Steel on Steel - Donald McElvaney (April 14, 2011)
Steel on Steel - Donald McElvaney (April 14, 2011)
Posted at 02:19 PM in Christians, Signs of the Times | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Israel Today (Link) - Ryan Jones (April 13, 2011)
A growing number of Egypt’s 8-10 million Coptic Christians are looking for a way to get out as Islamists increasingly take advantage of the nationalist revolution that toppled long-standing dictator Hosni Mubarak in February.
Egypt Daily News reported on Tuesday that “lawyers who specialize in working with Coptic Egyptians…say that in the past few weeks they have received hundreds of calls from Copts wanting to leave Egypt.”
“They are insisting on leaving Egypt because the risks of staying here are too great,” Naguib Gabriel, a Coptic human rights lawyer, told Egypt Daily News. “Many Christians are afraid of the future because of the fanatics in the mosques.”
At least 20 Christians have been killed in sectarian violence with Muslims since Mubarak’s ouster. And groups like the Muslim Brotherhood have been taking a n increasingly visible role in forming Egypt’s next government.
Coptic leaders have complained that they are being left out of the decision-making process, raising fears that the Egypt of tomorrow will be far less free and democratic than even the Egypt of Mubarak. †
Posted at 10:46 PM in Christians, Islam | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Human Events (Link) - Jason Mattera (April 12, 2011)
Christian conservatives often decry the silencing of faith by major network television.
But Sunday night on CBS’ hit reality TV series “Undercover Boss,” people of faith had their breath taken away by what they witnessed, sparking a Facebook and Twitter avalanche of support and praise.
On Facebook, Kini Se remarked, “Loved the episode of 'Undercover Boss' last night. It is the BEST one yet. It is great to see you praising the Lord on National television. The entire time, I had tears running down my face. It was real, it was true and inspirational. God bless you and your family.”
Chris Connor on Twitter wrote, “Loving that #undercoverboss has a positive Christian perspective features tonight—about time we have a good depiction in the media.”
The show featured Baja Fresh CEO David Kim, a Korean immigrant who has gained a reputation as an “empire builder” within the food and restaurant franchise world, praying with his children, praying alone in a church, even praying with one of his employees—a scene surely to cause ire among anti-faith in the workplace progressives. But the serial entrepreneur, who is also the CEO of La Salsa and Sweet Factory, is not bashful about his faith or passion for America.
Continue reading "‘Undercover Boss’ Prayer on CBS Sparks Faith Firestorm" »
Posted at 06:05 PM in America, Christians | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Steel on Steel - Mahruaii Sailo and Binaifer Wadia (April 1, 2011)
Orissa, March 31 (Compass Direct News) – 14 Christians, including two pastors, were arrested on March 29 for converting to Christianity without official permit in Orissa’s Mayurbhanj district. The Global Council of Indian Christians reported that the arrests came after a police complaint was filed against pastors Samuel Mohopathra and Manuel Mahopathra and 12 newly converted Christians. The Christians were produced before a court and were released on bail the same day, charged under the “Orissa Freedom of Religion Act,” which, ironically, bans any conversion lacking a permit issued by authorities. Sajan K. George, president of the Global Council of Indian Christians, called on Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to withdraw the accusations and put a stop to anti-Christian violence in the state. “The attempts by lower level police and the Sangh Parivar are scandalous and a travesty of the noble vision and ideals enshrined in Indian constitution,” he said. – MS
Uttarakhand – On March 28 in Phullaiya, Khatima, about 30 Hindu extremists barged into a Believer’s Church’s inaugural meeting of its Community Development Program, accused the Christians of forceful conversion and beat them. A Gospel for Asia representative, told Compass that at about 11 a.m. the extremists stormed into the meeting, accused Anoop Jena, Mohan Babu, Rohit Goerge and another Christian identified only as Danny of forceful conversion and started beating them. The four Christians sustained bruises. The intolerant Hindus later filed a police complaint, and officers took the four Christians to the police station for questioning. After local Christian leaders’ intervention, they were released later in the evening without charges. – MS
Continue reading "Steel On Steel Persecution Update: India Briefs" »
Posted at 06:08 PM in Christians, Signs of the Times | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Yahoo! News (Link) - Chris Lehmann (March 30, 2011) Audio Interview
British archaeologists are seeking to authenticate what could be a landmark discovery in the documentation of early Christianity: a trove of 70 lead codices that appear to date from the 1st century CE, which may include key clues to the last days of Jesus’ life. As UK Daily Mail reporter Fiona Macrae writes, some researchers are suggesting this could be the most significant find in Christian archeology since the Dead Sea scrolls in 1947.
The codices turned up five years ago in a remote cave in eastern Jordan—a region where early Christian believers may have fled after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE. The codices are made up of wirebound individual pages, each roughly the size of a credit card. They contain a number of images and textual allusions to the Messiah, as well as some possible references to the crucifixion and resurrection. Some of the codices were sealed, prompting yet more breathless speculation that they could include the sealed book, shown only to the Messiah, mentioned in the Book of Revelation. One of the few sentences translated thus far from the texts, according to the BBC, reads, “I shall walk uprightly”--a phrase that also appears in Revelation. “While it could be simply a sentiment common in Judaism,” BBC writer Robert Pigott notes, “it could here be designed to refer to the resurrection.”
But the field of biblical archaeology is also prey to plenty of hoaxes and enterprising fraudsters, so investigators are proceeding with due empirical caution. Initial metallurgical research indicates that the codices are about 2,000 years old--based on the manner of corrosion they have undergone, which, as Macrae writes, “experts believe would be impossible to achieve artificially.”
Continue reading "Could lead codices prove ‘the major discovery of Christian history’?" »
Posted at 07:00 PM in Archaeology, Christians, Israel | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Steel on Steel - Donald McElvaney (March 27, 2011)
Top Stories:
Posted at 05:56 PM in Christians, Islam, Signs of the Times | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
The Christian Post (Link) - Delores Liesner (March 26, 2011)
“In a world of political correctness devoid of the rule of law, tolerance has come to mean total rejection of Christianity and moral standards. Modern tolerance redefines words like ‘marriage,’ ‘discrimination,’ ‘equality,’ ‘morality,’ and even ‘absolutes.’ The word ‘tolerance’ as it is used today never includes opposing arguments or competing worldviews. Tolerance has become Orwellian and decidedly intolerant.” – Matthew Staver, Dean and Professor of Law at Liberty University School of Law.
A few examples of recent intolerance for Christianity:
Continue reading "Growing Intolerance for Christianity in U.S." »
Posted at 06:52 PM in America, Christians, Signs of the Times | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Fox News (Link) - Diane Macedo (March 24, 2011)
Thousands of Christians have been forced to flee their homes in Western Ethiopia after Muslim extremists set fire to roughly 50 churches and dozens of Christian homes.
At least one Christian has been killed, many more have been injured and anywhere from 3,000 to 10,000 have been displaced in the attacks that began March 2 after a Christian in the community of Asendabo was accused of desecrating the Koran.
The violence escalated to the point that federal police forces sent to the area two weeks ago were initially overwhelmed by the mobs. Government spokesman Shimelis Kemal told Voice of America police reinforcements had since restored order and 130 suspects had been arrested and charged with instigating religious hatred and violence.
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said the Islamist group Kawarja is believed to have incited the violence.
Posted at 06:17 PM in Christians, Islam | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Investor’s Business Daily (Link) (March 22, 2011)
Islamofascism: The media sold the Cairo riots as the birth pangs of “democracy” in the Mideast. Egyptians want “freedom,” we were told. But their version of freedom means voting in Islamic law.
Over the weekend, 77% of Egyptians approved constitutional amendments drafted in part by the radical Muslim Brotherhood. As we predicted based on recent Pew polling of Egyptian attitudes, the post-Mubarak constitution enshrines Shariah law and gives the banned Brotherhood a spot on the ballot.
It was the biggest turnout in the nation’s first fair elections in more than six decades. Only, Egypt’s first test of transition to “democracy” resembled what ended up happening in the Gaza Strip, when Palestinians voted Hamas into power in their first “free elections.”
After winning the 2006 election, which was endorsed by the Bush administration, Hamas vowed not to impose Islamic law. But after almost four years of Hamas rule, secularism has been driven out of Gaza. Women with full face veils are now a common sight. Cinemas have been burned down, novels confiscated by religious police.
Posted at 04:58 PM in America, Christians, Islam | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
National Review Online (Link) - Clifford D. May (March 2, 2011)
Imagine if Muslims in Europe were being arrested for nothing more than peacefully practicing their religion. Imagine if Muslims in South America were being sentenced to death for “insulting” Jesus. Imagine if mosques were being bombed and burned by terrorists in a growing list of Christian-majority countries.
Now here’s what you don’t need to imagine because it is all too real: In recent days, Christian churches have been bombed in Egypt, Iraq, Nigeria, and the Philippines. In Indonesia a mob of 1,000 Muslims burned down two Christian churches because, according to one commentator, local Islamic authorities determined there were “too many faithful and too many prayers.” In Iran, scores of Christians have been arrested. In Pakistan, a Christian woman received the death penalty for the “crime” of insulting Islam; the governor of Punjab promised to pardon her — and was then assassinated for the “crime” of blasphemy.
I could provide dozens more examples of the persecution and, in many cases, “cleansing” of Christians in what we have come to call the Muslim world. If the situation were reversed, if such a war were being waged against Muslims, it would be the top story in every newspaper, the most urgent item at the U.N., the highest priority of all the big-league human-rights groups.
Posted at 10:37 PM in Christians, Islam | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
CBN (Link) - John Jessup (February 23, 2011)
For the first time in modern history, four Americans have been shot and killed by pirates that have long plagued the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.
The fate of the crew on board the Quest went off course Feb. 18 when Somali pirates seized the private, American-owned yacht.
The situation took a turn for the worst Tuesday morning, when U.S. naval warships heard gunfire. By the time authorities boarded the ship, they found all four Americans shot and killed.
“Despite immediate steps to provide life-saving care, all four of the hostages died of their wounds,” said Vice Adm. Mark Fox, commander of the U.S. Naval Forces Central Command.
The boat belonged to California couple Scott and Jean Adam, who’d been living on the ship and sailing the seas since 2002. According to their website, their mission was to travel to ports around the world distributing Bibles and “seeking fertile ground for the Word.”
Continue reading "Pirates Kill Christian Couple Devoted to Missions" »
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Steel on Steel - Donald McElvaney (February 22, 2011)
Top Stories:
Posted at 06:54 PM in Christians, Islam, Signs of the Times | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
The Blaze (Link) - Scott Baker - Joel Richardson (February 6, 2011)
Editor’s note: The Blaze is featuring some guest posts to help our readers gain a deeper understanding of the situation in Egypt. In this post, Joel Richardson looks at the Caliphate concept in historical context.
Historically, Caliph (Khalifa) is the title given to those individuals who succeeded Muhammad after his death as the leader of the Muslims. The Arabic word khalifa means successor, and the full title khalifatu rasulil-lah means “successor to the messenger of Allah.” The Caliph is to be the political, military and administrative leader of all Muslims. The Caliph is the Pope, President and General of the Islamic world all wrapped into one. The office and government of the Caliph is known as the Caliphate (Khilafat). The Caliphate is the only form of government fully sanctioned within early Islamic theology. The purpose of the Caliphate is to govern the Islamic world under the Islamic Shariah law. Caliphs were also referred to with other titles such as Imam al-Ummah (leader of the Muslim community) or Amir al-Mu’minin (Commander of the Faithful).
From Muhammad’s death until the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1923, various Caliphates or dynasties ruled the Islamic world. The most significant Caliphates in historical order were the Rashidun, the Abbasid, the Umayyid, and finally the Ottoman. At times in Muslim history, there have even been rival claimant Caliphs in different parts of the Muslim world. Although the purpose of the Caliphate is to unify all Muslims worldwide, rarely has this genuinely been the case. Islamists however often downplay this fact and instead portray the first thirteen hundred years of Islam through a highly idealized lens:
Continue reading "Understanding Egypt: History of the Caliphate (part one)" »
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Israel National News (Link) - Gil Ronen (February 5, 2011)
News of an Islamist massacre of two Christian Coptic families has emerged from Upper Egypt with the return of Internet connections to the country, after a one-week Internet blackout imposed by the troubled regime. The massacre, not the first in Egypt in recent weeks, took place on Sunday afternoon (January 30) at the village of Sharona near Maghagha, in Minya province, and is being reported by AINA, the Assyrian International News Agency.
According to the report, the Islamist murderers, aided by Muslim neighbors of the Copts, stormed the homes of the families, gaining access to the houses’ roofs from the roofs of the families’ Muslim neighbors. They killed eleven, including children, and seriously injured four more people.
Anba Agathon, Bishop of Maghagha, told Coptic activist Dr. Mona Roman in a televised interview on Al-Karma TV that the killers are neighbors of the Copts, who “seized the opportunity of the mayhem prevailing in Egypt and the absence of police protection to slaughter the Copts.”
The bishop said that he had visited the injured Copts at Maghagha General Hospital and that they informed him that they recognized the main attackers, who come from the same village, Sharona.
Continue reading "Islamists Massacre Two Coptic Families in Egypt" »
Posted at 11:57 PM in Christians, Islam | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
WorldNet Daily (Link) (January 27, 2011)
Officials in the south Ethiopian city of Besheno are looking the other way as Muslim mobs in the city put death threats on the doors of Christian villagers, according to organizations that work in the area.
The door-mounted death threats are only the latest incidents in a series of acts of intimidation that include taking away church property, beating evangelists and killing family members.
International Christian Concern’s Jonathan Racho says the list of violent acts against Christians is growing.
“Christians in the southern Ethiopian city of Besheno are being harassed and physically abused after Muslims posted notices on the doors of the Christian homes, warning the Christians that they had to convert to Islam, leave the city or face death,” Racho stated.
“This is a very serious threat against Christians where the majority in this city are Muslims,” Racho added.
“There are approximately 30 evangelical Christians living in that city,” Racho explained. “The rest have moved away.”
Continue reading "Muslims post death threats on doors of Christian homes" »
Posted at 08:17 PM in Christians, Islam | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
News With Views (Link) - Paul Proctor (January 26, 2011)
This may come as a shock to most Christians, but if you do a search of the less contemporary translations of scripture, the word “feelings” is virtually nonexistent. Where it does appear, it is cited as more of a superficial, even negative attribute than a positive; and yet, as we watch and listen to many from today’s churches, be they leaders or laymen, not only do we see a clear fixation on feelings, both physical and emotional, we notice that those feelings have by and large become a replacement for faith.
In fact, if you substitute the word “feelings” wherever you see the word “faith” in those older Bible versions, it will become clear to you what motivates and guides the average “Christian” today – point being: most of us are not following the Living Word of God by faith, we’re simply following our feelings and calling it “faith.”
This doesn’t require a Bible.
When one considers the sobering words of the prophet Jeremiah, who said: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked…” it should cause us to take a discerning look at what moves us. If our worship and service to Jesus Christ is measured by mood, then may I suggest our “Christianity” is more theatrical than theological?
Continue reading "Today’s ‘Christianity’ - Nothing More Than Feelings" »
Posted at 12:13 AM in Apostasy, Christians | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
WorldNet Daily (Link) - Brian Fitzpatrick (January 4, 2011)
A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has decided a memorial cross on federal land on Mt. Soledad, Calif., violates the U.S. Constitution.
In a 3-0 ruling in the Jewish War Veterans v. City of San Diego case, the panel decided that the 29-foot concrete cross, which has stood for 57 years, constitutes a government endorsement of religion and therefore violates the First Amendment’s establishment clause.
“The question, then, is whether the entirety of the Mount Soledad Memorial, when understood against the background of its particular history and setting, projects a government endorsement of Christianity. We conclude it does,” wrote Circuit Judge M. Margaret McKeown, a Clinton appointee.
“The decision represents a judicial slap in the face to the countless military veterans honored by this memorial,” said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice, which filed an amicus brief in the case on behalf of 25 members of Congress. “This flawed decision not only strikes at the heart of honoring our military veterans, it reaches a faulty conclusion that this iconic memorial – part of the historic landscape of San Diego – is unconstitutional. We believe the appeals court got this decision wrong and we look forward to the case going to the Supreme Court where we’re confident this decision will be overturned.”
Continue reading "U.S. court says Christian cross is unconstitutional" »
Posted at 07:21 PM in America, Christians, Signs of the Times | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Stratfor Global Intelligence (Link) - George Friedman (January 4, 2011)
Over the past few days, Christian churches have been attacked in at least two countries — Nigeria and Egypt — while small packages containing improvised explosive devices were placed on the doorsteps of Christian families in Iraq. Attacks against Christians are not uncommon in the Islamic world, driven by local issues and groups, and it is unclear whether these latest attacks were simply coincidental and do not raise the threat to a new level or whether they indicate the existence of a new, coordinated, international initiative. There is a strong case to be made for the idea that there is nothing new in all of this.
Yet I am struck by the close timing of events in three distant and dispersed countries. Certainly, Egyptian intelligence services are looking for any regional connections (e.g., whether Iraqi operatives recruited the Egyptian bomber). While there have been previous bombings in Egypt, they have focused on tourists, not churches. What is important is this: If the recent attacks are not coincidental, then a coordinated campaign is being conducted against Christian churches that spans at least these countries. And it is a network that has evaded detection by intelligence services.
Obviously, this is speculative. What is clear, however, is that the attack on a church in one country — Egypt — is far from common and was particularly destructive. Egypt has been relatively quiet in terms of terrorism, and there have been few recent attacks on the large Coptic Christian population. The Egyptian government has been effective in ruthlessly suppressing Islamist extremists and has been active in sharing intelligence on terrorism with American, Israeli and other Muslim governments. Its intelligence apparatus has been one of the mainstays of global efforts to limit terrorism as well as keep Egypt’s domestic opposition in check.
Continue reading "Egypt and the Destruction of Churches: Strategic Implications" »
Posted at 10:50 AM in America, Christians, Iran, Islam, Israel | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
BBC News (Link) (December 17, 2010)
The UN refugee agency says thousands of Iraqi Christians are fleeing from central provinces of the country.
They are seeking refuge in the relatively safe Kurdish-controlled region in the north.
The UN High Commission for Refugees said about 1,000 families have left Baghdad and Mosul province since an attack on a church left 68 people dead.
It said the flight of Christians to other parts of Iraq and abroad has become “a slow but steady exodus.”
The UNHCR also said it was dismayed that European governments are deporting failed Iraqi asylum seekers to areas of the country it does not consider safe.
“UNHCR strongly reiterates its call on countries to refrain from deporting Iraqis who originate from the most perilous parts of the country,” Melissa Fleming, the agency’s chief spokesperson, said.
Continue reading "Christians flee central Iraq in thousands, UN reports" »
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Steel On Steel - Donald McElvaney (December 9, 2010)
Posted at 01:18 PM in Christians, Islam, Signs of the Times | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
CNS News (Link) - Patrick Goodenough (December 8, 2010)
China reportedly has launched a new crackdown on “house churches,” Protestant congregations that do not belong to the country’s state-sanctioned, “patriotic” church organization.
In an ominous development reported by the China Aid Association (CAA), a U.S.-based group that advocates for Chinese Christians, authorities allegedly have labeled the house church movement a “cult.”
Beijing used the same term when it outlawed the Falun Gong meditation movement in 1999, a move that ushered in a major, ongoing crackdown against the Falun Gong that has brought China worldwide censure.
Citing secret information “from more than one reliable source” inside China, CAA said Tuesday the campaign against house churches ordered by the Communist Party Politburo was launched on December 1.
Chinese security officials “have been notified to collect information about house churches throughout the country and turn these reports in to their superiors,” it said. “A long ‘blacklist’ of church leaders and influential believers reportedly has been drawn up.”
Continue reading "China Declares Christian ‘House Churches’ a ‘Cult,’ Advocacy Group Reports" »
Posted at 05:26 PM in Christians, Kings of the East, Signs of the Times | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Steel on Steel (E-mail) - Mahruaii Sailo & Binaifer Wadia (December 1, 2010)
Punjab, November 30 (Compass Direct News) – Hindu extremists on Nov. 14 beat a Christian in Moti Nagar, Ludhiana, threat ening to harm him and his family if they attended Sunday worship. A source told Compass that a Hindu identified only as Munna had argued with a Christian identified only as Bindeshwar, insulting him for being a Christian, and beat him on Nov. 7. Munna then returned with a mob of about 50 Hindu extremists on Nov. 14. Armed with clubs and swords, they dragged Bindeshwar out of his house and severely beat him, claiming that Christians had offered money to Munna to convert. Local Christian leaders reported the matter to the police at Focal Point police station. Officers arrested three Hindu extremists, but under pressure from local Bharatiya Janata Party leaders released them without registering a First Information Report. Police brokered an agreement between the parties on Nov. 18 and vowed they would not allow further attacks on Christians. – MS
Tripura – Hindu extremists attacked a prayer conference on Nov. 6 in Burburi, threatening Christians if they opened their mouths. A local evangelist known only as Hmunsiamliana told Compass that area Christian leaders organized a prayer conference on Nov. 5-7, but extremists ordered the participants not to open their mouth or make any sound. Christian leaders reported the threat to police, and the participants proceeded to pray aloud. On the nights of Nov. 6 and 7, a huge mob of Hindu extremists pelted the Christians with stones, but the participants continued praying. The meeting ended on the evening of Nov. 7 under police protection. – MS
Continue reading "India Briefs: Recent Incidents of Persecution" »
Posted at 10:22 PM in Christians, Signs of the Times | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
The Christian Post (Link) - Ethan Cole (November 20, 2010)
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, and Open Doors are just some of the people and groups that have publicly denounced the proposed U.N. anti-blasphemy resolution that is expected to be voted on next week.
The Organization of the Islamic Conference, which sponsored the draft resolution, recently changed the term from “defamation of religions” to “vilification of religions.” But USCIRF chair Leonard Leo said the change is minor and “a distinction without a difference.”
“Having lost support on this issue over the past few years, the OIC is now trying to fool delegations into believing that the resolution has improved when it has not,” said Leo in a statement Thursday. “It … still erroneously conflates blasphemy or criticism of religious ideas with incitement to acts of discrimination or violence against individuals.”
Critics of the resolution compare it to a global anti-blasphemy law. They point to countries like Pakistan, where a Christian woman was recently given the death sentence for alleged blasphemy against the Muslim Prophet Muhammad, as example of how such laws are regularly grossly abused to target religious minorities.
Continue reading "U.N. Anti-Blasphemy Proposal Meets Firm Resistance" »
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Steel On Steel - Donald McElvaney, www.missionbarnabas.org (November 18, 2010)
Posted at 05:23 PM in Christians, Islam | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Telegraph UK (Link) - Adrian Blomfield (November 12, 2010)
Unless told what to look for, the casual visitor to the once glamorous Baghdad thoroughfare that hugs the east bank of the Tigris would almost certainly pass them by. The Stars of David carved into the stonework of the low-slung buildings that line the alleyways of Abu Nuwas Street are little more than a curiosity these days – a memento of a civilisation lost to the pages of history.
Judaism has a connection to Iraq that no other faith can match. The patriarch Abraham may well have been born there; the prophet Jonah reluctantly returned to foretell the destruction of Nineveh. Centuries later, the Bible tells us that the exiled Jewish people sat down by Babylon's rivers and wept for their homeland. Yet Jewish links to Iraq are far from ancient history.
In the 1920s, there were reckoned to have been 130,000 Jews in Baghdad, 40 per cent of the population. Today, after decades of persecution before and immediately after the creation of the state of Israel, there are no more than eight.
Iraqi Christians might not be able to boast such a heritage – though even if there is no way of proving their belief that the apostle Thomas brought the faith to Iraq in the first century AD, theirs is still one of the oldest Christian communities on earth. Yet after a series of attacks in the past month by Islamist extremists – whose creed is the parvenu of the monotheistic religions in the country – fears are mounting that Christianity in Iraq is doomed to follow Judaism into oblivion.
Posted at 03:32 PM in Christians, Islam, Signs of the Times | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Steel On Steel - Donald McElvaney, Mission Barnabus (November 5, 2010)
This is from an e-mail newsletter through Steel on Steel Ministries where you can sign up.
Posted at 04:09 PM in Christians, Islam, Israel, Signs of the Times | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
UPI (Link) (November 3, 2010)
Muslim extremists in Iraq branded all Christians in the Middle East as "legitimate targets" Wednesday.
CNN reported the group released a message saying, "The Ministry of War of Islamic State of Iraq declares that all the centers, organizations and bodies of Christian leaders and followers have become legitimate targets for the mujahedeen (holy warriors), wherever our hands will reach them."
On Monday, the group gave the Coptic church of Egypt 48 hours to reveal the status of Muslim women it asserts are being held captive in its churches.
The Islamic State of Iraq has claimed responsibility for Sunday's assault on a Baghdad church that killed 58 people and wounded 75. It includes several Sunni extremist groups and has ties to al-Qaida in Iraq.
The group cited the Egyptian women's alleged plight in storming the church.
Egyptian police sources confirmed that security has been reinforced at churches around the country and for the head of the Coptic Church, Pope Shenouda III.
The claim that the Copts are holding female captives is based on rumors of Christian women in Egypt converting to Islam and being held by the church to compel or persuade them to revert to their original faith. †
Posted at 07:03 PM in Christians, Islam | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Steel On Steel - Mahruaii Sailo & Binaifer Wadia, Edited by: Donald McElvaney, Mission Barnabus (October 30, 2010)
This is from an e-mail newsletter through Steel on Steel Ministries where you can sign up.
Karnataka, October 29 (Compass Direct News) – Police arrested Pastor Muthyalan Paul on Oct. 26 in Nelamangala, Bangalore, after Muslim radicals barged into a prayer meeting, accused him of forceful conversion, tore Bibles and damaged household items. The Global Council of Indian Christians reported that police, alerted by the Muslim extremists, charged the pastor with “deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage the religious feelings of others.” A judge sent the pastor to Nelamangala Sub-Jail, but with area Christian leaders’ intervention he was released on bail the next morning. – MS
Karnataka – Hindu nationalists on Oct. 20 burned down a house church in Bellakatte village, near Chitradurga. The Global Council of Indian Christians reported that Pastor Mallappa Hanumanthappa Andrew of Samadhana Prayer House and his brother were walking on a village road when six area extremists waylaid them and began slapping the pastor, falsely accusing him of forcible conversion. They also slapped and shoved his brother when he tried to come to Andrew’s aid. Cursing, the extremists then burned down the house used for worship. Baramasagara police arrested four extremists identified only as Manjunath, Parashuram, Ramanna and Devaraj, charged them with unlawful assembly and released them after two hours. – BW
Continue reading "India Briefs: Recent Incidents of Persecution" »
Posted at 02:20 PM in Christians, Islam, Signs of the Times | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
WorldNet Daily (Link) - Bob Unruh (October 30, 2010)
The federal government apparently has blinked in a standoff with private Christian colleges over a proposal that would bring the schools under the regulation of the political powers in their states.
Colorado Christian University President Bill Armstrong has told WND that the rules proposed by the Education Department are the “greatest threat to academic freedom in our lifetime.”
Obama’s Department of Education – where Secretary Arne Duncan appointed a longtime homosexual activist who was part of the violent Act Up organization to head his “safe schools” office – has recommended that all colleges be required to have a state license. Critics say the license could enable the government to have a say in curriculum, graduation requirements and other issues.
An analysis by Shapri D. LoMaglio of the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities said the feds wanted to require colleges to “have a document of state approval … to operate an educational program.”
Joining Armstrong in his alarm over the plans were former Colorado state Sen. Hank Brown, who has served as president of the University of Colorado system, as well as prominent columnists Cal Thomas and Jay Ambrose.
Continue reading "Feds blink in standoff with Christian colleges" »
Posted at 01:37 PM in America, Christians | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
The New American (Link) - James Heiser (October 29, 2010)
Over seven years have passed since President Bush declared victory in Iraq, and two months have now gone by since Obama declared that same conflict to be over, but for Christians in the Middle East, such talk of victory is hollow. For centuries, Christians living under Muslim domination have endured cycles of persecution and tolerance, but now an virtually unprecedented exodus of Christians from the region is underway.
According to an article by Robert Fisk for The Independent, nations where long-suffering Christians have managed to survive intimidation and periodic persecution at the hands of Muslim authorities are witnessing the flight of large portions of their Christian population. In Fisk’s words:
Across the Middle East, it is the same story of despairing — sometimes frightened — Christian minorities, and of an exodus that reaches almost Biblical proportions. Almost half of Iraq’s Christians have fled their country since the first Gulf War in 1991, most of them after the 2004 invasion — a weird tribute to the self-proclaimed Christian faith of the two Bush presidents who went to war with Iraq — and stand now at 550,000, scarcely 3 per cent of the population. More than half of Lebanon’s Christians now live outside their country. Once a majority, the nation’s one and a half million Christians, most of them Maronite Catholics, comprise perhaps 35 per cent of the Lebanese. Egypt’s Coptic Christians — there are at most around eight million — now represent less than 10 per cent of the population.
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