The Most Persecuted Religion on Earth
“Christianity is presently the most persecuted religion on earth”, says the leader of the religious-freedom monitoring organisation, Open Doors. Not a month passes but Christian newspapers such as The British Church Newspaper report cases of oppression of Christians abroad and in the UK. And week by week instances of persecution of Christians are reported on such religious websites as International Christian Concern and The Voice of the Martyrs.
In Nigeria, reports Christian Post, the militant Islamic sect Boko Haram
has been attacking Christians throughout the north of the country. At the end of April, in the city of Kano, 20 Protestants were killed as they fled from a service, and four others, including a pastor, were shot dead on the same day in the city of Maiduguri.
The Chinese Government has launched an all-out campaign against Protestant house churches, ministers and believers that should be completed in ten years, says a China Aid Association report based on a Communist Party document that came into their hands. From January to June, government agents are required to “conduct thorough, intensive and secret investigations of house churches throughout the country and create files on them”, with a view to “normalising” them.
The Farsi Christian News Network reports that the Islamic Republic of Iran is “tightening its oppressive grip on the Christian community” in Esfahan. Although on April 30 and May 1 it released the pastor of a church in Esfahan and nine other imprisoned Protestants, this was only after their families had paid large sums of bail money, and pending their recall later. The pastor is charged with propagating Christianity, unlawful publication of the Bible, and performing baptism.
All such instances are a call to us to pray for those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake. “Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body” (Heb 13:3). NMR
Norwich City Council and Islam
Alan Clifford is the pastor of Norwich Reformed Church in East Anglia. While orthodox on many points, he has embraced the doctrine of Amyraldianism and is one of the foremost proponents of that serious error in England (Amyraldianism is a form of semi-Calvinism which affirms that Christ died for all men rather than only for his elect people). It was with mixed feelings, therefore, that we heard that Norwich Reformed Church had run into trouble with the Norwich City Council.
For four years the Church has been distributing literature on Hay Hill in Norwich, and among other items a leaflet entitled “Why Not Islam”. Recently the Council received a complaint from a Muslim that the leaflet, written ten years ago, was “hate-motivated”. The Council consulted with the police, who advised that there was nothing criminal about the leaflet. Nevertheless the Council withdrew permission for any further outreach work on Hay Hill and also instructed the Council-owned Eaton Park Community Centre, where the Church has been meeting since 1994, that it was not to take any further bookings from the Church.
In response to the complaint, the Council could have taken no action. This would have been the fair response because the Church’s conduct had been neither wrong nor criminal, and because the Council would certainly not have touched a Muslim organisation in similar circumstances. Alternatively, the Council could have told the Church that permission to continue the outreach work depended on its not handing out that particular leaflet any more. This would at least have showed some measure of restraint and evenhandedness. But instead the Council took the most extreme steps it could against the Church, and all this on the complaint – unfounded according to the police – of a single Muslim.
The reaction of the Council confirms two biblical doctrines. One is the hostility of unbelievers towards Christ and His Church. An opportunity to injure Norwich Reformed Church arose, and the Council seized it with alacrity. The other doctrine is the spiritual folly of unbelievers. The leaflet “Why Not Islam” can be read on the internet and, while it is robust, it contains no criticism of Islam that is not well known to be true. Everybody in Britain, Muslim and non-Muslim, knows that the intention of Islam is to turn Britain into an Islamic country, and that this process is well under way. If it happens in Norwich, then the godless, secular culture which presently prevails there will be at an end. Yet Norwich City Council is choosing to ignore the obvious danger and to do what it can to suppress the Church which, among other things, is warning about this danger.
As the Bible is correct on these two doctrines, so too is it correct on the sovereignty of Christ who has “all power in heaven and earth” (Mt 28:18). Christians, therefore, are not to be unduly dismayed by such occurrences but are to persist in well-doing, for they have the promise that in due season they shall reap if they faint not (Gal 6:9). DWBS
Child Murder
The baby girl in the picture on the BBC News website lies frail and weak in a paediatric ward in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. What has shocked many Indians is that, according to reports, her severe malnutrition and dehydration are the result of an attempt by her father and uncle to bury her alive. They were apparently attempting to offer her, on the advice of a guru, as a sacrifice to protect the health of their other children.
The website quotes a local journalist: “There were three similar stories in the past month alone. I’ve covered dozens of other cases just like this one. In almost all the cases it’s due to poverty and illiteracy, because of which people rely on superstition.”
Superstition it indeed is, the fruit of false religion. The journalist implies that education would rid India of superstition. Maybe it would, but one thinks
of the readiness of highly-educated medical professionals who are prepared to destroy large numbers of unborn children. And some of them are willing to leave children to die who have been born alive. Clearly the attempted murder in India is shocking, but so also is the medical killing of the unborn and the newly-born. Education is a good thing but, if such behaviour is to be brought to an end, what is really needed is true religion.
Sabbath Trading Laws
The UK Parliament has approved a Government Bill to suspend Sabbath-trading laws in England and Wales on eight weekends from 22 July, during the Olympics and Paralympics. The present law limits large stores to six hours of trading. George Osborne had told MPs in his Budget speech: “When millions of visitors come to Britain . . . we don’t want to hang up a closed-for-business sign”.
The sad fact is that the principle of Sabbath trading has long since been accepted by the majority of British people. So it is not surprising that, according to a survey by the Department of Trade and Industry in 2006, 46% of British adults shopped at supermarkets on at least one Sabbath a month. And one can only suppose that, if smaller shops were included, the number would be very much greater.
But God has given us the Sabbath for our good, as a special opportunity to worship Him and to get good for our souls. Perhaps, if government and people were more concerned to honour God by keeping the Sabbath, we would see fewer premises permanently closed for business.