Iran votes to whip citizens who spread the Gospel

Iran votes to whip citizens who spread the Gospel

Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz

An Iranian convert who goes on a Christian satellite channel to tell how he found faith may soon pay for it with 31 to 74 lashes. Last week Iran’s parliament approved Article 22 of a bill titled “Countering the Infiltration of Foreign Intelligence Services and Governments or Entities,” which makes it a crime for Iranian citizens to give interviews to, or hold conversations with, any media outlet or “media figure” that the Ministry of Intelligence has publicly designated as hostile. That list already names the leading Persian-language Christian broadcasters.

“Anybody connected to us, anybody working for us, anybody supporting us, even appearing on our channel, even going and doing a like on our social media, is a criminal, officially criminal,” said Hormoz Shariat, founder of the Dallas-area Iran Alive Ministries, in an interview with Peter Wooding of the Global News Alliance.

The ayatollahs are fighting a war against a television signal. That raises a question with roots going back 2,500 years to the Persian court of King Darius: what happens when an empire writes a law forbidding people to pray?

Under Article 22, violators face six months to two years in prison, fines, deprivation of social rights, and flogging, according to FCNN, a Persian Christian news outlet. Officials of the Islamic Republic are explicitly exempt. A regime spokesman can appear on a “hostile” channel, while a convert who shares his testimony on Mohabat TV can be flogged for it. The bill must still clear further legislative steps, including Guardian Council approval, before it becomes law.

Shariat said the regime’s aim is fear. “Another law, another fear. That’s how they control the people of Iran, passing laws and making it harder to follow [Jesus], so easier persecution,” he said. He added that satellite viewers remain beyond the regime’s reach. “The signal goes over the heads of the mullahs into people’s homes, and the government cannot stop it, and you cannot prove that you are watching it.”

The broadcasts matter because Iran has shut down nearly every other avenue for Christian worship. Since 2009, churches that offered services in Persian have been forced to stop, and pastors who kept ministering to converts in their homes have been arrested and imprisoned along with the converts themselves. Only Iran’s historic Armenian and Assyrian communities may worship, and they are barred from sharing their faith. In August, guards were posted outside a seized Tehran church to keep worshipers out.

Last week, Lida Alexani, a 58-year-old grandmother and wife of Iranian-Armenian pastor Joseph Shahbazian, was summoned to begin a 13-year sentence for “deviant proselytizing contrary to the holy religion of Islam.” Her husband is already serving a 16-year sentence for leading a house church. The couple and three converts in the same case were collectively sentenced to more than 70 years.

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Iran's reported missile test puts Israel on alert

Iran's reported missile test puts Israel on alert

Shirit Avitan Cohen

Reports in Arab media that Iran launched at least 30 ballistic missiles of two different types during an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps exercise earlier this week have raised serious concerns in Israel. The reported drill has prompted the Israeli military to heighten its alert level while maintaining maximum readiness for a targeted strike against Iran.

Israel is not only watching with concern as Iran replenishes its missile stockpiles, as recently reported by Bloomberg, but is also preparing for the possibility that an Iranian military exercise could turn into a real attack.

Alongside fears of a miscalculation that could trigger a broader conflict, direct discussions between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump suggest that another strike against Iran remains under consideration. Trump himself has raised the possibility on several occasions over the past week.

The Israel Defense Forces has raised its alert level across all fronts. During a visit to the IDF's Central Command on Wednesday, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir warned that the risk of escalation was growing. "Given the numerous warnings across all fronts and the sensitivity of the current period, the potential for escalation has increased," Zamir said. "To ensure better operational control on the ground, we have reinforced our troop deployments across all sectors, including moving the 98th Division into the area to strengthen security and stability."

"We have reinforced our forces and raised our level of readiness, and we continue to prepare for attempts to catch us by surprise," he added. "During this sensitive period, we must remain vigilant and prepared on every front, preserve our freedom of action and swiftly thwart threats. We pursue and combat terrorism wherever it exists. The IDF is at a high level of readiness to launch large-scale offensive operations against any party that attempts to harm Israeli civilians."

After the Americans managed to increase tanker traffic through the strait in September to nearly prewar levels, they are now facing the need to take preventive military action against Iranian attacks. Such an operation could take place in the coming days. The anticipated strikes would be limited and targeted, focusing on radar installations, missile launchers and observation posts used to detect vessels passing through the waterway.

Iran has stepped up its attacks in the Strait of Hormuz while also assisting the Houthis around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, another strategically vital shipping route at the southern entrance to the Red Sea. The apparent objective is to drive up oil prices in the US, potentially influencing the outcome of November's midterm elections.

Israeli assessments indicate that US strikes in the Strait of Hormuz would not have immediate repercussions for Israel unless they triggered a significant escalation. In that scenario, Iranian leaders could decide to deploy their recovering ballistic missile arsenal against additional targets in the Gulf states.

Beyond the Gulf, Israel is also closely monitoring developments along its northern front with Lebanon.

The Next Best Thing:

The Next Best Thing

Tim Moore

What is the next thing you are looking forward to? The wedding of a child? The birth of another grandchild? A long-anticipated trip or family gathering?

All of those blessed events are bound to inspire eager anticipation. But the best thing that Christians throughout the Church Age have awaited with great excitement is the Rapture of the Church. That is why Paul refers to His coming for us as our “blessed hope.” As we’ve said many times, because our Hope is bound up in the Person of Jesus Christ and His trustworthy promises, the phrase Blessed Hope refers both to Him personally and to the promise that He will come and gather us to Himself.

It is that upward call that will usher us in glorified bodies into the rarefied beauty of Heaven—to take up residence in the place He has prepared for us—that Paul says we should be groaning for. In fact, he assumes that every Christian is doing just that: “having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:23).

Paul advocated for what I refer to as an “already, but not yet” realization of our salvation. Yes, we are saved the moment we trust in Christ. But still, we await the glorification of our bodies, our minds, and our hearts. “For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it” (Romans 8:24-25).

Jesus Christ, who is our Savior in accordance with the eternal will of God, is also our Hope.

Are You Hoping for the Blessed Hope?

Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians is the clearest scriptural reference to the Rapture, but it is not the only one. The concept of the “Rapture” is contained in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 where the word is typically translated as “caught up.” In the original Greek, the word harpázō was used. That word appears 14 times in Scripture and conveys the idea of being seized, snatched away, plucked up, or carried off by force. For example:

• Matthew 11:12 (take it by force)
• Matthew 12:29 (plunder)
• Matthew 13:19 (snatches away)
• John 6:15 (take Him by force)
• John 10:12 (the wolf catches)
• John 10:28, 29 (neither shall anyone snatch them)
• 2 Corinthians 12:2, 4 (caught up into Paradise)
• Jude 23 (pulling them out of the fire)
• Revelation 12:5 (her Child was caught up to God)

Late in the 4th century, Jerome translated the Greek New Testament into the Latin Vulgate (“vulgar” or common tongue spoken by most Roman citizens). He used the future tense of the Latin verb rapio, rendering it as rapiēmur—meaning “we shall be caught up.”

If Paul’s Spirit-revealed reference to what we call the Rapture was the only one, it would still be a clear and valid prophecy. But other Scriptures reference this promise to the Church: “Jesus said, ‘I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am going (to prepare a place for you) you may be also’ “ (John 14:1-4).

Paul revealed, “Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:51-52).

The context of Paul’s statement makes clear that he is referring to “the dead in Christ” (to use the language of 1 Thessalonians 4:16). And, while some get hung up on the nature of the “last trumpet,” it is the final trumpet those who have been redeemed will hear with our mortal ears—even as other trumpets will sound in Heaven and during the Tribulation. I don’t believe the unsaved will hear that particular trumpet, but those with “ears to hear” will hear the wonderful shout of the archangel and blast of that trumpet that will announce Christ Himself descending to collect His Bride.

Jesus is the Bridegroom who is waiting for His Father to say, “Go, and get Your Bride.” Any man who has awaited his wedding day can testify that the sense of anticipation and joyful excitement begins at the engagement and mounts as the wedding day draws near. The same was true with a Jewish betrothal, although the timing of the actual wedding was undetermined (and unknowable) until the father decided it was time.

As she awaits the wedding day, every bride also experiences growing expectation and hope. Her hope is not a forlorn wish, but an assurance of a life to be united and shared with the bridegroom. That is why brides used to gather treasured belongings in a hope chest—readying them for use in her future home and family.

It is almost unimaginable to think of a bride who would be apathetic about her impending wedding. And yet, many in the Bride of Christ seem unconcerned and indifferent about the joy that awaits when our Bridegroom comes to snatch us away, gathering us to Himself in the blink of an eye.

Oh, what a joy-filled day that will be! But that is only the beginning of the glories and joys that await us according to Bible prophecy.

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The Coming Food Crisis May Look Nothing Like A Crisis Until It's Too Late

The Coming Food Crisis May Look Nothing Like A Crisis Until It's Too Late

Madge Waggy via MadgeWaggy.blogspot.com,

Just after the morning deliveries and before the first customers, a supermarket looks both ordinary and slightly deceptive. The lights are on, the coolers hum, and the shelves hold exactly what they held last week. Strawberries show up in February, lettuce comes from ground that was desert two generations ago, and on the same shelf beef raised across three states sits beside bread baked from grain cut a thousand miles away. Someone pushing a cart through the whole store can finish the errand without once wondering how any of it got there.

That is part of why the American food supply is so easy to take for granted. Nobody praises the trucking fleets, the cold storage, the seed suppliers, or the packing houses, because a thing that rarely fails stops being noticed. Two or three generations have grown up treating food the way they treat running water: as a fact of the world, unremarkable and about as interesting.

Reliability, though, is not the same as resilience, and the two are easy to confuse because the difference only appears when something goes wrong. A farm can still bring in a decent harvest during a dry year, until that dry year coincides with expensive fertilizer, a thin labor crew, and a delayed shipment. Shelves can stay full while carrying fewer brands at higher prices. The country is not running out of food. What it may be running out of is the cushion that once let a bad season pass without anyone noticing.

This article rests on three kinds of claims, and it is worth keeping them apart. First come the demonstrated problems: measured facts about the age of farmers, the drawdown of aquifers, the concentration of meatpacking, the cost of inputs, the price of food. Then comes an interpretation, which is mine and can be argued with: the suggestion that these separate trends, taken together, are eroding the system's ability to absorb a shock. Last come scenarios, which are conditional rather than predictive, describing what could happen over the next decade or two if several pressures arrive at once and little changes. The text will say which is which as it goes.

What follows is not a forecast of collapse. It is an attempt to look past the grocery aisle at the people who grow the food, the water and soil they depend on, the infrastructure that moves it, and the habits of a public that has rarely had a reason to worry.

American food logistics are organized around movement rather than storage. Warehouses are designed for turnover, distribution centers run on delivery windows that assume trucks arrive when promised, and most supermarkets carry only a few days of stock, though the exact figure varies by product; fresh produce and bakery items turn over within days, while canned and frozen goods sit much longer. Very little slack exists by design, because idle inventory costs money and motion does not.

This is what the industry calls just-in-time, and for decades it worked remarkably well. Waste fell, prices stayed low, and a range of food reached the shelf that no earlier era could match. The bill for that efficiency comes due only under stress, and when it does, the buffers get spent quickly. A single failed truck route can empty a produce section for days, and one plant going dark for repairs can thin meat counters across several states. Fewer alternate paths run through the network than most people assume, and the paths that do exist tend to funnel through the same handful of junctions.

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Iran Believes That More War Is Coming After The Midterms, And They Are Feverishly Preparing For It

Iran Believes That More War Is Coming After The Midterms, And They Are Feverishly Preparing For It

Michael Snyder

The war in the Middle East has been essentially put on pause until the midterm elections in the United States are over, but once we get to that point Iran is expecting the fighting to go to an entirely new level. So Iran is using this temporary lull in the action to get fully prepared. Ground forces are being trained, defenses are being strengthened, new missiles are being produced, and rallies are being held to bolster public support for the coming conflict. This time around, the Iranians don’t intend to just be on the defensive. They have openly warned that they could conduct ground incursions into neighboring countries, because they believe that this would give them even more leverage with the Trump administration. But if the Iranians get too aggressive, that could set off a chain of events that nobody will be able to control.

In recent weeks, President Trump has repeatedly stated that his administration will “make a decision” on Iran in the not too distant future.

Everyone knows that he is referring to military action, and he just said it again…

“We’ll make a decision on Iran very soon,” he concludes, amid reports of discussions about a resumption of fighting before Israel’s October 27 election and the United States’ November 3 midterm elections.

Trump has made similar comments repeatedly in the past, without following through with renewed strikes.

Last week, he said the US would not attack Iran before the US midterms.

I could be wrong, but at this stage I think that there won’t be any additional airstrikes in Iranian territory until after the midterms.

However, once the midterms are over it appears that the U.S. and Israel intend to absolutely hammer Iran.

The Iranians are fully convinced of this, and according to the Wall Street Journal they are in full war preparation mode…

Iran is fortifying its defenses, rallying loyalists and threatening a wider, harsher response against the U.S. and its Gulf allies as it prepares for potential American attacks after the midterms and seeks to deter them.

Iranian officials have warned publicly and in private conversations with regional officials that the Islamic Republic will respond with further escalation across the Middle East if the U.S. launches new strikes.

If fighting is going to inevitably erupt again, the Iranians don’t just want to absorb strikes and fire off missiles in return.

Instead, they want to go on the offensive.

One of the options that is reportedly being considered is launching “ground incursions into neighboring countries”…

Tehran has also suggested it could launch ground incursions into neighboring countries and target regional data centers and communications infrastructure.

Iran has the largest army in the Middle East by a wide margin.

With reserves, they can muster a force of more than a million fighting men.

That is one of their most important competitive advantages, and they are thinking about using it.

A ground incursion across southern Iraq to grab Kuwait would be an extremely shocking move.

But if the Iranians were to commit a couple hundred thousand troops to such an effort, there wouldn’t be much that Iraq, Kuwait or the U.S. would be able to do about it.

The U.S. has a few thousand Marines in the Middle East, but that wouldn’t be nearly enough to stop an Iranian ground invasion.

The Iranians are also strengthening positions around their most important nuclear sites…

Iran has also reinforced protection around its nuclear sites and other security-related bunkers. Last month, it built passive defense measures such as makeshift dirt mounds around its Pickaxe Mountain and Natanz nuclear sites to impede any attempted raid by ground forces, according to Vantor satellite images analyzed by the Institute for Science and International Security, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit.

Iranian officials are touting their efforts. The country’s airports, seaports and power plants “have prepared for wartime conditions,” installing shelters and backup supplies to continue operating in a crisis, Brig. Gen. Gholamreza Jalali, the official in charge of the country’s contingency plans, told reporters at the end of September.

The Iranian nuclear program is the core issue of this war, and the Iranians have no intention of backing down.

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