Will strong persecution come to North America in our lifetime? Seasoned preacher and Christian author David Ravenhill believes it will. He states that in his lifetime, we could see the “underground Church” start in North America because of persecution.
Currently around the world, persecution against believers in Jesus Christ is on the rise. Many churches’ theology leaves out the possibility of persecution, because in their lifetimes, they did not have any
However, the Gospels are clear that coming worldwide persecution will happen before Jesus comes a second time:
You will be arrested, punished, and even killed. Because of me, you will be hated by people of all nations. Many will give up and will betray and hate each other. Many false prophets will come and fool a lot of people. Evil will spread and cause many people to stop loving others. But if you keep on being faithful right to the end, you will be saved. When the good news about the kingdom has been preached all over the world and told to all nations, the end will come (Matt. 24:9-14).
You can read below a transcription of David Ravenhill sharing a stern warning of what could happen and the need for revival in the church:
“How many of you know that we need revival? Unless we have revival in this nation, we won’t have a nation. My father [Leonard Ravenhill] said, way back in the 80s, that “if America does not concentrate in prayer, it will pray in concentration camps.” And I used to laugh not outwardly, because I respected my father, but inwardly I would think, This is America! The land of the free, the home of the brave. We have a Constitution. We have a Bill of Rights, and so on and so forth.
But I have learned that those things are fast disappearing. And the church is being turned against. We are the ones who are the problem, if you like. We are the ones who speak out against homosexuality and all the other things we know are wrong morally. Yet we are the ones [who] are mocked and laughed at and so on. We will be, I believe in a number of years, driven underground. It would not surprise me that in my lifetime we will have an underground church in North America because of the persecution. And the only answer is revival. The Spirit of God coming and sweeping through this land.”
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Greg Gordon is the founder of SermonIndex.net, which was established in 2002. Millions of audio sermons have been distributed through this world-wide ministry. He is also the author of The Following of Christ and other books. Greg has traveled to many countries and across North America to thousands of churches and ministries bringing a message of radical Christian discipleship. He has also been involved in organizing over 12 international historic revival conference events where thousands of lives were impacted.
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