Communist Belarus - Persecuting Christians inside Europe

Belarus stands out as an island in Eastern Europe surrounded by countries with greater religious freedom.

When Belarus was part of the U.S.S.R, the militant atheism encouraged by communism destroyed almost every church in the country. Today, many Christian groups are caught in the net of a restrictive religious law passed in 2002. Groups of fewer than 20 Christians are "illegal" and are fined about six months' worth of income ($150) for holding Bible studies in homes. KGB policemen sometimes film the sermons of visiting pastors to document their "crime." New congregations are told they must register, but when they comply, their registration is delayed or denied.

Police officers raid homes and confiscate Christian CDs, audiocassettes of sermons and Christian literature. Authorities defend the fines and raids with statements such as, "What the people did was illegal" or "We have
the right to raid unauthorized worship." In March 2011, two Baptist congregations were raided and warned that they could face two years of imprisonment for their activities, according to Forum 18 News Service.

In November 2005, Belarus passed an amendment to its criminal code that enables authorities to punish Christian leaders who harm the rights, freedoms and legal interests of citizens.

A church led by Pastor Valentin Borovik was fined $149 (a large sum in Belarus) in June 2008. The church's crimes, according to the Mosty District Court, were, "At their meetings they read the gospel, discuss questions of religious faith, sing songs and conduct religious rites."

Communist governments have always used the term "freedom" to take away their citizens' freedoms. This pattern is recurring today under the guise of income and land redistribution. China, Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam, Laos and Belarus - all of which espouse varying degrees of Marxism-Leninism - have established religious freedom laws that are artfully crafted to deny their citizens religious freedom.

Pray for Christians in Belarus as they struggle to worship God under restrictive laws.

(from Voice of the Martyrs newsletter, September 2011)

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Sila Nzongo, Expert on Multiplication

Sila Nzongo was raised as an orphan in Congo and suffered in poverty. But when he grew up, he earned six degrees, translated the Bible into Lingala, and worked on a half dozen literacy primers to teach people how to read. Today he is a missionary with LEI, Literacy & Evangelism International.

Reverend Nzongo has trained over 7,000 literacy teachers in Congo, who in turn taught more than 262,000 people in Kinshasa to read the Bible. Many of these people also came to faith in Christ, including about 1,000 Muslims! Sila has a goal of teaching over one million illiterates and leading them to the Lord by the year 2019.

(from Rev. Robert Biederman, Literacy & Evangelism International newsletter, July-September 2011)

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Theistic Evolution - an Impossible Middle Position

In his book titled God and Evolution, Jay Richards and other contributers to this book present convincing arguments that theistic evolution as incompatible with the Biblical Christian faith. One of their goals is to persuade atheists that there is a God who has worked over eons of time. But evolutionism is a faith-based natural philosophy that takes no prisoners! Theistic evolutionists do not and have not appeased the atheistic scientific community controlling the teaching of biology in public. And some theistic evolutions have gone so far as to repudiated their Christian beliefs, proving once again that compromising the doctrine of creation is a dangerous path for believers.

Selections from  Thedore J. Sick's book review of God and Evolution, by edited Jay Richards.

(These selections, edited by Marko Malyj, are of the book review published in Creation Research Society Quarterly Journal, Volume 47, Number 4, Spring 2011)

Howard Van Till, now retired from Calvin College, is typical of theistic evolutionists. His own proposal is the “Robust Formational Economy Principle,” is that from the beginning God endowed the universe with the full capacity to evolve by providing the primordial state with all the necessary capacity to organize and transform by random events and natural selection. This sounds like some form of emergent evolution. Richards (p. 129) notes that Van Till, like many intellectuals who were once nominally Christian, has repudiated his Christian beliefs, proving once again that compromising the doctrine of creation is a dangerous path for believers.

But how can God direct an undirected process? In his section, Steven Meyer lays bare the problem. Lamoureux, a theistic evolutionists, proposes a front-loaded view of intelligent design in which the initial conditions of the universe are arranged or designed in such a way that life will inevitably evolve without any additional input or activity of a designing intelligence. But when and how did the spirit and soul of man come onto the scene; when did man obtain the “image of God”? Meyer points out that the origin of specified information is not considered by theistic evolutionists.

Evolutionism is a faith-based natural philosophy that takes no prisoners. Even setting up the whole process prior to the beginning by God or godlike force is forbidden by this comprehensive atheism.

In his section, John West makes the statement that the doctrine of redemption depends on the doctrine of creation and the Fall (p.34). At this critical point young-earth creationists insist that the fall depends on a historical Adam and Eve. This then leads to the obvious questions of the age of the earth and humanity.

(God and Evolution, edited by Jay Richards, Discovery Institute Press, Seattle, 2010, 387 pages, $22 paperback.)

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Operation Deterrence

In December 2010, the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party, the powerful nine-member committee of top party leaders, launched a new strategy to deal with their growing "evangelical problem." At a national conference, China's director of the State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA) outlined a program intended to "guide" Protestants who worship at "unauthorized gathering places" toward churches controlled by the state. They named the program Operation Deterrence.

Operation Deterrence greatly increased the pressure on Christians who worship in unregistered churches, making 2011 the worst year for persecution against Christians in China since 2003.

The government's actions come at a time when the Chinese house church movement, which includes all Christians who worship at unofficial churches, is experiencing unprecedented openness. "Nobody in China hides from the police anymore," says Pastor "Joel" of the house church movement.

Although many house churches have met openly for the past five years, Pastor Joel says church leaders understand that persecution has not ended. "On any given Sunday, 95 percent of church leaders will go to church without any problem," he says. "But they all know that the possibility is there. Church leaders can go to prison any day, at any time. Every church leader I know has counted the cost."

(from Voice of the Martyrs newsletter, September 2011)

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To fully address Poverty - begin with God's original Creation

In Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert's book "When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty without Hurting the Poor… and Yourself", they analyze the issue of poverty. It may surprise you that the authors rely on the Creation account in Genesis!

Selections from  Jean Lightner's book review of When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty without Hurting the Poor… and Yourself, by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert.

(These selections, edited by Marko Malyj, are of the book review published in Creation Research Society Quarterly Journal, Volume 47, Number 4, Spring 2011)

The Genesis account provides an understanding of reality on which a useful understanding of poverty and its alleviation can be built. Creation is important to all areas of life. In missiology, for example, New Tribes Mission begins with Genesis when they bring the gospel to tribal people who have no background in Christianity. While poverty alleviation overlaps with missions, I was still impressed by how important the first few chapters of Genesis are to developing an understanding of poverty.

Thus man, who is created in the image of God, is inherently relational also. Four fundamental human relationships are identified: with God, with other people, with self, and with the rest of creation.

While all relationships were harmonious at Creation, things did not stay that way for long. The authors do a nice job of examining the effects of the Fall on each of the relationships. While most Christians are very well acquainted with the effects of sin on man’s relationship with God, some of the observations made on the other relationships are quite interesting.

The authors describe two extremes that are common when the brokenness from sin is evident in our relationship with ourselves. They term this as "poverty of being". The first is low self-esteem, which is common among the poor. In their marred identity, they feel worthless and powerless. They do not recognize that they were created in God’s image and have an inherent value and dignity. They do not realize that God cares for them and has given them talents and abilities to use to bless others and provide for themselves.

A second manifestation of a poverty of being is found in the god-complexes of the rich, “a subtle and unconscious sense of superiority in which they believe” they have all the answers and can fix the problem for others. They often help in the way they feel is best and leave with a sense that they have successfully solved the problem. Unfortunately, there are times when they have actually made the problem worse. The book provides some excellent examples that illustrate this point clearly.

When we suffer from god-complexes, we seem to forget that it is God who has all the answers and everyone is dependant on Him. We also fail to realize that God has gifted others too, and, if we are willing to listen, we might learn something. Scripture certainly encourages us to have a teachable attitude (Proverbs 1:5, 7; 9:8–9; 12:15).

Christ sustains things, even in this fallen world. They bring out the point that wherever we go, God has been there first and is already at work (cf. John 5:17). I know this realization has been very important for missionaries who minister in some of the most challenging and seemingly God forsaken places on earth. Perhaps we need to recognize that this is also true in the secular universities where it sometimes appears that the atheists rule.

When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty without Hurting the Poor… and Yourself, by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert Moody Publishers, Chicago, 2009, 230 pages, $15.00.

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