It was only a very short time after Jesus’s birth over 2,000 years ago that persecution began.
As related in the second chapter of Matthew, King Herod sought to find the whereabouts of the newborn Jesus in order to kill him, fearing that he might challenge his rule one day. After Jesus and his family escaped into Egypt, Herod gave vent to his rage by slaughtering the children of Bethlehem.
Yet Herod’s rage was in vain. He himself died soon after, and Jesus soon returned and began his ministry.
This same pattern plays out across the world now more than ever. Governments and enemies of Christianity persecute Christians who recognize that their first allegiance is to God. But because of the faith of these Christians, they give witness to the enduring strength of Christ, and triumph.
Christmas is a time to remember the persecuted, as Jesus and the Holy Innocents were persecuted that first Christmas. But it is also a time to give thanks to God when their witness has triumphed over their persecutors.
Northern Nigeria is a place where the Church faces some of the worst persecution on earth. According to Open Doors, roughly 90% of all martyrs in 2022 — over 5,000 Christians murdered for their faith — were from Nigeria.
One of those martyrs was Deborah Emmanuel Yakubu, a Christian student at a university in Sokoto State, who in May 2022 was stoned to death and burnt by her Muslim classmates because of her faith in Jesus. Another Christian woman, Rhoda Jatau, faced a mob and was arrested for blasphemy after the mob accused her of sharing a video that insulted Islam because it condemned the lynching of Deborah.
Rhoda sat in a jail in Bauchi State, Nigeria, for over 18 months because of the accusations. She only saw her family and lawyers at court hearings.
But through her witness to the injustice of the treatment of Christians in Northern Nigeria, both by extremist Islamist mobs and baseless prosecutions, her case caused national outrage.
Earlier this month, after enormous national outcry, Rhoda was finally released on bail, able to spend Christmas this year with her family in safety. While the charges against her are still pending, many within Nigeria and internationally are pushing for them to be dropped fully.
Other legal victories this year within Nigeria may make it easier for Christians in the northern part of the country to practice their faith. As with many places where Christians are a religious minority, converts to Christianity, particularly from Islam, often find it extremely dangerous to practice their faith. Daniel Kefee* was an evangelist in Northern Nigeria who brought a young Muslim woman, Hafsatu*, to Christ. But when her family found out, members of her family threatened to kill her. She sought out help from Daniel, who found a Christian residential school that could care for her.
For helping Hafsatu, Daniel was charged by Nigerian authorities with kidnapping. Yet Daniel and his lawyers bravely presented to the court the reality of what had happened. In an astonishing result given the region, the judge not only acquitted Daniel, but prodded the prosecutors, asking them, “should the defendant have left the girl, what would have happened with her?”
Also this year, in another state in Northern Nigeria, a young woman named Mary Olowe* similarly converted to Christianity and faced death threats from her family. She was able to flee and filed for a restraining order against those who threatened her. Once again, the court issued a remarkable decision, granting the order and explicitly recognizing as a fundamental right Mary’s ability to change her religion from Islam to Christianity without facing any threat of violence.
Even when a remedy through the courts is not possible, we often can see God working through the persecuted to further His kingdom. In Sudan, Nada and Hamouda were a married Christian couple who were baselessly charged with adultery by prosecutors after their conversions to Christianity from Islam. When Hamouda, the husband, converted after encountering the local church, Nada’s brother threatened the couple, and a Sharia court dissolved their marriage. But soon after, Nada returned to her husband and became a Christian as well. That is when Nada’s brother sought the police to bring charges against them.
Nada and Hamouda could not remain in Sudan. Either they would be convicted and face lashes and potential exile, or they might be freed but hunted down by Islamists. With the help of international partners, they were able to flee to the United States. Now, they have become leaders within their local church community in the U.S., sharing their stories of persecution, witnessing to the grace of the Gospel, and spending their first Christmas free and in safety.
We remember the vulnerable and the persecuted at Christmas because of the vulnerability and persecution that our own Savior faced even in those first nights in Bethlehem. But let us also see how God is revealing the hope found in the Gospel and the promise of Christmas even now in these stories from just this year around the world.
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Sean Nelson is an international human rights lawyer serving as Legal Counsel for Global Religious Freedom at ADF International. ADF International has supported the cases of Rhoda Jatau, Daniel Kefee*, Mary Olowe*, and Nada and Hamouda.
*These names have been changed to protect these individuals’ identities.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.