You cannot stop the King of Kings - ONE FOR ISRAEL

Dr. Erez Soref, President of ONE FOR ISRAEL  Shalom!   Acts is a very exciting book to read. It is full of miracles, tremendous growth, and powerful stories of love, devotion and fellowship among the disciples of Yeshua. However, there was also severe persecution happening at the same time. Persecution of God's people often accompanies great strides forward in the Kingdom of God, as we are currently experiencing.  Our media team members who are very much in the public eye have been experiencing a significant amount of trouble from some Orthodox Jews incensed by the videos we are making. Eitan, Moti and Anastasia have all received threatening phone calls, and Eitan in particular has been singled out for attack, along with his wife and family. Eitan explains the situation in the video below: Amazingly, a news channel in Israel saw this video and got in touch with Eitan. They loved the video and want to make a news item with us on the matter. That's great news and another opportunity for more gospel exposure! Indeed, just as the persecution that scattered the early believers only served to take the gospel further afield, so this attempt to silence our evangelism is just bringing the message of Yeshua to an even wider audience. Praise God! The Cost Of Following Yeshua In Israel And Around The World The "World Watch List" compiled by Open Doors names the worst 50 countries when it comes to persecution of Christians. We are grateful in Israel we do not experience the same difficulty meeting to worship and living our lives as many believers do so close to our borders. But it would be wrong to think there is no cost to following Yeshua in Israel. There certainly is. Here are some personal stories of persecution happening in Israel today. Continue reading... What Just One Prayer Can Do While a lot of Jewish believers managed to escape from Romania to Israel, Richard Wurmbrand and his wife were arrested and imprisoned for many years for their faith by the Communists. During his imprisonment, Richard not only experienced horrific torture, but he was kept in solitary confinement for several years. Yet even in prison, Richard and his wife continued to share the gospel - in fact, at one point Richard tapped in Morse code to the man in the cell next to him and led him to faith in Yeshua. Even more remarkable, he and his fellow prisoners would share God's love and forgiveness with their guards and torturers, some of whom were so overwhelmed by the power of that love that they couldn't resist embracing Yeshua too. Continue reading... FOLLOW US:

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10 Types of Persecution You Could Face for Your Faith - JIM DENISON CHARISMA NEWS

Coptic Christians react after a deadly attack. (REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany)

10 Types of Persecution You Could Face for Your Faith

11/3/2017 JIM DENISON CHARISMA NEWS

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Sunday is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. Why do we need such a day?

In The Global War on Christians, John Allen calls the worldwide persecution of Christians "the most dramatic religion story of the early twenty-first century, yet one that most people in the West have little idea is even happening." The respected journalist describes this persecution as "the most compelling Christian narrative of the early twenty-first century." According to him, "Christians today indisputably are the most persecuted religious body on the planet."

What evidence does Allen offer for his claim?

The Scope of Persecution

According to the evangelical group Open Doors, 100 million Christians face interrogation, arrest, torture and/or death because of their religious convictions. Todd Johnson of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary documents that 100,000 Christians, 11 per hour, have been killed on average every year of the past decade. The Catholic humanitarian group Aid to the Church in Need describes this global assault on believers as "a human rights disaster of epic proportions."

While 30 percent of the world's population identifies as Christian, 80 percent of all acts of religious discrimination around the world are directed at Christians. One scholar estimates that 90 percent of all people killed on the basis of their religious beliefs are Christians.

Terrorist attacks against Christians escalated 309 percent between 2003 and 2010. There have been 70 million martyrs since the time of Christ, 45 million of them in the 20th century. In other words, more Christians died for their faith in the last century than in the previous 19 centuries combined.

Persecution and Islam

Persecution against Christians is especially prevalent in the Muslim world. According to Newsweek, "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, murdering Christians and driving them from regions where their roots go back centuries."

What about the allegation that the West, post-9/11, has become Islamophobic?

Newsweek notes: "A fair-minded assessment of recent events and trends leads to the conclusion that the scale and severity of Islamophobia pales in comparison with the bloody Christophobia currently coursing through Muslim-majority nations from one end of the globe to the other. The conspiracy of silence surrounding this violent expression of religious intolerance has to stop. Nothing less than the fate of Christianity—and ultimately of all religious minorities—in the Islamic world is at stake."

Types of persecution

John Allen cites the Barnabas Fund, a U.K.-based international body formed to support persecuted Christians. The Fund lists 10 forms of aggression against Christians, in ascending order of ferocity:

1. Social discrimination, such as pressure on a Christian woman to convert to Islam if she marries a Muslim.

2. Institutional discrimination, such as difficulties obtaining building permits to construct or repair Christian churches.

3. Employment discrimination, such as bias against Copts in the Egyptian military and public sectors.

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4. Legal discrimination: denying Christians and other religious groups access to the courts, legal representation or action by police when they are attacked.

5. Suppression of Christian missionary activity, as in Iran, where missionaries are routinely arrested and deported or incarcerated.

6. Suppression of conversion to Christianity, usually through "blasphemy" or "apostasy" laws. Nearly half the countries in the world have laws that criminalize apostasy, blasphemy or defamation of religion.

7. Forced conversion from Christianity, sometimes involving "reconversion" ceremonies where Christians are made to embrace the religion they left for Christ.

8. Suppression of corporate worship, as when authorities in China or Saudi Arabia raid house churches.

9. Violence against individuals, the most common and most lethal form of the global war on Christians.

10. Community oppression, when entire churches or faith groups are attacked.

What Can We Do?

If a member of your family were under attack today, what would you do? Apply your answer to your global Christian family as you consider three imperatives.

First, we must pray. Intercede for your persecuted sisters and brothers, "[making] supplication for all the saints" (Eph. 6:18b). Pray for their oppressors as well: "Love your enemies, and pray for those who ... persecute you" (Matt. 5:44b).

Second, we must tell their story. For resources that will help you and your church stand with persecuted Christians, click here and here. For resources focused on Texas churches, I recommend the "Speak Freedom Texas" initiative.

Third, we must follow their example. Knowing that our sisters and brothers are facing torture and death for our Lord, what price will we pay for our faith?

When last did it cost you something significant to follow Jesus? 

This article originally appeared on The Denison Forum.

Jim Denison, Ph.D., is founder of the Denison Forum on Truth and Culture, a non-sectarian "think tank" designed to engage contemporary issues with biblical truth. Join over 100,000 who read Dr. Denison's daily Cultural Commentary:denisonforum.org/subscribe . For more information on the Denison Forum, visitdenisonforum.org. To connect with Dr. Denison in social media, visit twitter.com/jimdenison or facebook.com/denisonforum.

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Don't Throw in the Towel! - J. LEE GRADY CHARISMA MAGAZINE

Don't Throw in the Towel!

4/19/2017 J. LEE GRADY  charisma magazine

Are you sitting on the bench? Or are you out of breath because you are lugging 50 pounds of shame and failure? (Getty Images)

I have a friend who is a respected Christian leader. But like all of us, he wrestles with his own sins, weaknesses and trials. People associated with his ministry have disrespected him, his family has suffered, and he has struggled with health problems. He has also carried loads of shame since his childhood because of sexual abuse.

My friend recently admitted that he has occasionally asked God to take his life because he was so discouraged. When I prayed with him, I saw a vision of a huge arena. I could see athletes running while the crowd cheered, but my friend was sitting on a bench next to the track. Then I saw Jesus walk over to him, grab his arm and beckon him to get in the race.

My friend turned a spiritual corner after I shared this vision with him. His hope was renewed, and he decided to run the race of faith again. But there are many Christians today who have pulled out of the race because life got too tough. Some were instantly broadsided; others gradually slowed down until they quit.

The apostle Paul wrote to a group of people who were thinking of quitting the race. They were Jewish Christians who faced intense persecution. Using imagery of an athletic arena, Paul said to them: "Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin that so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us" (Heb. 12:1).

Are you sitting on the bench? Or are you out of breath because you are lugging 50 pounds of shame and failure? Have you disqualified yourself from the race? Here are six of the most common reasons Christians throw in the towel:

1. Depression or discouragement. When we face stress, tragedy, disappointment, failure or prolonged delay, we will lose hope if we don't stay close to God and cling to His promises. We must remember that the darkness never lasts. "Weeping may last for the night," Psalm 30:5 says, "but a shout of joy comes in the morning."

Charles Spurgeon wrote: "There are no immortal sorrows for immortal saints. They come; but, blessed be God, they also go." No matter what obstacle you face, it will not stand in front of you indefinitely. No matter how heavy and dark the cloud is over your head, the sunshine will soon break through. Though you may not see a light at the end of the tunnel, you must keep pressing forward. You will outlast your problem.

2. Shame or self-loathing. The miracle of grace says all your past sins have been blotted out. If you have trusted in the blood of Christ, heaven has purged all record of your failures. Yet many Christians cannot forgive themselves for their weaknesses, and they imagine that God is still angry with them because they still struggle with temptation. And the devil is eager to remind us of what we once were!

Go back to the cross and give God your doubts, fears and shame. Stop punishing yourself. Trade your sinfulness for His righteousness. Jesus knows you cannot live a sinless life apart from Him—so He chose to live His perfect life through you.

3. Sinful habits. If you struggle with a life-controlling problem, you cannot overcome it alone. You must open your life to mature Christians and confess your weakness. Paul told the Hebrews: "Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble" (Heb. 12:12). Athletes don't rehabilitate themselves—they ask for help. You cannot run the race when sin has crippled you. Be transparent and let the right people pray with you.

4. Distraction. The key to winning a race is focus. Paul emphasized this when he told the Hebrews to fix their eyes on Jesus (Heb. 12:2). Our focus cannot be on a pastor, a celebrity preacher, a pet doctrine, a church, a denomination, a political party, spiritual gifts or emotions. If you put your trust in any of those things, you will not be able to finish the race. It was Jesus who started His work in you, and only He will complete it.

Regaining your focus is not difficult. Simply set aside some time to pray, and cast your cares on the Lord. Read the Psalms. Listen to praise music. Spend time in God's Word each day. Spurgeon said: "A Bible that's falling apart usually belongs to someone who isn't." If you soak your mind in Scripture, you will find unusual grace to press forward, even when all hell is raging against you.

5. Persecution. It's easy to serve God when everybody thinks you're wonderful. But how do you respond when family members and co-workers speak against you because of your faith or your moral convictions? Persecution can tempt us to deny Christ or to make moral compromises. But you must remember that when you suffer for His name's sake, you will be blessed. Peter said when we are persecuted, "the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you" (1 Pet. 4:14).

I will tell you what I told my friend last week. Jesus is calling you back in the race. Don't just sit there and let the devil win. Put one foot in front of the other, focus on Jesus and trust Him to give you the strength to run.

J. Lee Grady was editor of Charisma for 11 years before he launched into full-time ministry in 2010. Today he directs The Mordecai Project, a Christian charitable organization that is taking the healing of Jesus to women and girls who suffer abuse and cultural oppression. Author of several books including 10 Lies the Church Tells Women, he has just released his newest book, Set My Heart on Fire, from Charisma House. You can follow him on Twitter at @LeeGrady or go to his website, themordecaiproject.org.

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This Year's Passover Exposes the Enemy's Agenda Against God's People - RABBI PESACH WOLICKI CHARISMA NEWS

Of course, this is not unique to Jews. (Wikimedia Commons)

This Year's Passover Exposes the Enemy's Agenda Against God's People

4/14/2017 RABBI PESACH WOLICKI  CHARISMA NEWS

Growing up in Canada in the 1970s and 1980s, my most profound memories are of Jewish collective identity. The Holocaust remembrance events and rallies on behalf of Soviet Jewry that my brothers and I attended with my parents and community instilled in us the most basic axiom of our identity as Jews when facing anti-Semitism. An attack on one Jew is an attack on all Jews. As I write this statement, I am struck by how trite it seems. That the discriminatory targeting of any individual based on religious or ethnic group is an attack on the entire group is obvious. Negative as it may be, there is scarcely a better indication of identification with a group than feeling the sting when another member is attacked.

The logic behind this sentiment is simple. When any Jew is attacked for being Jewish, every one of us knows full well that "If I was there it could have been—would have been—me." It would have been me because the victim was attacked not as an individual but as a representative of all Jews. The Jewish people were attacked.

Of course, this is not unique to Jews. Whenever someone else who shares my identity or beliefs is attacked, and I can honestly say that had I been there, it would have been me, I am the victim as well. This is the litmus test of collective victim-hood.

Which brings us to the horrific events of this past year. A few weeks ago, it was widely reported that, as per the Center for the Study of Global Christianity, 2016 was the bloodiest year for Christians on record. An estimated 90,000 Christians worldwide were murdered this past year because of their faith. In fact, recent history shows that while the numbers were somewhat higher than in the past, 2016 was not a significant outlier. The CSGC report approximates the same number of deaths for each year of the past decade. As Pope Francis has noted, in terms of numbers of martyrs, Christians are by far the most persecuted religious group in the world.

While most of the deaths occurred in the war zones of Africa and the Middle East, Christian martyrdom is not confined to those regions. The recent ISIS terrorist attack in Istanbul intended to target Christians celebrating "their pagan feast," the slitting of the throat of an elderly French priest and the Easter bombing in Pakistan are only a few examples of attacks on Christians going global.

While the scope of Christian martyrdom is shocking, the overall suffering of Christians worldwide is not confined to the mounting number of deaths. Discriminatory anti-Christian policies as well as outright or unofficial yet sanctioned persecution are commonplace in too many countries to name.

And this is a Jewish problem.

If the measure of collective victimhood in the face of attack is, "Had I been there, it would have been me," then the conclusion is inescapable. In today's world, an attack on Christians is an attack on Jews. Is there any doubt that those who have murdered Christians for their faith in Iraq, France or Pakistan would kill any Jew they could get their hands on? In the 21st century, are there any enemies of Christianity who are not at least as passionately enemies of the Jews?

I do not mean merely that we as Jews who know the meaning of suffering and discrimination must stand up for others who are under attack. While this is correct regarding the issue of persecution of Christians, it does not go far enough. According to the collective victimhood test, attacks on Christians are—quite literally—attacks on Jews. This may be difficult for many Jews to accept considering the history of Christian treatment of our people.

We dare not allow the dark past of the Church's treatment of Jews to cloud our vision in the present. Christians no longer persecute Jews anywhere in the world. Christian doctrines regarding the Jews and Judaism have been inching—and in some cases charging—forward toward greater acceptance and reconciliation in most denominations of Christianity. Closer to home, our greatest hope for peaceful coexistence with any non-Jewish population in Israel is to be found in the Christian community. Israel has rapidly become the only country in the Middle East in which Christians have no reason to fear for being Christian. History, it turns out, makes strange bedfellows.

The Tanakh—the Jewish Bible—is sacred Scripture for both Christians and Jews. The basic values contained therein—the biblical definitions of good and evil, of sacred and profane, of life and death—are the shared underlying principles on which our worlds are built.

It must be clearly stated: Neither these Scriptures nor the values contained in them are sacred to those who attack and persecute Christians. If those who murder Christians would kill Jews too, it is because they hate all that we share; all that Jews and Christians together represent.

We are currently in the Passover season, when Jews the world over will engage in the millennia-old rituals of remembrance and identification with the slavery and Exodus from Egypt. As they were about to enter the Promised Land over 3,000 years ago, the people of Israel were commanded to "love the foreigner, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt" (Deut. 10:19). In our times as well, the people of Israel are once again a free and strong nation that has returned to its homeland. And once again the historical memory of Jewish suffering is meant to instill within us the emphatic concern for those who are not of our own nation—the others among us who are in need of support and rescue from oppression. This is the lesson of the suffering of Egypt in biblical times, and it is the message of modern anti-Semitism—and anti-Judeo-Christianism—in our times as well.

So yes, in the 21st century, an attack on one Christian is an attack on all Jews. 

Rabbi Pesach Wolicki is the associate director for the Center for Jewish-Christian Understanding and Cooperation (CJCUC) and the co-founder for Blessing Bethlehem, a nonprofit organization that provides humanitarian aid to the beleaguered Christian Arab community in Bethlehem. 

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World of the Absurd - Charles Gardner ISRAEL TODAY

World of the Absurd

Sunday, September 11, 2016 |  Charles Gardner  ISRAEL TODAY

Today’s world has been well described as the ‘age of absurdity’. And there are abundant examples of this in the pages of our daily newspapers. Wednesday’s Daily Mail[1], for example, included a report of protesters aligned with the Black Lives Matter campaign bringing London City Airport to a standstill.

As the paper pointed out in its editorial, police shootings of unarmed black people are almost unheard of in Britain, which perhaps explains the shift in focus to the ludicrous claim that air pollution discriminates against minorities.

The popular tabloid also devoted acres of column inches to the scandal involving leading Labour politician Keith Vaz, forced to quit as chairman of the House of Commons home affairs select committee following a lurid expose in which he was caught on film having sex with ‘rent boys’. And yet it wasn’t this deed in itself that brought him down, but the fact that it somewhat compromised his position as head of a highly influential parliamentary body investigating, among other things, prostitution and sex trafficking.

Many of his colleagues were at pains to point out that he hadn’t broken any laws, which says something about the current state of our society! Mail columnist Quentin Letts, in mocking the overall ‘regret’ and ‘sadness’ with which the political establishment greeted news of his resignation, wrote: “If he had been filmed saying anything politically incorrect, he would have been shunned like a biblical leper.”

It was a well-aimed damning indictment on our generation, who will put up with just about anything except Christianity.

Another story reported on an unrepentant Independent Television (ITV) after receiving 170 complaints over a ‘gay’ kissing scene being shown on their prime-time soap hit Coronation Street.

Welcome to first century Rome, described by St Paul as a wicked world experiencing the “wrath of God” because they were determined not to follow his ways. The end result was a society full of evil, greed and depravity in which both men and women “committed shameful acts” with one another, and where they “invented ways of doing evil”, claiming to be wise, but in fact becoming fools with no understanding. (See Romans 1.18–32)

It was into this bubbling cauldron of godlessness that Paul brought the gospel. He could not have been unaware of the implications – that his message ran completely counter to everything the Roman world stood for – and indeed there were some fiery trials ahead. But it changed the world! Thank God he was able to assure the Roman Christians that he was “not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.” (Romans 1.16)

At Thessalonica in ancient Greece, believers were dragged before city officials, with their accusers shouting: “These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here…” (Acts 17.6, New International Version). This is also translated in other versions as men who have “turned the world upside down”.

But just as the Roman civilization descended into chaos and violence, so Western civilization is now experiencing the “wrath of God”. And why? …Because we have discarded the gospel that was such good news to those first century pagans.

Former Daily Mail columnist Melanie Phillips, who makes no claim to be either Christian or a religious Jew, has brilliantly grasped the nettle of these issues in The world turned upside down (Encounter Books) which chronicles how brainwashed we have all become by the brave new world’s politically correct dogma.

Christians seriously committed to proclaiming the gospel should prepare for persecution.

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1. September 7, 2016  ↩

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