MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

“NAIROBI — Two people were killed in a grenade attack on a church in a town in eastern Kenya, police said Sunday, amid a spate of violence that has raised concerns for the country’s key tourism industry.

The attackers threw a grenade at a house inside a compound of the East African Pentecostal Church in Garissa late Saturday, killing two people living inside, locals said. Up to four others were injured in the attack.

‘They attacked people who reside in the church compound,’ said a worshipper. ‘Two people died and the others have been taken to hospital.’

National police deputy spokesman Charles Owino confirmed that two people had been killed and said a partially exploded landmine found elsewhere in town had been taken away by anti-terrorism police.

Asked who was responsible for the attacks, Owino noted that Garissa is a predominantly Muslim town and that the target was a church.

‘It could be (religious) rivalry. It could be Al Shebab sympathisers, you can’t rule it out. Anything is possible,’ he told AFP.” Read more.

“The head of Lebanon’s Maronite church said he feared for the fate of Christians in the Middle East if the Arab Spring brought ‘radical groups’ to power to replace autocratic leaders. Patriarch Beshara al-Rai, speaking in Baghdad during the first such visit by a Maronite patriarch, urged Christians not to leave the Middle East.

‘I support the spring when it is a spring, not when it is a winter,’ he told reporters. During his visit, he attended a ceremony marking the first anniversary of an al Qaeda attack which killed 52 people in a Baghdad church. ‘There should be changes in all Arab countries. Dictatorships cannot survive today, we need democracy, freedom of expression and freedom of belief and worship…(But) I fear radical groups might take power and (bring) extremist rule.’

He added: ‘We are with changes in Syria …and with reforms and human rights but we hope the price will not be the same as what happened in Iraq.’

Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Christians have fled the country after years of sectarian conflict.

Attacks on Christians in Egypt after protests toppled Hosni Mubarak in February also highlight the dangers many Christians in Syria fear they will face if protests against President Bashar al-Assad bring him down. Church leaders in Syria say they support reforms but not the demands for a ‘regime change’ which they say could fragment Syria and give the upper hand possibly to Islamist groups that would deny them religious freedom.

Lebanon’s Maronite church leaders have had tense relations with Syria, and led calls for an end to Syrian military presence in Lebanon in 2005. But since protests erupted against Assad in March many said Christians enjoyed freedom of belief under Assad’s secular Baath Party.

Maronites, who have a presence in Lebanon, Syria and Cyprus, follow an Eastern rite of the Roman Catholic church and number around 900,000 in Lebanon. Many more Maronites, possibly up to three million, live outside the country. ‘We are against any (Christian) migration,’ Rai said. ‘We know that all the extremist and terrorist groups and foreign interference aim for this but we have to remain steadfast.'” Read more.

By Massimo Franco – “This is what seems to have happened. The new ruling classes differ from one country to the other but they tend to have in common a stronger Islamic identity. Their more extremist factions push to punish Christian minorities for what is perceived as a double original sin: being allies of former hated regimes, and being ‘agents of western values’, although they have been living there for 2,000 years or so. The result is that the prospect of their extinction as a community is growing.

It has happened already in Iraq, due to the ‘Anglo-American war’ started in 2003. At that time, the number of Chaldeans, the Christian Iraqis, was between 800,000 and 1.4 million. In 2009-2010, it was estimated are between 400,000 and 500,000, and rapidly decreasing. Cairo’s violent repression shows a similar process is under way in Egypt as well, where they still represent roughly 10% of the population.

This represents a georeligious tragedy for the Vatican, which always tried to maintain a frustrating dialogue with Islamic authorities, and which right up to the end persisted in invoking a pacific coexistence in the area.

But it is also a geopolitical failure for the west, and paradoxically for Islam as well. Christian communities have been historically a bridge between western and Arab culture; and a factor of moderation and mutual understanding between the two worlds. Their dramatic decline signals the collapse of this symbolic bridge, and the growing strength of an ‘Arab street’ fed with consumerism but also with prejudices and a widespread hostile mood against Christians.” Read more.

And the ‘Arab Street’ isn’t just anti-Christian, either:

Revelation 6:8a, “And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him …”

By Evelyn Lin – “At least 150 people were killed in a series of gun and bomb attacks in northern Nigeria on Saturday, the Islamist Boko Haram sect claimed.

The radical Islamic sect Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the attacks, which included bombing a government building and gunning down over 63 people in the northern city of Damaturu, while another suicide attack in neighbouring Maiduguri town left for dead.

A spokesman for Boko Haram said the group is responsible for the series of overnight attacks.

President Goodluck Jonathan condemned the assaults which officials said included at least five suicide bomb blasts and ‘directed security agencies to ensure the arrest of perpetrators of these heinous acts,’ said a statement from his spokesman Reuben Abati.

As corpses piled up in the morgue, a rescue agency official told AFP the body count stood at 150.

The attackers bombed their targets then took on the security forces in gun battles in Damaturu. Residents said gunfire rang out for several hours across the city after the explosions.

‘It was a suicide bomb attack at one of our buildings. The attacker came in a Honda CRV and rammed into the building and explosives exploded,’ Lawal told AFP.

A journalist described scenes of chaos and destruction in Damaturu.

‘In fact, Damaturu is looking just like Libya… burnt cars and buildings.’ In a mainly Christian neighbourhood of Damaturu called Jerusalem, six churches were bombed in addition to a police station.” Read more.

The vast majority of Western evangelical churches still teach a ‘pre-trib rapture’.  If the truth about what is happening right now in the world were to be told to every one of these churches, many would begin questioning some of the old dispensational ideas being taught regarding eschatology when a significant number of authors and prophecy teachers rely heavily on a ‘pre-trib’ canvas.  Heaven forbid if the Church ever began doubting those materials …

By Michael Carl – “About half of all the pastors in America’s churches today do not want to tell their congregations that there are forces in the world that persecute Christians for their beliefs, because it’s a ‘downer,’ according to the results of a startling new poll.

The Barna Research Associates survey, commissioned by Open Doors USA, says a significant majority of American Christians, some three out of four, want to hear about the persecuted church.

But the same study showed that 52 percent of America’s pastors don’t want to talk about persecution and have no plans to talk about it.

In the nationwide poll of more than 800 Christians, 74 percent of America’s churchgoers want to hear about the persecuted church.

But the same survey said only 48 percent of the pastors want to discuss the issue.

Open Doors President Carl Moeller says the survey shows that American Christians are not isolationists.

‘Much of what we’ve been hearing from people and in my experience of speaking with people all over the country would indicate that American Christians really want to know what’s happening to their brothers and sisters in Christ all around the world, particularly those that are suffering for their faith in Christ,’ Moeller said.” Moeller said.” Read more.

Christian Bishop in Egypt: Christians Are Currently Experiencing Their Worst Time in Recent Centuries, Many Now Unable to Buy or Sell – “Christians in Egypt are currently experiencing their worst time in recent centuries. This statement was made by the Coptic Orthodox Bishop Stephanos of Beba and Elfashn to the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). Christians are being violently killed under the eyes of the international media. Also, for the first time in many years, churches are being systematically burned and destroyed… Problems are also experienced in day-to-day life because calls are often made in the media not to buy from Christian merchants or to sell anything to Christians. Businessmen are therefore faced with a struggle for economic survival. Christians are indirectly excluded from employment…” Read more.

Islamic Militants Calling Themselves ‘The Unknown Soldiers of The Hidden Imam’ Threaten to Hunt Down and Execute Christians Who Flee Iran – “Islamic militants with suspected ties to Iranian security forces have been terrorizing evangelical Christians with threats to ‘repent’ or die, it was reported Sunday. Christian Solidarity Worldwide has reported that 11 Iranian Christians who fled Iran in the wake of a government campaign against Christianity have received threats via email to ‘repent’ or face extrajudicial execution, from a group identifying itself as the ‘The Unknown Soldiers of The Hidden Imam.’ The threatening emails that were sent to each individual on Sept. 14 aspired to extend the arm of Iranian Islamic militancy beyond the borders of Iran by implying that, although the recipients have left Iran, they have not escaped the ‘acute eyes of the unknown soldiers.’” Read more.

Egypt: Islamists Boast, ‘We Won’t Leave Any Christians in This Country’ – “A group of Muslims burnt down part of a church Friday – the Islamic Sabbath – in the village of Marinab, according to a report published in the daily Al Masry Al Youm. The village, situated close to the town of Edfu in the Aswan Governorate, is located some 800 kilometers south of Cairo. Security sources said Muslims rampaged through the village in what appeared to be a pogrom, clashing with the Christian residents and destroying their shops.” Read more.

Not a Single Christian Church Left in Afghanistan – “There is not a single, public Christian church left in Afghanistan, according to the U.S. State Department. This reflects the state of religious freedom in that country ten years after the United States first invaded it and overthrew its Islamist Taliban regime. In the intervening decade, U.S. taxpayers have spent $440 billion to support Afghanistan’s new government and more than 1,700 U.S. military personnel have died serving in that country. The last public Christian church in Afghanistan was razed in March 2010, according to the State Department’s latest International Religious Freedom Report. The report, which was released last month and covers the period of July 1, 2010 through December 31, 2010, also states that ‘there were no Christian schools in the country.’” Read more.

Iraq: Islamic Extremists Want to Eliminate Christians From Country, Mass Movement of Christians Continues Unabated – “Ongoing violence against Christians in Iraq has produced an accelerated exodus of believers recently and numbering in the hundreds of thousands over the last 10 years, said Open Doors USA officials… ‘At the beginning of the summer, Open Doors estimated the number of Christians remaining in Iraq at 345,000. However, the number decreases every month,’ officials stated. ‘It is an estimation; some even think there are less Christians left in the country than that,’ another Open Doors member said.” Read more.

“A Somali Christian in Kenya is nursing injuries after young Muslim men from his country beat him with iron rods and wooden clubs last week, leaving him unconscious at a church entryway.

Hassan, a 25-year-old refugee from Somalia whose surname is withheld for security reasons, had hardly been raised as a Muslim, having received Christ at age 7. But the Somali neighbors in Kenya who attacked him left him for dead on Oct. 27, bleeding and naked, on the assumption that as a Somali he was born into Islam and was therefore an apostate deserving of death, the young man told Compass.

He and his mother, a convert from Islam who fled war in Somalia 10 years ago after the death of her husband, are part of an underground house church.

In a town in Kenya undisclosed for security reasons, Hassan was returning home from running errands at 8:30 p.m. when the six young Muslim men stopped him. They hit him with a metal bar on his forehead and face, he said, and he lost two teeth on the spot. Others hit him on the back.

Some stomped on his stomach while he was on the ground as others hit him on his legs, he said through bandages on his nose and above his mouth. His hands were bandaged where they wounded him with a knife.

The attackers stripped him of his clothes as he bled and dragged him away, dumping him at the entrance of an area Presbyterian Church of East Africa. Some passersby found him and called his mother, whose name is withheld for security reasons.” Read more.

If we believed that all of these things were only supposed to happen after the rapture of the Church, then it’s high time to rethink what we thought we knew …

• Recommended: ‘Not Appointed Unto Wrath’ – What Scripture Is Really Saying
• Recommended: The Revelation Of Jesus Christ And The Rapture Of The Church
• Recommended: The Qur’anic Con: How Revelation’s Predictive Biblical Prophecy Foresaw Islamic Teachings

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.”

ACN News – “Christians in Egypt are currently experiencing their worst time in recent centuries. This statement was made by the Coptic Orthodox Bishop Stephanos of Beba and Elfashn to the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). Christians are being violently killed under the eyes of the international media. Also, for the first time in many years, churches are being systematically burned and destroyed. The police are taking no action and nobody is punished for it. In the Egyptian media, ‘the facts are systematically covered up in order to keep the international media from reporting the truth and bringing pressure from outside,’ he complained. However, video films showing the massacre of demonstrators on 9 October were broadcast by the three television stations operated by the Coptic Church and have thus also found their way into the international media. This time the attacks on Copts ‘have been better documented’.

Mass Beheading Of Egyptian Christians In Libya

Problems are also experienced in day-to-day life because calls are often made in the media not to buy from Christian merchants or to sell anything to Christians. Businessmen are therefore faced with a struggle for economic survival. Christians are indirectly excluded from employment, for example by job advertisements specifying ‘a female employee with headscarf’. Attempts are being made ‘to drive the Christians out’.” Read more.

‘Bloody’: Christian Persecution is ‘Coursing Through Muslim-Majority Nations from One End of the Globe to the Other’ – “We hear so often about Muslims as victims of abuse in the West and combatants in the Arab Spring’s fight against tyranny. But, in fact, a wholly different kind of war is underway—an unrecognized battle costing thousands of lives. Christians are being killed in the Islamic world because of their religion. It is a rising genocide that ought to provoke global alarm… In recent years the violent oppression of Christian minorities has become the norm in Muslim-majority nations stretching from West Africa and the Middle East to South Asia and Oceania. In some countries it is governments and their agents that have burned churches and imprisoned parishioners. In others, rebel groups and vigilantes have taken matters into their own hands…” Read more.

Iraqi Christian Ashur Yacob Issa Beheaded By Islamists

Mali: Christian Leader Beheaded as Islamists Terrorize Country, Create List of All Christians They Intend to Execute by Beheading – “A Christian leader has been beheaded and others are being threatened with similar treatment as Islamic militants run amok in Mali, West Africa. Christians have fled the town of Timbuktu in the north of the country where harsh Sharia Law has already been imposed amid reports that churches in Gao, 200 miles to the east, have been completely destroyed… ‘We have escaped in the wake of horrible death threats as the Islamists have a list of all the Christians in Timbuktu whom they intend to execute by beheading.'” Read more.

Afghan Militants Behead Christian

Egypt: Rising Islamic Leader Declares ‘We Will Launch a Campaign of Islamic Conquest Throughout the World’, ‘Exterminate’ Christians Who Get In the Way of Sharia – “A rising leader in the radical Islamic movement in Egypt that has become a major political player since the demise of Hosni Mubarak’s regime says Christian churches may need to be blown up and Christians exterminated to allow the advance of Islamic law, or Shariah. The comments come from Sheik ‘Adel Shehato, a senior leader with the Egyptian Islamic Jihad terrorist group… The sheik, a senior jihadist leader, responded to a question about using violence against Christians, who make up a substantial minority in Egypt.” Read more.

Christian Beheaded by Islamists In Somalia

Islamic Militants Calling Themselves ‘The Unknown Soldiers of The Hidden Imam’ Threaten to Hunt Down and Execute Christians Who Flee Iran – “Islamic militants with suspected ties to Iranian security forces have been terrorizing evangelical Christians with threats to ‘repent’ or die, it was reported Sunday. Christian Solidarity Worldwide has reported that 11 Iranian Christians who fled Iran in the wake of a government campaign against Christianity have received threats via email to ‘repent’ or face extrajudicial execution, from a group identifying itself as the ‘The Unknown Soldiers of The Hidden Imam.’ The threatening emails that were sent to each individual on Sept. 14 aspired to extend the arm of Iranian Islamic militancy beyond the borders of Iran by implying that, although the recipients have left Iran, they have not escaped the ‘acute eyes of the unknown soldiers.’” Read more.

Christian Beheaded In Tunisia

‘It’s Just the Beginning’: The Unprecedented Persecution of Christians – “‘It’s just the beginning.’ That’s what one of the attackers said while bombing a church in eastern Kenya last week. Two people were killed and three others injured in the attack, which authorities believe was carried out by the al-Qaida-linked militant group al-Shabab. This month at least 65 people were killed in the city of Damaturu in northeastern Nigeria, when Islamist insurgents bombed churches, mosques and police stations. The Boko Haram militant sect claimed responsibility.” Read more.

Flashback: Buy Or Sell – Only If You Are Counted Among Mohammed’s Number

• Egypt: Businesses Told Not To Sell To, Or Buy From, Christians
• Muslim Mobs Attacking Christian Businesses And Pharmacies In Egypt
• Muslims Demand Christian Bookstores Stop Selling Christian Material
• Iran Refusing Business License For Christians, ‘Do Not To Employ Them’
• No Business, No Money, No Home: Christians Flee As Islamists Take Over
• Pakistan: Armed Muslims Attack Money-Making Christians In Sheikhupura
• ‘When I Apply To Any Job And They Know That I’m Christian, They Refuse Me’
• Say The Islamic Statement Of Faith, Or You Cannot Buy From Muslim Stores
• Syrian Rebels To Christians: Comply With Islamic Law, Otherise It’s No Jobs, Death
• Islamists Destroy Christian Businesses In Iraq: ‘If Anyone Decides to Reopen His Store, We Will Kill Him’

Daniel 7:25a, “And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws …”

“In a recent press conference, the Ethiopian government have unveiled plans by the radical Wahabi Muslim sect to turn Ethiopia into an Islamic country governed by Sharia laws.

The government has also expressed its concern over the growing violence against moderate Muslims and Christians by radical Wahabi Muslims.

The Director General at the ministry of foreign affairs, Mersessa Reda said: ‘We have found evidences and pamphlets were publicly distributed during the month of Ramadan calling on the Muslim community to stand up against all non- Wahabi Muslims and other religion followers,’ he said.

Wahabi sect is a member of a strictly orthodox Sunni Muslim sect from Saudi Arabia. The doctrine strives to purify Islamic beliefs and rejects any innovation occurring after the 3rd century of Islam; ‘Osama bin Laden is said to be a Wahhabi Muslim’.

Reda on his part said: ‘At the moment our main duty is to save the innocent Muslims who being led to the traps of religious conflict in Ethiopia orchestrated by these Wahabi Muslim extremists’.

The Wahabi Muslim extremists are being engaged in underground violence and unrest instigation activities by abusing the freedom of religion and faith guaranteed by the constitution says, Ethiopian government official.” Read more.

Flashback: Ethiopian Muslim Group To Christians: More Attacks Are Coming and More Christians Will Be Killed – “On March 8, 2011 armed Muslims entered the home of an elderly Christian leader who founded a church near the town of Asendabo, Ethiopia. When the militants began to assault the church leader, his grandson rushed to intervene, screaming at the men to leave his grandfather. The Islamists stopped assaulting the grandfather and turned their attention to the young man – swinging at his head and arms with their machetes… The attacks started on March 2 and lasted for a week; Muslims killed two Christians and wounded several others. The attackers burned down 69 churches and 30 Christian homes. They also robbed several Christian homes. Ten thousand Christians were forced to flee their homes following the attacks.” Read more.

Flashback: Ethiopian Muslims Beat Christian Evangelist to Death, Assault His Pregnant Wife – “Four Ethiopian Muslims beat a Christian evangelist to death and assaulted his pregnant wife last week in Worabe, an area of Ethiopia that is 97 percent Muslim. In a premeditated operation, the alleged murderers lured evangelist Abraham Abera from his Kale Hiwot Church at 9:30 p.m. by urging him to visit a sick friend. Abera left with the men, only to be beaten with rods. When his wife, Birtukan, saw the attack she ran into the fray to try to help her husband. That’s when they turned and attacked her.” Read more.

Flashback: Thousands of Christians Displaced in Ethiopia After Muslim Extremists Torch 50 Churches, Dozens of Homes – “Thousands of Christians have been forced to flee their homes in Western Ethiopia after Muslim extremists set fire to roughly 50 churches and dozens of Christian homes. At least one Christian has been killed, many more have been injured and anywhere from 3,000 to 10,000 have been displaced in the attacks that began March 2 after a Christian in the community of Asendabo was accused of desecrating the Koran. The violence escalated to the point that federal police forces sent to the area two weeks ago were initially overwhelmed by the mobs.” Read more.

Revelation 13:15, “And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.”

Revelation 13:18 – Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the multitude of the beast: for it is the multitude of a man; and his multitude is χξς …

“LAGOS, Nigeria — At least 67 people died in a wave of bombings and shootings carried out in northeast Nigeria overnight, officials said Saturday, as frightened mourners left their homes to begin burying their dead.

A radical Muslim sect known locally as Boko Haram claimed responsibility Saturday for the attacks, which represent the most coordinated and wide-ranging assault yet in their increasingly bloody sectarian fight with Nigeria’s weak central government. The sect, which wants the strict implementation of Shariah law across the nation of more than 160 million people, promised to carry out more attacks.

The fighting centered around Damaturu, the capital of Yobe state, Nigerian Red Cross official Ibrahim Bulama said. The attack started Friday with a car bomb exploding outside a three-story building used as a military office and barracks in the city, with many uniformed security agents dying in the blast, Bulama said.

Gunmen then went through the town, blowing up a First Bank PLC branch and attacking at least three police stations and some churches, leaving them in rubble, he said. Gunfire continued through the night and gunmen raided the village of Potiskum near the capital as well, witnesses said, leaving at least two people dead there.

On Saturday morning, people began hesitantly leaving their homes, seeing the destruction left behind, including military and police vehicles burned by the gunmen, with the burned corpses of the drivers who died in their seats.” Read more.

Nigeria: Radical Muslim sect grows more dangerous – “The imam’s insistent, lecturing voice comes right to the point over the scratchy audio recording: Holy war is the only way to bring change for Muslims in Nigeria… ‘Whomever we kill, we kill because Allah says we should kill and we kill for a reason,’ Shekau says in a recording of a sermon obtained by The Associated Press… Nigerian officials and diplomats fear the sect will launch bolder assaults on foreign interests and the country’s weak central government.” Read more.

Flashback: Nigeria: Muslim Extremists Killing Christians in Two States in Effort to ‘Cleanse’ Islamic Land, Entire Christian Families Among Those Killed – “Muslim extremists bent on ridding Nigeria’s volatile middle region of Christianity killed five Christians in Niger state on Thursday (Sept. 22) and three others the previous week in the north-central state of Kaduna, including a 13-year-old girl, sources said. Suspected militants from the Boko Haram Islamic sect in the Niger state town of Madala went to shops owned by Christians at a market at about 8 p.m., ordering them to recite verses from the Quran, eyewitnesses told Compass. If the Christian traders were unable to recite the verses, the gunmen shot and killed them, they said.” Read more.

“JAKARTA, Indonesia — Ten suspected militants have gone on trial for allegedly planning to bomb an Indonesian church before Easter mass and to film the inferno for broadcast.

They are also charged with sending mail bombs — none of them deadly — to several of the country’s moderate Muslims and police earlier this year.

The 10 defendants were each being tried separately at the West Jakarta District Court.

Authorities in April recovered explosives planted beneath a gas pipeline near 3,000-seat Christ Cathedral Church outside the capital.

Prosecutor Teguh Suhendro said Thursday that the 10 men, all in their 30s, had planned to use these in the foiled plot, and that defendant Imam Firdaus, a local TV journalist, allegedly planned to film the attack.” Source – Associated Press.

By Daniel Tovrov – “Gunmen attacked a church in Nigeria late Thursday, killing at least two people.

A riot broke out following the attack in the town of Zonkwa, in the central Kaduna state. Kaduna was the site of massive violence following Nigerian presidential elections in April. Around 300 were killed in the region, while upwards of 800 more were killed in northern states.

Kaduna is geographically and demographically located between Nigeria’s primarily Christian south and Muslim north.

The state elected its first Christian governor, Patrick Ibrahim Yokowa , who is part of President Goodluck Jonathnan’s People’s Democratic Party, in April.

Violence in Nigeria spiked after the elections and is primarily concentrated in the north, particular in the Borno state, home to the radical Islamic militant group Boko Haram.

Boko Haram’s name roughly translates into ‘western education is a sin,’ and the latest violence is part of an ongoing religious movement to make Nigeria a Muslim state under Sharia law.

Attacks are a regular and steady occurrence in some parts of the country. Last month, Nigerian MP Modu Bintube was killed by Boko Haram at his home in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno, in what is probably the highest profile assassination in years.

Earlier in the month, the Islamic militants stormed the village of Ligyado in Zamfara State, reportedly going from house to house with AK-47 rifles, daggers, machetes and sticks, robbing and killing. Twenty-three people were killed, and the village was completely deserted after the attack.” Read more.