Tag Archives: persecution

Scripture of the Day

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Revelations 14


9. And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,
10. The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
11. And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
12. Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.
13. And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.
14. And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.
15. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe.
16. And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped.
17. And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle.
18. And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe.
19. And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
20. And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.

From verses 14 through 19 we have two separate reaping’s identified with two doing the reaping, one looked to be the Son of Man or Jesus, this in my opinion is the rapture. With the other being a different angel gathering the grapes or whatever it is to be used for the wrath of GOD.

In the prior verses 9 through 11 we read and see the end result of those who worship the beast or antichrist and it isn’t a pretty picture. Verse 9 identifies their sin, “…If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,…”. These things are mentioned here in verse 9 as identifiers for GOD’S wrath:

1. Worshipping the beast or his image

    2. Receiving the mark on or in their right hand or forehead

    These people chose to turn away from the love of the Father as expressed through the Son Jesus the Christ, instead choosing a false Messiah.

    In these verses we see almost the final separation of humanity into believer and unbelievers. Here we may well have an identifier for the potential timing of the so-called rapture, this among other examples are why I lean towards the prewrath interpretation of the rapture and dismiss the common dispensationalist view of a pretribulational eschatology.

    Bless GOD and have a blessed day.

    Thoughts on the incoming Administration

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    America has the appearance of being fractured socially and politically into various clicks and groups, each vying with and against one another. Yet one thing I saw this cycle on the maps anyway, was red or republican majority covered more than 90% of this country, save for those traditional locations of socialist-progressives, that being Metropolitan areas.

    So with this election cycle the majority of people seem to have rejected the socialist-progressive mandates and authoritarianism.

    Or have they?

    After watching and experiencing the fake-covid mania sweep across the country and the world I have little faith in citizens or mankind in general. First being the biblical concept of the heart of man being deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, also the outright inability of people to think for themselves, they will believe anything, as their mind conceives as a “benevolent governments”, tells them. Masking works…not, six feet distance works…not, the Vax works…not…. shutdowns and isolation, it was all fake. Millions of jobs were lost, businesses shut down, lives lost or ruined and destroyed, all because the majority believed the lies.

    Now we stand at a precipice of this country, the Don has a mandate and at face value I agree with most of it. But if you look deeper you’ll soon realize he and his handlers are as fake as the opposing party. The left wanted authoritarianism but their extremes of societal norms are to far for most citizens to accept. The right, hands down, brings authoritarianism into existence by appealing to the more normal values of society at large and passes the repulsive laws the left is incapable of passing. It’s all theater and showmanship, the left becomes the antithesis of society then the right has a mandate to push back. One example is illegal immigrants, the left allows them to flood the country, the majority of people want safe protected borders and communities. With the illegals the right now has a mandate to deport, as stated by the Don and his incoming Administration… sounds good, it’s been done before. Then looking at their proposals it includes biometric identifications, internment camps, possible induction into military service in exchange for citizenship and on it goes. All of these ideas are conditioning of the population for a surveillance society, worse than what we have now.

    If anyone thinks these measures will stop with illegals I have a bridge to nowhere for sale. It was the right that created the Patriot Act 1 & 2, the NDAA which allows indefinite detention of American citizens, it was a republican administration that brought us the lockdowns, the fake covid and fake Vax that’s killing millions. Now with 90% of the country leaning red and this incoming Administration leaning toward authoritarian measures do you think the citizens are going to deny the Don his moment? The Don wants revenge, not for justice but for his narcissistic mindset. If he wanted justice for the sake of justice and reforming and/or purging the system then I’d be praising his efforts, but knowing the narcissistic mindset it’s hard to fathom him doing right for rights sake. The left continued the rights atrocities with their asinine mandates.

    What we are seeing is a left/right march into tyranny and the majority of citizens will march right along supporting the efforts of authoritarianism.

    Most self-professed Christians seem to be entranced with the Don and are slobbering over his footsteps. Society seems to think the Don will be America’s savior, Savior, I hate to be the bearer of bad news but he isn’t. Yes God put him there for a reason. What was that reason? In my mind it’s to show those self-righteous folks on the right that they aren’t any better than the soulless husks of the left. Sin is sin regardless of what foot is stepping. When the right introduces tyranny  under the guise of national security they’ll soon realize many of their own will be heading to to camps as well.

    Do I think things will get better? Nope. The economy/financial markets will crash, in the fear they’ll introduce some type of endtimes beast financial system based on biometrics. A semblance of peace will come but then war, death, real disease and famine and death and hell following. Yes I do think we are in the prelude to the biblical defined tribulation period defined in Daniel and Revelations.

    Revelations 3:1… These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.
    2. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God.
    3. Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.
    4. Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy.
    5. He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.

    Why Jetpack?

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    Not worth it, Chinese ads and no security….

    WORDPRESS is History now after doing so much good, they’ve gone WOKE so not recommending them to anyone, gone into censoring, given into the Chinese model of social networking reporting your movements to fakebook and suckerburgs sycophants, what was once a great system for startups and beginners and elders of blogging, its time to throw it out with the trash and jetpack with it.

    Scripture of the Day

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    Luke 22


    2. And the chief priests and scribes sought how they might kill him; for they feared the people.
    3. Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve.
    4. And he went his way, and communed with the chief priests and captains, how he might betray him unto them.
    5. And they were glad, and covenanted to give him money.
    6. And he promised, and sought opportunity to betray him unto them in the absence of the multitude.

    In our society today it’s becoming increasingly popular in Churches to follow the fads of the Day, to give up their moral clarity to follow sin and wickedness. In His day Jesus introduced pure and undefiled religion to the people, going against the norms placed by the religious rulers of His day, those who corrupted the faith of an entire nation.

    Nowadays in the west Christians who goes against the so-called norms or fads of the Day are ridiculed and condemned by an evil society. Some face jail time for expressing their faith. In England a ruler in a church turned in a congregant because he expressed views opposite to the popular fad, that being the acceptance of the LGBT XYZ garbage.

    Just as our Savior was killed by the religious leaders of His day, in our time in the west the Lord is separating the wheat from the chaff, the goats from the sheep, and we are seeing the fulfillment of the words of Christ when He said, The world hated me without a cause, so now the world still hates Him without a cause, th world hated Him, the world hates those who follow Him.

    Don’t be afraid when persecution comes knocking on your door but praise GOD in that you are counted worthy to suffer for His sake.

    11:11

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    Jeremiah 11:11. thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them.

    Scripture of the Day

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    2 Corinthians 12


    6. For though I would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool; for I will say the truth: but now I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth me to be, or that he heareth of me.
    7. And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.
    8. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.
    9. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
    10. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

    Christians in Nigeria have ‘risen to the challenge’ after terrorist attacks, bishop says

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    Inés San Martín Jun 18, 2021 rome bureau chief

    Christians in Nigeria have ‘risen to the challenge’ after terrorist attacks, bishop says

    Displaced Iraqi Christian children in Erbil, the largest city in Iraqi Kurdistan, hold a sign for the Catholic charity organization Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). (Credit: ACN.)

    ROME – According to Bishop Mathew Kukah of Sokoto, the Church in Nigeria is one of martyrs. However, he said it wasn’t a Church of sorrows, because despite the persecution perpetrated by Islamic terrorist organizations, “our people have risen to the challenge.”

    “The great news for us Christians in Nigeria is that we’ve been quite relentless, and this persecution, which is part of the life and oxygen of Christianity, has found a greater witness of faith and confidence of our people,” he said on Friday.

    The prelate also said that Nigeria is a “very troubled country, almost on the verge of internal explosion,” which has created “serious pressure” for the Christian community, with Boko Haram no longer restricted to Nigeria’s northeast, reaching even Kukah’s diocese in north central Nigeria.

    “Every day, we see death and destruction at a massive scale,” he said, noting that two days ago, schoolchildren and their teachers were kidnaped, and their whereabouts remain unknown.

    Kidnapping girls and selling them as slaves has long been one of Boko Haram’s strategies to finance its crimes.

    Kukah’s words came during the presentation of the 2020 financial report of the pontifical charitable agency Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). According to the annual report, ACN raised almost $150 million last year, a 15 percent increase from 2019.

    One of the questions raised during the presentation was the impact of the allegations made earlier this year against the founder, Father Werenfried van Straaten, who after an apostolic visitation to ACN in 2009 was found guilty of “serious violations” in four areas of Catholic moral and social teaching.

    Dr Thomas Heine-Geldern, executive president of ACN International, said that the donors of the charity “understand that our mission is an important one, and they’re continuing to support our work with their donations.”

    He also noted that most of the benefactors were “satisfied” with the way the papal charity had handled the allegations, claiming the past five months have been the most successful in raising funds in the charity’s history.

    “Not only did the pandemic turn our own work upside down, but it also dramatically worsened the plight of Christians in many regions of the world, who found themselves — literally almost overnight, without work, pay or food. And many priests and religious were also left not knowing how to make ends meet,” he added.

    “In this emergency, however, ACN‘s benefactors remained true to the charity. This great generosity leaves us feeling profoundly grateful,” Heine-Geldern continued. “It was quite unforeseen, especially since the crisis has inflicted profound economic insecurity and difficulties on us all. We were particularly pleased to note that the number of our benefactors has also increased worldwide.”

    https://cruxnow.com/church-in-africa/2021/06/christians-in-nigeria-have-risen-to-the-challenge-after-terrorist-attacks-bishop-says/

    Thousands to march on Washington in solidarity with persecuted Christians

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    MARCH FOR THE MARTYRS

    The organizers of the September 25 March for the Martyrs hope to raise awareness of the plight of the most persecuted religious group in the world.

    Gia Chacón, the founder of the non-profit organization For the Martyrs, is on a mission to spread the word that the Christians are dying for their faith in unprecedented numbers. 

    To that end she is organizing a “March for the Martyrs” to be held in Washington, DC, on September 25.

    “We believe knowledge inspires action— the more people who are aware of the crisis of Christian persecution, the more that can be done to aid the suffering faithful,” she told Aleteia.

    That knowledge is based on what Chacón has witnessed in her travels to the world’s most dangerous places to be a Christian, from East Africa to the Middle East. 

    It’s also founded in the work that humanitarian organizations have done to document persecution and violations of religious freedom around the world.

    Christians, the world’s most persecuted religious group

    According to a recent report from Aid to the Church in Need, almost 340 million Christians — that’s one in eight — suffer some form of persecution, ranging in severity from harassment to murder.

    Christian martyrdom is far from a thing of the past. The humanitarian organization Open Doors reports that more than 4,000 Christians were murdered for their faith in 2018.

    Called to help persecuted Christians

    In 2017, at the age of 20, Chacón was working in the cosmetics industry when she felt a need to find a greater purpose in her life. She took some time off and joined her grandmother, Michelle Corral, in Egypt where she was engaged in humanitarian and missionary work.

    John Burger reported in Aleteia that while living among Egyptian Christians, Chacón was inspired to devote her life to helping persecuted Christians:

    “It was in Egypt, traveling with my grandmother, that I experienced the face of the persecuted Church for the first time. I realized that there are Christians suffering for their faith, and that these were not just the older generation, but people my age were willing to risk everything for their faith, willing to risk their lives to go to church, to serve Christ and live their lives for the Gospel,” said Chacón.

    Jonathan Roumie from The Chosen marches

    On September 20, the first March for the Martyrs was held in Long Beach, California. Hundreds of people from many Christian denominations took part, including the actor Jonathan Roumie, who plays Jesus in the popular series The Chosen.

    Roumie addressed the marchers, recalling America’s founding and his own family’s experience as Christians in Egypt.

    “The United States was founded by men and women who fled religious persecution,” he said. “My own father left Egypt in the 60s because of religious persecution. He brought his family over in search of a better life.”

    “The fact that we can be here praising Jesus’ name together without apology deserves a round of applause. God called you here to celebrate with us, to march with us,” said Roumie.

    https://aleteia.org/2021/06/18/thousands-to-march-on-washington-in-solidarity-with-persecuted-christians/

    Nevada to Pay Church $175,000 Following Lawsuit over COVID-19 Worship Restrictions

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    Milton Quintanilla | Contributor for ChristianHeadlines.com | Friday, June 11, 2021

    A person holding money, coronavirus is showing that we are giving creatures

    Nevada to Pay Church $175,000 Following Lawsuit over COVID-19 Worship Restrictions

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    The state of Nevada has agreed to pay a church $175,000 in legal fees after placing restrictions on houses of worship during the COVID-19 pandemic.

    According to The Christian Post, the Nevada Board of Examiners unanimously approved a request from the Office of the Attorney General to pay Calvary Chapel Dayton Valley $175,000 as the result of a tort claim.

    Susan Brown, chief of the Board, explained that the payment was “to comply with the consent decree in this case that requires the state of Nevada to pay a reasonable attorney fees,” adding that the “cost will come out of the tort claim fund.

    Complete story here, https://www.christianheadlines.com/contributors/milton-quintanilla/nevada-to-pay-church-175000-following-lawsuit-over-covid-19-worship-restrictions.html

    An Open Letter to Pastors and People

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    This letter is a compilation of Scriptures which I believe could easily be applied to the current situation and state of the Church and congregations in America. Throughout Church history there have been saints and sinners in every group and congregation, in our day the congregations are being depleted of members, the primary reason are the Pastors. There is an old saying, “So goes the pastor so goes the church, so goes the church so goes the nation”, when applied properly, this old axiom is very telling of the moral decline of this and other western or Christian nations. Many people claiming to be faithful sit in a continuous environment of wickedness, tolerating and snickering about the evil around them, they refuse to take a stand for righteousness, instead shrugging and turning their back away from sin, afraid of being ridiculed and/or persecuted. Some make the claim they aren’t going to judge another, but we are told to judge and make decisions of right and wrong, we are told not to judge when we are doing the same sin, that is hypocrisy and shameful. So here are some scriptures taken and compiled as I think they could and possibly should be applied to the environment in which we live today in this nation. Is it prophecy? It was to those to whom it was written in their day. Is it a warning for our day? I think the scriptures are, the warnings should be understood and if applicable to your situation then they should be used to learn and correct behaviors and/or thoughts.

    For this land is full of adulterers; because of a curse the land mourns. The pleasant places in the wilderness are dried up. The course of the life of this people is evil, and their might is not right. 

    The pastors, the teachers, and the priests are profane; in this house I have found their wickedness.

    Their way shall be to them as slippery ways; in the darkness they shall be driven on and fall in them; for I will bring disaster on them in the year of their punishment.

    I have seen a great folly and a horrible thing in the teachers, with the pastors, and the priests; they commit adultery and walk in lies; they also strengthen the hands of the evildoers so that no one turns back from his wickedness.
    All of them are like Sodom to Me and like the inhabitants of Gomorrah.
    For from all of the leaders of this people profane behavior has gone out into all the land.

    Do not listen to your teachers or pastors whose intention is to make worthless words; they continually speak a vision of their own heart, not from the mouth of the Lord.
    They continually say to those who despise Me “ you shall have peace ”; and to everyone who walks according to the dictates of their own heart, say they, “ no evil shall come upon you. ”

    Behold, a whirlwind of the Lord shall go forth in great fury. A violent whirlwind that shall fall on the heads of the wicked.
    The anger of the Lord will not turn back until He has executed and performed the thoughts of His heart against the wicked of this land.
    I have not sent these teachers, these pastors or the priests, yet they ran. I have not spoken to them, yet they taught. 
    But if they would have stood in My counsel, and caused this people to hear My words, then they would have turned this people from their evil way and from the evil of their doings.

    I have heard those claiming to be prophets whom I have not sent; they prophesy lies in My name saying “ I have dreamed, I have dreamed. ”

    How long will this be in the hearts of the prophets who prophesy lies? Indeed they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart, who make My people forget My name by their dreams which everyone tells to their neighbor.

    The prophet who has a dream, let him tell it; and he who has My word, let him speak it faithfully.
    What is the chaff to the wheat?
    Is not My word like a fire?
    Is it not like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?

    Therefore, I am against these false prophets who steal My words everyone from his neighbor.
    Behold, I am against the prophets who use their tongues and say “ the Lord says ”.
    Behold, I am against those who prophesy false dreams and tell, and cause My people to err by their lies and by their reckless behavior.
    Yet I did not send them nor did I command them; therefore they shall not profit this people at all.

    Thus shall it be said to these false prophets that I, even I, will utterly forget you and forsake you, and I shall cast you out from My presence.
    I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten. 

    Pakistani ‘Pastors’ Paid by Sex Traffickers to Find Brides for Chinese Men Among Poor Congregants: Report

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    By LEAH MARIEANN KLETT ( news@gospelherald.com ) May 08, 2019 08:31 AM EDT Comment"Pastors" in Pakistan are being paid by sex traffickers to find brides for Chinese men among their church congregations, a disturbing new report has revealed.

    Story can be found here, https://www.gospelherald.com/articles/71974/20190508/pakistani-pastors-paid-sex-traffickers-find-brides-chinese-men-poor.htm

    A mainland Chinese woman, that worked as a prostitute in Hong Kong, looks out from inside a police van September 19, 2002 before being sent back to China. A total of 85 prostitutes from mainland China were arrested during a raid at the territory’s Shum Shui Po district, Hong Kong police said. (Photo: REUTERS/Bobby Yip)

    “Pastors” in Pakistan are being paid by sex traffickers to find brides for Chinese men among their church congregations, a disturbing new report has revealed.

    The Associated Press reports that sex traffickers offer Christian parents in Pakistan thousands of dollars to give girls in marriage to Chinese men. Pakistan’s Christian community makes a vulnerable target, notes the report, as the religious group is among the country’s most impoverished and makes up just 2.5% of the population.

    Christian pastors are paid by sex traffickers to preach to their congregations with promises of wealth in exchange for their daughters. Parents receive a few thousand dollars and are promised about $280 a month in future payments as well as a Chinese visa for a male family member. They’re also told their new sons-in-law are wealthy Christian converts.

    However, that’s rarely the case, notes the Associated Press, which interviewed over a dozen Christian Pakistani brides or would-be brides who fled before exchanging vows.

    Once the brides arrive in China, many of them forced to live in rural, isolated towns. With a significant language barrier, they are subject to abuse and forced to rely on a translation app to communicate with their husbands.

    Muqadas Ashraf, who was 16 when her parents married her off to a Chinese man last year, returned to Pakistan less than five months later, pregnant and seeking a divorce.

    “It is all fraud and cheating. All the promises they make are fake,” she said.

    One pastor who leads an evangelical church in Gujranwala, a city north of Lahore, told the AP of a fellow pastor who tells his flock, “God is happy because these Chinese boys convert to Christianity. They are helping the poor Christian girls.” He revealed that in that city alone, over 100 girls have disappeared.

    Rizwan Rashid, a parishioner at the city’s Roman Catholic St. John’s Church, said that two weeks earlier, a car pulled up to him outside the church gates. Two Pakistani men and a Chinese woman inside asked him if he knew of any girls who want to marry a Chinese man.

    “They told me her life would be great,” he said. They were willing to pay him to help, but he said he refused because the church’s priest often warns his congregation against such marriages.

    The AP notes that in Pakistan, girls are seen as less desirable than boys and as a burden because the bride’s family must pay a dowry and the cost of the wedding when they marry. By contrast, potential Chinese grooms offer parents money and pay all wedding expenses.

    Ijaz Alam Augustine, the human rights and minorities minister in Pakistan’s Punjab province, told the AP that “greed is really responsible for these marriages.”

    “I have met with some of these girls and they are very poor,” he said.

    The AP reports that since October, thousands of girls have been forced into sham marriages, some as young as 13 years old.

    In April, Human Rights Watch called on China and Pakistan to take action to end bride trafficking, pointing to “increasing evidence that Pakistani women and girls are at risk of sexual slavery in China.”

    Last month, the embassy said China was cooperating with Pakistani law enforcement agencies to crack down on illegal matchmaking, Reuters reports.

    On Monday, Pakistani authorities arrested 12 suspected members of a prostitution ring taking young Pakistani women to China, according to the South China Morning Post. A senior official at the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in Lahore, capital of Punjab province, said a female Chinese national and a fake Pakistani priest were among the detainees. 

    Christianity Inflicting ‘Enormous Harm’ on China, Warns Communist Party

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    By LEAH MARIEANN KLETT ( news@gospelherald.com ) May 09, 2019 09:14 AM EDT CommentA local government communications agency in China recently held a seminar to discuss with Communist Party members the "enormous harm" Christianity is to the atheist nation and identify ways to stunt its growth.

    The Story can be found here, https://www.gospelherald.com/articles/71976/20190509/christianity-inflicting-enormous-harm-china-warns-communist-party.htm

    China’s total Christian population is now thought to number anywhere between 25 million and 100 million people Photo: GETTY Getty Images

    A local government communications agency in China recently held a seminar to discuss with Communist Party members the “enormous harm” Christianity is to the atheist nation and identify ways to stunt its growth.

    According to Chinese Christian persecution watchdog China Aid, the event, titled “Christianity’s Enormous Harm on China’s Security,” was held on April 22 in the city of Hebi in China’s Henan province.

    According to the NGO, the seminar encouraged party members to avoid being persuaded by Christian ideology and to sustain “correct views” when it comes to religion.

    “The Chinese government often views religions, including Christianity, as foreign attempts to undermine its rule, even though there is no evidential basis for such a claim,” China Aid reports. “As a result, they often try to suppress religious adherents, and they openly forbid Communist Party members from practicing a religion.”

    UCANews.com reports that the Hebi Municipal Radio Administrative Bureau in Henan publicly admitted to holding the seminar on its WeChat page.

    “It said the seminar was to help members correctly understand Christianity and prevent the occurrence of ideological deviations,” notes the outlet. However, the WeChat message was deleted only two days after it was released.

    Fenggang Yang, a professor of sociology at Purdue University’s Center on Religion and Chinese Society, estimated in 2017 that there are anywhere from 93 million to 115 million Christians in a nation of over 1.3 billion people, reports the South China Morning Post. It’s estimated China is on track to have the largest Christian population in the world by 2030.

    In efforts to control the growth and spread of Christianity, Communist authorities have shut down a number of prominent house churches and arrested Christians and church leaders for worshiping without the approval of the government. It has also cracked down on the online sale of Bibles; the Bible is printed in China but legally available only at church bookstores.

    Ying Fuk-tsang, director of the divinity school at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, told ucanews.com that the Hebi seminar reflects the Chinese government’s increasing controls of ideology in China through telecommunications and internet networks.

    Ying explained that China’s Communist Party has tended in recent years to exhibit extensive social management “through nonreligious ways to deal with religious issues.”

    “[T]herefore it is no longer a single religious department to manage religion, but the joint effort of different departments to manage all around,” Ying explained, adding that he believes that President Xi Jinping is part of the effort to claim religion is a threat in China.

    In light of these abuses, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom listed China as a “country of particular concern” for religious freedom violations in its 2019 annual report.

    Speaking at the National Religious Broadcasters convention in April, U.S. Ambassador-at-large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback identified China as a particularly oppressive, systematic persecutor of Christians, demonstrated by the destruction of churches and the arrest of pastors and religious adherents.

    “Unfortunately, the United States is one of the few countries willing to stand up to China,” Brownback said. “We need more allies to stand up to them, particularly on these issues of human rights and religious persecution.”

    Christian communicators, he emphasized, play an important role in combating religious persecution and alerting the public of the sobering reality Christians around the world face every day.

    “We need a grassroots uprising saying, ‘No more to religious persecution. No more,'” Brownback said. “It’s through the reporting and story-telling that you do, of organizations like yours that can serve as catalysts for advocacy.”

    Revelation 11

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    After watching the week long tour of duty the IDF has been conducting against the heathen who have tossed some three thousand plus bathtubs at Israel, the accuracy of the Gazan rockets equate to throwing a bathtub. I was reading in Revelation 11, here I reread these ancient Scriptures ” 1. And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.
    2. But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.”

    At some point in the near future the current edifice on the Temple Mount is going to be no more and the above mentioned version of the temple will be built…

    I saw some reports about the edifice now there was on fire when in fact it was simply a tree nearby had caught fire, so some so-called prophecy bluffs were rejoicing thinking the Revelation 11 prophecy was close to fulfillment, nice to see reality slap them in the face again.

    God’s timeline isn’t ours and Christians need to stop trying to put God in our glass, whether limiting Him or thinking we’re going to push His timeline into our own perspective of where it should be. This continous pushing of timelines and imminent violence or doom causes more harm than good because it nullifies the senses of reasonable minds and creates a deadening of a heart the Spirit may be able to reach.

    Is prophecy being fulfilled, I think it is, but generally it’s recognized after the fact. Is God sending modern day folks to warn His people and the lost to repent? Without a doubt He is, has, and will continue doing so until the end.

    The temple mentioned in chapter 11 is often referred to as a criteria for this and that to happen. Myself, it’ll happen in it’s own time. The next few verses speak of the two witnesses or two olive tree figures who’ll minister for a little over three years. Their ministry, lives, and deaths are recorded as events occurring around and by inference, during the time of the above mentioned temple rebuilding. First half or second half of the so called Tribulations, only the Father knows for sure, but suffice to say, these events, like all of Scripture is a guaranteed event likely to happen sooner than later.

    So. Now echoing through the Scripture is the Spirit of God calling you or someone you know, His love as expressed and evidenced in the records of His Son Jesus, is calling. How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation!!! Salvation based on a simple fact, that we are sinners and in need of repentance, Jesus paid that price with His blood, as the figurative lamb of God, we are saved by His sacrifice on the cross and His resurrection. We are forgiven by His love, we are saved by His grace, all that is needed is for us to accept this gift of forgiveness and life and ask Jesus into our hearts, turning ( repenting ) from our sins or evil… and it’s done, we belong in God’s family. We are adopted children by faith/belief in the saving power of Jesus the Christ.

    All else is secondary to our life with and in God. Loving God and loving our neighbors are the two criteria that’s proof of our changed heart. On these two records hangs all of the ancient laws and prophets. If anything or anyone disregards one or both of these two things they are liars and false in their testimony.

    So whether the temple of chapter 11 arrives from the current events or at a later time, Praise the Lord God in Heaven. What we are seeing is only a prelude to what’s coming down the pike for believers.

    Take care and God bless.