With Bible sales on the rise here in the U.S., a new Global Index report from the International Christian Concern, 1 out of 8 Christians are persecuted for their faith in Jesus.
"It's very real, and a lot of people don't realize what's going on" said local Houston based pastor, Richard Vega, "To say you're a Christian and to be vocal about who you love, you have to be prepared to be persecuted either on social media or your workplace, or wherever you're at."
It even happened to pastor Vega last year here in Texas, when he and a group of other believers were praying in Austin.
"We were surrounded by hundreds, and hundreds of people, they started spitting on us, they started throwing things at us. I actually got pushed two times" Vega told KTRH.
But it is even worse across the globe in places like China, India, Nigeria, and Pakistan, where a woman and her family fled to Texas. "She was targeted by the Muslims there in her town for being a Christian, and they threw acid all over her" noted Vega.
The report found that with approximately 2.38 billion Christians in the world right now, an estimated 300 million across the globe are persecuted, beaten, imprisoned, and even killed, for their faith.
Fellow Houston pastor, Hernan Castano says the church needs to continue and to intensify it's preaching out of the Bible, while increasing it's outreach, "To prevail in this end-time warfare between evil and good."
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