2 Timothy 3:12
Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.In Indonesia 3 teenage girls were beheaded on their way to their Christian school and their heads left on the steps of a Church. The note left behind reads: "We will murder 100 more Christian teenagers and their heads will be presented as presents."
"Once again, women are the targets. In mid-March, rebels assaulted three women gathering firewood and cut off their ears, lips, and breasts."
"Starting in 2003, Janjaweed Arabs, a Sudan-backed militia, have driven 2 million villagers from their homes in ethnic-cleansing attacks designed to suppress local rebels."
"Eyewitness accounts detailing the militia attacks are horrifying. "They killed my 3-year-old son right in front of my eyes," one father from West Darfur said. Since last fall, women have reported more than 500 rapes. Three women said five militiamen beat and raped them last August. The women said, "After they abused us, they told us that now we would have Arab babies. And, if they would find any [more] women, they would rape them again to change the color of their children.""
Revelation 6:6
And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny;taken by the late Kevin Carter
and [see] thou hurt not the oil and the wine.Perhaps great tribulation is not necessarily reserved for some future someday. Particularly when we view
videos like this one from Walid Shoebat's site regarding radical Islam in the United States (double click on the image for full screen). Video from The
Investigative Project of Terrorism.
For updates on the latest terrorist attacks around the world a good site is
The Religion of Peace.com. There have been more than 9,000 deadly Islamic terrorist attacks just since 9-11.
In the
Olivet Discourse we found that Luke provided the date pins for the beginning and end of the period of
great tribulation "such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be". We found that this period closed, as we then entered Daniel's "time of the end". This obviously does not mean that tribulation is over, as evidenced by the 2 million martyred saints, at the hands of Islam, in the Sudan alone. What it does mean is that we have moved from one era into the next - the last.
Do we have to wonder if the poor Sudanese souls have any doubts about when the tribulation is? Photo from Journey With Jesus.net
Here is a photo of a Sudanese child trying to make his way to food, while a vulture haunts him from behind, taken by the late Kevin Carter.
Our dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus are being martyred around the world, including through
crucifixion and
beheading. To get a better understanding of a major portion of the period of "great tribulation" that Jesus spoke of in Matthew 24, read Fox's Book of the Martyrs or Martyr's Mirror for free, online.
Today in "civilized"
Saudi Arabia if a national lets it be known that they converted to Christianity they are beheaded. Death is the
punishment for apostasy required by the Quran for turning away from Islam. In world news we all saw the same resolve displayed by the
Afghanis. The Afghani government had to pretend the Christian was mentally retarded to avoid the required beheading, and subsequent exposure of their evil before the global community. A Christian
evangelist disappeared into the Palestinian territory for a couple of weeks and was
butchered and cut into 4 parts and sent back home to his family in a box.
In Indonesia
3 teenage girls were beheaded on their way to their Christian school and their heads left on the steps of a Church. The note left behind reads: "
We will murder 100 more Christian teenagers and their heads will be presented as presents." Next Sudan/Angola border where:
The crime committed by the above martyrs could have been as simple as admitting to a being Christian when asked. You can study this subject with a Yahoo search. Don't expect to see Christian persecution reported on ABC, CBS, NBC or CNN. Visit
Voice of the Martyrs to learn more and to find out how you can help.
The above are examples of those who have truly been "left behind". Christians are slaughtered at a rate of perhaps 160 thousand per year (conservative estimate).
Christian martyrdom today and
throughout the entirety of the Christian Era is global in scope. Instead of opening our Bible and praising Christ with our families on Sunday afternoon are we sometimes more preoccupied with helping our kids pick out which football star is most worthy of praise? Can it be reasonably argued that we are not in the "
falling away".
On
this link are videos of Muslims who have come to know the love of God.
Jeremiah 30:4-7
And these are the words that the LORD spake concerning Israel and concerning Judah. For thus saith the LORD; We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace. Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail with child? wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness? Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble, but he shall be saved out of it.And the Lord used the allied forces to save Judah out of it, shortening those days.
Jeremiah 30:8
For it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD of hosts, that I will break his yoke from off thy neck and will burst thy bonds, and strangers shall no more serve themselves [make slaves] of him.And the yoke was broken and Israel came out of the wilderness of the nations, declaring her independence in 1948.