On the night of 18 September 2014, Joseph Mondol was heading home from work when he was attacked by four radical Muslims.
The radicals slit his throat, thereby carrying out the Koran’s instructed punishment for Muslims who leave the faith.
Joseph, a Bangladeshi pharmacist, had made the decision to leave Islam and follow Christ twenty years earlier. He was employed by the government health department and also ran his own small pharmacy, where he often provided medicines to poor families without charge.
After faithfully following Christ for many years, Joseph became the secretary of one of the Bangladesh Baptist Fellowship’s districts. Under his care were sixteen churches, made up almost entirely of former Muslims who had chosen to follow Jesus.
The day after Joseph’s death his wife, Teresa, buried his body in the village so that other local Christians would be encouraged by her husband’s bold stand. She hoped his grave would remind villagers of the words of Christ in Matthew 10:28: “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”
Like Joseph, millions of Christians around the world face persecution, beatings and death every day as they choose to follow Christ. To learn how you can prayerfully stand with them, subscribe to our weekly prayer updates.