The Jim Bakker Show

Franklin Graham: Persecution Is Coming

Franklin Graham is sounding the alarm to American Christians that their religious freedoms are being eroded while believers around the world are being persecuted.

“I believe we’re going to see persecution in this country,” Graham said during an interview on “Fox and Friends Weekend” on Sunday. “We’ve already seen many laws that have been passed that restrict our freedom as Christians. I believe it’s going to get worse, and we see no question gaining influence in Washington by those that represent the Islamic faith. We do have a problem in this country and we are losing our religious freedom and we’re losing it a little bit day by day.”

It’s the latest in warnings being given by Graham, who says the current government situation is the most hostile ever toward Christians.

Graham noted how the Obama administration routinely rebukes and condemns Israel while they actively defend Islamic nations who are out for the destruction of Israel.

Graham said that Christians need to stop shying away from expressing God’s view in the arena of ideas because we have the right to stand up for God’s way.

Hindu Extremists Attack Churches

Just days after reports that 20 Christians were tortured by police in the Indian state of Rajasthan, Hindu extremists attacked two churches in four days.

In central India’s Madhya Pradesh, the extremists forced their way into a private home and beat the Christians inside the home. The town’s police were backing up the extremists during their assault.

The group accused pastor Lal Singh of converting poor Hindus to Christianity in violation of law. After the beatings, the police arrested two of the Christians.

The police also confiscated all the Bibles and other Christian materials in the home as “evidence.”

Then about 45 miles away in Alirajpur District, a dozen extremists shouting anti-Christian slogans tried to break into a church service at Rampura village. About 300 people were in a service as the extremists tried to storm the building.

“They were shouting slogans against Christianity and using abusive language,” said Pastor Kanhaiya Lal, whose church worship site moved from Jobat to the village three years ago. “I had not seen most of them before and think they are from nearby villages, because I do not recognize them as residents from Jobat city.”

Church members stayed in the building and continued to worship until police showed up to remove the extremists.

Supreme Court Remands Notre Dame Contraception Suit

Lower court justices who voted to deny Notre Dame’s religious rights will have to take a second look at their ruling after the U.S. Supreme Court threw out their decision.

The justices of the 7^th Circuit Court of Appeals is being ordered to reconsider their decision in favor of the Obama Administration blocking Notre Dame’s request to have an exemption to the President’s signature health care law’s mandate of abortion causing drugs.

The Supreme Court said the 7^th Circuit needed to take into account the court’s 2014 ruling in the Hobby Lobby case.

The Notre Dame case is the only appeals court decision that was issued prior to the Hobby Lobby ruling. In other cases, the judges have upheld the rights of the Christian organizations to not pay for abortion causing drugs.

The school said their rights were protected under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

Boko Haram Pledges Allegiance to ISIS

Long rumored to be happening, the Nigerian Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram has pledged their allegiance to ISIS and is calling on Muslims around the world to do the same.

“We announce our allegiance to the Caliph of the Muslims … and will hear and obey in times of difficulty and prosperity, in hardship and ease, and to endure being discriminated against, and not to dispute about rule with those in power, except in case of evident infidelity regarding that which there is a proof from Allah,” leader Abubakar Shekau said in an audio recording posted to Twitter on Saturday. “We call upon Muslims everywhere to pledge allegiance to the Caliph.”

Boko Haram, which has been attempting to form their own caliphate since 2009, has been releasing videos stating that Islam is commanded to take over the world and that they would not stop until every Christian in the world was killed.

“Boko Haram joining the ISIS fold makes sense to both groups,” Jacob Zenn with the Jamestown Foundation told CNN. “Boko Haram will get legitimacy, which will help its recruiting, funding and logistics as it expands into (French-speaking) West Africa. It will also get guidance from ISIS in media warfare and propaganda. Previously Boko Haram was a sort of outcast in the global Jihadi community. Now it is perhaps ISIS’s biggest affiliate.”

The announcement by Boko Haram marks the 31^st terrorist group to pledge allegiance to ISIS.

Saeed Abedini “Shaken” By Executions

The wife of imprisoned American pastor Saeed Abedini says that he’s been shaken by the beating and then executions of six prisoners who have been held with him in Iran.

“Saeed was quite shaken as he had to witness 6 fellow prisoners being beaten and taken to be executed (hanged) that day,” Naghmeh was quoted as saying in a report by American Center for Law and Justice on Saturday.

“It was a hard and dark day having witnessed that and seeing life being taken. The prison visit was also very hard as the families of those who were executed were crying and wailing.”

Naghmeh said that she learned of the situation after his Iranian relatives visited the prison.

Despite a promise from President Obama that he would obtain Saeed’s release by the 7^th birthday of Saeed’s son Jacob, nothing has been done by the White House.

“It was also an emotional visitation as it is getting closer to Jacob’s 7th birthday. Last time Saeed saw Jacob he was 4 years old,” she said, urging Christians to continue to pray for her husband “to have the strength to endure in that harsh prison and that Jesus would continue to meet him there and give him hope.”

ISIS Says 150 Christian Prisoners Will Be Released

Terrorist group ISIS says that all the 150 Christians kidnapped this week are “safe” and that they plan to release them in a few days.

Assyrian International News Agency interviewed a man who is not part of ISIS but connected with many ISIS fighters and he reported that the Christians are in “good condition.”

The source said that while the terrorists insist they will be releasing the Christians within a week he doubts that’s what they will really be doing. He cited the fact that ISIS is known for executing Christians on video for use in social media propaganda.

“The local ISIS members said the hostages are ‘safe’ and in ‘good condition’ and will be released within a few days,” the report states. “But given the history of the brutality of ISIS, Matthew (the source) said he doubts the hostages will be released.”

Osama Edward of the Assyrian Human Rights Network told CNN that ISIS will likely release a video threatening to kill the captives.

Edward showed CNN a video of a woman who fled the kidnappings.

“They [ISIS] went into Tel Hurmiz and killed people there, even young men. We didn’t understand what had happened fully, but there was so much fear in our hearts that we didn’t even know how to escape. In the south [of the village] even old men and women were fleeing. All the roads were closed, there wasn’t a single car. No one could help us. We called some people in Qamishli who came to get us, who came to Zumar after Tel Tamar. People were running with house clothes on,” the woman says.

Pastors Thrown Out of Capital For “Appeal To Heaven”

A pastor’s group was thrown out of the U.S. Capital Visitor Center for their racial reconciliation event because the theme of the event included a reference to “an appeal to heaven.”

Bishop Harry Jackson, Jr. says the action against the High Impact Leadership Coalition is calling it a clear act of religious discrimination.

“They were aware of the original theme, but it seems as they looked into things that the question of God and heaven really caused them angst,” said Jackson.

“Unfortunately, we got pushed back and we felt it was discriminatory. And there is a tinge of religious prejudice in terms of our content, our theme, our focus. We felt that we needed to continue with the meeting anyway rather than get all tied up in a back-and-forth fight with the folks at the Capitol.”

Jackson said the representatives of the Capital told them they were being forced to leave because they were referring to God.

The Washington Hilton eagerly welcomed the group and their message.

“I think the real problem for me, personally, is that first a go ahead was given and the rules were followed as we had known them at that moment. Then questions come, content is questioned … and it seemed to me that there was some angst and concern that we were a biblically based, evangelical, black, Christian group,” Jackson told the Christian Post.

“Had we been more of another religious background or more interracial or there was a sense that there was more control over the event, it may have been different. But from where I sit, it seems like religious pushback, racial concern, about how this is going to look and what our intentions are going to be. However you envision it, it’s not the welcome we want based on using a public facility and following the rules,” he said.

The U.S. Capital Visitor Center would not answer questions from the Christian Post on the situation.

Jerusalem Christian Seminary Attacked In Hate Crime

A Greek Orthodox seminary in Jerusalem was burned Thursday and anti-Christian graffiti was sprayed on a nearby wall.

Police in the area say it’s clearly a hate crime.

The bathroom and corridor of Dormition Abbey was set on fire around 3 a.m. by unknown assailants. As firefighters extinguished the flames, they saw the crudely written graffiti mocking Jesus Christ.

A court has issued a gag-order for most of the details of the crime but a witness shared what they saw about the attack.

“Two people who were hiding their faces came from the east side of the structure near the cemetery and the Catholic church,” he said. “From there they threw flammable liquid at the seminary’s bathroom.”

Israeli President Reuvin Rivlin was outraged by the attack.

“It is inconceivable that an act like this could happen in a house of prayer,” Rivlin said in a statement.

“This is a heinous crime, there must be an investigation and those responsible must be brought to justice. Such criminals not only threaten to set fire to places of worship holy to all of us, but ignite the regional powder keg upon which we all sit.”

ISIS Abducts 90 Syrian Christians

ISIS has abducted at least 90 people from Assyrian Christian villages in the northeastern part of Syria.

The British-based Observatory for Human Rights say the terrorists conducted dawn raids on villages west of Hasaka, a town controlled by the Kurds. The Kurds had launched two major offensives against the terrorists on Sunday helped by U.S. airstrikes.

Kurdish leaders said that 14 terrorists were killed in their offensive.

ISIS refuses to admit they conducted the kidnappings although they posted pictures on social media showing the assault.

Assyrian Christians made up the majority of citizens of the region before the terrorists began their campaign. Those remaining in the village after the raid are packing and fleeing to Hasaka seeing safety.

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