Increasing Christian Persecution and Martyrdom:
Psalm 25:19. Consider mine enemies; for they are many; and they hate me with cruel hatred.
Psalm 38:19. But mine enemies are lively, and they are strong: and they that hate me wrongfully are multiplied.
Psalm 41:7. All that hate me whisper together against me: against me do they devise my hurt.
Psalm 69:4. They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head: they that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then I restored that which I took not away.
Psalm 69:14. Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink: let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters.
Matthew 10:22. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.
Mark 13:13. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
Luke 6:22. Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake.
Luke 21:17. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake.
John 7:7. The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil.
John 15:18. If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.
John 15:23. He that hateth me hateth my Father also.
“Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come” (Matt. 24:9-14).
Increasing Christian Persecution and Martyrdom: Nigerian Officials Say Boko Haram to Blame for 60,000 (6) Widows and Orphans.
February 7, 2020. Faithwire.
The Governor of Nigeria’s Borno state has blamed the Islamic terror group Boko Haram for leaving almost 60,000 (6) children without parents and an equal number of adults widowed.
In comments made during a guest lecture at the National Defence College in Abuja, Governor Babagana Umara Zulum hit out at the Nigerian federal government for failing to adequately tackle the brutal group, who have been running riot across the country for the best part of a decade.
“Some people will never tell you the truth when you are in power and honestly, many of us in power also do not want to hear the truth, we prefer to be told what we like to hear and that is a serious deficit in leadership in the country,” he lamented, according to the Christian Post.
Thought years of sustained attacks, Zulum lamented that Boko Haram had been responsible for the orphaning of 59,311 children and the widowing of some 59,123.
On Sunday, millions of Nigerians turned to the streets in protest against the government inaction and in a bid to raise awareness of the increased persecution.
The main march, held in Lagos and led by Enoch Adeboye — The General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) — followed a three-day fast organized by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN).
“With one voice, we said ‘no’ to killings, ‘no’ to security negligence, and ‘no’ to the persecution of Christians in Nigeria,” CAN president Samson Ayokunle told Christianity Today. “It is a wake-up call to the government.”
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has continued to insist that the security forces are being successful in combating the group.
“We owe thanks to the Nigerian defense forces—bolstered by our partnership with the British and American militaries—that we are winning this struggle in the field,” he wrote in an op-ed submitted to CT.
“But we may not, yet, be completely winning the battle for the truth.”
The Britain-based non-profit “Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust (HART)”, led by a member of the British House of Lords, Baroness Cox, found that around 1000 Christians were killed in Nigeria last year.