Endurance is one of the qualities that should mark the life of every Christian, but is one of the most difficult qualities to maintain, especially in challenging times. Such is the case when believers come under attack for their faith, as we remember on the first Sunday in November each year, when the world observes the annual “International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church.” Hopefully, everyone realizes that persecution is not just something that took place back in the early centuries of Christendom.
The ”classic” book about persecution was written by James Foxe following the terrible years of the reign of “Bloody Mary” (1553-1558) in England. Almost 300 Protestants were put to death for their faith, refusing to accept her efforts to return England to Roman Catholicism. These included not only clergy, but also lay people and even children, most of these burned alive at the stake. His 1563 publication, commonly known as “Foxe’s Book of Martyrs,” chronicled accounts of martyrdom from apostolic times until his day. In 1979, James and Marti Hefly wrote a book about persecution in the twentieth century (a second edition was released in 1995), “By Their Blood: Christian Martyrs of the Twentieth Century.” In it, they show what most people don’t realize. There were more Christians martyred for their faith in the twentieth century than in all the centuries of Christendom prior to that.