Iran – World’s “Fastest-Growing Church,” Celebrates New Bible Translation.

Monday, September 22, 2014 – By Jeremy Reynalds – Senior Correspondent for ASSIST News Service

LONDON (ANS) — A major new translation of the Bible into modern Persian, launched in London Monday, marks a remarkable transformation for the church in Iran.

According to a news release from Elam Ministries, the organization behind the translation, at the time of the Islamic revolution in 1979, there were no more than 500 Christians from a Muslim background in the country. Now Iran is thought to have the fastest-growing church in the world.

“A very conservative estimate puts the number of Christians in Iran at 100,000,” said David Yeghnazar of Elam Ministries, speaking in the news release.

He continued, “The generally-accepted estimate is 370,000. Some believe there are 700,000, some over a million. Operation World puts the annual growth rate at 19.7 per cent. If that is the case, Iran will very soon have one million Christian believers.”

Yeghnazar believes there are a number of reasons why the church has grown so rapidly.

“The Iranian identity is not rooted in Islam and there is real disillusionment with the religion,” he said in the release. “The house church movement has emerged, allowing Iranians to go to Christian meetings easily and not risk all by going to a public church. New Christians have zealously shared the Gospel and Scriptures and there has been on-going prayer for Iran around the world.”

(more…)

Continue ReadingIran – World’s “Fastest-Growing Church,” Celebrates New Bible Translation.

Netanyahu Invokes Biblical Prophecy During UN Address

By Lea Speyer September 30, 2014

“For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, for Jerusalem’s sake I will not remain quiet, till her vindication shines out like the dawn, her salvation like a blazing torch.” (Isaiah 62:1)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressing the UN General Assembly, September 29, 2014. (Photo: Avi Ohayon/ GPO)

(Click here to see how Netanyahu invokes Biblical prophecy in past UN addresses.)

http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/22270/see-netanyahu-biblical-prophecy-past-un-speeches/#FooJhWhqAT2idCTU.97

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the annual gathering of world leaders at the UN General Assembly on Monday, warning the international community of the growing threat of militant Islam.

The prime minister jumped right in to tackling the issue of the increasing visibility and violence wrought by Islamist terrorists across the globe.

“Our hopes and the world’s hope for peace are in danger. Because everywhere we look, militant Islam is on the march,” Netanyahu said. “It’s not militants. It’s not Islam. It’s militant Islam.”

(more…)

Continue ReadingNetanyahu Invokes Biblical Prophecy During UN Address

The Plight of the Muslim: the Great Cost of Following Christ

 7/11/2014 Rob Hoskins

It’s amazing to me how the Internet is heightening our awareness of what is going on in the world to a whole new level. Things all around the globe that have been cloaked in obscurity for hundreds of years are now coming to light, many of them taking center stage in mainstream media. Take for instance the case of Meriam Ibrahim, a Sudanese woman who had been sentenced to death for her Christian faith widely covered in media, like the May 16 CNN news report below. The struggle between Islam and Christianity has been going on for a very long time. Both faiths are “exclusive and expansionary”, often causing them to clash.

Little do we, as Westerners, know that to be Muslim and choose Christianity in some nations and contexts means giving up everything. There is a vast difference of interpretation between how I read this verse and the meaning it holds for a born Muslim who has chosen to follow Christ and is counting the cost of that decision: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24).

(more…)

Continue ReadingThe Plight of the Muslim: the Great Cost of Following Christ

Report: Majority of Iranians Actually Reject Islam

 5/20/2014 Greg Yoder/Mission Network News

Berlin, Germany, is considered one of the most godless places in the world. According to a report from The Guardian, 50 percent of the population can be identified as atheist. It’s ironic, because this city has become a magnet for Iranian Christians seeking asylum.

According to the report, Germany hasn’t seen an Iranian migrant population growth this large since the 1979 Iranian Revolution. The Guardian reports that the association of Iranian refugees in Berlin says the number of Iranians coming to Germany has doubled every year for the last five years—from less than 1,000 in 2008 to 4,348 in 2012.

Figures from the federal office for migration and refugees in Germany confirms this trend. With over 3,500 Iranians granted asylum last year, Iran was one of five countries from which Germany saw a rise in asylum applications.

Because Iran is an Islamic nation governed by Muslims, being a Christian there is difficult. Despite this, Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) spokesperson Todd Nettleton is amazed at what’s happening with the Iranian people.

(more…)

Continue ReadingReport: Majority of Iranians Actually Reject Islam

Iran’s Supreme Leader Says Country’s Ideals Include Destroying America

The Daily Caller – Reza Kahlili – May 27, 2014

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, all but said on Sunday that negotiations over the country’s illicit nuclear program are over and that the Islamic Republic’s ideals include destroying America.

“Those [Iranians] who want to promote negotiation and surrender to the oppressors and blame the Islamic Republic as a warmonger in reality commit treason,” Khamenei told a meeting of members of parliament, according to the regime’s Fars News Agency.

Khamenei emphasized that without a combative mindset, the regime cannot reach its higher Islamic role against the “oppressors’ front.”

“The reason for continuation of this battle is not the warmongering of the Islamic Republic. Logic and reason command that for Iran, in order to pass through a region full of pirates, needs to arm itself and must have the capability to defend itself,” he said.

“Today’s world is full of thieves and plunderers of human honor, dignity and morality who are equipped with knowledge, wealth and power, and under the pretense of humanity easily commit crimes and betray human ideals and start wars in different parts of the world.”

(more…)

Continue ReadingIran’s Supreme Leader Says Country’s Ideals Include Destroying America

Persecuted Iranian Christians Flee Homeland and Make New Homes in Germany

Benjamin Weinthal  – Fox News – May 19, 2014

Iranian-born Muslims who converted to Christianity are breathing new spiritual life into communities across Germany, where they are fleeing to in increasing numbers to escape persecution back home.

Men and women, who have been sentenced to the lash or worse for apostasy – converting from Islam – are forming a thriving community of Christian ex-pats in German cities and towns. The Iranian immigrants seek asylum, or simply pay up to $30,000 to enter the country illegally with a fake passport, a new name and plans to start their lives over in new churches.

“The growing number of Iranian Christians fleeing their homeland to come to Germany should alarm us that Iran’s regime is getting more and more radicalized and repressive – on a daily basis,” Saba Farzan, a German-Iranian expert on human rights, told FoxNews.com.

A telling example of Iran’s heavy-handed crackdown on Christians is the case of a 40-something Iranian woman named Afsaneh. A spiritual display brought down the full force of Tehran’s hard-line regime.

(more…)

Continue ReadingPersecuted Iranian Christians Flee Homeland and Make New Homes in Germany

Throw your hijabs in the air like you just don’t care! Thousands of Iranian women ditch their hijabs on Facebook

A woman poses without her hijab in front of Iranian police carsMay 14th, 2014 – via SyndiGate.info

Women in Iran have been posting pictures of themselves after ‘stealthily’ taking their hijabs off in public, in a country where it is illegal for a female to leave the house without wearing a headscarf under Islamic law.

Over 150 photos have been posted to the Stealthy Freedoms of Iranian Women Facebook page which has amassed more than 140,000 likes since it was created just a week ago by the Iranian journalist Masih Alinejad.

Ms Alinejad, who left Iran to pursue her studies in the UK in 2009, told The Independent the page began when she posted a photograph of herself driving down a road in the country without wearing a headscarf.

The image was captioned with: “Hijab is being forced on women not only by the Morality Police, but also out of consideration for family, through wanting to keep a job and because of fear of judgment from others.”

“I wrote that I had experienced all of these pressures too,” she explained. “I was sure that most Iranian women who don’t believe in the forced hijab have enjoyed freedom in secret, [so] I asked them if they wished to share this moment of stealth freedom.”

(more…)

Continue ReadingThrow your hijabs in the air like you just don’t care! Thousands of Iranian women ditch their hijabs on Facebook

Why Are Christians the World’s Most Persecuted Group?

Why Are Christians the World’s Most Persecuted GroupRaymond Ibrahim – Frontpage Magazine

Why are Christians, as a new Pew report documents, the most persecuted religious group in the world?  And why is their persecution occurring primarily throughout the Islamic world?  (In the category on “Countries with Very High Government Restrictions on Religion,” Pew lists 24 countries—20 of which are Islamic and precisely where the overwhelming majority of “the world’s” Christians are actually being persecuted.)

The reason for this ubiquitous phenomenon of Muslim persecution of  Christians is threefold:

Christianity is the largest religion in the world.  There are Christians practically everywhere around the globe, including in much of the Muslim world.  Moreover, because much of the land that Islam seized was originally Christian—including the Middle East and North Africa, the region that is today known as the “Arab world”—Muslims everywhere are still confronted with vestiges of Christianity, for example, in Syria, where many ancient churches and monasteries are currently being destroyed by al-Qaeda linked, U.S. supported “freedom fighters.”  Similarly, in Egypt, where Alexandria was a major center of ancient Christianity before the 7th century Islamic invasions, there still remain at least 10 million Coptic Christians (though some put the number at much higher). Due to sheer numbers alone, then, indigenous Christians are much more visible and exposed to attack by Muslims than other religious groups throughout the Arab world.   Yet as CNS News puts it, “President Obama expressed hope that the ‘Arab Spring’ would give rise to greater religious freedom in North Africa and the Middle East, which has had the world’s highest level of hostility towards religion in every year since 2007, when Pew first began measuring it. However, the study finds that these regions actually experienced the largest increase in religious hostilities in 2012.”

(more…)

Continue ReadingWhy Are Christians the World’s Most Persecuted Group?

Confirmed: The United States Is the Chief Facilitator of Christian Persecution

Raymond Ibrahim is author of Crucified Again Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians.The Christian Post – By Raymond Ibrahim, CP Op-Ed Contributor – January 21, 2014|

Prominent indicators confirm that the U.S. is the chief facilitator of the persecution of Christians around the world today.

According to the recently released 2014 World Watch List, which ranks the 50 nations where Christians are most persecuted, Syria is the third worst nation in the world in which to be Christian, Iraq is fourth, Afghanistan fifth, and Libya 13th. All four countries receive the strongest designation, “extreme persecution” (other designations are “severe,” “moderate,” and “sparse” persecution).

Aside from being so closely and harshly ranked, these four nations have something else in common: heavy U.S. involvement. Three-Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya-were “liberated” thanks to U.S. forces, while in the fourth, Syria, the U.S. is actively sponsoring “freedom fighters” against the regime, many of whom would be better labeled “terrorists.”

(more…)

Continue ReadingConfirmed: The United States Is the Chief Facilitator of Christian Persecution

Persecuted and Forgotten 2013 Report – Situation of Christians in in many countries has deteriorated

The cover image of the report shows the destruction of the Virgin Mary Church in Imbaba, Cairo, Egypt, May 2011ACN News ^ | 10/18/2013

In many countries the situation of Christians has sharply deteriorated. This is the finding of the report Persecuted and Forgotten? which was launched at a meeting in the UK Houses of Parliament on 17th October by the UK office of the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). The report examines the situation of Christians in 30 different countries, including Afghanistan, China, Laos, Pakistan, Vietnam and Zimbabwe. In particular it analyses the situation in a number of majority Islamic countries and in those states whose political systems have a pronounced authoritarian character. The reporting period covers the past two-and-a-half years.

The principal finding of the report is that in two-thirds of the countries where persecution of Christians is most severe, the problems have become arguably even worse. In fact the Church’s very survival in some parts – notably the Middle East – is now at stake.

For Christians the so-called “Arab spring” has in many cases become what the report calls a “Christian winter”. Although the political upheavals have brought suffering to people of all faith communities, nonetheless it is above all the Christian confessions that have experienced the most open hostility and violence. They have become victims of every kind of political, economic, social and religious conflict – for example the conflicts between Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims. As a result, a great many Christians have been forced to flee. The report describes the exodus as reaching “almost biblical proportions”.

(more…)

Continue ReadingPersecuted and Forgotten 2013 Report – Situation of Christians in in many countries has deteriorated

Israel warns West of ‘historic mistake’, outlines Iran expectations

Geneva talks begin. Is compromise in the offingJewish World Review – By Joel Greenberg

JERUSALEM — (MCT) Israeli officials are warily watching the resumption of talks between Western powers and Iran to resolve the dispute over its nuclear program, concerned that the negotiations will produce an easing of economic sanctions without a halt to what Israel says is Tehran’s march toward an atomic bomb.

As part of a diplomatic offensive to head off what Israel fears will be Western concessions with only cosmetic changes in return, Israeli government leaders are outlining conditions they say must be met to make any agreement stick.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that it would be a “historic mistake” if sanctions on Iran were eased just when they were about to achieve their goals. But the definition of those goals is in deep dispute, with wide gaps between the parties on what would be a satisfactory outcome of negotiations.

Israeli officials are urging Western negotiators to secure a dismantling of Iran’s nuclear program, which Israel says is for military purposes and Iran asserts is for civilian use.

(more…)

Continue ReadingIsrael warns West of ‘historic mistake’, outlines Iran expectations

Billy Graham sounds alarm for 2nd Coming

Evangelist Billy GrahamBy Troy Anderson – World Net Daily – 23rd October 2013

Just as Noah did in ancient times, world-renowned evangelist Billy Graham is sounding the alarm that the Second Coming is “near” and signs of the end of the age are “converging now for the first time since Jesus made those predictions.”

Earlier this month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the United Nations General Assembly “biblical prophecies are being realized.”

And last week, Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., claimed the world has entered the last days.

“When you see up is down and right is wrong, when this is happening, we were told this: that these days would be as the days of Noah,” Bachmann said.

The remarks by Graham, Netanyahu and Bachmann come amid a steadily rising wave of public interest in the end times, as demonstrated by recent polls and New York Times and Amazon.com bestselling books such as “The Harbinger: The Ancient Mystery That Holds the Secret of America’s Future,” by Rabbi Jonathan Cahn, and “Four Blood Moons: Something is About to Change,” by Pastor John Hagee.

In September, a poll by the Ventura, Calif.-based Barna Group found 4 in 10 Americans – and 77 percent of evangelical Christians – believe the “world is now living in the biblical end times.”

Now, a new wave of end-times predictions for 2014 and 2015 involving blood moons on Jewish holy days and prophetically significant events on the Shemitah – the ancient biblical year of the Sabbath – are igniting even more interest in humanity’s ultimate fate.

Throw in next year’s reboot of the “Left Behind” film featuring Nicolas Cage and the cinematic destruction of biblical proportions in “Noah,” starring Russell Crowe, and last-days fever is back with a mainstream vengeance.

(more…)

Continue ReadingBilly Graham sounds alarm for 2nd Coming

IRAN: FOUR CHRISTIANS SENTENCED TO 80 LASHES FOR DRINKING COMMUNION WINE

IranFor Immediate Release – 23 October 2013 – Christian Solidarity Worldwide

A court in the Iranian city of Rasht has sentenced four members of the Church of Iran denomination to 80 lashes each for drinking wine during a communion service.

The verdict, dated 6 October, charges Behzad Taalipasand, Mehdi Reza Omidi (Youhan), Mehdi Dadkhah (Danial) and Amir Hatemi (Youhanna) with drinking alcohol and possession of a receiver and satellite antenna. They received the verdict on 20 October and have ten days to appeal the sentence.

Behzad Taalipasand and Mehdi Reza Omidi (Youhan) were detained on 31 December 2012 during a crackdown on house churches by the Iranian government.

Mervyn Thomas, Chief Executive of Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), said, “The sentences handed down to these members of the Church of Iran effectively criminalise the Christian sacrament of sharing in the Lord’s Supper and constitute an unacceptable infringement on the right to practice faith freely and peaceably. We urge the Iranian authorities to ensure that the nation’s legal practices and procedures do not contradict its international obligation under the International Convent on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) to guarantee the full enjoyment of freedom of religion or belief by all of its religious communities.”

(more…)

Continue ReadingIRAN: FOUR CHRISTIANS SENTENCED TO 80 LASHES FOR DRINKING COMMUNION WINE

Arabs Realizing Israel Is Not the Enemy

Arabs Realizing Israel Is Not the EnemyRyan Jones (Oct 18, 2013)

“Many nations in the area have a strong desire to eliminate the influence of Iran, the Muslim Brotherhood and Al-Qaida. This is an important development, even historic.” –Benjamin Netanyahu

One of the very few positive outcomes of the regional crises engulfing the Middle East is that a number of Arab states are beginning to realize that Israel is not the true enemy.

“For the first time in Israel’s existence, there is an understanding in the Arab world, that Israel is not the enemy of the Arabs. On many issues, we are united,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the opening of the Knesset’s winter session earlier this week.

Netanyahu noted that the hijacking of pro-democracy revolutions in Egypt, Syria and elsewhere had turned many of the Arab states against the same Islamist regimes and groups that most threaten Israel.

“Many nations in the area have a strong desire to eliminate the influence of Iran, the Muslim Brotherhood and Al-Qaida,” the prime minister said. “This is an important development, even historic.”

(more…)

Continue ReadingArabs Realizing Israel Is Not the Enemy

The war on Christians – The global persecution of Christians is the unreported catastrophe of our time

5 October 2013- The Spectator

Imagine if correspondents in late 1944 had reported the Battle of the Bulge, but without explaining that it was a turning point in the second world war. Or what if finance reporters had told the story of the AIG meltdown in 2008 without adding that it raised questions about derivatives and sub-prime mortgages that could augur a vast financial implosion?

Most people would say that journalists had failed to provide the proper context to understand the news. Yet that’s routinely what media outlets do when it comes to outbreaks of anti-Christian persecution around the world, which is why the global war on Christians remains the greatest story never told of the early 21st century.

In recent days, people around the world have been appalled by images of attacks on churches in Pakistan, where 85 people died when two suicide bombers rushed the Anglican All Saints Church in Peshawar, and in Kenya, where an assault on a Catholic church in Wajir left one dead and two injured.

Those atrocities are indeed appalling, but they cannot truly be understood without being seen as small pieces of a much larger narrative. Consider three points about the landscape of anti-Christian persecution today, as shocking as they are generally unknown. According to the International Society for Human Rights, a secular observatory based in Frankfurt, Germany, 80 per cent of all acts of religious discrimination in the world today are directed at Christians. Statistically speaking, that makes Christians by far the most persecuted religious body on the planet.

According to the Pew Forum, between 2006 and 2010 Christians faced some form of discrimination, either de jure or de facto, in a staggering total of 139 nations, which is almost three-quarters of all the countries on earth. According to the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Massachusetts, an average of 100,000 Christians have been killed in what the centre calls a ‘situation of witness’ each year for the past decade. That works out to 11 Christians killed somewhere in the world every hour, seven days a week and 365 days a year, for reasons related to their faith.

(more…)

Continue ReadingThe war on Christians – The global persecution of Christians is the unreported catastrophe of our time