Between 30,000 and 70,000 Christians, "prisoners of conscience", exist day after day in the most extensive system of concentration camps on earth. Except for the use of gas chambers and ovens, these camps are as murderous as anything the Nazis invented.
But why does it take the threat of nuclear war to get Christians in America to pray for the situation in North Korea? Let's suppose Donald Trump's diplomatic posturing; his "carrot-and-stick" strategy with Kim Jung Un actually works? Then what? Suppose relationships normalize between North Korea and America? What does "normalize" mean, in this context?
If all it means to you is that the Korean dictator stops playing "chicken" with his warheads, but that his internal regime stays the same, then please question the genuineness of your faith. "Remember the prisoners as if chained with them -- those who are mistreated -- since you yourselves are in the body [of Christ] also," says the Divine Writer of Hebrews. (13:30)
This regime of Kim Jong Un's is like nothing this earth has ever seen. More than a Communist dictatorship, it is an Orwellian nightmare that aims for total mind control, complete with its own religious ideology, called "Juche". Juche means "self-reliance". On the surface, Juche aims to separate the North Korean people from manipulation and oppression from the capitalist West, especially the United States, through a state-controlled orchestration of thought and behavior modification. Under Juche, faith in God or personal prayer to God is a treasonable act, punishable by imprisonment in a labor camp. Citizens are instructed to literally worship Kim Jong Un, his father and his grandfather, and to publicly and privately thank the Kims for providing them their food, their homes and their lives. This worship is enforced by mandatory "self-criticism" meeting that the entire population attends weekly. Here, they sing from hymnbooks containing 600 songs of praise glorifying the Kim family, those both present and deceased. In private homes Kim photos are uses as religious icons and prayers are offered to them. The enormous Kim statues placed throughout the country are used as idols. North Koreans bow down to them and through them, literally worship the eternal spirits of the current dictator's father and grandfather. Clearly, this is something more than the Communism of Marx, Lenin, Stalin or Mao.
In order to enforce this religious ideology, the Kim regime uses a social system called "Songbun" (meaning "origin" and "part of the whole"). Songbun is a caste system of reward/punishment based upon a citizen's ancestry as well as his/her personal level of loyalty to Kim. The first level is "core", second level is "wavering", third level is "hostile". All those suspected of being Christians are classed as "hostile", and they're only permitted $3-$5 per month. In other words, unless they steal or beg or barter illegally, they will starve to death eventually. If it can be proven that they have practiced their religion, even in private, they go to prison.
Juche is also enforced by the civil and political police at every level of public life. The police employ a massive spy network of private citizens; ideally, members of one's own family, to report private acts of disloyalty of parents, spouses, and children. NOT to report an act of suspected disloyalty is itself an act of disloyalty. Consequently, the family structure and its circle of trust is compromised by the State.
The third way Juche is enforced is by the labor camps. Loosely based upon Stalin's "gulag" system, prisoners are given massive workloads, starvation, isolation and daily sessions of sadistic physical torture by prison guards. This is designed to terrify the "hostile" and "wavering" populace outside the prison walls into obedience.
Regardless of whether Mr. Trump can bring Kim Jong Il to heel through his carrot-and-stick letter-writing diplomacy, Christians in America need to be mindful, prayerful and aware of their brothers and sisters who live in this virtual hell-on-earth.
Five Facts Western Christians Should Know About North Koreans
1) A Hard-Core Remnant Somehow Survives
Seoul USA https://issuu.com/seoulusa , a non-profit NGO (non-governmental organization) in South Korea did an interview with a former North Korean couple, who must remain anonymous as "Mr. and Mrs. Bae" on the condition of North Korean Christians in-country. What the Baes told Seoul USA is that despite the fact that most practicing Christians will eventually end up in concentration camps or prisons due to the regime's spy network, a small remnant continues to exist, and though this remnant is very small, the regime has been unable to stamp it out. According to the July 2017's edition of Persecution (International Christian Concern's monthly magazine: https://www.persecution.org) this fact, along with the testimony of recent high-level defectors escaping the West, is a major frustration to Kim Jong Un, who, despite his recent actions and posturing, is surprisingly concerned about his nation's public image internationally.
[These Are the Generations, Mr. & Mrs. Bae, as told to Rev. Eric Foley, W. Publishing, Colorado Springs, CO, 2012]
2) Scripture Knowledge is Limited, But They Cherish What They Know
Bibles are illegal in North Korea. Most North Koreans have never seen a Bible. If they've seen any Christian literature at all, it's been a tract or a pamphlet. Seminaries are illegal. House gatherings are illegal. Churches (except for a few "show" churches for Western visitors) are illegal. And the Internet is closely monitored by the political police. Unless a Korean has been to China and visited a church there (and few have), they have no experiential knowledge of church life. Consequently, their knowledge of what the Bible contains is so incomplete that it's a miracle there are Christians there at all! And yet, there are. But according to Mr. and Mrs. Bae (These Are the Generations) what little they do know is immensely cherished. The Baes' interviewer, Rev. Eric Foley, compares this stewardship to that of someone clutching a few pieces of a puzzle. He writes "What amazes and humbles me is the degree to which they have exhibited such costly and complete faithfulness despite having far fewer puzzle pieces that I, not to mention no picture-box lid by which to organize them. We [Christians in the West], may have all the puzzle pieces and even the puzzle box lid but they, tightly clutching at time only a single-folded, faded puzzle piece inside a trembling yet reverently closed fist, know and worship and trust the Puzzle Maker in ways I have yet to, with my comparative wealth and power and freedom ..."
[These Are the Generations, p.14]
3) Their Concept of Divine Guidance Pushes the Limits of Cessationism
In These Are the Generations, Mr. Bae [an alias name] gives the account of his devout Christian grandfather, Sung Do, being instructed by God to witness to hostile Japanese soldiers in Korea shortly before WWII (and before the rise of Communism there). His grandfather heard a loud and audible voice: " 'Sung Do! Sung Do! the voice thundered. 'The Japanese will not harm you. Get close to them.' " [p. 17] The soldiers came with sledgehammers and axes to destroy a Korean church. Sung Do calmly blocked the doorway with his body and called to them not to destroy the church. As he stood in their way, he explained to them the gospel and told them to repent. They were so stunned that they left him alone and did not destroy his church. And some of the Japanese became Christians that day. This kind of guidance flies in the face of how cessationism has typically been understood.
"Cessationism" is the doctrine that spiritual gifts such as speaking in tongues, prophesy, and the gift of miraculous healing ceased with the end of the Apostolic Age and the completion of Scripture's canon. The Holy Spirit then withdrew not only his miraculous gifts, but withdrew His direct guidance in the lives of Christians other than and outside of the written word of God. Pentecostals, Charismatics and "Word of Faith" people (Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn, etc., etc.) do not believe this. Neither do Christians in so-called "Apostolic" churches who teach that God continues to anoint modern-day apostles with an apostles' authority and infallible divine guidance; a kind of Protestant version of the doctrine of papal infallibility.. Conservative, Reformed Presbyterians and Reformed Baptists are cessationists. The problem is, however, what happens when Christians under severe persecution have no Bible and no Biblical training. Does God guide them directly and supernaturally? According to Mr. and Mrs. Bae (aliases) and other North Korean Christians who've given testimony of such guidance, the answer is yes. This flies in the face of what most (but not all!) cessationists believe about divine guidance today.
Prof. John Murray (deceased), a founder of Westminster Theological Seminary, gave a "flagship" statement of the hard-line cessationist view on divine guidance. His is a critique of those who think they are cessationists, but in his mind they are not. He writes: "It is possible, however, to admit the validity and necessity of these foregoing premises and yet adopt a position which in reality undermines and defeats their implications. That is to say, we may still fall into the error of thinking that while the Holy Spirit does not provide us with special revelations in the form of words or visions or dreams, yet He may and does provide us with some direct feeling or impression or conviction which we are to regard as the Holy Spirit's intimation to us of what His mind and will is in a particular situation. [ I maintain ] that this view of the Holy Spirit's guidance amounts, in effect, to the same thing as to believe that the Holy Spirit gives special revelation." [Guidance of the Holy Spirit, John Murray, Chapter 26, p. 187]
But another Westminster Seminary cessationist, Prof. Vern Poythress, believes that divine guidance may indeed happen in just this way from time to time, as long as such guidance does not add new teaching to the completed Word of God and that it not be regarded as infallible or with apostolic authority. He gives examples of such in the lives of the Protestant Reformers in his "Modern Spiritual Gifts As Analogous to Apostolic Gifts: Affirming Extraordinary Works of the Spirit Within Cessationist Theology, The Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, 39/1 (1996)
According to Mr. and Mrs. Bae (aliases) and Christian refugees from North Korea who have little or no Christian training and certainly no Bible, God guides them in extraordinary ways, sometimes to safety and sometimes to witnessing opportunities.
4) Their Concept of Fellowship and Personal Trust Has Been Stunted By Kim's Regime
This isn't just true for North Korean Christians; it's true for North Koreans in general. If Kim's regime is so pervasive and insidious that trust between family members is often in doubt, what does that say for it's effect on Christian fellowship? The strength of a church gathering is its trust; in God and in each other. Kim's regime has sought to interpose itself between every form of relationship and intimacy, and has largely succeeded. Yet the underground church in North Korea continues to exist, sometimes within the walls of a gulag, sometimes outside of its walls.
5) We in the West Are Commanded to Pray for North Korean Saints, and Their Rulers
This is what Hebrews 13:2 says: "Remember the prisoners as if chained with them -- those who are mistreated -- since you yourselves are in the body [of Christ] also."
I Timothy 2:1 says to pray for rulers. Remember that St. Paul, who was inspired to write that, lived under the reign of emperors Caligula and Nero, two of the most sadistic rulers Rome ever had. We're told to pray for the restraining hand of God to be upon those who exercise earthly rule. And for those they rule, we are to pray. Gospel literature is indeed getting into North Korea. It comes in by small balloons, by drones, by sending it via the rivers, and even (though limited) through social media. Many defectors have reported how they were reached through these methods.
Most especially, we're told to pray for them.
Between 30,000 and 70,000 Christians, "prisoners of conscience", exist day after day in the most extensive system of concentration camps on earth. Except for the use of gas chambers and ovens, these camps are as murderous as anything the Nazis invented.
But why does it take the threat of nuclear war to get Christians in America to pray for the situation in North Korea? Let's suppose Donald Trump's diplomatic posturing; his "carrot-and-stick" strategy with Kim Jung Un actually works? Then what? Suppose relationships normalize between North Korea and America? What does "normalize" mean, in this context?
If all it means to you is that the Korean dictator stops playing "chicken" with his warheads, but that his internal regime stays the same, then please question the genuineness of your faith. "Remember the prisoners as if chained with them -- those who are mistreated -- since you yourselves are in the body [of Christ] also," says the Divine Writer of Hebrews. (13:30)
This regime of Kim Jong Un's is like nothing this earth has ever seen. More than a Communist dictatorship, it is an Orwellian nightmare that aims for total mind control, complete with its own religious ideology, called "Juche". Juche means "self-reliance". On the surface, Juche aims to separate the North Korean people from manipulation and oppression from the capitalist West, especially the United States, through a state-controlled orchestration of thought and behavior modification. Under Juche, faith in God or personal prayer to God is a treasonable act, punishable by imprisonment in a labor camp. Citizens are instructed to literally worship Kim Jong Un, his father and his grandfather, and to publicly and privately thank the Kims for providing them their food, their homes and their lives. This worship is enforced by mandatory "self-criticism" meeting that the entire population attends weekly. Here, they sing from hymnbooks containing 600 songs of praise glorifying the Kim family, those both present and deceased. In private homes Kim photos are uses as religious icons and prayers are offered to them. The enormous Kim statues placed throughout the country are used as idols. North Koreans bow down to them and through them, literally worship the eternal spirits of the current dictator's father and grandfather. Clearly, this is something more than the Communism of Marx, Lenin, Stalin or Mao.
In order to enforce this religious ideology, the Kim regime uses a social system called "Songbun" (meaning "origin" and "part of the whole"). Songbun is a caste system of reward/punishment based upon a citizen's ancestry as well as his/her personal level of loyalty to Kim. The first level is "core", second level is "wavering", third level is "hostile". All those suspected of being Christians are classed as "hostile", and they're only permitted $3-$5 per month. In other words, unless they steal or beg or barter illegally, they will starve to death eventually. If it can be proven that they have practiced their religion, even in private, they go to prison.
Juche is also enforced by the civil and political police at every level of public life. The police employ a massive spy network of private citizens; ideally, members of one's own family, to report private acts of disloyalty of parents, spouses, and children. NOT to report an act of suspected disloyalty is itself an act of disloyalty. Consequently, the family structure and its circle of trust is compromised by the State.
The third way Juche is enforced is by the labor camps. Loosely based upon Stalin's "gulag" system, prisoners are given massive workloads, starvation, isolation and daily sessions of sadistic physical torture by prison guards. This is designed to terrify the "hostile" and "wavering" populace outside the prison walls into obedience.
Regardless of whether Mr. Trump can bring Kim Jong Il to heel through his carrot-and-stick letter-writing diplomacy, Christians in America need to be mindful, prayerful and aware of their brothers and sisters who live in this virtual hell-on-earth.
Five Facts Western Christians Should Know About North Koreans
1) A Hard-Core Remnant Somehow Survives
Seoul USA https://issuu.com/seoulusa , a non-profit NGO (non-governmental organization) in South Korea did an interview with a former North Korean couple, who must remain anonymous as "Mr. and Mrs. Bae" on the condition of North Korean Christians in-country. What the Baes told Seoul USA is that despite the fact that most practicing Christians will eventually end up in concentration camps or prisons due to the regime's spy network, a small remnant continues to exist, and though this remnant is very small, the regime has been unable to stamp it out. According to the July 2017's edition of Persecution (International Christian Concern's monthly magazine: https://www.persecution.org) this fact, along with the testimony of recent high-level defectors escaping the West, is a major frustration to Kim Jong Un, who, despite his recent actions and posturing, is surprisingly concerned about his nation's public image internationally.
[These Are the Generations, Mr. & Mrs. Bae, as told to Rev. Eric Foley, W. Publishing, Colorado Springs, CO, 2012]
2) Scripture Knowledge is Limited, But They Cherish What They Know
Bibles are illegal in North Korea. Most North Koreans have never seen a Bible. If they've seen any Christian literature at all, it's been a tract or a pamphlet. Seminaries are illegal. House gatherings are illegal. Churches (except for a few "show" churches for Western visitors) are illegal. And the Internet is closely monitored by the political police. Unless a Korean has been to China and visited a church there (and few have), they have no experiential knowledge of church life. Consequently, their knowledge of what the Bible contains is so incomplete that it's a miracle there are Christians there at all! And yet, there are. But according to Mr. and Mrs. Bae (These Are the Generations) what little they do know is immensely cherished. The Baes' interviewer, Rev. Eric Foley, compares this stewardship to that of someone clutching a few pieces of a puzzle. He writes "What amazes and humbles me is the degree to which they have exhibited such costly and complete faithfulness despite having far fewer puzzle pieces that I, not to mention no picture-box lid by which to organize them. We [Christians in the West], may have all the puzzle pieces and even the puzzle box lid but they, tightly clutching at time only a single-folded, faded puzzle piece inside a trembling yet reverently closed fist, know and worship and trust the Puzzle Maker in ways I have yet to, with my comparative wealth and power and freedom ..."
[These Are the Generations, p.14]
3) Their Concept of Divine Guidance Pushes the Limits of Cessationism
In These Are the Generations, Mr. Bae [an alias name] gives the account of his devout Christian grandfather, Sung Do, being instructed by God to witness to hostile Japanese soldiers in Korea shortly before WWII (and before the rise of Communism there). His grandfather heard a loud and audible voice: " 'Sung Do! Sung Do! the voice thundered. 'The Japanese will not harm you. Get close to them.' " [p. 17] The soldiers came with sledgehammers and axes to destroy a Korean church. Sung Do calmly blocked the doorway with his body and called to them not to destroy the church. As he stood in their way, he explained to them the gospel and told them to repent. They were so stunned that they left him alone and did not destroy his church. And some of the Japanese became Christians that day. This kind of guidance flies in the face of how cessationism has typically been understood.
"Cessationism" is the doctrine that spiritual gifts such as speaking in tongues, prophesy, and the gift of miraculous healing ceased with the end of the Apostolic Age and the completion of Scripture's canon. The Holy Spirit then withdrew not only his miraculous gifts, but withdrew His direct guidance in the lives of Christians other than and outside of the written word of God. Pentecostals, Charismatics and "Word of Faith" people (Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn, etc., etc.) do not believe this. Neither do Christians in so-called "Apostolic" churches who teach that God continues to anoint modern-day apostles with an apostles' authority and infallible divine guidance; a kind of Protestant version of the doctrine of papal infallibility.. Conservative, Reformed Presbyterians and Reformed Baptists are cessationists. The problem is, however, what happens when Christians under severe persecution have no Bible and no Biblical training. Does God guide them directly and supernaturally? According to Mr. and Mrs. Bae (aliases) and other North Korean Christians who've given testimony of such guidance, the answer is yes. This flies in the face of what most (but not all!) cessationists believe about divine guidance today.
Prof. John Murray (deceased), a founder of Westminster Theological Seminary, gave a "flagship" statement of the hard-line cessationist view on divine guidance. His is a critique of those who think they are cessationists, but in his mind they are not. He writes: "It is possible, however, to admit the validity and necessity of these foregoing premises and yet adopt a position which in reality undermines and defeats their implications. That is to say, we may still fall into the error of thinking that while the Holy Spirit does not provide us with special revelations in the form of words or visions or dreams, yet He may and does provide us with some direct feeling or impression or conviction which we are to regard as the Holy Spirit's intimation to us of what His mind and will is in a particular situation. [ I maintain ] that this view of the Holy Spirit's guidance amounts, in effect, to the same thing as to believe that the Holy Spirit gives special revelation." [Guidance of the Holy Spirit, John Murray, Chapter 26, p. 187]
But another Westminster Seminary cessationist, Prof. Vern Poythress, believes that divine guidance may indeed happen in just this way from time to time, as long as such guidance does not add new teaching to the completed Word of God and that it not be regarded as infallible or with apostolic authority. He gives examples of such in the lives of the Protestant Reformers in his "Modern Spiritual Gifts As Analogous to Apostolic Gifts: Affirming Extraordinary Works of the Spirit Within Cessationist Theology, The Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, 39/1 (1996)
According to Mr. and Mrs. Bae (aliases) and Christian refugees from North Korea who have little or no Christian training and certainly no Bible, God guides them in extraordinary ways, sometimes to safety and sometimes to witnessing opportunities.
4) Their Concept of Fellowship and Personal Trust Has Been Stunted By Kim's Regime
This isn't just true for North Korean Christians; it's true for North Koreans in general. If Kim's regime is so pervasive and insidious that trust between family members is often in doubt, what does that say for it's effect on Christian fellowship? The strength of a church gathering is its trust; in God and in each other. Kim's regime has sought to interpose itself between every form of relationship and intimacy, and has largely succeeded. Yet the underground church in North Korea continues to exist, sometimes within the walls of a gulag, sometimes outside of its walls.
5) We in the West Are Commanded to Pray for North Korean Saints, and Their Rulers
This is what Hebrews 13:2 says: "Remember the prisoners as if chained with them -- those who are mistreated -- since you yourselves are in the body [of Christ] also."
I Timothy 2:1 says to pray for rulers. Remember that St. Paul, who was inspired to write that, lived under the reign of emperors Caligula and Nero, two of the most sadistic rulers Rome ever had. We're told to pray for the restraining hand of God to be upon those who exercise earthly rule. And for those they rule, we are to pray. Gospel literature is indeed getting into North Korea. It comes in by small balloons, by drones, by sending it via the rivers, and even (though limited) through social media. Many defectors have reported how they were reached through these methods.
Most especially, we're told to pray for them.
