[ Note I will remove all comments in this thread that are not on topic .... signs of end times ... signs of second coming etc... Not your religious beliefs/interpretation ... please ,,, I refuse to move this thread to the Bible thumping section ] http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/08/us-religion-christianity-persecution-idUSBRE9070TB20130108About 100 million Christians persecuted around the world: reportBy Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor
About 100 million Christians are persecuted around the world, with conditions worsening for them most rapidly in Syria and Ethiopia, according to an annual report by a group supporting oppressed Christians worldwide.
Open Doors, a non-denominational Christian group, listed North Korea, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan as the three toughest countries for Christians last year. They topped the 50-country ranking for 2011 as well.
...
"There are over 65 countries where Christians are persecuted," said the report released on Tuesday by Open Doors, which began in the 1950s smuggling Bibles into communist states and now works in more than 60 countries.
"An estimated 100 million Christians worldwide are persecuted," the United States-based group said in the report. All but one of the 50 countries in the list - Colombia, which ranked 46th - were in Africa, Asia or the Middle East.
Christianity is the largest and most widely spread faith in the world, with 2.2 billion followers or 32 percent of the world population, according to a report by the Washington-based Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
"In recent years, we've been hearing that Christianity is the most persecuted religion in the world - that sounds right to us," said
Open Doors France director Michel Varton at a presentation of the report in Strasbourg.
...
"Christians risk further persecution and oppression in the future due to the rising number of converts and their boldness in sharing their faith," it said.[ related: Christians everywhere in the world today... ]
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/10776023/China-on-course-to-become-worlds-most-Christian-nation-within-15-years.htmlChina on course to become 'world's most Christian nation' within 15 years The number of Christians in Communist China is growing so steadily that it by 2030 it could have more churchgoers than America
...
China's Protestant community, which had just one million members in 1949, has already overtaken those of countries more commonly associated with an evangelical boom.
In 2010 there were more than 58 million Protestants in China compared to 40 million in Brazil and 36 million in South Africa, according to the Pew Research Centre's Forum on Religion and Public Life.
...
| - - - -
http://somehelpful.info/Prophecy/Signs.html10 Signs That Jesus Is Coming Back Soon1. Wars and rumors of wars
2. Famines, Pestilence, Earthquakes
3. Deceivers who claim to follow Jesus
4. People of Israel return to their land
5. Increased wickedness & loss of love
6. Return of the Fallen Angels and Hybrid Heroes
7. Strong delusion
8. One world government
9. One world ruler and an assistant emerge
10. Technology to control the world
http://jpfinn7.com/2013/01/16/6596/’50 SIGNS JESUS COMING BACK SOON’