Pray for Egypt

This Sunday morning, Jan. 3oth, one of my pastors as he prayed the prayer for the whole church, prayed for Egypt. It reminded me of part of the Lord’s Prayer, asking for the people’s needs including freedom while at the same time praying that they would not fall into a greater calamity, that they would be delivered from evil. It is the prayer we should all be praying.

Christian Iosso, Coordinator of the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), wrote an essay about the peoples of the Arab world rising against their totalitarian governments. It is of course about much more, but like the title, God’s Spirit—Moving in the Arab world? , Iosso does equate the movement with something God may be doing. He writes:

One doesn’t have to be a so-called Islamist to stand up to an authoritarian regime, and even many in the Muslim Brotherhood see God’s hand in the movements for greater freedom. The protests in Jordan, for example, show the Brotherhood among a range of organizations pushing for a constitutional monarchy.

It has been reported, in fact, that the Muslim Brotherhood has offered to be a part of a coalition government in Egypt. And while God does allow all that happens in our world, he is after all sovereign; the god the Muslim Brotherhood sees in all of this is not our God. The Brotherhood does not see Jesus as God’s revelation of himself. And speaking politically, the freedoms they would eventually propose for the Egyptians would not be the kinds of freedoms that belong to a democracy.

The Muslim Brotherhood was established in Palestine in 1935 by 'Abd al-Rahman al-Banna the brother of the man who founded the Muslim brotherhood in Egypt, Hassan al-Banna. However, the leader of the Brotherhood in Palestine was Haj Amin el-Husseini, known as the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. He is known for his ties to Hitler and Nazi Germany.

Professor Jeffrey Herf in his book Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World, writes, “A significant historical scholarship has documented the actions and beliefs of the most important public face and voice of Nazi Germany’s Arabic-language propaganda, Haj Amin el-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem.” Herf goes on to detail el-Husseini’s connections with Nazi Germany where he eventually lived until the end of the war, helping with Nazi Arabic war propaganda. Herf writes:

The mutual admiration between Husseini and Hitler, based on their shared hatred of the Jews, has long been a matter of public record. Details about his collaboration with Heinrich Himmler and his knowledge about the Holocaust came to light after the war. Husseini was a key figure in finding common ideological ground between National Socialism, on the one hand, and the doctrines of Arab nationalism and militant Islam, on the other.[1]

Hamas is a product of the Muslim Brotherhood, formed from one of its charity branches.[2]

The Brotherhood first founded in Egypt in 1928, is very conservative and insists on Sharia law. Herf lists the program they wished to pursue in Egypt after World War II. Part of that program not only meant gender separation in school but different curriculum for male and female. All of culture from the arts to relationships to women’s make-up would be overseen by a theocracy. This is not freedom, certainly not democracy.[3]

I write all of this to say that it is God, the biblical God, who pulls down and lifts up leaders. He alone is sovereign over our lives. I keep thinking of the verse that admonishes the disciples “you will be hearing of wars and rumors of war. See that you are not frightened, for these things must take place, but that is not yet the end." (Matt 24:6) There is a true Prince of Peace who is coming. There is a righteous kingdom that is here but not yet.

Keep praying for all of the people in the Middle East. Pray that they will have peace and not despair. Pray that wicked people, whether old leaders or potentially new leaders will be moved far away and the Arab people’s world will change. But more importantly pray that they will find the true freedom and love that comes from knowing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

[1] Jeffrey Herf, Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World, (New Haven: Yale University Press 2009) 8. There is a lengthy foot note after this statement mostly in German. I will not attempt to put it on a blog posting.
[2] See Wikipedia: Muslim Brotherhood
[3]Nazi Propaganda 250

Working on my frustrations with IPMN's Facebook page

Did you ever get so fed up with something on a Facebook site that you wanted to comment and couldn't. But what if it is a Presbyterian Facebook site? You would think that if you were Presbyterian you should be able to speak-out. But not on the Israel/Palestine Mission Network Facebook site.

So what I have done, and I may make this an every so often, habit, I have copied out a whole section of their Facebook with their links and comments and I am going to comment.


"Israel Palestine Mission Network Rand Paul calls for a halt to aid to Israel

U.S. Democrats and pro-Israel lobbies slam Republican Senator's call to halt Israel aid
http://www.haaretz.com/
Tea Party representative Rand Paul tells CNN’s Wolf Blitzer he has a lot of respect for Israel but he doesn't believe the U.S. should be funding the Mideast arms race during financial crisis.
Top of Form
3 hours ago ·
4 people like this.
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Israel Palestine Mission Network
Quote:"You have to ask yourself, are we funding an arms race on both sides? I have a lot of sympathy and respect for Israel as a democratic nation, as, you know, a fountain of peace and a fountain of democracy within the Middle East. But at... the same time, I don't think funding both sides of the arm race, particularly when we have to borrow the money from China to send it to someone else. We just can't do it anymore. The debt is all- consuming and it threatens our well-being as a country,” Paul said.See More
2 hours ago · 1 personFran Foley Lawrence likes this.

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Ralph Garlin Clingan Presby elder RP needs some help with that Israel as democracy mistake!
2 hours ago · 1 personKate Sobolewski likes this.
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Bill Doerrfeld I disagree with much of Rand Paul except for this. I believe a democratic nation is one which separates church and state. The Jewish state of Israel doesn't meet this definition."

The above section is the first link I have copied out. The IPMN have quoted Ron Paul. I will quote Congresswoman Nita Lowey, Ranking member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations, who called the proposal shocking.
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“Israel is the only democratic nation in the Middle East and one of our most stalwart allies”, Lowey said. “A stable and secure Israel is in our national security interest and has been a staple of our foreign policy for more than sixty years. Using our budget deficit as a reason to abandon Israel is inexcusable. It is unclear to me whether Rand Paul speaks for the Tea Party, the Republican Party, or simply himself”.

Also see the comment by Bill Doerrfeld, I wish to respond to it. England has an official state church and is still a Democracy. The same is true of several European countries.

And that comment by Clingan is wrong. When we had problems with awful racism in the United States we did not stop being a Democracy. Instead we used our form of goverment to work on such problems until they were solved. Of course there are more that need working on.

Below is the next section I picked up:

"Israel Palestine Mission Network ‎"The Claims Conference was set up in 1951 by 24 Jewish organizations to negotiate with the German government on compensation for Holocaust survivors and their heirs..."

Report: Holocaust compensation group withheld over a billion Euros from Jewish survivors
http://www.haaretz.com/
Leading barrister Jeffrey for Board of Deputies of British Jews Jeffrey Gruder says conference did not hold the money for the owners or their heirs, but allocated it to other purposes.

3 hours ago · 11 ·
Peter Leitzke likes this.

Boni Julia Caracciolo how much "compensation" did the other millions of non-jews receive after the war?"

I am not at all sure why this got posted on IPMN, except often when something bad is committed by either Jewish people or about Jewish people or by Israel, IPMN posts it as if to say, "see how awful they are." But it was the comment by Boni Julia Caracciolo that I wanted to respond to.

There was no other group of people, as an ethnic group, that the Nazi's attempted to totally destroy. And they almost succeeded. No other group lost six million people. Of course God would not let that happen. But that comment by Caracciolo, is one often made by anti-Semites.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Richard Falk and Hillel Neuer again!

Here are just two more important videos from the 25th of January 2011. One is very short. It is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemning Richard Falk for his published conspiracy views about the destruction of the World Trade Center Towers.

The last one is Hillel Neuer of the UN Watch speaking before the U. S. Congress on the State of the UN Human Rights Council. Please remember this should concern Christians just as much, perhaps more, than anyone else.

Richard Falk, 9-11 and the United Nations

Sometimes the lies and evil intent of humanity overplays itself. Richard Falk, UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, a man whose supposed expertise is pointed to by many pro-Palestinian groups including the Israel/Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A), was today condemned by Ban Ki-Moon Secretary General of the United Nations. Falk, on a recent blog posting has written about 9-11, the destruction of the world trade center, and insisted it was a conspiracy and the cover-up was the work of the United States government.

In an article, “Ban Ki-moon condemns UN Palestinian human rights official for backing 9/11 slurs,” Natasha Mozgovaya and Shlomo Shamir state “In a rare condemnation by the UN of an official within the organization, Ban said Falk's remarks were "an affront to the memory of the more than 3,000 people who died in the attack."

Falk who had already revealed his thoughts in the preface to one of David Ray Griffin’s books, in his blog posting used the assassination of a Swedish leader and the shootings in Arizona to persist in his conspiracy theories. He writes”

What fuels suspicions of conspiracy is the reluctance to address the sort of awkward gaps and contradictions in the official explanations that David Ray Griffin(and other devoted scholars of high integrity) have been documenting in book after book ever since his authoritative The New Pearl Harbor in 2004 (updated in 2008). What may be more distressing than the apparent cover up is the eerie silence of the mainstream media, unwilling to acknowledge the well-evidenced doubts about the official version of the events: an al Qaeda operation with no foreknowledge by government officials.

Several persons, including the United States Ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, have asked Ban to remove Falk from his position. But the answer seems to be that he was appointed by the “the Geneva-based Human Rights Council, a 47-nation body created by the UN General Assembly in 2006,” and therefore cannot be removed by the General Secretary.

Here is an interesting explanation by UN Watch Director Hillel Neuer about the problems with the UN's Human Rights Council.

Debbie Berkley and a series on Narnia

My friend Debbie Berkley on her blog, "Cloud of Witnesses" is writing and posting a series on C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia. The latest post is "There is No Other," and it is about "The Silver Chair." Debbie is picking out all of the great sections and making comments on them that relate to our Christian walk with Jesus. Such as the one she makes about Aslan, the great Lion, who as a picture of Jesus is the only way to living water:

Christ is there at the stream. It can be frightening to find him there. We might have to make some changes in order to get to that stream. Perhaps we will have to give up some cherished ways of life, some self-indulgences, some habits. We might prefer some other teacher, some other religion.

Another friend, Barb Moody commented on this last posting that the scene where Puddleglum in the underworld burns his hand to shake off the witch's spell, is her favorite. That reminds me that the scene was done in the movie with my favorite Dr. Who playing the Marshwiggle, Puddleglum. I may have posted it before but here it is again:

If it be your will

For the rest of the weekend, a song by someone I knew at Warehouse Ministries. Mike Roe is a friend of several of my children. In the Warehouse days his band was the 77s, today it is the Lost Dogs. But this is a rare solo. The song is "If it be your will" by a great writer, Leonard Cohen.

North Korea and the followers of Jesus

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) news has an item that speaks of what seems to be a good way to feed some in the broken land of North Korea. The article is, “Northern Korean Christians help feed most vulnerable: PC(USA), CWS help noodle factory and bakery supply orphans, elderly.”

The article states, “The Bongsu Noodle Factory and Bakery, operated by the Korean Christian Federation — the government-sanctioned church and PC(USA) partner — turns one metric ton of flour daily into much-needed noodles and bread for distribution to orphanages and homes for the elderly.” And then it lists other PCUSA organizations which have aided the noodle factory and Bakery.

This looks like a wonderful program. Still, given the horrible persecution of Christians in North Korea I have several questions.

I looked up the church federation and found this: "North Korea permits only a facade of Christianity to perpetuate the myth of religious tolerance... The government-approved Korean Christian Federation (KCF) presents itself as the presiding body representing 'North Korea's Protestant and Catholic churches.' However, their obeisance to Kim Il Sung... " … "Though Pyongyang's KCF 'Christian' clergy are scrutinized for primary loyalty to Kim Jong Il, many of the laity at Pyongyang's three churches may very well be bona fide believers, "[1]

I also read on Wikipedia that there are only 12,000 members of this state church. There is also an interview “provided by two members of the Korean Christian Federation (KCF), Hwang Shi Chon and Kim Nam Hyok, director of the international department and deputy director of the organizational -department, respectively, of the Central Committee of the KCF” at http://www.korea-dpr.com/faq-christian.htm.

Some of the devastating facts they unintentionally reveal are that they have a seminary that only takes ten students every three years. And when asked about Bibles they state , “Of course. In our country, freedom of worship is guaranteed under the Constitution. More than 50,000 copies of the Bible have been printed in our country, translated into Korean by members of our federation.”

And asked what the main work of the Federation is they answer:

The most important task of the federation is to lead Korean Christians to work for the construction and reunification of our country. In order to promote the reunification, we maintain close relations with many organizations including the
World Council of Churches and Christian associations in foreign countries to ensure their support for the peaceful reunification of the Korea Peninsula. As the solidarity of the whole nation is the only way to realize a lasting peace in our country, Christians in north and south Korea and overseas should be united first.

So my questions are, are we reaching any of the other Christians in North Korea. And are we in any way hurting the other Christians because of our alliance with the state church?

My thoughts are with the other Christians of North Korea who are horribly persecuted by the North Korean government. Just recently a young Christian woman from North Korea spoke to the The Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelism.

Please listen, you will be blessed:





[1] at http://www.adherents.com/Na/Na_415.html and from the book, Juche: A Christian Study of North Korea's State Religion. The information is from 1999.