We Should Expect Suffering.

The Jihad on Nigerian Christians.

The majority of those 6,000 Christians massacred this year were "mostly children, women and the aged... What is happening in ... Nigeria is pure genocide and must be stopped immediately." - Christian Association of Nigeria.

"There is no doubt that the sole purpose of these attacks is aimed at ethnic cleansing, land grabbing and forceful ejection of the Christian natives from their ancestral land and heritage." - Christian Association of Nigeria.

"Realistically speaking, Christianity is on the brink of extinction in Nigeria. The ascendancy of Sharia ideology in Nigeria rings the death toll for the Nigerian Church." - Christian Association of Nigeria. 

"Just one in 400 Syrian refugees given asylum in the UK last year were Christians despite them being subjected to 'horrendous persecution.' 

In what the Christian Association of Nigeria called a "pure genocide," 238 more Christians were killed and churches desecrated by Muslims throughout the month of June. This brings the death toll of Christians to more than 6,000 between January and June of 2018 alone. According to a joint statement by the Christian Association, an umbrella group of various Christian denominations, "There is no doubt that the sole purpose of these attacks is aimed at ethnic cleansing, land grabbing and forceful ejection of the Christian natives from their ancestral land and heritage." In one of the attacks, "over 200 persons were brutally killed and our churches destroyed without any intervention from security agencies in spite of several distress calls made to them."

The majority of those 6,000 Christians massacred this year were "mostly children, women and the aged... What is happening in ... Nigeria is pure genocide and must be stopped immediately." The details of the murder of these thousands, though seldom reported, are often grisly; many were either hacked to death or beheaded with machetes; others were burned alive (including inside locked churches or homes); and women are often sexually assaulted or raped before being slaughtered.

These nonstop Islamic attacks are causing the Christian population of the West African nation to plummet - to the point of extinction by 2043, warned Bosun Emmanuel, the secretary of National Christian Elders Forum. On June 23 he was reported as saying that the current administration of President Muhammadu Buhari in Nigeria "is openly pursuing an anti-Christian agenda that has resulted in countless murders of Christians all over the nation and destruction of vulnerable Christian communities." Accordingly, "the Church has been weakened and unable to stand before its enemies. Realistically speaking, Christianity is on the brink of extinction in Nigeria. The ascendancy of Sharia ideology in Nigeria rings the death toll for the Nigerian Church."

Muslim Attacks on Christian Churches

Bosnia: Unknown persons set a Serbian Orthodox church on fire in the overwhelmingly Muslim majority town of Visoko. The arson attack occurred sometime in the early morning hours of Sunday, June 24. According to the report, "a majority of objects inside the Church of the Nativity of the Theotokos - including icons and holy books - has been destroyed, along with a portion of the roof... [T]he main part of the altar has also been broken." That the church had only recently been "repaired over a period of two years" may be significant: According to the Conditions of Omar, which consists of discriminatory stipulations to which Christians must adhere in order to exist under Islamic rule, Christians are required "not to build a church in our city - nor a monastery, convent, or monk's cell in the surrounding areas - and not to repair those that fall in ruins or are in Muslim quarters."

Indonesia: Local Muslims forced the closure of another Christian church in Banjarmasin. "Muslims claimed that the approval given to the church by local authorities was not valid and should be cancelled," the report related. "As a result of the increased tension, the church has had to suspend services, leaving the 100-strong congregation without anywhere to meet." Indonesian law requires the signatures of at least 60 local, non-Christian - meaning Muslim - households before applications for Christian churches are accepted. Due to such requirements, another church that was established in 1995 in the same city has had to move its meeting location seven times. "Christians comprise at least 15% of the population of Indonesia and, until a generation ago, Christians and Muslims lived peaceably as equals," says the report. "However, Christians are now facing increasing discrimination and violence. There have been a number of attacks on churches, including the triple church suicide bombings carried out by members of the same family on Sunday 13 May 2018."

Pakistan: After months of local harassment - including being told "to remove every visible sign of Christianity from their church" - Christians were finally ordered to demolish their church because "Muslims are in the majority in the village, [and] we can't allow a church here," to quote one local Muslim leader. He said the forty Christian families would need to build a church outside the village. "When it is done, we will make the Christians write an agreement that they will sell this current church building or at least dismantle the church structure and crosses," he said. "The church belongs to Full Gospel Assemblies, an evangelical group working in Pakistan, and was built on land belonging to [a] 70-year-old Christian" man who had bequeathed it to the church, the report states. According to Rafaqat Masih, who represents the Christian cause: "The construction began in 2012 and we had been holding worship services since then. But in December 2016 the local Muslims objected over it and filed an application against us in the local police station. At that time, a compromise was reached and we again started holding services. But, again, in December 2017, they submitted an application in the police station, after which we were called in and were told to sign an agreement," halting all use of the building as a church. After Christians were summoned to another meeting on June 2, Masih said:

"We are being forced to demolish the existing church structure and, in lieu of this, they would let us build a church on a piece of government land outside the village which is already dedicated for a school. They haven't even given any documentary proof that this piece of land would be transferred to Christians. Then another issue is that we worked for several years to construct this church building. Now who is going to pay for building from scratch?"

"Most of the Christians are poor labourers," the report added.

Extremist Contempt for and Mistreatment of Christians

Bethlehem: A local man struck a Catholic priest with an unidentified object - variously described as a knife, a key, and a blunt object. According to one report:

"At Bethlehem's Milk Grotto, the Rev. Fadi Shallufi on Friday afternoon [June 1] opened the chapel gates to foreign tourists, including women who were being harassed by two men... Chapel security footage shows the Franciscan friar exchanging words with the two men through the bars of the closed gates. One of the men pulls what appears to be knife from his pocket and strikes Shallufi as the Franciscan clergyman backs away, the footage shows."

The priest suffered minor injuries. Palestinian police reportedly detained two men as they take "such incidents seriously as they can harm tourism. About 80 to 85 percent of the West Bank population is Sunni Muslim." Speaking of this incident, one human rights activist said:

"While we are grateful that no one was seriously injured during this incident, the reality is that Middle Eastern Christians constantly live in fear of such attacks. Sadly, the escalation of intimidation, harassment, and violence towards Christians is an all too common occurrence during Ramadan."

Pakistan: A mentally disabled Christian man convicted on blasphemy charges was beaten by Muslim inmates for praying on June 22. Three years earlier, Yaqoob Bashir, 25, was accused by a Muslim cleric of burning pages of a booklet carrying Koran verses. He was arrested and imprisoned. According to a local human rights activist familiar with the case:

"Bashir was set to have a hearing in court on June 23 and before appearing, the young Christian wanted to pray at night. However, the prisoners with him did not allow him to pray in front of them. When Bashir continued, four of them got annoyed and beat him very badly. He sustained injuries to his face, eyes, chin, and head."

"It is sad to hear that Christians are not secure even in police custody," Bishop Samson Shukardin of the Hyderabad Diocese said.

"It is the duty of the state to ensure the protection of all citizens. If a young Christian is facing violence and torture in jail, then one can only imagine the new heights of persecution.... At this stage, I am worried for his life. Allowing an attack on a mentally disabled prisoner shows that the prison authorities are not sincerely trying to protect the citizens nor does the government have a clear policy to curb extremist movements."

Tajikistan: Local Muslims tried to prevent a Christian man from burying the corpse of his wife until he returned to Islam. "When an elderly Christian woman from a Muslim background died last week," explains the June 20 report.

"... her husband Mihrab and children - all of them Christians - organised a funeral ceremony and invited people from their church. But Mihrab's Muslim relatives also invited local Muslims, including a cleric, who demanded that Mihrab convert back to Islam, otherwise he would refuse to hold the ceremony and prevent them from burying the Christian woman in the local cemetery. Mihrab responded that the pastor of her church could hold the ceremony, but the Muslims present vowed that they would not allow the woman's body to be buried, saying Mihrab and her family were 'betrayers of Islam.'"

After appealing to a local official, the Christian family was eventually given permission to lay their wife and mother to rest. "Burials are one example of the ways in which Christians are put under pressure across Central Asia," noted the report.

"The common tradition is for the dead body to return to the village community where the family originated, but converts are seen as bringing shame on the community. As a result, they and their family members, whether or not they have also converted, are often prevented from being buried there."

Morocco: While deemed significantly less radical than other Muslim nations, Christians in the North African Muslim kingdom are still seen and treated as second-class citizens; any public expression of faith creates difficulties for them. For example, "[b]y law, only foreign Christians are allowed to collectively worship in churches, many set up during the French colonial era, and proselytism is punishable by up to three years in prison," according to a June 8 report. Similarly, two converts to Christianity had to:

"... marry in a small ceremony in a meeting room of a human rights group in the Moroccan capital, ignoring threats from people in their conservative hometown... They are part of a tiny minority who have converted to Christianity and are demanding legal recognition of their marriage. Islam is the religion of state in predominantly Sunni Muslim Morocco where only Muslim and Jewish marriages are deemed legal."

"From now on I have to wear niqab [face veil] if I want to walk in the streets of my hometown," the new bride said after the ceremony. "We want to be recognized as Moroccan Christian citizens and to enjoy the right to legal marriages and burial ceremonies according to our religion," said a local human rights representative. Another Christian couple who they refused to get married in a Sharia setting, and therefore their Christian marriage remains unacknowledged, said:

"We are running the risk of being accused of fornication punishable under the penal code... We suffer from discrimination by authorities which do not recognize us as Moroccan Christians coupled with social pressure and harassment because of our choice of faith."

According to VOA, "The native Christian community is estimated by local leaders at more than 50,000 but no official statistics exist."

Extremist Abuse of Christians in Egypt

After Christians objected that a group of Muslim men were swimming completely nude in front of their homes - while Christian women were sitting outside - "[a] Muslim mob gathered around the homes of Christians across the canal and began pelting them with bricks and stones, while shouting 'Allahu akbar' [Allah is greater] and chanting slogans against Copts," a local resident, Nashaat Ezzat, said. "They broke the windows and doors of some houses, looted and destroyed some properties." Six Christians were injured and required stitches in their heads. Police arrived three hours later and arrested seven Christians and two Muslims. According to the report, "Local Christians said the police arrested them in order to pressure the Christian community to reconcile with their Muslim attackers in exchange for the release of the detained Copts." They were all released five days later.

Although Christians are not legally required to observe Ramadan, including by joining Muslims in fasting during the day, one Christian was arrested and two Christians beaten for failing to observe the Muslim holiday. When Hani George, 31, arrived at the Giza rail station, a police officer asked for his identification. Once the officer realized that Hani was Christian he began searching through his bag: "There was a bottle of water inside my bag and, while he was searching it, he was staring at this bottle with anger," George said. "He took my ID from me and asked me to follow him. When I resisted and asked where he was taking me, he started insulting me and ordered that I stopped talking - as if I was a criminal."

"The officer told me, 'Why did you have this bottle of water while we are in Ramadan?' I told them I was not fasting because I was a Christian, but they insulted me and said that I would stay there until sunset and that I was not allowed to sit.... I was held at the police station for more than two hours and was dealt with in a very humiliating way for having done nothing. When I am at work, I don't eat or drink in front of my Muslim colleagues, as a sign of respect."

Separately, on June 6, a farmer, Adel Ayoub, 52, was drinking water outdoors when he was approached by a group of young men. "They asked me, 'Why are you breaking Ramadan fasting?' I told them I was a Christian. As soon as they heard the word 'Christian,' they attacked and beat me with their hands until I almost fainted."

In another incident that occurred on June 1, a Christian bus driver was beaten for drinking tea. While waiting at a bus stop, an eyewitness saw a group of men attack a bus and smash its windows. "I approached the microbus and found out that the driver was attacked because he was drinking a cup of tea inside and also because he was a Christian. There was a tattoo of a cross on his right wrist," he added. According to the report:

"The Egyptian Fatwa House, an Islamic research centre presided over by the government, declared in 2016 that eating or drinking during the fasting hours of Ramadan 'is not part of the personal freedom of people,' but rather an aggression against Islam."

Finally, discussing what it calls "a spike in kidnappings and disappearances of Christian women and girls in rural areas of Egypt and some cities," a June 13 report explained that there is "a trafficking strategy that targets Coptic Christian young ladies and forces them to convert to Islam then sell them into either into domestic care in other international locations or into the sex trade." This is "a tactic to demoralize the women and to humiliate the Christian community."

"[T]here were seven kidnappings of Coptic Christian women in the month of April [alone] and an eighth one on May 2... One of the girls who was kidnapped, Mirna Malak Shenouda, a 16-year-old Coptic Christian girl, escaped her kidnappers... [S]he was kidnapped by two women and a man in Aswan. She had been knocked out but awoke on a train. At one of the stops, she jumped off and called her parents. However, Shenouda's escape and rescue are rare."

Christian families complain that police often do nothing.

In one instance, "after the family reported to the police, they returned to the station for updates and the police stated the woman had come into the station, said she was not missing and had willingly converted to Islam. The family says they do not believe she would ever willingly convert to a different religion as she loves God. However, the local police will not investigate this case or similar cases any further."

Western Enablers of Religious Supremacism against Christians

Iraq: A Christian community leader lamented that "the Pope's [Francis's] repeated emphasis on a greater tolerance for and understanding of Islam has left the deeply persecuted Chaldean minority [Iraqi Christians] feeling insecure and vulnerable," says a report. In an interview, Aziz Emmanuel al-Zebari, 68, a Chaldean political candidate and professor at the Catholic University of Erbil, said, "We have actually been weakened by the stance taken by the Vatican. The Vatican is teaching the community to be submissive. That won't help us get our rights." Zebari referred to the Pope's approach as "naïve and short-sighted... There can't [be] dialogue when one party is down and the other party has the upper hand.... There is no equal ground here." Iraq's Chaldeans, he said, "have paid a high price for being Christian, and we cannot prevail without protection. When I am displaced, when my family is threatened with sexual violence and I'm then told just to pray and be tolerant... We don't expect any support from the Vatican. We are in a hopeless situation."

United Kingdom: "Just one in 400 Syrian refugees given asylum in the UK last year were Christians despite them being subjected to 'horrendous persecution,'" a June 23 report found. "The number of Christians granted asylum by Britain has slumped considerably since 2016, when 1.5 per cent were Christians." Critics of these statistics argue that, because Christians amount to 10 percent of Syria's population, so 10 percent of Syrian refugees should be Christian. Yet if anything, "Last year that percentage dropped to just 0.23 - amounting to 11 of the 4,832 Syrians who were resettled in the UK." The overwhelming majority of those nearly 5,000 refugees are Sunni Muslim, the one sect not targeted by the Islamic State, which itself is Sunni.

Canada: During a parliament session, MP Garnett Genius asked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau if he would acknowledge, as other heads of nations had done, that the Islamic State was persecuting Christians. Trudeau did not give a clear answer. Genius later wrote in a Facebook post:

"Today in Question Period I asked the Prime Minister to acknowledge the persecution of Christians in the Middle East and to recognize that Christians were victims of genocide at the hands of Daesh/ISIS. The Prime Minister did not answer the question at all, and would not even use the word 'Christian' in his response. The government's response to minority persecution around the world has been underwhelming, but on issues impacting Christians in particular, they have steadfastly refused to engage at all."

Similarly, Andrew Scheer, another Canadian MP, said "Justin Trudeau's failure to stand up against the persecution of Christians and other minorities around the world is completely unacceptable." Discussing this incident, one report noted:

"When it comes to criticism of radical islamism, Justin Trudeau immediately denounces it as 'islamophobia,' seeking to shut down any discussion whatsoever. But when it comes to persecution against other faiths, particularly Christianity, Trudeau is silent."

Austria: "Catholic children forced to learn Islamic songs at [an] Austrian elementary school," is the title of a June 20 report. "At an elementary school in Linz, Catholic children have to memorise and recite Islamic songs as part of the Islamic Ramadan festival. They were forced to take part and were punished if they refused." After picking up her young son from school, one Catholic mother was shocked to hear him loudly chanting "Allah, Allah." He told her that for two months the entire class had been compelled to sing songs about Islam, or else risked punishment. "It felt like a slap in my face!" said the mother. According to the report, "The Islamic religious teacher came to the children in the class and ordered the students to learn the appropriate Ramadan songs, because the whole class must celebrate this festival."

Such "Islam first" incidents have been growing around Austrian schools. An elementary school teacher from Vienna had said earlier that it is becoming impossible to integrate Muslim children. "Sharia law is superior for many of my students," she warned.

"Music and dance are rejected on religious grounds. Also discussions and fights take place with increasing frequency along religious lines.... Many schools are getting more and more out of control" and "the problems in the classrooms are almost impossible to solve anymore."

Donations.

If you are blessed and informed by this Ministry, Please consider a generous gift of any amount to help us remain strong and on the leading edge of helping many be equipped, informed and edified. If you would like to become one of The CJCNs support partners and help to grow this vital ministry, please follow this link to PayPal and make your donation. Thank you and God bless you for your gift.

Why We Should Expect Suffering.

Contemporary culture is, in the words of the late author and social critic Christopher Lasch, a "culture of narcissism." Tragically, the American church is not immune to this virus. For today the lifestyles and longings of many modern day followers of Christ often bear no appreciable difference from that of our non-Christian neighbours and co-workers.

At some point during the last quarter century it became all-too-common to stop proclaiming a gospel directed at people's real spiritual needs and instead focus on the wants and desires of potential church goers. More than mirroring the first century church, this conduct reflects the way Starbucks markets overpriced coffee to potential consumers.

For example, conventional wisdom in evangelicalism today is that suffering is the exception, not the norm for the believer. Moreover, if a Christian does suffer it is quite possibly because of sin in his or her life. Many segments of the American church-immersed in a culture of happy, prosperous consumers-have failed their constituency by not faithfully proclaiming what the Bible says about the reality of suffering.

But suffering in the Christian life is the rule, not the exception. From the day Christ called us to follow Him he fully disclosed two prerequisites: denying ourselves and taking up our cross. When Saul of Tarsus was converted on the road to Damascus, he didn't experience a Benny Hinn-esque healing. On the contrary, God blinded him, left him in that condition for days and sent a reluctant evangelist by the name of Ananias to inform him of how much he would suffer for the name of Christ (Acts 9:15).

And suffer he did. Consider what Paul endured: five times beaten with 39 stripes, three times beaten with rods, stoned, shipwrecked three times, a night and a day floating in the sea, danger of all kinds, weary and in pain, hungry and thirsty, naked and cold. And to add insult to injury God refused to answer his prayer for healing from whatever was ailing him-a thorn in his flesh. Paul was told to be content with grace in the midst of his sufferings (2 Corinthians 11:1).

How did Paul respond to his sufferings?

I will glory in the things which concern my infirmities (2 Corinthians 2:30).

I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand ...henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto them also who love His appearing (2 Timothy 2:8).

The Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen (2 Timothy 2:18).

How could Paul rejoice in his sufferings and give glory to God? The answer lies in a full reading of 2 Timothy 3:1, written in prison just prior to his execution. Note the use of the word "love" five times in these two chapters: lovers of self (3:2); lovers of money (3:2 - "covetous" in some translations); lovers of pleasure (3:4); love his appearing (4:8); loved this present world (4:10).

One of the five loves mentioned stands in stark contrast to the other four: loving the appearing of Jesus Christ.

When we live in anticipation of seeing Jesus and hearing Him say, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant: enter into the joy of your Lord," we can endure suffering. Why? Because such a focus helps us realise that the worst thing that happens to us here and now can never separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. With our focus not on self but Jesus, we more fully realise the truth of 2 Corinthians 2:17: "Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory."

The tragedy is that much of contemporary evangelicalism has sold the future and eternal "weight of glory" for the immediate and transient satisfaction of "your best life now." As a result, when Christians encounter difficultly they are ill-prepared to deal with it biblically: the storms come, the winds blow and "Cultural Christian" is blown away because there was no firm, biblical foundation for life (Matthew 7:24).

In contrast, the English Baptist John Rippon wrote in 1787 of the believer's firm foundation:

How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
is laid for your faith in his excellent word!
What more can he say than to you he hath said,
to you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?

The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to its foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavour to shake,
I'll never, no never, no never forsake.

In Jesus we have a foundation not only for this life, but for all eternity. Therefore, come what may, the Christian can proclaim, "My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever" (Psalms 73:26).

Blessing.

Numbers 6:24-26 New King James Version (NKJV)

The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face to shine upon you, And be gracious unto you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace. Amen.

Donations.

If you are blessed and informed by this Ministry, Please consider a generous gift of any amount to help us remain strong and on the leading edge of helping many be equipped, informed and edified. If you would like to become one of The CJCNs support partners and help to grow this vital ministry, please follow this link to PayPal and make your donation. Thank you and God bless you for your gift.

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Stop Taking Jeremiah 29:11 Out of Context! 

Why do we misinterpret this verse?

"'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'"

My Old Testament professor had this to say about the ever-popular Jeremiah 29:11: "I am going to destroy what this verse means to you, but then I'm going to re-frame it so you understand it better within its original context, and then you will love it, even more, when we're done." He definitely had our attention!

We often approach Jeremiah 29:11 as a security blanket: God has a plan for me that is good, so clearly this suffering I'm going through will end soon and then my flourishing will begin! But that is not at all what God was promising to the Israelites, and it's not what he's promising us, either.

Author and blogger Mary DeMuth addresses our misunderstanding of this verse in her latest trending post, Jeremiah 29:11 Doesn't Mean What You Think. As she explains, the heart of the verse is "not that we would escape our lot, but that we would learn to thrive" in the midst of it.

The True Context of Jeremiah 29:11

Here's the context: the Israelites were in exile, a punishment from God as result of their disobedience. The prophet Jeremiah confronts the false prophet, Hananiah, who had boldly proclaimed that God was going to free Israel from Babylon in two years (spoiler alert: God doesn't do this).

Jeremiah calls out Hananiah's lie and then states the promise we read in 29:11. God does indeed have a good plan for the Israelites, and it is a plan that will give them hope and a prospering future. Sounds good, right?

The thing is, before he shares this promise, he gives them this directive from God: "seek the peace and the prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper." (29:7)

This is not at all what the Israelites wanted to hear! They wanted to be told that they were going to go home. They wanted to be told that their suffering was going to end. Instead, God's plan was for them to stay right where they were, and to help prosper the nation that enslaved them!

And then came the biggest blow of all. In verse 10, God says that he would fulfill this "after seventy years are completed in Babylon." This meant that none in the current generation of Israelites would ever return to their home. What a crushing thing to be told!

Blessing.

Numbers 6:24-26 New King James Version (NKJV)

The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face to shine upon you, And be gracious unto you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace. Amen.

Donations.

If you are blessed and informed by this Ministry, Please consider a generous gift of any amount to help us remain strong and on the leading edge of helping many be equipped, informed and edified. If you would like to become one of The CJCNs support partners and help to grow this vital ministry, please follow this link to PayPal and make your donation. Thank you and God bless you for your gift.

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