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Greetings, Jon Davis here. What are we going to do about persecuted Christians?
One of my childhood heroes was Jim Elliot and also his friends Nate Saint, and I can never remember how to pronounce the other names, but it was like Pete— I don't even want to try. I mostly remember Jim Elliot and Nate Saint. Who were missionaries in South America who were murdered for trying to reach what we then called the, or what was then called the Aka Indians. And I remember that a part of the story was they had guns, these missionaries, but they shot them into the air and they allowed themselves to be killed rather than defend themselves against their attackers. And at some point, one of them had said to one of their children, We're right with God and we know where we're going, but the people we're trying to reach are not right with God and they're in trouble when they die.
Heroes, martyrs.
But what do we do about persecuted Christians? Are Christians always supposed to let themselves be beat or abused or martyred, or is there a place for self-defense or village defense or national defense? I was once at a ministry conference with mission leaders from around the world. Most mission— most of the missions had to do with relief and development type work, and we were talking about some persecuted villages. I think they were in Africa, but I'm not 100% sure because it was years ago.
And we were talking about how these villages were being attacked by somebody violently. And I remember the whole point of the conference was worldview and how do we apply a Christian worldview to the development situations around the world. And I brought up, what about self-defense? Is a part of the solution possibly to teach them or equip them to defend themselves from their attackers? And I could tell that the leader of the conference, and it was a discussion group, he was very friendly to the discussions.
He said, I don't know, let's talk about that. There were some others in the room who were pretty clearly uncomfortable with the idea because contemporary Christianity doesn't always wrestle with that sort of thing, or we think that belongs to another realm of thought, not Christian worldview, and the convers somebody kind of shut the conversation down. We didn't really go there. They said, "Well, we're not about to invade or do an act of war, so let's move on to more practical things." Something like that. I've been thinking about that ever since.
What is the place of defense in the context of assisting persecuted believers? I haven't seen the movie, but someone keeps bringing up to me. The machine gun preacher. So I guess I'll have to go watch that.
But I'm bringing it up because I can see I am. I'm trying to be a civilization building Christian worldview teacher. I believe in eternity. I believe in eternal life. I believe in getting saved.
But I'm trying and working to teach my students in such a way that they can build societies that reflect the glory of God. And one of the things that is inevitably going to be faced. Is what is the role of just war or self-defense or the defense of your village? I saw a video of some persecuted African villagers chasing their persecutors out with sticks. They had like these rods, and I'll tell you the truth: a part of my heart said, "Amen." There's a time and a place.
What is that time? What is that place? Well, in about 10 days from the time I'm recording this video, I will be heading down to Tennessee for the Holy Wars Conference. For those of you who have been tracking with me, 2 years ago it was the Prodigal America Conference and it was in Texas. Last year it was the School Wars Conference and it was in Nashville, Tennessee.
That was about launching the next generations in the, you know, the battle against the kingdom of darkness. This year the theme is holy wars. They keep getting me. I wasn't planning on going, but this is something I contemplate and I want to develop my own thinking and teaching around this so that I have an answer for people. I have an answer for my students.
What do we do about this? I can't help but think that that group of mission leaders from around the world where some of them were uncomfortable talking about this, were defended by some of the fiercest militaries in the history of the world, and by some of the fiercest and most equipped police forces. So if you're in North America, like most people who receive this are, we are defended by a fierce military, and we are defended by the police. We can call the police. There are people that will assist us if if someone's abusing us or harming us, and we also have a legal right to self-defense in our culture.
Where did that all come from? How do we equip appropriately and with wisdom persecuted Christians? That's why I want to go to the Holy Wars Conference, and I have a goal where you can join me if the Spirit stirs you, and I hope he does, to get me there. Look at the rest of this page and you will see where we're at in the goal.
Trying to raise several thousand dollars to get myself down there, pay for food, pay for housing, rent a car, possibly do some ministry stuff along the way. We'll see how that goes. Depends a little bit on the budget. But will you prayerfully consider sending me to this Holy Wars conference? You can go to holywars.win if you would like to read more about the conference or Do you want to join me there?
I would love to see you there. As a general rule, these fundraisers— I figured out that last year the average gift was about $160, but some people gave as high as like $630. There were a few $50, a lot of $100, a few $200s and $300s, but you can do whatever you want if the Lord leads you. It's only in about 10 days. I know that's short, but I trust in the Lord.
And my request of you is, will you prayerfully consider helping me get to the Holy Wars Conference? If you have any questions, let me know. It's always helpful to me if you give me some feedback of how well I'm communicating. Yeah, but I need you on my side to get down there and keep doing the work of the ministry that God has called me to and staying as equipped as I can. And these, uh, these guys keep coming up with good themes that I feel like I need to be at.
So thank you for your prayerful consideration. Whatever it is the Lord tells you to do, do it right away. If you— if God— if you— if God puts in your heart to do something but you can't do it immediately, send me a message because I can factor that into my planning if you're going to be able to do something later. But let's stand up and assist the the persecuted church through our giving, through our prayers. And in my case, as a civilization-level Bible teacher, I want to have the teachings that will help them know what to do, and this is a part of that process.
You can join me in the inheritance of defending the saints when it is so appropriate. God bless your socks off. Thank you for listening to this whole video. I look forward to hearing from you.