CHRISTIANS ARE THE MOST PERSECUTED PEOPLE. ONE NATION ACTUALLY HELPS THEM

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Taken from an article in The Washington Stand by Ben Johnson February 14, 2024

Hundreds of millions of Christians suffered religious persecution in 2023, according to a religious liberty watchdog organization, but one European nation is going out of its way to assist “the most persecuted religion in the world.”

One out of every seven Christians worldwide experienced some form of persecution last year, according to the 2024 World Watch List produced by Open Doors — an increase from one in eight in 2021. A whopping 365 million Christians underwent “high levels of persecution and discrimination,” up from 340 million just two years ago. The worst anti-Christian sentiment exploded into violence: 14,766 Christian churches or properties were destroyed, and 4,988 Christians were killed in 2023, the report found.

“We have to just say the facts: Christianity is the most persecuted religion in the world,” said Tristan Azbej, Hungary’s secretary of state for programs to help persecuted Christians at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. “In the world, there are more than 360 million people who suffer discrimination, oppression, threats by terrorist organizations or genocidal attacks because of their faith in Jesus Christ.”

That spurred the government of Hungary to form a government agency to assist the persecuted globally. “There are many charities who are working for them. However, the Hungarian government realized that this should not be left only to charities. The international community has to step up, governments have to step up,” Azbej recently told “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins.” “And us, being a thousand-year-old, proud Christian nation who is still courageous enough to say that.”

Azbej’s remarks came as he attended the International Religious Freedom Summit in Washington, D.C. late last month.

Over the last year, levels of anti-Christian persecution spiked in Africa, where 20% of Christians experienced some form of hostility or oppression based on their faith. The number rises to 40% of Christians in Asia. The world’s most anti-Christian government is North Korea, according to the Open Doors report.

Nearly 90% of all Christians killed worldwide lived in Nigeria. Azbej has noted that “jihadist, Islamist tribes” attacked 20 Christian settlements, killing 200 Christians last Christmas. Despite continued violence and murder in the nation of 230 million people, the Biden administration removed Nigeria from its list of the worst offenders of religious liberty — a policy Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.) has called “anti-Christian.”

Fiona Bruce, a Conservative Party member of the U.K.’s Parliament, introduced the International Freedom of Religion or Belief Bill 2022-23 (Bill 373) last October. The bill would require British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to appoint a Special Envoy for International Freedom of Religion or Belief. That government office would document religious persecution of all faiths globally, work with U.K. civil society groups, and prod British and foreign government officials to promote freedom of religion and conscience rights worldwide. As of this writing, the Private Members bill had its first reading but is now stalled in Parliament.

Four of the worst nations persecuting Christians are in Latin America: Mexico (37), Cuba (22), Nicaragua (30), and Colombia (34). Yet the issue receives little attention from U.S. lawmakers.

Tristan Azbej said that due to the dearth of global leadership, “We decided that we will lead by example. Therefore, the Hungarian government established my department, which was the first ever dedicated governmental department for the aid of persecuted Christians in 2016. Right away, we started the Hungary Program, which delivers humanitarian aid to those Christians who have been just attacked by terrorist organizations, which delivers aid and financial assistance to rebuild places like the Nineveh Plains in Iraq, where Daesh/ISIS has committed atrocities against Christians,” Azbej told Perkins. His agency also “offers Hungarian scholarships at Hungarian universities for those Christians in Africa and Asia, who are unable or have no chance to go into the higher education system.”

The Hungary Helps humanitarian aid program expanded, thanks to an amendment that took effect at the first of the year.

In the last six years, “I can report to you that we have reached about two million persecuted Christians by extending the solidarity of the Hungarian people towards them,” Azbej told Perkins. “We have run 330 projects for persecuted Christians in more than 50 countries.”

Yet far from receiving the West’s gratitude for filling the need, “When we rebuild the church in the Middle East or in Africa, then I go to a professional diplomatic event in the West, they ask me the cynical question, ‘Why don’t we support something more useful, like hospitals and schools?’” Azbej revealed. “Now, we also support Christian hospitals and schools all around the world. But I can see the ignorance or the cynicism of the question” from Western diplomats, Azbej told Perkins. “The answer to that is that we always ask what is needed. In many cases, our Christian brothers and sisters would choose their church to be rebuilt first before their homes are rebuilt. This is how important their churches are for them,” he said, “and their faith.”

We should not be surprised at the increasing persecution of Christians. Jesus told us this would happen before His return to restore righteousness and set up His Millennial Kingdom.

“As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?… Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.” Matthew 24:3, 9-13

NATIONS’ PUSHBACK AGAINST WEF GLOBALIST AGENDA

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It is clear from Scripture that God created the nations at the Tower of Babel when He confused the languages. He established His own nation Israel to be His witness to the world and Jesus will rule all the nations of the world from Jerusalem when He returns. The following Scripture indicates that on His return He will judge the nations based on how they treated their people.

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.” Matthew 25:31-32

Even on the new Earth after the White Throne judgement where only the righteous dwell there will be nations.

“And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” Revelation 21:22-27

There will be nations and kings on the new Earth so it is helpful to view the nations of the Earth, particularly our own nation, and contemplate how Jesus will judge us. It may stimulate us to get into earnest prayer with our brothers and sisters in Christ.

“If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14

Italy’s Premier Giorgia Meloni is the first non-socialist, conservative, God-fearing leader of Italy since WWII.  She has reversed abortion laws, and rejected EU immigration and LGBT and sex change pressures.

Hungary’s Viktor Orban’s continued re-election and defiance of EU pressure to accept abortion, LBGT and immigration initiatives, and support of Ukraine, is another sign. He told the EU, “There is not enough money in the world to force us to let migrants in, and there is not enough money in the world for which we would put our children or our grandchildren in the hands of LGBTQ activists. That’s impossible.” 

Argentine President Javier Milei has vowed to fix Argentina’s perennial economic problems by making drastic budget cuts, replacing the battered peso with the US dollar, and shutting down the central bank. 

Taiwan’s election of William Lai a strong supporter of Taiwanese independence was a guarantee of Taiwan’s continued pushback and defiance of Beijing.

HUNGARY DEFENDS BIBLICAL PRINCIPLES AND HELPS THE PERSECUTED

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In Hungary preserving Christian values is a government priority, and helping persecuted Christians a moral obligation. “Hungary is a Christian nation,” Tristan Azbej told CBN News. He serves as State Secretary for the Aid of Persecuted Christians and to hear him talk about Hungary’s national dedication to Biblical principles, is a jaw-dropping experience. “We are trying to implement the social teachings of the Christian faith and the Bible in our policies and part of that is the protection of human dignity, human freedom, and the protection of the sanctity of family and marriage,” he said during an interview in Washington. “Christians are the most persecuted religious group in the world,” Azbej explains. “There are 340 million people who are discriminated or threatened or suffering genocidal attacks because of their faith in Christ,” he continues.

Azbej Tristan államtitkár fotó.jpg
State Secretary for the Aid of Persecuted Christians and  the Hungary Helps Program, Prime Minister’s Office
Vice President of the KDNP – Christian Democratic People’s Party

In 4 years Hungary has supported a quarter-million persecuted Christians, helped reconstruct 67 churches in Lebanon, and completely rebuilt the Christian town of Telskuf in Iraq after it was decimated by ISIS. “900 buildings were damaged. The church was used for target practice by the jihadis,” he explains. Of the 1300 Christian families who fled, 1,000 have returned. Hungary’s approach is simple. Azbej and his team travel to where Christians are hurting and ask to help. Their reception is universal. “They are truly shocked in the good sense that there is someone in the world who is actually caring about their faith.” In the last few months, he’s visited seven countries on four continents. “The fact that someone from the western world is actually asking this question, is important and empowering,” he says.

We caught up with Azbej at the International Religious Freedom Summit held in Washington, where in the future, Azbej hopes more governments follow Hungary’s lead to help the persecuted. Increasingly Hungary faces scrutiny over its traditional values from the European Union and LGBT activists. Tensions flared this summer when Hungary’s parliament passed a law to protect children from exposure to inappropriate sexual, including homosexual content, and to preserve the rights of Hungarian parents to retain sole control over their children’s sexual education. The executive branch of the European Union launched legal action over the law, saying it discriminates against LGBT people. The European Union has given Hungary two months to respond.

“We are seeing a very strong lobby in the European Union to push gender ideology through the European Union directives and the legislation and that’s such a strong initiative that eventually it will be mandatory to be implemented in the member states of the European Union so we have made this measure to protect our whole legal system from that lobby that is completely, completely alien and foreign from the values of the Hungarian people,” Azbej says. His nation’s constitution, adopted in 2011, is consistent with Christian teachings. “We have confirmed in our constitution that the marriage is between one man and one woman, that life has to be protected from conception.” And recently Hungary amended it to confirm a mother is a woman and a father is a man. “This seems to be a strange thing that this is needed to be put in a constitution,” he says.

Beyond the politics, Azbej says through his job, he’s received so much more than he’s given. “I have been meeting with true heroes of the faith in the persecuted Christian communities and I have gained such a strength from their testimonies, even despite all the threats and humiliation they are facing” he says. “So maybe it’s not us western Christians supporting the persecuted brothers and sisters in the Middle East and Africa, they are supporting us. They have a message to keep our faith, to keep our identity in Christ,” he continues. It’s a message Hungary is taking to heart. As Azbej shows the love of Jesus to his nation’s Christian brothers and sisters suffering around the world. “In our department, we never had any motivational problems because all my colleagues are fully understanding the importance of this mission,” he says.

Source CBN

HUNGARY KEEPS GOD’S COMMANDMENTS

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The Ninth Amendment to the Fundamental Law of Hungary, the country’s equivalent of a constitution, was passed in Parliament last week by a margin of 134-45. The amendment, which was backed by Prime Minister Viktor Orban, will amend Section L paragraph (1) of the Fundamental Law to read:

“Hungary protects the institution of marriage as the association between a man and a woman and the family as the basis for the survival of a nation. The foundation of the family is marriage and the parent-child relationship. The mother is a woman, the father is a man.”

“The main rule is that only married couples can adopt a child, that is, a man and woman who are married,” said Justice Minister Judit Varga, Reuters reported.

Varga, who sent the amendment to Parliament last month, said it will also work to provide “all children with an education based on the values of the Christian culture of Hungary and guarantees the undisturbed development of the child according to their gender at birth,” Hungary Today noted. 

“The Fundamental Law of Hungary is a living framework that expresses the will of the nation, the form in which we want to live,” Varga wrote in the justification section of the bill. “However, the ‘modern’ set of ideas that make all traditional values, including the two sexes, relative is a growing concern.”

“The constant threat to the natural laws of the forms and content of human communities, to the concepts arising from the order of Creation that harmonize with them and ensure the survival of communities, and, in some cases, the attempt to formulate them with a content contrary to the original raises doubts as to whether the interests, rights and well-being of future generations can be protected along the lines of the values of the Fundamental Law,” Varga added.

The passage of the Ninth Amendment comes less than a year after Parliament voted in favor of a measure that defines gender as “biological sex based on primary sex characteristics and chromosomes.” Like the measure-preserving the traditional definition of sex, the Ninth Amendment faced strong pushback from LGBT advocacy groups.

Note the response from Amnesty Hungary

“This is a dark day for Hungary’s LGBTQ community and a dark day for human rights,” said David Vig, director of Amnesty Hungary. “These discriminatory, homophobic and transphobic new laws — rushed through under the cover of the coronavirus pandemic — are just the latest attack on LGBTQ people by Hungarian authorities.”