Christians

Preachers That Are Saying It Is ‘Anti-Christian’ To Get Prepared Are Being Exceedingly Irresponsible

Is it “anti-faith” to prepare for the very hard times that are coming? You would be surprised at how many Christians believe that this is true. Recently, I have been reading a number of articles by Christian leaders that take the position that Christians should not be preppers, and not too long ago I watched two very well known ministers actually mock the idea of preparing for the future on a major Christian television show. To me, this is exceedingly irresponsible. If you don’t want to do anything to get prepared for the very difficult years that are coming that is your business, but don’t urge multitudes of your fellow believers to go down that road with you.

In Matthew 24, Jesus describes what conditions will be like just prior to His return, and He told us that one of the things that we can expect is famine…

⁷For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines, epidemics, and earthquakes in various places. ⁸All these are the beginning of sorrows.

Jesus promises us that famine is coming, and if we truly are entering the period of time that the Bible refers to as “the last days”, this is one of the things that we should fully expect to see.

And yet there are very prominent preachers out there that have taken the liberty to mock other preachers that are actually encouraging their flocks to store up food and supplies.

Well, what are those mocking preachers going to do when things get really crazy and the people in their own congregations don’t have anything to eat?

Are those preachers going to personally feed all of them?

If you can see what is coming and you don’t warn the people, you are going to be responsible for what happens to them.

Without a doubt, it is very clear in the Scriptures that we are not to fear and that we are not to worry. We are repeatedly commanded to trust God with everything in our lives, but does “having faith” mean that we sit back on our couches watching television while we wait for God to do everything for us?

Of course not.

Radical faith almost always involves radical action. God tells us what to do, and then He expects us to trust Him enough to do what He has instructed us to do.

If faith really means doing nothing while God does everything, then why would any of us ever go to work?

Why wouldn’t we just sit back and wait for God to miraculously zap the money that we need into our bank accounts for us?

And why do those that are “living by faith” ever fill up their vehicles with gasoline?

Why don’t they just “trust God” to fill up their tanks every time?

Look, without a doubt God can do incredible supernatural things that require absolutely no participation on our part. I know that this is true, because it has happened to me many times. But the vast majority of the time God works with us and through us. He requires us to take challenging steps of faith and obedience, and in the process He leads us, He guides us, He blesses us and He opens doors for us.

Just look at the example of Noah. God could have certainly built an ark for Noah, or He could have zapped Noah up to some sort of “heavenly waiting area” while the flood happened.

But He didn’t do either of those things.

Instead, God ordered Noah to build a boat that was approximately the size of a World War II aircraft carrier, and then He watched as Noah and his family spent years doing exactly that.

Noah was the very first “prepper” in the Bible, and his radical faith resulted in radical action. In Hebrews 11:7, Noah is commended for this…

7 By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.

Unfortunately, many Christian leaders today mock this kind of effort. They seem to believe that if God wants them to survive what is coming then He will do everything for them.

Another example that we see in the Scriptures is Joseph. In Genesis chapter 41, God showed Joseph that there would be seven good years followed by seven lean years in the land of Egypt.

So how did Joseph respond?

He didn’t sit back and relax knowing that seven good years were ahead. Instead, he implemented the greatest “emergency food storage project” that the world had seen up until that time.

By heeding God’s warning and taking radical action, he ended up saving the nation of Egypt and his entire family as well.

I don’t get why more Christians can’t seem to understand these things. So many of them even admit that incredibly hard times are coming, and yet they accuse me of being “anti-faith” because I am constantly urging my readers to get prepared.

The following is an excerpt from one email that was sent to me by a fellow believer some time ago…

“Now, although I agree with you about the things you write about the corruption of the financial system, and that there will be a collapse, yet I do not agree with you in promoting people to be self-sufficient contrary to the Lord’s teaching. If you truly have God then no provision needs to be made at all for yourself, just trust in God’s providence alone.”

Just consider the implications of what this person was saying. If “no provision needs to be made at all for yourself”, then we should all quit our jobs, empty our bank accounts, quit saving for retirement and cancel our health insurance.

Personally, I want to be radical in trusting God, but trusting God almost always involves doing something.

There are so many passages in the Bible that speak about working hard and preparing for the future. For instance, the following bit of wisdom found in Proverbs 6:6-11 comes from the Modern English Version…

⁶Go to the ant, you sluggard!
Consider her ways and be wise.
⁷Which, having no guide,
overseer, or ruler,
⁸provides her bread in the summer,
and gathers her food in the harvest.

⁹How long will you sleep, O sluggard?
When will you arise out of your sleep?
¹⁰Yet a little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to sleep—
¹¹so will your poverty come upon you like a stalker,
and your need as an armed man.

Approximately one out of every 25 verses in the New Testament is about the last days. God obviously wants us to understand what we are going to be facing, and just like Noah and Joseph, He expects us to take appropriate action.

Unfortunately, most evangelical Christians have been taught that there isn’t any need to get prepared for the future because they are going to be taken off the planet before anything really bad happens. For the first 1800 years of the Christian era, the church did not teach this, but over the past 200 years this new doctrine has become dominant in the western world. It is called “the pre-Tribulation rapture”, and I grew up believing it too.

But you won’t find it anywhere in the Bible. In my new book entitled “The Rapture Verdict“, I spend 37 chapters conclusively proving that Jesus does not come back and gather His bride until the Tribulation is over. It is the clearest and most comprehensive work on the subject anywhere out there, and it is turning out to be one of the most controversial Christian books of 2016.

And even if you believe that a pre-Tribulation rapture is coming, the truth is that America is going to fall before we even get to the Tribulation. This is something that I also cover in my book.

So no matter what your view on Christian eschatology is, we all need to be getting prepared to face the exceedingly difficult times that are immediately ahead of us.

But just like in the days of Noah, most people are going to ignore the warnings, and the mockers are going to continue to mock until judgment begins.

I always expected that unbelievers would mock, but I never expected that so many Christian leaders would gleefully join the mocking.

In the end, they and their followers will pay a very great price for not listening to the warnings and not getting prepared while they still had time.

*About the author: Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled “The Rapture Verdict” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.*

(Originally published on The Economic Collapse Blog)

The Arch From The Temple Of Baal Planned For New York City Has Been CANCELED

The Temple of Baal is NOT coming to Times Square in New York City next month. This is great news, and it represents an incredible victory for Christians in the United States. As you will see below, the New York Times, Snopes and a whole host of other mainstream news sources reported last month that everything was on track for reproductions of the giant 48-foot-tall arch that stood in front of the Temple of Baal in Palmyra, Syria to be put up simultaneously in Times Square in New York City and Trafalgar Square in London during the month of April. But now that will not be happening. The only arch that will be going up will be in Trafalgar Square, and it won’t be the one from the Temple of Baal. Instead, the Institute for Digital Archaeology has changed plans and will be putting up a reproduction of the Arch of Triumph which the Romans originally built in Palmyra and that has nothing to do with Baal. So why has there been such a dramatic change in plans?

On Friday, I received an urgent message from a contact that has been investigating this, and she told me that she had talked directly to someone from the Institute for Digital Archaeology and that she had been informed that no arch was going up in New York during the month of April.

I pressed her for confirmation, because every mainstream source that I could find said that the arch from the Temple of Baal was indeed going up next month. So her information would definitely change everything, but I needed to be able to confirm this.

Well, confirmation came in the form of an article from the Telegraph, which is one of the most important news sources in the United Kingdom. On Friday, they reported that the original plan to put up the arch from the Temple of Baal in New York and London simultaneously had been scrapped…

When the IDA revealed last December that it was intending to use its data and expertise to build not one but two replica Palmyra arches – to be unveiled simultaneously in Trafalgar Square in London and Times Square in New York – it generated headlines across the world.

Since then there has been some backtracking on the original idea. There will be no simultaneous unveiling in New York – they may transport the London arch there later, or build another one – and the Palmyra arch that is being reconstructed is no longer the entrance to the Temple of Bel (which survived an attempt to blow it up in August 2015) but the Arch of Triumph (partially destroyed in October) formerly located at one end of the Great Colonnade.

As you can see, this report confirms what they were originally planning to do, and this represents a massive change of direction.

Just a few weeks ago, everything appeared to be all set for this arch from the Temple of Baal to go up in Times Square in April. For example, the following is what the New York Times reported on March 19th…

NEXT month, the Temple of Baal will come to Times Square. Reproductions of the 50-foot arch that formed the temple’s entrance are to be installed in New York and in London, a tribute to the 2,000-year-old structure that the Islamic State destroyed last year in the Syrian town of Palmyra. The group’s rampage through Palmyra, a city that reached its peak in the second and third century A.D., enraged the world, spurring scholars and conservationists into action.

Of course the New York Times was far from alone in reporting about this. The New York Post had also reported that this was a done deal…

A towering arch of an ancient temple in Palmyra, Syria, that has been mostly destroyed by ISIS terrorists will be recreated by a huge 3-D printer and put on display in New York City this spring, officials said on Monday.

The life-size model of the original 2,000-year-old structure, known as the Arch of the Temple of Bel, will stand approximately 48 feet high and 23 feet wide.

And as I write this article, Snopes is still reporting that the arch from the Temple of Baal is going to go up in New York and London…

While it is true replicas of Palmyra’s Temple of Baal arch are being constructed for temporary display in New York and London, the project solely involves reproducing the structure’s arch and not creating a functional building. Moreover, interest in reproducing the demolished antiquity is archeological in nature, not religious.

The big question is this…

Why has there been such a sudden change in plans?

First of all, why is no arch going up in New York next month at all?

Secondly, why has the arch in London been switched to an entirely different arch?

Could it be possible that the alternative media has played a role? Since the original New York Times story last month, a massive firestorm has erupted in the alternative media and this story has gone megaviral all over the Internet.

Could it be possible that they have backtracked because of how much negative attention this story has been receiving?

Of course let us not underestimate the prayers of God’s people. Once this story went viral, Christians all over America started praying against this arch. From personal experience, I know that the prayers of righteous men and women are extremely powerful, and we may never know how much of an impact they had on this situation.

So let us celebrate this victory, but let us also understand that what this country is facing is not going to fundamentally change unless there is true repentance. Because even though a monument to Baal is not going up in New York City next month, we continue to embrace the ways of Baal as a nation.

Since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, more than 58 million babies have been murdered in America, and of course this was a key feature of Baal worship in the ancient Middle East. One place where we find this in the Bible is in Jeremiah 10:4-6…

4 Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents;

5 They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind:

6 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter.

Another key feature of Baal worship that we see reflected in modern society that I discussed in a previous article is the public exhibition of sexual acts. In ancient times, there would be crazed bisexual orgies around the altars of Baal, and large crowds would gather around to watch. And of course today we are a nation that is absolutely addicted to watching other people have sex. In fact, it has been estimated that 68 percent of all Christian men watch pornography on a regular basis.

Unless we change our ways, it is inevitable that the judgement of God is going to hit America extremely hard. This is one of the topics that I cover in my new book entitled “The Rapture Verdict“. God keep calling us to repent, but we keep shaking our fists at Him as a nation.

At some point, time will run out.

For the moment, let us celebrate this victory over the Temple of Baal.

But let us not relax one bit, because there is an enormous amount of work that needs to be done to try to wake this country up while we still can.

*About the author: Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of End Of The American Dream. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled “The Rapture Verdict” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.*

A 40-Year-Old David Wilkerson Prophecy Is Being Fulfilled Right In Front Of Our Eyes

David Wilkerson was a legendary preacher that truly did hear from God, and a remarkable prophecy that he gave about 40 years ago is coming to pass right now. After watching a video on our new YouTube channel, a viewer mentioned that something that my wife and I were talking about sounded exactly like something that David Wilkerson had said close to 40 years ago. I was skeptical at first, but I checked it out. And it turned out that this viewer was exactly correct. Without even knowing it, for years I have been preaching virtually the exact same message that David Wilkerson prophesied nearly four decades ago, and today this prophecy is being fulfilled right in front of our eyes.

In his vision, Wilkerson saw the rise of two “super churches” in the last days. The first “super church” would be deeply apostate, and it would include both Protestants and Catholics. It would prominently use the name of Jesus Christ, but it would be “antichrist and political in many of its activities”…

I see the rise of a super world church. I see the formation of a super world church council consisting of a union between liberal, ecumenical Protestants, and the Roman Catholic Church joining politically hand-in-hand to create one of the most powerful religious forces on earth. This union is going to start as a cooperative charity program and it will end in a political union. This visible super world church is going to be spiritual in name only, freely using the name of Jesus Christ, but will in fact be antichrist and political in many of its activities. This powerful church union will be deeply involved in social action, tremendous charity programs, and ministries of compassion. Its leaders will make statements about meeting human needs. They will send out a call for social action, political intervention, and a greater voice in world affairs.

There is going to be a sudden mysterious chain of events. Just when it appears the ecumenical movement is nearly dead, a rather mysterious chain of events will bring about the framework for this union. Rome is going to insist on and receive concessions from the Protestant ecumenical leaders. The Pope will be considered more of a political than a spiritual leader of this church union.

And this is definitely what we are seeing today. The vast majority of the churches in the western world have already gone apostate, and we are seeing a major push for churches and religious organizations to work together to achieve political and social goals.

I believe that we are witnessing the early stages of the emergence of a one world religion. The Pope and other prominent religious leaders are speaking of the need to “come together” and to acknowledge that “all religions are different paths to the same God”. Unity has become a major theme, and the Pope in particular has been making a major ecumenical push. For much more on this, please see my previous article entitled “One World Religion: Pope Francis Says All Major Religions Are ‘Meeting God In Different Ways’“.

But what really got my attention was the second part of Wilkerson’s prophecy.

He saw the rise of a “supernatural invisible church” that would include believers from all churches and all denominations and that would become “a kind of underground church” in the last days…

I see the rise of a super church, a supernatural invisible church, a union of deeply spiritual followers of Jesus Christ, bound together through the Holy Spirit and mutual confidence in Christ and in his word.

This supernatural church of true believers will become a kind of underground church. It will include Catholics and Protestants of all denominations, young and old, black and white, and people of all nations. While this visible super church gains political power this invisible body of believers will grow tremendously in spiritual power.

This power will come from persecution. The persecution madness that is coming upon this earth will drive these Christians closer together and closer to Jesus Christ. They will be less concerned about denominational ties and more concerned and emphasis on the coming of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit will bring together as one people in all walks of life.

Without even knowing it, I have been preaching virtually the exact same message for the past couple of years. God burned this message into my heart, and even though I wasn’t sure that people were ready to receive it, I have been preaching this message wherever I go. God is raising up a Remnant in these last days, and this Remnant is going to shake the world. This Remnant is going to keep the commandments of God, it is going to bring in the greatest harvest of souls the world has ever seen, and it is going to move in the power of the Holy Spirit like we haven’t seen since the Book of Acts. It cuts across all churches and all denominations, and there is no individual or organization in charge of it. It is an organic move of God that is happening all over the planet, and even though we may know what is happening, there is no guarantee that any of us will get to be part of it. My wife and I are constantly praying that we could be part of this great move of God that is coming, because we very much want to fulfill the purpose for why God put us here.

Back in 2013, I gave the Remnant a very prominent role in my novel entitled “The Beginning Of The End“. I have talked about the Remnant in countless radio interviews, I have written about the Remnant in my articles, I preached about it on the DVDs that I did last year, and now my wife and I are proclaiming this message in our new television show.

A sleeping giant is rising, and it is primarily happening outside of the institutional church.

In fact, the institutional church is in danger of being completely left behind by this new move of God. I know that a lot of church leaders out there are not going to want to hear this, but it is true. Most of the institutional church has already gone apostate, and much of the rest of it is dead asleep.

Because I proclaim this message so much, I constantly hear from people all over the world that God is raising up to be part of this Remnant. Last month, I got the opportunity to preach about the Remnant at an evening service down at Morningside. Just hours before the service, I received an email from an assistant to a pastor in a Lutheran church in northwestern Pennsylvania, and this email is a perfect example of what God is doing. The following is an excerpt from that email…

I felt compelled to write to you. It sounds so similar to my own journey with Christ.

I presently live in a small town in northwestern Pennsylvania and am serving as an assistant to the pastor in our Lutheran church. My wife and I were missionaries for 51/2 years in the east African nation of Tanzania before returning home in 2011 to take care of elderly parents. I’ve been an avid student of Bible prophecy for over 30 years and it was shortly after we came back from overseas that I experienced what my wife and I both consider an “angelic” visit. The conversation lasted about 10 minutes with the “messenger” urging me in the most forceful terms to “warn the people” of what is soon coming upon our nation and the world. I knew exactly what he meant and felt deeply convicted to reach others with a “last days” message.

All over the world people are having encounters with God, and they are being instructed to proclaim a “last days message” while there is still time.

Unfortunately, most churches today won’t receive this kind of message. Many pastors even know exactly what is coming, but they won’t warn the people. There is such a fear that if people get offended they won’t keep coming back and won’t keep putting money in the offering plate.

So a lot of these churches have adopted a “me-centered gospel” that features Jesus as a self-help coach. They purposely avoid using words like “sin” because they don’t ever want anyone to feel uncomfortable, and they only focus on select passages from the Bible that make people feel good.

Of course this watered-down gospel has turned out horribly for the church in America. People are leaving our dead churches in droves, and this is especially true of our young people.

If you go into most churches today, you will mostly find “the greys”, and I am not talking about aliens. I love my elderly friends, but where are all of the young people? Yes, there are a few of them around, but a whole host of surveys have shown that young adults in America are generally far, far less “Christian” than their parents were.

But that doesn’t mean that all is lost. There is tremendous spiritual hunger out there, and people are searching for something real. We are seeing believers all over America gather in home Bible studies and home churches, and the underground church that David Wilkerson prophesied is very much becoming a reality.

Just yesterday, I was contacted by a wonderful sister in Missouri that wants my wife and I to come down there and help teach a small group of believers. Unfortunately, we can’t be everywhere at once, and we very much feel called to stay at our current location for now. But I was so encouraged to hear from another member of the Remnant, and it turns out that what God is doing in her life is so similar to what God is doing in our lives.

Like I said, this is a supernatural thing. Just like we have seen throughout history, the institutional church has gotten old and stale, and God is doing an “end run” around the traditions of man as He brings in the next move.

Of course there are still some churches that are doing a great job, and if you have found one of those churches you should definitely appreciate it, because it is rare to find a church where God is really moving these days.

Earlier today, I got an email from a man of God that just spoke with a pastor that has suddenly seen God start to move tremendously in his ministry. The following is an excerpt from that email…

I was on the phone yesterday with a pastor, him being in total shock at the supernatural explosion in his ministry. Healing, deliverance, angelic visitations and the presence of God filling the church. The supernatural is totally off the scale. In Scripture is says in 1 Cor 2:9

But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

Now that the pastors eyes are opened this scripture takes on a new meaning. I am so excited to see this happening. I wanted you to know.

The Remnant is rising. The “supernatural invisible church” that David Wilkerson prophesied about close to 40 years ago has become a reality, and this is the primary topic of our latest television show. You can watch what my wife and I have to share right here…

In addition, the Remnant is a major theme in my brand new book that was just released entitled “The Rapture Verdict“. A lot of people look forward to the last days with fear and trembling, but that should not be the case. We have so much to look forward to, and this Remnant was prophesied by the Apostle John nearly 2000 years ago in the Book of Revelation (Rev. 12:17; 14:12). The greatest hour of the people of God is coming, and so it is time for the church to wake up. We are going to write the end of the story, and we are going to bring in the greatest harvest of souls in all of history right before the return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

So do not fear the hard times and persecution that are coming. Yes, Jesus told us that the period of time just before He returns will be the worst period of time in all of human history, but it will also be a time of purification and maturing for His bride.

Without His help we can do nothing, but with His help we will experience the greatest move of God the church has ever known, and we can become the kind of bride that He deserves.

Jesus deserves a bride that is wildly and madly and passionately in love with Him, and we stand on the precipice of the most dramatic time in all of human history.

As far as my wife and I are concerned, there is no other place that we would rather be than right here, and there is no other time we would rather be alive than right now.

We have reached the culmination of all things, and the time of the greatest spiritual warfare in history is directly in front of us.

We will not bend, we will not bow and we will not break. In the midst of overwhelming odds, we will stand and fight for our Lord and Savior, and in the end we will receive the crown of life.

If the Holy Spirit is tugging at your heart right now, I encourage you to join the Remnant. You don’t have to join any organization or send your money anywhere. All you have to do is to surrender your entire heart to Jesus, and ask Him to make you into the person that He created you to be.

Darkness is rising, but so is the Remnant. And someday people will look back and they will remember the courageous men and women that refused to back down and that did not love their lives even unto death.

In the Book of Revelation, it talks about believers that will overcome the enemy in the last days by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.

Take up your sword, choose to be a light, and get ready for the greatest time that God’s people have ever known.

We are going to be the people that prepare the way for the glorious return of Jesus Christ, and you were born for such a time as this.

Will A Gateway Be Opened When The Arch From The Temple Of Baal Is Reconstructed In Times Square?

In April, part of the Temple of Baal that stood in Palmyra, Syria will be reconstructed in Times Square in New York City and in Trafalgar Square in London. The specific portion that is being erected in both cases is the 48-foot-tall arch that stood at the entrance to the temple. The Institute of Digital Archaeology is the organization behind this effort, and the display of these two arches is intended to be the highlight of UNESCO’s World Heritage Week late next month. After seeing my initial story, one of my readers observed that an arch is really just a gateway or a portal. In other words, it can serve as both an entrance and an exit. So could it be possible that we will be unknowingly setting up a gate or a portal of some sort in Times Square?

The worship of Baal, also known as Bel, can be traced all the way back to ancient Babylon. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Marduk was “the chief god of the city of Babylon”, and ultimately he became known as “Bel” or “Lord”…

Marduk, in Mesopotamian religion, the chief god of the city of Babylon and the national god of Babylonia; as such, he was eventually called simply Bel, or Lord. Originally, he seems to have been a god of thunderstorms. A poem, known as Enuma elish and dating from the reign of Nebuchadrezzar I (1124–03 bce), relates Marduk’s rise to such preeminence that he was the god of 50 names, each one that of a deity or of a divine attribute. After conquering the monster of primeval chaos, Tiamat, he became Lord of the Gods of Heaven and Earth. All nature, including man, owed its existence to him; the destiny of kingdoms and subjects was in his hands.

And it is interesting to note that according to Wikipedia, the name of the city of Babylon is believed to have originally come from an Akkadian word that meant “Gate of God” or “Gateway of the God”…

The English Babylon comes from Greek Babylṓn (Βαβυλών), a transliteration of the Akkadian Babili.^[5] The Babylonian name in the early 2nd millennium BC had been Babilli or Babilla, which appears to be an adaption of an unknown original non-Semitic placename.^[6] By the 1st millennium BC, it had changed to Babili under the influence of the folk etymology which traced it to bāb-ili (“Gate of God” or “Gateway of the God“).^[7]

So now we are setting up a “gateway” or a “portal” for the chief God of ancient Babylon in the heart of our most important city next month.

Does anyone else out there find this more than just a little bit creepy?

It just seems so surreal that an arch from the Temple of Baal that is nearly five stories high is going to be erected in Times Square in April. But this is actually happening. The following comes from the New York Times…

NEXT month, the Temple of Baal will come to Times Square. Reproductions of the 50-foot arch that formed the temple’s entrance are to be installed in New York and in London, a tribute to the 2,000-year-old structure that the Islamic State destroyed last year in the Syrian town of Palmyra. The group’s rampage through Palmyra, a city that reached its peak in the second and third century A.D., enraged the world, spurring scholars and conservationists into action.

This sounds like the plot for some really twisted episode of “Stargate” and not something that is supposed to happen in the real world.

And as I reported yesterday, the Institute of Digital Archaeology hopes to put hundreds more of these arches in major cities all over the planet.

What in the world are they thinking?

If we want to take all of this to another level of creepiness, let’s recall what I talked about the other day. Baal evolved from the chief god of the city of ancient Babylon known as Marduk, and Marduk can be traced back to an actual historical person. This historical person was known in Sumerian literature as “King Enmerkar”, and in the Bible he was known as “Nimrod”. Here is a portion of a quote from Peter Goodgame that I included in an article the other day…

Traditionally the Tower of Babel event has been associated with Nimrod, and Jewish commentaries as well as the Jewish historian Josephus both seem very emphatic on this point. Regarding the Sumerian name Enmer-kar, the suffix “kar” means “hunter,” and so “Enmer-kar” is in fact “Enmer the Hunter,” just as Nimrod is referred to as the “Mighty Hunter” in Genesis 10. Furthermore, Enmerkar is named on the Sumerian King List as “the one who built Uruk,” just as Nimrod is described in Genesis 10:10 as having a kingdom that began in “Babel (Eridu) and Erech (Uruk)… in the land of Shinar.” After Enmerkar’s death he became honored in Sumerian myth as the semi-divine hero Ninurta, and eventually this cult evolved into the great cult of Marduk, which became the state religion of Babylon after the conquests and religious innovations of Hammurabi.

The cult of Marduk was the root of all of the ancient pagan religions of the Middle East, Egypt, Greece and Rome. In those other religions, the deity of Marduk came to be known by other names such as Baal, Osiris, Apollo, etc. And today there are many secret societies and occult groups that look forward to the day when this pagan deity will be resurrected and will return to rule the world once again. This is something that I explained in our latest YouTube video…

I know that all of this may sound very strange to you, but many of these secret societies and occult groups take this stuff deadly seriously. And many Christian scholars are convinced that there is a link between the coming of the Antichrist and this ancient pagan deity based on the actual historical figure of Nimrod.

So could it be possible that we are laying out a couple of giant welcome mats for this ancient pagan deity by erecting these giant arches in New York and London next month?

Could we be opening up gateways and portals that are extremely dangerous and that we simply do not understand?

I don’t know about you, but for me the construction of these giant arches is a very, very bad sign…

Michael And Meranda Snyder Announce The Launch Of Their New Television Show

After an extraordinary amount of hard work, Michael and Meranda Snyder are pleased to announce that the very first episode of their television show has finally been released. Our show is called “The Watch”, because that is really what we are – we are watchmen on the wall trying to sound the alarm as loudly as we can. Many of you already know me as the publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog and End Of The American Dream, and now this new program will allow you to get to know my wife as well. In this first episode we spend some time simply introducing ourselves, and future programs will focus much more heavily on news and information. But of course we do discuss some very interesting things in this episode such as the 13 dead bald eagles, Obama’s plan to divide the land of Israel and the city of Jerusalem, and the terrible flooding down in Louisiana and Texas. Our shows will be airing on Christian television, but they will also be available on YouTube. You can watch the very first episode right here…

This is something that is very new for both of us. A number of years ago I used to make some short YouTube videos that were very amateurish, but to do something that can go up on television is something else entirely.

So we had to go out and get some brand new equipment, and we had to learn Final Cut Pro from scratch. It has been a very humbling experience, but it is good to stretch our comfort zones.

You will be able to find future episodes on our YouTube channel right here. And if you enjoyed this first show, please hit the subscribe button on our channel page.

Just like on The Economic Collapse Blog and our other websites, we want to provide the very best news and information that we possibly can. If there is something that you would like us to discuss, please let us know.

This show will also be much more focused on Bible prophecy, the last days and the book of Revelation than my regular writing is. As I mentioned above, these programs will be airing on Christian television, and during future episodes I plan to address many of the topics that I discuss in my upcoming book about Bible prophecy.

I know that for a lot of people Bible prophecy is a very sensitive topic. Many people have very deep emotional attachments to the theories that they have been taught, and my wife and I are not here to upset people. Our goal is to very clearly explain what the Bible has to say about the days to come, and we hope to do so in a spirit of humility.

In the end, we all need to be good Bereans. No matter how much of an “expert” someone is, we all need to dig into the Scriptures for ourselves to see if what they are saying is actually true. And that is what I would encourage you to do with our material. Dig into the Bible for yourself and come to your own conclusions.

And what is far more important than who is “right” and who is “wrong” about Bible prophecy is that we all learn to love one another. When I was younger, I thought that knowledge was one of the key signs of spiritual maturity, but now I realize that spiritual maturity is far more about how much you love than it is about how much you know.

In these last days, we all need to learn to love, because there is no other way that we are going to make it through what is ahead. We are moving into the most tumultuous time in all of human history, and we need to understand who our friends are. There are some believers that seem to love strife and discord. Even though the world is attacking us from a thousand different directions, they seem to take glee in turning their guns on those that are standing in the trenches next to them.

In this new show, my wife and I will be sharing a message of warning, but we will also be sharing a message of hope.

Yes, the times ahead are going to be filled with chaos and darkness. In fact, many people do not even have the capacity to imagine how hard the years ahead are going to be. But in the midst of all of the chaos and all of the darkness God is going to be doing some extraordinary things.

My wife and I believe that God is raising up a Remnant in these last days that is going to look very much like the earliest followers of Jesus. This Remnant is going to keep God’s commandments, it is going to bring in the greatest harvest of souls the world has ever seen, and it is going to be greatly empowered by the Holy Spirit.

There is no individual, group, organization or denomination that is leading the Remnant. In fact, the Remnant is rising almost entirely outside of the institutional church. It is an organic move of God that is starting to flourish all over the world, and I hear from people literally all over the planet that are starting to wake up to these things.

We are going to go back and do things the way that they did them in the book of Acts, and we believe that this will be the generation that will see the greatest move of God in the history of the world.

So even though the world is entering a nightmare of epic proportions, there will be great hope even in the middle of that nightmare. My wife and I are convinced that the greatest chapters of our lives are ahead of us, and we are constantly asking God to allow us to be part of the great move of God that is coming.

Because even if we know what is coming, there is no guarantee that any of us automatically gets to be part of it.

We all need to be seeking God like never before and asking Him to purify us so that we can be used during the times ahead.

Now is not the time to dig a hole and try to hide from the world. As society crumbles all around us, people are going to be watching how you respond. Will you respond with fear and despair, or will you respond with strength, courage and hope?

As for my wife and I, we plan to spread a message of hope in the midst of the storm, and that is one of the primary reasons why we have started this new show.

Take This Test To See If Most Americans Would Consider You To Be A ‘Religious Extremist’

Are you a religious extremist? For years, world leaders have been endlessly proclaiming that we need to eradicate “extremism”, but what actually is “extremism”? Many would point to the ISIS jihadists over in the Middle East that are beheading people that don’t agree with them as examples of religious extremists, and I think that very few people would argue with that. But our politicians (especially the liberal ones) rarely use the term “Islamic terrorists” anymore. Instead, they tend to use the term “religious extremists”, and that has a much, much broader connotation. In fact, if you are a Bible-believing Christian, you are probably included in that category.

Most Bible-believing Christians would never think of themselves as being similar to radical jihadists in the Middle East, but that is precisely how many of their fellow Americans very them. The Barna Group has just released a shocking new study which found that 45 percent of all “non-religious” Americans believe that “Christianity is extremist”…

The perception that the Christian faith is extreme is now firmly entrenched among the nation’s non-Christians. A full forty-five percent of atheists, agnostics, and religiously unaffiliated in America agree with the statement “Christianity is extremist.” Almost as troubling is the fact that only 14 percent of atheists and agnostics strongly disagree that Christianity is extremist. The remaining four in ten (41%) disagree only somewhat. So even non-Christians who are reluctant to fully label Christianity as extremist, still harbor some hesitations and negative perceptions toward the religion.

Even more troubling is what the study discovered about how the general population views specific religious activities. There has been a tremendous shift in society, and behaviors that were considered to be completely mainstream a few decades ago are now considered to be “extremism”.

Are you ready to take a test? Look over the Barna infographic that I have shared below very carefully. Have you ever participated in any of these “extremist activities”?…

If you have ever participated in any of the activities listed in category 1 or category 2, you are a “religious extremist” according to most Americans.

Of course every single one of the behaviors in category 2 would potentially apply to me, so I guess that would make me an “extremist” according to this definition.

This is where our society is heading. Of course “Christian extremists” are not normally put into prison in the United States quite yet, but hatred toward our faith in rapidly rising in society. Church attendance is dropping like a rock, the Christian faith is relentlessly mocked in movies and on television, and incidents of hostility toward Christians have doubled over the past three years.

And the truth is that even the federal government and the military are rapidly turning against Bible-believing Christians. For example, the slide that I have posted below comes from a U.S. Army Reserve Equal Opportunity training brief that described “Evangelical Christianity” and “Catholicism” as examples of “religious extremism”…

Once this came out, there was a huge uproar and some people got into trouble over this. But it should be exceedingly alarming to people of faith that U.S. military personnel were being trained that evangelical Christians are on the same level as the Ku Klux Klan.

And of course this is far from the only example of this phenomenon. In fact, Christians have regularly been described as “extremists” and “potential terrorists” in official U.S. government documents since the day that Barack Obama first stepped into the White House.

The following is an extended excerpt from my previous article entitled “72 Types Of Americans That Are Considered ‘Potential Terrorists’ In Official Government Documents“…

*****

Below is a list of 72 types of Americans that are considered to be “extremists” and “potential terrorists” in official U.S. government documents. To see the original source document for each point, just click on the link. As you can see, this list covers most of the country…

1. Those that talk about “individual liberties”

2. Those that advocate for states’ rights

3. Those that want “to make the world a better place”

4. “The colonists who sought to free themselves from British rule”

5. Those that are interested in “defeating the Communists”

6. Those that believe “that the interests of one’s own nation are separate from the interests of other nations or the common interest of all nations”

7. Anyone that holds a “political ideology that considers the state to be unnecessary, harmful,or undesirable”

8. Anyone that possesses an “intolerance toward other religions”

9. Those that “take action to fight against the exploitation of the environment and/or animals”

10. “Anti-Gay”

11. “Anti-Immigrant”

12. “Anti-Muslim”

13. “The Patriot Movement”

14. “Opposition to equal rights for gays and lesbians”

15. Members of the Family Research Council

16. Members of the American Family Association

17. Those that believe that Mexico, Canada and the United States “are secretly planning to merge into a European Union-like entity that will be known as the ‘North American Union’”

18. Members of the American Border Patrol/American Patrol

19. Members of the Federation for American Immigration Reform

20. Members of the Tennessee Freedom Coalition

21. Members of the Christian Action Network

22. Anyone that is “opposed to the New World Order”

23. Anyone that is engaged in “conspiracy theorizing”

24. Anyone that is opposed to Agenda 21

25. Anyone that is concerned about FEMA camps

26. Anyone that “fears impending gun control or weapons confiscations”

27. The militia movement

28. The sovereign citizen movement

29. Those that “don’t think they should have to pay taxes”

30. Anyone that “complains about bias”

31. Anyone that “believes in government conspiracies to the point of paranoia”

32. Anyone that “is frustrated with mainstream ideologies”

33. Anyone that “visits extremist websites/blogs”

34. Anyone that “establishes website/blog to display extremist views”

35. Anyone that “attends rallies for extremist causes”

36. Anyone that “exhibits extreme religious intolerance”

37. Anyone that “is personally connected with a grievance”

38. Anyone that “suddenly acquires weapons”

39. Anyone that “organizes protests inspired by extremist ideology”

40. “Militia or unorganized militia”

41. “General right-wing extremist”

42. Citizens that have “bumper stickers” that are patriotic or anti-U.N.

43. Those that refer to an “Army of God”

44. Those that are “fiercely nationalistic (as opposed to universal and international in orientation)”

45. Those that are “anti-global”

46. Those that are “suspicious of centralized federal authority”

47. Those that are “reverent of individual liberty”

48. Those that “believe in conspiracy theories”

49. Those that have “a belief that one’s personal and/or national ‘way of life’ is under attack”

50. Those that possess “a belief in the need to be prepared for an attack either by participating in paramilitary preparations and training or survivalism”

51. Those that would “impose strict religious tenets or laws on society (fundamentalists)”

52. Those that would “insert religion into the political sphere”

53. Anyone that would “seek to politicize religion”

54. Those that have “supported political movements for autonomy”

55. Anyone that is “anti-abortion”

56. Anyone that is “anti-Catholic”

57. Anyone that is “anti-nuclear”

58. “Rightwing extremists”

59. “Returning veterans”

60. Those concerned about “illegal immigration”

61. Those that “believe in the right to bear arms”

62. Anyone that is engaged in “ammunition stockpiling”

63. Anyone that exhibits “fear of Communist regimes”

64. “Anti-abortion activists”

65. Those that are against illegal immigration

66. Those that talk about “the New World Order” in a “derogatory” manner

67. Those that have a negative view of the United Nations

68. Those that are opposed “to the collection of federal income taxes”

69. Those that supported former presidential candidates Ron Paul, Chuck Baldwin and Bob Barr

70. Those that display the Gadsden Flag (“Don’t Tread On Me”)

71. Those that believe in “end times” prophecies

72. Evangelical Christians

*****

Are you starting to get the picture?

There is a systematic attempt by the radical leftists that dominate our society to demonize Bible-believing Christians. They want to portray us as “religious extremists” that are just as dangerous as ISIS is.

Given enough time, they would not just come after us with words. Throughout history, we have seen the same thing happen with so many other groups. First they were marginalized, then they were demonized, then they were criminalized, and then ultimately they were marked for elimination.

If you are a Bible-believing Christian, you need to get ready for intense persecution, because it is most definitely heading our way.

ISIS Plot To Shoot Up A Detroit Megachurch Revealed As ‘Christianophobia’ Spreads Across America

If you are a Christian, you better brace yourself for great persecution. It has gotten very little attention from the mainstream media, but federal authorities have uncovered an ISIS plot to “shoot up” a Detroit megachurch. 21-year-old Khalil Abu-Rayyan of Dearborn Heights, Michigan told authorities that he actually intended to take a gun into a very large church in Detroit that can seat up to 6,000 people and start killing Christians. He has been charged with supporting the Islamic States and with “illegally having a firearm while using a controlled substance”. Abu-Rayyan actually admitted that since he can’t be part of the jihad in the Middle East, that he would “do my jihad over here”. As I have warned so many times before, ISIS terrorists are already here, and what we have seen so far is just the beginning.

I can’t understand why this story is not headlines news all over America. If Khalil Abu-Rayyan had succeeded in conducting the megachurch attack that he was planning, hundreds of Christians could have potentially been killed. The people that go to that church might not ever know just how close they actually came to being slaughtered…

“I tried to shoot up a church one day,” Abu-Rayyan is quoted as saying in court records. “I don’t know the name of it, but it’s close to my job. It’s one of the biggest ones in Detroit. Ya, I had it planned out. I bought a bunch of bullets. I practiced a lot with it. I practiced reloading and unloading. But my dad searched my car one day, and he found everything. He found the gun and the bullets and a mask I was going to wear.”

Investigators didn’t name the church Abu-Rayyan allegedly eyed, but claim the property covers about two blocks less than half a mile from his work and can accommodate up to 6,000 members. He allegedly purchased a gun and told an undercover FBI employee that attacking a church would be “easy.”

“A lot of people go there. Plus people are not allowed to carry guns in church,” the affidavit quotes him as saying. “Plus it would make the news. Everybody would’ve heard. Honestly I regret not doing it. (If I) can’t go do jihad at the Middle East, I would do my jihad over here.”

These comments show us precisely what these terrorists want.

They want to create fear, and they want to get as much media attention as possible.

Terrorists like Khalil Abu-Rayyan do not fear death, because they have been promised that they will go to a wonderful paradise where they will be showered with attention by virgins when they die. In fact, many of them seem quite eager to receive a one-way ticket to their sex-fueled religious fantasy.

Unfortunately, mainstream media outlets in both the United States and Europe purposely downplay the hatred that these Islamic radicals have for ordinary Christians, because they don’t want to make Muslim immigrants look bad. That is why the mainstream media almost entirely ignored the fact that the main target of the San Bernardino shootings was a Messianic Christian, and that is why the mainstream media is burying this current story about Khalil Abu-Rayyan.

If a Christian baker refuses to bake a cake for a gay wedding, that is front page news, but if a Muslim admits to planning to shoot up a church of several thousand people that is a non-event according to the media.

This anti-Christian bias is growing stronger with each passing year, and it has now become institutionalized in our society in so many ways. A recent article by Selwyn Duke highlighted some examples of this phenomenon that we have recently witnessed…

A student is punished for refusing to “stomp on Jesus,” a Christian baker faces a year in jail for refusing to cater faux marriages, two men are arrested for reading the Bible aloud near a government building, a school “purges” Christian works from its library. Critics asserting the existence of an institutional anti-Christian bias, and a resultant war on the faith, have often been labeled paranoid. But now two University of North Texas sociologists have produced research showing that just such an agenda exists — among America’s most powerful people.

The two sociologists that he was referring to are Professor George Yancey and Professor David Williamson, and they shared their research in a newly published book entitled “So Many Christians, So Few Lions: Is There Christianophobia in the United States?” The Christian Post interviewed Yancey about this new book and the following is an excerpt from that interview…

In the minds of many of the respondents Christians are ignorant, intolerant and stupid individuals who are unable to think for themselves. The general image they have of Christians is that they are a backward, non-critical thinking, child-like people who do not like science and want to interfere with the lives of everyone else.

But even worse, they see ordinary Christians as having been manipulated by evil Christian leaders and will vote in whatever way those leaders want. They believe that those leaders are trying to set up a theocracy to force everybody to accept their Christian beliefs. So, for some with Christianophobia, this is a struggle for our society and our ability to move toward a progressive society. Christians are often seen as the great evil force that blocks our society from achieving this progressive paradise.

If you are a “liberal”, it is quite likely that this is how you view Christians.

Many non-religious liberals consider evangelical Christianity to be the biggest “problem” that America is facing today, and some of the potential solutions that liberal activists are advocating for this “problem” are quite chilling.

During their research, Yancey and Williamson personally interviewed a number of “cultural progressive activists”, and the following are a few examples of what some of them said should be done to “the Christian right”…

“I want them all to die in a fire.” (Male, aged 26-35 with Doctorate).

“They should be eradicated without hesitation or remorse. Their only purpose is to damage and inflict their fundamentalist virus onto everyone they come in contact with.” (Female, aged 66-75 with Master’s degree).

“They make me a believer in eugenics…. They pollute good air…. I would be in favor of establishing a state for them…. If not, then sterilize them so they can’t breed more.” (Male, aged 46-55 with Master’s degree).

So what makes a liberal activist that wants to “eradicate” Christians that much different from an Islamic terrorist that wants to achieve the same goal?

Of course radical Islamic terrorists are probably more likely to use violent means to achieve their goal right now, but what would happen if our government became dominated by people that think like the liberal activists quoted above?

And don’t think that it can’t happen. When radical leftists took power in the Soviet Union, they killed countless numbers of Christians. When radical leftists took power in China, they killed countless numbers of Christians. And when radical leftists took power in Nazi Germany, they intended to completely eradicate Biblical Christianity.

On December 15th, 1941 U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt made the following statement: “To Hitler, the church…is a monstrosity to be destroyed by every means.”

Most Christians today don’t realize just how much Hitler hated our faith. But if you do the deep research, you will find some absolutely incredible things. In a previous article, I included the following information which was originally uncovered by author Bruce Walker, the author of “The Swastika Against the Cross: The Nazi War on Christianity“…

The Nazi tract Gott und Volk was distributed in 1941, and it describes the life cycle of German youth in the future, who would: “With parties and gifts the youth will be led painlessly from one faith to the other and will grow up without ever having heard of the Sermon on the Mount or the Golden Rule, to say nothing of the Ten Commandments… The education of the youth is to be confined primarily by the teacher, the officer, and the leaders of the party. The priests will die out. They have estranged the youth from the Volk. Into their places will step the leaders. Not deputies of God. But anyway the best Germans. And how shall we train our children? Thus, as though they had never heard of Christianity!”

We like to think that we are so much better than Nazi Germany, but the truth is that the exact same spirit is at work today.

Americans have been trained to want a society that has completely sanitized all references to the Bible and to the Christian faith from the public arena.

Our children are being raised in public schools that are specifically modeled after the German system. If you doubt this, just look it up. Prayer has been banned, and if you try to read a Bible during school hours it can get you suspended.

We may not call ourselves Nazis, but in so many ways we are just like them.

And the hatred toward Christianity in this country just continues to grow every time a comedian makes jokes about our faith and every time Christians are portrayed as stupid, evil or crazy in our movies and television shows.

Christians over in the Middle East are being crucified and are having their heads cut off, and of course the persecution of Christians in the western world is not even worth comparing to that at this point.

But all over the world hatred for Biblical Christianity is on the rise, and great persecution is coming.

The half-hearted, lukewarm religion that passes for Christianity in so many of our churches today has got to go, because that kind of faith is simply not going to cut it during the times that we are moving into.

It has already got to be settled in our hearts that we are willing to lay down our lives for what we believe, because someday that is precisely the choice that many of us may be forced to make.

Christians Are At War With One Another As Americans Leave The Church In Droves

Christianity is under attack from a thousand different directions all at once, and yet many believers have turned their guns on one another. This war among Christians seems to intensify with each passing year, and believers are often fighting for some of the stupidest reasons you can possibly imagine. Meanwhile, people are leaving our churches in droves and church attendance is way down. This is especially true of younger Americans. According to an incredible new report that was just released by the Pew Research Center, only 27 percent of all Millennials (U.S. adults born since 1990) attend religious services on a weekly basis. When you go into many churches in America on Sunday mornings, all you see are “the greys”, and I am not talking about space aliens. But instead of focusing on fixing what has gone wrong, many Christians (including a number of very prominent ministers) spend most of their energy savagely attacking their brothers and sisters in Christ. This is absolutely disgraceful and it needs to stop.

America is on the exact same path to secularization that Europe has already gone down. The Pew Research Center discovered that the percentage of Americans who are “absolutely certain” that God exists declined from 71 percent in 2007 to 63 percent in 2014. Meanwhile, the percentage of those that are “religiously unaffiliated” rose from 16 percent in 2007 to 23 percent today.

Atheism, agnosticism and other religions are on the rise in America, and Christianity is in decline. And as I noted above, this is particularly true among our young people. Here are some more numbers from an excerpt that I pulled directly out of the Pew report…

Millennials – especially the youngest Millennials, who have entered adulthood since the first Landscape Study was conducted – are far less religious than their elders. For example, only 27% of Millennials say they attend religious services on a weekly basis, compared with 51% of adults in the Silent generation. Four-in-ten of the youngest Millennials say they pray every day, compared with six-in-ten Baby Boomers and two-thirds of members of the Silent generation. Only about half of Millennials say they believe in God with absolute certainty, compared with seven-in-ten Americans in the Silent and Baby Boom cohorts. And only about four-in-ten Millennials say religion is very important in their lives, compared with more than half in the older generational cohorts.

It has been projected that if current trends continue, the percentage of Americans attending church in 2050 will be about half of what it is today.

So those that are supposedly “leading the church” in America today need to wake up. What you are doing is not working. This nation is falling away from God, but many of you are spending much of your time and energy attacking one another.

Another thing that should deeply, deeply alarm Christian leaders is the fact that a large percentage of “believers” do not even seem to grasp the essential basics of the Christian faith. I am talking about things like who God is, the plan of salvation and the authority of the Bible. Here is more from Pew’s new report…

Among Christians, two-thirds say many religions can lead to eternal life, and most of them (50% of all Christians) say some non-Christian religions can lead to life everlasting. The view that some non-Christian faiths can lead to eternal life is held by roughly two-thirds of Catholics (68%) and mainline Protestants (65%), as well as 59% of Orthodox Christians. Fewer members of the historically black Protestant tradition (38%), evangelical Protestants (31%) and Mormons (31%) say some non-Christian religions can lead to salvation. Just 5% of Jehovah’s Witnesses say some non-Christian faiths can lead to eternal life.

If other religions can lead to eternal life, then why did Jesus have to die on the cross? Why couldn’t He have just come down and pointed us in the direction of all those other faiths? Many Christians don’t seem to understand that Jesus had to die for us on the cross because there is no other payment for our sins. He took the penalty that we deserved, and now He offers us a new life as a free gift.

Without Him, we would have absolutely no hope and no future. But because of Him, our sins are forgiven and we have been given eternal life.

But a very large percentage of believers does not understand this. Sadly, many Christians seem to think that you can believe whatever you want and it will all be okay in the end.

So as you can see, the church in America today is a mess. As a Christian myself, this pains me greatly.

But instead of working to fix the problems and praying for revival, many believers seem to take glee in tearing down their fellow Christians.

One of the bad things about the anonymity of the Internet is that it gives people an opportunity to show what is really in their hearts. And in many cases, what comes out of the hearts of many supposed “Christians” is absolutely frightening.

If you venture into places where believers hang out on Facebook, on Twitter, on YouTube and on various Christian websites all over the Internet, you will find some of the most vile things imaginable being said about specific individuals.

I have seen Christians use curse words to describe one another, and good, solid believers that I know personally have been called “whores”, “heretics” and “scumbags” just to give you a few examples. There are even some “Christians” that publicly wish for their brothers and sisters in Christ to die and go to hell.

This kind of thing should not be happening. In Matthew chapter 22, Jesus gave us instructions about how we are to treat one another…

³⁶Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

³⁷Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

³⁸This is the first and great commandment.

³⁹And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

⁴⁰On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

On my websites I talk about some very hard things, but you will notice that I don’t attack specific individuals that are on the same side as me. In this day and age, it is imperative that we all figure out who our friends are. None of us are ever going to agree 100 percent on everything, and that is okay.

Yes, sometimes there are things that need to be addressed, but the vast majority of times they can be taken care of privately. I have had some very honest discussions with people that are on the same side as me in private, but I would never air that stuff publicly.

If we are going to make it through what is coming, we have got to learn how to love one another. And we have got to stop viciously attacking one another over stupid stuff. Yes, there are some things that are so important that they must never be compromised on, but most of the attacks that I see happening are over very petty things.

And without a doubt, there are times when it become necessary to rebuke someone. But when at all possible it should be done in private, and it should always be done in a spirit of love.

Because in the end, if we do not have love, we are nothing. You can have all of the “knowledge” in the world, and you can go around correcting everyone else, but if you are lacking in love you are just a baby.

This is a hard lesson that I had to learn, and hopefully what I have written here will be helpful for someone.

This war among Christians needs to stop. Our faith is under attack like never before, and we desperately need to learn how to start working together.

At some point, hopefully we will begin to actually live the words of our Savior in John chapter 13…

³⁴A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

³⁵By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

(Originally posted on End of the American Dream)

The Persecution Of Christians Is Intensifying As Anti-Christian Hatred Sweeps The Entire World

There is very little that the entire world seems to agree upon, but there is one very frightening trend that is now taking hold literally all over the globe. A passionate hatred of Christianity is sweeping across the planet, and very few global leaders have been willing to step forward and speak out against this rising persecution of Christians. In many parts of the Middle East, Africa and Asia, believers are being relentlessly attacked by extremists, churches are being destroyed, and laws are being passed to try to prevent the spread of the Christian faith. In some areas, the violence has become so extreme that Christians knowingly risk their own lives just to go to church services each week. Would you risk your life to go to church? In North America and Europe, the persecution is often more subtle. Even though violent attacks are still fairly rare, Christian beliefs are being undermined by new laws, comedians and television shows regularly mock the Christian faith, and many employers will immediately mentally disqualify a potential candidate for a job if they discover that an individual is a Bible-believing Christian. Sadly, this is just the beginning. In the years ahead, those that choose to be followers of Jesus Christ will face even greater persecution than we have seen already.

When most people think of “Christian persecution”, they immediately think of what is happening in the Middle East. And without a doubt, what ISIS is doing to Christians in Iraq and Syria is beyond horrifying. But that is only part of the story. In this article, I am going to share with you 10 examples that show how the persecution of Christians is intensifying as anti-Christian hatred sweeps the world, and most of them are from outside the Middle East. I have specifically done this to show that this is truly a global phenomenon.

But to start off this list, let’s begin with how ISIS has been treating Christians in areas that they have conquered…

#1 Iraq

Eliza Griswold is the author of “The Tenth Parallel: Dispatches From the Fault Line Between Christianity and Islam“, and he has spent a great deal of time examining the demise of the Christian faith in the heart of the Middle East. The following is an excerpt from a recent piece that he did for the New York Times…

Recently, ISIS posted videos delineating the second-class status of Christians in the caliphate. Those unwilling to pay the jizya tax or to convert would be destroyed, the narrator warned, as the videos culminated in the now-infamous scenes of Egyptian and Ethiopian Christians in Libya being marched onto the beach and beheaded, their blood running into the surf.

The future of Christianity in the region of its birth is now uncertain. ‘‘How much longer can we flee before we and other minorities become a story in a history book?’’ says Nuri Kino, a journalist and founder of the advocacy group Demand for Action. According to a Pew study, more Christians are now faced with religious persecution than at any time since their early history. ‘‘ISIL has put a spotlight on the issue,’’ says Anna Eshoo, a California Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives, whose parents are from the region and who advocates on behalf of Eastern Christians. ‘‘Christianity is under an existential threat.’’

#2 Kenya

As I discussed above, the persecution of Christians in the Middle East is only part of the story. What is getting much less coverage is the horrific persecution that is going on in many parts of Africa. The following is from a recent CNN piece about the ongoing persecution of Christians in Kenya…

In April this year, hundreds of students at Garissa University in northern Kenya came under attack when Al-Shabaab militants from across the border in Somalia raided dormitories at the college. Separating Christian students from their Muslim classmates, the raiders killed 147 and wounded dozens more. Today, the university stands empty.

Christians in North Eastern Kenya have come under repeated attacks by Al-Shabaab militants.

At Sunday Mass in Garissa’s Cathedral, Our Lady of Consolation, the benches are full. The congregation is praying under armed guard but they’re praying nonetheless.

Each Sunday brings with it new threats from Al-Shabaab. Garissa’s Christians are told that if you worship here, you’ll die. One of those attending Sunday Mass, Patrick Gitau tell us that despite the risks: “Every Sunday I’m here it’s my cathedral. Yeah I’m here I was baptized in this church.”

#3 India

It isn’t just Muslims that are viciously persecuting Christians. In India, radical Hindus are regularly conducting violent attacks against Christians and churches. The following is just one recent example…

The Evangelical Fellowship of India has reported a violent attack against Christians in the country that was committed earlier this month when over 200 Hindu radicals stormed a Protestant church in the town of Attingal, Kerela, beating up the pastor and some of the worshipers, and breaking the altar.

EFI shared the news with Fides News Agency, reporting that the attack took place on June 14. The radicals apparently shouted slogans like “Bharat Mathaki Jai” (“Hail Mother India”) during the attack, which was broken up after police arrived.

#4 Pakistan

Some of the most vicious attacks against Christians in recent years have happened in Pakistan. Sadly, the authorities often willingly ignore these attacks. The following are just a few of the incidents that have happened recently…

On Sunday, May 24, a Christian man in the Sanda neighborhood of Lahore was accused of blasphemy when some Muslims saw him burning newspapers that reportedly contained Arabic verses from the Koran. After the accusation, a Muslim mob caught the Christian, severely beat him, and even attempted to set him on fire. A few months earlier, another Muslim mob burned a Christian couple alive inside a kiln after they, too, were accused of insulting Islam. The Christian youth — named Humayun Masih, said to be “mentally unstable” — was imprisoned and charged under section 295-B of Pakistan’s penal code, which prohibits the desecration of the Koran. After the attack on the Christian youth, the Muslim mob, reportedly thousands, rampaged through the neighborhood and set fire to Christian homes and a church. Christians in the region were attacked, and most fled the region; some of the mob was armed and gunshots were heard.

#5 Nigeria

Did you know that Islamic terrorists in Nigeria have killed more than 2,000 people (most of them Christians) so far in 2015? Why isn’t this getting much more attention from the global media?…

Since its formation in 2009, Boko Haram has perpetrated the killing of over over 10,000 Nigerians, including thousands of Christians. This year alone, over 2,000 people have been killed as a result of the group’s attacks and an estimated 750,000 have fled their homes. While most of the attacks have taken place in northern Nigeria, they have extended to Cameroon and Chad in recent months.

Earlier in July, Muslim extremists ravaged northeastern Nigerian villages, killing nine villagers and burning down 32 churches and about 300 homes, according to Stephen Apagu, chairman of a self-defense group in Borno state’s Askira-Uba local government area.

#6 China

The Chinese government has been brutally persecuting Bible-believing Christians for decades, but this year things have been taken to an entirely new level. The following is an excerpt from a recent Washington Free Beacon article…

The CCP considers the rising popularity of Christianity as a threat to its dominance, China Aid said, and has used aggressive measures to intimidate members.

“The Chinese government’s persecution campaign included forced demolition of churches and crosses, the detention and imprisonment of pastors and church members on criminal charges, forcing churches into bankruptcy by confiscating church property and imposing fines, and manipulating state-run media to label house churches as ‘cult’ organizations,” the report said.

A local police force—including 600 SWAT officers and government agents—demolished the cross last year at Salvation Church, a Christian house church in the eastern coastal city of Wenzhou. The officers attacked 14 church members on July 21 and seriously injured five, according to the report.

Zhang Shaojie, former pastor at the Nanle County Christian Church in central China, was sentenced to 12 years in jail and fined after being convicted of “gathering a crowd to disrupt public order” and “fraud.” Zhang mobilized his congregation to petition the government in Beijing after local authorities seized property that the church had set aside for a new building. Local officials responded by detaining some church members and barring their travel to Beijing.

#7 Nepal

In Nepal, churches cannot buy property, and the new constitution actually bans people from converting to Christianity…

The largely Hindu nation of Nepal has published a draft of a new constitution that would ban religious conversion. Father Silas Bogati, vicar general of the Apostolic Vicariate of Nepal, told Catholic News Service that “Christianity is not recognized as a religion here, unlike Hinduism, Buddhism or Islam.” “Hence, churches cannot be registered as a legal body, and we cannot buy property,” he added. “We are severely handicapped by this.”

#8 Italy

Normally you wouldn’t think of Italy as a place where Christians would be persecuted, but thanks to Islamic immigration this is rapidly changing…

Accounts of Muslim immigrants taunting and even assaulting Christians in Italy are increasing. Earlier this year, a crucifix was violently destroyed in close proximity to a populated mosque, and a statue of the Virgin Mary was destroyed and urinated on by a group of North Africans in Italy.

#9 Canada

Canada is becoming increasingly hostile to Bible-believing Christians, and attacks on churches are becoming more common. Just check out this recent example…

On May 26, a 22-year-old man of Muslim background was charged with alleged hate crimes committed against the St. Catherine of Siena Church and its neighboring elementary school in Mississauga, Ontario. Iqbal Hessan faces five counts of mischief, and over $5,000 in fines. On May 20, the Sacred Heart of Jesus statue that stands in front of the church was covered in black paint and the fingers of its outstretched arms were broken off. Behind the church, graffiti with the words “There is no Jew God” was scrawled across the brick wall along with a drawing of a face labelled “Jewsus.” That vandalism was the fourth time the church was targeted.

#10 The United States

If Christians stay in their homes and don’t say anything, normally they don’t get physically persecuted in this country. But in recent years there have been an increasing number of incidents where street preachers and others that do try to actively influence the culture have been violently assaulted. The following is one recent example that happened in Seattle…

Two street preachers were brutally beaten—punched and kicked—by a crowd at a gay pride festival in Seattle and the entire melee was captured on video.

The preachers were holding signs reading “Repent or Else” and “Jesus Saves From Sin.” The video shows a group of people initially screaming and threatening the men during Pridefest at the Seattle Space Needle.

Television station KOMO reported that some of the attackers belonged to a group called NOH8.

A group of women tried to steal their signs but were unsuccessful. The video then shows a group of men grabbing onto one of the preacher’s signs and dragging him to the ground. At some point he was punched in the back of the head a number of times while others can be seen kicking the man.

Of course all of this is just the beginning.

In the years ahead, hatred toward Christians is going to continue to increase, and many believers are going to be faced with some extremely difficult choices.

What would you do if you were forced to choose between your job and your relationship with Jesus Christ?

What would you do if you were forced to choose between your life and your relationship with Jesus Christ?

Nearly 2000 years ago, Jesus told us that his followers would be hated and persecuted. So none of this should be any surprise to us. Consider what Jesus had to say in John chapter 15…

“If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. But because you are not of the world, since I chose you out of the world, the world therefore hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My words, they will keep yours also.

Just like we saw during the times of the early church, sometimes the fire of persecution provides the perfect fuel for the growth of the kingdom of God. And sometimes the persecutors end up becoming extremely radical believers themselves. The following is one particularly miraculous example…

“One of our YWAM workers in the Middle East was contacted by a friend earlier this year and they met up and he was introduced to an ISIS fighter who had killed many Christians already. I mean that’s a horrible situation, and admittedly, he was probably on guard,” Gina Fadely, director of Youth With A Mission Frontier Missions, Inc. (YWAM), said during a recent appearance on The Voice of the Martyrs Radio Network.

YWAM, a nonprofit missionary organization active since 1960, describes itself as “a global movement of Christians from many cultures, age groups, and Christian traditions, dedicated to serving Jesus throughout the world.” The Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) is another nonprofit that draws attention to Christians facing persecution around the world.

Fadely, who appeared on the VOM radio program along with Kevin Sutter, another YWAM leader, went on to share that this Islamic State jihadi confessed not only to killing Christians but “that he had actually enjoyed doing so.”

“He told this YWAM leader that he had begun having dreams of this man in white who came to him and said, ‘You are killing my people.’ And he started to feel really sick and uneasy about what he was doing,” Fadely continued. “The fighter said just before he killed one Christian, the man said, ‘I know you will kill me, but I give to you my Bible.’ The Christian was killed and this ISIS fighter actually took the Bible and began to read it. In another dream, Jesus asked him to follow him and he was now asking to become a follower of Christ and to be discipled.”

So what do you think about all of this?

Please feel free to share your thoughts by posting a comment below…

(Originally published on The American Dream)

Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson shocks the media by pledging to remain celibate until married

Wilson added that he and Ciara have made the decision to remain celibate until marriage:

“She was on tour, she was traveling, and I was looking at her in the mirror… and she was sitting there and God spoke to me and said ‘I need you to lead her’… and so I told her right then and there, what would you do if we took all that extra stuff off the table, and did it Jesus’ way?

“For me, I knew that God had brought me into her life to bless her, and for her to bless me. And to bless so many people with the impact that she has [and] that I have. We’re not going to be perfect by any means — you know, life’s not perfect, nobody is perfect. But he’s anointed both of us. I know that he’s calling for us to do something miraculous., something special. And I told her, and she completely agreed with the fact that… ‘can we love each other without that?” And if you can love somebody without that, then you can really love somebody.”

Wilson joked that the decision to remain celibate in a relationship can be a tough one. “I ain’t gonna lie to ya’ll now, I need you to pray for us.” he said. “If there’s a 10, she’s a 15. So I need ya’ll to pray for me.”

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Are Christians Being Purged From The U.S. Military?

If you are a Bible-believing Christian, there is no place for you in Barack Obama’s version of the U.S. military. Christian service members all over the nation are being disciplined for reading their Bibles, talking about their faith publicly and encouraging others to live a moral lifestyle. And just saying the name of “Jesus” at the wrong place or the wrong time while serving in the military is enough to spark a national controversy. We live at a time when political correctness in America is wildly out of control, and thanks to Obama the U.S. military has become one of the most politically correct institutions in our society. Things have gotten so bad that dozens of top officers that did not agree with Obama’s views have been forced out of the military in recent years. The U.S. military is being transformed into an overtly anti-Christian institution, and for those of us that are Christians that is a very chilling development.

Perhaps you think that the title of this article is a bit of an exaggeration.

Perhaps you think that there is no way things could have gotten that bad.

Well, I grew up as a military kid. In those days, the U.S. military was actually quite welcoming to Christians. But now things have completely and totally changed.

For example, just the other day the Washington Times reported that large numbers of Christians are either leaving the military or never joining in the first place because of the “hostile work environment” that currently exists…

Christians are leaving the U.S. military or are discouraged from joining in the first place because of a “hostile work environment” that doesn’t let them express their beliefs openly, religious freedom advocates say.

Michael Berry, senior counsel at the Liberty Institute, a Texas-based legal organization dedicated to defending religious liberty in America, said recent high-profile cases of military chaplains facing punishment for private counseling sessions that reflected the teachings of their religion could cause devout Americans who are qualified for military service to think twice about joining the military.

Could this be what Barack Obama wants?

Could it be possible that he actually wants to discourage young Bible-believing Christians from serving our country? Because according to the Times, that is exactly what is happening…

“People of faith are going to stay away from the military,” said Mr. Berry in an interview with The Washington Times.

“I can’t tell you how many moms and dads I’ve spoken to who say, ‘My son or daughter wants to join the military, [but] in light of what you’ve described, I’m not sure I want to let them join the military anymore,’ and I don’t blame them. I would have serious reservations about my own kids joining,” Mr. Berry said.

If you are in the military today, you have got to be so careful about any expression of faith.

Even the slightest slip up can cause the authorities to crack down on you.

Just consider the following two examples which come from Newsmax…

In December, a chaplain for a Ranger training battalion was sent an administrative letter of concern after a soldier complained that he had promoted Christianity and used a Bible during a mandatory suicide-prevention training session.

Last month, a Navy chaplain was removed from his job and may lose his career after complaints about his private counseling during which he discouraged homosexuality and sex outside of marriage.

You mean a Christian chaplain actually “used a Bible” and “promoted Christianity”?

In the old days, doing those things was the very essence of what being a chaplain was all about.

How in the world are you supposed to be a chaplain without “using the Bible”?

It doesn’t make any sense.

Like I said, the U.S. military is becoming an overtly anti-Christian institution, and it starts at the very top.

Since he has been in the White House, Barack Obama has consistently slammed Bible-believing Christians. Obviously he considers them to be among his chief political enemies, and he barely tries to hide his animosity for them. We saw another example of this just recently…

Consider what Obama—who is on record saying “we are no longer a Christian nation,” and who never notes the Islamic identity of murderers or the Christian identity of their victims, and who ignored a recent UN session on Christian persecution—had to say about Christians at the Easter Prayer Breakfast: “On Easter, I do reflect on the fact that as a Christian, I am supposed to love. And I have to say that sometimes when I listen to less than loving expressions by Christians, I get concerned.”

One of the key people that the Obama administration has brought in to advise the Pentagon on matters of faith and the military is a man named Mikey Weinstein.

Weinstein is the head of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, and to say that he hates evangelical Christians is a huge understatement. The following comes from one of my previous articles…

The MRFF is a very insidious organization. It is headed up by a man named Mikey Weinstein. He has called Christians “human monsters” and “enemies of the United States Constitution“. Weinstein is convinced that sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ while in the military is “sedition and treason” and should be punished as such.

With guys like that telling the Pentagon how to treat Christians, no wonder things have gotten so bad.

Obama is “fundamentally transforming” the military, and those that aren’t willing to go along are being forced out.

But don’t just take my word for it.

In a previous article, I included these amazing quotes from retired high ranking officers…

–Retired Army Major General Paul Vallely: “The White House protects their own. That’s why they stalled on the investigation into fast and furious, Benghazi and Obamacare. He’s intentionally weakening and gutting our military, Pentagon and reducing us as a superpower, and anyone in the ranks who disagrees or speaks out is being purged.”

–Retired Army Major General Patrick Brady: “There is no doubt he (Obama) is intent on emasculating the military and will fire anyone who disagrees with him.”

–Retired Army Lt. General William G. “Jerry” Boykin: “Over the past three years, it is unprecedented for the number of four-star generals to be relieved of duty, and not necessarily relieved for cause.”

–Retired Navy Captain Joseph John: “I believe there are more than 137 officers who have been forced out or given bad evaluation reports so they will never make Flag (officer), because of their failure to comply to certain views.”

Are you starting to get the picture?

In addition, specific evangelical Christian groups are often being singled out as “hate groups” during military training sessions around the country. The following is from Fox News…

Several dozen U.S. Army active duty and reserve troops were told last week that the American Family Association, a well-respected Christian ministry, should be classified as a domestic hate group because the group advocates for traditional family values.

The briefing was held at Camp Shelby in Mississippi and listed the AFA alongside domestic hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan, Neo-Nazis, the Black Panthers and the Nation of Islam.

Needless to say, the AFA is not a hate group.

But they are Bible-believing Christians that take their faith seriously.

For Obama and his minions, that is a very bad thing.

And as I pointed out the other day, we have seen this kind of thing since Obama has been in the White House over and over and over again. Christians are being demonized as “right-wing extremists” and “potential terrorists”, and if this keeps up it won’t be too long until we see overt persecution by the government.

In the old days, Christians loved the military and the military loved Christians.

But now they are being set directly at odds with each other, and for those of us that are Bible-believing Christians that has a very ominous ring to it.

So what do you think about all of this? Please feel free to share your opinion by posting a comment below…

(Originally published on End of the American Dream)

Pope Francis Wants To Know What Rick Warren, Russell Moore, And Other Christian Leaders Think About Marriage

Even Southern Baptists know not to turn down an invitation from the Pope.

Rick Warren, senior pastor of Saddleback Church, and Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberties Commission, will meet Pope Francis and offer an “evangelical Protestant” perspective as part of a Vatican colloquium on marriage and family held this November 17-19.

“I am willing to go anywhere, when asked, to bear witness to what we as evangelical Protestants believe about marriage and the gospel, especially in times in which marriage is culturally imperiled,” wrore Moore on why he’s going to the Vatican despite his disagreements with the Pope.

“I can hardly criticize from across the Tiber and then refuse to talk, when invited, about these matters,” he continued. “That’s especially the case when the American bishops have been resolute in standing with us, despite our real differences, on questions of religious liberty and the future of the family.”

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Dozens of Christians ‘including women and children’ are arrested in Saudi Arabia after tip-off about prayer meeting

Islamist police in Saudi Arabia have stormed a Christian prayer meeting and arrested its entire congregation, including women and children, and confiscated their bibles, it has been reported.

The raid was the latest incident of a swingeing crackdown on religious minorities in Saudi Arabia by the country’s hard-line Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.

The 28 Christians were said to be worshipping at the home of an Indian national in the eastern city of Khafji, when the police entered the building and took them into custody. They have not been seen or heard from since, raising concerns among human rights groups as to their whereabouts.

Nina Shea, director of the Washington-based Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom, told FoxNews.com: ‘Saudi Arabia is continuing the religious cleansing that has always been its official policy.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Christians Killed in Nigeria Through June Already at 91% of 2013’s Full-Year Total

Boko Haram, the Islamist extremist group in Nigeria, and other groups have killed 1,631 Christians in Nigeria in the first six months of 2014 – 91 percent of last year’s total number of Christians killed, according to in the country in all of last year, according to the human rights group Jubilee Campaign.

Last year 1,783 Nigerian Christians were killed, according to Jubilee Campaign.

“The pattern is that if you do not do what [the extremists] demand, even if you are Muslim, you become an ‘apostate’ deserving of death,” said Emmanuel Ogebe, manager of Jubilee Campaign’s Justice for Jos Project.

“Therefore the difference between Boko Haram’s approach to Christian ‘infidels’ and Muslim apostates is [that] you are killed as a Christian ‘just because’ your name is Christian – you go to church, etc. – whereas Muslims are generally killed ‘for cause,’ for example working for the government or refusing to pay extortion taxes to Boko Haram,” Ogebe told Morning Star News.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Christians ordered to stop praying inside shopping mall food court in Georgia

Managers of a shopping mall in Dublin, Georgia, who told a group of visitors they were not allowed to pray in the facility – not even over their lunches in the food court – are starting to backtrack after headlines exposed the policies of the facility owned by MCK Properties.

A report from WMAZ-TV in Macon, Georgia, late Tuesday said the owners no longer “have an issue” with people praying “privately and quietly.”

They say their ban is on “congregating, soliciting or disturbances.”

The Facebook page statement came after a group of mall walkers reported a different explanation.

According to a commentary from Fox News columnist Todd Starnes, whose latest book is “God Less America,” the “Dublin Girls Run” group had been using the mall for their walking.

But gathering in a circle recently to start their session with prayer, they reported to Starnes, they found a security guard barreling toward them, telling them prayer was not allowed.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Iraqi Christians are raped, murdered and driven from their homes – and the West is silent

Mosul is the second-largest city in Iraq and the place where many Christians believe Jonah was buried. Since the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Isis) rode into town, their faith has been forced underground. Bells have been silenced, the hijab enforced with bullets. Tens of thousands fled after being offered an unattractive choice: convert, pay a religious tax, or be put to the sword. The levy was unaffordable. According to one local news agency, Isis troops entered the house of a poor Christian and, when they didn’t get what they wanted, the soldiers raped the mother and daughter in front of their husband and father. He committed suicide out of grief.

Having driven away the worshippers, the Isis fanatics are now trying to extinguish the physical legacy they left behind. A centuries-old church has been burned to the ground; Jonah’s tomb has been desecrated. Isis wants to create the Islamic equivalent of Year Zero, a brave new world with no evidence of Christianity, women’s rights, democracy or even that most subversive of instincts, human pity.

It might seem like this revolution has nothing to do with us in the West, but that’s more than a little naive. The genocide of local Christians did not begin with Isis but with the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Prior to the conflict, there were 1.5 million “Chaldeans, Syro-Catholics, Syro-Orthodox, Assyrians from the East, Catholic and Orthodox Armenians” in the country – living, of course, under the tyranny of Saddam Hussein, but living nonetheless. Today, their number has dropped to just 400,000.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Why We Won’t See The White House Help Persecuted Christians Anytime Soon

As ISIS continues to persecute Christians in Iraq it announced a terrifying ultimatum for those who remain: Convert to Islam, leave, pay an impoverishing tax, or die by the sword.

As awful as this is, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, explains on The Kelly File that something just as fundamentally wrong is happening in the Oval Office:

This administration has been silent continuously when Christians have been persecuted… [it] is more concerned about offending Islamic states and Islamic nations than they are of defending the long standing policy that America has always had — that religious freedom is a human right, not just an American right… I’m not sure what’s more shocking, the atrocities of ISIS or the silence of the Obama administration.”

(Read the rest of the story here…)

China’s Christians fear new persecution after latest wave of church demolitions

When we reached Sanjiang, in Zhejiang province, an elderly woman was angrily telling the pastor how at the end of April police dispersed members of her congregation and neighbouring ones who had come to protect their new Protestant church from being bulldozed. Several pastors were arrested and many detained, including those from the Sanjiang church – one of the officially sanctioned (and government controlled) “patriotic” churches. Many supporters were also arrested, including pastors from the underground house church movement. One, who asked to be referred to only as W, escaped the police raid by hiding in a nearby warehouse.

For years, during her evening walks, the woman had watched the construction work taking place on the massive church, which was just a few hundred metres along the main road from her house. When we were there in May, flashing lights warned us of the police roadblock that had closed off access to the church weeks ago, after the Chinese government ordered it to be pulled down. “They want to remove every trace,” said W. The old woman added: “During the Cultural Revolution they burned Bibles, but they didn’t remove the crosses.” The old church survived the Cultural Revolution, but in such a dilapidated state that it was converted into a mat-weaving factory.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Egypt Sentences Christian to 6 Years in Prison for Liking Facebook Page

International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned Kerolos Shawky, a Christian in southern Egypt, has been convicted and sentenced to six years in prison and a fine of 6,000 EGP ($840 USD) on charges of blasphemy and contempt of Islam. The ruling was handed down on Tuesday. His defense team plans to appeal and hopes the conviction will be reviewed before the end of this month, one of his lawyers told ICC.

As ICC reported, Kerolos was accused of violating Article 98(f) of the Egyptian Penal Code which prohibits “ridiculing or insulting heavenly religions or inciting sectarian strife” but is often used as a means of persecuting religious minorities, as the United States Commission on Religious Freedom highlighted in its 2014 Annual Report. The accusations brought against Kerolos also sparked violence against Christians in the surrounding area as shops and homes were vandalized and set on fire.

Rafla Zekry Rafla, a lawyer representing Kerolos and president of the Human Rights Commission of the Luxor Bar Association, told ICC he feels the charges are unfair. “Kerolos didn’t intend to insult the Islamic religion, only he made a like on the page of Knights of the Cross on Facebook,” Rafla told ICC.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Convert to Islam or face the sword: Iraqi Christians flee cities captured by jihadists

Aware of ISIS’ ferocious reputation for murder and mayhem, thousands of Christians who lived in Mosul and the surrounding Nineveh Plain fled in panic when ISIS rebels captured Iraq’s second largest city from government forces on June 10. Many of those who escaped have sought refuge in this Christian enclave in the Kurdish city of Irbil, only an hour’s drive away from Mosul.

“All who are left there now are a few handicapped or sickly Christians,” said a Chaldean Catholic nun wearing a blue habit whose religious community fled Mosul on foot, walking north for four hours on June 10 along with thousands of other Christian and Sunni Muslim refugees. They all feared persecution at the hands of the insurgents, who follow a harsh seventh-century interpretation of the Koran that demands not only that women mostly stay indoors, but that church bells must never be rung, crosses must never be displayed and Christians must pay a “gold tax” in return for their lives.

(Read the rest of the story here…)

Iraq’s beleaguered Christians make final stand on the Mosul frontline

Captain Firaz Jacob knows he may well be mounting a last stand at the frontiers of the Christian settlement of Bartella on the outskirts of Mosul.

Less than a mile down the road are the jihadists of Isis, the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, and the portly, middle-aged Mr Jacob is aware that his home-grown militia are outnumbered.

“I stand here waiting for my destiny,” he said, as he stood this week by the last check-point on the road to Mosul and the black flags waiting in the desert.

Speaking of why he and his men were refusing to give up and go, Capt Jacob said was determined to resist the jihadists and their allies, who last week over-ran most of the rest of northern Iraq.

“We will stay here despite everything,” he announced. “All these armed groups we have seen, but nevertheless we will remain. We love our Christian way of life, we love our churches and we love our community.”

(Read the rest of the story here…)

30 Christians Slaughtered as Sectarian Violence Plagues the Central African Republic

Muslim militants attacked Notre Dame de Fatima in the capital city of the Central African Republic (CAR), Wednesday. The pastor of the church estimated that more than 30 were killed in the attack.

Notre Dame de Fatima, a Roman Catholic compound situated in KM5, a neighborhood located 5 kilometers (or 3.1 miles) from Bangui’s city center, suffered an attack by Islamic militants allegedly affiliated with the radical Islamic insurgency known as Séléka. A coalition of largely Muslim forces, Séléka took control of the CAR on March 24, 2013, before being ousted from power in January of this year.

(Read the rest of the story here…)