Missionizing North Korea? Is that even possible? Darren Slade, a Ph.D. student of Christian theology and apologetics at Liberty University, covers some of the strategies that have been used and might be used when evangelizing one of the world’s most repressive and atheistic regimes.
After letting Darren plug a few of his other projects, we ask him how he ever became interested in the topic of missionizing North Korea. He shares a rather personal story about hearing of religious persecution in that country and how that led him to connect with the Voice of the Martyrs’ Safe Houses Project. We then cover some historical ground, reviewing the religious landscape of North Korea, how Christianity came to the Korean peninsula in the 18th and 19th centuries, and then how the Japanese occupation, communist revolution, and Korean War played a role in shaping the region. We also review the rise of the personality cult surrounding Kim Il-Sung and, to a lesser extent, Kim Jong-Il. This cult of personality plays a large role in determining missionary strategy, a topic we cover later.
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