Pastor Brent W. Kuhlman: M. Div/STM
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What Does It Mean To Be A Mature Christian?
In the picture you see the Lord bestowing the benefits of His Good Friday death to sinners in the Word and Sacraments. A mature Christian is one who confesses that he/she is a sinner in constant need of Christ's forgiveness that comes from His gifts given in the Sunday divine service. Consequently the people in the congregation are pictured as receiving Holy Baptism (far left), listening to the preaching of the Gospel (far right) and receiving the Lord's body and blood in the Sacrament of the Altar (middle). The mature Christian, to put it quite bluntly and quite frankly IS A BEGGAR! He/she goes to the divine service regularly to receive Christ's forgiveness. The mature Christian is first and foremost GIVEN TO BY THE LORD! This is precisely why the first Christian congregation in Jerusalem devoted themselves to the following: to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread [Lord's Supper], and to the prayers (Acts 2:42).
Let us pray: Lord Jesus Christ, break us from the apathy and indifference to Your gifts in the divine service and give us a hunger to be beggars -- eager to hear the Gospel preached and hungry to eat and drink Your body and blood in the Supper believing that all our sin is forgiven as You promise. Then use us in our congregation, families, communities, and country as Your instruments for good; for You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Christianity the Most Persecuted Religion in the World!
Dr. John Warwick Montgomery's "The New Age of Christian Martrydom," in Defending the Gospel in Legal Style (pp. 327-28) makes note of a 2010 essay by the French author Jacques Julliard entitled "La chasse aux chrétiens," (Le Nouvel Observateuer [October 2010]. Julliard contends that Christianity "has become, by far, the most persecuted religion. But the West plays ostrich." He goes on to note reach of the persecution and its source which might be quite shocking if you haven't been paying attention to world events. "It's really nothing: nothing but Christians and Christian communities being eaten alive. Where? Just about everywhere Christians are in the minority: in India, Bangladesh, China, Vietnam, Indonesia, North Korea. But especially in Muslim lands - and not just in Saudi Arabia where Christian worship is punished by the death penalty, but also in Egypt, Turkey, and Algeria. In today's world, Christianity is by far the world's most persecuted religion."
Juilliard continues: "However, it is in the Near East -- the very birthplace of Christianity -- where the situation is the gravest. In Turkey, the most ancient Christian communities, antedating Islam, are on the verge of disappearing entirely. In Coptic Egypt and in Maronite Lebanon they are closing in upon themselves or immigrating to the West. A miniature religious genocide is taking place."
Juilliard then explains why this is happening. "During many centuries Christians were able to live in peace with the followers of Islam, even when the latter became the majority. Why the change in the last fifty years? The reason lies in the Islamic revival in the Near East -- a revival of an aggressive and fundamentalist sort -- which considers the Near East as belonging exclusively to the Muslims. Example: at Naj Hammadi, sixty kilometers from Luxor, Egypt, on the 6th of January this year, the Muslim Brotherhood attacked a car carrying Coptic Christians who were returning home from a Christmas-mass (result: 7 dead)." This happens all the time in Egypt. Coptic Christians are free game for discrimination, persecution and murder.
Julliard maintains that, "the democratization of former colonial regimes has reinforced Muslim intolerance and exclusivity. Even under Saddam Hussein Christians were less persecuted in Iraq than they are today. The fact is that the Near Eastern despots were very often beneficiaries of traditional pluralism. Now in almost all of those countries, Islam has become the state religion and anti-Western jihad has focused on Christians as representing the evil West."
Finally, the author speaks to the apathy of this Christian persecution in the West. "Meanwhile, the West plays ostrich. With but few exceptions, when faced with this issue the Western human rights professionals run for cover. A new kind of cultural Yalta seems to be coming about: in the East, a monopoly created by a single religion -- Islam -- which displays more and more intolerance; in the West pluralism, tolerance and secularism. And this Yalta is, like the previous one, the source of cold war (to put it mildly). It is therefore mandatory that we, without any second thoughts or namby-pamby complacency, defend the right of existence of Eastern Christians."
Dare I say it? I will. Piggy-backing on Julliard's final remarks, it is high time that we also defend the right of existence of Western/American Christians. The time grows short. Kyrie eleison! Christe eleison! Kyrie eleison!
Let us pray: Lord Jesus Christ, break us from the apathy and indifference to Your gifts in the divine service and give us a hunger to be beggars -- eager to hear the Gospel preached and hungry to eat and drink Your body and blood in the Supper believing that all our sin is forgiven as You promise. Then use us in our congregation, families, communities, and country as Your instruments for good; for You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Christianity the Most Persecuted Religion in the World!
Dr. John Warwick Montgomery's "The New Age of Christian Martrydom," in Defending the Gospel in Legal Style (pp. 327-28) makes note of a 2010 essay by the French author Jacques Julliard entitled "La chasse aux chrétiens," (Le Nouvel Observateuer [October 2010]. Julliard contends that Christianity "has become, by far, the most persecuted religion. But the West plays ostrich." He goes on to note reach of the persecution and its source which might be quite shocking if you haven't been paying attention to world events. "It's really nothing: nothing but Christians and Christian communities being eaten alive. Where? Just about everywhere Christians are in the minority: in India, Bangladesh, China, Vietnam, Indonesia, North Korea. But especially in Muslim lands - and not just in Saudi Arabia where Christian worship is punished by the death penalty, but also in Egypt, Turkey, and Algeria. In today's world, Christianity is by far the world's most persecuted religion."
Juilliard continues: "However, it is in the Near East -- the very birthplace of Christianity -- where the situation is the gravest. In Turkey, the most ancient Christian communities, antedating Islam, are on the verge of disappearing entirely. In Coptic Egypt and in Maronite Lebanon they are closing in upon themselves or immigrating to the West. A miniature religious genocide is taking place."
Juilliard then explains why this is happening. "During many centuries Christians were able to live in peace with the followers of Islam, even when the latter became the majority. Why the change in the last fifty years? The reason lies in the Islamic revival in the Near East -- a revival of an aggressive and fundamentalist sort -- which considers the Near East as belonging exclusively to the Muslims. Example: at Naj Hammadi, sixty kilometers from Luxor, Egypt, on the 6th of January this year, the Muslim Brotherhood attacked a car carrying Coptic Christians who were returning home from a Christmas-mass (result: 7 dead)." This happens all the time in Egypt. Coptic Christians are free game for discrimination, persecution and murder.
Julliard maintains that, "the democratization of former colonial regimes has reinforced Muslim intolerance and exclusivity. Even under Saddam Hussein Christians were less persecuted in Iraq than they are today. The fact is that the Near Eastern despots were very often beneficiaries of traditional pluralism. Now in almost all of those countries, Islam has become the state religion and anti-Western jihad has focused on Christians as representing the evil West."
Finally, the author speaks to the apathy of this Christian persecution in the West. "Meanwhile, the West plays ostrich. With but few exceptions, when faced with this issue the Western human rights professionals run for cover. A new kind of cultural Yalta seems to be coming about: in the East, a monopoly created by a single religion -- Islam -- which displays more and more intolerance; in the West pluralism, tolerance and secularism. And this Yalta is, like the previous one, the source of cold war (to put it mildly). It is therefore mandatory that we, without any second thoughts or namby-pamby complacency, defend the right of existence of Eastern Christians."
Dare I say it? I will. Piggy-backing on Julliard's final remarks, it is high time that we also defend the right of existence of Western/American Christians. The time grows short. Kyrie eleison! Christe eleison! Kyrie eleison!