CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH
2014: The Year of the Christian Genocide
January 5, 2015 — Breitbart.com reports: “The year 2014 saw more global persecution of Christians than any other year in recent history, and can only be compared to the first centuries when Christians were hunted down as criminals in the Roman Empire. The policy of the Emperor Diocletian, in fact, who reigned from 284-305AD, was remarkably similar to that taken by the Islamic State and Boko Haram: ‘Convert or die.’
A look around the globe reveals an unprecedented pattern of persecution that has shifted from isolated incidents of hostility to a systematic campaign to exterminate Christians in places where they have lived peacefully for centuries.
From the kidnapped school girls and massacres in Nigeria and the displacement of thousands in the Central African Republic, to the believers arrested for having a Bible study in Central Asia, to Meriam Ibrahim being sentenced to death in Sudan, to the ISIS slaughters, to the couple burned alive for blasphemy and hundreds of girls kidnapped in Pakistan, Christians throughout the world saw a major escalation in persecution in 2014…” (This report breaks my heart. My new video “Beware: False Prophets, Damnable Heresies, and Doctrines of Demons” tells the stories of the blasphemous practices by Wycliffe, SIL and Frontiers as they removed the Son of God passages 91 times and thus destroyed Christianity’s total message. God forgive these apostates who are thoroughly exposed in my new video study. Get an additional copy for your pastor. Here is what God thinks about these personalities: “Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.” I John 2:18 & 19. What does God call these translators? – “…He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son” – I John 2:22. This leads to eternal loss. Salvation is impossible if Christ is not the Son of God – I John 5:11 – 13. See the next four reports.)
Top 50 list of Christian persecutors
January 8, 2015 — WND.com reports: “As the Western world stands in shock at the brutal murder of magazine employees and police officers by radical Muslims in Paris, the new World Watch List suggests Islamic violence throughout the world is spawning the most significant increase in the persecution of Christians on record and that likely means more intense repression of all kinds is not far behind.
On Wednesday, Open Doors USA, one of the leading organizations serving the persecuted Christian church released the 24th World Watch List, which lists the 50 nations most fiercely persecuting Christians.
‘The 2015 Watch List documents the most dramatic increase in violence and persecution of Christians in the modern era. So it’s really dramatic,’ said Open Doors President and CEO Dr. David Curry.
Curry unveiled the World Watch List in Washington, but he is very concerned that leaders in the U.S. and elsewhere in the Western world fail to grasp the significance of this dramatic rise in the targeting of Christians and what it means for believers and nonbelievers down the road.
‘I really feel like the world just doesn’t get it,’ Curry said. ‘They don’t understand that the persecution of Christians is a major story, is a major issue. It’s growing, and it’s a lead indicator of where oppression is coming for everyone else. Everywhere you look where there’s a major outbreak in the world today, first it was Christians. That’s what happened in Iraq. For 10 years, they pushed Christians out (even before the rise of the Islamic State).’
He added, ‘Mark my words: If the world doesn’t wake up to this, it’s going to come their direction.’…”
Nearly 200 Christian churches destroyed in surge of violence
January 5, 2015 — WND.com reports: “There was a surge of anti-Christian violence by Muslims around the world that included the destruction of nearly 200 Christian churches in Nigeria during a short period around October, according to a new report from the GateStone Institute.
The organization’s Raymond Ibrahim, who has documented his discoveries in ‘Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War in Christians,’ released the assessment of the recent surge on Friday.
‘In just two months, from August to October, nearly 200 Christian churches were destroyed in Nigeria by the Islamic organization Boko Haram and its Muslim allies, after their capture of towns and villages in the northeastern states of Borno and Adamawa,’ the report said. ‘In the words of Rev. Gideon Obasogie, the director of Catholic Social Communication of Maiduguri Diocese in Borno State, ‘the group’s seizure of territory in both states has seen 185 churches torched and over 190,000 people displaced by [Boko Haram.]’…”
Syria rebels ‘burned down churches and destroyed Christian graves’
January 3, 2015 — Telegraph.co.uk reports: “Rain seeped into the tombs through shattered flagstones. Nearby, marble crosses lay in pieces. Plastic flowers, once lovingly placed on a grave, were torn and stamped into the earth.
Beside the desecrated graveyard in the Syrian town of Kessab stood the Holy Trinity Armenian Evangelical church. Its library, pews and altar had all been burned by arsonists.
The perpetrators had shown both purpose and glee in their destruction of Christian sites in this ancient Armenian town. Statues were riddled with bullets and Islamist slogans were scrawled across the walls of homes and shops.
Once a haven from Syria’s civil war, nestled in the hills of Latakia province, Kessab gained international fame when it was captured by rebels last spring in a surprise offensive that forced the town’s 2,500 Armenian Christians to flee…”
Militants kidnap Coptic Christians in Sirte
January 3, 2015 — BBC News reports: “Masked gunmen in northern Libya have kidnapped 13 Coptic Christian workers from Egypt, just a week after seven others were abducted.
Eyewitnesses in the city of Sirte said suspected Islamist militants went to a residential compound late at night and asked to see identification papers.
Christians were then separated from the Muslims before reportedly being handcuffed and kidnapped.
It is the latest in a series of attacks on Egyptian Christians in Libya.
One witness said 15 masked gunmen went from room to room in the residential complex at about 02:30 local time (04:30 GMT) on Saturday morning.
‘They had a list of full names of Christians in the building. While checking IDs, Muslims were left aside while Christians were grabbed,’ Hanna Aziz told the AP news agency.
Mr Aziz said he survived because he heard his friends screaming and didn’t open his door. ‘I am still in my room waiting for them to take me. I want to die with them,’
All of those taken are believed to be men…” (The Lord Jesus Christ predicted persecution and death for His faithful followers preceding His return to earth – “…when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held” – Revelation 6:9 and “…I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years” – Revelation 20:4.)