Judge rules Bible ‘incompatible with human dignity’

October 4, 2019 — WND.com reports: “An Employment Tribunal in the United Kingdom has ruled that the biblical doctrine that people are created male and female is ‘incompatible with human dignity’ and those who follow it can be fired from their jobs on that basis.

The stunning decision came in a doctor’s challenge to his dismissal for failing to use female pronouns for a man.

David Mackereth, 56, argued he ‘holds to the principles of the Great Reformation of the 16th Century including a commitment to the supremacy of the Bible as the infallible, inerrant word of God as his final authority in all matters of faith and practice.’

He said he believed in the truth of Genesis 1:27, which says human beings are born male and female.

The panel, however, ruled that ‘belief in Genesis 1:27, lack of belief in transgenderism and conscientious objection to transgenderism in our judgment are incompatible with human dignity and conflict with the fundamental rights of others, specifically here, transgender individuals.’

Mackereth, represented by the Christian Legal Center, lost his position with the Department for Work and Pensions after refusing to use transgender pronouns…” (“This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.  For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as their’s also was… But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.  But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.  All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works” – II Timothy 3:1-9; 13-17 [emphasis mine].)

Report: Southeast Asia a ‘Regional Hotspot’ for Growing Christian Persecution

October 25, 2019 — Breitbart.com reports: “Persecution of Christians in Southeast Asia, particularly in Sri Lanka and Pakistan, has grown in severity over two years, according to a report from Aid to the Church in Need published Wednesday.

The report, entitled Persecuted and Forgotten?, found that Southeast Asia has now become a ‘regional hot spot’ for Christian persecution. Perhaps the worst persecution takes place in Pakistan, where the abuse of the country’s strict blasphemy laws has left Christian minorities subject to violent persecution.

Since their inception in 1986, at least 224 Christians have fallen victim to the country’s blasphemy laws, which carry a death sentence in cases where the accused are convicted of insulting Muhammad’s person. The most recent case was that of Asia Bibi, who after a decade on death row was finally acquitted by the Supreme Court in October 2018. After being targeted by Islamist mobs, she was forced into hiding but successfully managed to leave the country in May 2019 to start a new life with her family in Canada…” (If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.  If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.  Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.  But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me.  If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin.  He that hateth me hateth my Father also.  If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father.  But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.  But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:  And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning” – John 15:18-27.)

Syrian Christians Fear Persecution During Turkey Offensive

October 14, 2019 — Voice of America News reports: “As the Turkish military and its allied Syrian rebels continue their operation against U.S.-backed Kurdish forces in northeast Syria, Christian communities in the region fear that the Turkish-led offensive is threatening their very existence in the war-torn country.

On the first day of the Turkish offensive, which began on Wednesday, a Turkish artillery attack reportedly targeted a predominately-Christian neighborhood in Qamishli, the largest city in northeast Syria. 

According to local sources, Ayeda Habsono and her husband, Fadi, were severely wounded in the attack that hit their house. Several other residents were also wounded.

On Friday, the Virgin Lady Church in the town of Qahtaniya, near Qamishli, was also hit by Turkish shelling, local news said. Parts of the building were destroyed…” (Christians who suffer and die for Christ will receive the “Crown of Life” to place at the feet of Jesus – James 1:12; Revelation 2:10.  The 24 elders represent 12 Old Testament Tribes and 12 New Testament Apostles – saved Jews and redeemed Christians.  In Revelation 4: 10 & 11 they cast their earned crowns before the Lord Jesus Christ.  See the next two reports.)

Christians in India are ‘living mostly in fear at present’

October 3, 2019 — ChristianToday.com reports: “Christians in India are living in a climate of fear because of a hostile state and a minority of radicals who don’t want them in the country, a bishop has warned.

Bishop Kishore Kumar Kujur, of Rourkela in Odisha, eastern India, told Aid to the Church in Need that the government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi was being supported by anti-minority ‘right-wing’ groups and that it was ‘causing problems’ for Christians.

‘Christians are living mostly in fear at present – much more in the north, where they are a minority,’ he said.

The bishop said that, in general, Christians in India are ‘seen as foreigners and as not belonging to India’.

‘We are told to go back to where we came from,’ he said…”

Boko Haram executes two Christian aid workers in Nigeria

October 3, 2019 — ChristianToday.com reports: “Islamic extremist group Boko Haram released a video last week showing the execution of two Christian aid workers in Nigeria, sources said.

Lawrence Duna Dacighir and Godfrey Ali Shikagham, both members of the Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN) in Plateau state, are shown kneeling while three masked, armed men stand behind them in a video posted Sept. 22 on Boko Haram’s Amaq news agency site. The two young men, who had gone to Maiduguri to help build shelters for people displaced by Islamic extremist violence, are then shot from behind.

Speaking in the Hausa language, the middle one of the three terrorists says in the video that they have vowed to kill every Christian they capture in revenge for Muslims killed in past religious conflicts in Nigeria. Dacighir and Shikagham, originally from Plateau state’s Mangu County, were captured by Boko Haram, now called the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP), as they carried out their work in displaced persons camps…”