Matthew 24:9-14
9Then shall they deliver you up unto tribulation, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all the nations for my name’s sake. 10And then shall many stumble, and shall deliver up one another, and shall hate one another. 11And many false prophets shall arise, and shall lead many astray. 12And because iniquity shall be multiplied, the love of the many shall wax cold. 13But he that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved. 14And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony unto all the nations; and then shall the end come.
Scripture Testimony Index stories for this passage
After Faisal Malick's conversion, his family threw him out of the house, but though he had to live out of his car, he was filled with peace as God took care of his every need!
Chinese farmer, Chang Fang Yuan, was nearly beaten to death for preaching the Gospel in his village. But he didn't die, and instead prayed to the Father for the forgiveness and salvation of his attackers. His prayers were answered.
In the 1950s, just a few years after Mao Zedong's proclamation of a new China; communism came at Christianity with fire and brimstone. Christians were rounded up and imprisoned for decades, some—like the 48 pastors from Wenzhou—died in prison, and their only crime was preaching the gospel.
While in prison Simon Zhoa's captors tried all they could to make him renounce Christ but nothing they did got him to cooperate with them. Instead, he continued to witness for the Lord even as he remained and suffered behind bars.
In 1900, Mr. Argento, an Italian missionary with the C.I.M. in Kwangchow was set on fire and left to die by the Boxers. And while his life was eventually spared, he lost his sight and suffered bodily harm. Yet even this close shave with death could not deter him, fired by his burden for unsaved souls; he was determined to to remain useful for God even as a blind man.
Dr. Dwan's decision to jettison idolatry and become a follower of Jesus did not go down well with his family and community at large. He became the target for mindless persecution, yet through it all he clung to his God - never flinching, never doubting.
For accepting Christ and daring to take a stand for him, a believer and his family were subjected to the most cruel forms of torture, starvation, exploitation, stigmatization and imprisonment.
Liu Xianzhi was a thirty-three-year-old Christian woman who was declared innocent of the charges filled against her by the Chinese government. Still, she was sent to a labour camp for "reeducation" and there suffered the most cruel and inhuman torture for her faith in God.
Hussein was imprisoned and subjected to the most cruel forms of torture all because he jettisoned Islam for Christianity. Even after his release, he was rejected at home, in school and in his society, yet he had only love for the people who mistreated him!
Persecution from her Muslim family became inevitable after Nadia, despite repeated warnings not to do so, surrendered her life to Jesus and became a Christian. She was beaten mercilessly and imprisoned in her own home.
Through a street chapel ministry and tea-shop conversations, the work of God was bearing fruit in a Chinese city. Many came to Christ and a few became successful preachers, although these gains also came with intense persecution.
Acting on orders from the antichristian regime in China, native Chinese Christians were attacked and injured and their houses plundered without mercy. Mr. Si and Mrs. Hsi's mother were stabbed with a sword and beaten respectively. Their only crime was that they were believers in Christ Jesus.
A certain boy had a reputation for persecuting Christians. During a prayer meeting, Christians prayed for him and he gave his life to Christ. After that, he faced persecution himself and was under intense pressure to revert to his former religion. Yet even to the end of his short life, he never gave in.
When every appeal and emotional blackmail failed to get him to change his mind about becoming a Christian, Kartar Singh was not only disowned but was stripped naked before being sent away from home by his own father. But Katar was resolute, and though he left home physically naked, he knew he was covered in God's love!
Brother Yun, who was used to being beaten in China was faced with a different, more sinister kind of persecution in the West. He cried out to God for strength to forgive and move on.
When forty kids of Captain Janes' school in Higo, Japan pledged themselves to Jesus in 1876, their actions were met with resistance by their parents who threatened suicide, but this wave of emotional blackmail by their parents as well as the terrible persecution and threats they were made to face did not deter these young ones—they stood firm!
When Japanese soldiers captured Hsi-Lien, they offered to spare his life and his family's if only he'll become their ammunition carrier. But Hsi-Lien was a Christian, so blatantly, he rejected their offer. And for his refusal to aid them, he was tied to a pole outside his home, and was jeered as his wife and three kids were heinously annihilated.
Alexander, a fourteen year old boy, paid the ultimate price, preferring that to having his father betray their brethren to spare his life.
In an attempt to break his resolve, Vanya was sent to Sverdlovsk for reeducation; there he had to endure the most heinous tortures. But through all of this, Vanya was not broken; instead, he asserted his believe in the supremacy of God's will over the will of his persecutors.
Vanya was sentenced to spend the night in freezing cold as punishment for his belief in Jesus, he turned the time into a prayer session and he was warm up till morning!
When Nasreen Kahn heard that her daughter had become a Christian, she could not take it, so resorting to verbal and physical abuse, she hurled insults daily on her daughter who would in return get back to her room, pray and forgive her mother.