Great Editorial by Don Batten in Creation magazine Vol 44, No.4. I have extracted segments for this post but get the magazine you will be blessed by the content.
God creates life; Satan works to destroy life like he did at the beginning with the first humans, Adam and Eve. Jesus said of Satan to the Scribes and Pharisees:
“You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.“John 8:44
Should we be surprised then that when nations turn their back on God they reap a harvest of death and misery? Whenever Israel abandoned God and followed after false Gods, they ended up with death and bondage. They did so many times (see Judges and Kings) with the same result. Can countries that were based on Christian values and laws expect to avoid the same consequences if they turn their back on God? No! Of course not! Western nations like my own country Australia, America, and most of Europe have abandoned God aided by the grand lie of evolution promoted by the educational establishment that we no longer need God.
We see it in the developing culture of death in these nations:
Unrestricted abortion even up to full term
Euthanasia (voluntary assisted suicide)
Family can be whatever you want. Children do not need a father and mother committed to a lifelong marriage.
Indoctrinating children with gender-bending ideology, creating confusion, disaffection with life, and suicidal urges.
Extremist ‘deep green’ ideology identifies humans as a plague on the earth that need to be culled.
The world needs to know that there is only one answer to this world’s problems and that is Jesus.
“I am the way the truth and the life” John 14:6 and “The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy, I came that they might have life and have it abundantly.” John 10:10
Satan’s grand lie is that God is withholding all of the good things of life from us and makes us miserable with rules and regulations:
Marriage is only for a man and a woman.
You are what God made you a male or female and there is no choice in the matter.
Life is sacred; abortion is murder and euthanasia is suicide.
Christians: our job is to make Jesus’ Good News known, that is the Great Commission.
The Great Commission, that is, the making of disciples of all nations by going, baptizing, and teaching them to obey all that Christ commands us, has been pushed aside as the church scrambles after various social and political causes to make itself relevant.
People in churches are seeing and hearing virtually everything else except their need for repentance and faith in Jesus Christ and what life really submitted to Jesus Christ really looks like. They are being taught to look to external measures to solve issues in our world, rather than asking the Holy Spirit (the third person of the Trinity) who is our counsellor, teacher, and comforter. Jesus made it clear that what He accomplished for us on The Cross was life-changing. He made it possible for our Heavenly Father to send the Holy Spirit to enable us to live the Christian life. Proverbs 20:27 tells us that our Spirit was always meant to be the lamp of the Lord which requires oil, the Holy Spirit to function as God intended.
The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord, searching all his innermost parts.Proverbs 20:27
Instead of people hearing that the problem of mankind is endemic—that each individual is culpable for their own sin before a holy and just Lord, they hear that the largest issue of our day is systemic racism (Critical Race Theory and Black Lives Matter). Instead of recognizing issues bound within homes due to selfishness and fatherlessness many wish to relegate issues to a lack of money, education, or healthcare. Instead of shunning every instance of sexual immorality, impurity, and sensuality, our culture and entertainment promote them as exciting and desirable.
The natural result is half the populace is confused about what the gospel is, with roughly another half confused about how the gospel applies to all of life. The second group wants a seat at the table in the cultural marketplace. Nearly ten years ago Carl Trueman challenged the Reformed world with these words: “…the beautiful young things of the reformed renaissance have a hard choice to make in the next decade. You really do kid only yourselves if you think you can be an orthodox Christian and be at the same time cool enough and hip enough to cut it in the wider world. Frankly, in a couple of years, it will not matter how much urban ink you sport, how much fair trade coffee you drink, how many craft brews you can name, how much urban gibberish you spout, how many art house movies you can find that redeemer figure in, and how much money you divert from gospel preaching to social justice: maintaining biblical sexual ethics will be the equivalent in our culture of being a white supremacist.”
Peruse any Reformed group on Facebook and you’ll see that these words are equally as applicable as they were when Trueman first gave them, which means they’ve been largely unheeded. Even many who hold strictly to their confessional documents are wildly inconsistent with a rigorous Christian worldview. Simply ask a piece of basic advice and see how many different prospective teachers offer up counsel that is not only unbiblical but often anti-biblical.
Obviously, this is not all Reformed Christians, nor all Evangelicals for that matter, but I have to wonder at what point people will stop scratching their heads when they see surveys that reveal most people don’t “get” the gospel. At what point, will people drop the convenient talking points and blame-shifting, and take a long, hard look at what has happened? Proper discipleship still demands a comprehensive biblical worldview born out of the gospel. Therefore, we now need to target those in our churches who reject parts of the Biblical worldview for whatever reason. We need to focus our efforts and funds on the proclamation of the gospel.
How many young people in the Reformed island of conservative Christianity are wedded to degenerate worldviews opposed to that of the Bible and enjoying it? How many of them no longer believe that the proclamation of the gospel is the primary mission of the church? How many of them are lying to themselves about why the majority of people in the broader church cannot articulate a saving gospel?
Jesus told us that in the last days there will be a great falling away (apostasy) in the church. This is evident now even in Reformed and Evangelical circles.
The world’s tallest ceramic statue (11.5 metres tall and 6,5 metres wide arms) has now been installed in Cornwall. A statue called the Earth Goddess was put up in the town centre of the Cornish town of St Austell. It has been called “offensive to God” by a group of 7 church leaders who have written to the Town Council asking for it to be removed. Pete Godfrey from the Light and Life Church decided to write the letter which has also been signed by leaders of the local Methodist church and Salvation Army among others. He said he thinks the statue is inappropriate. “Scripturally as Christians, God wants us to be able to do life with him. And one of the things that He says is that we’re to have no other gods but him. That’s the first commandment, and the second is that we’re to have no idols, no craven images of Gods. But I think it’s also not reflective of the community of St Austell.
The statue was designed and created by the artist Sandy Brown who said that she felt “saddened and disappointed” at the reaction, explaining that her work was meant to represent a love of mother earth and not a religious statement. There have been a number of statements that she’s made but she has very clearly made the statement that the ‘earth goddess’ represents our eternal and collective roots with nature and Mother Earth. You may or may not argue that that’s a religious statement, but it’s certainly a spiritual one. “The key point is where it is positioned. If it was in a private place of worship, there would be no issue.”
A statue of an ‘earth goddess’ is offensive to many people within the community and divides instead of unites. This is not something that the vast majority of people are able to celebrate and will actually cause some to feel far less comfortable coming into the town. While it may not be a view that is shared by those who have no faith, our second concern is that the statue is offensive to God. As Christians, we desire for St Austell to thrive. We regularly meet to pray for God’s blessing on the town and specifically for the council and town leaders and for local businesses.”
The letter continued “The choice to erect a statue of an ‘earth goddess’ means that as the leaders of the town you are actually choosing to bring the town under the spiritual influence of an ‘earth goddess. We understand this may not be language that you are comfortable with. However, as Christians, we believe there is a spiritual reality to our world and this choice has the potential to impact negatively on the town.
It is another sign of the times as the world turns away from God. Thank goodness Christians have spoken the truth to the town leaders however as it was commissioned by St Austell Bay Economic Forum (SABEF) and is on private land in the White River Place shopping centre. The Town Council corresponded with the church leaders in July 2022 explaining that the Town Council has no powers to remove or rename the statue and has no responsibility for its ongoing maintenance.”
If you have not already taken a look, let me suggest that you check out my first post CREATIVITY IN THE MILLENNIALKINGDOM PART 1 posted yesterday on the 23rd of November, where I reported on ENERGY and TRANSPORT
We are made in God’s image by the creator of this Cosmos and were given dominion by Him over Earth. We lost that dominion at The Fall when Adam and Eve disobeyed God. Satan, a spiritual demonic being, is now the Prince of this World. Regardless, we still have the God-given ability to create using the abundant materials He created, within the boundaries of the complex physical laws God has established to control His universe.
Based on Biblical prophecy we are fast approaching the time of Jesus’ return to this earth to rescue the Saints and to pour out His wrath on an unrepentant world. The world has turned its back on God and His values and His commandments. One of the most significant Biblical end-times prophecies tells us that prior to Jesus’ return God’s nation, Israel would be re-established. Against all odds, the Jews are back in their land with the Hebrew language reborn. This occurred back in 1948. We are now starting to see many of the other prophesied end times signs, wars, and rumours of wars, apostasy in the church as it compromises with the world and its distorted values, gay marriage, homosexual and transgender priests, pestilences, famines, lawlessness and more. What this site is about, is preparing people for Jesus’ Millennial reign on this earth when Jesus and the resurrected Saints will be ruling the nations with a “rod of iron”. There is no doubt in my mind that new technologies will be developed in the Millennium that enhance living standards. Technologies such as Robotics and the use of Computers and AI.
INDUSTRY – Robotics
The race this year between artificial intelligence (AI) giants like DeepMind, Nvidia, Tesla, Google AI, Meta, and OpenAI has been something to watch. Every few weeks has brought a major breakthrough with applications in this incredible technology. This time, it’s a breakthrough in something called imitation learning from OpenAI. Imitation learning is exactly what it sounds like: an AI that learns by imitating. The implications of this kind of imitation learning are incredible and will become very relevant next year.
When I think of a wide range of general tasks where a robotic arm or dexterous humanoid robot could be useful, imitation learning makes perfect sense. Whether at home or the workplace, imagine being able to show an AI-powered robot what task(s) need to be performed. An AI could learn by watching. Then it could supplement that learning by going to the internet and finding more learning material, and soon master any given task(s).
That’s what makes OpenAI’s announcement so incredible. It’s the beginning of robots being able to learn by watching, rather than through weeks of programming and testing.
Flocks of assembler robots show potential for making larger structures. This report comes from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Researchers from MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms (CBA) make progress toward groups of robots that could build almost anything, including buildings, vehicles, and even bigger robots.
The new work builds on years of research, including recent studies demonstrating that objects such as a deformable airplane wing and a functional racing car could be assembled from tiny identical lightweight pieces — and that robotic devices could be built to carry out some of this assembly work. Now, the team has shown that both the assembler bots and the components of the structure being built can all be made of the same subunits, and the robots can move independently in large numbers to accomplish large-scale assemblies quickly.
As in previous experiments, the new system involves large, usable structures built from an array of tiny identical subunits called voxels (the volumetric equivalent of a 2-D pixel). But while earlier voxels were purely mechanical structural pieces, the team has now developed complex voxels that each can carry both power and data from one unit to the next. This could enable the building of structures that can not only bear loads but also carry out work, such as lifting, moving and manipulating materials — including the voxels themselves.
“When we’re building these structures, you have to build in intelligence,” Gershenfeld says. While earlier versions of assembler bots were connected by bundles of wires to their power source and control systems, “what emerged was the idea of structural electronics — of making voxels that transmit power and data as well as force.” Looking at the new system in operation, he points out, “There’s no wires. There’s just the structure.”
The robots themselves consist of a string of several voxels joined end-to-end. These can grab another voxel using attachment points on one end, then move inchworm-like to the desired position, where the voxel can be attached to the growing structure and released there.
Gershenfeld explains that while the earlier system demonstrated by members of his group could in principle build arbitrarily large structures, as the size of those structures reached a certain point in relation to the size of the assembler robot, the process would become increasingly inefficient because of the ever-longer paths each bot would have to travel to bring each piece to its destination. At that point, with the new system, the bots could decide it was time to build a larger version of themselves that could reach longer distances and reduce the travel time. An even bigger structure might require yet another such step, with the new larger robots creating yet larger ones, while parts of a structure that include lots of fine detail may require more of the smallest robots.
Aaron Becker, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Houston, who was not associated with this research, calls this paper “a home run — [offering] an innovative hardware system, a new way to think about scaling a swarm, and rigorous algorithms.”
Becker adds: “This paper examines a critical area of reconfigurable systems: how to quickly scale up a robotic workforce and use it to efficiently assemble materials into the desired structure. … This is the first work I’ve seen that attacks the problem from a radically new perspective — using a raw set of robot parts to build a suite of robots whose sizes are optimized to build the desired structure (and other robots) as fast as possible.”
INFORMATION – Computing power
This year was a banner year in the world of supercomputing. The first major breakthrough was the commissioning of Frontier – the world’s first exaflop supercomputer. It’s capable of doing over a quintillion (1,000,000,000,000,000,000) operations per second.
Then this fall, Tesla announced its artificial intelligence (AI) supercomputer, Dojo, which also performs at more than an exaflop.
And just days ago, AI-centric semiconductor company Cerebras announced that it had commissioned its own AI exaflop supercomputer for just $30 million.
The chart above is extraordinary. It’s in log scale, with each vertical tick representing a 10-fold increase in computing power.
The next major performance level will come out next year at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, when Nvidia launches its 10 exaflop supercomputer Venado.
The exponential growth of computing power has resulted in an abundance of both computer processing and data. But the rapid growth created a problem. The International Systems of Units (SI) started running out of SI prefixes like “exa” (1018) to denote the ever-increasing magnitude of the numbers.
After “exa,” there was only “zetta” (1021) and “yotta” (1024). At the current pace, it won’t be long before we blow past those prefixes too.
That’s why, at the 27th meeting of the General Conference on Weights and Measures, Resolution 3 extended the range of SI prefixes to account for even greater numbers in the future:
ronna (1027).
quetta (1030).
Technology is moving so fast right now, it won’t be long before we’re hearing words like “ronnabytes,” or “quettaflop supercomputers.”
The transgender craze is growing and metastasizing in America and worldwide. Confusion is abounding. And while Western cultures celebrate and elevate gender chaos, the societal and cultural costs are quickly mounting. That’s why enterprising journalist Brandon Showalter of The Christian Post is offering a no-holds-barred exploration of the topic in “Generation Indoctrination,” a new documentary-style podcast series aimed at exploring the roots and impact of the transgender debate.
Through in-depth interviews and investigative chops, Showalter, an intrepid reporter at the forefront of covering the movement, helps reframe peoples’ understanding of why our cultural devolution matters and what’s truly at stake.
What does the Bible say about our ability to create? First of all, it says we are made in the image of the greatest creator of all things, God our Father. We are then told that Adam’s rebellious son Cain built at least one city.
“Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. When he built a city, he called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch” Genesis 4:17
Just seven generations down Cain’s line we then learn that Jabal was a farmer who raised livestock, his brother Jubal’s family played musical instruments (lyre and pipe) and Tubal-Cain forged instruments of bronze and iron.
What does this say about evolution and stone age people?
“Adah bore Jabal; he was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock. His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe. Zillah also bore Tubal-Cain; he was the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron.” Genesis 4:20-22
Despite the dreadful judgement of God with the worldwide flood of Noah’s day resulting in eight survivors, just a few generations on we learn that God judges the world again with the confusion of their language at the Tower of Babel. With just one language God says that nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. What does that say about our creative ability? Hence God creates the nations each with its own language.
“Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.”
Once God had decided to establish His own nation, Israel, we learn that God gifted and called Bezalel to be a skilled laborer, a master craftsman, and a God-glorifying artist. Bezalel and Oholiab were not only to create works of art but also to train apprentices to do so. The gifting and calling were from God:
“He has filled them with skill to do all kinds of work as craftsmen, designers, embroiderers in blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen, and weavers—all of them master craftsmen and designers”Exodus 35:35
What about today: with the development of the internet, the communication problem that God initiated at Babel is now largely overcome and new technology is being developed at lightning speed in energy, healthcare, agriculture, communication, transport, and in fact every area of activity.
I believe there is no reason why this will not continue during Jesus’ reign in the Millennium. However, its development will be controlled by Jesus and the Saints who the Bible says will be ruling in this transition era with a rod of iron.
“The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron,” Revelation 2:26
“She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron,” Revelation 12:5
“From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron.” Revelation 19:15
In this post let us look briefly at ENERGY and TRANSPORT
ENERGY: NUCLEAR FUSION
A UK-based company called First Light Fusion came up with an idea to build a nuclear fusion reactor that hits nuclear fuel pack with a projectile, having a speed 200 times more than that of sound and releases enormous heat, which gets absorbed by lithium that transfers heat to water through the heat exchanger. The reactor will repeat the process of hitting the fuel pack with the projectile every 30 seconds, resulting in generating a pulse of energy that could generate 5800kWh of electric energy. They plan to put the first commercial nuclear fusion technology power plant within a budget of $1 billion, generating 150MW power.
A major group of American scientists has agreed to work toward opening a nuclear fusion plant by the 2040s. The timeframe is intentional, letting scientists work on and learn from giant projects like Europe’s ITER and China’s EAST before designing a prototype of a fusion plant for the United States.
TRANSPORT: FUEL CELLS
Like batteries, fuel cells generate electricity, meaning that any car that runs off a fuel cell is actually an electric car. Also, like batteries, fuel cells mix two chemicals that react to produce an electric current. However, the important difference with fuel cells is that, unlike batteries, they do not store energy internally. Rather, they have their “fuel” fed directly into the battery “cell”, thus the term fuel cell.
The most likely fuel cell is the Hydrogen Fuel Cell. There are others in development. In the case of the hydrogen fuel cell, the two chemicals that react together are stored hydrogen and atmospheric oxygen. When reacted together they produce water. So if you have a hydrogen car, you can drink its exhaust. Also, fuel cells aren’t limited to smaller vehicles, they can power buses and, even, tractors. Whilst many fuel cells are under development the Polymer Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMF) is one of the big favourites.
The Einride Pod driverless truck will begin operating for the first time on a U.S. public highway. The vehicles will have to stick to a defined route during a limited test program.
This short video is helpful in understanding what the Bible says about what is coming next for this world. Because it is short it does not address some of the big questions. It does answer one of the purposes of the Millennial Kingdom and that is God has not fulfilled all of the promises He made to the nation He established for His purposes. God will have His Messiah ruling and reigning over all the nations from His city, Jerusalem, and His nation Israel. God has unfinished business for Israel and its Messiah on this earth.
However, the main purpose of the Millennium is to prepare the Nations and Saints for the Father coming in the fullness of His glory to a new earth. The millennial Kingdom is a transition period.
Revelation 21:1-4 “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.”
Writing about the Millennial Kingdom, Paul stated, “Then comes the end [of the Millennial Kingdom], when He [Jesus] hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power [it will take time to do this]. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet”
1 Corinthians 15:24-25 “Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.”
We know it is a transition period because even with Jesus and the resurrected Saints ruling the nations and Satan and his demons bound in the Abyss when he is released Satan is still able to raise an army of rebellious humans their number like the sand of the sea.
“And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.” Revelation 20:7-10
Vladimir Putin is in trouble. His unwarranted but massive invasion of Ukraine has been repudiated by all the world’s most repulsive governments and, more immediately, on the battlefield.
The liberation of Kherson from Russian occupation was a serious psychological blow for President Putin that has left him fearing for his life, a senior military adviser in President Zelensky’s office has said.
Last week’s surrender of Kherson, the only regional capital that Putin’s army had captured, triggered shock and despair among hardliners in Moscow, including state television presenters.
“[Putin] is very afraid because there is no forgiveness in Russia for tsars who lose wars,” Oleksiy Arestovich, an adviser to the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff, said. “He is fighting for his life now. If he loses the war, at least in the minds of the Russians, it means the end. The end of him as a political figure. And possibly in the physical sense.”
Vladimir Putin’s troops in Ukraine are being hampered by severe shortages of munitions and skilled personnel, British officials have said.
The Ministry of Defence said intense fire has been exchanged between Russian troops and Ukrainian forces around the Svatove sector in Luhansk Oblast in north-eastern Ukraine over the past week.
“As on other parts of the front, Russian forces continue to prioritise constructing defensive positions, almost certainly partially manned by poorly trained mobilized reservists,” said officials.
The recent defeat of Russian forces across a wide front has demonstrated the weakness of the Russian military and the ineptitude of its commanders.
Former US Army general Ben Hodges predicts failure in Ukraine could lead to the collapse of the Russian Federation.
Putin continues to boast about such weaponry as hypersonic missiles and Russia’s military held an international arms show in Moscow, and yet the Russian army is in near collapse. Military analyst George Barros reports that the “conventional ground army ground force that the Kremlin has spent the last two decades on creating … has been largely degraded and in a large part destroyed in the past six months of the war in Ukraine.”
Vladimir Putin is nothing if not proud of Mother Russia. A major reason for his invasion of Ukraine was his desire to restore some of what the defunct Soviet empire lost. His outrage at the botched invasion of a weaker power and what was, for Putin and his advisors, the apparently unanticipated military support Ukraine has received from the U.S. and our allies, has pushed Putin into a corner from which there is no clear path out.
So, what are his options? A mature leader would make an attempt at face-saving (“Russia let the world know we are a great power!”) and pull its army back into home territory. Yet a mature leader would never have invaded a peaceful neighbor and conducted brutal warfare against its people.
Putin could “pull a Hitler,” blame his generals and bring his soldiers home. Unlike the rantings of the Fuhrer, however, Putin would be partially correct. Neither Russian strategy nor tactics have been effective. The loss of as many as 4,000 armored vehicles means a severe depletion of Russia’s capacity to wage a successful war. That Russia’s top commanders so underestimated the resolve of Ukraine and the willingness of the NATO alliance to provide extensive and high-quality military aid to the Zelensky government indicates severe political miscalculation as well as defective military planning.
Yet Putin’s pride and what likely is irrational indignation probably will grip his better judgment. To admit defeat would be not only a concession of military weakness but also provide the West with yet another victory over Russia, this time in what is, in part, a test of NATO (and especially American) weaponry against Russian weaponry.
The most likely outcome is Russia’s doubling-down of its efforts to conquer Ukraine. The Ukrainian government reports that “after strikes on power plants plunged large areas of Ukraine into darkness”, “Russia (has) stepped up the number of ships and submarines in the Black Sea carrying its Kalibr cruise missiles.” This means more attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure and, probably, civilian targets. Since the Russian invasion began in February, 5,600 Ukrainian civilians have been killed and about 8,000 injured. In Putin’s probable calculus, a few (or many) thousand more shouldn’t be allowed to stand in the way of total victory.
How the West will respond if the conflict escalates, especially if Putin resorts to battlefield nuclear weapons (even if relatively small, their devastation would be profound and their long-term impact immeasurable), is hard to know. Christians need to pray that God would, through whatever means He chooses, soon bring peace to the battered people of a violated nation.
Ultimately, Vladimir Putin will face an unimaginably greater power than anything Ukraine, NATO, or anyone else can create. The psalmist warns “the kings of the earth” that God “will speak to them in His wrath, and terrify them in his fury” (2:5). How particularly true this will be for those whose grasp on power is crusted with the blood of the innocent. Like the current president of Russia.
Adapted from an article in The Washington Stand by Rob Schwarzwalder.
Persecution of Christians is on the rise in at least 18 countries, especially in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, due to growing jihadism and nationalism, according to a report released by a Catholic group (Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) that examined human rights violations against Christians in 24 countries where it is particularly difficult to be a Christian.
Thank goodness God warned us that this would happen and the good news is that it indicates Jesus’ return to put things right is not too far in the future.
Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”Luke 21:28
Hopefully, this information will help you pray for the persecuted church. These countries include Syria, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Mali, Sudan, Nigeria, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Myanmar, Russia, North Korea, China, Vietnam, India and Qatar, according to the report titled “Persecuted and Forgotten? A Report on Christians oppressed for their Faith 2020-22.”
Around the world, more than 360 million Christians live in places where they experience high levels of persecution just for following Jesus — that’s one in seven believers worldwide, according to Open Doors USA’s World Watch List, which ranks the top 50 countries where Christians experience the worst persecution for their faith.
ACN said its report was presented in the Houses of Parliament in the U.K. this week with a keynote address by Nigeria’s Bishop Jude Arogundade, whose Diocese of Ondo was targeted by gunmen who killed more than 40 people at a packed Sunday service on Pentecost Sunday this year.
Bishop Arogundade said, “no one seems to pay attention to the genocide” taking place in swathes of Nigeria’s Middle Belt. “The world is silent as attacks on churches, their personnel, and institutions have become routine. How many corpses are required to get the world’s attention?” he was quoted as saying.
African countries saw a sharp rise in terrorist violence from non-state militants, with more than 7,600 Nigerian Christians reportedly murdered between January 2021 and June of this year, the Catholic group said in the report, adding that in May, a video was released showing 20 Nigerian Christians being executed by Islamist terror group Boko Haram and Islamic State’s West Africa Province.
In Asia, “state-authoritarianism” was behind the worsening oppression, especially in North Korea, where religious beliefs and practices are routinely and systematically repressed, it said.
The report also noted that religious nationalism has triggered increasing violence against Christians in the region, with Hindu nationalist and Sinhalese Buddhist nationalist groups active in India and Sri Lanka, respectively.
The report noted that India witnessed 710 incidents of anti-Christian violence between January 2021 and the start of June, “driven in part by political extremism.” It cited an example of a mass rally in Chhattisgarh state last October, where members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party applauded as right-wing Hindu religious leader Swami Parmatmanand called for Christians to be killed.
In the Middle East, the report said, a migration crisis threatened the survival of some of the world’s oldest Christian communities.
In Syria, the Christian population declined from 10% to less than 2%, falling from 1.5 million just before the war began to around 300,000 today, ACN said, adding that while the rate of exodus is slower in Iraq, a community that numbered around 300,000 before the 2014 invasion by ISIS had halved to 150,000 by the spring of this year.
At this month’s G20 event centered on religions’ role in helping solve global problems, the Most Rev. Bashar Warda, the Chaldean Catholic Archbishop of Erbil, warned that Christianity in Iraq was “on the very edge of extinction.”
During his remarks at the G20 Religion Forum in Bali, Indonesia, the archbishop stressed that “sectarian violence” was a significant problem in Iraq. This country suffered the rise of an Islamic State stronghold during the last decade in which thousands of Iraqi religious minorities were killed, enslaved, or forced to flee their homelands.
“Without an end to this sectarian violence, there is no future for religious pluralism in Iraq, or anywhere else in the Mideast for that matter,” he said. “The brutal logic of this is that there does eventually reach an end point where there are no minorities left to kill, and no minorities left to persecute.”
Warda added, “As I share with you this experience, I pray that you will find in our story a clear warning to you all.” He noted that after around 1,900 years of existing in the region, “we Christians of Iraq now find ourselves on the very edge of extinction.”
There is “a fundamental crisis of violence within Islam” that “can no longer be ignored,” he said, adding that it “continues to affect the entire Middle East, Africa, Asia and beyond.”
The report includes information from ACN and other local sources, provides firsthand testimony, compilations of incidents, case studies, and country analysis on the extent to which Christians are targeted around the world.
Open Doors USA’s 2022 World Watch List, which looked at incidents reported between Oct. 1, 2020, to Sept. 30, 2021, found at least 5,898 Christians were killed, 5,110 churches were attacked or closed, 6,175 Christians were arrested without trial, and 3,829 Christians were kidnapped. 2021 saw a 24% increase in Christians killed for their faith.
Jonathan Cahn joins Erick Stakelbeck on TBN’s Praise to discuss his bestselling book, The Harbinger II: The Return. In this explosive episode, Cahn unravels the mysteries and secrets behind some of the most groundbreaking events in recent history, how they tie into biblical prophecy, and what they mean for the future of America. This video is brought to you by TBN Networks®.
Most of you know God connected me with Jonathan Cahn in Israel in a miraculous way. I had already read his book The Harbinger and was convinced he was one of God’s prophets to warn America that we are in the prophesied “end times”. I have posted a number of his videos on this website.
God has also called Nelson Walters to alert the church to Jesus’ soon-coming return and I urge all of my followers to subscribe to his YouTube channel. I connected with Nelson many years ago now and actually flew to America to meet with him at a Dallas Conference. At the conference, I also met three other “end times” writers, Joel Richardson, Jake McCandless, and Mark Davidson. I suggest you check them out as well.
LIVING ETERNAL NOW 