MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

Revelation 13:16-18, “… it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate [‘psēphizō’ – reckon] the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is χξς.”

AINA – “The Coptic Orthodox priest would only talk to his visitor after hiding from the watchful eyes of the bearded Muslim outside, who sported a pistol bulging from under his robe.

So Father Yoannis moved behind a wall in the charred skeleton of an ancient monastery to describe how it was torched by Islamists and then looted when they took over this southern Egyptian town following the ouster of the country’s president.

‘The fire in the monastery burned intermittently for three days. The looting continued for a week. At the end, not a wire or an electric switch is left,’ Yoannis told The Associated Press. The monastery’s 1,600-year-old underground chapel was stripped of ancient icons and the ground was dug up on the belief that a treasure was buried there.

‘Even the remains of ancient and revered saints were disturbed and thrown around,’ he said.

A town of some 120,000 — including 20,000 Christians — Dalga has been outside government control since hard-line supporters of the Islamist Mohammed Morsi drove out police and occupied their station on July 3, the day Egypt’s military chief removed the president in a popularly supported coup. It was part of a wave of attacks in the southern Minya province that targeted Christians, their homes and businesses.

Since then, the radicals have imposed their grip on Dalga, twice driving off attempts by the army to send in armored personnel carriers by showering them with gunfire.

Their hold points to the power of hard-line Islamists in southern Egypt even after Morsi’s removal — and their determination to defy the military-backed leadership that has replaced him.

With the army and police already fighting a burgeoning militant insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula, there are growing signs that a second insurgency could erupt in the south — particularly in Minya and Assiut provinces, both Islamist strongholds and both home to Egypt’s two largest Christian communities.

The takeover of Dalga has been disastrous for the Christian community in the town, located 270 kilometers (160 miles) south of Cairo in Minya, on the edge of the Nile Valley near the cliffs that mark the start of the desert.

In the initial burst of violence, the town’s only Catholic church was ransacked and set ablaze, like the Monastery of the Virgin Mary and St. Abraam. The Anglican church was looted.

Some 40 Christian families have fled Dalga since, Yoannis said. Nearly 40 Christian-owned homes and stores have been attacked by Islamists, according to local Minya activists. Bandits from the nearby deserts joined the looting and burning, they said. To ensure the spread of fear, the attackers torched houses in all Christian neighborhoods, not just in one or two.

Among the homes torched was that of Father Angelos, an 80-year-old Orthodox priest who lives close to the monastery. Yoannis’ home was spared a similar fate by his Muslim neighbors. A 60-year-old Christian who fired from his roof to ward off a mob was dragged down and killed, the activists said.

‘Even if we had firearms, we would be reluctant to use them,’ said Yoannis. ‘We cannot take a life. Firing in the air may be our limit.’

Those who remain pay armed Muslim neighbors to protect them. Yoannis said his brother paid with a cow and a water buffalo. Most Christian businesses have been closed for weeks.

Armed men can be seen in the streets, and nearly every day Islamists hold rallies at a stage outside the police station, demanding Morsi’s reinstatement.

Most Christians remain indoors as much as possible, particularly during the rallies. They say they are routinely insulted on the streets by Muslims, including children. Christian women stay home at all times, fearing harassment by the Islamists, according to multiple Christians who spoke to the AP. Most requested that their names not be published for fear of reprisals.

‘The Copts in Dalga live in utter humiliation,’ said local rights activist Ezzat Ibrahim. ‘They live in horror and cannot lead normal lives.’ …

‘They don’t want to see any Christian with any power, no matter how modest,’ Yoannis said of the hard-liners now running Dalga. ‘They only want to see us poor without money, a trade or a business …” Read more.

Where there is one report of an attempted forced conversion there are likely many more that are unreported …

Update: Rebels Attack Christian Homes, Churches, Many Feared Dead, ‘Convert To Islam Or You Will Be Beheaded’

Revelation 13:15, “And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain.”

• Related: Islamist Ultimatum To Syrian Christians: Convert, Leave, Or Die
• Related: Warning: Prepare To Die If You Refuse To Worship Allah Or Pay ‘Jizyah’
• Related: Syria: Christian Towns Are Being Emptied By Islamist Savagery

Qur’an Sura 9:30, “… the Christians say: The Messiah is the son of [God]; these are the words of their mouths; they imitate the saying of those who disbelieved before; may Allah destroy them …”

By Ruth Sherlock and Magdy Samaan, The Telegraph – “Fighting raged through the picturesque mountain village of Maaloula, near Damascus, on Thursday, as the regime launched a counter-attack against the rebels.

We can see the writing on the wall. Unfortunately, our leaders all seem to be illiterate …

By Raymond Ibrahm – “While U.S. leaders continue pushing for war against the Syrian government, today ‘Al-Qaeda-linked rebels,’ reports AP, ‘launched an assault on a regime-held Christian mountain village in the densely populated west of Syria and new clashes erupted near the capital, Damascus, on Wednesday…  In the attack on the village of Maaloula, rebels commandeered a mountaintop hotel and nearby caves and shelled the community below, said a nun, speaking by phone from a convent in the village. She spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.’

Arabic news agency Al Hadath gives more information concerning this latest terror attack on Syria’s Christians, specifically how the al-Qaeda linked rebels ‘terrorized the Christians, threatening to be avenged on them after the triumph of the revolution.‘

Thus al-Qaeda terrorists eagerly await U.S. assistance against the Syrian government, so they can subjugate if not slaughter Syria’s Christians, secularists, and non-Muslims — even as the Obama administration tries to justify war on Syria by absurdly evoking the ‘human rights’ of Syrians on the one hand, and lying about al-Qaeda’s presence in Syria on the other.” Source – Raymond Ibrahim.

Flashback: Islamist Rebels In Syria May Be Using American-Provided Weapons To Slaughter Christians – “As if ‘Benghazi-gate’ was not sufficiently horrific, in a cruel twist of fate, American-backed Islamic insurgents in Syria are now thought to be using their CIA-supplied weaponry to kill Christians. Video footage of a November first attack posted on YouTube shows members of the ‘Free Syrian Army’ executing 28 men that were initially claimed in French Press reports to be members of the Syrian army. However, the President of the US-based, Christian relief group, the Religious Freedom Coalition, William Murray, claims to have positively identified at least two of the victims as belonging to the Syrian counterpart of his relief ministry, a claim supported by an independent human rights activist.” Read more.

Flashback: The Syrian Revolution’s Dire Threat To Christians: ‘If An Islamic State Becomes The Reality … Expect A Full-Out Genocide Against Christians’ – “The Syrian Revolution geared toward the establishment of an Islamic state. As this revolution’s fire burns, therefore, it is no surprise that Islamists are massacring Christians. If an Islamic state becomes the reality in Syria, and the developments reveal that that will soon be the case, we can expect a full-out genocide against Christians to be implemented by the Islamists in Syria. The fall of Assad will mean a mass cleansing of anybody who believes in the Bible, since the Assad regime protects the Christian population.” Read more.

Flashback: Muslim Group: ‘Christianity Should Be Destroyed And Wiped From The Face Of The Earth’, It Is ‘Evil’ and ‘Demonic’ – “A Muslim group has released its plan to ‘wipe Christianity from the face of the earth,’ Islamize the West and establish an Islamic system of world government – placing those who resist ‘under a police state.’… ‘Islamic Power has returned upon the face of the earth and the Revived Global Caliphate has set eyes on the West to once and for all rid the world of Christianity and there is nothing you can do about it,’ al-Mohammedi said. He makes his objective clear.” Read more.

Psalm 7:9, “Oh, let the evil of the wicked come to an end, and may you establish the righteous — you who test the minds and hearts, O righteous God!”

By Raymond Ibrahim, FrontPage Mag – “Not only are the churches, monasteries, and institutions of Egypt’s Christians under attack by the Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters—nearly 100 now have been torched, destroyed, ransacked, etc.—but Christians themselves are under attack all throughout Egypt, with practically zero coverage in Western media.

Days ago, for example, Copts held a funeral for Wahid Jacob, a young Christian deacon who used to serve in St. John the Baptist Church, part of the Qusiya diocese in Asyut, Egypt.  He was kidnapped on August 21 by ‘unknown persons’ who demanded an exorbitant ransom from his impoverished family—1,200,000 Egyptian pounds (equivalent to $171,000 USD).  Because his family could not raise the sum, he was executed—his body dumped in a field where it was later found.  The priest who conducted his funeral service said that the youth’s body bore signs of severe torture.

In fact, kidnapping young Christians and holding them for ransom has become increasingly common in Egypt.  Last April, 10-year-old Sameh George, another deacon, or altar boy, at St. Abdul Masih (‘Servant of Christ’) Church in Minya, Egypt, was also abducted by ‘unknown persons’ while on his way to church to participate in Holy Pascha prayers leading up to Orthodox Easter. His parents said that it was his custom to go to church and worship in the evening, but when he failed to return, and they began to panic, they received an anonymous phone call from the kidnappers, informing them that they had the Christian child in their possession, and would execute him unless they received 250,000 Egyptian pounds in ransom money.

If those in Egypt being kidnapped and sometimes killed for ransom money are not all deacons, they are almost always church-attending Christians.  Last April, for example, another Coptic Christian boy, 12-year-old Abanoub Ashraf, was also kidnapped right in front of his church, St. Paul Church in Shubra al-Khayma district. His abductors, four men, put a knife to his throat, dragged him to their car, opened fire on the church, and then sped away. Later they called the boy’s family demanding a large amount of money to ransom child’s life.

The hate for these Christians—who are seen as no better than dogs—is such that sometimes after being paid their ransom, the Muslim abductors still slaughter them anyway.  This was the fate of 6-year-old Cyril Joseph, who was kidnapped last May.  In the words of the Arabic report, the boy’s ‘family is in tatters after paying 30,000 pounds to the abductor, who still killed the innocent child and threw his body into the toilet of his home, where the body, swollen and moldy, was exhumed.’

As for Christian girls, they are even more vulnerable than Christian boys and disappear with great frequency.  As an International Christian Concern report puts it Read more…