9 “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. 10 At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, 11 and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. 12 Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13 but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.
(Matthew 24)
Another Christian leader, while discussing Sudan in particular, touched on what Christians throughout the Muslim world are facing, and why. "The government in Sudan wants to Islamize the whole population and they want to finish off Christianity and other faiths in Sudan," said Pastor Strong. "We have to put pressure on the government so that the rights of the people to practice their faith openly will be given to them." To achieve this, he added, they need the support of the "global Church": "They are in the midst of trials, persecution, hunger — a lot of problems. And yet in the midst of all that, they rejoice. They're always ready to die, and they testify their faith in every circumstance. They are willing to serve no matter what they have and what they might lose."
July's roundup of Muslim persecution of Christians around the world includes, but is not limited to, the following:
Muslim Slaughter of Christians
Pakistan: On July 24, an Islamic suicide-bomber detonated explosives, killing himself in an area heavily populated by Christians. At least 26 people were murdered. According to human rights activist Bruce Allen, "What the mainstream media is not reporting is that this is the second-largest Christian colony in Pakistan where this blast occurred"—only a mile-and-a-half from where "pastors in Pakistan meet on a monthly basis, where they receive their monthly financial support, where they get together for sharing prayer requests and have some ongoing training centers and things like that." After explaining how many suicide terror attacks target Christians, he explained how such ongoing terror "puts the Christians at this heightened state of alert, and they have been for some time. We recall last Easter, a time of great celebration, and there's an attack against Christians in the parks. And that's what they live with constantly.... [W]e talk about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder with people in combat. Well, here you have a whole population of people who that's what their life is: combat. And so it has psychological, spiritual, and emotional wearing."
Kenya: Muslim militants linked to the jihadi group Al Shabaab hacked 13 non-Muslims, most of whom were Christian, to death with machetes. "They were slaughtered like chicken using knives.... We suspect there are many bodies that haven't been recovered," police said. The incident took place on Sunday, July 9 in a village near Lama. Because the Muslim terrorists were "only targeting male non-Muslims," local Muslims directed them to Christians. "The Christians were asked to recite the Islamic dogmas, which they could not, hence they were killed," a local source explained.
Egypt: Another Christian solider was killed by fellow (Muslim) soldiers once they learned he was a Christian. Joseph Reda Helmy had just completed his military training when he was transferred to Al-Salaam ("peace"), a special forces unit, where three officers killed him. He is at least the sixth Christian soldier to be killed for his faith in recent years.
Also, of the jihadi slaughter of Christians traveling to a desert monastery in late May, 2017, more details emerged. Speaking from her hospital bed, one of the survivors of the massacre, Mariam Adel, a young mother whose husband and nine of her relatives were killed in the attack, said that after the jihadis opened fire on their bus, they went onboard and "ordered them off the bus and told them to convert to Islam." "Renounce our faith? Of course not," Mariam said of the women's collective reaction. "If we had, they might have let us off the bus and treated us well. But we only want Jesus and we are confident he will not leave us."
Nigeria: At least one Christian student was killed by an Islamic suicide attacker from Boko Haram. "Ambore Gideon Todi, a 21-year-old student at the University of Maiduguri in Borno state, was staying in the Evangelical Church Winning All's student ministry tent when Boko Haram suicide bombers detonated explosives," according to a report. "It is believed that he was not the only one affected by the bomb blast,"
Ethiopia: A gang of Muslims with machetes violently hacked at a Christian, leaving "the 27-year-old man needing life-saving surgery," says a report. A "doctor, believing he would die en route to a bigger hospital, operated on his wounds. Although he is still unwell, the surgery stabilised him enough to be taken elsewhere for more specialised treatment." The Muslim gang that attacked him was reportedly angry at him for publicly evangelizing among Muslims.
Iran: Four Muslim converts to Christianity, and accused of promoting it, were sentenced to ten years in prison. The four men were arrested in May during a series of raids on Christian homes by security service agents. The report notes that such harsh sentences are becoming the norm:
Egypt: After nearly three months of deadly terrorist attacks—including suicide bombing on churches that left nearly 50 Christians dead, followed by the slaughter of nearly 30 Christians traveling to a monastery in the Sinai and ongoing threats and other attacks -- many churches suspended their activities and temporarily shut down for most of July. According to a report, "The Evangelical, Coptic Orthodox, and Catholic churches agreed to halt services, conferences, and any church trips to protect their congregations."
Tanzania: Responding to ongoing and angry Muslim protests, a court ruled that the church building that a Christian congregation had been trying to build for eight years on the semi-autonomous island of Zanzibar must abandon the project.
Iraq: Due to the significant reduction of the Christian population, eight more churches were closed in Baghdad. According to the report, "After the regional Catholic Church authority visited the churches, the Vatican decided that it was best to close the doors for good. While this makes logistical sense, it represents a symbolic defeat for the Church in the capital of Iraq."
Four Iranian converts to Christianity were arrested last Tuesday in the city of Karaj, about an hour drive from Tehran, according to Persian media reports.
Two weeks before Christmas, Iranian security forces raided six houses the converts used as home churches, detained four and dragged them away. Milad Goudarzi, Amin Khaki, Alireza Nour-Mohammadi and Shehabuddin Shahi were engaged in a "Christian ceremony" prior to the arrest, according to Radio Farda, the Iranian branch of the US government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty external broadcast service.
Two weeks before Christmas, Iranian security forces raided six houses the converts used as home churches, detained four and dragged them away. Milad Goudarzi, Amin Khaki, Alireza Nour-Mohammadi and Shehabuddin Shahi were engaged in a "Christian ceremony" prior to the arrest, according to Radio Farda, the Iranian branch of the US government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty external broadcast service.
Furthermore, Radio Farda reported, security forces raided two shops belonging to two of the converts and confiscated some of their merchandise. One of the shops was sealed off for “overcharging,” “profiteering” and “breaking guild regulations.”
IRNA, the Iranian government's official news agency, defended the arrests.
“Elements of a devious Christian cult who were promoting it and attempting to disrupt the market and economic order have been arrested,” it claimed Tuesday.
IRNA, the Iranian government's official news agency, defended the arrests.
“Elements of a devious Christian cult who were promoting it and attempting to disrupt the market and economic order have been arrested,” it claimed Tuesday.
Two suicide bombers attacked a packed Christian church in southwestern Pakistan on Sunday, killing at least eight people and wounding up to 45 before one of them blew himself up and police killed the other, officials said.
The gunmen wearing explosives-filled vests stormed the church in Quetta city when Sunday services had just opened, exploding a suicide vest and shooting at the worshippers, said Sarfraz Bugti, the home minister of Baluchistan province.
Police guards at the church exchanged fire with the attackers before they could enter the main sanctuary, said provincial police chief Moazzam Jah. He said two women were among those killed.
"There were nearly 400 people inside the church, but the attackers couldn't get inside the services," Jah said. "We killed one of them, and the other one exploded himself after police wounded him," he said.
Hamas has announced that President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel has opened the “gates of hell.” Its Muslim Brotherhood parent has declared America an “enemy state.”
The Arab League boss warned that the Jerusalem move “will fuel extremism and result in violence.” The Jordanian Foreign Minister claimed that it would “trigger anger” and “fuel tension.”
“Moderate” Muslim leaders excel at threatening violence on behalf of the “extremists”.
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) warned that recognizing Jerusalem will trigger an Islamic summit and be considered a "blatant attack on the Arab and Islamic nations."
The last time the OIC was this mad, someone drew Mohammed. And wasn’t stoned to death for it.
According to the Saudi ambassador, it will “heighten tensions”. The Deputy Prime Minister of Islamist Turkey called it a “major catastrophe”. And the leader of the largest Muslim country in Europe, France's Emmanuel Macron "expressed concern" that America will “unilaterally recognize Jerusalem."
PLO leaders and minions meanwhile made it quite clear that now the dead peace process is truly dead.
The Palestinian Authority’s boss warned that recognizing Jerusalem will “destroy the peace process”. The PLO’s envoy in D.C. threatened that it would be the “final lethal blow” and “the kiss of death to the two-state solution”. A top PA advisor claimed it “will end any chance of a peace process.”
“The struggle over this land is not merely a struggle over a piece of land here or there. Not at all. The struggle has the symbolism of holiness, or blessing. It is a struggle between those whom Allah has chosen for Ribat and those who are trying to mutilate the land of Ribat," Habash had declared.
Ribat means that Israel is a frontier outpost between the territories of Islam and the free world. The Muslim terrorists who call themselves “Palestinians” have, according to the Abbas adviser, been chosen for “Ribat” to stand guard on the Islamic frontier and expand the territories of Islam.
The sense of Ribat is that the Jihadists may not yet be able to win a definitive victory, but must maintain their vigilance for the ultimate goal, which a Hadith defines as performing Ribat “against my enemy and your enemy until he abandons his religion for your religion."
That is what’s at stake here.
It’s not about a “piece of land here or there”, as the PA’s top Sharia judge clarifies, it’s a religious war. And Israel is not just a religious war between Muslims and Jews, but a shifting frontier in the larger war between Islam and the rest of the world. It’s another territory to be conquered on the way to Europe. And Europe is another territory to be conquered on the way to America.
There can be no peace in a religious war. Nor is there anything to negotiate.
One of the greatest evidences that there is a God -- to whom we owe our very lives, and whose Word we are to follow -- is the mere existence of a nation called Israel. Thus the rampant hatred for the children of Abraham. Nevertheless, science again makes clear what Scripture long ago revealed.
Note that the nation born of Abraham will be “a blessing” to the whole world. Scripture is replete with this theme. Genesis alone has several references. In addition to the above, there are Genesis 18:18, 22:18, 26:4, and 28:14. Without using the word “blessing,” Scripture makes it clear that Israel is the vehicle through which God -- in multiple ways -- will bless the earth.
Scripture also makes it clear that Israel was not chosen because it was the largest and most powerful nation (Deut. 7:7), or because of her righteousness (Deut. 9:5). In other words, Israel was not chosen for the glory of (or to glorify) Israel, but to glorify the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In other words, God chose the weak -- Israel was in slavery when it became a nation -- so that the world would know that the God of Israel was the one true God. (Egypt was the first to get a dramatic lesson.)
A significant manner in which the Jews were a blessing to all of humanity, and another means through which they were a witness to all the earth, was through the written word of God. The Jews were God’s scribes, recording His words and deeds so that people might hear (or read) and believe. As the Apostle Paul, at the beginning of Romans chapter 3 notes, “What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew… Much in every way! First of all, they have been entrusted with the very words of God.” The oral, and eventually, the written Word of God is an amazing testimony of God’s existence, His presence, and His power.
And last, Christianity teaches that the redemption of all mankind came through the Jews. Jesus Christ, the Messiah, was a descendant of Abraham, born out of the tribe of Judah. As Paul also reveals in Romans, “the Jews and the Gentiles alike are all under sin” and in need of salvation. Of course, the message of Paul was the message of Jesus: whether Jew or Gentile, salvation is through Christ alone.
The God who spoke to Abraham and Moses is the same God who inspired the Pilgrims and the Puritans -- the people who are most responsible for the founding of the United States. Though Christianity teaches that we are all under a new covenant with our Creator, the nation of Israel still stands as a testimony to the Truth. Thus any move that further legitimizes Israel -- such as official recognition by the United States of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and placing our embassy there -- will be strongly opposed by those who hate the Truth.
Geert Wilders, the leader of the Freedom Party in the Netherlands, just tweeted “Jordan=Palestine. So, the capital of Palestine is not Jerusalem but Amman.”
It can’t get any simpler than that.
The Jordan Option represents a different solution, one which would be far less costly to Israel. It requires changing Jordan from a monarchy to a parliamentary democracy.
After the voluntary or forced abdication by King Abdullah, the Jordan Opposition Coalition, (JOC) led by Mudar Zahran, would form the interim government. Given the fact that 75% of Jordanian citizens are Palestinian, i.e., their grandparents were/are Palestinian, this is only fitting. Besides in the last few years, King Abdullah has alienated both U.S. and Israel for different reasons. They now want him out.
New alliances are forming in the Middle East as the feud between Iran and Saudi Arabia heats up. Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE, and Egypt are committed to fighting terrorism and the ideology which fuels it. To this end they have banned the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) as a terrorist organization and have placed sanctions on Qatar who continues to support them and other terrorist organizations.
Jordan hosts the world headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood and its parliament is controlled by both MB and ISIS members.
The King also supports Palestinian resistance to Israel and from time to time encourages them to start an intifada.
Therefore, all Palestinians in Israel and elsewhere would benefit from this transformation. They could emigrate to Jordan and immediately be full citizens with full rights to pensions, social security and healthcare.
One of the reasons Israel hesitates to annex Judea and Samaria, is that if she doesn’t give the local Arabs citizenship or a path to it, she will be accused of being an apartheid regime. But the fact that the Palestinians already have Jordanian citizenship, would negate such criticism.
Israel has spent $300 billion on internal security since the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1995. She would no longer have to carry that burden. In addition, Israel would retain title to all state lands being annexed. These lands would be worth tens of billions. Israel would then embark on a massive building program throughout Judea and Samaria which would greatly reduce the cost of housing in Israel. Both the Palestinian Authority and UNRWA would be disbanded thereby saving the U.S. and the EU close to a $1 billion a year which they currently spend. All good.
That’s the Jordan Option.
As Wilders suggests there would be nothing to stop Jordan from changing its name to Palestine and making Amman its capital city.
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