MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

“Even western Christians turn a blind eye to the worst persecution of our times” …

Daniel 12:1b-2, 10, “And there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time; and at that time your people, everyone who is found written in the book, will be rescued. Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt… Many will be purged, purified and refined, but the wicked will act wickedly; and none of the wicked will understand, but those who have insight will understand.”

Also See:

• The Obama Administration’s War On Persecuted Christians
• White House Overlooks Christian Persecution While Pandering To Islam
• ‘Widespread Death, Destruction’: The World Is Silent As Christians Are Persecuted
• Appalling, Staggering, Devasting: The Greatest Story Never Told – The War On Christians
• All Across Muslim World Christians Are Kidnapped, Terrorized, Tortured, Raped, Murdered
• Christian Persecution Is ‘Coursing Through Muslim-Majority Nations From One End Of The Globe To The Other’

By John L Allen Jr, CH – “Back in 1997, American author Paul Marshall said that anti-Christian persecution had been ‘all but totally ignored by the world at large’. To be sure, the situation has changed in the 16 years since Marshall’s classic work Their Blood Cries Out. A cluster of advocacy groups and relief organisations has emerged, and from time to time anti-Christian persecution has drawn coverage in major news outlets such as the Economist, Newsweek and Commentary. On the whole, however, the war on Christians remains the world’s best-kept secret. As recently as 2011, Italian journalist Francesca Paci – who writes for the Italian media market, which probably pays more attention to Christian topics than almost any other culture on earth, given the massive footprint of the Vatican – said about the fate of persecuted Christians in places such as Iraq, Algeria, and India: ‘We ignore too many things, and even more indefensibly, we pretend not to see too many things.’

In 2011, the Catholic Patriarch of Jerusalem, Fouad Twal, addressed the crisis facing Arab Christianity in the Middle East during a conference in London. He bluntly asked: ‘Does anybody hear our cry? How many atrocities must we endure before somebody, somewhere, comes to our aid?’ Those are questions that deserve answers, and understanding the motives for the silence about the global war on Christians is a good place to begin.

In the secular milieu, several factors intersect to explain the relative indifference toward the global persecution of Christians. First is the basic point that some secularists have little personal experience of religion and can be strikingly ignorant on religious subjects. There’s also a reflexive hostility to institutional religion, especially Christianity, in some sectors of secular opinion. People conditioned by such views are inclined to see Christianity as the agent of repression, not its victim. Say ‘religious persecution,’ and the images that come to mind are the Crusades, the Inquisition, the wars of religion, Bruno and Savonarola, the Salem witch trials – all chapters of history in which Christianity is cast as the villain. For many such folks today, ‘Christianity’ means an all-male gerontocracy in Rome cracking down on progressive American nuns, or intemperate Evangelicals seeking to restrict a woman’s ‘right to choose’ or a gay’s right to marry.

Victims of the global war on Christians challenge this narrative head-on, because they show Christianity not as the oppressor but as the oppressed. By 2012, almost two thirds of the 2.2 billion Christians in the world lived outside of the West, and that share should reach three quarters by mid-century.” Read more.

Flashback: ‘Time Is Running Out’: US Congressman Asks Why Churches In The West Are Silent On Worldwide Christian Persecution – “Congressman Frank Wolf, who has been a champion of human rights, is hard pressed to understand why U.S. churches are silent when it comes to advocating for persecuted Christians. The Republican Virginia rep. specifically called out big-name pastors such as Rick Warren and John Piper for their non-activity, especially at a time when Christians and other religious minorities in Syria and Egypt are at greater risk for persecution.” Read more.

Acts 14:22, “… continue in the faith … we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.”

“In effect, the world is witnessing the rise of an entire new generation of Christian martyrs. The carnage is occurring on such a vast scale that it represents not only the most dramatic Christian story of our time, but arguably the premier human rights challenge of this era as well” …

Daniel 12:1b-2, 10, “And there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time; and at that time your people, everyone who is found written in the book, will be rescued. Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt… Many will be purged, purified and refined, but the wicked will act wickedly; and none of the wicked will understand, but those who have insight will understand.”

By John L. Allen Jr., The Spectator – “Imagine if correspondents in late 1944 had reported the Battle of the Bulge, but without explaining that it was a turning point in the second world war. Or what if finance reporters had told the story of the AIG meltdown in 2008 without adding that it raised questions about derivatives and sub-prime mortgages that could augur a vast financial implosion?

Most people would say that journalists had failed to provide the proper context to understand the news. Yet that’s routinely what media outlets do when it comes to outbreaks of anti-Christian persecution around the world, which is why the global war on Christians remains the greatest story never told of the early 21st century.

In recent days, people around the world have been appalled by images of attacks on churches in Pakistan, where 85 people died when two suicide bombers rushed the Anglican All Saints Church in Peshawar, and in Kenya, where an assault on a Catholic church in Wajir left one dead and two injured.

Those atrocities are indeed appalling, but they cannot truly be understood without being seen as small pieces of a much larger narrative. Consider three points about the landscape of anti-Christian persecution today, as shocking as they are generally unknown. According to the International Society for Human Rights, a secular observatory based in Frankfurt, Germany, 80 per cent of all acts of religious discrimination in the world today are directed at Christians. Statistically speaking, that makes Christians by far the most persecuted religious body on the planet.

According to the Pew Forum, between 2006 and 2010 Christians faced some form of discrimination, either de jure or de facto, in a staggering total of 139 nations, which is almost three-quarters of all the countries on earth. According to the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Massachusetts, an average of 100,000 Christians have been killed in what the centre calls a ‘situation of witness’ each year for the past decade. That works out to 11 Christians killed somewhere in the world every hour, seven days a week and 365 days a year, for reasons related to their faith.

In effect, the world is witnessing the rise of an entire new generation of Christian martyrs. The carnage is occurring on such a vast scale that it represents not only the most dramatic Christian story of our time, but arguably the premier human rights challenge of this era as well.

To put flesh and blood on those statistics, all one has to do is look around. In Baghdad, Islamic militants stormed the Syriac Catholic cathedral of Our Lady of Salvation on 31 October 2010, killing the two priests celebrating Mass and leaving a total of 58 people dead. Though shocking, the assault was far from unprecedented; of the 65 Christian churches in Baghdad, 40 have been bombed at least once since the beginning of the 2003 US-led invasion.

The effect of this campaign of violence and intimidation has been devastating for Christianity in the country. At the time of the first Gulf War in 1991, Iraq boasted a flourishing Christian population of at least 1.5 million. Today the high-end estimate for the number of Christians left is around 500,000, and realistically many believe it could be as low as 150,000. Most of these Iraqi Christians have gone into exile, but a staggering number have been killed.” 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.

Acts 14:22, “… continue in the faith … we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.”

Mark 13:13, “… you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end shall be saved.”

By David Harris, The Algemeiner – “On September 22, dozens of Christian worshipers were killed at a church in Pakistan. Many more were wounded. The assailants were jihadist suicide bombers. This was not the first attack on the small Christian community in Pakistan.

In Egypt, repeated deadly assaults have targeted Coptic Christian churches. Some members of this ancient faith group, convinced they have no future in the Arab world’s most populous nation, have emigrated.

In Iraq, the Chaldean Christian population has dwindled in recent years. Persecution at the hands of Islamist groups has been a key factor driving people out.

In Nigeria, periodic attacks by radical Muslim groups on Christian worshipers and their churches have brought widespread death and destruction.

In Turkey, the Greek Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarchate has had to face one bureaucratic roadblock after another.

In Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus, many Greek Orthodox churches have been destroyed or otherwise desecrated since the Turkish army first invaded in 1974.

And in Sudan, until the break-up of the country in 2011 that brought the nation of South Sudan into existence, millions of Christians in the south were targeted by the Muslim north, resulting in an unimaginably high death toll.

This is an incomplete list, but it should be more than enough to alarm the world, and especially, I would have thought, the Christian world. But, alas, with a few notable exceptions, there has been silence.

As a Jew, I find this silence unfathomable.

We Jews know quite well that the sin of silence is not a solution to acts of oppression.

And that applies not only to the obvious example of the Holocaust, but also to the postwar plight of Jews in several Muslim-majority countries.

There were once nearly a million Jews in these lands, but today there are fewer than 50,000.

Jewish communities from Iraq to Libya, from Egypt to Yemen, were driven out, while those in Turkey and Iran are but a shadow of their former selves.

As this was taking place, the world was largely indifferent.

The UN never met in emergency session. The media barely devoted any attention. Diplomats in Brussels and elsewhere hardly gave it a second thought. And, by the way, the churches were not heard from, either.

As the surviving Jews left North Africa and the Muslim Middle East, the world averted its eyes. But now the Jews aren’t available for their ‘convenient’ role as scapegoats, so the dubious honor falls to the Christians (and, in Iran, to the Baha’i). Could it be possible that the world once again remains asleep in the face of murderous attacks, widespread fear, and declining numbers?

I asked a well-placed Christian prelate why the muted reaction, why the failure to take to the streets, demand action of Western governments, and demonstrate solidarity with co-religionists.

His answer was revealing.

He said that Read more…

The Qur’an has spoken. For blood-thirsty death-loving kuffar-killing mayhem-making peaceful purposes …

Revelation 6:8a, “And I looked, and behold a [chlōros – green] horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the [thērion – savage, brutal, bestial men] of the earth…”

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.”

Al-Shabaab: Breathing New Life Into The Word Of ‘Allah’

AFP, Al Arabiya – “Somalia’s Islamist group al-Shabaab threatened on Wednesday to increase militant action in Kenya, after the country refused to withdraw its troops from Somalia, reported Agence France-Presse.

The al-Qaeda linked al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for last week’s attack on Nairobi’s Westgate shopping mall, in which at least 67 people died, with 39 more listed as missing by the Red Cross.

‘We will strike Kenyans where it hurts the most, turn their cities into graveyards and rivers of blood will flow in Nairobi,’ al-Shabaab said in a recent statement.

‘The Kenyan government’s decision to keep its invading force in Somalia is an indication that they haven’t yet learnt any valuable lessons from the Westgate attacks,’ the extremists added, warning that Kenya was

‘inviting unprecedented levels of insecurity, bloodshed and destruction.’

Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta on Tuesday said troops had been sent to Somalia to restore order to their neighbor and would remain there until this was achieved.

‘We will not be intimated, we will not be cowed,’ Kenyatta said. ‘We will stay there until they bring order to their nation.’

In reaction to Kenyan Defense Force’s (KDF) decision, al-Shabaab said it was ‘fully determined to intensify attacks inside Kenya until the last KDF boots exit Somali soil,’ saying it had the ‘right to defend our land and our people from enemy aggression.'” Source – Al Arabiya.

Flashback: Islam In Africa: ‘An Invisible Genocide Where Sadistic Killers Slaughter And Execute Thousands Of Christians’ – “The UN does nothing, the world is silent, and most Western citizens, who know little about Africa, do not know it is happening. The goal is creating a big African-Islamic continent. Christians must be killed or expelled. Fom Nigeria to Sudan, it is raging, the ‘Odium Fidei’, the war of religion. A genocide epitomized not by the images of Sydney Pollack’s ‘Out of Africa’, which presents a continent that is rich and attractive, but by the Nigerian village of Dogo Nahawa, where Islamists, armed with machetes, killed 300 Christians, mostly women and children.” Read more.

1 Peter 4:12-13, “Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you … but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.”

Matthew 24:29-31, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days … they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect …”

Colossians 3:12-13, “Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another …”

Pravoslavie – “Islamists are continuing to attack Christian settlements in Syria. After seizure of Ma’loula the jihadist groups made an attempt to take control over Saidnaya, which is situated to the north of the Syrian capital as well, reports Sedmitza.ru.

The residents of this town are Christians. They speak Aramaic. Many Biblical events are connected with this place. According to a tradition, it was here that Cain killed his brother Abel. This place is called ‘the beating heart of the Syrian Christianity’, Monasteries of various denominations are situated here: of the Mother of God, of Cherubim, Mar Thoma and others.

According to a report of Fides, during a conflict between unidentified armed groups trying to enter the settlement and local residents on September 27, a Greek Catholic was killed.

‘Over the history of Syria we have never known such sacrilegious attacks. The Syrian people would never have taken part in them. These attacks are being made by foreigners, and that is a danger for us, Christians,’ noted the Melkite Patriarch Gregory III Laham.

Also, as a result of islamists’ attacks on September 27, churches were damaged in Yabrud and Hassake. Four rockets that hit the Catholic church of St. George in Yabrud caused serious damage to the dome, the catechization center and the pastoral centre.

An Orthodox Church was burned down in Hassake. Islamist groups desecrated two churches in Rakka, taking off the cross and sacred images. Christians were forced to flee from Rakka, related the Syrian Orthodox priest Boulos Georg to the news agency.” Source – Pravoslavie.ru.

Flashback: We Must Through Much Tribulation Enter Into The Kingdom Of God

• Al-Qaeda Vows To Slaughter Christians After U.S. ‘Liberates’ Syria
• Syrian Rebel Slits Christian Man’s Throat, Taunts Fiancé That Jesus Didn’t Save Him
• Syria: Maaloula Christians Say Local Muslims Took Part In Rebel Attack Against Village
• Rebels To Christians: Prepare To Die If You Refuse To Convert To Islam Or Pay The ‘Jizyah’
• Islamists In Mosques Call Upon Muslims To Kill All Who Do Not Practice The Religion Of Islam
• Rebels Attack Christian Homes, Churches, Many Feared Dead, ‘Convert To Islam Or You Will Be Beheaded’

And all for peaceful purposes. It’s the Muslim world’s perverted version of “interfaith outreach” where the only messages speaking loud and clear are all those written in blood …

Qur’an Sura 5:33, “The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His messenger and strive to make mischief in the land is only this, that they should be murdered or crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut off on opposite sides or they should be imprisoned; this shall be as a disgrace for them in this world, and in the hereafter they shall have a grievous chastisement”

Qur’an Sura 25:52, “Therefore listen not to the Unbelievers, but strive against them with the utmost strenuousness, with the (Qur’an).”

Kenya: A blood sacrifice offered to the god of Islam

By Simon Kent, Sun News Network – “Just another bloody week for the Christian diaspora.

A church is bombed in Pakistan and 85 people are killed while more than 140 more are maimed. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility.

Violence and civil unrest rocks Damascus and Aleppo, forcing Syrian churches to close their doors, possibly forever.

Thousands of elite Philippine troops battle Muslim guerrillas of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) who raze churches before they occupy the key port of Zamboanga.

Christians in the southern Egyptian town of Dalga are forced to watch as a Muslim mob set fire to an ancient monastery and steal its contents.

All played out against the backdrop of a shopping mall terror attack in Kenya where Muslims are asked to leave before hostages are taken.

Yes, just another instalment of terror that is matched only by the silence of political leaders refusing to speak in support of the persecuted.

From Algeria in the west to Iran in the east and deep into Asia, Christians are being kidnapped, terrorized, tortured, raped and murdered.

Their fate looks to be at risk in the very heartlands that first inspired their faith, as well as in the furthest-flung corners of the globe.

The cause is aggressive Muslim fundamentalists seeking to cleanse Christians from land they have occupied for thousands of years.

Their fate is barely remarked and little acknowledged – with Canada among the honourable exceptions.

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird has used a variety of stages and occasions to defend Christians along with a host of other persecuted minorities.

Here are a few instances:

‘I stand with Roman Catholic priests and other Christian clergy and their laity, as they are driven underground to worship in China while their leaders are detained,’ he said in 2011.

Here was Baird 12 months later.

‘We (Canada) were the first major country to speak out about the attacks against Egyptian Coptics following the events in Nag Hammadi … and we deplored the New Year’s Eve attacks in Alexandria. And in Iraq, where al-Qaida has driven out many Christians and minorities, we implemented a program to resettle refugees.’

In the latter example, Baird cited Franklin Roosevelt who observed on the eve of global war: ‘Where freedom of religion has been attacked, the attack has come from sources opposed to democracy.’

All sorts of religions are attacked for a variety of reasons, yet Christians appear to be alone as they robustly back their right to exist.

When it comes to specific acts of Muslim-on-Christian violence, the silence is deafening.” Read more.

By David Wood, Answering Muslims – “Western leaders and the media assure us that the recent terrorist attack at Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya has nothing to do with Islam, and that, by killing unbelievers, the terrorist group al-Shabaab is violating the commands of Allah and Muhammad. But what happens when we open the Qur’an to see what it teaches? We find that Islamic history has been repeating itself for fourteen centuries.” (Source).

Related: Muslim Cleric Says Nairobi Mall Attack Is The ‘Right Thing To Do’ (Video)

The “Prophet” Mohammed, Al Bukhari Hadith 2977, “I have been made victorious with terror.”

Qur’an Sura 33:21, “Indeed in Allah’s Messenger (Mohammad) you have an excellent example to follow for him who hopes in (meeting with) Allah and the Last Day…”

Qur’an Sura 8:12b, “… terrorize and behead those who believe in scriptures other than the Qur’an.”

Qur’an Sura 4:89, ”They wish you would disbelieve as they disbelieved so you would be alike. So do not take from among them allies … seize them and kill them wherever you find them …”