By Dean Smith

In the opening lines of his novel, The Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens writes:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.“

Though Dickens novel revolved around the French Revolution, it seems these words are prophetically playing out in the world today, particularly for Christians.

On one hand we are seeing increasing levels of persecution against those who believe in Jesus, but along with this there is also a growing interest in Christianity.

Increasing Persecution of Christians

According to a report released by the International Religious Freedom (IRF). Christians are facing the highest level of persecution and censorship in the history of the world, CBN reports.

In its report, IRF notes that Christians are under increasing pressure in tyrannical regimes such as Communist China and North Korea and areas where Islamic terrorists are targeting Christians with kidnappings and murder.

However, the biggest concern is that this repression is starting to spread to other countries.

“And this cancer is spreading throughout West Africa,” said IRF US Ambassador at Large Samuel Brownback. “You’re seeing this now spread into multiple countries near Nigeria, of this effort of Islamic radicalism and totalitarian mentality of, ‘We’re going to take this over and you’re going to believe in our faith or you’re not going to live.”

According to Joel Veldkamp, head of international communications at Christian Solidarity International, it is so bad in some regions that he labelled it as demonic. He used this to describe the ethnic cleansing of Armenian Christians taking place in the former Soviet Union republic of Azerbaijan.

“Again, I think there’s something demonic in that we had a nine-month lead time on this,” said Veldkamp in an interview with CBN. “Everyone could see it happening. We could see it coming down the pike. We knew how this was going to end. And no one in the world seemed to be able to muster the political will to do anything about it.”

Increasing Interest in Christianity

While on one hand repression of Christians is growing among the world’s tyrants, at the same time, the Holy Spirit is moving.

A recent Barna poll revealed that over half of American teens are ‘very motivated’ to find out more about Jesus, the Christian Post reports. This rises to over 75%, when you include those teens who say they are somewhat motivated.

“This generation tends to believe there’s something out there more powerful than them. Still, many remain hesitant to embrace religion or churchgoing,” Barna noted in its report. “Church leaders should recognize that teens’ openness to learning about Jesus represents a significant opportunity for meaningful engagement.”

In the midst of growing secularization and increased hostility to the Christian faith, there is growing interest in God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

“Though religious affiliation and church attendance continue to decline, spiritual openness and curiosity are on the rise. Across every generation, in fact, we see an unprecedented desire to grow spiritually, a belief in a spiritual/supernatural dimension and a belief in God or a higher power,” said Barna CEO David Kinnaman.

And just in case, you are thinking this phenomenon is just limited to America, a survey conducted by author Christopher Glasson found that the same thing happening in Britain, Premier Christian News reports.

The survey found a growing interest in religion and spiritual issues among Gen Z or those born between 1997 and 2012.

While 20% of Baby Boomers (1946 to 1964) and 25% of Gen X (1965 to 1980) considered themselves atheists, this number fell dramatically among Gen Z. The survey found that only 13% of Gen Z considered themselves atheists and 62% considered themselves ‘fairly’ to ‘very’ spiritual.

Records are also being set for the purchase and the download of Bibles.

We are witnessing an increasing conflict between two Spiritual worlds. As Dickens wrote, “it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness.”