Christian Persecution: A Reality Too Close to Ignore

PHILADELPHIA—The subject of Christian persecution has taken on a renewed focus for the American Pastors Network  in 2018, as APN leaders regularly address this global problem through its radio ministry “Stand in the Gap Today.”

APN President and “Stand in the Gap Today” host Sam Rohrer has written a new commentary for The Christian Post titled, “Christian Persecution: A Reality Too Close to Ignore.”

“Violent persecution of Christians around the world has risen to all-time highs,” Rohrer writes. “Murders, beheadings, rapes, imprisonments and evil of all types are increasingly befalling Christians. This ugly reality demands a response. While Christian persecution is nothing new, today it comes in various forms and for various reasons.

“How shall American Christians respond when their spiritual brethren are suffering persecution?” he continues. “The choices are only two: ignore it or responsibly respond to it. Ignoring anti-Christian violence is convenient and painless, but it is also anti-biblical. Turning from it may temporarily relieve our uneasiness and numb our sense of moral obligation, but we only fool ourselves. Willful ignorance of evil is fatal because it provides an illusory sense of peace. Ignoring evil cannot stop it, especially when it is aggressively on the march like it is today.”

It’s time for Christians, churches and pastors to wake up, Rohrer added. While persecution of Christians spreads like a virulent global cancer, fellow believers must ask: How far has it metastasized? Where is it happening, and what drives it?

According to trustworthy organizations like Open Doors USA and The Voice of the Martyrs, there is more persecution of Christians today than at any other time in history. On average, 255 Christians are murdered, 104 are abducted, 180 Christian women are raped, sexually harassed or forced into marriage, 66 churches are attacked, and 160 Christians are detained or imprisoned each month without trial because of their faith. These numbers represent only what is known. And according to the U. S. State Department, Christians in more than 60 countries face persecution from their governments or their neighbors because of their personal faith in Jesus Christ.

4-6-18: What Every Christian Must Know About Islam

Dave Kistler:                 Well, ladies and gentlemen, a federal judge recently told school officials in San Diego, California, to reveal details of their work with an Islamic advocacy organization that has been designated as a terrorist group. Of course, by that designation it puts them in the same classification as ISIS itself. Now a legal team in that fight says it has issued investigative subpoenas to the California chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, otherwise known as CAIR, as part of a federal civil rights lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the San Diego United School District’s anti-Islamophobia Initiative.

The case is being handled by the Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund, which is working on behalf of parents in that particular school district. Now, here’s the problem: The district’s multi-year program was developed under the direction of CAIR as a holistic plan to protect Muslim students and their families from bullying and discrimination. As part of the initiative, staff and students are taught by CAIR officials to become allies to Muslim students. And CAIR is empowered to revise school curriculum to portray Islam more favorably.

You heard me correctly: CAIR is empowered to revise school curriculum in order to portray Islam in a more favorable light. Well, the Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund is seeking communication between CAIR agents in the school district as well as documents tracing the Islamic organization’s strategic process for gaining inside access to impressionable school children. CAIR’s national director testified that proselytizing to school children is a “religious obligation” and that the purpose of CAIR’s educational outreach is to do precisely that, which includes passing out religious propaganda to students during class and attempting, according to CAIR itself, to create a religious educational environment.

The chief counsel for the LCDF, the group that’s fighting this, explained it this way. He said, “Through deliberate manipulation, CAIR has gained unprecedented power and influence over San Diego’s United superintendent and school board, and these subpoenas seek to answer questions about the extent of CAIR’s infiltration into the school district. And with that, I want to welcome you to Stand in the Gap Today. I am Dave Kistler. I’m your host today, and along with me to share the radio microphone is Gary Dull, the co-host today. And all this week, we’re going to be doing programs that unveil the evil that is Islamic ideology.

Many of you will remember the incredible poem the president recited during the campaign in 2016. He’s recited it at a rally or two since becoming president of the United States. That poem is called The Vicious Snake. And so our theme today is this. Exposing the Vicious Snake: An Expose of Islamic Ideology and its Grand Design for America.

To help us with our discussion today we have as our special returning guest Tom Wallace. He is the founder of Fortress of Faith. Tom is not only an Islamic scholar, he is also a theological expert and a former missionary in the United Kingdom. And so Tom, I want to welcome you to the program today. Thank you so much for being aboard.

Tom Wallace:               Dave, always it’s a joy to be with you and Gary. And I appreciate you guys dealing with this topic. I came off the foreign mission field to warn my countrymen of the dangers of Islam that is not just creeping into our nation, but sweeping. I think we are … I’m amazed at how fast things are developing here. So I appreciate you guys taking the time to cover this topic.

Dave Kistler:                 Well, Tom, you are one of our favorite guests. We always get great feedback when we have aboard. You’re also host of your own radio program. I would like you to say a little more about that before we end the program today. But let’s go to this topic of what’s going on in the San Diego United School District. CAIR, which of course as you well know, is a front group for the Muslim Brotherhood, has gained access to and unprecedented influence over America’s school children in that one particular school district, if not other districts around the country as well.

My question to you, Tom, is this: Does this surprise you or is this the modus operandi, the MO for CAIR in how they infiltrate a community, infiltrate a school system, even infiltrate our government?

Tom Wallace:               Not in the least. I’ve been warning people about this here for about 10 years now, and let me give you a quote from Omar Ahmad. He gave this down in Southern California back in 1998. He thought he was speaking to just a room of Muslims, but a reporter from the San Ramon Newspaper was there, East Bay Times. And this was July 4th. Now, Omar Ahmad, you need to understand who he is. He is the co-founder of CAIR. He and Nihad Awad founded CAIR many years ago.

And let me quote what Omar Ahmad said: “Islam isn’t in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. In the Koran, the Muslim book of scripture, should be the highest authority in America and Islam the only accepted religion on earth.” Now, they have two faces. They speak one thing to their Muslim community, and another face that they speak to the American public. And they build themselves, they fashion themselves as the civil rights organization to protect civil rights. But they are a Muslim Brotherhood front group.

What’s interesting is that the UAE, the United Arab Emirates, a full-state nation has not only designated the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization, but they’ve gone as far as identifying CAIR, the Council of American-Islamic Relations, as a terrorist organization. It’s very clear that the connections, if you follow it, you trace it, it’s not very difficult to follow this. But most of America is asleep at the wheel. We are not aware that this group is operating for the demise, the destruction of our country from within.

Gary Dull:                     Tom, this is very interesting that you bring this up, but my question is how are Muslim groups so effective in gaining access today when so often Christian groups are never granted that same access?

Tom Wallace:               Isn’t it ironic we as a Christian nation, Christians are treated as the stepchild, the ugly stepchild here, and Islam is being embraced at every attempt. When Obama was our president, any opportunity he had to oppose or support Islam, he always went to support them. We see this happening so much, but let me give you really why all this is happening. It’s a spiritual battle we’re in.

Dave Kistler:                 Tom, let me hold you right there for just a second because we’ve got to go into the break. Ladies and gentlemen, about five days ago a video surfaced of Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel attending a meeting of Muslims where both Israel and one of his sheriff deputies spoke in Arabic. The meeting was held at one of the local Mosques. It was held during the month of Ramadan in 2015. So we’re talking about three years ago. The deputies said that Israel pledged to keep young people out of jail and to put “God first, your family second, and the community third.”

Now, I know what some of you are thinking: “Dave, what is wrong with that?” Sheriff Scott Israel of the Broward County Sheriff’s Department wants God first, family second, the community third, but he’s speaking in a mosque where the God of the Islamic community is Allah, and he is not the same as the God of the Bible. So there’s where the problem comes in. In that meeting, Israel speaks in Arabic to a group of Muslims. He credits his deputy Nezar Hamze as a like-minded individual who’s on the same mission as Scott Israel, the sheriff. And Israel compares himself and Hamze to lions on a mission.

Both Israel and Hamze boast that they want to keep young people out of jail rather than put them in jail. Israel says that he puts troubled young people in a program where they will get help with narcotics and other issues. This is a direct quote from Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel: “I want to put God first, my family second, community third.” And then Hamze, the deputy sheriff, who is a Muslim and a member of CAIR there in Florida quotes Israel as telling the sheriff’s office team the same thing.

Israel says, and I quote, ‘”here is only one perfect person: God. And you’re not it, and I’m not it. We make mistakes. Police make mistakes every day. And I understand that. And that’s why we have to partner with our community. Why is Nezar Hamze,” his Muslim deputy police chief, “here? Because as a man who studies Islam and as a Muslim, he’s going to find out information that we can’t. He’s going to bring information back to the community and take information from the community back to us.” And, again, this is Sheriff Scott Israel of the Broward County Sheriff’s Department speaking, and, again, Nezar Hamze, his Muslim deputy sheriff, who is also a member of CAIR.

Now, I want you just to listen to a brief clip of this 2015 meeting. The voice you’re going to hear first is … In fact, actually I think the only voice you’ll hear will be that of Nezar Hamze, the Muslim deputy sheriff in Broward County. I want you to listen to how charismatic he is. I want you to listen to him speaking in Arabic and then in English, getting ready to introduce the sheriff of Broward County to this Muslim Mosque. Russ, let’s listen to the clip.

Nezar Hamze:               [Arabic 00:10:58], brothers and sisters. Allah [Arabic 00:11:01] has blessed us with another Ramadan. [Arabic 00:11:05] Allah. Allah [Arabic 00:11:06] has locked the Satan, and [Arabic 00:11:09] the sheriff continues to lock the bad people in jail. Al-ḥamdu li-llāh. Brothers and sisters, I wanted to stand here before you today. Lisa? Is Lisa here? She needs to come up. It’s important that we hear from our community, inshallah. I won’t take much time, and I’ll introduce the sheriff. But I want to testify before you, brothers and sisters, because it’s important for you to hear from us, inshallah.

Al-ḥamdu li-llāh. A couple of years ago I had an opportunity to witness our sheriff be sworn in. And he said something that resonates with me, and I want to share it with you so you know the type of individual and what he does. He said regarding our youth, our children, because we all focus on our children very much, he said he’s going to measure his success by how many kids he keeps out of jail and now how many kids he puts in jail. [Arabic 00:12:05].

Brothers and sisters, this was an indicator for me that this man is a straight man. He is a man of honor, of [huck 00:12:13], of justice. Al-ḥamdu li-llāh. I had another opportunity to hear him speak, and he was talking to his team, the employees, the deputies, the people that protect you on the street. He said, “I want you to put God first.” Listen to me. This sounds like [inaudible 00:12:31]. “I want you to put God first, your family second, and the community third.” [Arabic 00:12:40].

Audience:                    [crosstalk 00:12:41].

Nezar Hamze:               Brothers and sisters, this is the reality. This is the man that is our sheriff.

Dave Kistler:                 Ladies and gentlemen, that is an amazing clip that you just heard. And, Tom, I want to go to you immediately. You heard the introduction give to Sheriff Scott Israel. He then speaks in Arabic briefly and then in English the rest of the time, during which he insinuates that God is the same for Islam as he is for Jews and Christians, and on and on I could go. This man, I’m talking about lead chief Scott Israel and his deputy chief Nezar Hamze, were the ones who presided over, ladies and gentlemen, the failed attempt at protecting the innocent school children at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Tom, to be honest with you, I’m speechless, and I would love to have your thoughts on all of this.

Tom Wallace:               Now, I’ve seen that clip. Of course his deputy chief is dressed there in his deputy sheriff’s uniform, but listening to it just over the radio, the way you played that, at first I was thinking, my goodness, this man sounds like our former president Obama and when he’s addressing the Muslim community. It sounded so much like him. It brought back memories.

Yeah, one thing I think we also need to mention is that there’s a video of the sheriff dressed there and the chief deputy, they’re dressed in his Muslim garb, training this mosque, this Muslim community how they can and should protect themselves with guns. You’ve seen him with his Glock 19 there. They’re demonstrating how to protect yourself with guns, citizens or this Muslim community, and yet this very same Sheriff’s department is very much against teachers being armed and protecting our children there in the school system. I find that very ironic.

Now to address the Muslim sentiments and the Islamic sentiments that are being shared here by the Sheriff’s Department. One thing our American community needs to understand, in the eyes of Muslims, the God of Allah, the God of Islam, the God of Muhammad to them is also the same God of Moses, and of Abraham, and of Isaac and Jacob. The God who created heaven and earth, the God who created Adam and Eve, in their minds, they’re all talking of the same God. Every Muslim usually starts this conversation with me when I talk about my faith and their faith, “Oh, well, we have the same God.”

And I respond with this: “Oh, wonderful. That’s great. So then your god has a son?” Then they get this confused or mean look on their face: “No, for Allah hath no son.” Then I say, “Oh, well then we don’t have the same God because my God, Jehovah God, has a begotten son, Jesus Christ. So clearly we do not have the same God.”

But the point that they’re trying to make is that putting God first is that they’re trying to say, “We’re going to put Allah first. We’re going to keep your sons, your Muslim sons out of jail. We’re going to protect them.” And, yeah, it is kind of concerning that he’s addressing the Muslim community with this message.

Gary Dull:                     You know, Tom, for nine minutes, I say nine tragic minutes, we know that none of the Broward County police on the scene there at Stoneman Douglas entered the school building as kids and teachers were basically sitting ducks and being massacred. Then for 29 minutes, one of those police officers didn’t enter, but told the others to “Stay 500 feet away” from the building where the shooting was actually occurring.

And I know many people have asked this question, but I ask you what in the world is going on here? Why are Islamic police officers unable to really swear allegiance to the United States of America, to US law and really protect United States citizens?

Tom Wallace:               Now, Brother Dull, you have just raised a very interesting question. I believe that’s probably the most powerful question that should be asked: Can we trust Muslims to be loyal to the laws of America and also remain loyal to the tenants of Islam? Is that possible? My answer to that question is a resounding no. Absolutely not. If they’re going to be a loyal, faithful Muslim, they cannot be loyal and faithful to the laws of America because Islam will not permit it. They have a system that is an antithesis to the system of America. We cherish freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom of choice, freedom to choose who you worship, or not worship at all. Islam does not give that permission at all.

We get to choose who governs you. Islam doesn’t give that choice. Those choice and those rights, well, they’re not rights. They are things that you do not have rights to in Islamic form of a system. And so when Muslims swear allegiance to the Bible or rather to the American Constitution, to protect it, they’re either lying, or they are not a faithful Muslim, and I think that it’s that they’re lying to us. I think that’s been demonstrated time and time again.

Dave Kistler:                 Tom, what you’re sharing is very important information. It’s very disturbing. And ladies and gentlemen, there’s something about the Parkland shooting that makes no sense at all to me. It’s beyond odd that the heavily Islam-friendly, Islamic-infiltrated police force in Broward did nothing to stop the shooting for nine minutes or longer.

Ladies and gentlemen, this woman’s name you may or may not have heard. Her name is Barbara Sharief. In fact, her full name is Barbara Muhammad Sharief. And she is an American politician. In fact, she has been a Broward County, Florida, commissioner since 2010. And in 2016 she was reappointed as mayor of Broward County, having previously served from 2013 to 2014. And she’s the country’s first African-American female and Muslim mayor. You’re hearing me correctly.

In the same county where Stoneman Douglass high school is that has a very Islamic-friendly police department in the form of Scott Israel, the police chief and Nezar Hamze, the deputy police chief, who is a committed Muslim, member of the organization we’re talking about today called CAIR, Council on American-Islamic Relations, the mayor of Broward County is also a Muslim.

Now, why am I bringing that up? Friends, if you know anything about London, England, you know that Sadiq Khan is a Muslim mayor in that city of London, and he has clear ties to terrorists–that is a documented fact. It was him who after the killing of 22 innocents at an Ariana Grande concert said the following: “We are going to have to get used to terrorism.” In other words, terrorism in London, terrorism in England, terrorism in the United Kingdom, it’s the new normal, something with which we’re going to have to become accustomed.

So, Tom, I want to go to you. You’ve sighted this earlier in the program in segment one that you left the United Kingdom as a missionary there to come back to the United States of America to warn our nation, specifically to warn the church in America about a diabolical, sinister, demonic enemy. So my question is this: Why are Muslim mayors, Muslim law enforcement official, Muslim City Council members, why do people that are committed to Islamic ideology in those positions, why do they present to America an incredibly dangerous dilemma?

Tom Wallace:               Well, can I bring your attention to a document that was found by the FBI back in 2011? It was a document that was written by the Muslim Brotherhood, the Ikhwan. And it was found, the FBI found this in the home of Ismail Elbarasse back in 2011. He is a teacher or was a teacher in Virginia. The FBI became suspicious of him. I won’t get into background of this story of that, but they raided his home and found in his basement a secret room. And in that room was a cache of documents and media.

The prized piece of document that they found was a memorandum from the Muslim Brotherhood to the group in North America. Let me read to you from Page 7: “The Ikhwan must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying Western Civilization from within and sabotaging its miserable house.” Now get this: “by their hands and the hands of the believers.” So what are they saying in this document from the Muslim Brotherhood? “We’re going to create a Jihad–Jihad is a holy war, a struggle against evil–“to eliminate Western Civilization.” How? “From within.” How are you going to do it? “Sabotage their house by their hands.”

We’re going to incorporate their own hands, their own system, and the hands of the believers. And on the back page it lists about 14 different groups that were complicit, that were working with the Muslim Brotherhood as front groups here. Now, the FBI has used this document as a court piece of evidence in the trial, what we call the Holy Land Fund Trial, in Dallas, Texas. During the Bush administration they were starting to put these people away in jail.

When Obama became president and Eric Holder became the new attorney general, he stopped that, and CAIR and ISNA and a number of these other groups there were designated as unindicted co-conspirators. They were getting around to prosecute these people, but they never got to it because of Eric Holder. And we need to press our current attorney general Sessions to reopen that case. All that there is waiting to be done, but that’s another issue.

Now let me return to this judge. They are putting key people in government, judges, mayors, police chiefs. They are jockeying for these positions. They’re training for these positions. And in England, in the United Kingdom, there are four hijab centers. I lived just two to three miles from one, and they are organized to train bankers, politicians, teachers, and they’re working to develop these people to get into government positions. This has been going on in the United Kingdom for since the time I’ve been exposing this and talking about this. And this is also operating here in America. I don’t know where they’re located. They’re a little bit more careful in hiding these locations of where they’re training these people.

Actually, I think they’re training them right underneath our nose in our institutions and setting them up because they’re being funded by CAIR, by Muslim Brotherhood, and they’re wealthy because we keep buying Saudi oil. So we’re funding our own demise. I know I sound like a conspirator, or talking about conspiracies and stuff there, but, folks, this is happening, and we’d better wake up to it.

Gary Dull:                     You know, I think this is a thing that we need to wake up to, Tom. It almost appears to me is that the average American is either blind about what Islam is doing or doesn’t want to understand what Islam is doing. And I wonder what the thought is among those who are leaders in our nation. You mentioned the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, that he needed to look into this again. Will he? Does he understand what is going on within Islam?

And as we understand it, Tom, it appears as though for years Islam has been working on infiltrating into government here in the United States of America on every level. So this isn’t anything new, as I understand it. It is something that’s been going on for a long, long time. And then to hear that statement that you rendered here a moment ago where they’ve written regarding us that they will sabotage their house by their own hands, that is critical.

And so my question to you is this: What about those who say we, those of us who are concerned about Islam, are overeating, or are just Islamophobic, or are crying wolf? How do you answer those critics who refuse to see what really is going on in front of our own faces?

Tom Wallace:               I remind them of how people reacted to Winston Churchill when he was trying to warn Britain about the bully, the tyrant of Hitler, that they ought to pay attention to him, that appeasement is the wrong move. It’s only going to give him time to get stronger, and they need to deal with him. They need to put that down. But they didn’t listen. They thought he was a crazed man, a crazed [inaudible 00:26:52] go away and just let’s just create an environment of peace as much as we can. And it doesn’t work. Appeasing a bully never works. It never has worked. Historically we can see that it’s dangerous. And many people died as a result because they didn’t listen to Winston Churchill earlier. And there were other people that tried to warn, but they didn’t listen to him.

And we have a new bully on the block. Back in the ’40s it was Nazism, it was Hitler. Today it is Islam, and they are infiltrating here. The thing that’s an advantage for Islam is that it’s fashioned, it’s designed under the face of a religion. So therefore it has rights to be practices here, and they can send their apostles around our country to spread their poison and to work their destruction from within. And the Muslim Brotherhood realized that. That’s why they, I believe, I’ve been saying the Muslim Brotherhood is the most dangerous terrorist organization on the face of the earth because they have identified our weakness, and they’re exploiting it. And we’re asleep at the wheel.

So far our government has not called the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization. There’s a bill H.R.377, House Resolution 377, that the 115th Congress has put out there. It has a lot of co-sponsors there to get this bill out of committee and get it on the floor to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. Can you believe it, that our own country will not designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization when other countries have? That blows my mind.

Dave Kistler:                 Tom, let me jump in. We have about 45 seconds until we’re going to have to go to the break. I want to ask you this and ask you to respond very quickly. Obviously the Muslim Brotherhood and Muslim entities are strong opponents of the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution. They are fighting to get guns out of the hands of the general American populous. Talk about that for just a second, why it’s so important that we stand up and defend the Second Amendment because of the threat Islam poses.

Tom Wallace:               Every tyrannical government knows you cannot operate if the citizens are armed. You have to disarm the citizens if you’re going to control them with a dictatorship type of government, and that’s the Islamic way. The Islamic government is a dictatorship. It always has been. That’s what Muhammad gave them, and that’s why they practice the very same thing in their governments. You cannot have that if the citizens are armed, if they can fight back. And so naturally, yeah, it’s in their interest to see us disarmed, so they’re going to oppose the Second Amendment because the Second Amendment keeps us safe.

Dave Kistler:                 Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to Stand in the Gap Today. I want to say this at the outset of this critically important final segment of our program today, in fact, it’s a segment we commonly call our solution segment, and I want to say this: Our discussion today is not meant to foster hatred for anyone. Our topic today is not directed primarily at people. We are addressing an ideology today that is beyond dangerous. Yes, adherents to that ideology have done, and are doing, and will continue to do very evil things, but we are to love those who are enslaved in any false ideology, including and I would say even especially the false ideology of Islam. These folks that are adherents to it have been enslaved by a deception. They have been lied to, and the only way they’re every going to be delivered from that deception is if we love them enough to tell them to truth and declare to them the glorious, life-changing, eternity-altering gospel of Jesus Christ.

But the ideology that they’re espousing itself is evil. I think Dr. Franklin Graham said it as well as it could be said when he called many years ago Islam an evil religion, and it is precisely that. It is an evil religion. I am not the least bit reticent to say that. Gary is not the least bit reticent to acknowledge that. Tom as an Islamic scholar is not the least bit hesitant to call Islam from an ideological standpoint precisely what it is: a deception, a lie, an evil ideology.

And so, Tom, I want to go to you. Obviously America has to deal with this evil ideology. It’s anti-God. When I say “anti-God,” I’m talking about the true God. It’s certainly anti-American. It’s anti-constitutional. And so in very practical terms, Tom, what can be done? What must be done in the United States of America to deal with this vicious snake that is making its inroads in rapid fashion across the United States of America?

Tom Wallace:               First of all, let me say, Dave, thank you for making that point that this is not to bash Muslims. America needs to understand they need to separate Islam from the Muslim. Please do not blame the Muslim for Islam. The Muslim is a victim of Islam. I have been saying this for years, and I’m just as passionate about us resisting Islam as I am about rescuing Muslims.

Muslims are victims. It’s an ideology that’s going to send these people to hell. They need the truth, and praise God we as Christians, we have the answer: It’s the word of God. And if we can only a Muslim into the Bible, and I’ve seen it happen so many times, that if we get them reading the scriptures with us, and they realize that they’ve been lied to, and they see the light of the scriptures, and they come to Christ. And so I’m also the founder of Missions to Muslims. I am as actively about trying to evangelize Muslims as I am actively trying to resist the ideology of Islam and warn people of it. What’s the real solution? A Holy Ghost revival in our country.

Gary Dull:                     Amen.

Tom Wallace:               I have been trying to tell Americans that God is raising up Islam as an instrument of judgment upon us because of our sin. We have sinned against God. He have angered God. We’re foolish to think that we can continue in our wicked living here and expect God to wink at it and look the other way, and continue to sing God Bless America in spite of our wicked sin.

Folks, God is angered and God is raising up our destruction if we do not repent. I believe that Islam is the very element that will bring us to our knees and destroy us, and bring us to humble ourselves and repent if we … But we can volunteer to do that. We can admit, “God we were wrong. We have foolishly thought that we could run our own ship without you. And we need to fall on our knees and repent.” And I believe God is bringing us and showing us destruction is coming our way if we continue, but we refuse to see it.

Dave Kistler:                 Gary, let me do this, because that is a take on this entire topic that you very seldom, in fact I don’t know if I’ve ever really heard it worded quite like Tom worded it, but with his statement, I completely concur, and I could tell you did as well because you uttered an Amen. The answer to this entire dilemma is nothing less than revival in the United States of America. And I believe Tom is 100% correct. I think Islam is part of God’s judgment on America, is God allowing us to have what we have desired to have independent of him. And that is we’ve tried to live our lives arrogantly, very superficially, to be sure, in violent disregard of him, and so this is the consequence.

So if revival, Gary, is the answer, and I’m firmly convinced it is, you are a pastor. What must take place inside the church? What must take place from the pulpits of America to facilitate, or if I could use this phrase, “fan the flame” of a revival in America? What must they place inside the church and especially from the pulpit?

Gary Dull:                     Dave, there’s no doubt that we need revival in America today, and I know that it disgusts you as well as it does me, and I’m sure Tom also when you hear some Evangelicals saying, “There will never be another revival in this nation.” I don’t like that. I think there could be another revival in America, and I think we need to pray for that.

But revival is simply defined as when God’s people get right with God. Think about that, ladies and gentlemen. It’s when God’s people get right with God. There are so many things going on in the lives of born-again believers that are godless, that are secular, that are worldly. We talk often on this program about the authority of the scripture.

So often the word of God is not the authority in the lives of individual Christians. We need to get back to the word of God. Now, what is that going to take? It’s going to take, #1, preachers making sure that their pulpits are on fire with the truth of the word of God. Secondly, it’s going to take making certain that every one of us allow the word of God to work effectively in our lives.

Thirdly, it’s going to mean we must be willing to repent of those things that have taken us away from biblical truth and get back to understanding who God is, what God expects, and how God operates. And I know that may seem like a simple formula, but that will be a formula that will bring us back to revival where God’s people get right with God.

It could very well be that God is judging America through Islam. We’ve often said too that he’s judging America through the rise of homosexuality. He could be judging America through abortion. Listen, it’s all around us. God’s judgment is there. It’s time for the Church of Jesus Christ to wake up.

Dave Kistler:                 Tom, before we exit the program, and we have just about a minute before we’re going to have to leave the air, but I want you to just give our listeners the information they need as to where they can go to find out more about Fortress of Faith as well as this new venture in which you are involved, and that’s called Missions to Muslims. Talk about that, if you would, very quickly.

Tom Wallace:               Our radio broadcast site is fortressoffaith.com. We just launched an app just for Android phones. Just right now we are trying to get into the iPhone market, and so people can listen to our daily 15-minute program. I cover the issues that’s going on. And basically what I’m trying to do alert people and show you why God is raising up Islam as an instrument of judgment and how we need to repent, and how we need to resist Islam. Yeah, there’s a political side. Don’t just stand there and weep over it. Do your bid to try to fight it. But the biggest thing we need to do is fall to our knees, folks. We need to repent. Then we need to rescue Muslims, and that’s missionstomuslims.com.

Christian Persecution: A Reality Too Close to Ignore

Note: This article originally appeared on the Christian Post website HERE.

by Sam Rohrer, APN President

Violent persecution of Christians around the world has risen to all-time highs. Murders, beheadings, rapes, imprisonments and evil of all types are increasingly befalling Christians. This ugly reality demands a response. While Christian persecution is nothing new, today it comes in various forms and for various reasons.

How shall American Christians respond when their spiritual brethren are suffering persecution? The choices are only two: ignore it or responsibly respond to it. Ignoring anti-Christian violence is convenient and painless, but it is also lazy and irresponsible. Turning from it may temporarily relieve our unease and numb our sense of moral obligation, but we only fool ourselves. Willful ignorance of evil is fatal because it provides an illusory sense of peace. Ignoring evil cannot stop it, especially when it is aggressively on the march like it is today.

History is replete with the disastrous results of ignoring evil’s spread. The U.K.’s Neville Chamberlain gave it a try in his fateful 1938 discussions with Hitler. One day, he publicly announced, “peace for our time.” Within six months, though, Hitler began his blitzkrieg offensives, and the death of millions followed. American Christians cannot afford to be so gullible. We either respond to evil, or blithely wait for its angry fist to pound upon the front doors of ourselves, our children or grandchildren.

It’s time to wake up.

Evil in any form loves darkness. It likes to hide and creep up on its victims. Evil cannot stand the light, nor does it have an affinity for life. As former Hamas Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyeh, triumphantly declared, “We love death like our enemies love life!”

While persecution of Christians spreads like a virulent global cancer, we ask: How far has it metastasized? Where is it happening, and what drives it?

According to trustworthy organizations like Open Doors USA and The Voice of the Martyrs, there is more persecution of Christians today than at any other time in history. On average, 255 Christians are murdered, 104 are abducted, 180 Christian women are raped, sexually harassed or forced into marriage, 66 churches are attacked, and 160 Christians are detained or imprisoned without trial each month because of their faith. These numbers represent only what is known.

According to the U. S. State Department, Christians in more than 60 countries face persecution from their governments or their neighbors because of their personal faith in Jesus Christ.

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Islamists aren’t the only threat Christians face. Despotic governments are well-known Christian persecutors. North Korea sits atop the list of nations systematically targeting Christians, followed by Afghanistan, Somalia, Pakistan and Sudan. Persecution is on the rise in China and India as well.

These facts should grip the heart of every American Christian. As we empathize and identify with our brothers and sisters in these lands, we must also acknowledge signs of persecution popping up within our own borders. This is not a time for ignorance.

The most common denominator driving all forms of Christian persecution is any ideology that rejects the God of the Bible and Jesus Christ, or Yeshua, as Creator, Judge and Redeemer. The Judeo-Christian worldview sees life as the sacred gift of a loving but just Creator God. Those rejecting this worldview in lieu of political power, dreams of a global caliphate or Utopia are inherently primed to persecute Christians. That has been part of the history of many civilizations.

Where America’s Declaration and Constitution honor and reflect the Judeo-Christian worldview, most governments are antithetical to it. The decline of Christianity in Western Europe is a prime example. When religion devoted to evil and an arrogant civil government combine, such as with Islam, they become the worst of Christian persecutors—aggressive, vicious and deadly.

North Korea is just the latest example of applied atheistic political thought. North Korea’s blood relatives include regimes built on Marxism, Communism, Fascism or Nazism. These systems have their intellectual roots in 19th century thought, denying, like Darwin, the reality of a Creator God as a fundamental tenet. These governments tend to favor materialism and humanism, rejecting the God of the Bible, and often not satisfied to just let Christians be.

Islamic ideology teaches Muslims to hate Christians because they’re not Muslims and won’t knuckle under to their false god. Tyrants hate Christians because they have been spiritually and mentally set free, liberated as individuals and knowing better than to recognize government as supreme authority. Those who cannot be controlled, the state eventually declares, must go. Within America, there are progressives who hate Christians because Christianity is “unfair.”

Many American progressives dismiss God as a fantasy, an unneeded crutch. You will hear them claim they cannot believe in a god who permits evil. The most enraging factor to this breed of progressive, however, is the perceived injustice of Christianity’s exclusive claim on moral truth, to the exclusion of other religions.

This is intolerable to the progressive because “equality” of outcome is more important than anything else. Though equal outcomes are both theoretically and practically impossible, this defines justice for most progressives and makes Christianity’s exclusive claim to the truth embodied in Jesus Christ abhorrent.

To the radical progressive, God is fine if He remains ethereal, ill-defined, amorphous and open to self-definition. But once you place God in traceable history, document His personal dealings with mankind, and dare claim that God came to earth and took on flesh in the person of Jesus Christ—who claims to be the only way, the only truth and the only life—you’ve got yourself a first-class scandal, the scandal of the Specific God! This makes the American radical progressive activist potentially just as dangerous to Christians as the Islamic terrorist or the tyrant of a godless regime.

The rise of anti-Christian ideologies in the 20th century resulted in more sheer death and destruction than occurred in all of history up until then. The number of those killed in world wars, purges and genocides is so large that historians can’t agree on the totals. A conservative estimate is that from 150 million to 200 million people were killed, starved or died of disease as a direct result of actions of 20th century regimes built on anti-Christian values.

Today, the most egregious and aggressive source of Christian persecution worldwide is Islam. Whether Sunni, Shiite or Sufi, this destructive ideology mandates its followers kill, rape or otherwise persecute all who will not bow to their false Prophet Muhammad. Islam spread rapidly through violence in the seventh century. Nothing has changed. Today, in addition to Jews, Christians are directly in Islam’s crosshairs.

Christians must first know about the violence befalling Christians in other nations and responsibility respond. Boldly telling the truth about such relevant issues is one of the primary objectives of the American Pastors Network. Pastors must speak to the issue. Being silent means enabling. The first step is learning. Then fervent effectual prayer must be made on behalf of suffering Christians in these places far off the radar screen of our everyday lives.

Christians can learn more from a new nationwide effort to bring public awareness of the worldwide persecution of Christians to the forefront. Visit www.SavethePersecutedChristians.org.

Christian, do not be willingly ignorant. Be intentionally informed and responsibly respond. Stand in the gap now!

Photo by Ryoji Iwata on Unsplash