China: Bible Exhibit Protested

A Chinese theology student wrote an essay recently explaining why a group of Chinese Christians protested a Chinese Bible exhibit in the United States this year. The traveling exhibit was sponsored by the National Committee of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement of the Protestant Church in China, the communist committee that oversees China’s official church.

The Bible exhibit, titled “Thy Word Is the Truth: The Bible Ministry Exhibition of the Protestant Church in China,” was displayed in Washington, D.C.; Charlotte, N.C.; Dallas, Texas; and Chicago, Ill. According to an online article by The Christian Post, the exhibit shows how the Bible was spread throughout China. Rev. Bao Jiayuan, associate general secretary of the China Christian Council, a co-sponsor of the exhibit, told The Christian Post, “We hope to build mutual understanding between American Christians and Christians in China.”

In his essay, the Chinese student attempted to clarify true church-state relations in China and to explain some common misconceptions about the Three-Self Movement and the reasons why Chinese Christians protested the Bible exhibit. The anonymous writer said Chinese believers opposed to the Three-Self Movement are not necessarily opposed to churches within the movement, emphasizing that many members of the body of Christ belong to Three-Self churches.

“Since it is acceptable to expose the China Red Cross Society’s embezzlement and corruption and its monopoly of charity work, so we can likewise criticize the Three-Self for being politicized, for not being separate from the state and for controlling and restricting the church,” the student wrote. “In any case, when the government violates biblical principles, the church, as the vanguard of society and its conscience, has the responsibility to criticize and to bring up biblical truths.”

The student discredited the idea that Three-Self churches are full because they are successfully preaching the gospel. In China, only one Christian church is allowed per area; therefore, the only Christian church permitted is a Three-Self church. “Just imagine if in all of Shanghai (or Chicago) there were only five gas stations. Each would be jammed with customers,” the student wrote. “So the fact that there are so many people at these churches that meet openly isn’t because they are doing such a great job, but rather is due to the irregular religious policy and the Three-Self’s control and restrictions.”

The student also claimed that the Bible exhibit did not paint a true picture of the availability of Bibles in China. He pointed out that Chinese customs officers still seize Bibles when they are brought into the country in quantities. Several pastors are in prison for printing the Bible without permission, and Bibles in China are sold only in churches belonging to the Three-Self organization.

The exhibit displayed Bibles that Chinese Christians copied during the Cultural Revolution and at other times when Christians were widely persecuted in China. “Yet no mention was made anywhere of who was persecuting the church and [who] had made it impossible for Christians to buy Bibles, or who helped the government forcibly take over the church, or the fact that the Three-Self monopoly on Bible distribution brooks no interference,” the student wrote. “What they are trying to do is to dress up a religious policy that is wrong and not free and the Three-Self’s history of controlling and persecuting the church so as to create the illusion of religious freedom in China and the Three-Self as an organization that loves the Lord and loves the church.”

According to the essay, overseas organizations cooperating with the Three-Self have underestimated the potential consequences of working with them. “Consider this: If the Three-Self wins the support of the overseas mainline churches, and then, in the name of ‘orthodox Christianity,’ begins large-scale persecution of house churches, the harm to the work of the Gospel far exceeds the little bit of ministry that they [the foreign groups] can do.”

The student suggested that if foreign churches want a part in ministering to Christians in China, they should do so by working directly with local governments, training house church preachers and translating Christian literature, rather than working with the government organization. Foreign churches can contact China’s local churches, including churches within the Three-Self, and establish a relationship. “All these would be much better than helping the Three-Self in its propaganda efforts.”

Sources: China Aid Association, The Christian Post

Kazakhstan: New Anti-Religion Laws

The government of Kazakhstan enacted two new laws on Oct. 24, 2011, further restricting freedom of religion. All registered churches must now re-register with the government, and only churches meeting new criteria will be registered.

As churches begin the rigorous re-registration process, organizations and human rights defenders from around the world are strongly criticizing the new laws. Jens Eschenbaecher, spokesperson for the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), told Forum 18 News, “The legislation appears to unnecessarily restrict the freedom of religion or belief and is poised to limit the exercise of this freedom in Kazakhstan.”

Both laws force churches to compile documentation and re-register with the government. Forum 18 News reports that the first law, The Law on Religious Activity and Religious Associations, imposes a complex registration system, bans unregistered religious activity, enforces greater religious censorship and requires both central and local government approval to build or open new places of worship. Any current church that does not re-register faces court liquidation. The second law amends nine existing laws and legal provisions, according to Forum 18 News. One provision prohibits inviting children to participate in religious activities if their parents object. According to Mission Network News (MNN), some fear this provision could shut down summer camps and other children’s events.

Nazgul Yergalieva, head of the Legal Policy Research Center in Kazakhstan, told Forum 18 News, “Strict regulation and limitation of fundamental rights, such as freedom of religion, by governments has already proved to be a dangerous path, leading to social tension and resentment.” Please pray that Christians in Kazakhstan will remain courageous and strong as they face increased government pressure.

Washington DC - Petitions Delivered To Pakistani Embassy

A team from The Voice of the Martyrs traveled to Washington, D.C., in November to make the first delivery of Call For Mercy petitions to the Pakistani Embassy. The team received a courteous response from Pakistani Embassy personnel, who accepted the more than 400,000 signatures that had been collected at that time, including the initial 150,000 from Christians inside Pakistan.

“It’s hard to know what to expect when you call an embassy and tell them you have petitions like that to deliver,” said Todd Nettleton, VOM’s Director of Media Development and a part of the delivery team. “I wasn’t sure if we’d end up with a warm welcome or a message not to come. Thankfully, the Lord blessed us with favor and they welcomed us.”

Helping out in VOM’s delivery efforts were the winners of VOM’s first-ever film contest, David and Christina, who are brother and sister and are also both students at Asbury University. Their winning contest entry was a 97-second call to action that has now encouraged more than 30,000 YouTube viewers to sign the Call For Mercy petition.

The Pakistani Embassy representative who deals with human rights issues met with us and thanked the VOM team for interest in Asia’s case. She reminded the team that the legal process in Asia’s case is still going forward. The appeal of her death sentence is currently before the High Court, and if it fails there, it could be appealed further to the Supreme Court, the final judicial authority in Pakistan. Even if it fails there, a presidential pardon is possible, the embassy representative said.

“The Embassy and the Pakistani government want us to be patient, to let their legal system do its job,” said Nettleton. “But while we are waiting, Asia Bibi is sitting in a jail cell, separated from her husband and her daughters. We are calling for mercy on this family now. Asia and her family shouldn’t have to wait any longer.”

The Voice of the Martyrs is committed to continuing the Call For Mercy campaign, in cooperation with Pakistani Christians who began the campaign, until Asia Bibi is released from prison. You can still sign the petition at www.CallForMercy.com. Please encourage your Christian friends to add their voices to this important effort.
Posted: November 17, 2011

A Danish Lutheran Who Has Not Bowed To Baal

Yesterday I received this letter from a Lutheran priest in Denmark. He is a good friend who came to our last Reformation Resurrection conference to hear Voddie Baucham. The Lutheran movement in Denmark is unspeakably heretical and blasphemous and loaded with female priests, atheist priests, homosexual priests, and various combinations of all three. But Thomas is a shiny flash of lightning in that dark Lutheran night. It has been such a joy to meet this priest, a man who loves the Lord Jesus Christ passionately and preaches the Gospel faithfully. Like Luther he understands the Law-Gospel distinctive and preaches both rightly - the law to magnify the wrath due to sinners, and the Gospel as the means by which we can avert God's wrath and be reconciled to Him. He informs us that there is a remnant of faithful Gospel preachers in the Lutheran church "who have not bowed their knee to Baal". These priests are known as "black priests" by the dominant liberal factions. Here is what he wrote:

Hi Cameron. Thank you for your encouragement. Actually I have come to a point where I don't care that much if I am being kicked out of this filthy church. I will only stay here as long as God wants me to . . . meaning until the day I will be kicked out . . .

Yesterday we had at church-board meeting in ______, where I was being secerely critizised in general and in particular for my preaching. They complained that my preaching was too clear and scaring people away from the church (central to my preaching is always the total depravity of man and the substitutionary atonement made by Christ, justification, repentance and faith), too long (I ONLY preach half an hour at sundays but "15 minutes" is what they meant) . . . and so they went on and on and on . . . and the worst thing is that the congregation has actually become fewer in my time as a pastor in _______ (though not in the other congregation I pastor). I said to them that it was not out of stubbornness that I did not want to preach anything else, but because the message I deliver simply is my life - I'm bound to that message and I cannot and will not preach anything else. As I said to them: I do not want to stand on the day of judgment and have people looking at me saying: "Why didn't you tell us - why didn't you warn us while you had the opportunity" . . . Jesus is my LIFE! Cameron, I cannot do anything but preach of Him - he has saved me from an eterity under the wrath of almighty God . . . there is nothing good in me - I am wretched, evil, and sinful, but Jesus saved me! I have to preach that, so that other people may see the wonderful Savior I have come to know - Him who took our guilt and nailed it to a tree . . . I have to admit I got very sad and I really cried in the car on my way home. It is tough being in the Danish state-church and more and more often I wish to leave this disgusting and filthy church - but I have come to see, that Christ has his bride also in the midst of this church - there are VERY few left, but they are there! Denmark is an apostate society and contry, but like Elijah I have come to see, that God still has "7000 men" who have not bowed their knee to Baal . . .

Please pray for this priest and I will forward any letters of encouragement that people send to me.

Outrageous Persecution Of Swedish Homeschoolers

Social workers who had police troopers storm a jetliner on which a family was attempting to emigrate to India, to take custody of a young boy over his homeschooling, now have discussed allowing the foster family where he's been staying to take him to Thailand, the boy's father has told World Net Daily.

WND reported only weeks ago that the social workers responsible for removing Domenic Johannson from his parents had called for a court hearing to consider moving custody permanently away from the family and to the government.

That word had come from officials with the Home School Legal Defense Association, which along with the Alliance Defense Fund already has elevated the dispute involving Christer and Annie Johannson and their son, Domenic, of Sweden to the European Court of Human Rights.

The American groups working on behalf of the Johannsons have assembled a petition webpage for those interested in expressing their alarm over the situation to the Swedish government.

Domenic, now 10 after his birthday just a few weeks ago, has been in the custody of social services and in foster homes in Sweden since the middle of 2009, when as a 7-year-old he was snatched from a jetliner he and his parents had boarded to move to India, his mother's home country.

Michael Donnelly, director of international relations for HSLDA, told WND when the social services workers sought the court hearing, "The only way I can think of describing the way the Swedish social and judicial systems have treated the Johansson family is barbaric – the harm done to them is beyond comprehension.

"Their most basic of human rights have been violated and no civilized country should permit this kind of treatment," he continued. "If the Swedish judicial system permits the termination of the Johansson's parental rights because of homeschooling, missed vaccinations and a few cavities it will have become the darkest of regimes for families in Western Europe."

In a communication addressed to WND today, Christer Johannson said the controversial case has decimated his family by piling tragedy upon tragedy. He spoke of how his own father and mother, Domenic's grandparents, and an uncle had sought to meet with Domenic

"My mother and father then waited for the day to arrive, but the social services called up, I believe, late the night before meeting, or the same morning and said, 'Domenic does not want to see you now,' and they canceled that meeting," he told WND.

Later, they called again to set up a meeting.

"Domenic especially wanted to see his grandma … finally at the meeting, Domenic ran to my dad and my brother, only to hear that his grandmother and best friend had passed away that morning."

He said Domenic's last memory of his grandmother is when armed police officers came to "recapture" him last Thanksgiving after Christer had taken him home to see family members following a court-supervised visit.

For that visit, Christer spent weeks in jail.

The latest on the custody dispute, he said, is that social workers "wish to move the custody to the other family now, permanently."

He said an attorney is reviewing that demand.

"Thank God, I can't even read them [court documents] anymore," he told WND.

"They want to have a hearing about this in the local court fast as well," he continued, "Domenic told [his uncle] and my father, Rune, at the meeting, 'They will take me to Thailand this winter.'

"The latest thing I heard from the social [workers] was, 'We reject a meeting with you to discuss all the errors that have been made by us in the past. Instead, talk to the courts.'"

The father told WND apparently the discussion is to allow the foster family to take Domenic to Thailand, a trip that would involve required vaccinations to which he and his wife, Annie, have strong objections.

The issue also was raised before the Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe at its annual human rights meeting.

WND has reported that several other cases in which children were taken by authorities in Sweden were resolved over recent months when parents had a private detective literally abduct their own children from social services and reunite the families in another country.

That work drew the qualified praise of Ruby Harrold-Claeson, president of the Nordic Committee for Human Rights, which was founded in Copenhagen in 1996. The group aims to "increase the rights and freedoms of private individuals and their families and strengthen respect for basic human rights and fundamental freedoms in the Nordic countries."

Harrold-Claeson has been involved in some of the most notorious child-custody cases, including the Johansson case. In fact, her involvement so alarmed local judicial officials that they ordered the Johansson family to be represented by an attorney of the court's choosing instead of Harrold-Claeson.

WND also reported that the father, Christer Johansson, was jailed for two months for taking Domenic home from court-ordered foster care for a visit last Thanksgiving.

The case developed in mid-2009 when social services and police forcibly took custody of Domenic, then 7, because they worried he was homeschooled. The local courts later denied the parents the legal representation they sought from Harrold-Claeson, demanding instead they be represented by a government-approved attorney. The courts ultimately ruled the state must keep custody of Domenic.

Harrold-Claeson said it was strange that social service agents don't realize that their interventions in families by removing the children and placing them in foster homes among total strangers are more traumatizing than the eventual problems of the parents.

She also said Swedish authorities believe "children are the property of the state to be bought and sold as commodities. Taking children into care and placing them in foster homes is an … industry in which children's and the parents and relatives and their health – both physical and mental – is destroyed beyond repair."

She told WND that the state "has decided to usurp the powers of the parents and replace parental authority over children by delivering them into the hands of the civil servants, who per definition should be servants, not masters."

She called on Americans to condemn such practices and watch their own backs, since she's seen similar practices developing in the U.S.

The case also is being followed by a blog called FriendsofDomenic.

Gustaf Hofstedt, president of the local social services board in Gotland, Sweden, where the family lives, earlier told WND by telephone from Sweden that there is more to the dispute than homeschooling, but he refused to explain.

"I understand the public debate has been that is a case that is only concerning the fact of homeschooling," he told WND. "But that is not the case."

Asked to explain, he said, "I can't answer that question because of secrecy."

Social services workers since then have declined to respond to WND questions submitted via email.

Article courtesy of World Net Daily.

The Ministry Of Christian Prisoners In China

Chinese Pastor Zhang Rongliang, also known as Uncle Z, reports that the seven years and six months he spent in prison were a fruitful time of ministry. Zhang is still recovering from severe health problems after completing his full sentence on Aug. 31, 2011. He was immediately admitted to a hospital for 15 days where doctors monitored Zhang’s high blood pressure and diabetes.

In early December 2004 Zhang disappeared, and eventually, the Chinese government admitted they had him in custody. Zhang was sentenced to seven years and six months in prison for possessing and using a forged passport — which typically carries a six-month sentence. People and organizations around the world pressured Chinese Communist leaders to release Zhang. Thousands of individuals wrote letters and prayed while multiple organizations worked to secure his release.

“I am happy that you and others tried to arrange for my release, but in one way, I am happy that you failed,” Zhang told a VOM contact in China. “You almost made a big mistake. If you had been successful, there would be no church in that prison today.”
Chinese Christians are not allowed to visit prisons or start prison outreach ministries, so Zhang ministered to everyone he could while in prison — prisoners, prison guards and officials he could never have met outside prison. Over 5,000 men lived in prison with Zhang, and many of them were able to hear the good news of Jesus Christ.

Zhang, a founder of one of China’s largest churches with over ten million members, has endured constant persecution for his ministry in China. Zhang has been imprisoned five times and spent about a fourth of his life in prison.
In a recent interview, a VOM contact asked about Zhang’s most recent prison experience.



Uncle Z, most people I know have the same question for you — How could you endure prison for so many years?

First let me say that while I was in prison, I remembered our friendship and the times you helped our church. I could feel inside my heart that you were doing something to try to help me. Also, I believed many people and organizations and governments in the West were speaking out about my situation.

To answer your question, I want to remind you that in my life, I have become accustomed to living in prison. This is the fifth time I have been in prison. So now, you see, I have spent one fourth of my life in prison and in some ways I have needed to adapt, to become accustomed to prison.

The second answer to this question is that the entire time I was in prison, I knew that many Christian brothers and sisters were praying for me constantly. So I had strength to overcome.

Finally, I want to remind you that our church movement has for years sent out missionaries to the unreached people groups of China and more recently to the Muslim peoples of the world. The missionaries leave their homes to go to a new environment. They preach the gospel in the area where they are called to preach. You have followed the call of God to China. I am the same as you. I consider myself and I treat myself as one who is a missionary. The difference is that God called me to preach to the prisoners.

You know, no Christian can go to the prisons of China to have an outreach ministry. We cannot go to witness to the prisoners. We cannot go to disciple them in the faith. If a Christian wants to preach in the prison, there must be a reason for him to go to prison. I preached to many, many people during the more than seven years I was in prison. I preached not only to common prisoners, but also I met many government officials while I was in prison. I met many business leaders. These were highly-placed officials; they were not common criminals. I shared the gospel with them in prison, and many of them received the Lord. Then I baptized them inside the prison. The prisoners were always coming and going, but I was in for a long time. At any given time, I would have direct access with more than ten important people who I was discipling daily and who I considered to be my “cell group.” These new converts were the only way that I could forget the suffering I was going through in prison.
These were people who I could never have met outside of the prison. They were too high in society. But in prison it was easy to preach Jesus to them, and it was easy for them to receive the Lord. It was much easier for them to receive Christ than it would have been outside. After that, they were happy. They were happy that the Lord loved them enough to arrange for them to go to prison to hear about him. The day I left the prison, one part of me was sad because I did not want to leave these new brothers. They all waved to me as I left.

So you see, I am happy that you and others tried to arrange for my release. But in one way, I am happy that you failed. You almost made a big mistake! If you had been successful, there would be no church in that prison today. There were 5,000 men in prison with me. Soon all of them will hear the good news of Jesus.

Did you have a Bible while you were in prison?

No, and this was very unusual that they would do this, and very difficult for me. It is against the law for them to withhold a religious book from a prisoner. I asked for a Bible many times, but the officials always refused to give me one.
I have a personal question. Of course you know my son.I often travel and am away from my family and sometimes worry about the effect this will have on him.For much of your life, you have not been with your two sons, but both of them serve the Lord now and are working in significant ministries, actually risking their own lives.What advice do you have for a father?
First, try your best to spend time with them, as much as you can. This is important and it is your responsibility. Then during those times you must be away, you must pray for them. You must put them completely in the hands of God. Remember, he will take better care of them than you can. Finally, always remember that the Word of God promises us that the children of the righteous will become like the oak tree in the hands of the Lord.

I have spent a lot of time in prison, but the children know why their father is being kept in prison. We have taught our children that this lifestyle is our duty. When we teach, we put more focus, more emphasis on the will of God and on the position that he has given to us. God wants us to do a bigger thing for him. All who are called to ministry are different people. We are not like other people. The world does not understand us. But our lives and our calling is a precious thing in the eyes of God.
I know that many foreign pastors say that we must put the family first. I don't agree with this philosophy. God is number one. God and his will must always be first in our lives. After that, he will take care of all other things.

What would you say to pastors in the West if you had the opportunity?

First I would say thank you many times for all of the help they have given to the Chinese church for so many years and also for the prayers they prayed for me while I was in prison.

Next, I want to encourage the Western church to not forget the Chinese church. Attend to the needs that we still have. We need you. We need your love and your partnership. Please don't forget us.

Third, I want to remind the Western church that there is in China great fruit that can be seen that is a direct result of the labor that the West has labored for us. Your ministry to the Chinese church has changed this nation! Soon there will be a great opening-up in China. The friends in the West can feel that they have been successful in helping China to hear the gospel. We, the Chinese church, have been caught off guard and unprepared.

Recently, the officials in the Henan provincial government have made a statement that every village should have a church. These churches do not need to be owned by the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (the government-owned church). The government has told us that they will register and approve our land and our buildings. Now we can begin to build actual churches, but we do not know how to begin. We are completely overwhelmed. We feel very strange about this. We are completely at a loss to know how to address this thing that has never happened before. The government wants us to quickly find places to build churches. We have no plan for this. Please pray for us and help us if you can.

Article courtesy of VOM.

What Life Is Like For Egyptian Christians Since Egypt Was "Liberated"

A YouTube video of 25 Egyptian soldiers beating Coptic Christian Raef After Faheem prompted a protest by thousands of Coptic Christians on Sunday, October 9.

“[I] would like to let you know that millions of Egyptian Christians will go out to the streets all over Egypt — from all the cities — to demonstrate against the army leaders because of the video,” a VOM contact wrote the day before the protests. “The Muslim group and Salafi movement are threatening the Christians, saying that we do not have any rights in the country. We do not know what could happen tomorrow, but we decided to go out and [use] our voices against persecution.”

WARNING: The following video is very disturbing. Egyptian police obviously think it is a proud show of force for dozens of armed riot police to beat a single unarmed Christian man relentlessly. Words cannot express my disgust. Lord have mercy . . .



The military fired at demonstrators when the protests began Sunday afternoon, and videos posted online show increased violence as military vehicles ran over protestors. According to VOM contacts, the Egyptian military eventually attacked the hospital where injured Christians were being treated and even tried to kill hospital employees. International news agencies report that at least 24 people have been killed, including at least 17 Christians.

The violence began after Muslim extremists attacked a recently rebuilt Christian church in Sohag, near Cairo. The governor of Sohag protected the church’s attackers and said, “If the Muslims did not destroy the church on that day, I would go destroy it myself.” Shocked by the governor’s comment, the Christians held a demonstration at a TV and radio building, and the Egyptian army responded to the demonstrations. A VOM contact said, “They were very [tough] in beating and attacking the Christians instead of restoring their rights. [This] situation is too hard and really unbelievable. We are waiting for the Lord to show mercy on the martyrs’ families. Please keep praying for us, and ask our beloved friends everywhere to pray.”

The Suffering Of Pastors In Communist Vietnam

Prisoner Alert: From Voice of the Martyrs (VOM)
Name: Pastor Y Wo Nie
Location: Vietnam
Arrested: August 2004
Days Imprisoned: 2610

Pastor Y Wo Nie was arrested August 18, 2004, for leading a demonstration demanding more religious freedom and the release of property confiscated by the Vietnamese government. He received a nine-year sentence. His family has not been able to visit him.

Write a letter of encouragement. Let Pastor Nie know you are praying for him and the believers in Vietnam. Let your friends know about persecution in Vietnam; encourage them to pray and write. Also, write Vietnamese officials requesting Nie’s release. Your letters make a difference.

Get involved! Pray for and write to Nie today.

Y Wo Nie's wife recently wrote to VOM. She wrote:

Our family situation is very difficult. I don't have a job; some days I work as a day laborer and some days I'm unemployed. My youngest son is sickly.

She recently visited her husband in prison, thanks to VOM donors. Her husband is ill. She said:

I’m worried for my husband but God gives me His comfort that He is always with us though we have to face sickness or hard situations; He will help me to overcome my hard times.

I am so inspired to hear of this woman's faithful devotion to her husband regardless of circumstance. Please pray for their family.

Iranian Pastor Stands Firm in Faith - Faces Execution

"The Judge kept asking my client to say, 'I have renounced Christianity and I recognize Islam as rescinder of all other regions,' and he kept saying 'I won't say that.'" (Youcef Nadarkhani)

9/28/2011 Iran (CDN) – Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani refused to recant his Christian faith today at the fourth and final court hearing in Iran to appeal his death sentence for apostasy (leaving Islam).

The court house in Rasht, 243 kilometers (151 miles) northwest of Tehran, has swarmed with security forces for four consecutive days since Sunday (Sept. 25), the first day of his four appeal hearings. Applying sharia (Islamic law), the court on Monday, Tuesday and today gave Nadarkhani, 35, three chances to recant Christianity and return to Islam in order for his life to be spared. In all instances, Nadarkhani refused to recant.

“I’m in contact with Iran,” a source close to Nadarkhani’s family said, “but the news isn’t very good. We’ll see. If they really want to they can kill him they can, because he hasn’t renounced his faith. It finished today. We have left everything in the hands of God.”

Authorities arrested Nadarkhani in his home city of Rasht in Oct. 2009 because he allegedly questioned obligatory religion classes in Iranian schools. In September 2010 the court of appeals in Rasht found him guilty of apostasy and in November issued a written confirmation of his charges and death sentence.

At an appeal hearing in June, the Supreme Court of Iran upheld Nadarkhani’s sentence but asked the court in Rasht to determine if he was a practicing Muslim before his conversion. The Supreme Court also determined that his death sentence could be annulled if he recanted his faith.

On Sunday (Sept. 25) in the first two and a half hours of the court, the judges determined that Nadarkhani indeed was not a practicing Muslim before his conversion to Christianity. The source said that in this time period things looked more promising for Nadarkhani, and that the court might reverse the sentence based on the findings.

In the end, however, the court declared that although Nadarkhani was not a practicing Muslim before his conversion, he was still guilty of apostasy due to his Muslim ancestry, the source told Compass.

Secret service agents surrounded the court and maintained a presence there throughout the following days, and his wife, Tina, was not allowed in the courtroom. On Sunday (Sept. 25), she was allowed to stand at the doorway for a few minutes to see her husband, the source said.

A defense lawyer told Nadarkhani’s family and friends there is a way to take the case back to the Supreme Court or extend Nadarkhani’s prison sentence, but the source said the directives of the Supreme Court were clear and he didn’t think there was much hope.

“Yousef is known as a hero, so if he is released it will seem like the government was defeated,” he said, “but if they leave him in prison there could be more international pressure.”

It is critical for foreign governments to negotiate and engage in diplomacy with Iranian authorities about Nadarkhani’s case, the source said, adding that his predicament could be more hopeful if they intervened.

“They need to start negotiating,” the source said. “It’s the moment to negotiate, because if they do, the situation could be regulated.”

The source and advocates in the international community fear that authorities may kill Nadarkhani as early as midnight tonight or any time in the coming week. The court said a verdict on Nadarkhani would be issued within the next week.

“They probably won’t kill him today, but they can do it whenever they want,” the source said. “They can hang him in the middle of the night or in 10 days. Sometimes in Iran they call the family and deliver the body with the verdict. They have gone outside the borders of law. This is not in the Iranian law, this is sharia. Sometimes they don’t even give the body.”

The final appeals hearing today lasted about an hour and a half, ending around 1 p.m. after Nadarkhani’s defense lawyer, Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, gave his closing defense. Dadkhah also reportedly faces charges for “actions and propaganda against the Islamic regime,” due to his human rights activities.

The hearings on Monday (Sept. 26) and yesterday lasted just 30 minutes, long enough for Nadarkhani to refuse to recant Christianity.

The source said Nadarkhani’s 30-year-old wife is very apprehensive about what the courts might decide this week. They have two children: Joel, 7 and Daniel, 9.

“The wife is under depression and worried; we can say his wife is very worried,” he said. “It is difficult for all his family, it is difficult for us.”

Nadarkhani, whose first name is also spelled Youcef, belongs to the Church of Iran, a group that has been marginalized by other Christian Iranian groups over concerns that its doctrine on the Trinity is inadequate.

The Church of Iran’s statement of faith on its website http://www.eglisediran.org/?page_id=8 asserts that God is “revealed in the Scriptures as Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Matthew 3:16-17, 28:19).”

The church’s statement of faith also affirms “...the Lordship of Jesus Christ, only Son of God, the Word manifested in flesh. We believe that He is from the Holy Spirit (Matt. 1:20) and He was born of a Virgin Mary (Matt. 1:23, Luke 1:34). We believe in His atoning death and redemption (Heb. 9:28), in His bodily resurrection (Luke 24:39), in His ascension (Acts 1:9-11), on His return in person to gather His Church (1 Thess. 4:17), followed by His coming in glory to judge the rebels and establish the reign of a thousand years (Rev. 1:7). ”

The church also states that it believes the “baptism of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 3:11; Mark 1:8; Luke 3:16; John 1:33; Acts 1:5, 2:38) is the new birth (John 3:5-8). It introduces the Christian in the Eternal Life of God and leads into all truth, to holiness in communion with Christ.”

Article courtesy of Persecution.org

Youcef is a real man, may the Lord give me grace enough to be one tenth of the man that this brave Iranian Christian is when the fire of persecution is in my face! Yousuf is still alive according to the latest I have heard - please pray for him.

Christian Suffering In Islamic Pakistan

Name: Asia Bibi
Location: Pakistan
Arrested: June 2009
Days Imprisoned: 833

Asia Bibi, a 37-year-old Pakistani woman from the village of Ittanwali, was arrested by police on Friday, June 19, 2009. Asia (also called Asia Noreen) is the wife of 50-year-old Ashiq Masih, and their family is one of only three Christian families in a village of 1,500 families.

Many of the local women, including Asia, work on the farm of Muslim landowner Muhammad Idrees. During their work, many of the Muslim women have pressured Asia to renounce Christianity and accept Islam. In June, the pressure became especially strong.

On Friday, June 19, there was an intense discussion among the women about their faith. The Muslim women told Asia about Islam. Asia responded by telling them about her faith in Christ. Asia told the Muslim women Christ had died on the cross for sins, then asked them what Mohammad had done for them, according to VOM sources. She told them Jesus is alive, but Mohammad is dead. “Our Christ is the true prophet of God,” she reportedly told them, “and yours is not true.”

Upon hearing this, the Muslim women became angry and began to beat Asia. Then some men took her and locked her in a room. They announced from the mosque loudspeakers that she would be punished by having her face blackened and being paraded through the village on a donkey. Local Christians informed the police, who took Asia into custody before the Muslims could carry out their plan. She was held at the police station in Nankana city. Christians there urged the police not to file blasphemy charges, but police claimed they were under pressure from local Muslim leaders.

Seventeen months after Asia’s arrest, she was convicted of violating subsection C of Pakistan’s 295 blasphemy law - blasphemy against the prophet Muhammad - and was sentenced to death. No Christian in Pakistan has ever been executed under the blasphemy law, but in several cases,extremists have murdered Christians after their release from prison. Asia’s conviction and death sentence have brought international attention to the country’s blasphemy laws. Christians have called for Asia’s release and for a repeal of the laws, while extremists in Pakistan continue to demand that she be executed.

The Voice of the Martyrs urges Christians around the world to pray for Asia Bibi and her family.

Asia Missing Her Children
Because of safety concerns, Asia Bibi has not seen her children since December 2010. Her husband reports she misses them, but that she is doing as well as can be expected. After the death of two prominent politicians who were helping, Asia is worried about other Christians in Pakistan connected with her case. She prayed all night for them on March 5, 2011. She said, “Please continue praying for me with commitment.” Pray for Asia’s faith to stay strong and for her family.

Shock Therapy For Modern Evangellyfishes

Several people I have spoken to recently have told me of their fears of speaking to people or even giving out tracts. Several of these people have told me of their need to be pushed. Well many of us need to stop and examine ourselves right now. Ask yourself this question, do I love my self respect more than lost souls and glorifying God's Name?

WATCH THIS VIDEO!!



A Reality Check
People in Denmark, where I live, are generally very worried about what people think about them. This goes for the typical church goer as well. I strongly suspect much of the west is the same. Folks we need to get past this. Jesus told us:

"If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you" (John 15:18-19).

The Apostle Paul also said:

"But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life (II Coritnhians 2:14-16).

True Christians are the smell of life to those being saved and the smell of death to those perishing. Some people just aren't going to like us. And that's just it, someone mightn't like you or call you a name. There are many Christians right now having their bodies hacked into pieces just because they are Christians. How dare we even be preoccupied with our own fragile selfesteem.

The disciples always taught:

"that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22).

So if you're trying to avoid tribulation you're probably trying to avoid God's Kingdom. Just stop and think about it for a moment.

"Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution" (II Timothy 3:12).

So you can try and avoid persecution or embrace it as something honorable to go through for the Name of Him who suffered so much for us (please don't confuse this with offending people through acting like a jerk). Either way, persecution will come!

So in Denmark, persecution means a little personal rejection . . . what does it mean in India right now???





Many tears have been shed as I have prepared this blog post. It comes from seeing the suffering of my persecuted brothers and sisters while I watch on in my westernised affluence, I also cry as I am reminded that the blood of the martyrs is precious in God's sight, and I pray to God that he would give me courage and strength to ceaselessly testify of my wonderful Savior when I face Satan's henchmen. Watching these videos also makes me so mad at all these churches trying to preach "your best life now" all the while remaining silent on our precious suffering brothers and sisters in India. Pray for them and speak up with the Gospel. It is glorious and Christ is so worthy to be preached.

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted" (Hebrews 12:1-3).

Christian Decapitated In Somalia

After an extensive search, Christians in the Bakool region of southwestern Somalia discovered the decapitated body of kidnapped Christian Juma Naradin Kamil on Sept. 2, 2011. Kamil’s body reportedly bore the marks of an execution by the Muslim terrorist group al-Shabab.
“It is usual for al-Shabab to decapitate those they suspect to have embraced the Christian faith, or sympathizers of Western ideals,” a local Christian told Compass Direct News. “Our brother accepted the Christian faith three years ago and was determined in his faith in God. We greatly miss him.”

On August 21, three suspected al-Shabab terrorists forced Kamil into a car, according to local sources. Many local Christians believe the extremists had closely monitored Kamil before kidnapping and killing him.

Kamil’s body remained unburied for two days because local residents didn’t want al-Shabab to associate them with Christian converts, a local Christian told Compass Direct News. Someone secretly buried Kamil on September 4. With 3,000 to 7,000 members, al-Shabab seeks to impose a strict version of Sharia, Islamic law, throughout the Muslim world. They have vowed to eradicate Christianity from Somalia. Earlier this year, two Muslim extremists murdered a member of an underground Christian community in Somalia, and they also killed a mother of four children, 36-year-old Asha Mberwa, for her Christian faith.

Source: Compass Direct News

That was another dose of perspective for people who profess Christ and live in the western world. Please pray for our persecuted brethren!

URGENT MESSAGE From Voice Of The Martyrs

“Our Christ sacrificed His lifeon the cross for our sins.... Our Christ is alive.”

Asia Bibi, a wife and mother, used these words to defend her faith against mocking co-workers who tried to make her convert to Islam. She was later convicted of blasphemy and sentenced to death.

In Pakistan, more than 150,000 Christians have signed a petition demanding justice for persecution victims, including Asia Bibi. Now you can join with The Voice of the Martyrs and our Pakistani brothers and sisters in a call for mercy. We hope to gather 1 million signatures on behalf of our sister Asia, who now sits in prison awaiting the Lahore High Court's ruling on her appeal.

Invite your friends to visit www.CallForMercy.com and add their names to the petition as well. VOM will deliver the petition, along with the list of signers, to the Pakistani Embassy in Washington DC.

Just Added - Slavery, Terrorism, And Islam

Dr. Peter Hammond's shocking and sensational expose on the real history of Islam, and their many centuries of participation in slave trading, has just been added to my resource directory!

SLAVERY, TERRORISM, AND ISLAM
Peter Hammond
Category: Persecution
Click Here To Order
Slavery, Terrorism, and Islam - The Historical Roots and Contemporary Threat is a fascinating, well illustrated and thoroughly documented response to the relentless anti-Christian propaganda that has been generated by Muslim and Marxist groups as well as Hollywood film makers. As Karl Marx declared: “The first battlefield is the re-writing of History!” Dr. Hammond's book sets the record straight with chapters on “Muhammad, the Caliphas and Jihad”, “The Oppression of Women in Islam”, “The Sources of Islam” and “The Scourge of Slavery the Rest of the Story”. With over 200 pictures and 15 maps and charts, this book is richly illustrated. It consists of 16 chapters and 13 very helpful appendixes including demographic maps of the spread of Islam, a Glossary of Islamic Terms, a comparison of Muslim nations' military spending vs. their national prosperity, a chart on how Jihad works depending on the percentage of Muslims in the population and guidelines for Muslim evangelism.

Freedom Vote For Southern Sudan - Peter Hammond Gives The Latest From Sudan

It is always great to hear the reports Dr. Peter Hammond brings from the some of the more dangerous mission fields around the world. You won't hear much about Sudan on CNN or Fox but it is a place where Christians have suffered relentless Muslim persecution for centuries all the while being largely ignored by the UN. Please read this to be informed about the real news that is going on, and to gaisome valuable perspective on what life is like for most Christians who live outside of the western world. Take it away Peter:

A new country is about to be born as Southern Sudanese overwhelmingly voted for secession from the Arab North.

Final Walk to Freedom

From 9 to 15 January, South Sudanese voted in polling stations throughout the vast country and even across the world. Polling stations were set up as far afield as in the United States of America and Australia for the dispersed refugees and “lost boys of Sudan” to have their say in what is being called “the final walk to freedom.”

Violence in Abyei

The mostly peaceful elections were marred by a number of violent clashes, including a deadly ambush at 5pm Monday, 10 January. Misserlya Arab tribesmen killed 18 Southern Sudanese civilians and wounded 18 as they returned from the North to vote in the Referendum in the South.

Referendum in Abyei Postponed

In the disputed oil rich Abyei region, which is meant to have a separate Referendum on whether to join the South or the North, dozens of people were killed in violent clashes. The Referendum in this region was indefinitely postponed.

Counting the Votes

It is estimated that it will take the rest of the month to finalise collating and counting the votes from all the remote regions of Southern Sudan. However those votes which have already been counted are overwhelmingly for secession. At Juba University polling station it was 2,663 votes for secession to 69 for unity. At the tomb for veteran rebel leader, Dr. John Garang, who died in a helicopter “accident” under suspicious circumstances just weeks after being received by a crowd of over 3 million in Khartoum, 3,066 votes were counted for secession and just 25 for union with the North.

Observers Approve Referendum

The two largest foreign observer missions, the European Union and the Carter Centre Foundation have described the Referendum as “open and transparent” with over 95% voter turnout and therefore “valid.”

Logistical Challenges

Despite the tensions in the border regions, particularly in Abyei, huge crowds queued to cast their ballots. Southern Sudan is a vast and undeveloped region which has only about 40km of paved roads in an area the size of France and Belgium combined. The logistical challenges of conducting a Referendum throughout the war devastated regions of Southern Sudan were overwhelming. Many polling stations could only be reached by helicopter, or by motorbike. The first 30,000 ballots counted were 96% voting for secession and only 3% for unity. While that is only a small section of the 3.2 million votes cast, observers are convinced that almost everyone in Southern Sudan is for independence from the North.

War Wary

Since the British granted independence to Sudan, 1 January 1956, Sudan has been at war for most of the last 55 years. Just in the second phase of the war (1983 to 2005), an estimated 2 million people died and over 4 million lost their homes and were forced to flee.

A Fragile Peace

Oxfam estimated that just in the last year (2010) of peace, more than a thousand died in fighting between Arab Northerners and Black Southerners and more than 200,000 people had to flee their homes.

The Failure of the UN

Many non-governmental organisations have criticised the United Nations Peace Keeping Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) as having “so far failed to prioritize the protection of local people.”

Abyei Flash point

During the Referendum at least 50 Misserlya Arabs and 26 Southerners were killed in fighting in Abyei. Dissension between the Arab North and the Christian South on the Referendum in Abyei has led to the suspension of the separate Referendum there. The Northern government wants the Misserlya Arabs to have voting rights, while the South says that only permanent residents of Abyei, the Dinka Ngok, should vote. The Misserlya Arabs are nomads who only come to the South for grazing seasonally.

Separation or Unity

Because most Sudanese are illiterate the ballot papers are simply illustrated with a single hand marked Separation and another outline of clasped hands marked Unity.

Goodbye to Khartoum

One Southerner, Tom Drani said: “we are saying goodbye to Khartoum, the capital of old Sudan. We are coming to have our own capital here in Juba.” Atem Yak said: “I never saw the flag of Sudan as something I owed allegiance to. The national anthem never represented my will. So I will not shed tears when Sudan breaks into two. I will be happy.”

Ecstatic Rejoicing

Former UN Secretary, General Kofi Annan, said that he had never seen more smiles than at the polling stations at Southern Sudan. All have reported on the overwhelming enthusiasm and ecstatic joy witnessed in the long queues at polling stations in the South.

Many Died for Freedom

Col. William Ngang Ayuen said: “We lost a lot of people. Today is good for them.” Southern Sudan President Salva Kiir voted at the tomb of rebel hero John Garang. President Salva Kiir declared: “I am sure they did not die in vain.”

A New Nation

Signs in the crowd declared: “A new nation to be born on the African continent!!!” Sudan, geographically the largest country in Africa, will lose a third of its land, nearly a quarter of its population and most of its oil, if the South secceeds.

Delivered from Oppression

Julia Kiden said: “We feel that after the Referendum we will be delivered from oppression from the North.”

U.S. Incentives

The United States has offered the government of Sudan many incentives to allow a peaceful Southern vote, including removal from its list of State Sponsors of Terrorism and the lifting of economic sanctions.

Lost Boys of Sudan in America

Polling stations were set up in 8 American cities to accommodate the many refugees from Southern Sudan living in the USA. Baseball star, Luol Deng, arrived at a polling station in the North Side of Chicago, saying: “A lot of people have fought for this day, a lot of lives have been lost over this and now we have a say. All we could do in the past is run. Now we are here today to show we’re not running. We’re here to make a difference.”

Freedom from Fear

Dolly Odwong who recalled the Russian-made Antanov bombers raining death and destruction on their communities: “The coming generation will not feel the way we felt. We don’t want them running the way we were running and hiding, because when the war started everyone had to run and hide. Life was very difficult and people were saying to God: Why us? That was the question. So now we are thinking that God has heard our prayers and He is saying: Your people are going to be free!”

The China Connection

The looming partition of Sudan after last week’s independence vote in the South presents peculiar challenges for Red China. Nearly 5% of China’s total oil imports come from Sudan. 80% of the oil fields in Sudan lie in the South and the state-run China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) has pumped billions of dollars into Sudan, with arms deals bolstering the unpopular Khartoum regime. China has defended the Arab regime in international forums against the Southern rebels who are about to lead this new state. China has now opened a Consulate in Southern Sudan’s capital Juba.

China Charm Offensive

In October China sent a delegation of senior Communist Party leaders to the South and sought to upgrade its representation to Ambassador level. The Chinese government and the CNPC oil company have mounted a charm offensive in the South and sponsored dozens of political leaders to visit China in an attempt to repair the damaged relationships and keep the oil flowing from the South to Port Sudan and onto China.

Comprehensive Peace Agreement

This Referendum is a core requirement of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended decades of conflict between the Sudanese Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA) and the National Islamic Front (NIF), now renamed the National Congress Party (NCP).

From War to Freedom and Peace

The longest war, in the largest country in Africa, is about to be concluded after this historic Referendum, which is expected to result in an independent and free Southern Sudan by 9 July.

Faith and Action

By God’s grace, the culminative effect of many years of intensive prayer, worldwide publicity, international pressure and missionary partnership with courageous persecuted Christians in Southern Sudan will bear fruit this year. By God’s grace, we have stood with our beleagued brethren through some of the worst days of vicious persecution, and we have helped them – not only to survive Jihad – but to thrive.

Dr. Peter Hammond is the author of Faith Under Fire in Sudan. For 29 years Peter has been a missionary to restricted access areas. During the war in Sudan, he flew far behind enemy lines to the beleagued Nuba Mountains with tonnes of Bibles, school books, agricultural tools and seed and other relief aid. Peter delivered some of the largest shipment of Bibles ever flown into an officially Islamic state and came under aerial and artillery bombardment while preaching in churches in Sothern Sudan.

The Faith Under Fire in Sudan book and Three Films on Sudan on one DVD are available from Frontline Fellowship P.O. Box 74 Newlands 7725 Cape Town South Africa Tel: 021-689-4480 Email: admin@frontline.org.za Website: www.frontline.org.za

See also related article:

Southern Sudan Referendum on Secession

 


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Just Added - Faith Under Fire In Sudan

This rare inside perspective on the persecution of Christians in Sudan has now been added to my resource directory!

FAITH UNDER FIRE IN SUDAN
Peter Hammond
Category: Persecution
Click Here To Order
Africa's Forgotten War - The longest war of the twentieth century in the largest country in Africa, Sudan. Since 1955 the Muslim Arab North has been attacking the Christian Black South. Faith Under Fire In Sudan is the book that lifted the virtual news blackout on the colossal conflict and exposed the scorched earth tactics, systematic terror bombing of civilian targets and the resurgence of the slave trade in Sudan. This book includes firsthand accounts of the horrific atrocities and the inspiring stories of Christian faith under fire. Dr. Peter Hammond also explores the vast history of Muslim atrocities and persecution of Christians in Sudan that goes all the way back to the seventh century.

Persecution Update From North Korea

I am delaying my next post in my current series on my Danish experiences due to the fact that I will be naming some names and sharing some little known facts about my eviction from the Danish Pentecostal conference in 2008. I am still awaiting some verification of some correspondence and as such will not be posting until next week (hopefully). In the meantime, I thought it would be inspiring to share an article on something way more important than my petty travails - the persecuted church! Dr. Peter Hammond just sent me this story concerning the testimony of a girl from North Korea. North Korea is covered in a media blanket and we rarely get a eyewitness account from inside Kim Jong-Il's maniacal communist regime. So this story caught my radar - hopefully yours too!

FIRSTHAND TESTIMONY OF CHRISTIAN COURAGE AMIDST COMMUNIST PERSECUTION IN NORTH KOREA
One of the most moving presentations at the Cape Town 2010 Congress on World Evangelisation was presented by an 18 year old North Korean girl, Gyeong Ju Son.

Gyeong Ju Son was born in Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea. Her father was a high ranking communist government leader, an assistant to the North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il.

In 1998, when Gyeong Jun was only six years old, her father fell out of favour with the political leadership and the family fled to China. There her parents encountered the grace and love of God and were converted to Christ. A few months later her pregnant mother died of leukemia.

“It was in the midst of this family tragedy that my father joined a Bible Study led by missionaries from South Korea and America and after a time his strong desire was to become a missionary to North Korea.”

In 2001 her father was arrested by the Chinese police and deported to North Korea where he was imprisoned. Her father’s faith was only strengthened during his three year incarceration in North Korea. After Gyeong Ju Son was reunited with her father, he chose to return to North Korea. “Instead of enjoying a life of religious freedom in South Korea, he chose to return to North Korea to share Christ’s message of life and hope amongst the hopeless people of his homeland.”

In 2006 her father’s work was discovered by the North Korean communist government and once again he was imprisoned, and, as far as she knows, executed for refusing to renounce his faith in Christ.

In China, Gyeong Ju was adopted by a Christian family. Their love, compassion and protection of her made a deep impression. When they left for America she was given the opportunity to go to South Korea. While waiting at the South Korean Consulate in Beijing, Gyeong Ju’s life was dramatically changed when she encountered the Lord Jesus Christ in a dream. He said: “Walk with Me. Yes, you have lost your earthly father, but I am your Heavenly Father.”

She surrendered her heart, soul, mind and strength to the Lord Jesus Christ to do with as He will’s. She was flooded with a deep love for the lost people of North Korea and of the need to bring the message of Jesus to them. This became her life’s purpose. “I look back over my short life and I see God’s hand everywhere: 6 years in North Korea, 11 in China, and now in South Korea. Everything I suffered; all the sadness and grief, all that I have experienced and learned; I want to give it all to God and use my life for His Kingdom. In this way I also hope to bring honour to my father.”

Gyeong Ju Son is still a student and she intends to study political science and diplomacy at university and then to dedicate her life to working for the rights of the voiceless in North Korea.

“Brothers and Sisters here in this place, I humbly ask you to pray that the same light of God’s grace and mercy that reached my father and my mother and now me, will one day soon dawn upon the people of North Korea, my people.”

As one, the thousands of participants at the Cape Town 2010 Congress on World Evangelisation rose in a standing ovation with the most thunderous applause in praise to God, and in solidarity with this young Korean girl and her vision for reaching North Korea for Christ.

Just Added - Foxes Book Of Martyrs

This monumental collection of martyr testimonies has just been added to my resource directory!

FOXES BOOK OF MARTYRS
John Foxe
Category: Persecution
Click Here To Order
This is a book that will never die - one of the great English classics. It brings to life the days when "a noble army, men and boys, the matron and the maid," "climbed the steep ascent of heaven, 'mid peril, toil, and pain." "After the Bible itself, no book so profoundly influenced early Protestant sentiment as the Book of Martyrs. Even in our time it is still a living force. It is more than a record of persecution. It is an arsenal of controversy, a storehouse of romance, as well as a source of edification."

Obama is Dangerous or Stupid or Both

Many of you know that US President Barack Obama recently made a speech in Egypt trying to appease the Islamic world. In this speech he made comments which were simply unbelievable and displayed dreadful ignorance of historical facts. Either that or he is propogating evil deceptions on a grand scale . . . . or both!

Robert Spencer at Jihad Watch has written an outstanding line by line analysis of Obama's speech. It is long but it is a great read. Here is the first part:

Platitudes and naivete: Obama's Cairo speech
Here is the text (in italics) as prepared for delivery, provided by the White House, via USA Today, June 4 -- with my comments interspersed:

I am honored to be in the timeless city of Cairo, and to be hosted by two remarkable institutions. For over a thousand years, Al-Azhar has stood as a beacon of Islamic learning,...whose Grand Sheikh, Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi, has given his approval — on Islamic grounds — to suicide bombing.

and for over a century, Cairo University has been a source of Egypt's advancement. Together, you represent the harmony between tradition and progress. I am grateful for your hospitality, and the hospitality of the people of Egypt. I am also proud to carry with me the goodwill of the American people, and a greeting of peace from Muslim communities in my country: assalaamu alaykum.According to Islamic law, a Muslim may only extend this greeting -- Peace be upon you -- to a fellow Muslim. To a non-Muslim he is to say, "Peace be upon those who are rightly guided," i.e., Peace be upon the Muslims. Islamic law is silent about what Muslims must do when naive non-Muslim Islamophilic Presidents offer the greeting to Muslims.

We meet at a time of tension between the United States and Muslims around the world – tension rooted in historical forces that go beyond any current policy debate. The relationship between Islam and the West includes centuries of co-existence and cooperation, but also conflict and religious wars. More recently, tension has been fed by colonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims, and a Cold War in which Muslim-majority countries were too often treated as proxies without regard to their own aspirations. Moreover, the sweeping change brought by modernity and globalization led many Muslims to view the West as hostile to the traditions of Islam."Co-existence and cooperation"? When and where, exactly?

Note that Obama lists only ways in which the West has, in his view, mistreated the Islamic world. Not a word about the jihad doctrine, not a word about Islamic supremacism and the imperative to make war against and subjugate non-Muslims as dhimmis. Not a word about the culture of hatred and contempt for non-Muslims that existed long before the spread of American culture ("modernity and globalization") around the world, which Obama D'Souzaishly suggests is responsible for the hostility Muslims have for the West.

Violent extremists have exploited these tensions in a small but potent minority of Muslims. The attacks of September 11th, 2001 and the continued efforts of these extremists to engage in violence against civilians has led some in my country to view Islam as inevitably hostile not only to America and Western countries, but also to human rights. This has bred more fear and mistrust.
The idea that the jihadists are a "small but potent minority of Muslims" is universally accepted dogma, but has no evidence to back it up. The evidence that appears to back it up is highly tendentious -- check out here how Dalia Mogahed (now an Obama adviser) and John Esposito cooked survey data from the Islamic world to increase the number of "moderates."

And of course it was by no means only "the attacks of September 11th, 2001 and the continued efforts of these extremists to engage in violence against civilians" that "has led some in my country to view Islam as inevitably hostile not only to America and Western countries, but also to human rights." It was also the Islamic texts and teachings that inspired those attacks that have fueled this perception. But Obama is not singular in declining to acknowledge the existence of such texts and teachings. In that he is following George W. Bush and every influential American politician, diplomat, and analyst.

So long as our relationship is defined by our differences, we will empower those who sow hatred rather than peace, and who promote conflict rather than the cooperation that can help all of our people achieve justice and prosperity. This cycle of suspicion and discord must end.Platitudes.

I have come here to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world; one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect; and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive, and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles – principles of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.No word, of course, of the Sharia laws that impugn the dignity of human beings who are women or non-Muslim by denying them various basic rights.

I do so recognizing that change cannot happen overnight. No single speech can eradicate years of mistrust,
Once again, he assumes that it is his responsibility, and America's, to dispel mistrust that Muslims feel for the West. It is not the responsibility of Muslims to do anything to gain the trust of the U.S. or the West in general.

nor can I answer in the time that I have all the complex questions that brought us to this point. But I am convinced that in order to move forward, we must say openly the things we hold in our hearts, and that too often are said only behind closed doors. There must be a sustained effort to listen to each other; to learn from each other; to respect one another; and to seek common ground. As the Holy Koran
Holy!

tells us, "Be conscious of God and speak always the truth." That is what I will try to do – to speak the truth as best I can, humbled by the task before us, and firm in my belief that the interests we share as human beings are far more powerful than the forces that drive us apart.
Part of this conviction is rooted in my own experience. I am a Christian, but my father came from a Kenyan family that includes generations of Muslims.

Note that he avoids saying his father was a Muslim, which would open him to charges of apostasy.

As a boy, I spent several years in Indonesia and heard the call of the azaan at the break of dawn and the fall of dusk. As a young man, I worked in Chicago communities where many found dignity and peace in their Muslim faith.
As a student of history, I also know civilization's debt to Islam. It was Islam – at places like Al-Azhar University – that carried the light of learning through so many centuries, paving the way for Europe's Renaissance and Enlightenment. It was innovation in Muslim communities that developed the order of algebra; our magnetic compass and tools of navigation; our mastery of pens and printing; our understanding of how disease spreads and how it can be healed. Islamic culture has given us majestic arches and soaring spires; timeless poetry and cherished music; elegant calligraphy and places of peaceful contemplation. And throughout history, Islam has demonstrated through words and deeds the possibilities of religious tolerance and racial equality.

The idea that Islamic culture was once a beacon of learning and enlightenment is a commonly held myth. In fact, much of this has been exaggerated, often for quite transparent apologetic motives. The astrolabe was developed, if not perfected, long before Muhammad was born. The zero, which is often attributed to Muslims, and what we know today as “Arabic numerals” did not originate in Arabia, but in pre-Islamic India. Aristotle’s work was preserved in Arabic not initially by Muslims at all, but by Christians such as the fifth century priest Probus of Antioch, who introduced Aristotle to the Arabic-speaking world. Another Christian, Huneyn ibn-Ishaq (809-873), translated many works by Aristotle, Galen, Plato and Hippocrates into Syriac. His son then translated them into Arabic. The Syrian Christian Yahya ibn ‘Adi (893-974) also translated works of philosophy into Arabic, and wrote one of his own, The Reformation of Morals. His student, another Christian named Abu ‘Ali ‘Isa ibn Zur’a (943-1008), also translated Aristotle and others from Syriac into Arabic. The first Arabic-language medical treatise was written by a Christian priest and translated into Arabic by a Jewish doctor in 683. The first hospital was founded in Baghdad during the Abbasid caliphate -- not by a Muslim, but a Nestorian Christian. A pioneering medical school was founded at Gundeshapur in Persia — by Assyrian Christians.

In sum, there was a time when it was indeed true that Islamic culture was more advanced than that of Europeans, but that superiority corresponds exactly to the period when Muslims were able to draw on and advance the achievements of Byzantine and other civilizations. But when the Muslim overlords had taken what they could from their subject peoples, and the Jewish and Christian communities had been stripped of their material and intellectual wealth and thoroughly subdued, Islam went into a period of intellectual decline from which it has not yet recovered.

To read the rest of Robert Spencer's analysis click here.

More Peter Hammond

Peter Hammond's stories are just so gripping - I had to include a radio interview Todd Friel (back in his "Talk the Walk" days) did with him several years ago. This is just so wonderful and convicting all at the same time. Please listen to it . . . . if you can handle gruesome stories of persecution, torture, and fearless evangelism. If you like to get some real perspective on the hardships and persecution we face in the west . . . .



And if you're hungry for more . . .

Click Here for Part 1B
Click Here for Part 2
Click Here for Part 3
Click Here for Part 4
Click Here for Part 5A
Click Here for Part 5B
Click Here for Part 6
Click Here for Part 7
Click Here for Part 8