YouTube Removes John MacArthur’s Latest Sermon on Biblical Sexuality, Labels It ‘Hate Speech’

January 21, 2022 — ChristianHeadlines.com reports: “YouTube has removed a recent sermon by Pastor John MacArthur in which he talks about biblical sexuality and asserts that God made humans as ‘male and female.’

According to CBN News, MacArthur, who leads Grace Community Church in Los Angeles, CA, preached a sermon as part of a nationwide protest against a new Canadian law banning conversion therapy.

‘There is no such thing as transgender,’ MacArthur said at the pulpit on Sunday. You are either XX or XY, that’s it. God made man male and female. That is determined genetically, that is physiology, that is science, that is reality.’

‘On the one hand, the reality of that lie and deception is so damaging, so destructive, so isolating, so corrupting that it needs to be confronted, but on the other hand, that confrontation can’t exaggerate what already exists, which is a sense of feeling isolated in relationships,’ he added.

Pastors and church leaders expressed concern that the broad language in Canada’s C-4 Bill, which went into effect on January 8, could lead to the prohibition of sermons on biblical sexuality…”  (Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! – Isaiah 5:20.  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 – II Timothy 3:1-5.  See the next report.) 

UK MPs concerned for Finnish Christian politician on trial for sexuality beliefs

January 21, 2022 — ChristianToday.com reports: “Three Christian MPs have launched a motion in the House of Commons in support of Päivi Räsänen, the Finnish politician facing trial next week for her belief in traditional marriage.

Democratic Unionist MPs Gregory Campbell, Paul Girvan and Jim Shannon, representing constituencies in Northern Ireland, are behind the Early Day Motion (EDM), which they tabled this week to attract signatures from fellow MPs.

The motion highlights Räsänen’s ‘quoted and reported comments before the court case that she will not back down from her views and will not be intimidated into hiding her faith, and the more Christians keep silent on controversial themes, the narrower the space for freedom of speech gets’.

It expresses concern ‘at the potential implications of that case for other countries’ and ‘further notes the range of non-Christian groups and individuals who have criticised the decision to prosecute’.

Finland’s Prosecutor General has brought three criminal charges against Christian Democrat MP Räsänen over a pamphlet she wrote on marriage and sexuality in 2004, for engaging in a debate on a 2019 radio show, and for a tweet picturing Bible verses she directed at her Lutheran church leadership over its support for a Pride march…”

Afghanistan replaces North Korea as most dangerous place to be a Christian

January 20, 2022 — ChristianToday.com reports: “Afghanistan has topped the Open Doors 2022 World Watch List of the 50 countries where Christians face the worst persecution.

North Korea was number one on the list for 20 years but the devastating fallout from the Taliban takeover has pushed Afghanistan to the top spot.

Open Doors warned of Christian men ‘facing almost certain death’ if their faith is discovered. For women and girls, the price of their faith is being married to young Taliban fighters as the ‘spoils of war’, or being trafficked. 

The Taliban are using existing intelligence to actively track down Christians, going door-to-door to find them. Once discovered, they are often detained in order to identify more Christians. Then they are killed, Open Doors said. 

Much of the tiny, hidden Christian population of Afghanistan has now fled to rural regions or refugee camps in neighbouring countries, according to the human rights group, but many of these countries are also hostile to Christians…”  (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 have 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 your 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.  These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended.  They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me – John 15:18 – 24; 16:1 – 3.)

Islamic Rage Against the Christian Cross

December 28, 2021 — PJMEdia.com reports: “Christian elementary school students in an Egyptian school were recently ‘beaten up by teachers and fellow students after the headmaster ordered all Christian students to remove any jewelry bearing a cross [and they refused],’ to quote from a Nov. 21, 2021 report. In one incident, a female teacher ‘attacked a Christian student, then encouraged other students to do the same, take his cross pendant from him and destroy the cross.’

At least these latest bouts of anti-cross rage were not fatal, as others in Egypt were. In 2011, 17-year-old Ayman, a Christian student, was strangled and beaten to death by his Muslim teacher and fellow students for refusing to obey the teacher’s demand that he cover his cross. When the school’s principal was informed of the attack, he ignored it and ‘continued to sip his tea.’…

What is it about the crucifix that makes some Muslims react violently? For starters, not only is it the symbol of Christianity for all denominations; it also symbolizes the fundamental disagreement between Christians and Muslims. As Historian Sidney Griffith explains, ‘[t]he cross … publicly declared those very points of Christian faith which the Koran, in the Muslim view, explicitly denied: that Christ was the Son of God and that he died on the cross.’ Accordingly, the cross ‘often aroused the disdain of Muslims,’ so that from the start of the seventh-century Muslim conquests of Christian lands there was an ongoing ‘campaign to erase the public symbols of Christianity, especially the previously ubiquitous sign of the cross.’…”  (The clash between the Cross and the Crescent has been in existence for centuries.  Dr. Erwin Lutzer wrote in his book The Cross in the Shadow of the Crescent: “We should note that Muslims were destroying crosses long before the Crusades… When Muslim invaders entered Jerusalem in 637, they did away with all crosses and would not allow them to be displayed.  The symbol that lies at the heart of the Christian faith was utterly abolished.  And that’s the way it has been ever since.”  See the next report.)

Islamic Raiders Kill 28 Christians in South Sudan

January 14, 2022 — Breitbart.com reports: “Islamist extremists raided the Christian community of Yinh Pabol in South Sudan, killing at least 28 residents and torching 57 houses in early January, the Barnabas Fund reported this week.

Bishop Joseph Mamer Manot of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan (ECSS) said that the attack caused ‘massive displacement,’ adding that ‘the humanitarian situation is alarming as food and other property have been burned down into ashes, leaving survivors with no shelters, no food and no safe drinking water.’

In its report, the Barnabas Fund said the attack is the latest example of violent assaults on South Sudanese Christians by Muslim Massiriya tribesmen from the Republic of Sudan, along the disputed border separating the two countries…”