tells the truth: hope beyond death, forgiveness to one another, sacrificial lifestyle, certainty of prayer, repentance for our sins, his presence in trials and tragedies, thanksgiving in all things, and loving our enemies.
