CHINA: Party members warned

CHINA: Party members warned

Warning Over Religious Believers in Chinese Communist Party Ranks

The ruling Chinese Communist Party has warned that any of its members who harbor religious beliefs or take part in religious activities could become the targets of its powerful disciplinary arm.

In an opinion article published at the weekend, May 24, the newsletter of the party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), said the problem of religious believers within party ranks is “attracting serious concern.”

“The fact that a small number of party members have forsaken the party’s world view of dialectical materialism and have turned to religion is now attracting serious concern, to the extent that it now falls within the purview of disciplinary work,” the article, published on Sunday, said.

“Marx himself stated baldly that communism, in essence, begins with atheism,” the China Discipline Inspection Report article said.

“There can be no doubt about the fact that the founding ideological principle that Communist Party members cannot be religious believers has been upheld by our party from the outset,” the paper said.

China’s Communist Party members number 86.7 million, some six percent of the country’s population, second only to the 88 million claimed by India’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), according to figures released in 2014.

According to the article, party members don’t enjoy any right to religious freedom, a right which many religious believers complain is routinely violated by officials across the country.

“Chinese citizens have the freedom of religious belief, but Communist Party members aren’t the same as regular citizens; they are fighters in the vanguard for a communist consciousness,” the paper said.

“They are firm Marxists, and also atheists.”

“That’s why it has been clearly stated in party rules that Communist Party members may not hold religious beliefs, nor must they take part in religious activities,” the article warned.

Beijing Protestant house church member Xu Yonghai said the article shows growing concern among party leaders that many in the rank and file of the party have quietly ceased to believe in communism, prompted by the political violence of the Mao era and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) crackdown that ended the 1989 pro-democracy movement.

“Since the Cultural Revolution [1966-1976] and June 4, 1989, a lot of people have lost their faith in communism,” Xu said.

“Many of them went on to find an authentic faith, and became Protestant Christians,” he said. “Back in the 1990s, a lot of people wanted to leave the party, but later on they found that they couldn’t.”

“Either they weren’t allowed to, or it was made very difficult for them, so that’s why we now have this problem,” Xu said, adding: “Genuine believers in communism are few and far between, nowadays.”

According to Beijing-based Protestant pastor Liu Fenggang, this loss of faith reaches right to the highest echelons of party leadership.

“We frequently come across this issue in our missionary work,” Liu said. “For many years now, a lot of Chinese officials and Communist Party members and their families have been turning to Jesus.”

He said the reason was a large number of “political mistakes” made by the party since it came to power more than 60 years ago.

“They have made so many mistakes, both on the left and the right,” Liu said, adding that many party members who converted had persecuted Christians in the past.

“Our churches are still the targets of atheist persecution, for example, the forced demolition of crosses,” Liu said, adding that the party seems determined to step up controls on religious practice in China.

“It is likely that the situation will get worse and worse,” he said.

In the southern city of Guangzhou, Protestant pastor Ma Zhao said his entire congregation had been held in a local police station for around four hours on Sunday after officials from the local religious affairs bureau ruled his unofficial house church gatherings illegal.

“They were very rude and said we were breaking the law,” Ma said. “They wouldn’t listen to anything we said, but they just kidnapped all of us, two to each person.”

“They took us all out, and when we tried to film or take photos, they confiscated our cameras,” he said, adding that his group has come under increasing pressure to join the government-approved Three Self Association of Chinese Protestant churches.

China has an army of officials whose job is to watch over faith-based activities, which have spread rapidly in recent decades amid sweeping economic and social change, sparking official fears that foreign ideas are increasingly gaining traction among the country’s 1.3 billion population.

Party officials are put in charge of Catholics, Buddhists, Taoists, Muslims, and Protestants. Judaism isn’t recognized, and worship in non-recognized temples, churches, or mosques is against the law.

The CCDI article comes after President Xi Jinping warned a high-level ideological conference last week that the development of religion in China should be “independent of foreign influence.”

“Christian congregations have expanded since churches began reopening after the Cultural Revolution,” the party-backed Global Times newspaper said in a recent commentary.

“Religion can be easily used by hostile external forces, especially among separatists in Tibet and Xinjiang autonomous regions, to infiltrate Chinese society, and that may impact the stability of the country,” the paper paraphrased Xi as saying.

It accused exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama of “plotting” to seek independence for the Himalayan region, by urging “foreign forces” to put pressure on the Chinese governance.

“Those who hold prejudice against China’s political system often have twisted feelings toward the development of religion in the country,” the paper said.

“But religions are not a tool for them to challenge authority,” it said.

In recent months, authorities in the eastern city of Wenzhou have carried out an ongoing demolition program targeting large and highly visible churches and crosses in the city, which is home to an estimated one million Chinese Christians.

Party leaders in the city, dubbed “China’s Jerusalem,” last week threatened to expel members who put religious beliefs ahead of ideology in a “rectification” campaign.

“Those who lack ideals and beliefs, lose party concepts, do not have the qualifications for party members (and) will resolutely be expelled,” the document, posted online last Thursday, said.

Last year, the U.S. State Department’s religious freedom report said Chinese authorities routinely restrict the activities of independent Catholics, Tibetan Buddhists, and Uyghur Muslims, as well as Protestant groups.

Apostolicity 10

Apostolicity
The heralding of the crucified God
Chapter 10
The Father – A cross in his heart

This is the apostolic conundrum – God carrying a cross in his heart.
Philip, one of the apostles in formation, asked hesitantly and with serious intent: “Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us.” Knowing the Father, the knowledge of the Holy, settles all things, it “sufficeth us”. Knowing, intimate knowledge, orders all things. And, there is a cross at the core of this revealing. Our God ought to be strong – we say, a true warrior, an overcomer – and so He is, because of the cross, because of the weakness displayed in the cross.

The mystery at the heart of it all is the continuity of the cross. It is there, in His heart, before Calvary. It is there as a burden for His people during their pilgrimage. It is present throughout eternity as a redeeming reality, as the moral factor – a people dressed in white, praising Him as the Righteous and Holy One. They all sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying: “Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest.”

The protocol of Heaven, the sending of the Son, fulfills one central purpose, which is the revealing of the Father – the consummation thereof to be found in the “I have manifested thy name”. The Father speaks ultimately and exhaustively in and through the Son. He speaks attributes and character, He speaks redemptive purposes in righteousness, He speaks wisdom, a wisdom opposed and contrary to the laborious thinking of this world. The Son’s showing forth of the heart of the Father in the emptying of Himself for redemptive purposes reveals, in no shaded or uncertain terms, the very glory and greatness of the triune God. The beauty of holiness is brought to its optimum in the combining of truth and righteousness together with grace and humility. What a glorious protocol, this protocol of Heaven, to be captured and heralded by men who have learnt to behold and to consider.

“All things are delivered to me by my Father; and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.” Matt 11:27
“We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world to our glory.” 1 Cor 2:7

The knowing of the Father is to be given to men in the Son, and the seeing of the glory in the Son is bestowed to men by the Father. That which belongs to heavenly protocol, that which holds eternal reality and value must by necessity be sent into this dense world as revelation, as a gift from above. No man can take it, such a person will break it – fragile as it is. No man will stand as a possessor of any of these eternal values – each and every part of it has to be humbly received as the giving from above proceeds according to heavenly measure. The mystery of apostolicity rests on the process of heavenly mercy in the giving and sending. The Father’s sending of the Son is an eternal investment, the glory of the Father waited expectantly for the obedience of the Son. The sending of apostolic men is, according to the first sending, a matter of investing of eternal values in fragile vessels, learning the obedience of the Son, Jesus Christ, for the glory of the Father to be revealed and established as solid testimony.

The ministry of beholding
“We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” 2 Cor 3:18

Apostolic ministry rests in the beholding of the glory of the Lord, it rests in the constant flow of light in the face of the Father. The light in the face of the Father changes the face of the beholder, he dares to stand unveiled. The character of the one beholding the face of the Father changes, it changes into likeness – and the mirror reveals a cross, the “bright mirror” helps identify and magnify the cross in the heart of God. The beholding of the glory of the Lord invites to a journey, to a journey into the heart of God – and there is a standing invitation to begin such a perilous effort. And we say “perilous”, because the cross confronts the pilgrim in each and every fraction of the way. The Lord invites to manhood, – he is still searching for men after His own heart.

The Lord is in search after men of His own heart to be recruited for an extra-ordinary seeing, for an intrinsic knowing of God as He is. The ministry of beholding will ruin their former categories, it will devastate whatever there is of compatibility with the world and its common wisdom. The perceiving of theirs will change fundamentally from a trivialized perspective to an eternal seeing and sensing. The light in the Father’s face will lift the heart and the thinking away from that which is sensual and sensational into realms of propheticness, into a realm where words have become weighty and meaningful. The ministry of beholding creates a mode of mindful observing, a watching and watchfulness befitting a man of God in his serving of pilgrims on their way towards the city which their Lord has prepared.

The eternal cross
“You were not redeemed with corruptible things, silver or gold, from your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot; indeed having been foreknown before the foundation of the world, but revealed in the last times for you.” 1 Pet 1:18-20

Peter, the simple fisherman, had learned by revelation a few foundational things which not many men were able to see. His learning came with the breakings of his and with the ministry of beholding. He wrote about them to be pondered in the Church for the correcting of its view of the Father. The one-attribute-god was nowhere to be found with the apostle Peter. He turned the Creator/Saviour-view upside down for the many to stand perplexed. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are indeed painted as the suffering and crucified God before the creation of the world. They not only knew the gruesome outcome of the acts of creating, they included the advantages gained by a sacrificial suffering in their calculating – a redemptive operation, exclusive and conclusive, meant as a creative phase following creation – a creative phase in the bringing forth of one new man.

Dear reader, this author is, of course, at loss as to words, as to understanding but not as to a heart moved, deeply moved, by the superiority of greatness in the seeing of the cross firmly established in the hearts of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit way back in eternity, well beyond and before the creative efforts and spoken words setting the redemptive operation in motion in the bringing forth the vastness of the universe. The setting up of the stage for the “bringing many sons unto glory” is indeed a master piece of light, of holiness, of wisdom and of love. ”It became Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the author of their salvation perfect through sufferings.” The revealing and the beholding of the cross in its eternal perspective are devastating – Isaiah produced ample words: “Then I said, Woe is me! For I am undone; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, Jehovah of Hosts.”

The matter of the cross in the Father’s heart is one quintessential, a constituting element which comprises apostolic reality. It is the ministry of beholding which brings the light of eternity to illuminate facts settled in heavenly protocol. The Scriptures, opened by the ministry of beholding, holds treasures of immense value. Fantasy has no, absolutely no part in the process of the revealing of the cross in the Father’s heart. Apocalyptic writings, and there were plenty at the time of the Lord’s first coming, adds no single thing to the apostolic writings which we hold in our hands as the New Testament. The matter of beholding the cross in the Father’s heart brings forth an anguish, a breath-taking search for the applying of absolutes, of pure truth, in the gatherings of the pilgrims. Apostolic reality does not allow for any kind of obstruction of the foundational element in the Christian faith, which is the eternal cross.

In the apostolic realm are all things weighted by eternal values. Its categories are at every moment a challenge. It causes a trembling. The awareness of the cross in the Father’s heart, seeing the sending of the Son in the perspective of a fellowship which had been growing and developing during days immeasurable – then interrupted by a humbling, by an emptying, by an obedience unto death, by the deepest humiliation and experience of a dying and a death on a cross, – this awareness, the seeing of these things in the light of the Father’s face causes a continuous trembling before the Word of the Lord. The apostolic realm is weighted by the cross, and the light shining forth from it – an overwhelming perspective which provokes and challenges unto breaking and invites to a pilgrimage into the heart of God – a walk in the light.

Being brought to His seeing
Paul, the apostle, prayed: “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him.” Eph 1:17

The process set forth for the bringing of a man into the realm of seeing as God sees is presented to us as a pilgrimage towards Zion, as an ascent unto the Holy Hill. The man of God may be characterized as a lifting of the man into the purposes of the Lord. It is not ours by the reading good books, it is not ours by the use of techniques of faith and believing. It involves a willful turning aside to behold a bush burning, but not consumed. It certainly involves a wrestling amidst perplexity. In it there is an ongoing dying away from that which belongs to the old nature and to the worlds and its powers. There are those who speak about the cross, the cross in the Father’s heart in the same fashion as Peter spoke about building huts on the Mount of transfiguration – it is all good, it is a marvelous setting, but the poor fellow had no idea of what went on between the Father and the Son in the final preparing for the crucifixion.

Being brought to His seeing involves a radical apprehension of things eternal, of things holding utter significance and value. It involves an unveiled seeing of the horror of sin, a seeing of man as he is in his unredeemed state of being, a seeing of casualties increasing at a tremendous rate. An inadequate sense and seeing of sin is indeed an inadequate sense and seeing of the Holy One. There is a seeing of the marriage, the Lamb and His bride – the glorious opening towards Eternity, and then a seeing of the nations gulping from the cup of fornication. It is the breakpoint between that which is to be made righteous and that which is unwilling for redemption.

The cross is a horrendous instrument of execution; the Son takes it on in an obedience far beyond man’s understanding and capacity. The cross is a sign of utter glory, the beginning of the beauty of holiness. The cross is the very token of the vindication of God, and it is the very weapon annihilating the forces of evil. It is the pivotal point in the redemptive operation set in motion before time for the purpose of bringing many sons to glory. Who is sufficient for the taking in of all this?? And, what about our cross to be carried anew each day – a plastic, sentimentalized, similitude which will immediately break when pressure is applied, or the real thing which will be of foundational help in the formation of men and women for their corporate testimony. The reality of the cross is to be gathered as the Father comes alongside to reveal His perspective and to provide parts and impressions from his own heart as a source of overcoming.

Wisdom from God
“We have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God.” 1 Cor 2:12
“The preaching of the cross is to them that perish, foolishness; but to us who are saved, it is the power of God.” 1 Cor 1:18

The wisdom of God, present and uncompromised from before the beginning of the world, defines and classifies the wisdom of this world as being utterly offensive, as being repugnant, framed and motivated by every force of iniquity. From the heavenly viewpoint its existence is without value or weight, an item deserving no other fate than a wholesome eradication and annihilation. The tension between the two wisdoms, the wisdom of God, expressed in the cross of Jesus Christ, and the wisdom of the world to be shown in its revulsion against godly living is forever resolved in the redemptive humility resident in Heaven, in the heart of God. The wisdom of God is explicit foolishness to the world and its forces, but its weakness proves to be stronger than the fiercest mobilization of power. True testimony is martured living, a living by the expressing of the humility of God in all its simplicity and sacred wisdom. The cross of Jesus Christ, the humility of God, is brought forth as an eternal factor to oppose unto annihilation the powers of the world and the way of life offered by them.

The wisdom of the Lord brings a seeing, by which man’s exploits and efforts are to be regarded as tedious, aimless as well as powerless, carried on in a constant opposition to the wisdom of Heaven, a wisdom which is settled from before time. God reduces the wisdom of the world to stand foolish – tasteless, like salt without saltiness. The apostle Matthew sets forth words regarding a salty testimony as opposing the powers of the world as well as the uselessness of salt without flavour. Paul paints the conflict between the two wisdoms by using the same concept – a war between salty values and a wisdom which is devoid of value. He speaks about the wisdom of the world as set forth and upheld by weak and beggarly spiritual forces. None of them are, at any time, to be engaged in redemptive efforts. All of them are to be regarded as weak elements to be sharply counteracted by priestliness, by the humility which is to be found in the heart of God – and there only.

The conflict between the two wisdoms is summarized in the opposition between a self-focused lifestyle and the priestly view – in priestliness, which is ready to give, to support and to act sacrificially for redemptive purposes. The wisdom of this world is designed to induce aspirations for position, for possessions and prestige. It plays on man’s cravings for identity and belonging, for recognition and endorsement. The weak and beggarly forces of this world also operate through segmentation and fragmentation. Each and every man given the right to formulate his own measure and to build his own fortress. And the armament race – efforts for the securing belongings and realms of influence – is on at every level, in every petty kingdom leaving no area of existence excluded.

The wisdom of God – the humility of the crucified life resident as a vital part of the nature of God. The wisdom of God – a revealing of the truth about God, a revealing of heavenly servanthood in mercy and meekness. The wisdom of God, set forth by the Holy Spirit – the Spirit of sacrificial living. The wisdom of God – redemptive efforts, a salvation to the uttermost presented in priestliness, perfectly presented in the Son.

The Cross of Christ: A complete devastation of the wisdom of the world. The Cross of Christ: A radical change of direction, a foundational shift in the perceiving of life and eternity. The cross of Jesus Christ: A daily considering of values and approach as the implications of the cross are to be apprehended and applied in the life of the pilgrim.

The wisdom of Heaven, the wisdom of God, provides categories of humility and godliness which dispatches the pilgrim far beyond the reach of the world. It induces a priestly insistence, even a jealousy, for the things which will only be sent from and come down from Heaven. Apostolicity holds a high-priestly regard and reverence for the things sent from Heaven. The apostolic man learns to wait until the sending is a radical fact in tangible measures.

The apostolic man prepares for a passing through of experiences of a formative kind, experiences which will leave him hungry for more of the humility which is only to be found in the heart of God. His journey into the heart of God will bring him to an attaining of consistency and correspondence which is not to be found under the wisdom of the world. Apostolic men belong to eternity, they are made guardians of eternal values. They shun the captivity which the world presents as liberties – temporal values vastly exaggerated as to importance and comfort by which souls are made merchandise. These rare men know the eternal weight of glory which makes present afflictions momentary and light.

Apostolicity, the ministry of the quiet life
The Father’s perspective, His personal view and experience: A cross which defines eternal values in the setting forth of combinations of attributes before which the world and its wisdom must bow. Heaven brings righteousness and redemption into marvelous cooperation, it combines holiness and mercy in an interaction of utmost beauty, it sets forth truth and humility as a team invincible. These pairs are impossibilities on earthly ground. It takes a cross to send them into functional operation. The crucified God regard them to be eternal values, meant to substantiate the spirituality, the quiet life, of the heavenly city, His Zion.

At the table of the Lord, a heavenly meal is readily served. Its spiritual components are there in tangible form. The breaking of the Lord, the humility of the Lord is there to be handled as a piece of bread. His covenant, His everlasting will to cover His people and to fulfill His redemptive purposes are there, represented in the cup to be lifted in perfect reverence. The meal is ever present among His saints as a declaration of His humility and His breaking – until He returns to Zion. The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of holiness and of sacrifice is ever present to produce substantial maturity and godliness according to the cross of the Lord – the cross, which indeed is heavenly protocol. The meal is a declaration of the sovereign Lordship of Christ, on the basis of His humility and obedience unto utter sacrifice.

The brokenness of God brings forth to show the ugliness, the grossest manifestation of the iniquity expressed among men. The humility of God, superbly settled by the obedience of the Son, directs men towards Heaven, towards the heavenly city, in an ascent marked by the beauty of holiness. Pertinent questions are ever present among true saints: “How do we handle His continuous brokenness over sin?” “How do we relate to His holiness, His humility?” “By what measure do we value the work of the cross of Jesus Christ?” He, the Lord, is continuously praying for the redemptive operation to produce thorough impact, as “He is able to save to the uttermost them that draw near unto God through him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.” The cross of Christ does not change the heart of God, it is an everlasting expression of it. To us is offered a companionship, a fellowship in His sufferings, an apostolic “for me to live is Christ”.

Apostolic living, a church in its maturity and sobriety, is a configuration of relations where hearts are laid bare, where walls are broken down, where masks are torn asunder and where character is reoriented. A “for me to live is Christ”, a “for us to live is Christ” engages the cross in thorough and continuous work. True fellowship is by necessity a suffering under the cross before it is made able to harbor the glory of the cross. From what source are we drawing forth the many-coloured feelings and experiences which we commonly call “glory”? The breaking is the evidence of God present – the labour of love and sacrifice following the breaking is the projected outcome according to heavenly protocol. The tears of joy which follow the breaking and the labour of love is a most precious component of the beauty of holiness. Apostolic preaching as well as living brings forth the three phases in sequence as well as in fullness.

We always find a priestly waiting at the heart of maturity. We find a priestly waiting at the heart of apostolicity. Priestly waiting precedes a sending, it is the foundational preparing for a sending as well as for a receiving of eternal values. In the waiting on God, the worship which truly pleases Him has its ever-lasting hiding-place. In the waiting on God in humility, the sending has its birth-place. Corporate stillness, saints gathered for a corporate waiting on God creates and establishes a body which God can address unto a sending. Amidst the consensus created by the Spirit of Holiness, God finds a sacred place for His Word as well as for His ability to speak a sent word for the sake of a solemn testimony. For such a miracle to take place and to be seen by the many, God mobilizes heavenly humility and truth under the cross of Christ amidst His saints.

Apostolicity – the ministry of the crucified life. Apostolicity – the ministry of the quiet life. Apostolicity – the ministry of corporate life under the cross. Apostolicity – the heralding of the crucified God.

Heavenly protocol: A redemptive perspective.
The redeemer coming to Zion, to continue His redemptive efforts out of Zion.
Isa 59:20, Rom 11:26

Heavenly protocol: A heavenly perspective, a solemn assembly, a priestly community.
Joel 2:15-18, Isa 56:6-7, Isa 58:6-8, Isa 61:1-3

Heavenly protocol: A prophetic perspective, an apocalyptic perspective
A proper seeing of roots and sources, an ability to discern as well as an expectant waiting for the King, for the throne and for righteous rule to be established in Zion.
Rev 10:7

Reading: Rev 15:3-4, Mark 10:45, Joh 17:6, Acts 13:22, Hebr 2:10, Isa 6:5, Phil 2:5-8, Isa 66:5, 1 Joh 3:8, Col 2:14-15, 1 Kor 1:19-21, Matt 5: 13, Gal 4:9, Hebr 7:25, Phil 3:10, Phil 1:21

Christians and Jews unite

Christians and Jews unite to fight Islamic persecution
By Ruth Kramer
October 22, 2014

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria is still advancing.

Since their offensive attacks began four months ago, ISIS has given followers of Christianity who live in the towns they take a choice: Convert to Islam, pay a tax to remain in these communities as Christians, leave, or ultimately die.

For the Muslim-Background Believers, regardless of their choice, militants have ruthlessly attacked or killed them anyway.

Hundreds of thousands of Christians fleeing before the ISIS onslaught are at risk of freezing or starving to death. They can’t go home. They can’t move anywhere else because of the presence of ISIS. It begs the question: Is there a future for Christians in Iraq?

Christian communities that survived for almost 2,000 years in the country are on the brink of extinction as they are forced to leave their homes. The fate of Christians in Syria mirrors what happened in Iraq in the last decade.

Many are suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Depression is rampant in the refugee settlements. Erbil and Dohuk are filled with haunted faces. Government aid isn’t reaching many. Smaller Non-Government Organizations are trying to reach those who’ve fallen through the cracks, but it seems like there are more fissures than solid ground for these survivors.

Money to help isn’t pouring in…and cutbacks are starting to take effect. So who will speak for their desperate situation? How about the two faith groups most targeted by ISIS in the Middle East?

Todd Nettleton, a spokesman for the Voice of the Martyrs USA, says, “This is the first time that Jewish leaders, the leader of the World Jewish Congress, as well as evangelical Christian leaders, the president of Oral Roberts University, came together to speak about Christian persecution.” Prominent leaders of both groups representing global organizations signed a historic joint initiative this month calling on world leaders to take action against ISIS, and to do more to protect the vulnerable populace. “The two groups SHOULD be working together. They SHOULD be speaking out together because they both are at risk as radical Islam gains influence and gains power.”

The announcement came during the Feast of Tabernacles, which commemorates the 40-year period during which the children of Israel were wandering in the desert, living in temporary shelters. Nettleton explains that the public announcement sends a message to the world: “Both of them say, ‘This is important. We all need to speak out about this, particularly the situation for Christian minorities in the Middle East, (and) the persecution that they’re facing under the threat of radical Islam in that part of the world.”

Noting that the press conference did not include speeches from foreign dignitaries or heads of state, aside from the president of Israel Reuven Rivlin, Nettleton says that’s exactly the point. “The hope is that this will draw even more attention to the issue. It will draw Christians and Jews to really work side-by-side, to really speak out on behalf of persecuted Christians, influence our governments, speak about Christian persecution, and stand up for religious freedom in that part of the world.”

An estimated 800,000 Christians and other religious minorities in Iraq have been affected by the advancement of ISIS, and many have been forced to flee their homes to avoid genocide. VOM is currently assisting thousands of Christians in Iraq by sending humanitarian items like clothing, water, and food supplies.

Nigera: Boko Haram creates a caliphate

Nigera: Boko Haram creates a caliphate
By Ruth Kramer
August 26, 2014

Emboldened by the success of the Islamic State, Boko Haram has named its own caliphate.

Boko Haram forces have killed thousands since launching an uprising in 2009. They are seen as the biggest security threat to the continent’s leading energy producer. Todd Nettleton, spokesman for the Voice of the Martyrs USA, shares one concern about what happened. “What we’ve typically seen with Boko Haram is that they’ll attack and then pull back. They haven’t been one to try to take territory and try to control it on a regular basis.”

On 24 August, the group released the first video to state a territorial claim in more than five years of violent insurrection. It shows the violent take-over of Gwoza town in Borno State three days earlier. (Borno State, situated south west of Lake Chad, Nigeria.) Nettleton says, “If this is the first case of them doing that, it really does show a change of direction, and I think it shows the influence of the Islamic State and the influence that they’ve had.” World Watch Monitor reports that the group slaughtered over 100 people, including a prominent church leader, Pastor Musa Ayuba, from Church of Christ in Nations.

The WWM article also reported the arson of churches, shops, houses, and government buildings in the takeover. Hundreds of residents escaped to the surrounding mountains. But can they keep the territory they’ve taken? Nettleton explains, “I don’t think that Boko Haram has the manpower, or the military expertise, or the equipment to sweep through wide swaths of land in Nigeria and really maintain control.”

Nettleton goes on to say that the Islamic State will be tougher to dislodge for a number of reasons. “One of the things that IS has going for it is they have several of Saddam Hussein’s former military leaders that have signed on with them that are providing a lot of expertise. They also have almost unlimited funding.”

Still, it hasn’t deterred Boko Haram much. They’ve gotten help to organize and plan. They’ve executed a coordinated series attacks. Gwoza is also not the first attempt at establishing a caliphate in Nigeria. A month ago, the Nigeria Emergency Management Agency was alerted to an influx of more than 15,000 Internally Displaced People after Boko Haram overran Damboa. (The story also notes that the army has since driven Boko Haram out of Damboa).

Since then, Boko Haram intensified its campaign to eradicate Christians in the region, targeting several Christian places of worship.

Nettleton says just because they may not succeed the same way does not mean Boko Haram can be dismissed. They are every bit as brutal as the Islamic State. “If Boko Haram does follow through and really tries to establish a base of domination, and a base of radical sharia law, that really does pose a threat to the Christians who are there. They will either have to leave the area or move to some kind of underground or hidden status.”

VOM encourages believers to pray for the Christians of Nigeria.
Pray for their protection and safety as they gather to meet.

Egypt: Christians and the Muslim Brotherhood

Egyptian Christians, al-Sisi and the Muslim Brotherhood
By Katey Hearth
July 24, 2014

From June 2012 to late 2013, Egyptian Christians suffered greatly under the rise and subsequent fall of former President Mohammed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood: death threats, street fights, church burnings, vandalism and cold-blood murder.

“Morsi and his group, they are obeying Allah. He obeyed what Qur’an said: to fight, to kill unbeliever from family of Bible, meaning Jews and Christians,” explains Ahkmed, an Egyptian Muslim-background believer helped by Advancing Native Missions. Signs are pointing toward a repeat of that dark chapter.

Last year, it seemed a new day was rising with the military overthrow of Morsi led by former army chief and current Egyptian President, Abdul Fattah al-Sisi. Hopes quickly dimmed, though, when the path began clearing for al-Sisi to take the helm.

“Even though he overthrew a government dominated by Islamists,” warned Naval Professor Robert Springborg in a 2013 article published by the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations, “there is reason to suspect that Sisi’s true goal might not be the establishment of a…democracy but rather a military-led resurrection and reformation of the Islamist project that the Muslim Brotherhood so abysmally mishandled.”

Referencing Sisi’s only published work – a thesis written in 2006, Springborg builds a case for the leader’s possible plans for Egypt: “a hybrid regime that would combine Islamism with militarism.” He continues the argument in a May 2014 article, citing more examples of Sisi’s dedication to conservative Islamism.

“Sisi’s Egypt, in sum,” writes Springborg, “will be one in which religion will reinforce military authoritarianism and serve to justify repression of opponents.”

In other words, Islam would be used as an excuse to persecute “opponents,” namely Egyptian Christians. Whether Sisi’s rule follows the Muslim Brotherhood’s example: seeking to destroy Christians because they’re Christians, or, falls in the pattern set by Hosni Mubarak – widespread oppression of religious freedom.

Ahkmed’s ministry introduces Muslims to the Truth of God’s Word. He engages Muslims in conversation about Islam, then reveals why Jesus Christ is more than a prophet.

“Islam is spirit of deception. God gives us wisdom to destroy this spirit,” Ahkmed explains.

“Pray for Egypt and for Muslims,” requests Ahkmed. “Pray that God helps us and gives us boldness to speak to Muslims.

“Pray for people here in America that lose their time in front of Facebook, in front of TV…. Pray for Christian people in the western world. When Christians in the West becomes strong in faith, they will change all the world.”

Jihadist thinker on the Caliphate

Jihadist thinker says Islamic caliphate will cause Islamist infighting
Suleiman Al-Khalidi
July 2, 2014

Abu Mohammed al-Maqdisi, a Jordanian scholar who is one of the most influential voices in jihadist thought, warned on Wednesday, July 02, that a radical Islamist group’s declaration of a caliphate in Iraq and Syria would deepen already bloody infighting among jihadists.

The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) on Sunday, June 29, renamed itself the Islamic State and declared its leader “caliph” – the historical title of successors of the Prophet Mohammad who ruled the whole Muslim world – after its forces captured swathes of territory in a lightning drive across northern Iraq.

“Will this caliphate be a sanctuary for every oppressed one and a refuge for every Muslim?” Maqdisi asked in a posting on his website. “Or will this creation take up a sword against Muslims who oppose it, and with it sweep away all the emirates that came before… and nullify all the groups that do jihad in the cause of Allah in the different battlefields before them?”

Many in the online jihadist community had been waiting for Maqdisi’s views on ISIL’s advances, and Maqdisi himself said he had been lobbied by both advocates and opponents of the group.

The self-taught intellectual is widely seen as the spiritual guide of al Qaeda’s slain leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi; the think tank of the U.S. West Point military academy has called him the most influential living Islamist mentor.

The timing of his release from prison in Jordan last month, where he had served five years, prompted some Jordanian officials to suggest that authorities fearful of militancy spilling across their own border had wanted to let him speak out against the Islamic State.

In his posting, Maqdisi contrasted the self-styled caliphate where killing of Muslims was widespread with what he called the benign Islamic emirates proclaimed by Chechen jihadists or Mullah Omar, spiritual leader of the Afghan Taliban.

“When the brothers in the Caucasus declared their blessed emirate, they did not make anything obligatory on the Muslim masses … nor did they shed inviolable blood for this name or in this name,” he said.

Demanding allegiance
The Islamic State, led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, has urged jihadist factions worldwide to pledge their allegiance to it, in a direct challenge to regional leaders and to the central leadership of al Qaeda, which has disowned it.

Maqdisi said a worrying future now awaited jihadists fighting in Iraq and Syria under such a caliphate, where their lives would be threatened if they did not pledge allegiance.

The Islamic State emerged as an offshoot of al Qaeda in Iraq before expanding into Syria after the start of the uprising against Assad three years ago.

The expansion ignited battles with rival Islamist groups, including the al Qaeda-affiliate al-Nusra Front, in which thousands have died.

The Islamic State seized control of large parts of Syria’s eastern, oil-producing Euphrates River region, and since June 10 has added an expanse of adjoining population centers in Iraq.

Maqdisi said he feared the group would turn weapons captured from the Iraqi army against its rivals rather than against Shi’ite prime minister Nuri al-Maliki’s U.S.- and Iranian-backed government.

Maqdisi has also said the Islamic State’s extremist actions deviate from true Islam.

“My eyes are not pleased with the shedding of Muslim blood by any party in the circle of Islam, even if they (the targets) are violators,” he said.

“… We are warning you against mutilating the religion of Allah and corrupting and sullying it with the blood of the Muslims and the mujahideen (holy warriors),” he said.

In a landmark statement in 2005, shortly after being released from an earlier prison term, Maqdisi, spoke out against his former mentor Zarqawi, denouncing al Qaeda-style suicide bombings against Shi’ite civilians in Iraq.

INDIA: Christians attacked for challenging discrimination

INDIA: Christians attacked for challenging discrimination

Hindu extremists in Chhattisgarh state attacked 100 Christians when they dared to challenge the decision to deny them food rations because of their faith.

Ten believers had to be hospitalized and one was in a coma for two days after the vicious assault in Sirisguda village.

The violence started when government officials came to the village to investigate complaints made by local Christians that they had been denied food rations for several months. They alleged the village head had discriminated against them because of their faith.

Extremists chased officials away from the village and, soon afterwards, a large mob wielding sticks and stones and shouting Hindu slogans attacked the Christians. Aitu Mandavi, who was beaten unconscious, said his assailants told him he ‘deserved to die’ because he was a Christian.

The day after the attack the village head called a public meeting to declare that everyone should embrace Hinduism or their lands would be seized.
‘They may kill us, but we are not going to leave Jesus who loves us,’ said one Christian villager.

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Sudan: Reports claim Meriam Ibrahim ‘to be freed’

Sudan: Reports claim Meriam Ibrahim ‘to be freed’ from death-row

Meriam Ibrahim, the Sudanese woman sentenced to death for her Christian beliefs, will be freed in the next few days it was reported on Saturday night. The mother of two, who gave birth to a daughter on Tuesday while shackled in heavy chains, has been in jail since January.

The 27-year-old, whose young son Martin has also been forced to stay in prison with her, had been found guilty of apostasy, having married Daniel Wani, a Christian, who holds dual Sudanese-US citizenship. Her 2011 marriage was also annulled and Ibrahim was sentenced to 100 lashes for adultery.

Ibrahim told the court that she was raised a Christian after her Muslim father abandoned the family when she was a child. Her refusal to recant in the conservative Islamic country led to her death sentence by hanging, but in a dramatic turn of events Sudanese officials said her release was imminent. Abdullahi Alazreg, under-secretary at Sudan’s ministry of foreign affairs, said: “The related authorities in the country are working to release Meriam through legal measures. I expect her to be released soon.”

The announcement came on the back of international outrage that turned into a global campaign to save Ibrahim but her lawyers played down the announcement. “It’s a statement to silence the international media,” said Elshareef Ali Mohammed. “This is what the government does. We will not believe that she is being freed until she walks out of the prison.”

He said he had even heard reports that the spokesman was in the UK on medical leave when he told the BBC she would soon be freed: “If they were to release her, the announcement would come from the appeal court, not from the ministry of foreign affairs. But at least it shows our campaign to free Meriam is rattling them. We must keep up the pressure.”

Mark Simmonds, the Foreign Office’s Africa minister, said on Saturday that Britain was “putting intense pressure on the Sudanese government” to ensure her release: “Hopefully the international outrage will push the Sudanese authorities into a situation where they feel they have to release Meriam.”

David Cameron had joined political leaders around the world in condemning the Sudanese government’s actions. The prime minister said Ibrahim’s treatment was “barbaric and had no place in today’s world” and that the UK would “continue to press the government of Sudan to act”.

He said: “Religious freedom is an absolute, fundamental human right. I urge the government of Sudan to overturn the sentence and immediately provide appropriate support and medical care for her and her children.”

Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband had both said Ibrahim’s case was “abhorrent”, while Tony Blair described it as a “brutal and sickening distortion of faith”.

An Amnesty International petition asking the Sudanese government to halt Ibrahim’s execution attracted more than 200,000 signatures, and more than 600,000 people added their name to a separate petition on change.org.

Since her arrest, Ibrahim, a graduate of Sudan University’s school of medicine, has been held on death row with her son and since last week her newborn daughter Maya. She was pregnant at the time of her sentencing and was told that her death sentence would be deferred for two years to allow her to nurse her baby.

The case has led to debates over whether the government should continue giving foreign aid to Sudan. Former defence secretary Liam Fox said the UK should reconsider whether it was “acceptable” to give aid money to “states which allow treatment such as that handed out to Meriam Ibrahim”, but international development secretary Justine Greening said it was “totally perverse” to take away UK-funded food, water and other vital supplies to those worst affected.

“British aid to Sudan only goes on helping the very poorest Sudanese people via the UN and NGOs, and not a penny is given to the Sudanese government,” she said.

Sudan has a majority Muslim population and its legal system has been based on Islamic law since the 1980s.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: “We are urgently seeking clarification from the Sudanese authorities of reports that Meriam Ibrahim …is to be freed. We have been strongly urging the government of the Republic of Sudan to do all it can to overturn its decision to sentence her to death.”

North Korea

North Korea: Two dozen secret believers ready to risk their lives
Published by Katey Hearth
April 7, 2014

North Korea is the world’s worst persecutor of Christians, according to the Open Doors World Watch List. Despite this fact, believers are still risking their lives to further the Gospel. Two dozen secret believers are preparing for the mission field.

An underground ministry is planning to send out 24 church planters this year after they complete training. They all know that unless the Lord protects them, they will be killed or banished to hard labor in one of the world’s worst prison systems. Yet, even after counting the costs, they are willing to go.

All North Koreans are required to worship the current leader, Kim Jong-un, and his predecessors. This mandate leaves no room for other religions, and if Christians are discovered, they are subject to torture, labor camps, even public execution.

Despite these ever-present dangers, indigenous secret believers remain committed to the sharing the hope that can only be found in Jesus Christ. The ministry has reached, trained, and sent out more than 180 indigenous church planters since 2008. This year, they’ll add another 24 to that number.

Please pray for the spiritual development of these 24 secret Christians.
Ask the Lord to give them wisdom and discernment so they can successfully minister in extremely difficult conditions.
Pray for softened hearts that can receive the Gospel willingly, despite the danger.

When is the warfare over?

When is the warfare over?

When will the days come when a distinct voice, a prophetic voice, is to be sounding – perhaps even a corporate voice lifted in perfected unity, harmonizing, and with utter veracity and fidelity, a speaking in solemnity and with greatest joy regarding the final breaking away from the very things which substantiate that foul mystery of iniquity.

In the words of the prophet Isaiah: “Speak, ye priests, to the heart of Jerusalem; comfort her, for her humiliation is accomplished, her sin is put away”. Now, what does it take to speak these words? When are these words to be spoken? In what manner may the man with the mouth approach any of those Jews, for whom these words are designed? What kind of collective body will be able to bring the very truth of the matter, settled by words of this caliber?

When is the warfare over? The Lord announced beginnings, a progression of wars and rumours of wars, continual shakings and reoccurring devastations – beginnings which seem to have no end, grim progressions only to be the beginning of sorrows.
“All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then will they deliver you up to be afflicted, and will kill you: and ye will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And then will many be offended, and will betray one another, and will hate one another. And many false prophets will rise, and will deceive many. And because iniquity will abound, the love of many will become cold.”

What manner of men are we, what manner of Church are we, to speak with relevance amidst that which is to develop into what prophets of old defined as Jacob’s trouble – “the tribulation, the great”. Who can say with convicting assurance, “Your warfare is soon to be accomplished, your humiliation is about to come to an end.”? Who among us has been brought through the kind of death and resurrection, which settles the issue of reliability and hope amidst gravest affliction?

“When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads: for your redemption draweth nigh.”
Ours are days of hubris, of pride and self-exaggeration. Ours are days of sophisticated superstition, of a relying on faith techniques and artfully designed fraud and deception, parading as spirituality. Men growing towards spiritual maturity in Christ, are engaged by Heaven in an approach which differs greatly and fundamentally from the religious stance which causes a wide variety of expressions, including bravado and hysterics. The apostle Peter exhorted his readers as follows: “The end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch to prayer.”

What manner of Church are we, as we live during the days, when the end of all things is at hand? Do we engage in a quest for end-time “signs and wonders”, in a over-heated reading of the old prophetic texts? Do we regard every politically ambitious person or party, opposing our own private view, as a potential anti-christ? Hubris and/or hysterics are never recommended as an antidote amidst trouble. The Lord tells us to look up, to look for the Redeemer to come. He will come! How do we substantiate the true hope, which is ours to live by? How do we substantiate this prophetic hope, which is to affect the Jew in particular, to whom these promises were given and which are never to be revoked? Are we able to speak hope to Jerusalem amidst her final sifting? What manner of Church are we?

Lars Widerberg

Reading: 2 Thess 2:7, Isa 40:2-3, Matt 24:8-12, Matt 24:21, Jer 30:7, Luk 21:28, 1 Pet 4:7

(Go to my Facebook wall to find material regarding Israel and the Church in the latter days, about apostolicity and about prayer…)
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