November 5, 2025 Show with Austin Huggins and Osinachi Nwoko on “A Live Report from Nigeria: The Persecution of Christians by Muslims There”

Live from historic downtown Carlisle, Pennsylvania, home of founding father James Wilson, 19th century hymn writer

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This is Chris Arnzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Wednesday on this fifth day of November 2025.

This is actually an unexpected blessing to have a live show today.

We had everything set for a rerun because we did not know if we were going to be successfully hooking up with my guests in Nigeria today.

But thanks be to God, he smiled upon us with his good providence, and we were able to successfully make the internet connection with my two guests today.

One, a returning guest, and one, a first -time guest. We're going to be talking about a very important issue that has become more and more the discussion on the media, and that is in regard to the persecution of Christians in Nigeria.

And today to discuss that is Pastor Austin Huggins, who is on a mission trip right now in Nigeria.

He is the pastor of Mount Zion Bible Church in Pensacola, Florida, which is the home of the world -renowned

Chapel Library, and he is also the vice president of First Love Ministries.

And it's my honor and privilege to welcome you back to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, Pastor Austin Huggins. Thank you,

Brother Chris. It's good to be with you. And we also have on the program somebody who has been a longtime listener of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio in our audience in Nigeria.

He used to communicate with us quite often and email questions to guests and so on.

And I'm so thrilled to finally have him on the program as a guest for the very first time.

And I know I'm going to probably butcher his name, since even though he already coached me briefly on how to pronounce it, but I will give it a shot.

His name is Osinachi Nyuoko, and he's covering his face like I really just horribly mispronounced his name.

And he is the pastor of Sovereign Grace Bible Church in Nigeria, and it's a joy to have you with us for the first time,

Pastor Osinachi. Thank you, Chris.

It's good to be here. You didn't do too badly with the name.

And Pastor Austin, first of all, briefly, if you could describe all of these wonderful organizations that you are a primary part of.

And we'll start with the Mount Zion Bible Church in Pensacola, Florida.

Yeah, Brother Chris, thank you. Pastor Mount Zion Bible Church in Pensacola, Florida, Christ -centered

Reformed Confessional Church, 1689, of Precious Brothers and Sisters in Christ.

We're the home of Chapel Library, where we have the privilege of sending Christ -centered literature from prior centuries around the world, free of charge, in about 100 different nations.

And I'm also the vice president of First Love Ministries, with particular emphasis in the mission side as the

Africa coordinator. Amen. Well, let me give the websites for these fine organizations.

First of all, Mount Zion Bible Church of Pensacola, Florida can be found at mountzion .org.

That's M -O -U -N -T, the full spelling of the word mount, not an abbreviation.

M -O -U -N -T, zion .org. And Chapel Library can be found at chapellibrary .org,

chapellibrary .org. The listeners of Iron Shepherd and Zion Radio should recognize

Chapel Library immediately, because I frequently plug them, because they have so many valuable resources that are not only extremely valuable, but extremely inexpensive.

And we also have firstloveministries .org. And in case you don't know it,

First Love Ministries is the parent ministry of First Love Radio, which live streams

Iron Shepherd and Zion Radio every day. Well, as I was saying, we also have on the program

Osinachi Nwoko, who is the pastor of Sovereign Grace Bible Church of Nigeria in Lagos, Nigeria.

And if you could, Osinachi, give us a summary description of that church.

Sovereign Grace Bible Church is a confessional Roman Baptist church.

It just turned 23 years a couple of days ago. So it's been in existence for 23 years after it was planted in 2002.

We've actually got three elders and one of three pastors, not the only pastor of the church.

We have a growing membership. And in the Lord's kindness, we have helped to plant several churches across the southern part of Nigeria.

I'm afraid I will be doing some more. I also serve with Hathorai as a missionary of theirs.

So I'm an elder of the church, but also a missionary with Hathorai, because they support some of the work that we're doing directly in Lagos and in Nigeria.

So, yeah, that's about it. We've got several ministries. We particularly focus on campus ministries and training men and attending men for official ministry work.

And they both support other things as well. Well, the website for Sovereign Grace Bible Church in Lagos, Nigeria, is sgbc .ng,

or Nigeria, sgbc .ng. And by the way, am I pronouncing Lagos correctly?

Lagos. Well, the Portuguese would say Lagos, but it's English, so it's in Lagos.

Okay, Lagos. Lagos is better than English, yeah. And Lagos in America are things that little children play with to build things with little building blocks that stick together and cause agony on any parent that steps on them with bare feet.

But as I said, I believe I told you before the program started live, that we have a tradition here on Iron Trip and Zion Radio, Osinachi, whenever we have a first -time guest such as yourself, we have that guest give a summary of their salvation testimony.

And that would include the religious atmosphere in which you were raised as a child, if any, and the kinds of providential circumstances our

Sovereign Lord raised up in your life that drew you to Himself and saved you. So I'd love to hear the summary of your story, brother.

Well, thank you. The Lord saved me in 2007 in His kindness.

I grew up in a nominal Christian home, as I'll describe it. Well, dad was nominal

Roman Catholic, mom was very charismatic. So there was that sense of the

Lord, but I had no interest in the things of the Lord.

It wasn't until 2007 that the Lord began to walk in my heart.

From the beginning of the year, I was in a church where the order of the day was to have an altar call.

I think there was about six altar calls that kept going back to my singing. So I wasn't converted, but I sort of desired the

Lord. And I think eventually it was in September of that year that I heard the gospel in a church that I left not long afterwards and came to faith in Christ, and I knew that I was saved that day.

I was involved in a number of things that were on savoury, or were on savoury.

And the Lord helped me, after my conversion, to turn away from those things. And then, still in the course,

I'm still walking. So that's the notion of the story. Now, how did you discover

Reformed Theology? Okay, so that's interesting.

I would say two pieces of literature. It started with A .W. Tozer's Worship and Entertainment.

This was in 2008, the first quarter, the first half of the year.

And then not long after that, Spurgeon's Morning and Evening Devotion. So those two pieces of literature essentially just turned my world upside down.

Because prior to that time, all I listened to was all I read. But Benny Gaines, T .D. Jakes, Wynter Bynum, those mega pastors and past pressers in the

United States. But those two pieces of literature led me to start asking serious questions. And those questions eventually led me to leave my church.

And for two months, I was floating. I didn't find a church that was suitable.

I didn't really know the word reform. All I asked for was a

Christ -centered church. But by this time, because of Spurgeon, reading Spurgeon fairly frequently,

I had known of A .W. Pink. And so I spent two months reading both

A .W. Pink and George Spurgeon. And it was during this period that a friend invited me to the

Lagos Bible Conference. That's a conference that has brought Austin here to Nigeria.

So Lagos Bible Conference 2008. I missed the conference, but Pastor Jay Jacobs was in the country for the conference.

I missed the conference, but the tract that was given to me when I was invited had the address of Sovereign Grace Bible Church at its old location.

And so I made my way to the church. And the rest, as they say, is history. So I embraced the teachings.

But if I was to tie a formal period when I would say I embraced what it is to be reformed,

I would say it was months after I had come to the church when I was given

Sovereignty of God by A .W. Pink. And I read the book, and after that, I was totally reformed from reading that book.

So that's the story. So that's 2007 conversion. Well, it's 2009.

Embracing Reformed Theology. And I've been in the same church since then and became a pastor in 2019.

And how did you realize that God had placed a call upon your life to enter into pastoral ministry?

So I would say it was even before I became Reformed. Almost from the moment I was converted,

I went into evangelize. So I joined with a number of youth, young people who were, in hindsight, were zealous without knowledge.

And I just felt that compulsion to want to share the gospel.

So I would go to several schools. These are like high schools for you guys in the United States.

And I'll share the gospel, whatever I thought I was sharing at the time. But I did that pretty frequently.

And then when the Lord brought me out of that and established my faith in his word, and I was growing,

I wanted to serve. So it was more an inclination to serve, be available to serve. And even my own career path,

I didn't pursue what I initially wanted to pursue, so that I would be available to serve. So from the beginning,

I sort of felt that I had teaching gifts. I wasn't sure I wanted to be a pastor, but I knew

I wanted to be able to teach when I was asked to do so. So I joined a Sunday school.

I was teaching teenagers. I started with Pilgrim's Progress. And eventually, I was told to lead

Bible studies. But that desire was growing in me. And I let my pastors know that it was a desire.

I wasn't sure how it was going to be, how it was going to play out. I wasn't sure when it was going to happen. But I had a desire for the ministry.

So I even told my wife, or she was my wife at the time, that if the Lord calls me,

I wouldn't say no. So it was early 2019, and they all just approached me and said,

I think the Lord might be calling you to go back and pray. And I did.

And it only confirmed what desire I had born within me all this while.

And my wife was very much on board. I couldn't believe that the

Lord was calling me as well. And so I accepted the call to the pastorate of our local church where I'm still a pastor.

Now, I don't know if this is still the case, but I believe a number of years ago, you told me that Sovereign Grace Bible Church in Lagos, Nigeria, was at that time, anyway, the only confessional

Reformed Baptist church in Nigeria. Is that still the case? I'm not sure

I said only. I think at the time there were two churches. One of the only. Yeah.

So one of two churches at the time, Reformed Baptist, not just Reformed churches, Reformed Baptist churches specifically.

Yes, it was one of two. But there are a couple of others now. There's more than one.

Yeah. Well, let's pray that we hear the good news that there are many more springing up.

I'm so excited to see the work that my dear friend since 1996,

Dr. Conrad Mbewe, of Kabwatha Baptist Church in Lusaka, Zambia, Africa. I'm so delighted to hear about all the

Reformed Baptist churches that that congregation is planting all over the place.

And it's just a thrill. Have you ever met and had any communication with Conrad?

I have met him a few times. He has spoken at our conference in Lagos. I have spoken with him at another conference in Abuja, which is the capital of the country.

I have been to Zambia a few times and attended the Zambia Reformed Conference.

And I'm one of the directors of African Pastors Conference at the moment. So I dialogue with him fairly often because he's a director as well.

And by the way, before I forget to announce to my listeners the good news, Dr. Conrad Mbewe, for the second time, will be my

Iron Sharpens Iron Radio Free Pastors Luncheon speaker on Thursday, March 5th, from 11 a .m.

to 2 p .m. at Church of the Living Christ in Loisville, Pennsylvania. Everything is free, not only the food and your opportunity to hear

Dr. Mbewe preach, but also every man in attendance will receive a heavy sack of free brand new books.

And I'm sure this will be no exception from years past, but First Love Publishing is going to have a table there, as they always do, to give away their own free books.

So if you would like to register for that free Pastors Luncheon, if you are a man in ministry leadership, just send me an email to chrisarnson at gmail .com

chrisarnson at gmail .com And tell me your name, the name and location of the church you represent, and the number of men who will be joining you.

chrisarnson at gmail .com And put Pastors Luncheon in the subject line. Dr. Mbewe will also be speaking the night before the luncheon at the church where I am a member,

Trinity Reformed Baptist Church of Carlisle, Pennsylvania. And that will be

Wednesday, March the 4th at 7 p .m. And everyone is welcome to that meeting.

That's every man, woman and child is welcome to that meeting on Wednesday, March the 4th, 7 p .m.

at Trinity Reformed Baptist Church of Carlisle, Pennsylvania. For more details on the luncheon, go to www .irontrippinsironradio

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For more details on the speaking engagement at Trinity Reformed Baptist Church of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, go to www .trbccarlisle

.org www .trbccarlisle .org But we're going to return from our first commercial break, and when we do, we're going to get more into the heart of our reason for this interview today, and that's to talk about the persecution of Christians in Nigeria.

In fact, I know that while I was waiting to connect with these two guests on the

Internet for the interview, they were just having a meeting with persecuted

Christians there in Nigeria. We'll hear more about that specific meeting as well.

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Give us your first name at least, city and state, and country of residence. You may remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter.

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Joseph Piper of Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary sent you. Welcome back.

If you just tuned us in, our guests today are Pastor Austin Huggins of Mount Zion Bible Church in Pensacola, Florida, also the vice president of First Love Ministries, and we also have a pastor,

Osinachi Nwoko, who is the pastor of Sovereign Grace Bible Church in Lagos, Nigeria.

We are talking about the persecution of Christians in Nigeria, and if you could, perhaps we'll start with Pastor Osinachi.

When did this persecution of Christians, especially at the scale that it's currently occurring, when did this occur?

Was this a recent phenomenon, or is this a very old phenomenon that has been going on for quite a while?

It was later. It's not a recent occurrence. I think it's as old as this country is.

Wow. Yeah. It's getting fresh at the moment, because when the

United States takes interest in something, but it's been there. It's been there since we became independent from England in 1960, and it has ebbed and flowed as time has gone on, but it has always been there.

So are you saying that there was benefit to not being independent from England?

If you're saying that the persecution by the Muslims began when you had your independence, was that a...

Well, I believe in the Lord's providence, so we are a country because the

Lord wanted us to be a country, but speaking from just a human standpoint,

I think there are good grounds to say that we shouldn't have been merged into a country, that the

North would have been better served being on their own, and the Christian South would have been better served being on their own, because it wasn't long after independence that we had a civil war, and while it was along tribal lines, tribal lines mostly is also along religious lines in this country, because the

North is predominantly Muslim, and the South is predominantly Christian. So that's what

I would say. There are powers in the nation to split, but it's not like that would have given the way we're interwoven with each other.

Now, can you tell us what is actually physically happening that would be described as persecution to the

Christian people of Nigeria? Well, what is happening is violence, is killings, is murder, is kidnappings in the northern region and the middle region of the country.

That's the persecution that is faced by Islamist insurgents,

Boko Harams and offshoots of Boko Haram, and other Muslim groups, Fulani Herdsmen.

There are a number of groups. Some we don't know, some Muslims we do not know. So that's the nature of the persecution.

They are systematically targeting communities, targeting individuals, targeting churches, targeting clergymen, making laws in certain parts of the country to suppress

Christians, universities, halls of power, and so on and so forth.

So the persecution is real. It doesn't get as much, it doesn't come across for some people as that, because it tends to be the rural areas when it comes to the actual violence.

But in terms of other forms of persecution, denying they have jobs and certain services, that is felt in the cities, because that's where you would have your middle class and your dedicated folks stay.

But in terms of the violence, you have that in rural areas. Now, are you talking about dozens, hundreds, or thousands of people being murdered by terrorists?

Well, if you compute the figures, we're getting to a thousand. Wow. Yes, we're getting to thousands.

Every year? Yeah, every year. Just today, some of these things we can't verify specifically, but in terms of the numbers, hundreds are killed in some instances by a single attack.

Sometimes they're in their 10s, their 20s, and so on and so forth. But they run into the thousands.

And Pastor Austin Huggins, I know that you, as I said earlier, had a meeting today with some persecuted

Christians over there in Nigeria. Tell us about that meeting. Yeah, I mean, there's going to be some elements of it that, of necessity, have to remain quiet.

But I can say, just echoing some of the things Pastor Osinachi said, a lot of this started a long time ago.

It started in the rural areas, in the interior villages very far. But now, every single day, there is a systematic progression closer and closer, even into the cities.

And I had one of the underground leaders essentially tell me that the numbers that are coming out right now in terms of the number murdered are probably not even half of the real numbers.

I think the last numbers that came out that were recently released publicly were 7 ,000

Christians were murdered just this past year. And so if that's accurate, then he's talking 14 ,000, 15 ,000 by his estimates.

But you have a widespread aspect of these

Thulani herdsmen coming in, kidnapping, holding people for ransom, entire families, young children, besides Boko Haram, abducting children and things like that.

And it's a profiting scheme as well as persecution.

He pointed out, he said, not all persecution, just like Osinachi said, is purely violent.

Some of it is economical. Some of it is political. And so if they can enact, as we heard up in some northern regions, enact

Sharia law and put taxes on non -Christians, that's something that there are certain groups in sects that are willing to move in that direction and to do that.

But the kidnapping has been incredibly high and off the charts. And some of those young people who come back from being kidnapped, sometimes for months, are absolutely traumatized and PTSDed, for lack of a better word, because they're witnessing killings and atrocities while they're kept sometimes out in the remote jungles, sometimes out in other areas.

It's hard to put into words. It's a real tragedy. This isn't a political mainstream news media stand.

There is real brothers and sisters in Christ really being persecuted, really being kidnapped, really being killed, really being named, some of them hands and arms cut off, some of them tortured in other ways, some of them beat with metal rods.

It's really happening. And there's not a lot of voice for them.

Like Osi said, this has been going on for quite a long time. We're not even in necessarily a unique peak in the violence right now.

It's just that right now it's finally getting some attention. Now what is the, perhaps

I'll ask Osinachi this, what is the percentage of the

Nigerian population that is Islamic versus the

Christian population? Well, if I recall, the data puts

Islam at about 48, 49 percent, and then Christians at about 46, 47 percent.

But here's the problem. Here are some of these things. When you're in a situation like ours, sometimes one appears partisan, right?

But I think there's good reason to believe that the numbers of Muslims are being overhyped for certain reasons, because it plays into the political narrative that some are trying to pursue.

So it's good to, on the whole, we can say that they're roughly the same. And we're looking at a country of over 200 million people.

Wow. Now what, obviously this would be an estimate, but from your understanding, what percentage of the

Muslim population is in full -on agreement with this persecution of Christians?

Are there any crying out against this?

Perhaps many, even Muslims, are too afraid to do that. But tell us about that. So we have, in the north, we have

Sunni Muslims that dominate the landscape. And then we have a small percentage of Shiite Muslims.

The Sunni Muslims do maltreat the Shiite Muslims, where you have your Saudi Arabia and Iran, or Shiite in Iraq.

But both groups are radical, by and large, I would say. Both groups are what? I'm sorry?

So they are radical. Okay. Yes, and they do have the adherence.

Because when you have those that are educated and they are the elite, they don't get into the muck of what is going on.

But you can obviously tell that they are supported by their silence. And they certainly support behind the scenes.

Now if you come to the southwestern part of the country, these are

Yoruba, and they have a good chunk of Muslims as well.

But they are not exactly like the north. They are not as radicalized as the north. Some of them are syncretic.

They mix Christianity and other things. So you have that difference. So they do not.

That's why you can live in the southwest and you don't have. They're not that rampant. They have their own way in where they are to persecute

Christians, deny them of certain things. But when it comes to actual violence and killing and kidnapping, it's that Islamist agenda, jihad.

That's absent from the southwest. So if we look at that division, then we would say that it's hard to pin down the percentages because even amongst the north, you have people that don't want peace.

You have people that want to fight economically and they don't want their hands in any of this.

But it's fair to say that there's a good chunk of people from academics all the way down to the government who are behind this.

Because it was started by, you know, it had its founding amongst people in power, you know, and people behind the scenes who orchestrated these things.

So it does have a good deal of support. But can we tell the specific percentage or number?

That's always hard to tell. And Pastor Austin, from what you have learned being there in Nigeria on your mission trip, is this terrorism?

And of course, nobody who is the victim of terrorism could be said to be guilty of bringing it upon themselves.

Obviously, we would never want to give the impression about anybody who's the victim of a terrorism, terrorist attacks, that it's their fault or anything like that.

But are these basically unprovoked attacks by sheer virtue of the fact that these individuals being persecuted and slaughtered are

Christian? Is that really the only reason? In the supermajority in almost every case, yes.

So what you have here is a purposeful intention of the, as Pastor Austin said, in the north, the

Islamic and the middle belt community to push into regions. For instance, there's a particular state in the northeast that is actually predominantly

Christian. And you would think that they would be exempt from a lot of the kinds of things we're talking about here.

But what you'll have is you'll have radical Islam, radicalized Islamic Fulanis come in, and they will attack the village.

They will burn down the crops. They will, even if they're not going to use it, even if they're not taking it, they're not stealing it, they're burning it down.

They're running people out of their homes, kidnapping whom they can kidnap, shooting who they can shoot. They all flee.

There was one man who I found out from someone else. He went back into the village a couple days later just to try and untie his goats and his animals so that they could feed so that they wouldn't die.

Well, whenever he went back, the Fulanis caught him. They killed him and his son. Wow. And yeah, so once they get run out of a location, they become displaced peoples.

And one of the ways that the government, I can't get into that too much, but right now these

IDP displacement camps are kind of like a temporary location where they come together.

There's not a lot of provision for them even when they come together. But if they try to return to their land, if they try to return to their village, they cannot because the

Fulanis were taking it. And that's the systematic progression. They are actively taking land.

They are actively taking villages. They are setting up their own villages in the place of where the old ones used to be.

And they are systematically pushing Christians out. In one state, I wish

I could remember which one it was, but I was told there were 100 and something churches,

I want to say 10 years back. And of those, 90 % have been destroyed.

And I don't remember exactly what state that was in. But no, this is not unprovoked.

This is not returning aggression for aggression. This is the systematic invasion pushing out dominance.

This is a Sharia law mentality of conquer and take over.

Now, from what you know, as far as the global response by Muslims to this, is it silence?

Is it joining with non -Muslims in anger and disgust and horror?

Or is it support? What's going on as far as your understanding, if any, of the global Muslim response to this?

So far, I haven't had any global Muslim response to the situation in the country.

I haven't had one. And I think that will be, even at the height of Boko Haram, you didn't hear anything about Muslims outside the country lending their voices, urging peace, and so on and so forth.

And so, at the moment, there's none of that because our government is denying what is going on.

And if they do that, then why would government from outside and let the

Muslims lend their voices? But I haven't heard anything. Okay.

We have a listener named RJ in White Plains, New York.

RJ asks, Have any of the Muslims that you're aware of in Nigeria taken notice to the threats of President Trump to send the troops to Nigeria, guns a -blazing, to bring an end to the persecution of Christians?

Well, everybody has heard. The only action that I heard today, in keeping with Trump's threats, are that some people have put travel plans on hold in certain parts of the country because those are hotspots that if Trump was going to bomb the place, it would be those areas, essentially.

Besides that, it's all about the media. Local media, everybody's discussing it. I don't know that anybody is, you know, shaking in their boots over what they think might happen.

I think many believe that it is not going to happen, that he just lost that. And there are others who would like to see somebody take action, contrary to what our leaders are saying.

Now, you're saying that there are others who want Trump to take action. I'm assuming you're talking about non -Muslims or Christians.

Of course, yes. Non -Muslims, yes. Not all, but a good chunk of non -Muslims.

Now, I know that you can't read minds or hearts, but do you know if some of this unconcerned response to the threats of President Trump has to do with the suicidal mindset of Islamic terrorism, where, you know,

Muslim terrorists believe that they will be rewarded in the afterlife for their participation in jihad and for the death that they bring about of non -believers and so on, and the persecution?

Does that have anything to do with it? Or is it just, as you were saying before, a disbelief that Trump will actually put his money where his mouth is, as they say?

Yeah. Well, you know, what you said is not outside the realm of possibility.

I think that the Muslims, these militants, would consider it a badge of honor in their minds that the

United States will attack them, and then they can say that, like, al -Qaeda and al -Shabaab and so on and so forth, they have had encounters with the

Muslims, with the West and with the United States, the whole United States. I think that many of them would actually, yes, look forward to that.

But besides that, which is just a conjecture, I think many people think

Trump is... I mean, the view of Trump is that he's the one who likes to talk, right?

And so on that basis, they feel that he's just talking. So I think that's what both the government and the

Muslims believe. For us, there are non -Muslims who are hopeful that he would actually keep to his word.

And we have a listener in Brooklyn, New York, Carmine, who wants to know, do you,

Osanachi, know anybody personally who has perished from the terrorism of Muslims there?

I don't know anybody personally who has perished, but I know persons who have relatives, brothers, siblings, that perished, yes.

I haven't had anybody personally that I know kidnapped, but I know people who have family members kidnapped.

People close to me. As far as Sovereign Grace Bible Church in Lagos, has that church experienced yet any kind of terrorism or persecution?

No, we have not. We're in Lagos, and Lagos is far removed from where these things are taking place. Oh, okay.

Well, praise God for that. And so, Pastor Austin, I don't know if I'm covering most of what you would like me to discuss with you today, but if I have forgotten to bring something up, please bring it to our attention now.

Yeah, absolutely, Chris. I appreciate that. I think the main thrust here is, and this came when speaking with Pastor Osinachi, a couple of the other

Reformed Baptist leaders, including some of the persecuted Christians that we've met and discussed with.

In light of the attention, it seemed plausible to them that,

I mean, when you called out of the blue, that was a really unexpected message,

Chris. We took that from the Lord. I ran it by the other brethren to see what they thought, and they thought it would be good to go ahead and say, hey, here's an insider's look on some things.

Obviously, we have to be very careful of what we say about certain locations, but we can definitely confirm the killings are real.

The terrorism is real. The threat against our brothers and sisters in Christ is real. It is bound up in many areas and a lot of tribal identity, but there is definitely killings and persecution and even jihad going on in even greater degrees than what is being reported.

Now, with that being said, the saints back home need to be praying for their brothers and sisters in Christ.

You know, the scripture says in Hebrews, to remember those who are bound as though bound with them.

I mean, there are moms, there are children who are, while we're talking, they're buried somewhere in a jungle.

They've been there for weeks, sometimes months. They don't know if their family is going to be able to get the ransom price up high enough to satisfy the

Fulani or Boko Haram, to be able to return them. And even if they get a sizable chunk of it, there's nothing saying that the

Muslims will honor their word and not inevitably kill these people as well.

I mean, if you could imagine a family, an entire village displaced, you, your home, your neighbors, your world, and you're lying out in an open field, barely able to cover yourself.

The children are getting emaciated. They have ulcers from poor nutrition. The boys, the young boys are just taking up arms.

They're just, I mean, just a hatchet, whatever they've got. They don't have guns, just trying to walk the perimeter and do security at night.

They need, I mean, they're eating handfuls of rice, unable to cook it because they just don't have any facility.

They have no way to take care of their own hygiene. This is not one little camp.

This is widespread. And, you know, we're obviously

Pastor Osanachi works with Far Cry. And, you know, there's discussions that I can't really go into, but there are brothers who are beginning to get their eyes and ears on the ground.

For our brothers and sisters back home, the number one most important thing you can do, and this comes directly from the persecuted saints.

When I asked, what is the first thing before anything else? What do you need? And I was asking in the context of what can we give you?

And he answered, he said, the number one thing we need from you is to pray that God will give us courage.

That was the number one first priority thing above everything else. In fact, pick up where you left off there on the courage, on the request for prayers for courage of the

Christians in Nigeria. When we come back from our midway break, and if you'd like to join us, folks, send us an email to ChrisArnzen at gmail .com.

Give us your first name, at least city and state and country of residence. Only remain anonymous. If your question involves a personal and private matter, don't go away.

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That's securecommgroup .com. But today, I want to introduce you to my senior pastor,

Doug McMasters, of New High Park Baptist Church on Long Island. Doug McMasters here, former director of pastoral correspondence at Grace to You, the radio ministry of John MacArthur.

In the film, Chariots of Fire, Olympic gold medalist runner Eric Liddell remarked that he felt

God's pleasure when he ran. He knew his efforts sprang from the gifts and calling of God.

I sensed that same God -given pleasure when ministering the Word and helping others gain a deeper knowledge and love for God.

That love starts with the wonderful news that the Lord Jesus Christ is a Savior who died for sinners, and that God forgives all who come to Him in repentance, trusting solely in Christ to deliver them.

I would be delighted to have the honor and privilege of ministering to you if you live in the Long Island area or Queens or Brooklyn or the

Bronx in New York City. For details on New High Park Baptist Church, visit nhpbc .com.

That's nhpbc .com. You can also call us at 516 -352 -9672.

That's 516 -352 -9672. That's New High Park Baptist Church, a congregation in love with each other, passionate for Christ, committed to learning and being shaped by God's Word and delighting in the gospel of God's sovereign grace.

God bless you. It's such a blessing to hear from Iron Sharpens Iron radio listeners from all over the world.

Here's Joe Riley, a listener in Ireland who wants you to know about a guest on the show he really loves hearing interviewed,

Dr. Joe Moorcraft. I'm Joe Riley, a faithful Iron Sharpens Iron radio listener here in Atai in County Kildare, Ireland.

Going back to 2005, one of my very favorite guests on Iron Sharpens Iron is

Dr. Joe Moorcraft. If you've been blessed by Iron Sharpens Iron radio, Dr. Moorcraft and Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming, Georgia are largely to thank since they are one of the program's largest financial supporters.

Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming is in Forsyth County, a part of the Atlanta metropolitan area.

Heritage is a thoroughly biblical church unwaveringly committed to Westminster standards and Dr.

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Hanover Presbytery built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone and tracing its roots and heritage back to the great

Protestant Reformation of the 16th century. Heritage maintains and follows the biblical truth and principles proclaimed by the reformers scripture alone, grace alone, faith alone,

Christ alone, and God's glory alone. Their primary goal is the worship of the Triune God that continues in eternity.

For more details on Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming, Georgia, visit heritagepresbyterianchurch .com

that's heritagepresbyterianchurch .com or call 678 -954 -7831 that's 678 -954 -7831

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Join us in the glorious cause of advancing Christ's crown and covenant over the kings of the earth.

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Before I return to my conversation with Pastor Austin Huggins and also

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And last but not least, if you are not a member of a Christ -honoring, biblically faithful, doctrinally solid, theologically sound church like Mount Zion Bible Church in Pensacola, Florida, or Sovereign Grace Bible Church in Lagos, Nigeria, I have extensive lists spanning the entire globe of biblically faithful churches, and I have helped many people in our audience in all parts of the globe find churches that are biblically faithful.

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That's also the email address where you can send in a question to my guests, Pastor Austin Huggins and Pastor Osinachi Nwoko about the persecution of Christians in Nigeria.

And let's see, we do have another listener question for you both.

We have Floyd in Narragansett, Rhode Island, Narragansett, Rhode Island, and Floyd says,

I know for a matter of fact that even though Muslims hold to very strict moral and sexual ethics for some bizarre reason, the terrorist element among them sees no problem with raping women as they persecute those who are not their fellow

Muslims. Is that kind of horrific thing going on there too in Nigeria?

Yeah, rape might certainly be part of it. Forced marriages in some instances as well.

Forced marriages, is that what you said? Yes. Where young girls have been kidnapped, they're like walking around and made to marry their fighters.

So yes. Wow. I think it's part of it. Wow, that's horrible.

Oh, before we go any further, I forgot that I wanted you, Pastor Austin, to pick up where you left off on the brother in Christ from Nigeria who was requesting specifically for prayer for courage, if you could pick up where you left off there.

Yes, sir. Yeah, it was praying that the saints back home would keep them in prayer here chiefly, that they would have courage to be able to face the things that are in front of them right now.

To encourage the brothers and sisters back home in that prayer, this man has many times looked his, you know, wife and children in the eyes and say, you know,

I'm headed out to do the work. And they said, are you coming back?

He says, well, you know where I'm going. So only the Lord knows. All I know is I'm going.

And in the labors, there are Muslims coming to faith in Christ.

Hallelujah. All this catastrophe. Yes, there are even Fulani herdsmen that are coming to faith in Christ.

And those are the primary persecutors you're saying? In this particular instance, in these localities, yes.

I mean, there are men, I want you to visualize this in your mind for a moment. There are men who are out and out, unapologetic

Christians, evangelists, pastors, walking directly up to the faces of Boko Haram, making no bones about who they are, trying to evangelize them.

And it is that kind of Holy Spirit birthed superhuman tenacity that has in many epochs and episodes of the church's history, throughout church history, been the means by which some of the greatest demonstrations of God's work in the earth and the promulgation of the gospel to the nations and the planting of churches in the most unlikely of places has been achieved and has occurred.

Praise God. Now, when you think about how often many of us who are in relative and comparative luxury here in the

United States, how much of us keep our mouths shut when it comes to the

Christ we allegedly love and the gospel we allegedly put our hope and trust in.

We keep our mouths shut out of mere embarrassment or not wanting to hurt people's feelings and all these ridiculous, trivial reasons that we deny

Christ, and yet you have these people facing what could be certain death in Nigeria, evangelizing to enemies who are persecuting the very people that these evangelists claim to be representative from.

You know, he said, it's very profound when someone will be attacked, they will be themselves kidnapped, they will be in some way wounded or hurt, and then over some period of time of growing in the faith, growing in the knowledge of Christ, they turn around and they end up going back and confronting their captors, not with aggression, but with gospel forgiveness.

He said, you know, there are, it's amazing the amount of compassion that flowed out of this man.

It's a testimony of the mind of Christ within him. He said, you know, these guys that are out here doing all these killings, who committed atrocities, and he detailed some of them and it's really just not appropriate for wide listening, but they're absolutely atrocious.

He said some of these men have killed for so long, they have done things so heinous that even when you try to talk to them about the gospel, what surprises you is they're actually quite miserable.

They're miserable, they don't enjoy life, they don't enjoy what they do, but it's all they know, some of them.

And he says, when you begin to work with them about the nature of Christ's forgiveness, being real, being total, being absolute, being sufficient, you really have to work with them for a long period of time, but he says to watch these men break down and realize there is forgiveness for the heinousness that they've done and to seek forgiveness and then to turn around and go and ask forgiveness to some of the families that they've sinned against in the past.

I mean, that's the stuff of Christianity that has marked some of the most heroic chapters of the life of the saints in this world the past 2 ,000 years.

And we're hearing stories of that exact same thing. And what's remarkable here is this is not the result of,

I mean, this kind of missionaries, what's going on behind the scenes, no one really knows about this stuff.

This is not the result of Western money. This is not the result of Western influence.

This is not the result of some kind of strategy that other people were in on.

When you get down to the brass tacks of it, there were some of the bravest men, most of us will never know their names, will never see their faces, brave sisters in Christ that have absorbed in their own bodies atrocities of the kinds most of us will never face.

And simply by believing the word of God and inviting the truth of God's word, studying the doctrine, be leaning in on it, and finding real hope, real comfort, real solace, a real peace that surpasses all understanding in those truths, they have been divinely enabled by nothing other than the

Holy Spirit of Almighty God to turn around and do the unthinkable in a region in the land that is completely and entirely hostile to that kind of overture and gracious outreach of arms.

And I think we need a strong reminder that even in our own nation, more than anything else, what we need is not so much political relief first.

We need a mighty move of the Spirit of God upon our heart, upon our mind. We need our churches to be alive with prayer and with seeking the

Lord's face and really in our private places of communion with God, asking, do we really believe the things that we say?

The doctrines that we know so well and we can correct others with at the drop of a hat. Do we really know it?

Do we really believe it ourselves? Does it bear fruit in our lives? Does the Word dwell in us richly bearing all manner of good fruit?

Because I think there are brothers and sisters who are far more faithful with far less, even in terms of access to the doctrine.

And when you see the Spirit at work in the saints of God, it just leaves you humbled like a child, very simple -minded, and just desiring to see more of that reality and that power in our own lives.

But it's here, it's here, buried in the northern wilderness reaches of northern