Andrew Brunson understands what it feels like to be persecuted. After 25 years of being a pastor in Turkey, he was falsely charged with espionage and spent over two years in prison. Being a pastor, “I thought I was ready” to face persecution, Brunson said. But he’ll be the first to confess he was, in fact, not ready for what he faced. “I broke,” he stated. “[I]t was a very severe breaking,” but “God rebuilt me.”

This testimony came during a panel discussion at the 2024 Pray Vote Stand Summit, where Brunson flagged his concern that “there’s a wave of hostility and persecution that is racing toward the church” in America. The church in the U.S. is still “large” and “influential,” he noted, but “there hasn’t really been serious persecution in the United States in the past,” which “can create a sense of false security … of permanence, like things are going to continue to be as they have been.”

Brunson’s message comes as America continues to face political, social, economic, and spiritual turmoil. Many have described the upcoming presidential election as one of the most important elections in the nation’s history. In “a post-Christian country” that has “lost the culture,” Brunson said, “there are complex reasons for” the current state of the nation that many blame on the church or other variables. However, according to Brunson, the heart of our problems is that “the tendency of man is toward sin.” As the panel went on to discuss, Christians need to be aware of what that means going forward.

To understand the times properly helps the church understand the sort of persecution they may face, as Brunson explained. Not “everyone’s going to be thrown into prison or [experience] violence necessarily, although some will face that.” Rather, the persecution in America often looks like social and financial pressure, which are both “actually very dangerous and over time knocks a lot of people out.”

Brunson underscored that “many people have an idealized view of suffering,” but in reality, suffering can and often does strike in unexpected ways. This is why Pastor Jack Hibbs of Calvary Chapel emphasized that Christians “should live in the sense of urgent imminency no matter what.” To be ready, he added, “Live and prepare like you’re going to be here for 100 years but be ready to go up now.” But this can be difficult, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins stated, “because we’re in an emotionally driven world.”

Perkins went on to say how “everything from public policy to parents … is driven by emotion.” It’s as though “truth has died in the streets,” he sighed. “How do we deal with that?” According to pastor and theologian Voddie Baucham, the first step is “to speak the truth in love.”

He continued, “The truth may have died in the minds of people, but God’s truth lives forever.” Additionally, “We also have to be mindful of the fact that there’s no better answer” to the issues of the day than the truth of the gospel. Baucham emphasized how a common issue Christians face is the temptation to respond to emotional arguments with logic rather than Scripture. However, he contended, “The fact that we are willing to slaughter babies in the womb,” for instance, “is not a result of logic. It’s a result of sin. And the answer to sin is not logic, it’s Scripture.”

Brunson noted how “this is what a post-Christian country looks like.” He added, “I don’t think we’re going back to the way it was before, and I think we’re going to have to have a shift in our perspective to where we learn how to live as a despised minority” that doesn’t share the message society at large wants to hear. Learning how to live as a despised minority, Brunson explained, means mapping out specific priorities. When facing persecution, the first priority of the believer should be “to survive spiritually.”

Another priority, Baucham added, is to remember that America is not the Kingdom of God. “[T]here is a kingdom that will come, and that’s the kingdom where our ultimate citizenship lies.” But “in the meantime, until we’re in that kingdom, wherever we are, we’re living in Babylon.” And to address a final priority each believer should have, Perkins noted how, even “in Babylon, we were given instruction.” As we wait “for the kingdom where our citizenship truly lies,” it’s important to keep fighting, and “hold out hope that we could see our nation return to God.”

“[T]he Kingdom comes first,” Hibbs stated. But Christians are called to “[occupy] until he comes,” Perkins added. Yet, no matter the outcome of the November election, or how much progress is made across the country on various issues, Perkins concluded that, as believers, “We’re focused on eternal victory,” which “only comes from obedience.” But “in the midst of that, is there not great joy in being used by God?”