Of chalices they make helmet and sword and sell by the bucket the blood of the Lord. Michelangelo
What a shocking statement! When I initially read this, I was shocked by the second part, “sell by the bucket the blood of the Lord.”
The author of this famous quote is Michelangelo, the famous painter hired by pope Julius II (1503-1513) to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City. He also painted the Last Judgement. The chapel is in the Apostolic Palace in Vatican City which is the residence of the pope and where the new popes are decided.
The chapel is named after and was built by pope Sixtus IV (1471-1484). You may remember him from your study of church history as the pope who taxed the numerous brothels in Rome with a Church tax. He added to this considerable profit by charging a tax on mistresses kept by priests, though he paid no tax on his own mistresses. This revenue stream was a side “benefit” of the Vatican’s doctrine of celibacy.
The word ‘they’ in the quote refers to the pope of his day, Julius, and his passion for fighting “holy wars” to extend the papal territories. Unfortunately for those who resisted the popes and their errors, Julius was not the only pope who believed the killing of those who disagreed with them was approved by Jesus Christ. It is estimated by credible historians that approximately 50 million true Christians, Jews, even some Catholics and others died during the 605 years the Roman Catholic popes operated the Inquisition.
The shocking, second part of the quote stated, “sell by the bucket the blood of the Lord”, refers to the pope’s selling “salvation” for gold, silver, precious gems, mammon or service to whatever cause the pope was promoting. Pope Urban II in 1096, who inspired the first ungodly, unchristian crusade to retake Jerusalem, promised “salvation” to those who killed the heretics (Muslims and Jews) or died in battle. Martin Luther, himself a Catholic monk, lit the fuse of the Reformation in the 1500s because pope Leo X was selling “salvation” through indulgences in what we now know as Germany. Leo used the money to rebuild Saint Peter’s Basilica.
The apostle Peter said this about the blood of Jesus: “For you know that you were redeemed from your empty way of life inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb.”
The Lord’s blood is precious to God the Father and is the ransom paid for the salvation of those who repent and believe in the good news of Jesus Christ.
Iranian Christians attend the New Year mass at the Saint Targmanchats Armenian Church in Tehran on Jan. 1, 2023. | Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images
(Dear Reader please pray for our brother and sisters in Iran. Carl)
As the underground Church continues to grow in Muslim-majority Iran, Bible translators are putting their lives on the line to bring the Gospel into the local dialects so that their friends and neighbors can have access to the written word of God for the first time.
Through the work of the translation agency unfoldingWord, Christians in Iran and across the globe have been able to translate the Gospel themselves into more native languages.
The Christian Post interviewed a representative from unfoldingWord, Evan Thompson, who preferred to use a fake name or pseudonym for his safety.
“There are 1.45 billion people in the world who speak about 5,500 languages that do not have the whole Bible in their heart languages. … The Church has expanded exponentially in the last 20 years. And what these folks have learned is that you can lead someone to Christ, but if they don’t have a church, they don’t survive on their own,” Thompson said.
“You can start a church, but if that church doesn’t have the Bible in its heart language, it will typically only last one generation. Iran, for example, has churches operating underground. And there are thousands of underground churches in many other parts of the world,” he added.
UnfoldingWord, a nonprofit organization that has been around for roughly seven years, “works with Church leaders around the world who are seeking to establish their churches in sound doctrine, but lack access to Bible translations in the languages their people speak.”
A day in the life of Iranian Bible translators
The Christian Post heard from two Iranian women risking their lives to help translate unfoldingWord’s Open Bible story resources from Farsi into other Iranian dialects for evangelizing.
Both women Bible translators have chosen not to give their real names for this article to protect their identities and maintain their safety.
The first woman, using the name Miriam, said she gave her heart to Christ after coming to the realization that she is “God’s child and daughter.”
Miriam is part of a people group in Iran that is made up of millions of natives. She says she is often treated as a second-class citizen because of how those from other people groups view her status in her people group.
Miriam’s life could be in danger if the Iranian government finds out that she follows Jesus in the Islamic Republic, which Open Doors ranks as the eighth-most hostile country for Christians.
“God is my Father. I feel deeply honored to be part of this work of bringing God’s Word to my people,” Miriam said.
Despite having children and knowing that her life is at risk for believing in Jesus, Miriam said she will not stop working to translate the Gospel into her heart language.
“I cannot even imagine leaving this work unfinished. I must complete this work and see the result. I want to see my beloved ones experience salvation in Christ. This is my dream; that my people can talk about God and speak His name freely without any hesitation; without any fear they can talk about God,” she said.
Miriam was introduced to Christianity through a friend in college who gave her a Farsi New Testament. She had to read the Bible alone and in secret, an act that left her without much of a clear understanding of the Christian faith.
After college, Miriam married into a strict Muslim family. But, no matter how hard she tried to adapt to the strict religious practices of Islam, she could not find God as a Muslim.
Miriam said she didn’t give her life entirely to Jesus until after she heard about Transform, an online class offered in Iran that covered the basic teachings of Christianity.
She watched the classes secretly through various digital platforms. And during one of the class sessions, she gave her life to Christ.
Following her conversion, Miriam’s husband caught her one day watching the Transform Iran pastor on television.
Miriam could no longer hold back the truth about her faith from her husband.
“By the grace of God, he did not get angry. He said, ‘I know you are a serious-minded woman, and if this is important to you, it’s OK,'” Miriam recalled.
Miriam’s husband began watching the class with her, and several months later, he also gave his life to Christ.
Before her husband’s conversion, the Transform Iran pastor asked her if she would get involved in Bible translation because of her expertise in her heart language.
Miriam accepted the offer even if that meant risking her life to help translate the Bible into more Iranian tongues.
“We are not allowed to study our heart languages in Iranian public schools. This is a limitation for our people. I have this language specialty and experience, this expertise so that I can help my own people. People like my mother can read this book,” Miriam said.
“I have a Bible in Farsi, and I can read it. But I cannot understand the more complicated concepts in it because Farsi is not my heart language. I couldn’t establish a relationship with the Bible in Farsi. I’m very fluent in Farsi. I studied hard and had great teachers. Still, I cannot establish a relationship with the Bible in Farsi,” she continued.
“How about other people who don’t have my educational advantages? My family and friends? Having the Gospel in my heart language makes it much easier to talk to my family about Jesus. They can understand and accept Him easily.”
‘Jesus fed me’
Another Iranian Bible translator who is using the pseudonym Stella accepted Jesus into her heart after her husband died of cancer.
Following her husband’s death, Stella was left alone to care for her young son. During that time, she relied on the peace of God as her only hope.
“God has helped me. The Name of Jesus Christ was in my life. I didn’t need anybody. Jesus fed me, put clothes on me and gave me peace,” she said.
Stella learned more about God through a Bible translated into Farsi. At first, she thought Christianity was a religion. But, now she understands that Christianity is a relationship.
“When I was a new believer, I was thinking that, ‘OK, I’m going to just switch religions.’ But, when I got to know the Holy Spirit, I understood that this is a relationship, not religion,” Stella said.
Stella is currently working on a Bible translation in her heart language. Her sister-in-law became a Christian thanks to her work translating the Bible. Stella worked for five years alongside her family as they helped her review the translation of the Bible, and now she works as part of a larger Bible translating group.
“I love my mother language. I’m telling the poetry; I write the context. I write the sentence. I record it. … I know all of this is God’s work for us. God wants us to do this. … I am thinking about my mom, my father, my childhood. And everyone that doesn’t have it right now. I really want to bring God to my town and my people,” she said.
A dire need for Bible translations
Before unfoldingWord was launched, traditional Bible translation agencies across the globe have done “marvelous work” and continue to do so, Thompson noted.
However, he said the number of Western Bible translators that Bible translation agencies can send overseas is dropping, and the demand for Bible translation is increasing rapidly.
“The group that founded unfoldingWord developed a way to address this problem. We call it church-centric Bible translation. … It’s Bible translation incorporated into the life of the Church as part of its discipleship,” Thompson noted.
“Most of those unreached people have neighbors who know Christ, and they’re taking the Gospel to them. And what unfoldingWord does is we equip the Church in every people group with a goal of translating the Bible in every language.”
To help local churches translate the Bible, unfoldingWord provides people groups with open-source software and open-licensed biblical content that’s breaking the copyright barriers to source texts.
The organization also has comprehensive translation guides to answer difficult Bible translation questions. The organization offers essential doctrinal education to protect the theological integrity of the translations.
“unfoldingWord provides training for indigenous Bible translation teams over Zoom and sometimes in neutral locations,” Thompson said.
The training locations are kept secret to protect participants in certain countries where practicing Christianity is not accepted.
“Our training allows for indigenous Bible translation teams to be able to use best practices when they are translating the Bible for themselves. One of the ways that I like to say it is: ‘We don’t make Bible translations. We help develop Bible translators.’ Because that’s what the Church really needs all over the world.”
Issues bringing translations to Iran
Thompson said unfoldingWord has aided Iranian natives who have translated the Bible into dozens of native languages.
However, he said there are some unfortunate limitations to the organization’s ability to aid translators in Iran. He cited strict government policies prohibiting Iranians from studying their heart languages or their native tongues in public schools.
“All of these oppressive countries, like Sudan, like Iran, and some others we could name, are trying to Islamasize their whole population. And one of the ways that they do that is by forcing them to speak this one national language, and it’s causing their heart languages to die out,” Thompson said.
In Iran, the government recognizes Farsi as the national language. However, many natives speak other Iranian dialects more fluently.
“It’s very much like anybody that comes to America from someplace else, and we put them in American schools to learn English. Unless their family makes it a point to keep their native languages … alive in their families, by the second or third generation, the kids can’t speak their native language anymore,” Thompson said.
The few responsible for the many
Miriam believes God has blessed her with a huge responsibility to help translate the Bible into more Iranian languages.
“This is not just a scientific book. This is God’s Word. I felt some tension. I was scared that I would not do the work well enough, but I’m very happy to make it available so that my people can establish a relationship with the Bible. That’s why I got involved with this Bible translation project,” she said.
When asked if she can imagine the day when the Bible is completed in even more Iranian languages, Miriam said it will take many years, and she doesn’t know if she’ll live long enough to see the project’s conclusion.
“I want my children to experience the result of my work so that they can know Jesus through their heart language. I never thought this project would grow like this. But I’ve learned that it’s not just about me,” Miriam said.
“I need this team that has been pulled together. For safety, we have many people working on this project secretly. There may be several Christians in one Iranian family, but they cannot share their faith with each other openly,” she continued.
“We need more people who can speak my heart language to continue working on this project. … I want to ask for prayer … to recruit people into the project who know our language well.”
(Dear Reader: This ministry was recommended to us by a friend who served in Communist China for years and it is worthy of your support. May God bless you and the church in China. Carl)
This newsletter shares insights into the current situation in China, both politically and for the Body of Christ. In addition to our standard newsletter, we want to share links to articles and videos that give further context into some of the claims we have made.
For those who are serious about learning more of the situation in China today, please click on this link to go to a page with a list of links to extra resources on the situation in China.
Please note we have selected just a few of the most interesting and helpful pages out of hundreds that are available online. Pages from other websites should open in separate windows on your browser.
President Xi Jinping and His Role in the World
“How long, Lord, will the wicked, how long will the wicked be jubilant? They pour out arrogant words; all the evildoers are full of boasting. They crush your people, Lord; they oppress your inheritance….
Does he who disciplines nations not punish? Does he who teaches mankind lack knowledge? The Lord knows all human plans; he knows that they are futile.” – Psalm 94:3-5, 10-11
OVER THE PAST SEVERAL YEARS many people from around the world have asked us to help them understand what’s going on in China.
Many Christians are shocked, because for years all they heard was how revival was bringing millions of Chinese into God’s kingdom.
Suddenly, all news from the Church in China stopped in its tracks, as a new Emperor, Xi Jinping, caused the Body of Christ to adopt a defensive posture.
Who is this man who has “purged” (i.e., killed or imprisoned) hundreds of thousands of people, and who has created such a stench across Asia that 20 neighboring countries — from Central Asia to India and the Philippines — now have disputes with China.
Let’s take a closer look at this man who has so enlarged the Chinese military and covert influence that a World War seems inevitable if things continue on their present trajectory.
We deliberately used the term “Emperor” to describe Xi Jinping. While technically he is the atheistic head of the Chinese Communist Party, for thousands of years China was ruled by Emperors whose authority was absolute.
There were no elections, debates, or protests against emperors. Any perceived hesitancy to obey an emperor’s edict was met with swift and severe punishment. In there paranoia, many Chinese emperors killed millions of their subjects to consolidate their power.
Although emperors have not officially ruled China since 1912, in reality Communist leaders like Mao and Xi have been emperors in all but name. It is important to understand that Chinese emperors were never viewed merely as leaders of China.
You may know that the Chinese name for their country, Zhong Guo, means “Middle Kingdom.” The belief that their country is the center of the world is deeply ingrained in the hearts and minds of every Chinese generation.
Emperors are believed to have a “Mandate of Heaven,” by which they receive the authority to rule. This philosophy, which dates back 2,500 years, assumes that because there is only one heaven, there can only be one emperor and one state with legitimacy in the whole world.
Over the years we have frequently met Chinese from all walks of life who are glad and proud that China is now throwing its weight around in the world. From taxi drivers in Singapore to businessmen in San Francisco, countless Chinese believe that now is the time for China to rise up and seize its destiny as world leader—economically, culturally, and militarily. It
is not so much a desire as a statement of fact. Even among Chinese Christians we have met few who would ever dare to openly criticize Xi Jinping or his decisions. After all, he is the emperor, appointed by heaven itself. Opponents are seen as evildoers and are mercilessly crushed. Just ask people in Hong Kong how life has changed since Xi came to power.
The Mandate of Heaven philosophy spread to many parts of East Asia in the centuries before Christ. It explains why countries like North Korea have been unable to throw off its heavy yoke of rule by the Kim family for so long, Japanese emperors were also seen as heaven- sent leaders who were invincible because of the Mandate of Heaven. The Japanese belief of invincibility abruptly ended when two atomic bombs fell on Japan in 1945.
In 2016, we began to report that a major shift was happening in China, and the new dynamic would change the way Christians function in China, while the country itself would become a huge threat to democracies.
China decided it was time to throw off its “Century of humiliation” at the hands of foreign powers and take its rightful place as leader of the world, with Xi Jinping on the throne.
A Prediction…
WE DO NOT BELIEVE THE RISE OF CHINA will lead to world domination.
“Emperor” Xi’s harsh authoritarian rule, as he has consolidated absolute power in China and made enemies all around Asia and the world, has not been working out too well.
The economy in China is in tatters (far worse than reports in Western media), and a growing number of Chinese are beginning to quietly question if their leader is taking the country on a path that will end well for them.
Many nations now see China as the number one threat to global security and Xi’s aggressive stance has brought about the formation of military alliances to counter his plans.
It has been said that “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Strongmen like Xi Jinping believe they operate with impunity, as it is their birthright. Above all else, the thing they desire most is regime survival.
For that reason, Xi constantly purges his leaders, isolating himself more and more while at the same time changing the constitution to guarantee he will never be replaced. Emperors of China were never changed. They ruled for life.
Do we think that Xi and the Chinese Communist Party will reach their goals of world domination?
No, for the following SEVEN REASONS:
1 GOD HAS THE FINAL SAY.
We believe it is not a coincidence that as soon as China launched its campaign to systematically destroy Christianity in 2016-17, their economy began to disintegrate. Ultimately, the battle for the 1.4 billion souls of China is what is at stake.
The Lord Jesus Christ has purchased a pure bride numbering over 100 million believers in China. They are the apple of His eye, and He will not stand by and let His precious inheritance be decimated.
2 THE DEMOGRAPHICS FOR CHINA ARE A NIGHTMARE.
With a rapidly ageing population and a lack of young people of tax-paying age to pay for Xi’s military expansion, things are likely to stagnate and deteriorate in China.
Some economists estimate that China needs 400 million more people of working age to keep its economy going forward and fund their military aspirations, but they have “sown the wind and reaped the whirlwind.” (Hosea 8:7)
The Communist Party’s one-child policy, accompanied by hundreds of millions of forced abortions, has wiped out a generation of Chinese. The very people they need to pay for their plans don’t exist. They were sacrificed on the altar of the Communist Party death cult.
3 THE POPULATION OF CHINA IS ALREADY IN RAPID DECLINE
with some provinces shrinking by millions of people each year. Some experts calculate that by the end of this century the population of China may be half of what it is now. Two years ago, it was hardly noticed when the government lowered the national population by 121 million from previous inflated figures.
An increasing number of young people in China today have no desire to have children, which are considered an economic inconvenience. That unnatural instinct has been suppressed by generations of Marxist propaganda that work and money—not faith in God and a loving family—are the keys to happiness.
4 STRETCHED TO BREAKING POINT.
Xi’s reign has been greatly helped by his access to technology that previous rulers like Mao Zedong could never have dreamed of.
A friend who recently returned from his first visit to China in several years was shocked at the changes he experienced. He said:
“Everywhere I experienced anti-foreign sentiment from unfriendly people, and I saw many people paying for things with their faces. By allowing their faces to be scanned, payments are deducted directly from their accounts. No phone or bank card is needed, and cash is practically unheard of.”
With more than 400 million facial recognition cameras watching and evaluating their every move, and Xi demanding complete obedience to the Marxist-socialist agenda, many people feel stretched to breaking point and are increasingly fed up with the system.
5 XI HAS TRIED TO REPLACE GOD WITH A CULT OF HIMSELF.
He wants to be all-seeing, all- knowing, and all-powerful. He has erected giant billboards and posters of his face (like the one on the cover of this newsletter) and he demands unwavering devotion and commitment to his cause. In tens of thousands of churches across China, crosses and Scripture verses have been forcibly removed and replaced with posters of Xi and Mao, or with Chinese flags.
The Chinese Communist Party always claims there is no God, while setting themselves up as gods who must be obeyed and worshipped at all times.
Interestingly, in churches where posters of the Ten Commandments were displayed, instead of the authorities removing them they just scratched out the first commandment that says: “You shall have no other gods before me.”
They didn’t object to any of the other nine commandments, but only the first one upset them. Why? Because like Satan, they desire to fill the role of God in people’s lives.
6 A GENERAL MALAISE HAS COME UPON THE YOUTH OF CHINA.
After studying hard all their lives, tens of millions of university graduates can’t find any work at all, and a new expression, tang ping, or “lying down flat” swept over many Chinese young people.
Countless millions have lost the desire to excel, and they now see life as meaningless.
More recently, during Xi’s harsh Covid restrictions, tang ping has been replaced by a new catch-phrase: bai lan, meaning “let it rot.” These developments refer to a voluntary retreat from pursuing goals and will expediate decay in Chinese society and the economy.
7 XI JINPING SEEMS TO HAVE A PERSONAL HATRED FOR CHRISTIANITY.
After systematically expelling almost all foreign Christians from China over the past 6 or 7 years, a widespread persecution has afflicted God’s people in every part of the nation, but especially in the border provinces.
The Communist Party has even been working on a new Bible, removing passages they don’t like, and replacing them with socialist teachings.
One proposed change is the story of the woman at the well. The Communist Party didn’t like that she was forgiven, so they are reportedly changing it.
So instead of Jesus telling her, “Go and sin no more,” the new Communist Bible has Jesus picking up a stone and stoning her to death! Let’s see if God will allow such blatant blasphemy and corruption of His holy Word to go unpunished.
ORLANDO — Eric Metaxas isn’t afraid to speak difficult truths into an increasingly secularized culture, and he’s issuing a clarion call to the American Church to do likewise, warning that neglecting this call will lead to disastrous consequences.
“There are many pastors and Christian leaders being silent in the face of evil today,” the bestselling author and radio host told The Christian Post. “They are not all consciously working for the devil, they are, nonetheless, effectively working for the devil because they are unaware that what they’re doing is not what God calls His Church to do.”
Metaxas penned his latest book, Letter to the American Church, out of a conviction that the Church must “wake up” to the realities of evil and stand for biblical truth. In it, he draws from both history and the Bible to highlight the need for the church to speak out against societal evils.
“There are all kinds of figures from history and in the Scripture who understand that, ‘My duty is to God, and if that makes me unpopular, if that makes me attacked, who cares?’” he said.UnmuteAdvanced SettingsFullscreenPauseUp Next
According to Metaxas, the Church’s silence on critical issues effectively aids the forces of evil.
In his book, he draws sobering parallels between the modern church and the German Church of the 1930s, in which “pastors were somehow fooled into buying the idea that … we’re not supposed to go against the governing authorities.”
“What the German church did in the ’30s, they had no idea that they were getting this stuff wrong. They had all kinds of theological reasons why they thought it was good not to comment on politics,” he said. “We now see what the results were; it was a nightmare out of the pit of Hell. The evil that was unleashed because of the silence of the German Church is part of the ugliest history imaginable.”
“We look at Germany, and it’s very easy for us to say, ‘Oh, they should have spoken out against the Nazis,’” he added. “But we have pastors today who are effectively not speaking out against the Nazis. The Chinese Communist Party is as wicked as the Nazis ever were, with infinitely greater technology. They are doing satanic things. The Uighur Muslims in China are being murdered for their organs, which can be sold for a lot of money that accrues to the Communist Party. Where is the Church on that issue? How can you not be outraged?”
The Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy author added that many Americans have been sheltered from the harsh realities faced by others in the world and thus fail to recognize the value of their freedoms and the need to defend them. Just like the German Church, he said, the American Church has grown “complacent.”
“The German Church woke up when it was too late, and evil overtook that nation in Europe,” he said. “The blame lies at the foot of the German Church. And I think the same can be said of the American Church today if we don’t wake up.”
“What we have is a blessing from God, entrusted to us to protect, to keep and to give to our children and grandchildren,” he stressed. “If you don’t get that, it just sort of drifts away. We are at a moment where it’s drifting away very quickly.”
Metaxas contended that the cultural zeitgeist and misguided interpretations of biblical principles have led to the belief that the Church should remain apolitical — an idea he dismisses as nonsensical. The Church, Metaxas said, must understand its duty to God and not prioritize personal comfort or congregational numbers over speaking the truth.
“Imagine if a pastor got up and said, ‘I have no position on slavery. I have no position on legalized racism and apartheid. I have no political position on Jim Crow laws.’ You wouldn’t go to that church. You’d say, ‘What an idiot, what a moral pygmy that he thinks that he can be a pastor and not have an opinion on those issues,’” Metaxas said.
Pastors are called to speak out on all issues that affect human lives and dignity, he stressed: “You have an obligation to speak truth on these issues,” he said. “So any pastor that has his head in the sand on these issues, God will hold him responsible.”
While avoiding controversial or divisive topics might seem appealing, the author emphasizes that it ultimately “devalues the Gospel” and hinders evangelism.
“For every person that’s going to get ticked off that you said something, there’s another person that’s going to say, ’Thank goodness somebody is saying this; I didn’t know where to look anymore.’”
People are “looking for leadership from Christians,” Metaxas said. He pointed out that pastors who have been boldly speaking out against the “lunacy” of transgender ideology, cultural Marxism, critical race theory, open borders and defunding the police have seen their congregations surge in attendance.
“Things have gotten so bad that a lot of people finally are understanding, ‘OK, maybe I missed something. Maybe we had it so good that we forgot that evil is still alive, that we haven’t defeated evil, and we have to do what God calls us to do in the midst of it, and we haven’t been doing it,’” he said.
Historically, when the Church has drifted along with culture,” it has gone “dramatically badly,” Metaxas said.
“The issues are always different issues, but the results are always the same, and the guilt is always the same. God wants us to be alive to what is happening,” he said.
“Everything’s at stake. God has always looked to His Church, and we have dramatically disappointed Him in the past. I don’t believe it’s His will that we disappoint him this time, but it really is up to individual Christians.”
Prominent pastor and author Voddie Baucham has identified three signs a church is abandoning Scriptural truths for modern, Neo-Marxist ideology in a culture where truth is under attack and Christianity is increasingly marginalized.
In an interview with The Christian Post, the 54-year-old dean of theology at African Christian University in Zambia highlighted several concerning trends in modern churches that he fears are eroding the foundations of Christianity, beginning with a de-emphasis of the Bible, where there is a lack of commitment to systematically teach and exposit the Scriptures.
“There’s not a commitment to a systematic exposition of the Bible, and what we hear from the pulpit is rooted and grounded in more psychology and philosophy than text and theology,” Baucham said.
The second red flag involves the church’s alignment with post-Christian culture. Baucham noted that some leaders preach messages that resonate with the values and agendas of the secular world, including issues related to LGBTQ+ concerns.
“You begin to hear things in the church, from the pulpit, from the leadership that resonate with this post-Christian culture, for example, the LGBTQ-plus, whatever agendas,” he said.
Finally, he said apologizing for essential Christian doctrines is another red flag indicating a departure from true, biblical Christianity.
“We’re apologizing for the ‘creation myth.’ We’re apologizing for the Gospel. We’re apologizing for the Reformation. We’re apologizing for Christian morality, these sorts of things. These are some signs that things have gone very wrong,” he said.
A May 2021 survey from Evangelical pollster George Barna found that just 6% of Americans have a “biblical worldview.” Similarly, survey data compiled in January 2020 showed that only 2% of millennials hold a biblical worldview, even though 61% identify as Christian.
Baucham, who is gearing up for a revised release of his 2004 book The Ever-Loving Truth: Can Faith Survive in a Post-Christian Culture?explained that for many decades, the Western Church has assumed and then forgotten the essence of the Gospel, leading to a foundation built on shifting sand rather than the solid rock of Christ.
The ramifications of that, he lamented, are becoming increasingly visible in today’s post-Christian America.
“For a long time, because of the assumptions of the culture, one of the things that we did was we assumed the Gospel,” Baucham said. “The message of the Gospel is an offensive message in a lost and dying world. But we assumed the Gospel. Then, after we assumed the Gospel, we forgot the Gospel and we left the Gospel behind. And we begin to build churches — and really, I use that term loosely because, in many instances, they aren’t churches — and gather people based on commonalities that were not Gospel-centered. We gathered people because we liked the same kind of music or we were in the same social class. We had those things as our foundation instead of having the Gospel as our foundation.”
Baucham, who previously served as pastor of Grace Family Baptist Church in Texas, stressed that the Gospel message is considered “offensive to the world.” And, in an attempt to avoid offense, many churches have neglected its transformative power. He warned that such churches, lacking a Gospel-centered foundation, are ill-prepared for the challenges of the post-Christian era.
“In this post-Christian era, where we’re all being sort of painted with the same brush, people who have not relied on the Gospel to build solid foundations are seeing their sheep scattered. They’re really not legitimate sheep in the first place, and they also don’t really know how to respond, because the response in many instances has been, ‘No, no, no, no, we’re not like them.’ And ‘them,’ of course, are conservative, Bible-believing Evangelicals, those people who have always been vilified by the culture at large.
“But that’s not working anymore,” he said, “because it’s not enough to just not hold firmly to the truths of the Gospel and to not hold firmly to those things that the culture finds offensive. Any identification now with Christianity, which is seen as the sort of ultimate hegemonic boogeyman in modern, Neo Marxist culture, is offensive. So, a lot of people are caught off guard because of compromises that they made a long time ago that looked like they were paying off.
Baucham issued an urgent call for a bold return to the core of Christianity: the unadulterated Gospel. He emphasized the need for churches to stand firm on biblical truths without compromise, even in the face of cultural pressure and vilification.
“We need to prepare ourselves for the opposition, not only the opposition coming, but for the opposition that’s already here,” he said. “We need to know what we believe and why we believe it. We need to be prepared to give an answer to those who ask us for the reason for the hope that is in us. We need to be prepared to speak to this post-Christian culture. Finally, we need to be prepared to accept the consequences of doing so, which are unpleasant.”
The Ever-Loving Truth: Can Faith Survive in a Post-Christian Culture? will be released on Sept. 16.
In the gospels Christ teaches that God is almighty. But there is so much suffering in the world that God sometimes seems to be powerless. His Son, who was executed like a common criminal, continues to suffer every time a Christian is martyred. And atheist rulers try to chase Him from their countries. If God were almighty, wouldn’t He end the injustice and suffering?
A Communist prosecutor in the Soviet Union before its dissolution, lured or coerced a number of Christian children to disclose the names of their Sunday school teachers. As a result, four leading Christians in the town were sentenced to prison. Although these children could not have known the consequences of their actions, their consciences may forever accuse them as Judases.
Also in the Soviet Union, the children of a Christian family were placed in a home for mentally disabled children because they believed in Christ. One year later, their parents succeeded in getting them out of the home and having them evaluated by doctors in another town, and the children were found to be mentally healthy. Will these children ever recover from what they suffered?
Why does Almighty God ordain or even allow so much suffering? Is He almighty, or is He powerless? The suffering that all of us must endure prompts us to ask the same question.
First, we must examine our understanding of the word might. Many of us probably view the word as meaning the power to crush, subdue, suppress, or punish. But the word can also be used in a more positive way, as in the might to love, to be patient and quiet, to suffer innocently and to be good to wrongdoers.
While beating a Christian, a Communist officer told him, “I am almighty, as you suppose your God to be. I can kill you.” The Christian boldly replied, “The power is all on my side. I can love you while you torture me to death”. Such is God’s might which is reflected in the deep tranquility of the souls of saints. They do not ask “Why all the sorrow?” because they have learned to love the cross, accepting rejection and discomfort. When we take this attitude, our perplexity ceases.
Suffering drives some to despair and torments their soul, while others are grateful for it. I have seen faithful Christian prisoners dancing for joy. They recognize God’s might and patiently show love towards their torturers. God’s love will conquer.
We cannot understand God’s reasons for allowing suffering, but someday we will know as we are known by God (1 Corinthians 13:12). And cannot God compensate in eternity for suffering endured here for a little while? The saint is not a man who is illuminated by God. He is nothing, through whom God’s power shines to love even the worst of men. Who knows if today’s murderer may not be a future disciple?
We bless the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, advancing on the path of faith without tormenting ourselves with endless questions about suffering. May we embrace these unanswered questions as we learn to glorify Christ joyfully.
Author: Richard Wurmbrand (1909 -2001) was imprisoned in Communist Romania because of his faith in Christ. You can read his complete story in Wurmbrand: Tortured for Christ – The Complete Story.
“…and we exult in hope of the glory of God.” (NASB)
The Explaining:
“…we are extremely joyful, leaping for joy, in the favorable and confident expectation of the future revealing of the glory of God that we eagerly await; that is, when the Lord Jesus Christ will transform the outward appearance of our natural, earthly body of our humble state, one of weakness and dishonor, into conformity with the spiritual, eternal body of His glory. No longer will the soul rule our bodies but our Holy Spirit-perfected human spirit will influence and enliven our resurrected bodies.
He is going to do this to you, struggling Christian.
At that time the mortal will be replaced by immortality, weakness will be replaced by power, dishonor by glory, the image of the earthly will be replaced by the image of the heavenly, beautiful in form and appearance, a fallen mind replaced by a perfect mind, the sinful nature replaced by a sinless principle of life, sickness replaced by perfect health with limitless energy and blindness will turn into perfect sight.
He is going to do this to you, suffering child of God.
Jesus will restore the enswathement of glory to you that originally issued forth from the First Adam’s innermost being before the Fall. Our precious God and Savior Jesus will wrap us in His glory fashioned like His eternal body of glory. White and gleaming shall you be. No need for clothes.
Then we shall inherit the Kingdom of God.
Patiently and eagerly wait for it, persecuted child of God.
As Daniel said: “Those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever.”
The Blessed Hope shall appear, the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. The hope of righteousness shall be fulfilled as we conform to His will. The hope of the Gospel shall be manifested as we experience the fulfillment of all the promises God has made to His adopted children.
Amen. Come Lord Jesus!
(Luke 9:29, Rom 5:2b, Col. 1: 23 & 27, Phil 3: 20-21, Titus 2:12-13, I Peter 5:1 & 10, Rom 8:18, 21, 24-25, Daniel 12:3, I Cor. 15: 35-50)
Christians in China’s populous Henan province are now reportedly required to register on a government app to attend worship services and must make online reservations before taking part in worship, according to a report from a U.S.-based human rights group.
The app, called “Smart Religion” and developed by the Ethnic and Religious Affairs Commission of Henan Province, asks believers to give personal information, including their name, phone number, government ID number, permanent residence, occupation and date of birth to receive approval to attend a service, ChinaAid reported this week.
It’s a requirement not only for churches but also mosques and Buddhist temples, states the group, which documents religious persecution in China and supports Chinese prisoners of conscience.
Henan has one of the largest Christian populations in China. Local Christians say the cumbersome application procedures have reduced the number of believers attending churches. According to the Texas-based nongovernmental organization, many elderly people and those less tech-savvy may find it challenging to access the app. However, officials say such people will be assisted.
Once allowed into a place of worship, believers must also have their temperature taken, the group said, commenting that the app may be related in some way to COVID-19 restrictions.
ChinaAid contends these management measures were not implemented to protect people’s religious rights but rather as a means to achieve political purposes.
“This so-called ‘Smart Religion’ online application has been officially launched in some parts of Henan. In August 2022, the Ethnic and Religious Affairs Bureau of Puyang County in Henan and the Henan Billion Second Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. signed a project contract for the ‘Construction of an Independent Command Platform for the Management of Smart Religion,'” China Aid Special Correspondent Gao Zhensaithe wrote.
“Oh religion, what crimes have been committed in thy name.
– M.F. Cusack, The Black Pope – A History of The Jesuits (Marshall, Russell & Co., London, 1896) p. 42
It is sobering to think of all the people who over the centuries, looking at the evil, murderous, wicked acts done in the name of religion, have said in their heart, that if this is “god” I do not want anything to do with him. It has been the making of many atheists.
From the Christian Post, January 10, 2023. Please pray for this sister-in-Christ and the persecution of believers in Mexico.
A Christian woman who suffered severe internal injuries after being tied to a tree and beaten by traditionalist Catholic elders in her village in Mexico’s Hidalgo State is now hospitalized in critical condition. Police have made no arrests, according to a report.
The victim, identified as Maria Concepcion Hernández Hernández from the Great Commission Baptist Church in the community of Rancho Nuevo in Huejutla de los Reyes Municipality, was attacked on Dec. 21 by a group of people, all belonging to the Roman Catholic majority in the village, the U.K.-based group Christian Solidarity Worldwide reported last week.
Immediately before the attack, the bells of the local Roman Catholic church were ringing, CSW continued.
She was visiting her land as a neighbor had asked her to remove two trees because the local authorities had prohibited members of the religious minority from accessing or using their land for cultivating crops, the group said.
The pastor of the woman’s church, Rogelio Hernández Baltazar, was also detained for two hours after he sought to intervene to stop the attack, and threatened by the same authorities who declared they will not allow the victim’s body to be buried in the village if she does not recover from her injuries.
The pastor and other villagers are prohibited from meeting her, the group said, adding that no arrests had been made despite complaints having been filed with the Hidalgo State Human Rights Commission and the Hidalgo State Prosecutor’s Office.
The attackers have been identified as Benito Rocha, Fermín Hernández Hernández, Octaviano Gutierrez Hernández, Margarito Gutierrez Hernández, Francisco Wenses, and catechist Juan Hernández Hernández.
“The life of a woman hangs in the balance and a community is living in fear because, despite ample evidence of serious violations of freedom of religion or belief in Rancho Nuevo for more than seven years, the Mexican authorities have failed to intervene,” CSW’s Head of Advocacy, Anna Lee Stangl, said.
“Instead, Hidalgo State government officials, under the previous governor, have for years publicly denied the existence of cases of religious intolerance in the state,” Stangl continued.
This is not a one-off incident of Christian persecution in Mexico, which has risen due to drug cartel violence, persecution by traditionalist Catholics and violent discrimination by anti-Christian left-wing groups, Open Doors USA previously reported.
“In rural indigenous communities, anyone who turns away from traditional religious beliefs can face rejection and punishment in the form of fines, imprisonment, and forced displacement. Non-discrimination laws mean that any links between Christian faith and politics are placed under very strict legal scrutiny,” says the ministry on its website.
Unlike Christianity, traditionalist Catholicism relies on giving gifts to pagan gods in exchange for health, good fortune and protection from evil. They often participate in animal sacrifices to the gods and worship saints, incorporating practices from pagan Aztec beliefs.
“In areas controlled by criminal groups or drug cartels, young men are exposed to indoctrination and forced recruitment. Those who do not accept it — for reasons of Christian faith or otherwise — face threats, potential abduction and even death,” says Open Doors USA.
“Families, too, are bribed and intimidated to force their children to obey the gangs. Church leaders are often victims of extortion because they are assumed to have access to church funds. Mexico also has the highest rate of human trafficking in the world, and women are easy targets for illegal armed groups to recruit or abduct.”
Last May, 16 indigenous Protestant Christian families in the southern state of Chiapas were pressured to pay illegal fines for the fourth consecutive year for not participating in a syncretic Roman Catholic festival that involves alcohol, CSW reported at the time.
In September 2021, two evangelical families from the First Baptist Church in the La Mesa Limantitla area in Hidalgo state’s Huejutla de los Reyes Municipality were threatened with being cut off from essential services or expelled from the community if they continued to refuse to deny their faith and pay a fine illegally levied against them, CSW reported at the time.
Western authorities appear committed to discriminating against Christian asylum seekers, while welcoming Muslims ones.
Most recently, Germany — which has taken in millions of refugees from the Muslim world, including many, non-vetted, from Afghanistan — denied refuge to an Iranian convert to Christianity, known by the initials “H.H.,” whose brother-in-law had been imprisoned, tortured and killed after converting in their native Iran. According to a report from August 2:
“When H.H.’s asylum application was rejected by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, he appealed to the Administrative Court of Greifswald. But the court dismissed H.H.’s claim, declaring that it was “not particularly likely” that a Muslim would decide to become a Christian after his brother-in-law had been tortured and killed and his wife abused. It is more likely ‘to assume that the events described, if they actually took place, have a deterrent effect on third parties,’ according to the administrative court…”Recently, the European Court of Human Rights refused to hear Hassan. Now he faces deportation to a country where conversions can be punished with imprisonment.”
Discussing H.H.’s case, a legal officer at ADF International (Alliance Defending Freedom), Lidia Rieder, said: “Iran is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for Christians, and converts are particularly at risk. In the last year, religious persecution has greatly worsened. So-called ‘religious deviants’ can be given prison sentences, national security charges are continuously used to target religious minorities. The courts in Germany must take this into account when processing asylum applications.”
Germany and the European Court of Human Rights are hardly the only ones to deny refuge to, or discriminate against, persecuted Christians. Over the years, many other Western entities have engaged in similar behavior.
Under the presidency of Barack Obama, particularly during the refugee crisis precipitated by the rise of the Islamic State (ISIS), the White House and State Department were accused of all sorts of discriminatory measures against Christians — to the point that a federal appellate court filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security in late 2016. In it, Judge Daniel Manion expressed his “concern about the apparent lack of Syrian Christians as a part of immigrants from that country”: “Perhaps 10 percent of the population of Syria is Christian, and yet less than one-half of one percent of Syrian refugees admitted to the United States this year are Christian…. To date, there has not been a good explanation for this perplexing discrepancy.”
The discrepancy in numbers was even more perplexing: Although the U.S. government had acknowledged that ISIS was committing genocide against Christians in Syria due solely to their religious identity, it took in only those who by definition were not in any way being targeted by ISIS — Sunni Muslims, with whom ISIS, a Sunni organization, identifies and does not attack. Despite the fact that Sunnis were about 75% of Syria’s population, and Christians about 10%, a full 99 % of those brought into America were Sunni Muslims, and less than 0.5 percent were Christian.
As CNS news noted in 2016: “Record 499 Syrian Refugees Admitted to US So Far in May Includes No Christians.” In other words, even if one were to operate under the assumption that refugee status should have been made available to all Syrians, regardless of religion, there should have been 20 times more Christians and about one-quarter fewer Sunnis granted refugee status under Obama.
A virtually identical situation prevailed in the United Kingdom. In 2019, The Times stated that the UK “fails to give safe haven to Christians,” and “appears to discriminate in favour of Muslims” instead of Christians.
Once again, statistics confirm that allegation: “out of 4,850 Syrian refugees accepted for resettlement by the Home Office in 2017, only eleven were Christian, representing just 0.2% of all Syrian refugees accepted by the UK.”
By Jorge Gomez, Op-ed contributor, Christian Post (November 10, 2022), originally published at First Liberty
The label “Christian nationalist” is appearing more frequently and is being used to silence people of faith, according to experts.
Dr. Mark David Hall, an author and professor at George Fox University, recently discussed the history behind the term. He argues that the political Left started using it well over a decade ago “to label Christians who bring their faith into the public square for ends they don’t like.”
National security and intelligence expert Dr. Stephen Coughlin similarly argues the label is part of a politically driven effort to suppress religious opinions that defy modern orthodoxy and Leftist ideology:
“What they did was they created a faux term ‘Christian nationalism,’ and they gave it all these negative attributes and then used that to attack Christians. It’s part of what you call an ‘intersectional line of attack’ in a political warfare model, which is the Maoist insurgency model, which we believe is the premier principal form of Marxism.”
Former congresswoman and current dean of the Regent University School of Government, Michele Bachmann, contends the surge in use is no coincidence, especially so close to a midterm election. She explains:
“It’s all about holding on to power. That’s what it’s about. There’s only one party in power now in the United States, in Washington, D.C. They don’t want to let it go … And what they have seen is the power of the Church, the epicenter of power in the United States. Opposing their agenda is the Church and the principles of the Bible. They don’t like pastors preaching on issues. They don’t like congregants being inspired from the Bible. And so that’s why we’re the target. They want to silence us.”
What exactly does “Christian nationalism” mean? There is no settled definition, but broadly speaking, radicals use “Christian nationalism” to conflate racism, white supremacy and identity, religion, and patriotism. They often add in fascism, theocracy, and authoritarianism.
An attack on religious liberty and America’s founding values
The use of the “Christian nationalist” label contradicts the principles and values of our country. Its perpetual misuse is especially harmful to religious liberty.
Among the many problems is how it demonizes public prayer and virtually any other commonplace religious activity. Whether a political leader or an everyday person, anytime there is a public expression of faith, the term is leveled against them as wanting to establish a Christian theocracy.
In other words, if a citizen exercises their constitutionally protected and inalienable right to religious freedom, that person runs the risk of being labeled a “Christian nationalist.” And once you carry that label, it essentially means you’re a pariah, someone who should be vilified and not allowed to participate in the marketplace or society.
This, of course, is nothing new. As Dr. Coughlin explained, this is a tactic straight out of the Marxist playbook. Whenever a political force wants to wield power and authority, religious people and religious liberty are the first ones on the target list.
Radicals and dictators know fully well that houses of worship and people of faith are the ultimate check on authoritarian power. Their allegiance is not to the government. A free people know their loyalty is to God above all, the true provider and source of our freedoms. If a tyrant succeeds at destroying religious freedom and religious institutions, they can remove the most effective challenge to their rule.
Vilifying the faithful is a timeless tool of authoritarians. Liberally tossing around the “Christian nationalist” label and slapping it on anyone who lives out their faith is a direct attack on religious freedom. Make no mistake. Radicals want to normalize the use of this loaded term to chip away and destroy one of the building blocks of our republic.
Loving God and country
The political Left regularly screams “Christian nationalism” when a person of faith shows patriotism and pride in their country. If you say America was founded on Judeo-Christian principles, you’ll quickly be accused of trying to establish a theocracy. But that’s simply not true and is based on a wildly distorted view of our nation’s history.
This use of “Christian nationalism” typically relies on a misguided understanding of the “separation of Church and State,” which radicals interpret to mean that there can be no intersection between religion and government. They claim that any religious expression or influence in the public square cannot be tolerated, because it would violate this strict wall of separation.
Understood in context, however, the “separation of Church and state” does not mean religious exercise or prayer is banned on government property. This phrase doesn’t even appear in the text of the Constitution. The original intent was never to keep religion locked inside the walls of a church or synagogue. Instead, it was to protect houses of worship and religious people from state intrusion and harassment. It’s misleading to argue that government and religion should never, under any circumstances, be mixed together.
Additionally, no matter how much secularists or the political Left deny it, the United States was, in fact, founded by people who valued biblical principles. From George Washington to Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and other Founders, an overwhelming majority of them expressed belief in the Divine, a Creator who is the ultimate grantor of our rights and freedoms, as is clearly referenced in the Declaration of Independence. One of the foremost constitutional theorists of the founding generation, John Adams, observed, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
America’s Founders were a prime example that faith and patriotism are not mutually exclusive. They demonstrated that it’s possible to serve God and be committed to the American constitutional experience — to the cause of liberty, human rights, representative democracy, and the rule of law.
More than two centuries later, a strong majority of Americans still believe in this truth. Pew Research recently found 60% of Americans think the Founders originally intended the U.S. to be a “Christian nation.” However, 52% said the federal government should never declare an official religion. This shows that most people believe in the core principles of the First Amendment. That is, we can freely worship God while also cherishing our system of government.
Being a religious person who also loves their nation does not make one a “Christian nationalist.” Quite the opposite. Someone who serves God and country is embodying the best of America’s traditions. We’re a nation built on religious freedom, which means Christians — and people of any faith — do not have to be forced to choose between loving our republic and loving the One True God.
The abiding message of Philippians concerns the nature and grounds of Christian joy. For Paul, true joy is not a surface emotion that depends on favorable circumstances of the moment. Christian joy is independent of outward conditions, and is possible even in the midst of adverse circumstances, such as suffering and persecution.
Joy ultimately arises from fellowship with the risen, glorified Christ. Throughout the letter, Paul speaks of joy in the Lord, emphasizing that through Christ alone is Christian joy realized, as are other Christian graces. Essential to this joy is the confident conviction of the lordship of Christ, based on experience of the power of His resurrection. Because of this conviction, life for Paul attained meaning. Even death became a friend, because it would bring him into a fuller experience of the presence of Christ (1:21-23).
The joy presented in Philippians involves eager expectation of the near return of the Lord. That this expectation was dominant in Paul’s thinking is seen in his five references to Christ’s return. In the context of each reference is a note of joy (1:6, 10; 2:16; 3:20; 4:5).
Paul further describes a joy that springs from fellowship in the spreading of the gospel. He begins the letter by thanking the Philippians for their partnership in spreading the gospel through their monetary gifts. The gifts, however, are only an expression of their spirit of fellowship, or as he puts it in 4:17, “the fruit that abounds to your account.” So Christian joy is an outgrowth of being in the active fellowship of the body of Christ.
This letter reveals the timeless message that true joy is to be found only in a dynamic personal relationship with Jesus Christ and in the assurance that God is able to turn adverse circumstances to our good and His glory. Because he was united to Christ by a living faith, Paul could claim contentment in all circumstances. His unadorned testimony was “I rejoice … and will rejoice” (1:18), and his unqualified command was, “Rejoice . . . again I will say, rejoice! (4:4).
Introduction to The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Philippians, Spirit Filled Life Bible, General Editor Jack W. Hayford, Litt.D. (Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1991), pp. 1800-1801
Christians must understand the nature of the change that has occurred in our culture. No longer do the secularists just mock Christians from afar. They are now actively campaigning to indoctrinate children in an anti-God philosophy—to teach them to be secularists and atheists.
—Ken Ham (born 20 October 1951, Australian Christian fundamentalist, young Earth creationist, and apologist)
WASHINGTON — An Anglican chaplain who was fired and reported to an anti-terrorism program for preaching Christian doctrine on sexual ethics during a chapel service is warning about the totalitarian ideologies actively at work in the West.
At a breakout session at the International Religious Freedom Summit, a panel on “polite persecution” — a phrase coined by Pope Francis — assembled by The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, described how secular abortion and gender activists are gutting cherished freedoms in countries that have historically championed religious liberty. Often, religious persecution is state-sanctioned.
This so-called polite kind of hostility is often experienced by practitioners of faiths that adhere to more traditional views about human life, marriage, and the material reality of biological sex.
In his remarks, the Rev. Bernard Randall recounted how just over three years ago, he, as an ordained chaplain, was reported to authorities and investigated as part of a government anti-terrorism probe for espousing Christian sexual ethics during a chapel service in a Church of England school.
The school had invited LGBT activist Elly Barnes, founder of Educate & Celebrate, an LGBT education charity, to a staff training session to introduce a new curriculum under the guise of anti-bullying education, he said, noting that no one objects to protecting students from bullying. Yet, he soon found out that there were aspects of this training that were not about bullying but the indoctrination of LGBT ideology. It went so far that at one point the trainers had the staff chanting about the need to “smash heteronormativity.”
“That’s something well beyond not bullying people,” Randall said.
The LGBT group further taught staff that there are nine characteristics that are protected under British law, among them “gender” and “gender identity.” But that is not true, Randall stressed, noting that the trans movement has coerced the public into believing such claims.
Since the aim of the Educate & Celebrate curriculum material is to “embed gender, gender identity and sexual orientation into the fabric of your organization,” students asked Randall to address the issue at a chapel service.
After doing so, he was summarily dismissed from school for gross misconduct and reported to the counter-terrorism program after he told students, aged 11 to 17, that they were not compelled to “accept an ideology they disagree with.” He also told the students that they could make up their own minds about gender identity and sexuality.
Randall added that students could either choose to adopt the thinking of LGBT activists or adhere to Christian sexual ethics — that marriage is only between a man and woman and that sex is confined to that context. Most importantly, he advised students to show respect for those who disagree.
“I was summoned into what I can only describe as an interrogation by the senior leadership,” he said. “I was suspended. And I was fired for gross misconduct for doing my job as per the job description.”
Randall was also reported to Child Protective Services and a British government anti-terrorism program as a potential violent extremist.
“I’d like to think that I’m a reasonably moderate sort of chap,” he said, reiterating how he left the question of believing the claims of LGBT activists open-ended in his chapel remarks. UnmuteAdvanced SettingsFullscreenPauseUp Next
But his firing and being reported to the government anti-terrorism task force was a revealing moment showing how far the school’s administration had gone to the other extreme.
He is now suing the school for religious discrimination but noted how astonishing it is that he has to take legal action against a Church of England institution, for proclaiming Christian beliefs in a sermon during a chapel service. The Christian Legal Centre has since been representing him.
Speaking of the relevance of the international religious freedom summit, the Anglican chaplain stressed that freedom of religion includes freedom from religion. The Marxist progressive ideology at work functions much like a religion and people should be free from that if they wish to be.
“If Western countries cannot protect their own religious groups from discrimination there is absolutely no reason that the other countries at which we might point the finger” who are violating religious freedom, and they can say to the West and say, “You’re not taking it seriously, so why should we?” he said.
When asked by The Christian Post why gender ideologues won’t even allow a disagreement, Randall pointed to its philosophical roots.
“It seems to me that if you look at the Marxist-type origins of this sort of thing, what’s going on is that they are objecting to what they regard as religion — the opiate of the masses — this sort of false consciousness, and they just have to educate us into true consciousness,” he said.
“But anybody who says ‘Oh no, I’m quite happy with my religious ideas, I’m quite happy with this consciousness I’ve got already’ is a real threat to the whole set of concepts. They are a threat to the idea that what everybody believes is false and the Marxists will take us to this new wonderful, enlightened utopia.”
“And they cannot tolerate that kind of threat. It’s a very totalitarian system,” he added.
What Randall experienced three years ago in England is what he and others have called “soft totalitarianism,” whereas what people endure in China is “hard totalitarianism.”
“But the difference between them is not as much as we might like to think,” he stressed.
Following is from the July 2, 2022 Christian Post (United States).
Finnish lawmaker Päivi Räsänen, prosecuted for voicing her traditional Christian beliefs about marriage and sexuality, believes that a “heavy hatred for Christian values” in Western society will cause many Christians to censor themselves for social acceptance.
The former interior minister who has served in Finnish Parliament for nearly three decades was one of several global political figures to speak at the annual International Religious Freedom Summit in Washington, D.C., this week.
The event aims to increase “the public awareness and political strength for the international religious freedom movement. The summit is led by former Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback, who led similar events at the State Department headquarters during the Trump administration.
In March, Räsänen was cleared of hate speech charges for repeatedly asserting her belief that marriage should be between a man and a woman. But her legal battle continues as the prosecution has appealed the ruling to a higher court.
She spoke with The Christian Post ahead of her participation in a panel discussion at the summit focused on religious freedom in the Western Hemisphere Thursday.
As she faced a possibility of up to six years imprisonment, the 62-year-old politician attributed her prosecution to Finland becoming a “post-Christian world” where “Christian values are, in fact, a minority.”
“The change has been so fast that it is difficult to understand what is happening,” She said.
As the wife of a Lutheran pastor and former chair of Finnish Christian Democrats, Räsänen believes Christian values are “targeted” in criminal court as part of the “breaking of the virtue and the challenging of Christian values” that is now “very visible in our societies.”
In Räsänen’s case, she faced hate speech charges over a book she wrote 18 years ago titled Male and Female He Created Them: Homosexual relationships challenge the Christian concept of humanity and a 2019 tweet taking issue with the Finnish Lutheran Church’s promotion of LGBT “pride month.” She faced a third charge for comments she made on a radio show about homosexuality.
Bishop Juhana Pohjola of the Evangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese of Finland was charged with hate speech for publishing Räsänen’s book.
Räsänen insists that she has no ill will toward homosexuals and suggested that those accusing her of practicing hate speech are the ones dabbling in hatred.
“We all are sinners and we need Jesus. But now, I think there is a heavy hatred against Christian values in our society,” Räsänen said. “If you speak about gender issues — that there are two genders or that marriage belongs to one woman and one man — it arouses hatred against you in our society.”
Räsänen told CP that she “never thought” she would face prosecution for expressing support for “classical Christian doctrines about marriage and sexuality” as she openly discussed her “Christian values” and beliefs about “marriage and sanctity of human life” throughout her time in Parliament.
“Nothing has changed in my faith and in my conviction, but suddenly I was like a criminal because of this hate,” she said.
“The world has changed,” she concluded. “I think that my conviction has not changed but the world has changed very [quickly] in Finland and I think that also in other Western countries, post-Christian countries.”
Describing the cultural shift as “very alarming,” Räsänen believes Christians must “wake up to see what is going on” because her experience proves that “it is more and more difficult” for Christians to express their faith publicly.
“I’m afraid that this leads to some kind of self-censorship. If you are labeled a conservative Christian, it would hinder your career or your social acceptance,” she stated. “So, these kinds of problems are very topical in Finnish society.”UnmuteAdvanced SettingsFullscreenPauseUp Next
Although she “hoped that the prosecutor would have been satisfied with the acquittal,” she sees her case moving to a higher court as an opportunity “to get a precedent and to get a more heavy guideline for possible further similar cases in Finland and also in Europe.”
She praised her acquittal of hate crime charges by a Helsinki District Court as “a victory for me.” Still, She said a “possible victory from Appeal Court and especially from Supreme Court” is an “even bigger victory for freedom of speech … and freedom of religion” because it would create “legal guidance for other cases.”
“I think that this is all in God’s hands, and I believe in His guidance that there is some meaning that this process continues,” she added.
Räsänen said the ordeal and her platform with the Finnish media provided an opportunity to “hold up the biblical values in public and also testify about Jesus” and give people “the answer to the problem of sin that Jesus has died for all people and that this is the way to salvation.”
Although Finland has a Constitution that “guarantees the freedom of speech and freedom of religion,” Räsänen is concerned that “the influence of LGBT ideology is very strong in Finnish society and some kind of woke culture is creating cancel culture in our society and it is narrowing those freedoms.”
Räsänen lamented, “we have now some kind of totalitarian, ideological totalitarianism.” She cited efforts to convince social media companies to censor “hate speech” in the Finnish Parliament and the European Union as examples of this ideology’s emergence.
Räsänen hopes that her remarks at the IRF Summit will “encourage people to use their rights and speak openly,”
“At first, when the trial in January started, [the] prosecutor said that this will not be about [the] Bible,” Räsänen recalled. “She started to ask questions about [the] Bible, about theological issues, she even cited some verses from the Old Testament, and she wanted to show that there is a lot of hate speech in [the] Bible.”
Räsänen maintained that the prosecutor classified the Christian doctrine of “love the sinner, hate the sin” as “insulting and defaming” because “according to her, you cannot make a distinction between the person’s identity and his actions, so if you condemn the act, you also condemn the human being and regard him inferior.”
She pushed back on this analysis, classifying the idea of “loving the sinner” and “hating the sin” as “the core of Christianity and the message of the Bible.”
“If this is denied, if this kind of speech and teaching is denied, then also the core of Christianity is dead,” she contended.
(The following is written by four Chinese pastors from the underground church in Communist China. They have or are experiencing persecution from the Communist China government simply because they are born again Christians. They have spent a combined total of 47 years in prison for their faith in Jesus Christ. The source of the article is omitted due to security issues. Carl)
“In recent years—especially since the start of the Covid pandemic—many believers around the world have contacted us to ask if we can share insights or do interviews into how Christians can survive persecution, as they see the storm clouds of persecution gathering on the horizon in their countries.
First, we point out that we have written more than a dozen books on the Church in China, each containing principles and testimonies of how God has not only helped His children survive six decades of persecution, but has caused them to thrive, so that China is still experiencing the greatest revival in Christian history.
When we try to help church leaders and believers in the West prepare for persecution, after more dialogue it usually emerges that they are not really looking for straight answers. Often, what people mean when they ask these questions is: “How can we survive persecution in our current church structures, so we don’t have to suffer or change?”
The answer to this is… you cannot!
True, physical persecution (e.g. when Christians are being arrested, beaten, imprisoned, or even killed) will not leave most current church structures intact. It will completely dismantle them!
Gone will be the denominations, emphasis on church buildings, Reverends, division between “clergy” and other believers, and all kinds of church traditions and outward imagery that are not found in Scripture. They will be swept away.
This pattern is what happened when persecution was ramped up against believers in China, North Korea, Vietnam, Laos, and other countries we work in.
We don’t know if severe persecution is coming to your part of the world soon, but we must be prepared. The Lord Jesus said, “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake” (Matthew 24:9), while the Apostle Paul told Timothy that “everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12).
We would like to conclude by sharing five important truths about persecution, which we hope will bring encouragement and focus to our fellow believers:
God is always in control! If He allows persecution to come, it’s for the good of His kingdom. In China, believers only experienced the full joy of intimacy with Jesus when they were in the furnace of affliction and after they came out the other side.
Persecution is the last thing our flesh desires, but our faith must rest on the fact that the Lord Jesus will not let us down, and He will never leave nor forsake us. Persecution cannot destroy our relationship with Him: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?” (Romans 8:35).
Importantly, when intense hardship comes, we shouldn’t see only the hand of Satan in persecution. In China, God’s people looked back later and realized that it was actually the Lord Jesus overseeing the entire process out of love for His children. He is zealous to remove the dead religious structures that trap people in bondage and keep millions of unbelievers from being able to see the true Gospel.
Persecution is a pruning process, when the Holy Spirit removes half-hearted believers from among the flock. In China, when fierce persecution first broke out in the 1950s, around two-thirds of churchgoers fell away from the faith. The Lord Jesus told us this would occur: “When trouble or persecution comes because of the Word, they quickly fall away” (Mark 4:17). Friends, if two-thirds of Chinese Christians fell away at the onset of persecution, how might things be in your part of the world?
For those who do not give up, persecution often brings great revival. In China, the number of Christians has grown from less than one million to over 100 million after 60 years of brutal Communist persecution! All glory to God. When that realization dawned on believers, many learned not only to grimly endure persecution, but to embrace it as a special blessing from God.
May God Almighty continue to bless and multiply His church in Communist China. May the church in the West return to its New Testament roots before the fires of persecution makes it return to that unchanging guidance He has given us! Carl
“If there be an honest man, who desires to love God and fear Jesus Christ, who will neither slander, nor swear, nor lie, nor commit adultery, nor kill, nor steal, nor avenge himself on his enemies, they presently say of such a one he is a Vaudes, and worthy of death.”
This quote comes from an ancient writing (1100 AD) of the Waldenses entitled the Nobla Leycon (Noble Lesson). The Waldenses are a very ancient branch of the True Church that left the “wreck of primitive Christianity” (Church of Rome) in the 800s AD.
J.A. Wylie in his The History of The Waldenses states, “Rome manifestly was the schismatic, she it was that had abandoned what was once the common faith of Christendom, leaving by that step to all who remained on the old ground the indisputably valid title of the True Church.”
They are today the largest Protestant faith in Italy though the past popes had attempted to exterminate them for over 600 years. This persecution is what the end of the statement “he is a Vaudes, and worthy of death” is referring to.
But enough history!
If I were to be dragged before the Inquisition today, would my conduct and speech produce enough evidence to convict me of being a True Christian?
The Waldenses way of life and speech revealed that they were very different from the contemporary culture they lived in. Can you and I say that about our conduct today? Or do we just say one thing at church and just blend in with the wicked and immoral culture that surrounds us the rest of the time, laughing at the same dirty jokes, looking at the same filthy entertainment, hating and being unforgiving, our cruel and wicked speech revealing our cruel and wicked inner man instead of a Holy Spirit controlled new man in Christ?
The apostle Paul believed in examining yourself to make sure your following Christ’s example in conduct/teaching and not your religious, fleshly, sin nature. That is why he told Timothy to “pay close attention to yourself” (I Timothy 4:16). We should heed his instructions.
Pliny the Younger (61-113 AD) was a Roman Magistrate appointed by the emperor Trajan over Bithynia, now in modern Turkey. In 112 AD he wrote the emperor requesting direction on how to handle the many Christians that were brought before him. The English translation of Pliny’s letter and Trajan’s response was published by William Harris, Prof. Em. Middlebury College.
Harris said the Christians were brought daily before Pliny for refusing military service, refusing to worship the Roman emperors and for being members of a strange new and secret religion which although harmless, seemed dangerous to the established Roman way of life. I would add “revenge” to this list because of the change in temple economics due to Christians forsaking the idols.
This is the first documented evidence of the “Christian Problem” in the Roman world.
Oh, in case you’re wondering, Pliny the Elder was his uncle who died trying to rescue people from the Pompeii disaster. Here is the translation from Latin:
Gaius Plinius to the Emperor Trajan
It is for me an important point of responsibility to refer to you as Head of State, things about which I have questions, since you are the person best able to set straight my hesitations and correct my lack of information.
Actually I have never been present at a Examination (cognitio) of Christians, so I do not know what punishment is required or how far it is to be carried out. Nor do I understand the legal grounds for a prosecution, or how stringently it is to be prosecuted. I am not clear about prosecutions in respect to the age of the persons, whether no distinction should be made between the young and the old, and furthermore whether a pardon should be granted in cases of recanting, or if there is no advantage for a person completely ceasing to be a Christian. Or is it the name “Christian” which is prosecutable, even if not involved in criminal actions, or is that “criminality” is automatically attached to the name?
In the meantime, I now handle it this way with those who are turned over to me as Christians. I ask them directly, in person, if they are Christian, I ask a second and third time to be sure, and indicate to them the danger of their situation. If they persist, I order them led dispatched (= executed). I have had no trouble with this, since whatever it was they admitted or professed, I decided that their obstinacy and unyielding inflexibility should be sufficient reason for punishment. Some others who were virtually insane with this cult, but Roman citizens, I sent back to Rome for trial.
As I continue with this handling of the situation, as often happens, the numbers and kinds of incriminations are becoming more widespread. An anonymous List has been brought out which contains the names of a great many persons. I decided to dismiss charges again any on this list who stated that they were now not, nor had ever been Christians, if they repeated after me a prayer of invocation to the Gods, and made an offering of wine and incense to your statue, which I had brought in to the court along with the statues of the Gods, for this purpose. And in addition they were to formally curse Christ, which I understand true Christians will never do.
Other named by the anonymous List said they were Christians, and later changed their statement. Some said that they had been and then stopped, some three years before, some longer, some even twenty years before. All these reverenced your statue and those of the Gods, and cursed Christ. They stated that the sum total of their error or misjudgment, had been coming to a meeting on a given day before dawn, and singing responsively a hymn to Christ as to God, swearing with a holy oath not to commit any crime, never to steal or commit robbery, commit adultery, fail a sworn agreement or refuse to return a sum left in trust. When all this was finished, it was their custom to go their separate ways, and later re-assemble to take food of an ordinary and simple kind. But after my edict which forbids all political Societies, they did in fact give this up.I thought at this point that it was necessary to get information from two slave women, whom they call Deaconesses (ministrae) about the actual truth, by means of torture. I found nothing worthy of blame other than the blind and over-wrought nature of their cult-superstition.
I have therefore postponed further Examinations (cognitiones) and made haste to come to you immediately for consultation. This situation seem to demand serious consultation, especially in view of the large number of people falling into this danger. A great many persons of every age, of every social class, men and women alike, are being brought in to trial, and this seems likely to continue. It is not only the cities, but also the towns and even the country villages which are being infected with this cult-contagion.
It seems possible to check and reverse this direction at this point, for it is quite clear that the Temples of the Gods which have been empty for so long, now begin to be filled again, the sacred rites which had lapsed are now being performed and flesh for sacrificial rites is now sold again at the shops, although for a while nobody would buy it. So it seems reasonable to think that a great many people could be persuaded to reform, IF there were a legal procedure for Repentance.
Emperor Trajan to Pliny:
You have done the right thing, my dear Pliny, in handling the cases of those who were brought to you under the charge of being Christians. But it is not possible to make hard and fast rule with one specific formula. These people must not be searched out, if they are brought before your court and the case against them is proved, they must be punished, but in the case of anyone who states that he is not a Christian and makes it perfectly clear that he is not, by offering prayers to out Gods, such a one is to be pardoned on the grounds of his present repentance, however suspect he may have been in the past. But anonymous lists must not have any place in the court proceedings. They are a terrible example and not at all in keeping with our times.
I am currently listening to several FREE audio books from The Berean Call and would like to recommend them for your consideration. They are also available as podcast, and I believe they are available on YouTube.
The Berean Call is a Christian biblical discernment ministry out of Bend, Oregon, USA founded by Dave Hunt. Brother Hunt, along with Ed Decker, authored The God Makers (1997) which is a shocking expose of what the Mormon church really believes. After Mr. Hunt went to be with the Lord, T.A. Mahon assumed the leadership. He and Mr. Hunt authored several books together such as The Seduction of Christianity (2013). Mr. Mahon is a former Roman Catholic.
I listen to the following books using The Berean Call’s free app. They also have a free newsletter for those that may be interested.
The audio books are
A Woman Rides the Beast by Dave Hunt – the following description from Apple Podcast:
“In Revelation 17, the Apostle John describes in great detail the characteristics of a false church that will be the partner of the Antichrist. Was he describing the Roman Catholic Church? To answer that question, Dave Hunt spent years gathering research and indisputable historical documentation (primarily Catholic sources) providing information not generally available.
Are you missing half the story about the last days? Virtually all attention these days is focused on the coming Antichrist—but he is only half the story. Many are amazed to discover in Revelation 17 that there is also another mysterious character at the heart of prophecy—a woman who rides the beast.
Who is this woman? Tradition says she is connected with the church of Rome. But isn’t such a view outdated? After all, today’s Vatican is eager to join hands with Protestants worldwide. “The Catholic church has changed,” is what we hear.
Or has it? In A Woman Rides the Beast, prophecy expert Dave Hunt sifts through biblical truth and global events to present a well-defined portrait of the woman and her powerful place in the Antichrist’s future empire. Eight remarkable clues in Revelation 17 and 18 prove the woman’s identity beyond any reasonable doubt.”
What Love Is This? by Dave Hunt – the following description is taken from Apple podcast:
“Many sincere, Bible-believing Christians are “Calvinists” only by default. Thinking that the only choice is between Calvinism (with its presumed doctrine of eternal security) and Arminianism (with its teaching that salvation can be lost), and confident of Christ’s promise to keep eternally those who believe in Him, they therefore consider themselves to be Calvinists.
It takes only a few simple questions to discover that most Christians are largely unaware of what John Calvin and his early followers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries actually believed and practiced. Nor do they fully understand what most of today’s leading Calvinists believe.
Although there are disputed variations of the Calvinist doctrine, among its chief proponents (whom we quote extensively in context) there is general agreement on certain core beliefs. Many evangelicals who think they are Calvinists will be surprised to learn of Calvin’s belief in salvation through infant baptism, and of his grossly un-Christian behavior, at times, as the “Protestant Pope” of Geneva, Switzerland.
Most shocking of all, however is Calvinism’s misrepresentation of God who “is love.” It is our prayer that this volume will enable readers to examine more carefully the vital issues involved and to follow God’s Holy Word — not man.”
East Windby Ruth Hunt – the true story of Maria Zeitner Linke, a German Christian, who was born in Russia prior to the Russian Revolution and, after her family escapes Siberia and returns to Germany, they endure World War II and she spends nine years in Stalin’s Gulags.
These are only three of the many free audio books offered. If you are looking for a book to listen to, I hope you can find something in their offerings.
Thank you for stopping by the blog! I hope you are enjoying sweet, daily fellowship with Jesus Christ and God the Father and your brothers and sisters in Christ.
Psalm 119: 38 