All right, time for our prophecy update.

I want to talk with you today about what I would argue is the undeniable fact that Christians are the most persecuted people of faith in the world,

and it's getting worse.

Doubtless you know about the massacre of Christians in Sri Lanka that took place on resurrection Sunday last week.

At last report, the death toll had reached 253 Christians, plus many more that were injured. Even yesterday as I was preparing the prophecy

update for today, the breaking news was this Poway, California synagogue shooting where I guess

a 19-year-old went in and killed one young lady and then I guess there were others who were

injured. What I'm hoping to do today is address this matter from a prophetic perspective, then perhaps more importantly, talk about our response as Christians.

I'll begin with this CBN news article about how in spite of the warnings emerging of new Sri Lanka church attacks that global

Christian persecution is still obscure. Here's some of what it had to say. Last Sunday's

bombings were one of the world's worst terrorist attacks, but there's still a sense that Americans don't grasp that Christians around the world are so targeted.

In fact, the New York Times ran an opinion piece this week asking this question. Listen to this. Are Christians

privileged or persecuted? Doug Bandau, an analyst at the Cato Institute, answers that question writing,

Christianity's dominant role in American culture has obscured the fact that it is the most persecuted faith globally.

I want you to hang on to that.

We're going to talk a little bit more about that, but certainly this is true for us living

here in Hawaii.

And I'll explain why I say that.

We're sort of insulated and isolated.

And it does seem that we're so far removed, too far removed from what is happening

to our brothers and sisters in Christ in other places around the world, particularly in the Middle

East, where I'm from.

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