Friday, April 13, 2018

How God Deals With Nations # 2

The power of God in the hearth of atheism 

I was checking the latest news about the Syrian crisis, and was caught in the secular geopolitical mood: Trump, Putin, cruise missiles, F 22 and S 400 and on and on and on. But when I gave a little look about the situation in China as pertain the churches, I suddenly awoke from that intoxicant smoke.
I felt deeply ashamed - after having being shocked by this video. This doesn't mean that you see in it a footage of an Alien abduction or Isis' butchers chopping humans alive. You see something that most of the people in our Western civilization consider simply "highly boring" stuff. Or deserving of soft scorn. At the opposite, after seeing that, I feel to be not deserving the mercy of God, I feel to be only lukewarm water, constantly in danger to be spitted from the mouth of the Lord (Rev. 3:16) . A wannabe Christian, a disgusting insect hanging from the hand of God over the flames of Hell (Jonathan Edwards). Worse than the worst of these believers:

Above video - Underground Churches in China...Rare Video Clip, URL: https://youtu.be/CcCHInA6UMg

The video contains what I believe to be Pentecostal meetings. Speak in tongues doesn't seem to be represented. I know perfectly that today the speaking in tongue, after the Scripture has been written down and is accessible to all, is no more a feature of the Christian faith. But there's a strong allusion to something other in the video. The speaker tells that "they have not a Bible". I believe this is a warning of God to us, who are plenty of Bibles with the most various references and commentaries. But in our "Christian" civilized Western world are everyday more lukewarm water.

The persecution of independent more or less Biblical Christian churches in Russia and China, a persecution which involves any other kind of cult outside the national religion, seems to be a trend that will not stop, but extend all over the world. In Italy one of the two winners of the political elections is a fan of Putin's Russia, Matteo Salvini. He invited Italian entrepreneurs to plant business - not churches, in the secessionist pro Russian republics of Donbass. He represents the trend in Europe towards the "one nation, one people, one church". 

https://www.stopfake.org/it/la-lega-nord-invita-veneti-e-lombardi-a-delocalizzare-le-loro-aziende-in-ucraina/

Just one shell kills some Italian businesmen in Donbass. They don't need to disguise as "Ukrainan forces", just exhibit the Russian original uniform. When pro-Russian guys will say "Ukrainian disguised as Russsians!" to "give the blame on us!", don't worry, all the world will believe it.  The day after the Italian parliament votes to exit Nato. Americans kicked out. The Italian peninsula becomes the admiral ship of the Russian fleet in the Mediterranean. 
Of course this one is  only a speculation. I don't do that in order to refresh the geopolitical cospirationism as political fight.  This simply could be what God has in store for us. Jesus warned us, how much we are intelligent to understand the signs of the weather, but fully blind to see the signs of the times.

Therefore is this trend something we should fight as secular, political soldier, or accept as Christian soldier facing with dignity persecution? Rather, isn't God, taking away the freedom and the guarantee in which we are sleeping our faith,  awaking us? We started to love too much this world, and its protective institutions, till the point where we forgot that it is the faith that keep us standing and not a liberal constitution. There are certain moment in (His)story where He puts you in front of a choice: Or you march towards the crown of glory of the persecution and martyrdom, or towards Hell, there's no middle way.
 
The rising of Christian faith outside the Western world is a sign against the Western world. We lukewarm Westerner will be spitted from the mouth of the Lord.
And if for a moment you think well, you understand why Atheist Communist China needs the Western world values, our values: covetousness, idolatry of money, consumerism and Evolutionistic Edonism. Or the intellectual vanity. The coming of our Lord is everyday nearer and Satan desperately tries everything to escape that moment. In the past he tried to substitute the loving and saving presence of Jesus in our lives with the one of a sinful human person: the pope, the priest, the political leader. Today Satan invites his victims to substitute Jesus with the same proper self.  YOU, Western Christian, watch again the above video and ponder: how long will endure the patience of God for me? Am I ready to go in the eternal depths of Hell, or meet the Lord in the air?

Tuesday, April 10, 2018
China banning online Bible sales ‘absurd’ [article]
http://spirithismouth.blogspot.it/2018/04/china-banning-online-bible-sales-absurd.html
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Tuesday, April 10, 2018

How God Deals With Nations # 1

 [this post will be edited in the format]

We see form the chronicles of our days, a special hatred between what seems to be the reborn Byzantine empire (Russia and her allies), and the religious descendant of the Ottoman destroyers of the old Byzantine empire. Is this a common sense of vengeance transmitted down generation by generation by the defeated side of the clash, or we can extract from it a more heavy Biblical teaching?

Nerve gas used in Syria attack, leaving victims ‘foaming at the mouth,’ evidence suggests
By Liz Sly, Suzan Haidamous and Asma Ajroudi April 10 at 6:12 PM Email the author
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/witness-to-syrian-chemical-attack-bodies-cold-and-stiff-mouths-foaming/2018/04/10/3787693c-3cc5-11e8-955b-7d2e19b79966_story.html?utm_term=.028dfd176a6d

The Byzantine empire has ever been associated with the iconoclastic/idolater clash:

Iconoclastic Controversy, a dispute over the use of religious images (icons) in the Byzantine Empire in the 8th and 9th centuries. The Iconoclasts (those who rejected images) objected to icon veneration for several reasons, including the Old Testament prohibition against images in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:4) and the possibility of idolatry. The defenders of the use of icons insisted on the symbolic nature of images and on the dignity of created matter.
https://www.britannica.com/event/Iconoclastic-Controversy

The involvement of the Paulician is evident, due to the temporal cohabitation of both 'problems' for the Orthodox idolatry. We'll deal with the Paulicians in a following post. Here it is marked the connection between the staunch idolatry of the Byzantine empire which caused countless multitudes of victims among the Biblical Christians, and the century later following definitive punishment of the Orthodox idolatry with the demons of Islam:

Fall of Constantinople, (29 May 1453). After ten centuries of wars, defeats, and victories, the Byzantine Empire came to an end when Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks in May 1453. The city’s fall sent shock waves throughout Christendom. It is widely quoted as the event that marked the end of the European Middle Ages.
https://www.britannica.com/event/Fall-of-Constantinople-1453

From this lesson of history, learned through the lenses of the Bible, and especially the OT, we understand the relation of the Islam heresy with God's plan. Islam is still allowed in the world as warning, example and punishment for the apostasy and heresy in the s.c. Christian nations. As an allegory of the future (the writing blogger is a "Jesuitical" Futurist (ironic sense of ""), i.e. he reads the book of Revelation in a literal sense, refusing historical allegories), the "Islamic hordes" are a perfect forewarning of the still to come at the End Day(s) Locusts and of the related punishment inflicted by God.

Coming back to our idolatrous and Christian-persecuter Byzantine empire, it is now, after the above presented considerations, easy to see in the 1453 fall of Costantinople the wrath of God for the countless victims of the Byzantine idolatry, especially the proto-Baptist Paulicians. The idolaters had uncircumcised ears, and refused to hear the Lord, therefore God allowed the Devil to talk to them. With the Islamic conquest, the Devil told them about the warning of the Second Commandment about idolatry. But not in heavanly language, rather in the language of that Hell whose reality has been mocked by those idolatrous Byzantines, when murdering Christians who refused to worship Orthodox idols.

God wanted the OT as fundamental of the Bible for the gentile nations, not because they learn "how they are better than the Jews" (God doesn't instigate pride and self-righteousness!!), but simply to learn from the Jewish history in order to not repeat their error. God, throught the mouth of Jeremiah, didn't speak only to the Jews of those times, is still actually speaking to us, Gentiles of our days:


19 Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people because of them that dwell in a far country: Is not the LORD in Zion? is not her king in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, and with strange vanities? Jeremiah 8:9

15 Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far, O house of Israel, saith the LORD: it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou knowest not, neither understandest what they say.
16 Their quiver is as an open sepulchre, they are all mighty men. Jeremiah 5:15-16

How God Deals With Nations # 0

Friday, February 23, 2018
The "paradise" of Darwinism, Evolutionism and apostasy: Sweden [on How God Deals With The Blasphemous Nations Today]
http://spirithismouth.blogspot.it/2018/02/the-pardise-of-darwinism-evolutionism.html
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China banning online Bible sales ‘absurd’ [article]

"Other religious texts, including those belonging to Islam, Taoism and Buddhism, were still available on JD, Taobao and Amazon – the three largest online retailers in China. But none has the Bible available."
........

From 


April 10 2018 by Aaron Earls, Facts & Trends
URL: https://brnow.org/News/April-2018/China-banning-online-Bible-sales-absurd

China is purportedly the largest publisher of Bibles in the world, but the communist nation has now apparently blocked online Bible purchases for its residents.

Beginning last week, searches for Bibles at leading online retailers in China came up empty, according to reports from The New York Times and CNN.

The reports indicate certain Bible studies or illustrated storybooks were available through searches. Two merchants told CNN the Bible could be purchased through private messages, but public listings were now “impossible.”

China has historically restricted in-person Bible sales to state-sponsored channels and government-run churches, but online sales presented a loophole of sorts for Christians within the growing underground church movement.

That loophole has now apparently been closed as part of increased religious freedom restrictions – particularly against Christians.

Other religious texts, including those belonging to Islam, Taoism and Buddhism, were still available on JD, Taobao and Amazon – the three largest online retailers in China. But none has the Bible available.

Still, The New York Times reports that Chinese publishers have printed 160 million copies of the Bible and export it to more than 100 countries. About half of those are published in Chinese.

According to the Financial Times, the largest Bible factory in the world is in Nanjing, China, and run by the Amity Foundation, a government-sanctioned Protestant charity.

“In 2012, we celebrated production of the 100 millionth copy,” Qui Zhonghui, president of Amity, told The Telegraph. “It took 20 years to print the first 50 million copies, but the second 50 million took just five years.”

Yet the online ban is part of a troubling trend for Christians in the communist nation, as government pressure appears to be increasing.

William Nee, a China researcher at Amnesty International, told CNN there is “a broader trend under President Xi Jinping to more tightly control religion, especially Christianity. It’s absurd that the government claims to promote religious freedom at the same time that they’re banning the sale of Bibles.”

The New York Times reports more than 1,500 crosses were removed from churches from 2014 to 2016 in a Chinese province with close ties to Xi. Earlier this year, Chinese authorities reportedly destroyed several church buildings, including one where 50,000 Christians worshiped.

China ranks as the 43rd worst nation for Christians on Open Door’s most recent World Watch List.

Despite increased persecution, Christianity is projected to continue experiencing explosive growth in China.

According to projections from the Center for the Study of Global Christianity, by 2020 China will have around 148 million Christians – or as many as Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom combined.

(EDITOR’S NOTE – Aaron Earls is online editor of Facts & Trends, factsandtrends.net.)
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Thursday, March 15, 2018
Will Satan plan the next Tien An Man massacre in Cina targeting Bible believers with a Catho- Communist alliance?
http://spirithismouth.blogspot.it/2018/03/will-satan-plan-next-tien-man-massacre.html
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