IRAN CRACKS DOWN ON CHRISTIAN CONVERTS; SENTENCES BELIEVERS TO TEN YEARS PRISON

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“But know this , that in the last days perilous times will come: for men will be lovers of themselves…” 2 Timothy 3:1

“Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Matthew 5:11-12 

“Yes and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.” 2 Timothy 3:12

Blessed are those that are persecuted for righteousness sake , for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:10

 

Authorities in Iran are increasingly targeting Christian converts with arrests and imprisonments, according to the New York-based Centre for Human Rights In Iran.

“In less than two months, since June 2017, Judge Mashallah Ahmadzadeh of Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran has issued long prison sentences to at least 11 Christian converts and the former leader of the Assyrian Pentecostal Church in Iran,” CHRI said in a report.

On July 6, the judge sentenced four Protestant Christian converts to 10 years in prison each “in a trial completely lacking due process,” the group said, quoting Mansour Borji, the advocacy director of a London-based group, Article 18, which defends Christians in Iran.

The four converts — Yusif Farhadov, Eldar Gurbanov and Bahram Nasibov from Baku in the Republic of Azerbaijan, and Iranian national Nasser Navard Goltapeh — were arrested at a reception hosted by their Christian friends in Andisheh last June.

Prosecutors couldn’t produce any evidence to show the converts had acted against national security, Borji said. Yet they were convicted of being “Zionist Christians” who “acted against national security with the intention of overthrowing the state in a soft war.”

Two weeks earlier, the same judge had given Christian converts Yousef Nadarkhani, Mohammadreza Omidi, Yasser Mossayebzadeh and Saheb Fadaie 10-year prison sentences for propagating house churches and promoting “Zionist Christianity.”

A ruling is still overdue for a decision on an appeal by Omidi, Mossayebzadeh and Fadaie against a sentence of 80 lashes each for drinking wine during a communion service. The Christians were arrested May 13 during a series of raids by security service agents on Christian homes in Rasht.

The U.K.-based Christian Solidarity Worldwide has also criticised the government of Iran for persecuting converts.

CSW’s Chief Executive Mervyn Thomas said in a statement.”We reiterate that the national security charges levelled in all of these cases amount to the criminalisation of the Christian community for exercising the right to freedom of religion or belief, and that this is occurring despite the fact that the Iranian constitution recognises Christianity. We urge members of the international community to extend the sanctions still in place against Iranian individuals to include members of the judiciary who are implicated in ongoing and severe harassment and persecution of religious minority communities.”

Perhaps this crackdown is occurring due to the reported large number of Iranians converting to Christianity.

 

MORE CHRISTIAN LEADERS EMBRACE APOSTASY

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Amazing how eminent Evangelical leaders say their views on LGBT issues have evolved over time. Much like the acceptance of evolution versus creation. In both cases the authority of God’s Word is at stake. These leaders no longer believe God’s Word is inerrant so they compromise with the world and will suffer the eternal consequences.

Jesus does not change, nor does His Word, so how can their views evolve over time. Also, why can’t see they see, they are part of the prophesied great falling away in the church that would occur in the “last days”.

Eugene Peterson author of The Message Bible

Eugene Peterson

Christian best-selling author Eugene Peterson said he would be willing to officiate at a same-sex marriage. In saying so, he joins a prominent group of Christians whose views on same-sex marriage and LGBT issues have evolved.         “I wouldn’t have said this 20 years ago, but now I know a lot of people who are gay and lesbian, and they seem to have as good a spiritual life as I do. I think that kind of debate about lesbians and gays might be over. People who disapprove of it, they’ll probably just go to another church. So we’re in a transition, and I think it’s a transition for the best, for the good. I don’t think it’s something that you can parade, but it’s not a right or wrong thing as far as I’m concerned,” Peterson says.

Jim Wallis

The founder of Sojourners magazine,  Jim Wallis was raised evangelical. He defended traditional marriage in a 2008 Christianity Today article, saying he wasn’t sure he’d perform a same-sex blessing, although he did express support for gay and lesbian civil rights. In 2013, Wallis answered “yes” when asked if he supported same-sex marriage in a Huffington Post interview.

Matthew Vines

After taking a leave of absence from Harvard University to study the Bible and homosexuality, Matthew Vines gave a speech at his church about accepting gay Christians that has amassed over 1 million views on YouTube since 2012. He also started The Reformation Project, a nonprofit trying to “reform church teaching on sexual orientation and gender identity,” and wrote the book God and the Gay Christian: The Biblical Case in Support of Same-Sex Relationships.

Rob Bell

The former pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church publicly stated his views on gay marriage while speaking at San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral in 2013. He then reaffirmed them during an Odyssey Networks interview the same week. At Grace Cathedral, he also said evangelicals should no longer be assumed to be conservatives. He described “a very narrow, politically intertwined, culturally ghettoized, evangelical subculture” that he sees dying out.

Trey Pearson

In a post on his website titled “My Coming Out Letter,” Christian rock musician Trey Pearson told fans that he identified as a gay man, despite being married with children. As he explains in the letter, published in June 2016, he was raised in a faith that taught him “sexual orientation was a matter of choice,” so he repressed his sexual desires most of his life. Since coming out, he has written about life as a gay Christian and created a music video depicting his experience.

Jen Hatmaker

Evangelical leader, author and HGTV star Jen Hatmaker publicly changed her views on gay marriage in 2016. Both a Facebook post calling for LGBT acceptance and comments about supporting same-sex marriage in an interview with RNS led LifeWay Christian Stores to quit selling her books in October.

Vicky Beeching

Christian rock star Vicky Beeching still considered herself an evangelical, even after coming out via an interview with The Independent in 2014. During her keynote address at the 2015 Gay Christian Network’s annual conference, the U.K.-based singer said she still loves the church. According to her official site, she now works as a speaker and writer, often discussing her personal journey and LGBT issues in the church.

Rachel Held Evans

In 2015, The Washington Post called Christian author Rachel Held Evans “the most polarizing woman in evangelicalism.” This label comes from her positions on LGBT rights and homosexuality, topics she’s grappled with publicly since starting her blog in 2008. In one of her old posts, “An Evangelical’s Response to Homosexuality,” she refuses to choose a side of the issue but does admit to wondering if the evangelical church “has it wrong.” In more recent years, she has referred to herself as an “ally” and wrote about LGBT Christians in her 2015 book Searching for Sunday.

SIGN OF THE LAST DAYS? LARGEST ALIYAH FLIGHT FROM EUROPE.

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The largest Aliyah flight from France and anywhere in Europe has landed in Israel on 10 July 2017.

Two hundred immigrants were aboard the flight, including 74 children and teenagers under the age of 18, reports Israel International News. The French Jewish community is the largest in Europe and the second-largest in the world outside of Israel, numbering nearly half a million Jews.

Airplane

French Jewish immigration to Israel has surged since the year 2012. 2014 marked the first time in Israel’s history that over one percent of a Western Jewish community made Aliyah in a single year, an achievement repeated in 2015 with the arrival of some 7,800 immigrants from France—the most ever. Over 10 percent of the French Jewish community has immigrated to Israel since the year 2000, half in the past five years alone.

For behold the days are coming ,says the Lord, that I will bring back from captivity My people Israel and Judah… And I will cause them to return to the land that I gave their fathers, and they shall possess it.”  Jeremiah 30:3

Thus says the Lord God: Surely I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, wherever they have gone, and gather them from every side and bring them unto their own land; and I will make them one nation in the land … and one king shall be over them.”   Ezekiel 37:21,22,23

 

 

WARNING: WAKE UP CHURCH DISCERN THE TIMES

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Pastor Carl Gallups has connected the dots to see that events unfolding in the world are prophesied to occur exactly as they are happening in the Bible. Proof the Bible is inerrant and God is in control of history. It should be a wake up call for Christians but sadly the Bible also foretells a great falling away from the church in the last days which is also evident.

PROPHESIED END TIMES EVENTS UNFOLDING

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In the days and years ahead we should see the emergence of a Northern leader (King of the North) from the general region of the former Seleucid Empire – Turkey, Syria, Iraq as outlined in Daniel 11. Whilst Iran was part of the Seleucid Empire, it is Shia, and it is likely the Antichrist, the Northern leader,  will be a Sunni.

The title King of the North is used seven times in Daniel 11 (v.v. 6, 7. 8, 11, 13, 15) The first six times it refers to the various kings of the Seleucid Empire but in verse 40, the Antichrist as the last days Antiochus 1V Epiphanes.

Image result for map of the final seleucid empire and ptolemaic empire

Turkey has thrown its weight behind the Syrian rebels which puts the Sunni Turkey at odds with the Shiite power of Iran, at a time of growing Sunni-Shiite tension in the Middle East.

The Bible also tells us that we should see a Southern leader of Egypt that will clash with the Northern leader in what will lead to a large scale military confrontation. Egypt will fall to the Northern leader, Libya and Sudan (Cush) will then submit to the northern leader/Antichrist and his emerging empire. After this seven other nations from the region will willingly throw their support behind the norther leader/Antichrist and his emerging empire.

This revived empire (Ottoman) is what is prophesied in Daniel 2 as the feet of iron and clay and in Daniel 7 as the ten horns. This will be the final Antchristic empire that will crush the people of God throughout the region and in much of the earth before being destroyed by our Lord Jesus Christ.

The church is not prepared for Jesus second coming just as the religious leaders of Jesus day missed His first coming. They did not heed the Scriptures.

We need to get back to church as it was in the Book of Acts. Francis Chan, author of Crazy Love has got it right – see my recent post Church As God Intended.

For more get Joel Richardson’s book The Mid East Beast – The Case for an Islamic Antichrist.

TURKEY INVESTS MILLIONS TO RETURN MUSLIM CONTROL OVER JERUSALEM

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Is Turkey hoping for a return of the Ottoman Empire to Jerusalem?

It would fit with Bible prophecy of a revived Ottoman Empire in the “last days”. In Daniel 11:40, the Antichrist, as the last days Antiochus IV Epiphanes, is also referred to as the King of the North who will rule over a last-days version of the Seleucid Empire (revived Ottoman Empire). In verse 41, we are then told he invades the Glorious Land – Israel.

World events are consistent with a Muslim Antichrist – the Mahdi, the prophesied redeemer of Islam who will rule prior to the Day of Judgement

Turkey invests millions to return Muslim control over Jerusalem

Turkey is reportedly positioning itself as a Muslim power in Jerusalem by investing millions of dollars in the Old City and the Temple Mount.

According to an investigative report, due to be published in full in the coming weekend edition of Israel Hayom, the Turkish government-funded Cooperation and Coordination Agency, also known as TIKA, has invested millions of dollars into 63 different projects “defending and strengthening the Muslim heritage and character of Jerusalem” since 2004.

Turkey has teamed up with Sheikh Raed Salah, the leader of the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, which was outlawed in November 2015, as well as with former Jerusalem mufti Sheikh Akram Sabri.  Both are opposed to Israel’s existence.

Among other activities, TIKA has invested resources in restoring the Ottoman Muslim archives on the Temple Mount, renovated the Muslim cemetery adjacent to the eastern wall of the Temple Mount, and been involved in numerous community-related work throughout the eastern sections of Israel’s capital.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has consistently supported TIKA’s work and condemned Israel’s control of Jerusalem, which he labels “an insult.”

Last month, in a speech at the International Al-Quds Forum in Istanbul, Erdogan urged Muslims to make frequent visits to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, located on the Temple Mount, in order “to protect the Muslim identity” of the site, the Turkish daily Sabah reported.

“As a Muslim community, we need to visit the Al-Aqsa Mosque often; each day that Jerusalem is under occupation is an insult to us,” he was quoted as saying.

While Turkey is enhancing its position in Jerusalem, the influence of Jordan, the traditional custodian of Jerusalem’s Muslim sites, appears to be declining.

Visitors to Jerusalem’s Old City can easily notice the increased Turkish presence through the numerous Turkish national flags on display. In addition, Turkish culture and cuisine are becoming more popular in the area. Turkey’s government also covered some of the expenses for the new golden crescent atop the Dome of the Rock a few years ago.

 

ARE WE WATCHING EZEKIEL 36:24 COME TO PASS?

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A group of Ethiopian Falash Mura arrived at Ben Gurion Airport on Tuesday, the first group in a new wave of aliyah (immigration to Israel).

“I will gather you from foreign nations and bring you home.” Ezekiel 36:24

“Behold, I the Lord will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the ends of the earth.” Jeremiah 31:8

The 72 new Jewish immigrants arrived in the Jewish state as part of a collaborative effort between the Jewish Agency for Israel and the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ).

 

More than 200 families and supporters greeted the new immigrants at the airport.

Another three immigrant flights from Ethiopia are expected to arrive in Israel this month.

Tuesday night’s flight marked the first group of Jewish immigrants from Ethiopia to arrive in Israel since the Israeli government approved and renewed the Ethiopian Aliyah program in October 2016.

ICEJ, a Christian Zionist global ministry, sponsored the latest Ethiopian immigration wave to Israel and has worked to raise funds for the first year of the reintroduced Ethiopian Aliyah program, which will bring 1,400 new immigrants to the Jewish state.

Falash Mura is the name given to those of the Beta Israel community in Ethiopia and Eritrea who converted to Christianity under pressure from the Christian Mission during the 19th and 20th centuries. The establishment of the Jewish state and the waves of aliyah from Ethiopia have brought them back to their roots and heritage.

In 2003, the Israeli government applied Resolution 2958 to the Falash Mura, which grants maternal descendants of Jews the right to immigrate to Israel under the Israeli Law of Return and to obtain citizenship if they convert to Judaism.

Some 9,000 Jews still reside in Ethiopia and are waiting Israeli government approval to make aliyah.

Also Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn and his wife to the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem.

“The Ethiopian community, Mr. Prime Minister, is a human bridge between our two nations,” Netanyahu said. 

This article originally appeared at unitedwithisrael.org.

BY GOD’S GRACE WE ARE SAVED BY FAITH

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Another great message from Torben, much needed in these “last days”. Bereans can see the prophesied great falling away occurring in the church. A church that no longer believes in the TRUTH of GOD’S WORD.

ANOTHER AWESOME MESSAGE FROM JONATHAN CAHN

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Are you in a church that understands where we are on the Biblical timeline? Is it preaching Jesus second coming and the prophetic events surrounding His return?

Is it it compromising with the world and its values (e.g. gay marriage) or is it standing on God’s Word.

Listen to Jonathan and be encouraged that current world events demonstrate that God is in control down to the day, hour and even minute.

God has put you on the planet at this time in history for a purpose, are you in step with Him? If not get into prayer with like minded believers. Don’t waste another minute.

AMERICA IS ON THE VERGE OF A BREAKDOWN

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Report by Bill Bonner, author of New York Times best-sellers (Empire of Debt, Financial Reckoning Day, Mobs, Markets and Messiahs) and now his latest book (When The ATMS Go Dark).

A meeting with Greenspan (centre), myself, Bill Bonner (left from centre), and other experts at my office

In Baltimore, the stadium loudspeakers sounded again: “Ladies and gentleman, due to an ongoing public safety issue, the mayor of Baltimore and the Baltimore County Police Department have asked all fans to remain inside the ballpark until further notice.”

Then silence… Except for a distant white noise… the sound of an enraged mob tearing through stores, police, and bystanders…just outside the stadium walls.

Something had gone terribly wrong in the city that night…

Image result for picture of riots on the streets of Baltimore

By that time, the cell networks had started to go down.

In New York City, a man wearing a red Make America Great Again hat was choked on the subway as fellow passengers did nothing to help.

In Chicago, a 50-year-old man was dragged from his car and beaten. Instead of helping, onlookers accused him of voting for the wrong political candidate.

In Washington, a young woman who showed up to support the new president had her hair set on fire by “black bloc” radical leftist protesters.

In Berkeley, California, a Patriots Day rally turned into a battle for the streets between black-clad anarchists and a right-wing militia group.

A website by the anarchist group “black bloc” (the same ones who smashed windows, threw Molotov cocktails at police, and set Berkeley on fire) asks for donations to “send reports to uprisings and rebellions in so-called North America.”

Another “resistance movement” lists 5,983 local cells spread across the country – and they’re not just confined to the coasts, either, as you can see… The red dots are for upcoming “actions”, the blue dots are locations of the cells.

Now, we’ve had unrest before in this country. Many times.

During Holy Week 1968, the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., set off riots across the country.

In 1991, the Rodney King riots resulted in 1 billion dollars’ worth of damage, 50 deaths, and a vicious attack on an innocent truck driver.

But this is different. There is an anger brewing here. One I have never seen in my lifetime.

In Middlebury College, VT: A visiting scholar is attacked by a mob of students after a left-wing think tank incorrectly labels him a “white nationalist.” (A charge that turned out not to be true.) When a professor tries to intervene, the students turn on him. “I feared for my life,” the professor later says, still wearing a neck brace and nursing a concussion. “They couldn’t look at me directly, because if they had, they would have seen another human being.”

We have protesters caught on camera saying: “people have to die”…

Meanwhile, protected elites like Maxine Waters and Chelsea Clinton, safe in their million-dollar homes, egg the crowds on…

As of writing this, I count at least seven mass political actions scheduled in the next few months alone. Which of these will explode into a riot, I don’t know. Hopefully none will.

But a recent conversation among members of an extreme resistance group on the social media site Reddit shows an alarming trend…

Here’s a sampling of what they said:

  • “I honestly think we need a campaign to get more [of us] armed.”
  • “A shocking number of comrades went in there with absolutely no combat training.”
  • “We need more than flags and bats. […] I know getting firearms in states and cities we have a presence is usually a hassle, but even handguns would help.”

Is it any wonder then, that these same groups are setting universities on fire, while students who refuse to go along with the crowd are threatened with violence?

And it’s not just happening in “dangerous” cities like Baltimore and Chicago. Violent crime is now rising in places like Denver, Salt Lake City, and Louisville. In the small town of Tiburon, California, a 74-year-old conservative radio host and his 12-year-old dog were assaulted and knocked to the ground while out grabbing a bite to eat. In Ohio, another 74-year-old man was murdered live on Facebook, as he walked home from Easter lunch, young kids are putting police officers in the hospital. People are broadcasting racist attacks and murders live on Facebook.

And here’s the thing…

I think what we’re seeing here is merely Act One

As the magazine Foreign Policy recently explained:

“There appears to be…a sense that these are not just scattered outbursts, that all this is escalating somewhere.”

What it’s all escalating to…the magazine’s editors aren’t so sure.

In this report, I’m going to tell you what’s really causing this unrest…

…and why it’s leading to a disturbing conclusion…sooner than anyone expected.

  • I see nearly half the population paying no taxes and dependent on aid from the federal government,
  • I see more Americans are dying of drug overdoses than ever before and suicides just hit a 30-year high.
  • I see a majority of Americans favouring wealth redistribution and higher taxes…which is probably why a Congress full of Republicans is unwilling to guard the rest of us against these things.
  • And I see the increasingly vocal and even violent opposition to traditional American values in our streets.

Sadly, Bonner like John Adams has got it wrong by thinking that the root cause is economic mismanagement alone.

John Adams said at the Constitutional Convention of 1787:

“All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise not from defects in the Constitution or Confederation, not from a want of honour or virtue so much as from downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation.”

Universities espousing a godless worldview, based on a totally false evolutionary theory of origins, has produced a younger generation that has no fear of their Creator God, nor respect for His values.

If there is no purpose or meaning in life, then what else would you expect but a ME generation of self centred, self serving young people prepared to do whatever it take to wrest control from the previous largely corrupt generation that has racked up debt that is unsustainable by providing services that cannot be maintained. This is the recipe for disaster that we see being played out. Moreover, this “end times” scenario is prophesied in the Bible, the book our Creator provided for us.

As I have pointed out in two recent posts, the reestablishment of the State of Israel back in 1948 (and its miraculous ( Six day War) retaking control of Jerusalem in 1967) is the first and major sign Jesus gave of His second coming, His return to earth at the place He left it, a little over two thousand years ago.

The Bible provides more prophecies of His second coming than His first. All of those were fulfilled, so you can be sure those of His second coming will be as well. Are you prepared for His second coming? Is your church prepared for His second coming? The Bible tells us there will be a great falling away in the “last days”. Even the elect deceived. As persecution intensifies, and it will if you take a stand against abortion,  gay marriage and transgender issues, will you stand firm. Sadly, much of the church has already given up on Biblical inerrancy particularly on issues such as Creation, adopting evolution, homosexuality, gay marriage and the related issues of God given roles for male and females in the family and church.