American pastor Andrew Brunson, who was imprisoned in Turkey for two years, predicts that hostility against “people who embrace Jesus Christ and His teaching” will intensify.
Brunson and his wife, Norine, lived and witnessed in Turkey for 20 years. In October, 2016, they were arrested by Turkish officials, as part of a widespread crackdown following a coup attempt against Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan [deep dive here]. Norinne was released a short time later, but Andrew was accused of plotting to overthrow Erdogan and imprisoned. The Trump Administration pressured Turkey to release Brunson, imposing significant economic sanctions on the Turks. Brunson was finally released in October, 2018, and met with President Trump in the White House 24 hours later.
Brunson admits to struggling with fear, anguish and depression during his imprisonment, and says he thinks “one of the purposes God had for me in my imprisonment was that I learned perseverance at a deeper level again and again and again, as I was repeatedly broken and finally He rebuilt me.”
The experience enabled him to help prepare others to persevere in the face of fear. “It is normal to be afraid. The issue is, will you stand in spite of your fear? Will you remain faithful? In the end, people are going to pay a price for the sake of the Gospel. Overseas, yes, but also here ... there is a cost to following Jesus.”
This past March at the National Religious Broadcasters Christian Media Convention in Nashville, Tennessee, Brunson warned that being a Christian in the U.S. might soon come with great personal risk with the culture becoming increasingly hostile to believers.
“There is a price to following Jesus. There is a price in other countries. We hear about that. But increasingly, I think that there will be a price to be paid here,” he said.
“The pressures that we’re seeing in our country now are going to increase, and one of these pressures is going to be hostility toward people who embrace Jesus Christ and His teaching, who are not ashamed to stand for Him,” Brunson said during a virtual event, called “Global Prayer for U.S. Election Integrity.”
“On my return to the U.S. just over two years ago, for the first time in my life—most of my life I’ve been focused overseas—I have an urgency for this country, for the United States, and not just with this election. It’s not precipitated by this election, but it has been growing in me these last two years.”
He said his concern is that “we’re not ready for this pressure,” and warned that “not being prepared is very, very dangerous on a number of levels.”
“Whoever ends up prevailing in this election, I believe that persecution is still coming and it’s coming quickly and it’s coming soon. So if President Trump prevails, it will delay persecution at a government level, but this will not keep us from the hostility that’s rising in our society toward followers of Jesus,” he warned.
“And I want to mention here that Jesus was the most loving, kind person in history, and yet He was called evil.
People are not going to just disagree with us. “They will say that we are evil and they will justify everything they do to us because they will paint us as evil people. What is heavy on my heart is that we need to prepare ourselves, to prepare our own hearts.”
“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”