Christian Persecution is growing at alarming rates! Crackdown in Assab by Elaine Davenport (Thursday, September 20, 2007)
18 Sep 2007 Leave a Comment
in 30 year War with Ethiopia, 49% Christian, 49% Muslim, 7th Day Adventists banned, Assab, Bahaii Faith banned, Christian Persecution, Eritrea, Eritrean Orthodox, Evangelical Charismatics banned, Evangelical Lutheran, Halle Selassie, Italian colony, Jehovah's Witnesses banned, MagosSolomon Semere died, Pray for healing for a broken world, Soldiers shot for reading the bible, Sunni Islam, Tewahdo Church, We are God's country Tags: Freedom in the United States
PLEASE PRAY FOR HEALING FOR A BROKEN WORLD….
You see, I found out that it isn’t always about “us” and what we need, it’s about souls, it’s about prayer, it’s about love, it’s about healing; it’s about so much more than we think about. Yes, it is.
We have so much freedom here is the United States. It’s a wonderful place to live. We are God’s country and the devil will not have an advantage over us. I’m not on the Internet writing because I think it’s a great place. It’s my assignment and the easiest way (but not the only way) to get God’s Word out to the masses.
Very few Christians are aware of Christian persecution all over the world to the degree that it is. Even if you aren’t a Christian; you should be acutely aware of what is going on. Let’s talk about it:
HAVE YOU HEARD OF ERITREA?
Eritrea is a country in Northern East Africa. It was established in 1890 by the Italy. After World War Two the British took it over. After that Halle Selassie attempted to annex it into Ethiopia and that sparked a 30 year war from around 1961 to 1991 or 2.
The country is 49% Muslim and 49% Christian. Jehovah’s Witnesses, 7th Day Adventists, Bahaii Faith, Evangelical Charismatics and other Protestant denominations are not registered with the government and cannot freely worship.
The government recognizes: Eritrean Orthodox Tewahdo Church, Sunni Islam, Catholicism, and the Evangelical Lutheran church according to Wikipedia Online.
Let’s talk about how bad the persecution is there:
* Soldiers have been shot for reading the bible
* The Charismatic movement is greatly frowned upon and banned
n fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived (2 Timothy 3:12-13).
* Earlier this year Magos Solomon Semere died 4 1/2 years after being imprisoned for worshiping in a banned Protestant church. He had been tortured and allowed to get pneumonia and denied medical care. When he became severely ill; he was given a statement to sign to denounce his faith. He was thirty years old. He died February 15, 2007 under our watch. What do I mean under our watch? I’m glad you want to know. Under our prayer watch. We’re supposed to pray without ceasing. We’re supposed to watch and pray. God is counting on us to keep the earth covered in prayer. Now many of us didn’t even know there was a place called Eritrea; but now we do. Let’s pray for healing to come upon that land. Last year in October, in Eritrea; two young Christian men ages 23 years and 30 years were tortured to death by the police for holding a religious service in a private home.
* Crackdown in Assab
“Assab, near the facility where Semere died, was targeted for one of the first major crackdowns against Protestant Christians by Eritrean security forces five years ago. Three months later, in May 2002, the government categorically outlawed all churches not under the umbrella of the Orthodox, Catholic or Evangelical Lutheran denominations.
In the initial police raids in Assab on February 17, 2002, 133 congregants attending Sunday morning worship services at the city’s Full Gospel, Rema and Word of Life churches were arrested. Although all were released the next day, the 74 soldiers among them were rearrested two weeks later.
Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you–unless, of course, you fail the test (2 Corinthians 13:5)
Refused contact with their families, the soldiers were punished with severe floggings and other forms of extreme torture for months, often kept in tiny dark cells. Most still remain jailed without charges, subjected to hard labor without any hope of release. Since then, dozens more soldiers and other Christians from Pentecostal and charismatic churches caught worshipping in homes or small groups in and around Assab have been jailed. At least 130 Christians are believed to be imprisoned now in Assab’s military and civil prisons for refusing to sign documents recanting their faith. “*
* Report from Christian Persecution Information News
So, I ask you today to take a time out to pray for the people of this country; all of them. I ask you to pray for Healing in that land and to join with me in prayer to bind Satan’s tactics to kill, to steal and to destroy those people.
I WILL CONTINUE TO REPORT THESE ATROCITIES.
