Persecution Increases against Christians
In our current series called, 'The Theology of Suffering' we are learning together what Jesus taught His disciples in John 15 and 16 about the cost of being a bold witness for Jesus Christ. We are blessed in this nation in so many ways but persecution and suffering is coming (and perhaps soon) against those who stand faithfully proclaiming Jesus as the only way.
Check out the teaching in our podcast area if you have missed these lessons. The first two were before Christmas on November 23rd and December 1st. Then we took a break over Christmas but got back to the Gospel of John last week and back to this series for our 3rd lesson.
In light of this I found a couple of articles today in my research which shows how there is such a hatred for Christianity by the Islamic faith and Islamic countries. I present this as just a reminder that this is coming to our culture and our country and I don't want us to be surprised when it does and we end up losing freedoms, being fined, having churches shut down and individuals jailed or killed just for standing for Jesus Christ.
Norm
From a National Post article dated December 23, 2010
Remembering Christians who are persecuted for their faith
click
HERE for on-line article
December 23, 2010 – 8:20 pm
Paul
Marshall , National Review Online
For Christians, Christmas commemorates a time not only of joy, but also of
threat. At Jesus’s birth, Herod conspired to kill him and murdered all the
newborn boys in and around Bethlehem. In recounting this, Matthew’s gospel
compares it with “Rachel weeping for her children” after massacres by the
Assyrians.
Herod
has his current imitators. In 1991, China’s state-run press noted the role of
the churches in undercutting Communism in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet
Union, adding that if China did “not want such a scene to be repeated in its
land, it must strangle the baby while it is still in the manger.” Al-Qaeda has
declared that all Middle Eastern Christians should be killed, and many
Christians in Iraq have cancelled their Christmas celebrations lest they be
targeted.
Others,
while less explicit, have similar ends. Iran has passed a death sentence on
Yousef Nadarkhani, pastor of the Full Gospel Church of Iran congregation in the
northern city of Rasht. Nadarkhani became a Christian 16 years ago and was
arrested on October 12, 2009, after protesting a government decision that his
son must study the Koran. On Sept. 21 and 22, 2010, the Eleventh Chamber of the
Assizes Court of Gilan Province said that he was guilty of apostasy and
sentenced him to death for leaving Islam. (Apostasy is not a crime under any
Iranian statute — the judges simply referred to the opinions of Iranian legal
scholars).Another Iranian Christian pastor, Behrouz Sadegh-Khanjani, may face a
similar fate. He was arrested on June 6, 2010, and is still being held even
though his detention order expired in October.
In
Afghanistan, after a TV program showed video of indigenous Christians
worshipping last May, many Christians were forced to flee, and as many as 25
were arrested. One of those arrested was Said Musa, a father of six young
children, who had converted to Christianity eight years previous. He had
stepped on a landmine while serving in the Afghan Army and now has a prosthetic
leg. Musa had worked for the Red Cross/Red Crescent for 15 years, fitting
patients for prosthetic limbs — it was after going to their office in Kabul on
May 31 to request leave that he was arrested.
The
prosecutor, Din Mohammad Quraishi, said Musa was accused of conversion to
another religion. In early June, the deputy secretary of the Afghan parliament,
Abdul Sattar Khawasi, said that “those Afghans that appeared on this video film
should be executed in public.” The authorities forced Musa to renounce
Christianity on television, but he has continued to say he is a Christian. In
the first months of his detention, he suffered sexual abuse, beatings, mockery,
and sleep deprivation because of his faith. He appeared, shackled, before a
judge on November 27. No Afghan lawyer will defend him and, in early December,
authorities denied him access to a foreign lawyer.
Another
Afghan Christian, Shoib Assadullah, was arrested on October 21, 2010, for
giving a copy of the New Testament to a man, and is being held in
Mazar-e-Sharif. As with Musa, no Afghan lawyer has agreed to defend him, and
both will probably face charges of apostasy, a crime that is punishable by
death under the government’s version of sharia. As the State Department’s
2010 International Religious Freedom Report notes, religious freedom in
Afghanistan has diminished “particularly for Christian groups and individuals.”
One
of the most ignored stories of 2010 has been the campaign by the
al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Shabab militia in Somalia to kill all Somali Christians
on the grounds that they are apostates. They have even beheaded Christians’
children. In one of the latest incidents, 17-year-old girl Nurta Mohamed Farah
fled her village of Bardher in the Gedo Region after her parents shackled her
to a tree and tortured her for leaving Islam. She went to the Galgadud Region
to live with relatives, but shortly after, she was shot in the head and the
chest and died.
Not
content with killing people, on December 16, al-Shabab destroyed a Christian
library they found in a derelict farm in the Luuq district — Christians often
bury their Bibles and other books to escape detection. International Christian
Concern reports that al-Shabab brought Bibles, Christian books, and audio/video
materials to the city center and burned them after noon prayers.
At
Christmas, we should remember these churches, each of which continues to grow,
and remember these prisoners and others like them. Assadullah emphasizes that
he “wants others to know that he is not frightened, and that his faith is
strong.” Musa writes that “because the Holy Spirit always with me my situation
is not bad until now. I see after what the plan of God is with me.”
Paul
Marshall is a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious
Freedom. His Silenced: How Freedoms are Curtailed from Cairo to Copenhagen by
New Restrictions on Apostasy and Blasphemy, authored with Nina Shea, will be
published by Oxford University Press in 2011
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Over 70 Christians arrested in Iran during Christmas
Click
HERE to go to the on-line source
In the early morning hours after Christmas
day, the Iranian government arrested 25 Christians in Tehran and other
locations. They also planned to detain sixteen others, but were unable
to locate them. There are also unconfirmed reports that the authorities
have arrested over 50 other Christians. According to BBC Persian, the
Governor of Tehran has vowed to arrest more evangelical Christians.
One of those detained was able to make a call to friends from an
unknown location on the morning of the arrests, leaving this message -
"Unfortunately early this morning the authorities came to our
homes. They arrested us and many other believers. I want to ask you to
pray for us.We are sure God will never leave us or forsake us. God bless
you. Sorry for giving you bad news over Christmas, but I believe God
will do something for us."
Those who received the voice message were impressed by the caller's courage and calmness.
Armed, plain-clothes, special security officers forcefully entered
the homes of Christians while they were asleep, and verbally and
physically abused them. They were handcuffed and taken for
interrogation. Among those arrested were five married couples. One
couple was separated from their two-year old baby. Another couple was
also forced to leave their baby that the mother was breast feeding. A
number of single young women were also among those taken.
Another sixteen Christians would have been arrested, but were not at
home. The security forces broke into at least five such homes,
ransacking them, taking personal possessions, changing the locks and
placing a government seal on the door. Family members of these
Christians have been called by the authorities and threatened and
harassed. They were instructed to tell the Christians to surrender
themselves.
After many hours of interrogation, eleven of the detained were
released. The other fourteen are still in prison. There has been no
contact from eight of the arrested. Six have been able to make a very
short call to their families. In one of the brief calls, one of the
arrested complained that they are being subjected to sleep deprivation.
None of them have been granted any legal representation. No charges
have been made, though it is clear that they were arrested for their
active Christian faith.There has been a gross lack of due process. The
government authorities have not provided any written documents as to the
reason for the arrests, any record of the items confiscated, and family
members are not allowed to visit the detained.
There is an urgent need for Christians all over the world to intercede for our brothers and sisters in prison in Iran.
Let us pray that they will experience the presence and the power of
the Holy Spirit, even in their prison cells. Pray they will have
supernatural endurance and courage through this trial, and be shining
witnesses to the guards and other inmates. Pray for peace and wisdom
when they are being interrogated. Pray for their health. Pray for
comfort and confidence for their families. Pray they will soon be
released.
Pray for the welfare and protection of those the government is still
seeking to arrest. Pray the Lord will guide their every step. Pray for
the wider church in Iran to continue faithfully and fearlessly
proclaiming the Good News of the Gospel. Pray for those who are working
to help the persecuted and their families.
It is comforting to know that our sovereign, omniscient, all-powerful
God knows about every single arrest that has been made, and that He
will bring glory to His name through this suffering. He will cause this
persecution to bring victory for His Kingdom in Iran.
Thank you for your prayers,
The Elam Team