Human Rights Lawyer jailed in Iran for defending Christian Pastor

Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, was sentenced to nine years in prison in July 2011 for "actions and propaganda against the Islamic regime." He is co-founder and spokesperson for the Defenders of Human Rights Center (DHRC), was sentenced by Branch 15 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court on 3 July, to nine years in prison, a ten year ban from teaching in universities, a ten year ban from practicing as an attorney, $300 in fines, and five lashes. Dadkhah’s charges were, “cooperation in the soft overthrow of the regime,” “propaganda against the regime,” “interviews with some media outlets,” “distortion of members of the regime,” “dark portrayal of the state of cultural heritage,” and “compiling the book ‘Writing and Reporting’”, which was published by the DHRC. For more about this brave Iranian human rights lawyer see International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran's web page.

What finally drove the Iranian regime to punish a lawyer so severely? Dadkah had the audacity to defend Iranian house church Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani. Nadarkhani, who has remained in prison since his arrest in October 2009, was convicted of apostasy for converting from Islam to Christianity and for encouraging other Muslims to convert to Christianity. Nadarkhani was sentenced to death by hanging in November 2010 afi:er a regional court in Rasht convicted him of apostasy.

Iran's Supreme Court reviewed the case on appeal in July 2011 and ordered the lower court to reinvestigate the apostasy charge. The lower court ruled that Nadarkhani was Muslim at birth and ordered him to "repent" of his Christian faith. The pastor replied, "Repent means to return. What should I return to? To the blasphemy that I had before my faith in Christ?" The judges said, "To the religion of your ancestors, Islam." Pastor Nadarkhani then replied, "I can not." At press time, he remained in prison.

Iranian Christians say the government has targeted Pastor Nadarkhani because of the rapid growth of his house church, which now includes more than 400 believers. Pray for Pastor Nadarkhani as well as his wife, Fatemah, and their two sons. Pray that our Iranian family will be encouraged and emboldened by his witness. Pray that lawyer Dadkhah would be released, and that God would raise up other brave lawyers in Iran to defend the defenseless, followers of Jesus.

(excerpted from Voice of the Martyrs newsletter, December 2011)

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Gurinder turns from drugs to Jesus

"Gurinder*, a Punjabi Sikh man who had moved from India to live in a Western country, was troubled by drug addictions for a number of years but he could have never been prepared for the stroke he was to experience in December 2010. He had heard me speak about Jesus on numerous occasions but was never receptive. The stroke kept him in the hospital for six months and then he was transferred to a rehabilitation centre. Gurinder's left side was totally paralyzed as his arm and leg would not move. I continued to visit him, share about Jesus and pray for him.

"About two months ago I went to see him and he had a smile on his face (I don't remember seeing this smile before!). Gurinder told me that he had prayed to receive Jesus and that he wanted to follow him. His left leg began to work again and I saw for the first time a happy man who was once weighed down in addiction.

"Gurinder's arm is still not working but he has found a spiritual healing.

"He went home about four weeks ago but now the family will not let me talk to him or see him. PRAY for an open door to visit Gurinder and for total healing."

(from a Christian newsletter, November 2011)

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See, Here is Water

It can be difficult for those of us raised in an established church in the free world to imagine someone being baptized outside of a church building with no significant examination of faith beforehand.

In areas of severe persecution, some believers still have difficulty finding someone to baptize them. In Egypt and Malaysia, many mainstream church leaders are afraid to baptize a Muslim convert to Christ. They will only baptize those from a non-Muslim background. Likewise, in the four communist countries of Asia, more than 80 percent of baptisms are illegal because of government restrictions. Believers there have to function "outside the box:' so they are sometimes baptized in a barrel!

When Philip baptized the Ethiopian eunuch on the side of the road (Acts 8), the Lord had already prepared the Ethiopian's heart by leading him to read the prophecies about Jesus. Perhaps the man felt the urgency to be baptized because he didn't know if he would ever meet another Christian who could baptize him. Consequently, he exclaimed to Philip, "See, here is water." They stopped the chariot and he was baptized on the spot. The man would soon be returning to Ethiopia, where the apostle Matthew, according to Church history, was later nailed to the ground and beheaded under orders from King Hytacus.

This kind of situation led two zealous Muslim converts recently to ride their small motorcycles to the ocean and baptize themselves. They believed they needed to go under water three times, so they got a lot of saltwater in their mouth. But they rejoiced as they sought to be obedient to Christ's commandments.

I recently witnessed the baptisms of 20 Muslim converts to Christ in a Muslim nation. They had sewn their own baptismal robes. Their exuberance, delight and overflowing joy washed over me like the water pouring off of them. In their country, there is no church building where they could be safely baptized.

Making use of the primitive means available is not about being different; it's about finding a way to obey God.

(excerpted from Tom White Voice of the Martyrs newsletter, November 2011)

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Long necked Sauropods had All-or-Nothing Design Features

The Bible’s history provides a framework that best explains the most significant facts about Sauropods, such as Diplodocus and Apatosaurus. They were immense, four-footed dinosaurs. Sauropods’ long necks allowed them a wide reach through the treetops. They were able to eat the massive amount of foliage required to maintain their size without having to expend extra energy moving from tree to tree. Some of the largest may have needed up to a ton of vegetation every day. This is according to Fredric Heeren's report in Nature.¹

Clearly, sauropods had all-or-nothing design features. Without small heads, hollow vertebrae, long necks, pillar legs, specially shaped pelvis bones, and fast growth rates—all at the same time—sauropods could not have existed. This is why sauropod evolution has been imagined as having happened in “an evolutionary jump.”¹

If sauropods evolved, then why are there no fossil “pre-sauropods” that have at least two, three, or four of the uniquely sauropod features, instead of just one or merely a possible part of one? If sauropods evolved over eons, then most of these fossils should be transitional. For example, why are gradually lengthening dinosaur necks not apparent as one ascends the rock record? Instead, these candidate “prosauropods” were perfectly developed creatures of their own types, showing no hint of evolutionary experimentation.

The Bible’s framework best explains the facts. First, sauropods were intentionally formed at one time, not morphed from other creatures. This is why no single undisputed ancestor exists, why their evolution is imagined to have happened in a “jump,” and why sauropods have all-or-nothing design features.

And the very reason that sauropod fossils exist “on almost every continent” is because, being a worldwide phenomenon, the Genesis Flood was powerful enough to totally overwhelm even the world’s most massive land creatures of that time. Unlike the miserable state of evolutionary guesswork, these observations confirm the biblical record!

(excerpted from Brian Thomas and Frank Sherwin, What the Fossils Really Say about Sauropod Dinosaurs, Acts & Facts, November 2011, Institute for Creation Research)

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References (selected)

1.Heeren, F. 2011. Dinosaurs: Rise of the titans. Nature. 475: 159-161.

The Red Letters Broke His Heart

Badi, a Muslim living in Libya, was given an English language Bible from a relative who did not read English and did not realize what he was giving Badi. Fortunately, Badi had learned to read English in school.

Badi soon learned that the red-lettered words in the Bible were the words of Jesus. His heart broke when he read the Sermon on the Mount in the fifth chapter of Matthew, and he soon came to revere the Word of God.

Badi studied his Bible, and he gained a deeper understanding of the faith about two years later when he met some foreign workers on a farm. He noticed that some of them were carrying Bibles, and they began to discuss Christ. The foreigners were Christians, and they invited him to attend church services with them.

When government officials discovered that Badi had become a Christian, he was arrested and imprisoned. He was charged with treason (!) rather than apostasy. Badi was beaten and tortured during his imprisonment. The pain was so severe that Badi wanted to die. But his torturers told him, "We won't kill you, because we want you to wish for death and not find it."

Badi survived and was released from prison six months later. He is now a follower of Jesus.

Recent news from post-Gaddafi Libya: one of the scattered Christians in Libya was arrested by rebels a few months ago. According to a friend, "they arrested him and beat him just a few days and released him. That is normal as a Christian in Libya. But the Gadhafi troops would kill him surely. The rebels would work with him quietly."

Pray for Badi for Libya's small indigenous church. Pray that the civil war and its aftermath will lead to new opportunities to advance the gospel.

(excerpted from Voice of the Martyrs newsletter, November 2011)

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