And many believed on Him there. John 10:42
Official statistics show 1.7 percent of North Koreans are Christians, or about 400,000 people. That doesn’t sound like many in a country that proclaims that it allows religious freedom but in practice murders and tortures Christians with atrocities that are possibly worse than those inflicted by the Nazis on European Jews. But the official figures are wrong, according to underground sources who know about the underground Christians in that sad land. I read one estimate of at least ten percent of the population there being Christians, impossible to confirm but proof that despite the opposition, many are believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.
We feel so alone and small by times, isolated and so weak compared to all the big things going on around us. Our Assemblies struggle to survive, and our Gospel meetings see so little results. We wonder if anybody is trusting Christ these days. But our text tells us that many are. Just because we don’t see or hear of them doesn’t mean that God is not working, that His Holy Spirit is not striving, that some are repenting and trusting the Saviour. Maybe they are just not being saved in the places we expect.
Honest Gospel preachers will admit that the Gospel is being preached in other places. While it is true that many so-called evangelistic denominations are losing their Gospel focus in favour of their social and entertainment agendas, many of them still do present the Gospel. And God is still saving in those places, despite a woefully high percentage of false professions. Even among the old formal denominations are a few true believers functioning as best they can in stifling situations. I have even encountered some true believers who found salvation among – or in spite of – the traditions and idolatry of Roman Catholicism. Many of these dear saints are unrecognizable because they don’t look or act like what we have been taught that Christians should look and act. But they have believed on the same Saviour Who saved us, and we are going to the same Glory to sing the same redemption song.
Just because it doesn’t seem like there are many of us, don’t be deceived into thinking that. Praise God that many have believed on Him. -Jim MacIntosh