Chinese Christians Persecuted by Communist Regime Forced to Destroy Church Crosses or Face Punishment

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Chinese Christians Persecuted by Communist Regime Forced to Destroy Church Crosses or Face Punishment

Christians in China (Photo: Reuters/Kim Kyung-Hoon)

Christian Post Report – Believers take part in a weekend mass at an underground Catholic church in Tianjin November 10, 2013.

Chinese Christians across several congregations are facing the choice of voluntarily dismantling the crosses on their own churches, or seeing government officials come in and forcibly demolish them, reports have said.

China Aid reported that the number of church crosses demolished in Zhejiang since the beginning of 2016 has risen to 49, as the Communist Party continues to send soldiers to churches across several provinces to take down their crosses.

Churches in Zhejiang have been given official notices telling them that they have to comply to the orders and take down the crosses, which the government argues is due to building code violations.

ChinaAid and several other persecution watchdog groups have pointed out, however, that the cross removal campaign, which has led to several pastors and hundreds of Christians being temporarily arrested, is in reality linked to the government’s attempts to control the rising Christian population in the country.

The report detailed several instances of churches receiving similar notices, and the consequences they have suffered for refusing to comply. Zhongchang Church in Wenzhou for instance has had its water and electricity cut.

Hai’an Church, also in Wenzhou, refused to take down its cross, which led to the local government sending 100 officers to forcefully demolish the cross on March 4.

In some cases, however, such as Luxi Church, the congregants blocked the entrance and stayed together and prayed, singing Christian songs, which on March 1 forced the demolition crew to cancel the demolition in order to avoid an accident.

The Chinese government has been tightening its grip on Christianity in a number of different ways. Earlier in March it was revealed that Roman Catholic officials will soon be required to carry around ID cards stating their faith, which groups such as the International Christian Concern have compared to “Nazi-like” requirements.

China’s two government-controlled Catholic organizations have also agreed to ordain bishops “under the leadership of the government,” something with the Vatican strongly opposes, as it argues that church leaders should be chosen by the church, and not by the ruling government.

The crackdown on church crosses has also led to very high-profile arrests, such as the formal charge against Pastor Gu Yuese of Hangzhou’s Chongyi Church, the largest government sanctioned church in China.

While Gu has officially been charged with embezzling church finds, China Aid President Bob Fu told The Christian Post in February that in reality Gu is being punished for speaking out against the removal of crosses.

“It will shake the spirit of the government-sanctioned church leaders and the congregations throughout China. All these factors will have a ripple effect,” Fu told CP about the megachurch leader’s arrest.

He added about the Communist Party: “The top leadership is increasingly worried about the rapid growth of Christian faith and their public presence, and their social influence.”

Source : Christian Post

Finding Your Way Through Doubt

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Finding Your Way Through Doubt

Finding Your Way Through Doubt

Christian Post Report – Doubt has been an unwelcome yet close companion of mine since stepping foot onto the Narrow Path. Just a few short weeks after surrendering my heart to Jesus, my mind was running rampant with questions and concerns.

Is this God the true God? Why do we believe the Bible? Where did the Bible even come from? Who wrote it? Who pieced it together? How can we know Jesus really did and said all the things recorded in the gospels? How can we know for sure he resurrected from the dead? How can I know for sure this is all legit?

Read more at http://www.christianpost.com/news/jesus-isnt-angry-at-your-doubt-bible-faith-skepticism-157448/#ZPeC1uxxvhwwO6dR.99

Source : Christian Post

Is Trump Feeding a Hunger for Authoritarianism?

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Is Trump Feeding a Hunger for Authoritarianism?

Is Trump Feeding A Hunger For Authoritarianism?

Christian Post Report – Many Americans are in search of an authoritarian rather than a president.

The hunger for authoritarianism is the outcome of an age of chaos and political uncertainty. For some, the modern presidency peaked in Ronald Reagan, then slid into a visionless flatland in George H.W. Bush, plunged into a nettled wilderness in Bill Clinton, galloped off into wild-west adventurism in George W. Bush, and finally foundered in the doldrums in Barack Obama.

Enter Donald Trump, the man who says he can fix it all. The New York billionaire, real estate mogul, casino impresario, and Barnum-esque orator, has spewed up like hot magma and poured out across the political landscape, setting things ablaze.

As the Icelandic landmass thunderously testifies, glaciers are born of fire. Down in earth’s depths the cauldron burns, and gushes fiery rivers of lava into the coldness of the far north. Eventually the lava hardens into rock. The bitter cold takes over and heaves up an island that calves glaciers.

The 1960s Cultural Revolution was the fiery upheaval that ultimately hardened into the glacial authoritarianism of the PC movement of our time. Many American campuses reveal the hunger for PC authoritarianism. Students must have safe places where ideas are prohibited that might shatter their presuppositions and shake their pet ideologies. Trigger warnings must alert young minds of potential threats to their cherished myths. Open-mindedness, free inquiry and speech have been frozen out by student and professorial mobs and their determination to chill debate.

Read more at http://www.christianpost.com/news/donald-trump-authoritarianism-president-election-158991/#GEovuHwDqOLBFcm4.99

Source : Christian Post

Biden Affirms Obama’s Support for Israel After Iran Tests 2 Missiles With Message: ‘Israel Must Be Wiped Out’

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Biden Affirms Obama’s Support for Israel After Iran Tests 2 Missiles With Message: ‘Israel Must Be Wiped Out’

Christian Post Report – The reason we designed our missiles with a range of 2,000 km is to be able to hit our enemy the Zionist regime from a safe distance,” Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh said in a statement.

“We will not be the ones who start a war, but we will not be taken by surprise, so we put our facilities somewhere that our enemies cannot destroy them so that we could continue long war,” Hajizadeh claimed.

Iran’s recent missile test has drawn condemnation from the United States, which threatened to impose new sanctions on the Middle Eastern country if it continues with these experiments.

Earlier this year, Iran and the U.S., along with other world powers, reached an agreement that involved the lifting of economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic as long as it agreed to reduce its nuclear arms program.

Biden, who is visiting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week, said Wednesday, according to CNN, that if Iran breaks its part of the nuclear deal, the U.S. will have no choice but to take action.

“A nuclear-armed Iran is an absolutely unacceptable threat to Israel, to the region and the United States. And I want to reiterate which I know people still doubt here. If in fact they break the deal, we will act,” Biden said.

U.S. officials confirmed this week that while the recent test did not violate the nuclear arms deal, it likely violated the United Nations’ Security Council resolutions that ban the regime from launching or testing ballistic missiles.

Abbas Araqchi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister, said in a statement to Iranian officials in Tehran Tuesday that the country will back out of the nuclear deal if it does not serve Iran’s “national interests.”

“If our interests are not met under the nuclear deal, there will be no reason for us to continue,” Araqchi said.

As Iran carried out its missile tests, Biden met with Netanyahu in Jerusalem, where the vice president pledged the U.S.’s continued support to Israel following a spate of terror attacks carried out by Palestinians this week.

“There can be no justification for this hateful violence and the United States stands firmly behind Israel’s right to defend itself,” Biden said Wednesday, NBC News reports.

Source : Christian Post

Duggar Family Speaks Out About Josh: ‘We Forgive Him, But the Trust Isn’t There’

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Duggar Family Speaks Out About Josh: ‘We Forgive Him, But the Trust Isn’t There’

Christian Post Report – Josh Duggar at the Family Leadership Summit in Ames, Iowa on May 28, 2015

Members of the Duggar family have spoken about their life after Josh’s scandal, saying that while they forgive him, the trust “just isn’t there.”

The family, which previously starred on the TLC reality show “19 Kids and Counting,” received national media attention after it was revealed that 28-year-old Josh, son to Michelle and Jim Bob, had molested multiple underage girls while in his teens.

Additionally, Josh held accounts on the Ashley Madison extramarital affairs website. He is married to wife Anna, with whom he shares four children.

Jessa Duggar, Josh’s sister and also one of his victims, told People Magazine in an interview this week that she has gone through the process of forgiving Josh.

“I definitely have forgiven Josh. It is a process, though, that you have to work through in your heart,” Jessa, who shares an infant son with husband Ben Seewald, told the media outlet.

“And trust is not quickly rebuilt. It is something that takes a while. We love him very much, though, and we are very hopeful for the future,” Jessa said.

Younger sister Joy added: “I have forgiven him and I feel that, but the trust is not there.”

Jessa, Joy, and other members of the Duggar clan are set to star in a new TLC spinoff series, “Jill and Jessa: Couting On,” that will follow the lives of Jill and husband Derick Dillard as they raise their child, Israel, and participate in missionary work in South America, and Jessa and Ben as they raise their son Spurgeon.

The TLC network released a promotional video for the new spinoff series in late February, in which Jessa explains that “2015 was a very difficult year” for her family.

“We’ve shared this journey with the world,” Jessa says in the video, adding “Family is everything.”

Since his scandal went public last year, Josh Duggar has spent the past six months in a Christian rehabilitation clinic, with media outlets speculating that he is staying at the Reformers Unanimous healing program in Rockford, Illinois.

In August 2015, Josh released a statement on the Duggar family website that acknowledged a pornography addiction and his past molestation allegations.

“I have been the biggest hypocrite ever. While espousing faith and family values, I have secretly over the last several years been viewing pornography on the internet and this became a secret addiction and I became unfaithful to my wife,” Duggar wrote in a portion of the post that was later removed.

“I am so ashamed of the double life that I have been living and am grieved for the hurt, pain and disgrace my sin has caused my wife and family, and most of all Jesus and all those who profess faith in Him,” Duggar added.

Josh’s wife, Anna, will also make an appearance on the upcoming spinoff series, which is set to premiere on March 15.

A promotional video for the new series shows Anna loading a suitcase and her child’s car seat into a vehicle as she tells the camera “I don’t know what I’m stepping into.”

“I don’t know how to handle each situation,” Anna adds as she presumably prepares to visit Josh at his rehab facility.

Source : Christian Post

Franklin Graham, Christian Leaders to Hold World Summit in Defense of Persecuted Christians in Moscow

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Franklin Graham, Christian Leaders to Hold World Summit in Defense of Persecuted Christians in Moscow
The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and the Russian Orthodox Church will be hosting a summit on religious persecution in Moscow, the Rev. Franklin Graham announced today.

“I was in Russia this past October and met with Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, and evangelical leaders, and we discussed at length the persecution of the Church worldwide,” Graham wrote  in a Facebook message Wednesday, explaining the roots of the summit, which will be held in October.

“The World Summit in Defense of Persecuted Christians will shed a global spotlight on this crisis. We will bring delegates from around the world and will be able to join hands with people of other churches and denominations of the Christian faith to pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ and to hear firsthand reports of the suffering that is taking place.”

Graham also referenced the Orthodox Church’s own history of persecution, especially during most of the 20th century under Communism.

“In the years under Communist rule, virtually all of the priests, pastors, and church leaders in Russia were imprisoned or executed by the Communists, and their graves are on the outskirts of Moscow and throughout the country serving as a reminder,” continued Graham.

“No church in modern history has suffered more than the church in Russia. … So Moscow will be a fitting and meaningful location for this much-needed summit.”

 

“It is no longer just a Christian problem, but a global problem that must be addressed. … As the dominant power in the free world, [the U.S.] must lead the charge in bringing more relief and aid to those suffering.”

The summit comes as a collaboration between two groups, evangelicals and Orthodox, who have not always been on good terms.

Christian Post Report – 1990s, the Church has grown in size and influence as its relationship with the Russian government has improved significantly. However, that cozy relationship worries the country’s evangelicals,” reported CBN.

“The Orthodox Church’s biggest competitors are the evangelical, charismatic congregations, which are experiencing tremendous growth.”

Source : Christian Post

Anne Graham Lotz: I’m an ‘Evangelical Feminist;’ ‘No Billy Graham Without Ruth’

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Anne Graham Lotz: I’m an ‘Evangelical Feminist;’ ‘No Billy Graham Without Ruth’
Christian Post Report – Anne Graham Lotz, the daughter of evangelist Billy Graham, said that she is honored to call herself an “evangelical feminist,” sharing that she was raised in a strong evangelical home where women were well respected.

“If ‘evangelical feminism,’ means women who know what they believe, who are strong in their convictions, who are bold in their actions, who are courageous to stand up and speak out for Jesus Christ while being godly wives and mothers, then I celebrate them today,” Lotz wrote on Tuesday, which was International Women’s Day.

“And I would be honored to be counted in their number,” she added.

Observed around the world, IWD has been recognized since the early 1990s, and focuses on celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women.

Lotz admitted that she was not sure what “evangelical feminism” meant when she first heard about it years ago, but now offers a definition of the term on her website:

“An evangelical feminist is a woman who is a strong, bold, free-spirited leader inside and outside of her home, unashamed of her faith in God, His Word, His Son, and His Gospel. With that definition, I would identify myself as an evangelical feminist.”

She reflected that she was raised in an evangelical home where “women were respected, honored, and who held significant positions of leadership,” sharing with readers various accounts of the achievements of the women in her family.

Lotz also said that her mother, Ruth Graham, could also have been considered an evangelical feminist.

“I am convinced there would not be a Billy Graham as we have known him, if there hadn’t been a Ruth Graham beside him. She never felt staying home to raise five children a demeaning burden. Instead, she considered it the highest privilege she could be given,” Lotz continued.

“She was an artist, a pianist, an intellect who read everything available, and an authority on early American log cabins. She cared for sick neighbors, stayed in touch with missionary friends, helped my father write his many best-selling books, supervised the running of a large, unique household so that my father was free to give full attention to his preaching, learned to ride a Harley-Davidson and to hang-glide.”

Elaborating on the “evangelical feminists” term, she pointed to numerous important female figures in the Bible, from Eve all the way to the Virgin Mary.

Lotz reminded readers that Mary was “singled out by God for her purity, integrity, piety, and humility to be the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ,” and noted also the story of Mary Magdalene, a woman with a “sinful past, who was commissioned by the risen Lord Jesus Christ Himself to be the first evangelist to the world.”

Lotz shares daily devotionals and reflections on her website and her Facebook page, offering Bible-based advice for Christians in their daily lives.

Source : Christian Post

‘Duck Dynasty’s Willie and Korie Robertson Speak on ‘Importance of Being Real’ at NewSpring Church Q&A

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‘Duck Dynasty’s Willie and Korie Robertson Speak on ‘Importance of Being Real’ at NewSpring Church Q&A

Christian Post Report – Duck Dynasty reality TV stars Willie and Korie Robertson pose with NewSpring Church Senior Pastor Perry Noble during a visit to the church for Q&A session, Anderson, South Carolina, March 6, 2016.

“Duck Dynasty” couple Willie and Korie Robertson spoke at Perry Noble’s South Carolina-based NewSpring Church Sunday to share their faith and reveal how God has impacted their family in a live Q&A session.

Noble highlighted 10 points from his interview with the reality stars that he shared on the church’s website, which included the Robertson’s messages on God, family, character and “being real” despite life in the limelight.

“Being real is more important than being perfect,” Noble shared as his No. 1 takeaway from the reality stars. Known for their down-to-earth personas on the popular reality TV show, Willie and Korie Robertson advocate for being one’s true self, despite fame and notoriety.

Korie Robertson took this point a step further — saying that her and her husband’s fame really wasn’t about them — in a video clip from the interview, which she posted to Twitter. The reality star discussed the couple’s new-found fame, saying, “From the very beginning, we still remind ourselves [of] this often, is that it’s not about us. Like, this show, this success, this fame — any of it — is not about us,” she said. “It’s really about giving God the glory and pointing people to Him, and shining a light in this world.”

The Robertsons are known as a family of believers, and Noble highlighted their belief in allowing one’s life to be a witness for Christ as he summarized another of the couple’s positive messages, “Living with good character is a powerful example of following Jesus.”

Willie and Korie Robertson also believe that families should work together. The Robertson family is a prime example of a family that works in one accord as they have owned and operated Louisiana-based Duck Commander — a manufacturer of duck calls and duck-hunting merchandise — since the early 1970s. Noble reiterated Willie and Korie’s belief in a united family when he wrote, “A family gets stronger when everyone works together.”

Earlier this year, the couple announced announced their plans to adopt another son. In a post on socil media to her fans, Korie said the couple have decided to adopt a 13-year-old boy who has reportedly been living with the family since May.

“We’ve had lots of questions about the cute kid popping up in our photos lately. We are excited to be in the process of adopting a new son! He’s been with us since May, but we wanted some privacy and time for him and our family to bond before telling the world,” Robertson wrote on Instagram.

In 2013, the Robertsons spoke at the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute in Washington, D.C. for making the decision to adopt their son, Will, and for promoting adoption at events throughout the United States.

Willie and Korie “have twice restored the hope of a family to a child in distress and are vocal advocates of adoption,” CCAI Executive Director Kathleen Strottman said in a statement to The Christian Post at the time.

“I think it’s important for people to know that we adopted Will before we became rich and famous,” said Willie, who was recognized as one of CCAI’s National Angels in Adoption at the awards gala. “I say that because I think sometimes people think that only the rich and famous have what it takes, the money, the staff, to give a home to a child. But the truth is anyone can do it, once you have committed to make that kind of difference in a child’s life. It’s one of the best things I’ve ever done.”

Willie and Korie have six children: John Luke, Will, Sadie, Bella and Rebecca. John Luke is their eldest son; Will, who’s called “Little Will” on A&E’s “Duck Dynasty,” was adopted when he was 5 weeks old. Sadie is their eldest daughter, followed by Bella; and Rebecca, who lived with the family as an exchange student from Taiwan, is being fostered by the couple, and their newly adopted 13-year-old.

The NewSpring pastor promoted another of Willie and Korie Robertson’s family values when he summarized, “Parenting isn’t just about saying what you value; it’s about living out what you value.”

Following the interview, Noble took to Twitter to share how much he enjoyed the meeting. “Sunday we had @williebosshog & @bosshogswife! If you think church can’t be fun … it was AWESOME!”

Source : Christian Post