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SEPTEMBER 2015
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Supreme Surrender Responding to the Supreme Court’s Ruling on Gay Marriage Indonesia
Protest Palace
China
Crosses on China’s Horizon?
Middle East
A Flood of Refugees
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Supreme Surrender By Jeff King President, International Christian Concern
“If ye were not strangers here, the dogs of the world would not bark at you.”- Samuel Rutherford Scottish
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minister, theologian, author (1600-1661)
n June, the Supreme Court handed down a decision on gay marriage that was of great concern to many Christians. It wasn’t the first troubling decision and it certainly won’t be the last as our culture continues eroding and the masses become more and more enamored with sin and death.
Christian Response The response of the Christian community comes at two extremes: either indignant ranting or submissive silence. As I survey our Christian response to this decision and others, it seems to me that there is a longing for the days past of cultural Christianity when we were safe and comfortable in our culture and there was a general (largely feigned) respect for God and things religious. Yet, the ramparts have been breached and the enemy is behind our lines and shooting freely. Predictably, panic has set in. How Did We Get Here? The most recent decision is one among many revealing a court and culture growing increasingly hostile towards religious freedom. The radicals in Hollywood have for the past three decades sent up Christian characters that are despicable and evil while the press and media use Westboro Baptist (“God hates faggots”) as a straw man to define Christianity. This propaganda has hardened
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the populace against us. So it is no surprise that “the dogs” are barking! The Church largely does not evangelize, disciple or educate its people biblically. It is largely without holiness and zeal and the “seeker-service” church model has created a church that is “a mile wide and an inch deep.” I’m an evangelical, but for decades, evangelicals did not value service to the lost. We focused only on their souls [the Gospel] obeying “go into all the world,” but seemed to forget that Jesus also fed the hungry and healed the sick. Therefore, our culture only hears us “barking” at them and rarely sees us touching and loving them. All that to say that we have played a part in our own demise! We Must Fight, But. . . We are backed into a corner and we need to fight politically and culturally but we have been conditioned to be quiet and not cause trouble. . Much of the teaching and messaging of Christianity today is that we should, in the end, just be nice. That culture doesn’t exactly lend itself to activism. Christians are a large part of the culture (you can debate percentages and what defines a Christian, but still, our numbers are large). We have been attacked and bullied (“bigot, hateful, homophobe, narrow-minded,” etc). We have been told to simply be nice, sit in a metaphorical cultural corner and keep quiet. Most of all, we have been told, “don’t speak up in the public square.” Sadly, we have dutifully obeyed! We bend over backwards to get along with the world while we are supposed to be at odds with the world. We can’t “get along” with the world. We must love and serve individuals but we cannot make peace with the World. The world stands condemned and we are seen as the condemner pointing
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a finger, though it is the law and their own conscience that are convicting them. In the end, we are supposed to be revolutionaries and are called to upset the cultural applecart (see Luke 12:49, Matt. 10:34, Matt. 12:30). We are here to save and rescue a dying people one soul at a time via grace and truth. Trajectory If you are the type of person that can see over the cultural horizon, you can see the picture that is forming is disturbing. What’s coming into view is a culture that will be increasingly hostile towards Christians in its laws and regulations. Our religious freedoms are eroding as laws are passed and precedents are set to increasingly trap us in legal situations that will have unfavorable outcomes. The prescient ones of the Church see this and rightfully tremble. I look on our predicament with mixed feelings though. If this cultural hostility leads to persecution, it will be a curse. But, it just may be a blessing in disguise as well. Our influence and numbers will fall but this is not all bad. In fact, this is probably a necessary step to get us to where we need to be as the body of Christ. After all, persecution is a great cleanser of the Church. When Jehoshaphat was told that a vast enemy had breached Israel’s lines (2nd Chron. 20 NIV), he called for a fast. He instructed the people to cry out to God and fall completely on His grace, power, and protection. “For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.” (2 Chron. 20:12) This is our greatest need!
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Cuba The American Church’s current situation reminds me of the Church in Cuba where I have visited many times. Castro came to power in 1959 after leading a revolution where he promised the Church his friendship and their freedom. As soon as he gained power though, he went after the Church. He forcefully closed churches and murdered and imprisoned many pastors. As you would expect, huge numbers of church leaders left the country fearing a similar fate. The Church was in complete panic and all looked hopeless. “A dark time for the church,” you think? The pastors and Christians that were left had little in the ways of charisma, influence, or
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“Even under the best forms of government, those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.” – Thomas Jefferson
following. They were not the “winners” of the world. Those that were left were like the apostles after Jesus’ radical statements about eating his flesh and drinking his blood. . . “where should we go Lord? For you have the words of eternal life.” The pastors and believers that were left were “all-in” for the Lord. Their proverbial chips had been pushed to the center of the table. Nice house? Gone! Children’s future? Gone! Personal wealth, pensions and economic safety? Gone. What was left, though, was infinitely more valuable and usable to the Lord: a people stuck between a rock and Rock who, by necessity became wholly devoted to the Lord and fell at His feet in utter dependence.
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RePentanCe There is a big difference between hating our sinful culture and being broken over personal and our national sins. The first will leave you angry at the godless acting ungodly, whereas,the second will cause you to fall on your face and weep over our depravity. When King Josiah rediscovered the book of the law (the Bible) while restoring the temple he realized that he and his country had transgressed the Lord’s laws. His response was personal. When the king heard the words of the (Bible), he tore his robes. He (said) “Go and inquire of the LORD for me and for the people and for all Judah about what is written in (the Bible) that has been found.
“Experience teaches us to protect liberty (especially) when government’s purposes are beneficent. (Free men) naturally repel invasion (but) the greatest danger to liberty (comes from) insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.” – Louis Brandeis, Court Justice
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Supreme
Great is the LORD’s anger that burns against us because those who have gone before us have not obeyed the words of this book; they have not acted in accordance with all that is written there concerning us.” (2 Kings 22: 11, 12 NIV) Back To Cuba The church in Cuba after Castro’s attacks was a seemingly pitiful creature; shabby, awkward and wickedly portrayed by the ruling culture. For thirty years this pitiful creature grew slowly all the while fueled by a forced and full dependence on the Holy Spirit. In this time it birthed true believers because the cost of admission to the Church was the same cost requested of the rich young ruler; the forfeiture of all wealth, standing and personal power. This is the great secret of the persecuted Church and the answer to our existing predicament. Yes, we must organize and fight politically (unless we want to be ruled by godless people hostile to us and religious freedom), but before all human effort, we must be cleansed. We each must push all our proverbial chips into center of the table so that what we cling to isn’t a Christian culture, but rather a personal life and a Church that is wholly devoted to its Master. That is a Church and believers that are sustained daily by the Bread of Heaven and by the Holy Spirit. During one of my trips to Cuba, I met an amazing older believer who told me of Cuba’s spiritual history in the last 50 years. Here is her story from an ICC newsletter from years ago. The greatest event of Maria’s life began in 1988. It was at that time that after 28 years of prayers being lifted up to the Lord from the persecuted faithful that the Lord revealed Himself in a mighty way to the Cuban people. Literally thousands of people were
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healed in the most miraculous way. People would walk out of church carrying their wheelchairs, they were healed of every type of sickness and deformity, and they had visions and every kind of manifestation of the Lord’s presence. So many people suddenly came to church that the pews began to break. We began to sleep at the church so that we could minister most of the time. We would open the doors to the church first thing in the morning and the church would immediately be filled. The authorities came to us and told us we had to stop. “We can do nothing, it’s not us, it’s the people; they are coming.” The government pressure was so intense that our lives were in danger. They threatened to close our whole denomination. The secret police took me and my family to a secret place and told us we must stop immediately. They told us that we could only open the church at night-the church could not open during the day. We were so afraid that they would kill us that we agreed. We would only open at night but still the people came. We had to hand out tickets because so many were trying to get into the limited seats. For 28 years the communists had told the people that God didn’t exist, and they treated the Church horribly. After the events of 1988, they could go on telling the people the same lies but the people had no choice but to know that God was there. God came in a rain of miracles. I knew the answer but couldn’t help but ask her about what happened as a result of this incredible display of the Lord’s power. I asked her if many came to the Lord at this time. “OOOOOAAAAAHHHHHHHH (waving her arms) All of them!!” was her reply. At the beginning of this revival, her SEPTEMBER 2015
An infographic from our February 2014 letter attempting to layout the source of our cultural predicament
denomination in Cuba had 12,000 to 15,000 people. Seventeen years later the denomination had more than 350,000 people. Conclusion What happened in Cuba is called revival. The Holy Spirit can sweep over a nation and bring great conviction over society and then the masses come to Christ. When that happens, everything changes and evil is on the ropes. When the Church cries out and is truly broken, the Lord can and will send revival in His time.
“Plant righteousness for yourself, reap by being merciful; break up your unplanted fields; for it is time to seek the Lord till He comes and reigns righteousness upon you.” – Hosea 10:12 PERSECU ION.org
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I will say it again, yes we must organize and fight politically and through the courts, but what we really need is for the Lord to show up! What He wants most from you and the Church is everything. That’s right, He wants it all. . . all of your heart and a life where He is at the center. When that exists we become grieved over our own sins and our nations sins. We cry out, not because things are changing and pagans are acting like pagans, but because our fellow man is lost and going to hell. If the Lord is willing, He can sweep evil away in a flood. Going back to Jehoshaphat, when he was facing disaster from an invading army and called on Israel to fast and fall on their faces before the Lord, the Lord showed up! His spirit spoke through. Listen to what the Father said (with a bit of creative license). “Listen, America, Washington DC, and the Church, Do not fear or be dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours but (mine). Tomorrow go down against them. ‘You need not fight in this battle; station yourselves, stand and see the salvation of the
LORD on your behalf, O Church. Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out to face them, for the LORD is with you.” The Church has been gagged and believes itself to be powerless. Like the apostles on Jesus’ last night, we could not keep watch even one hour and instead fell into a slumber. When we go back to the Lord and cry out for revival instead of better laws, we will have found our true North and the Lord will be roused and come out of His den.
“Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty.” – Plato
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Feature Article
A Flood of Refugees Christian Refugees Fleeing Persecution Part of Global Crisis
T
hey killed my dad. There is no place for us in our land anymore,” Safar told me inside a small, tworoom home in Midyat, Turkey. Safar, two brothers, and his mom had made their way across the Syrian-Turkish border from Hassakeh, Syria, to Midyat, Turkey, just a few weeks earlier. His dad, a veterinarian, had been threatened by extremists who told him to remove the cross from the family car. He had not complied with their orders, and just a few days later was found in the countryside. He was shot and killed inside the car, the cross still hanging from the mirror. Safar and his family were now refugees in Turkey. The small Syriac Christian community in Midyat had helped them find housing, and, with support from NGOs, could provide a small stipend of food and winter supplies. As we finished up our conversation with Safar and his mother, we made our way to the cultural center where just an hour earlier a group of twelve had arrived. They had started the journey more than two days before. The trip had included a harrowing smuggling operation through areas controlled by Islamic extremists, before being detained by regime soldiers, and then finally being released to make it across the border and into Turkey. The room was filled with a nervous tension as they processed the ordeal. Those who had been in Turkey previously were eager for updates about the fate of friends and relatives
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still in Syria. By sunrise the next morning, the group was gone. Their journey was not yet over as their final destination was not eastern Turkey, but somewhere in Europe, likely Sweden or the Netherlands. They still had another border crossing to undertake. Those they had paid to move them this far would decide if they would try a land crossing into Europe by way of Bulgaria or Greece or by boat across the Aegean Sea to one of the Greek islands. This scenario is being repeated every night in dozens of cities across the region. The refugee crisis has reached an all-time high, reaching over 59.5 million refugees or internally displaced people (IDPs), according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UN refugee agency. “Wars, conflict and persecution have forced more people than at any other time since records began to flee their homes and seek refuge and safety elsewhere,” according to a new report from UNHCR.
No Place for You Here: Persecution Putting Christians on the Run
The conflicts in Syria and Iraq have pushed the issue to historic proportions. The war in Syria has created the largest displacement in the world. More than 7.5 million Syrians have been internally displaced, and another 4 million are now registered as refugees. In neighboring Iraq, more than 3.1 million have been driven from their homes just since the beginning of 2014, and hundreds of thou-
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Migrants embark on an overloaded boat toward Italy. sands are still living as refugees. In Syria, more than 600,000 Christians are believed to have been forced to flee. Since 2003, Iraq has lost more than a million of its 1.5 million Christians, and since the rise of ISIS in 2014, another 150,000 have had to flee to live as IDPs in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. But war and persecution forcing Christians to flee is not just a Middle East problem. The crises driving people to flee their homelands span the globe. From Burma to Eritrea and from Nigeria to Pakistan, hundreds of thousands have been forced to flee, and religious belief and identity is a primary factor for many of them. In Burma, more than 100,000 Kachin Christians and 140,000 Rohingya Muslims have been internally displaced. Boko Haram’s rampage throughout northeastern Nigeria has been the primary cause of more than a million people being driven from their homes. The militant Islamic group is intent on building an Islamic State that has no place for Christians, and increasingly, even Muslims who disagree with them will become targets. In more and more countries, conflicts based in religious identity are driving people out of their homes. “Heartbreaking numbers of people have been forced to flee their homes in a desperate attempt to find safe haven, with many trapped in squalid refugee camps and war zones, or risking their lives at sea,” said United States Commission on International Religious Freedom Chairman Dr. Robert P. George on June 19. “Millions are victims of the twin evils of political tyranny and religious intolerSEPTEMBER 2015
Refugees migrating through Iraq, where 3.1 million have been driven from their homes since 2014.
ance and persecution which have helped create the massive suffering we see today.” For many, the dangers do not stop when they make the decision to leave, but the journey and the destination are themselves full of incredible dangers.
A Dangerous Journey Sixteen-year-old Nael Goitom was in a caravan of nearly 80 people traveling from Eritrea and Ethiopia through the Libyan Desert when, on March 3, they were stopped by 20-30 armed militants from the Islamic terrorist group, ISIS. “They wanted to know who was Muslim among us. We Christians had crosses and pictures of Jesus, so we really couldn’t hide it,” he said in an interview. They were held for nearly a month before ISIS brutally executed many of them, broadcasting it to the world in a video published on social media. Nael and others were forced to witness the brutality firsthand, wondering when they would be called. On April 7, as the jihadists were moving camp, Nael and four others seized an opportunity and were able to escape, surviving four days in the desert before meeting someone who was able to help them on to Tripoli and eventually safely across to Europe. Islamic jihadists are just one of the dan-
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A refugee and her child huddle near a tent in Lebanon. gers that refugees face. As the total numbers surge to record highs, the number of deaths is also increasing. Through the first half of 2015, the number of deaths of people crossing the Mediterranean was nearly 18 times what it was in 2014. Most boats used to make the crossings are overcrowded and piloted by unexperienced captains, putting them at greater risk for capsizing in the often dangerous waters. The dangers and risks of making the journey are great, but as was poetically captured by the words of Somali-British poet Warsan Shire, “You have to understand that no one puts their children in a boat unless the water is safer than
the land.” For far too many Christians around the world, the land — land they have lived on for thousands of years — has indeed become more treacherous than the dangers they may face at sea. When I left Safar in eastern Turkey, he did not know what they would do. His mother had thoughts of staying. After all, Midyat was the homeland of many Christians who witnessed a similar genocide 100 years earlier, but the situation would be hard. A few months later I heard from Safar, together with his mom and brothers. They had made it to Sweden.
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11.6 mil
1.4 mil
5.4 mil
Islamic Terror Group
4.1 mil
Nigeria
1.3 mil
59.5 million refugees or internally displaced people, an all-time high according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Central African Rep. Sudan/South Sudan Syria Iraq
Islamic Terror Group
Nigeria
1.3 Million people
Islamic Terror Groups: Violent extremists like ISIS, Boko Haram, al-Shabaab and Al Qaeda directly target Christians and have caused millions to flee. 8
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SEPTEMBER 2015
Gov./Social Hostility
Nigeria
a
Refugees and Internally Displaced People by Origin
Iraq
4.1 Million people
Islamic Terror Group
Syria 11.6 Million people
Islamic Terror Group
Islamic Terror Group
South Sudan
Gov./Social Hostility
Central African Republic 1.4 Million people
2.4 Million people
Sudan
Eritrea Eritrea
2.9 Million people
416,000 people
Government Repression: Authoritarian regimes that imprison or persecute religious and ethnic minorities are a driving factor in migration.
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