American Citizen Imprisoned in Iran

If you desire to sign the petition on-line, click here.

It seems strange that such a petition would be necessary.  Saeed Abedini is an American citizen.  Both Congress and Obama know of his illegal arrest and imprisonment.

But then the same is true here in America, where citizens also are known to be innocent of the crimes for which they have been convicted and are nevertheless still held in prisons.  Such cases, whether here at home or in far away Iran, should be addressed with urgency.

Youcef Nadarkhani Released From Jail

At Iran Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani Acquitted of Apostasy, Released From Jail it is reported that after three years this poor man and his family are finally reunited.  The man whom the Muslims wanted to murder for the false accusation of apostasy, has been spared this hateful action.  They have not killed him.  He was accused of converting from Islam to Christianity.  He never professed to believe in Allah.  Nevertheless, those who hate Christ wanted to kill this man.  So far, his three year imprisonment has been counted as enough hatred displayed, along with changing his sentence:

Though acquitted of apostasy, the Iranian pastor was found guilty of evangelizing Muslims. He was sentenced to three years imprisonment but was released because he already served this time.

Such is the way of peace practiced by those who bow down to Allah.  Many who call themselves Muslims will argue that this is not truly the way of Islam.  Yet their writings from their one true prophet of Allah do teach this as their way.  Moreover, those who practice Islam regularly support Jihad with their money.  And finally, they do not denounce those who do this as condemned by their God.  They may say that this is not truly the way of Islam, but they do not actually condemn it, either.  Some exceptions may be found, but they do not count themselves as truly separate from their Muslim brothers who do these things.  So what is to be concluded?

Sadly, Christianity has been abused so that many imagine that the Bible and the faith taught in the Bible can be likened to this religion of Muhammad.  Sadly, it is true, that many who have professed to be of Christ and of His Church have acted shamefully, inhumanely, and against all that Christ has ordained for those who are His disciples.  Horrible atrocities have been committed in the name of Jesus.

So is there a difference?

The Bible teaches that those who are of Christ love their enemies and pray for them.

The Bible teaches that the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Christ, is not of this world but is a spiritual kingdom and that the disciples of Jesus are not to seek to establish a kingdom by any force other than the means of grace, that is, the pure preaching of the Gospel and the right administration of the Sacraments.  No one is to be coerced to believe.  No one is to be threatened beyond the warning of the self-condemnation of rejecting God’s Word and grace, which finally result in the very thing that the person has chosen for oneself, everlastingly to be cut off from the life in God’s Holy Communion, to be everlastingly confined instead to the ways of those who reject life in God’s Communion.

The Bible teaches that God’s governance of His Church is through Word and water and bread and wine, which administered as He has ordained provide limitless grace, mercy, and peace through forgiveness, reconciliation, restoration, renewal, and healing.  Through these it is taught that God gives His very own body and blood, mind and spirit, to His Church, the communion of His saints on earth.  These saints count themselves as subjected to one another in the love of Christ, bound together not by their act of submission, but by the love and peace of God.

Much more can be said, but even with this much, does the Church of Christ and the faith of this Christian Church sound at all like what is openly professed and practiced within Islam?

Sadly, however, it must be admitted that this Church of Christ is very small and hard to find, so that Christians are perceived to be what is commonly observed in the world.  If a person is open to seek the Church that the Bible declares to be truly of God, where will this person find this Church?

Will Christ be found in the big cathedrals?  Will He be found in the Mega churches?  Will He be found in the many little churches?  Where will He be found?

Where does He say that He is to be found?

It is a shame that such hate crimes have been and continue to be committed as Youcef Nadarkhani and his family have experienced.  It is horrible to know that such hate crimes happen in all parts of the world, even by those professing to be disciples of Christ.  One example is reported again at Church says military funeral protests will continue despite new restrictions.  This truly is a hate crime.  I’m not sure that under the Constitution of the United States that it should be illegal, but it certainly is a crime motivated by hatred.  And this is really very small compared to the atrocities committed that have been recorded throughout history.

What hope is there?  Will the hatred ever end?  Will these terrible acts ever stop?

For some, they already have.  For those whom the Holy Spirit gathers into the name of Jesus through the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit so that they confess their sins together and receive God’s absolution and then humbly receive God’s body and blood at His Table of forgiveness and life, the peace of God that surpasses all understanding does guard their hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.  Gathered into His name they begin to experience the end of the hatred and begin to enjoy the life of God’s love together which overflows to everyone whom they encounter.

But for others, those who choose for themselves another way, who reject the pure means of grace that God has ordained for our salvation and healing, they shall continue forevermore in the ways in which they now continue.  Mankind, according to his corrupted nature, always resorts to the ways that we observe all around us.  It is as the Epistle reading for this week declares:

     Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness,revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

     But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

The contrast is stark.  The former is not a choice.  It is what has been inherited according to the sinful nature.  One can even say that this propensity is genetic, as it inheres to the flesh.

The latter is not a choice either.  It is what is inherited in connection with the rebirth through water and spirit.  It is a new life that accompanies the baptismal gift of the indwelling of the Spirit of God.  The Word, Jesus, is in the consecrated water.  He gives the promised Spirit.  The Spirit generates the new life of faith.  This faith then rules the heart and mind and spirit of the newly generated saint.  This faith is nurtured through the continual gathering for the feast of Word and Sacrament.

But the flesh and the spirit are at war.  This is true even within the newborn saint, so that the flesh continually needs to be crucified through confession and absolution and feasting at the Supper of Everlasting Life in God’s Communion.

In the world this war is manifested openly with persecutions against the saints.  The true saints are sometimes tolerated by the world, but eventually the world rises up again against the saints.  The true Church is seen as the enemy because the saints stand apart from the world even though they live in the world.  The true Church even stands apart from the so-called visible church, the church that makes so much noise about how much they love God and how much they love Jesus and how hard they try to be “good” Christians and to conquer the world for Jesus and to conform the world to the good ways.  Often the most severe persecution of the saints is instigated by this so-called visible church.

And so the war continues.  It appears to be very one sided, since the only weapons that the true saints use in defending the Church and the Faith are the pure Word and Sacraments.  To everyone but these saints this seems like utter futility.  But to all the believing it is the power of God into salvation.  (Rom. 1:16)

The release from jail of Youcef Nadarkhani is cause for rejoicing, even from a secular perspective.  It is always a cause for rejoicing when those who are acting hatefully are turned from their evil ways.  And of course, for Youcef and for all of the people, there is a respite from these acts against them.  Surely all of the people in Iran can sigh at least a brief sigh of relief.

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Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani Still Alive with help of Brazil

Pastor Youcef Alive as ACLJ Launches Tweet for Youcef Brazil

Additional articles are available at Christian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani - Illegally Imprisoned, 887 days.

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Starve Iran

These reports disturb me in my soul.

Israeli officials: Starve Iranians to stop nukes

Israeli Officials Call for Starving Millions of Iranians

This is being compared to the refusal to send foreign aid to North Korea where the tyrannical dictatorial government committed and continues to commit atrocities on their people daily. North Korea’s leaders caused the starvation in North Korea.

There is a vast difference between saying “No” to the sending of foreign aid and saying “Yes” to trade sanctions and even military embargos against a nation, cutting it off from the world militarily.

Finding it difficult to justify outright military attacks on Iran, starvation is now being suggested as the means of killing the people.

Why? What have these people done? Whom have they attacked?

Who are the real monsters?

Yes, the Muslim leadership who are persecuting Christians with intensity and others as well, these truly are monstrous and evil. But is this reason for starving the entire populace? Is that not an even greater evil?

Recently many church leaders protested vehemently against the forced support of abortifacients and contraceptives. Church bodies angrily stormed Washington DC demanding to be exempted from violating their pro-life beliefs. Reports such as COP commends Synod president on religious-liberty statements boast with great pride regarding these actions.

OK. Very well. Good job boys!

In this same church body the new slogan and logo is: Witness, Mercy, Life Together.



Very catchy! Sounds wonderful!

I find myself wondering, will there be an outcry from these merciful ones regarding the globalist agenda to starve the Iranian children? Will they storm Washington DC to demand intervention on behalf of these children? Will they demand that their tax money not be used to help cut off food and supplies to the Iranian people?

Will they even publish a blog notice? Will they even send a letter?

Will they pray for the children in Iran? Will they pray for the parents who will struggle to find food for their starving children?

I am ashamed of the fact that in the past I often have turned a blind eye to such things as these. I am ashamed that I must admit that I did not cry out under the two Bush and the Clinton dictatorships and the unjust wars that they conducted and the other evils that they perpetrated.

Oh, I did cry out concerning at least some of the things, but with more of whimper.

Am I really doing anything more now? Is there more that I really can do?

Well, at the very least I believe that I can support candidates who likewise say that this is wrong, that warmongering is wrong, candidates with a record of opposing such evils, both abroad and at home.

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The Insane Lust for War and Fighting

Today I received notice of a statement made by the man who has been touted as the “crown prince” of the Tea Party movement. That title in itself causes me to recoil. But his statement is horrifying to me. He said:

“. . . the idea of a nuclear Iran is so catastrophic that there’s virtually no price too high to pay to avoid it.”

This is quoted from Rubio: No Price Too High to Avoid Nuclear Iran.

At CPAC kicks off with Marco Rubio the following is reported:

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), widely considered to be a contender for the vice presidential nomination, drew loud applause when he spoke of “the American example” and the need to spread American values globally.

“What happens if we diminish? What happens if we retreat? … That space will be filled by someone else [and] the only nations capable of filling that void are totalitarian nations like Russia and China. … the greatest thing we can do for the world is be America,” said Rubio, to thunderous applause.

This is what people are applauding? Have people completely lost their sense of what is right?

Like most of these people, Rubio purports to be a Christian. Have these people never read:

Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. (Romans 12:17-18)

Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; (Hebrews 12:14-15)

Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? (Matthew 5:43-46)

Love your enemies. Pray for them. Where are the prayers begging God for peace so that advancement of war would be unnecessary?

St. Paul admonishes: “If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.”

Does this “crown prince” sound as though he has even the slightest desire to avoid war? When he says “. . . there’s virtually no price too high to pay . . .” is there no one who realizes what this means?

How many lives will be sacrificed? And without even trying to prevent it?

And these people imagine themselves to be listening to the Holy Spirit? These people imagine themselves to be followers of the same Lord who says, “Pray for them”?

Does no one even ask why such warmongering is being pushed by the establishment? Iran does not even have any nuclear weapons. All that has been reported is that they may be developing the capability of making such weapons.

And what is the result here in America from this frenzy of hatred? Our future prosperity is being obliterated. Our protection from abuses of our own government is being obliterated by the Patriot Act, the TSA, Homeland Security, the National Defense Authorization Act, and countless others. On and on the list grows as the people look elsewhere with hateful eyes, blinded to the destruction of our own nation and society.

Hatred and vengeance and war are powerfully destructive. They carry very high costs.

The saddest part is that those who seem to be the most hateful and vengeful and lustful for blood and war are those who make the most noise about being lovers of peace and liberty and forgiveness.

The Lord Jesus said over and over that the false ones would be known by their fruits.

If Christians spent as much time contemplating their own sinfulness and need for God’s forgiveness, grace, mercy, peace, restoration, and reconciliation as they say others have need of correction and salvation, how much time would be left for blood lust and hatred?

Sadly, when these Christians have brought judgment back upon us all so that unimaginable hard times strike the land, I know whom they will blame and upon whom they will lash out in vengeful wrath. It has been that way since Cain slew Abel. It will continue until the Lord comes again to bring such things finally to an end.

In the meantime, the Gospel is still available for all who desire to hear it and receive it. God’s means of grace still flow freely wherever even two or three have been gathered into Christ’s name. God’s love is still in the world and will be until the very end of this age. For this I only know to say, “Thanks be to God!”

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More on Pastor Nadarkhani

The Washington Post has an article, Clearing up the facts on Pastor Nadarkhani’s fate.

It includes a link to this translation of the Iranian Supreme Court verdict against Nadarkhani.

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More Smoke and Mirrors?

Tuesday

In the article, 2 Charged in Alleged Plot to Kill Saudi Ambassador to US, it is reported that the “Obama administration on Tuesday accused agents of the Iranian government of being involved in a plan to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States.” Near the end of the article it also reports that “President Barack Obama was first briefed on the plot in June.”

That was four months ago. Why the wait?

According to both this article and the one by the New York Times: U.S. Accuses Iranians of Plotting to Kill Saudi Envoy, this accusation by the administration was made on Tuesday. That is today. At the bottom of the NY Times article is this footnote:

A version of this article appeared in print on October 12, 2011, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Iranians Accused Of Plot to Kill An Ambassador.

Just in case this is changed later so as to deny it, here is a picture of it:

Does this seem strange to anyone else? On Tuesday, October 11, 2011, a footnote is included on a web page article saying that a version of this article appeared in print tomorrow, Wednesday, October 12, 2011.

Is this not peculiar reporting style? What does this indicate regarding the facts of this story?

Obama was briefed on this plot in June. His administration waits at least four months to act. The news report speaks of Tuesday (today) as though it were past tense. Then one report speaks of a past appearance of a version of this article on a day in the future.

Again, what does this indicate regarding the facts of this story?

The NY Times article bounces all over the spectrum regarding what the “experts” conclude regarding the likelihood of this plot having approval from high-levels of the Iranian government. Yet the hateful attempts to murder a man for converting to Christianity have gone to the very highest level in the Iranian government. Why does the media go to such extreme efforts to excuse or explain away the very facts that they report?

Should this concern us? Should we look to this peculiar reporting and this askew perspective of the Obama administration with uneasiness?

= = = = =


Wednesday

Today some are very boldly calling this an act of war on the part of Iran. See Kessler: Bomb Iran Now for Washington Terror Plot. This article says that former Rep. Pete Hoekstra and Newsmax chief Washington correspondent Ronald Kessler say that this is a clear act of war against the USA.

Clear act of war against the USA?

First, the reports deny the likelihood of this being approved by higher levels of Iranian government. The next day the reaction is to call it a clear act of war.

But what of the evidence and the reporting of that evidence? What attack actually was perpetrated? What and whom were blown up? Where are the explosives?

Does anyone recall the reason for going to war against Iraq? Clear evidence of weapons of mass destruction was reportedly held by Saddam & family. Oddly though, those weapons were never found.

Now are we to go to war with a nation on account of a plot to kill an ambassador from another Islamic nation?

What is the point? How does going to war with Iran prevent war, especially when no actual ACT of war has been perpetrated? A plot is not the same as an act, even if it should be proven that this plot reaches to the high levels of Iranian government. Has a Lusitania been sunk? Would a plot to sink the Lusitania have been an act of war or merely a strategy?

The followers of Islam consider themselves to be at war with the world. Their Quran and other religious sources make this clear.

But Communism teaches the same. Why have we not bombed China or North Korea and the former USSR? They have each committed actual acts of war, and yet we have not bombed their nuclear plants. Each of these have most certainly plotted against the USA.

Who gains from war? The international bankers and the big military industrialists gain. But the people lose and lose big. It has always been this way, except on a smaller scale in the past.

James addresses this issue in James 4.

If the USA were not going to war around the globe forcing centralized banking and big corporate exploitation of resources and people upon nations in the guise of democracy and freedom, would we actually find ourselves at war with these nations? In older times this was called colonization. Today it is called spreading democracy. Soon it will be called world peace through global police enforcement.

When it finally reaches this stage, the people will cry out. But will they not be the ones who endorsed it all along? Will they not be the very ones who cried: “USA! USA! USA!”? Will they not be the ones who waved the flag, or burned it in a feeling of superiority while collecting welfare and food stamps and government jobs and social security or big corporate benefits and pensions?

In the end, will we not be getting exactly what we have endorsed or at least accepted and permitted?

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Petition on behalf of Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani

Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani has been in the news as a man sentenced to death in Iran for his refusal to repent of his conversion (apostasy) from Islam to Christianity. International pressure has helped to forestall at least temporarily the Iranian government’s plans to execute him. Additionally, the Iranian government has circulated propaganda claiming that the charges in the court documentation are not the real crime for which he is sentenced to death.

More information is available at Youcef Nadarkhani Still in Danger: Ayatollah Khamenei to be his Final Judge . As this article reports, the matter has been carried to its highest level in Iran, to the Ayatollah Khamenei.

The ACLJ, the American Center for Law and Justice, is preparing a petition to present to Secretary of State Clinton urging her to “call for Iran to overturn Pastor Youcef’s death sentence and demand his full and unconditional release from prison.” The petition is available at Petition to Secretary of State Clinton - Call on Iran to save Christian pastor. A form is provided at this link for having your name added to the petition if you would like to join the outcry on behalf of this man’s life. Alternatively, you can call the PETITION LINE at 1-877-989-2255.

If you know of people without Internet access who would like to have their names added to the petition, this phone number gives easy access to do so. It is again: 1-877-989-2255.

Here is the petition that is to be presented to Secretary Clinton:

To: Secretary of State Clinton

We cannot allow this atrocity to be carried out. Christian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani faces imminent execution in Iran for his Christian faith. In July, your office stated that it was “dismayed over reports that the Iranian courts are requiring Youcef Nadarkhani to recant his Christian faith or face the death penalty for apostasy.” Now, Pastor Youcef faces execution that could be carried out at any time.

It is absolutely critical that you call for Iran to overturn Pastor Youcef’s death sentence and demand his full and unconditional release from prison. As other world leaders denounce Iran’s condemning this man to death just for being a Christian, it is critical that America – the land of liberty – take a stand and pressure Iran to release Pastor Youcef.

I urge you to take immediate action to call on Iran to stop this ultimate human rights abuse, and free Pastor Youcef before it’s too late.

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