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CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH



Kenya: Grenade attack on church in Garissa kills two


BBC News reports: “Two people have been killed in a grenade attack on a church in an eastern Kenyan town.

At least three others were injured after the grenade was thrown into the compound of the East African Pentecostal Church in Garissa.

Another bomb was placed near a military base in the town earlier, but failed to detonate.

Police suggested the attack could have been carried out by Islamist extremists sympathetic to Somalia-based al-Shabab.

Ibrahim Makunyi, head pastor of the church in Garissa, said a house near the entrance of the church that belonged to a church elder had been bombed…” (Dr. Dave Williams, pastor of the great “Assembly of God” mega-church in Lansing, Michigan had a speaker from Kenya who told the audience that the new Muslim terrorist group al-Shabab has begun killing multiplied Christians in Kenya and said: “It is the voice of Dr. Jack Van Impe that brings comfort to our hearts through his telecasts.” I wept tears of compassion as I realized how God is using Rexella and me. PTL! – Jude 1:3, 4, 10, 14, 15; James 1:12; Revelation 2:10.)


Concerns for Christians in Tunisia as Islamists take most votes


ChristianToday.com reports: “There are concerns that the freedom of Christians will be compromised in the new Tunisia after the runaway success of Islamists in the country’s first free elections.

Preliminary results show that the Ennahda (Renaissance) Party has won up to 40 per cent of the votes cast in the election, making it the largest party in the new 217-seat Constituent Assembly.

Tunisia is the first of the Arab Spring countries to hold free elections. Although Ennahda has taken the greatest share of the votes, it is expected to fall short of an absolute majority, meaning that it will have to seek coalition partners.

The party has reportedly already entered into coalition talks with Ettakatol and the Congress for the Republic, two left-of-centre parties that came in just behind Ennahda in the election.

Dr Raouf Ghattas, who spent four years in Tunisia with International Mission Board, said that although Ennahda is regarded as moderate, its links to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt are a cause for concern…” (Great persecution will inundate the world soon as Islamic terrorists slaughter Christians in most Muslim nations – Revelation 6:9; 13:15; 20:4.)


Europe’s political leaders condemn crackdown on Copts


ChristianToday.com reports: “Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have condemned the massacre of peaceful protesters in Egypt and Syria, and have passed a resolution this week calling for authorities in the nations to do more to protect vulnerable and targeted Christian communities.

MEPs voted by a show of hands to pass the resolution on the escalating situations in Egypt and Syria, and highlighted in particular the recent slaughter of Christians in Egypt that saw dozens massacred by government army personnel.

Reports indicate that tens of thousands of Coptic Christians have fled Egypt in the past six months. Most have left fearing for their lives as Islamic extremists attack Christian churches and residences with increasing regularity and ferocity…” (The Copts are the Catholic believers in Egypt. Recently the terrorists marched in their main church during Mass, killed the priests in front of the congregation and murdered most of those gathered to worship the Lord Jesus Christ. See Matthew 24:9 and John 16:2.)


Quebec’s new secular norm: fines for worship


The National Post reports: “On a Sunday morning two years ago, Paula Celani and about 80 members of her Catholic lay group gathered in a hall they had rented from the city. They watched an inspirational video, they prayed, they celebrated mass and they capped it off with a potluck lunch. ‘We had a beautiful day,’ Ms. Celani recalls.

But now that beautiful day has generated a nasty court battle after she was hit with a $144 ticket from the city, which alleged her event was illegal because it involved religious worship.

Her lawyer advised Montreal municipal court that he will challenge the fine on constitutional grounds…

John Zucchi, a McGill University history professor who is president of the non-profit group that organized the 2009 event, said the case against Ms. Celani is evidence of state secularism gone overboard.

‘I think there is something wrong here when you’re renting space for private use that you cannot be free to do what is very important to you,’ he said ‘There’s this idea that there’s a new norm in Quebec, a secular norm, that we are all supposed to subscribe to.’…” (Jesus predicted such animosity – Matthew 5:10 – 12; II Timothy 3:12.)


Persecuted Christian? Don’t expect these pastors to speak up


WorldNetDaily.com reports: “About half of all the pastors in America’s churches today do not want to tell their congregations that there are forces in the world that persecute Christians for their beliefs, because it’s a ‘downer,’ according to the results of a startling new poll.

The Barna Research Associates survey, commissioned by Open Doors USA, says a significant majority of American Christians, some three out of four, want to hear about the persecuted church.

But the same study showed that 52 percent of America’s pastors don’t want to talk about persecution and have no plans to talk about it.

In the nationwide poll of more than 800 Christians, 74 percent of America’s churchgoers want to hear about the persecuted church.

But the same survey said only 48 percent of the pastors want to discuss the issue.

Open Doors President Carl Moeller says the survey shows that American Christians are not isolationists.

‘Much of what we’ve been hearing from people and in my experience of speaking with people all over the country would indicate that American Christians really want to know what’s happening to their brothers and sisters in Christ all around the world, particularly those that are suffering for their faith in Christ,’ Moeller said…” (God forgive these spineless, jellyfish, carnal ministers who stand for nothing. Revelation 3:15 – 19 describes them. Verse 19 – “Repent!”)


Christian church teams up with high priestess of Isis


WorldNetDaily.com reports: “A Protestant church in California is coming under fire from some Christians over its upcoming conference featuring ‘guided meditations’ by a high priestess of the pagan fertility goddess Isis.

The fifth annual ‘Faith and Feminism Conference’ taking place Nov. 11–13 is being hosted by the Ebenezer Lutheran Church in San Francisco, which bills itself as ‘herchurch.’

Among the scheduled participants is Loreon Vigne, high priestess of Isis Oasis – a temple, retreat and animal sanctuary Vigne founded in 1978 in Geyserville, Calif.

‘I personally see Isis as Mother Nature,’ Vigne told WND, ‘and that she encompasses everything with her wings. She’s a winged goddess. She encompasses any other goddess from any culture.’

Vigne, who plans to bring several other priestesses to the conference, will conduct prayers, songs and meditation.

‘Guided meditation is where the audience closes their eyes and you take them on a little journey,’ she explained. ‘I’ve taken people to their past lives in Egypt, as [that culture] had all the secrets. They’re the ones that knew. Their main concept is to know thyself, know thy heart, know thy soul and know thy purpose.’…” (The above blasphemy is shocking. Martin Luther would take care of such Lutheran leaders in a second. I can hear him now. “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?” – Matthew 23:15, 33.)