15 replies to this topic

[JayShel]

Sometimes I think that my day is difficult, and then I see this:



Does Jesus promise us that life will be easy when we trust in Him? No. We worship a God who was mocked, whipped, spit on, humiliated, and murdered in one of the slowest, most painful ways possible; crucifixion; As you began to starve, and become dehydrated, you lost the strength to hold yourself up, and slowly asphyxiated as your head drooped down, eventually closing your airway. It was so painful, they made up a new word to describe the pain you experienced while dying this way; excruciating, which means "out of the cross", or "from the cross". This is the cross that Jesus is talking about when He says:

"And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me." Luke 9:23

We can expect that if people did that to our God, they will treat us similarly. This will only get worse as time goes on as is promised in Revelation.

Our hope is not on this planet, even our own flesh is against us. The only reason we have hope, is because of what He did. We were His enemy, and He came to die for us. He knew just how horrible it is when your soul is eternally separated from God in Hell, and He decided that dying such an agonizing death was worth saving people from such an existence. Glorifying Him and spreading the Gospel is more important than anything we will ever do. Have faith, and don't fear anything that human beings will do to you, because saving one person from the pits of Hell is worth anything they may do to you. Our God will not leave you or forsake you in your time of suffering, and He has experienced it Himself firsthand.

[Portillo]

The world doesnt care about Christian persecution. They hate Christianity too much.

[JayShel]

Yes, I wouldn't expect the same people who are against Christians to care that we are being persecuted. The church must know why we are persecuted. Often times people like Joel Olsteen will come along and preach prosperity gospel...if you believe in God hard enough, your life will be better. He has a huge church, lots of books, and a cult following. That is a false gospel, and when people in the church see such suffering of Christians around the world, they might lose their faith for lack of understanding. We must ensure that our brothers and sisters understand not only that we really do suffer, but why we suffer. They must understand why witnessing is difficult; we are called to boldly teach truth to enemies of God (that we once were) so that they may turn to Him. This isn't supposed to be easy. We will get rejected, we may even suffer, but it is worth it in the end to save even one person from Hell. Jesus took care of the hard part, living a perfect life so He could take the payment for our sins, and give us righteousness.

[Portillo]

We will continue to be persecuted and in the last days we will probably see more persecution than ever before. Bibles will be banned and you will be executed unless you renounce Christianity. The good news is that God will return and destroy mankind.

"For the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies: he hath utterly destroyed them, he hath delivered them to the slaughter. Their slain shall be cast out, and their stink shall come up out of their carcases, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood." - Isaiah 34

[JayShel]

Oddly enough, I rejoice at such justice, because although I was once an enemy of God, and it is scarey to think of someone actually going to Hell, not everyone belongs in Heaven. The people who refuse to repent really will have no excuse, and God's judgement will be righteous. It is not like He is cutting their decision short, and He takes everyone's life anyway. None of us are promised a tomorrow.

One of my favorite pastors, Matt Chandler, had quite severe brain cancer. He ultimately survived chemo and is in remission, and his preaching on suffering has been immense ever since. He had people come up to him and say "you are going to die" and he said "so is everyone else, we aren't promised a tomorrow". The brain cancer was just a constant reminder that every day was a precious blessing from God. It's unreal how easy it is to take such simple things for granted. We should be glorifying and praising Him every day for the air to breathe and the lungs to breathe it.

[supamk3speed]

I was arguing with evolutionists and I made them feel uncomfortable so the moderator gave me a warning about being respectfull (I don't feel I was disrespectfull). Then a guy posts a picture of a large dumpster with dead bodies in it labeled christians. It looked to be real, yet there was no reaction to this and the moderator could care less. I was vile in their eyes, yet this man who posted such a grotesque thing done to christians was a hero to them.

[JayShel]

It is offensive, but take solace in the fact that God will judge them righteously. Either Jesus will pay the price, or they will.

[JayShel]

Here is a list of sites dedicated to reporting Christian persecution around the world:

International Christian Concern:
http://www.persecution.org/
https://www.facebook.com/persecuted

Voice of the Martyrs:
http://www.persecution.com/
http://www.persecutionblog.com/
https://www.facebook...USA/11006419356
https://www.facebook.com/vomcanada
https://www.facebook...eofthemartyrsnz

Open Doors (International):
http://www.opendoors.org/

[JayShel]

http://www.persecuti...ion-post-map-2/ is a map from ICC of the 30 most recent Christian persecution incidents, and http://www.persecuti...uted-countries/ is a map of countries where there are known human rights violations due to persecution or severe discrimination against Christians.

[MarkForbes]

Does that only include official government persecution or would this also include frequent crime targeting Christians.

[JayShel]

Does that only include official government persecution or would this also include frequent crime targeting Christians.

http://www.persecuti...uted-countries/ gives details on what form of persecution there is (there can be one or both) when you click on regions and then click on a specific country for example:

http://www.persecuti...ntries/belarus/
Belarus

The religious freedom of the post-Communist era seems to be fading. Christianity has flourished in recent years, although the dominant Orthodox Church seeks to restrict the activities of other Christian groups. Protestant churches are refused building permits in the cities, and evangelicals are unable to use public buildings for church meetings. There is a cultural bias against evangelical Christians.
Government: The constitution provides for freedom of religions, however authorities restrict this right in practice. The government frequently rejects applications from Protestant groups for approval, and many of these groups then find it impossible to rent or purchase property where they may meet and worship. In 2003, the Ministry of Education released a textbook called, "Religious Conduct" that was to be used in schools. The book describes various groups, including evangelical Christians, as "sects" and "neocults."

Latest News

• May 21 Challenging Restrictions, Christian Church Dedicated In Belarus
• May 15 Belarus Prohibits Christian Burials For Executed Prisoners
• March 25 Decades Of Repression Fail To Stifle Church In Belarus
• October 20 Belarus Punishes Pastor For Worship Service At His House
• June 23 Christian Persecution a 'Worldwide Emergency'
• May 28 ADF Requests Immediate Release of Imprisoned Belarus Christian Leaders
• May 24 Belarus:Christian Threatened Two Years Imprisonment For Not Registering to Worship
• April 2 Authorities in Belarus Defend Raids on Churches
• February 16 Belarus: Why can't derelict church be relocated for worship?
• November 11 Belarus: Pastor Fined, Church Bank Frozen
• August 13 Pastor fined 3 times in Belarus
• April 9 Belarus: Administrative Code changes, but fines continue
• August 29 EU Ambassadors Discuss Belarus Threats To Close Megachurch
• July 17 Church Fined for Holding Prayer Service in Their Registered Building
• July 16 Foreign Pastor Banned from Preaching, Church Threatened with Closure
• June 12 Religious Freedom Survey, June 2009
• June 11 Largest Fine Yet for Unregistered Religious Activity
• May 29 Belarus church told to vacate by Monday
• March 31 Ideology official targets rehabilitation programme
• March 26 Supreme Court Upholds Registration Requirements for Churches

[MarkForbes]

Then Belarus would be an example for governmental repression. However I know of cases where people were targeted for murder, relating to them being christians. I do conclude that from pictures of the murder scene were bibles were ripped apart and the pieces distributed over the corpses. Some farm attacks we have bear that feature.

[JayShel]

Then Belarus would be an example for governmental repression. However I know of cases where people were targeted for murder, relating to them being christians. I do conclude that from pictures of the murder scene were bibles were ripped apart and the pieces distributed over the corpses. Some farm attacks we have bear that feature.

Definitely, that happens in many countries, primarily in northern Africa, most middle eastern countries, and Asia. A good portion of this is due to extremist Muslims. They define "jihad" as "holy war against the infidels" instead of "inner struggle against sin, charity work, Islamic apologetics etc," as it originally means. If you have a bible, are allowed to own it by the government, and are not attacked for having it, you are blessed.

[agnophilo123]

You guys get that christians also persecute people, right? Like when scott lively and rick warren evangelized in uganda (which is 85% christian) promoting the false claim that virtually all pedophiles are g*y and that G*ys (of all people) were responsible for the holocaust which resulted in legislation being proposed to make h*m*s*xuality punishable by death or life imprisonment.

Or like when in mostly christian kenya five women suspected of being witches were beaten and burned to death while onlookers recorded it with their camcorders:

http://www.liveleak....=dae_1236854361

It's the actual video by the way, not a video about it so click with caution as it is extremely graphic.

Or the shooter in norway that likened himself to a crusader in the middle ages. Or the shooter in the virginia tech massacre (by far the worst school shooting in US history) who was raised christian and likened himself to jesus in his suicide note and said he, like jesus, was dying for the world's sins. Or countless examples going back thousands of years.

Persecution of christians is evil and wrong. But to pretend like it's a one way street or that evil is just a non-christian thing is not only bigoted, it's the kind of bigotry that contributes to intolerance and violence toward "them", whoever "they" are.

[Salsa]

You guys get that christians also persecute people, right? Like when scott lively and rick warren evangelized in uganda (which is 85% christian) promoting the false claim that virtually all pedophiles are g*y and that G*ys (of all people) were responsible for the holocaust which resulted in legislation being proposed to make h*m*s*xuality punishable by death or life imprisonment.

Or like when in mostly christian kenya five women suspected of being witches were beaten and burned to death while onlookers recorded it with their camcorders:

http://www.liveleak....=dae_1236854361

It's the actual video by the way, not a video about it so click with caution as it is extremely graphic.

Or the shooter in norway that likened himself to a crusader in the middle ages. Or the shooter in the virginia tech massacre (by far the worst school shooting in US history) who was raised christian and likened himself to jesus in his suicide note and said he, like jesus, was dying for the world's sins. Or countless examples going back thousands of years.

Persecution of christians is evil and wrong. But to pretend like it's a one way street or that evil is just a non-christian thing is not only bigoted, it's the kind of bigotry that contributes to intolerance and violence toward "them", whoever "they" are.

At the risk of using the "no true Scottsman" fallacy, (with doesn't really prove anything as far as I can see since there is a Biblical definition of what being a Christian is), how do you know that what someone calling themselves a Christian does is either based on Christinity, or because that person is truly Christian?

[gilbo12345]

At the risk of using the "no true Scottsman" fallacy, (with doesn't really prove anything as far as I can see since there is a Biblical definition of what being a Christian is), how do you know that what someone calling themselves a Christian does is either based on Christinity, or because that person is truly Christian?

"The heart of the human problem is the problem with the human heart"..

This is why all the claims about Religion being evil are false, you cannot judge a religion based on what some of its followers do, since thee are additional causes and motivations. The only way you can judge a Religion is by looking at what it teaches, since if people are true to the teachings then they will emulate them if not then they will do something else.

I eagerly await the day Dawkins or his contempories base their claims of "Religion is evil" on the teachings of what the Religion says for how people should act. If a so-called believer acts out from these teachings then by what logic can the teachings of the Religion be blamed for the person acting against them?