Recently an Iranian Muslim who had converted to Christianity was actually denied asylum in the UK because, according to the Home Office, his premise was wrong.
The asylum seeker claimed that he had converted to Christianity because it is a religion of peace, whereas Islam is not. As he put it: ‘In Islam there is violence, rage and revenge. In Christianity on the contrary it is talking about peace, forgiveness and kindness.’
The civil servant, speaking on behalf of Her Majesty’s Government, then rejected the claim on the basis that Christianity is not a religion of peace, whereas Islam was. He used quotations from the Bible and the Quran to justify his rejection of the poor man’s application. Her Majesty’s government’s position, it appears, is that because the Bible contains examples of violence, it should return the asylum seeker to the peaceful Republic of Iran, where, presumably, the Christian can endure being peacefully being tortured and executed for apostasy by a regime noted for its export of terror on behalf of the Religion of Peace.
So, I thought rather than meekly protest, it was incumbent upon me to attempt to educate our diligent servant of the Crown as to in why it was indeed possible that our Iranian asylum seeker and, indeed, Christians around the world, should justifiably regard their chosen religion as one of peace.
I will start by addressing the specific passages the civil servant quotes, and then I will go on to draw his attention to a few he failed to take into account.
- Leviticus 26: ‘You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall by the sword before you. Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you.’
This is a promise God made to the escaped Hebrew slaves after the Exodus from Egypt and after the giving of the Law – summarised in the Ten Commandments – by God himself. It was a conditional promise and that would only be fulfilled IF they kept the law covenant. If they did not, then worse would befall them, as was spelled out in Deuteronomy 28 and 29.
This promise is to Israel the nation – who had two strategic problems.
The first was that others dwelt in the land God had promised them, and those others would want to kill them. God was going to use Israel to judge these nations for their sins – specifically the slaughter of their new-borns – by driving them out of the land and giving it to Israel.
The second was that once in the land they were surrounded by nations more powerful than they, and so they would need divine assistance in maintaining their security against invasion by these more powerful armies.
Both the Old Testament and indeed modern history since 1948 record that God has been faithful to His promise. Records of both of these periods of history testify to the reality of the God of Israel in keeping His promises to Israel.
Unlike Islam, which teaches unlimited war against all infidels in all places for all time, Israel was only authorised to use force to protect its people and its land within its borders, and indeed any foreigners who joined themselves to Israel and accepted their laws they were to treat as well as their own. This is reflected in Israel’s equal treatment of its Arab, Druze and Christian citizens in their country today. Israel’s behaviour stands in sharp contrast to the treatment non-Muslims get in Islamic countries – as our Iranian brother who converted to Christianity knows only too well.
A nation being promised divine help to establish and maintain its security against powerful warlike neighbours is not evidence of Christianity being warlike. It is evidence of God being just.
- In Matthew’s Gospel, chapter we read that Jesus said: ‘Think not that I am come to send peace, but a sword.’
Why did Jesus say this? In the previous verse, Jesus has just stated the following:
‘Therefore, everyone who will confess to be in me before men, I will also confess to be in him before my Father, who is in the heavens. But whoever denies me before men, I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven.’ [Matthew 10:32-33, MLV].
So, Jesus is indicating that for those who have heard of Jesus and His teaching, there are two kinds of reaction: we can either confess him, or we can deny him. We can either speak favourably of Jesus being God incarnate, or we can deny his divinity.
Clearly, those who deny Jesus may, some of them at least, oppose those who confess Jesus, and some may use swords, or weapons, to do so. Indeed, 1,400 years of Islamic history have at least confirmed the veracity of Jesus’ words: Islam has indeed fought against Christianity with the scimitar. Go to may places on the earth today, and we can see Jesus’ words being fulfilled. Go to Nigeria, Cameroon, Mali, Iraq, Syria, Congo, Egypt, Thailand, Philippines, or now the streets of Paris, Berlin or London, and you will find examples of Jesus words being fulfilled. The weapons are generally being carried by Muslims. As MI5 confirmed only yesterday, the number of violent plots they are tracking by Muslims are ‘absolutely’ more numerous than the number of ‘far right’ plots, plots that are a reaction to that Islamically inspired violence.
It is therefore a bitter irony that a paid representative of Her Majesty’s government should use Jesus prophetic words as a reason for why Christianity was not peaceful, when it is Islam, the only religion to be formed after the life of Jesus who not only denies Jesus divinity as the cardinal belief about Allah, but also advocates the use of violence to gain victory over Jesus’ followers. As Mohammed himself put it: ‘I have been made victorious through terror.’
- The next text used by our learned civil servant was from Exodus 34, where God says to the people of Israel, through Moses: ‘Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land where you are going, or they will be a snare to you. Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and cut down their Asherah poles.’
I would like to draw the civil servant to the context to God’s words and the larger paragraph from which they have been taken. Just after the giving of the Law a second time, and this time the children of Israel were careful not to make a golden calf to worship instead of the one true God, God says this to them:
‘Then the Lord said: “I am making a covenant with you. Before all your people I will do wonders never before done in any nation in all the world. The people you live among will see how awesome is the work that I, the Lord, will do for you. Obey what I command you today. I will drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land where you are going, or they will be a snare among you. Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and cut down their Asherah poles. Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.
“Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land; for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you and you will eat their sacrifices. And when you choose some of their daughters as wives for your sons and those daughters prostitute themselves to their gods, they will lead your sons to do the same.” ‘
God did many wonders in Israel, but by far the greatest were the miraculous conception of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, the Messiah and the Resurrection of Jesus, who is now therefore the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, who will come to judge the living and the dead.
Such was the importance of their faith in the One True God that the Israelites could not afford to have others come in and break that covenant with God – whence the language about prostituting themselves to their gods – for they would be breaking the eternal covenant between God and His people – those we know today as the Jews.
God then made a New Covenant with people of all nations – a covenant established with the blood of the Messiah, the Suffering Servant. This nation, the UK, from the time of its establishment as England by King Alfred the Great, kept faith with Jesus Christ and maintained the New Covenant. But in these last days it has broken the Eternal Covenant and instead adopted ‘Multiculturalism’, a word that one might reasonably explain the meaning of as worshipping any other God, or even prostituting ourselves before other Gods and sacrificing to them, and seeing our daughters made prostitutes of by the sons of those who worship other gods.
The Bible indicates that in order to stay free of this, the nation needed to remove the visible representation of those religions that were in opposition to the one true God. Put in modern language, the Bible indicates that in order to survive, a God-fearing nation needs to reject multiculturalism – for in the end it destroys the nation, rendering it hopelessly divided and at war with itself. So, in order to avoid that fate, a clear-eyed commitment to the One True God needed to be maintained by the nation.
I leave it for Her Majesty’s government to consider, if only for a moment, whether any of the God’s wisdom has any possible relevance for our day.
- Lastly, our civil servant referred to three passages in the Book of Revelation, which prophetically tell of events in the future and the means by which the One True God brings His judgment to bear. The first concerns the Church:
‘I cast her onto a bed and those who are committing adultery with her into great affliction, if they do not repent from her works. And I will kill her children with death, and all the congregations will know that I am he who is searching the brains and hearts and I will give to you, each one according to your works.’ [Revelation 2:22-23, MLV].
This comes from Jesus’ Letter to the Church in Thyatira, a church that eventually was destroyed by Muslims, as were most of the churches addressed in the seven letters at the beginning of the Book of Revelation (apart from the Church of Philadelphia, which escaped to Greece). The whole letter is as follows:
‘And write to the messenger of the congregation in Thyatira: The Son of God, who has his eyes like a flame of fire and his feet are like polished bronze says these things: “I know your works and love and faith and service and endurance and that your last works are more-than the first. But I have this against you, that you are allowing your woman Jezebel, she who calls herself a prophetess, and she who is teaching and misleading my bondservants to fornicate and to eat idol-sacrifices. And I gave her time, in order that she might repent, and she is not willing to repent from her fornication. Behold, I cast her onto a bed and those who are committing adultery with her into great affliction, if they do not repent from her works. And I will kill her children with death, and all the congregations will know that I am he who is searching the brains and hearts and I will give to you, each one according to your works.”
“But I say to you and to the rest who are in Thyatira, as many as are not holding to this teaching, who did not know the deep things of the Adversary, as they are saying. I cast upon you no other burden. However, hold-fast to what you have, till whenever I have come. And he who is overcoming and he who is keeping my works to the end, to him I will give authority over the nations. And he will shepherd them with an iron rod, as the vessels of the potter will be crushed; as I have also received of my Father; and I will give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the congregations.” ‘
So, with regard to the imagery of the language of this book, we can identify that the reason Jesus brings His judgement on this church (which stands as a representative of many such churches) is that there are two things taught by its leadership that Jesus rejects utterly.
The first is sexual immorality. He will not accept compromise on this point.
The second is to eat idol-sacrifices – i.e. joining with other religions which oppose the One True God. In other words, there can be no multiculturalism in the Church. There is only One God and only one Saviour. As Jesus himself stated about Himself:
‘I am the way and the truth and the life; no one is coming to the Father, except through me. If you had known me, you would have also known my Father; from now on you know him and have seen him.’ [John 14:6-7, MLV]
Christ brings His judgment on any churches that compromise on these two points.
This does not mean that Jesus is violent – it means Jesus is just, and that God is God and we need to fear Him – take what He has said with the seriousness His words deserve.
The second quotation from our civil servant also from the Book of Revelation, but rather later on in the book, deals with events foretold to happen. Again, I will quote from the Modern Literal Version (or MLV) so there can be no doubt as to the meaning:
‘And locusts came forth out of the smoke upon the earth, and authority was given to them, like the scorpions of the earth have authority. And it was said to them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, nor any pale-green thing, nor any tree, except only men who do not have the seal of God upon their foreheads. And it was given to them that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion, whenever it strikes a man. And in those days’ men will seek death and will never find it, and they will desire to die and death will flee from them.’
The context of this passage is that there are seven events leading up to the return of Jesus, each event announced as a warning trumpet to all earth’s inhabitants. It is clear from modern history that the first four of those events have already taken place. After the fourth trumpet then God gives a warning to the inhabitants of the earth:
‘Woe, woe, woe, to those who are dwelling upon the earth, from the rest of the voices of the trumpet of the three messengers, who are about to sound.’
The first of these last three woes is the passage from which our civil servant quotes. The fact that God is warning us of this terrible war upon the earth does not make Christianity violent. It is given so that men of wisdom and faith may prepare themselves and their fellows for what is coming.
Specifically, in this case, these things happen because men have taken the ‘mark of the Beast’, a form of identification marker, implanted into their foreheads and right hands or wrists, without which they are not allowed to buy or sell. Because of this marker, the ‘locusts’ can find them and attack them. Those who refuse the identifier, although they are not allowed to trade, avoid this disaster. All Christians are required to not take this mark, otherwise they loose their salvation and go to hell at judgment:
‘If anyone is worshiping the beast and his image and receives a mark upon his forehead or upon his hand, he will also drink out of the wine of the fury of God which has been mingled undiluted in the cup of his wrath, and he will be tormented in fire and brimstone in the sight of the holy messengers and in the sight of the Lamb; and the smoke of their torment is going up forever and ever, and they have no rest day and night, who are worshiping the beast and his image and if anyone receives the mark of his name.’ [Revelation 14:9-10, MLV].
Why would God be opposed to this mark? What harm can a little ol’ RFID chip be? Apart from the fact that a God of love would spare mankind this disaster that it will bring upon itself, the whole point of God is that he is a God of love and to love people have to be free to love. The mark of the Beast is a scheme that would turn the world into one large prison camp, and the creator of this world is set against this: He would have us breath free.
Islam, aka the Beast, has no interest in people being free. Just ask the Iranian convert to Christianity.
The final Biblical quotation our civil servant brings is from Revelation 14:
‘Fear God for the hour of His judgment has come.’
Quite apart from this being excellent and relevant policy advice to all politicians and civil servants at this time, this is given as part of a set of three explicit commands God has given all the inhabitants of the earth. To quote His advice in full:
‘And I saw a messenger flying in mid-heaven, having the everlasting good news to proclaim to those who dwell upon the earth and to every nation and tribe and language and people; and he says in a loud voice, Fear the Lord and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come and worship him who made the heaven and the earth and sea and springs of waters.
And another, a second messenger, followed, saying, Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, who has given all the nations to drink out of the wine of the fury of her fornication.
And another messenger, a third, followed them, saying in a loud voice, If anyone is worshiping the beast and his image and receives a mark upon his forehead or upon his hand, he will also drink out of the wine of the fury of God which has been mingled undiluted in the cup of his wrath, and he will be tormented in fire and brimstone in the sight of the holy messengers and in the sight of the Lamb; and the smoke of their torment is going up forever and ever, and they have no rest day and night, who are worshiping the beast and his image and if anyone receives the mark of his name.
Here is the endurance of the holy-ones, those who are keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.’
Each of these three points deserve a little explanation.
The first states we should fear God (that means take notice of what He has commanded, including the commands of Jesus) for two reasons.
The first is that the time for the earth to be judged is upon us. Indeed, it is at the very door. This century will be the most difficult for mankind, and the season of judgement will end, when Jesus returns – i.e. the seventh trumpet. (Hence the phrase, the last trump).
The second reason to fear God is that He really is the Creator of the Universe. It has become customary to believe that science has disproved the notion that God created the Universe. The universe is after all 13.7 billion years old; it was not made in under a week.
A slightly more careful reading of Genesis chapter 1 will reward the reader with the insight that each day in the Biblical Creation story starts half way through the previous one. Once that is realised, it is simple to then grasp that what Genesis describes as happening in each day, and what science has discovered happens within the same epoch, is precisely the same. In other words, encoded in Genesis 1 is the same creation narrative that modern science tells, and there is only one way that could have happened: the God of the Bible really is the creator of the universe.
The second message of God to the inhabitants of the earth is that Babylon, the world’s modern technological economy, and its political and military systems, is going to collapse. It cannot survive. Given that, it is time to ‘get out of Babylon the Great’, as God commands in the Book. Any hope that our high consumption, globalised usury-based economy is sustainable is forlorn. The answer to this does not lie with politicians and unelected supra-national councils – it lies with us.
And the third message is stark – anyone who worships the Beast (aka worships Allah) will burn in Hell. Is that violent on God’s part? Or is God bringing justice to those who think it is their Allah-given mission to kill infidels etc.
Our Iranian asylum seeker believes that Jesus is the Prince of Peace, as I do, for what Jesus said, the man He was and what He did:
‘All things have been given to me by my Father and no one fully knows the Son, except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father fully, except the Son and he to whomever the Son wills to reveal him. Come here to me, all you who labour and have been loaded down, and I will give rest to you. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, because I am meek and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my load is light.’ [Matthew 11:27-30, MLV]
‘And when they came upon the place which is called The Skull, they crucified him and the criminals there, one at the right and the other at the left. Now Jesus said, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”’ [Luke 23:33-34]
‘For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.’ [Isaiah 9:6].
However, God is also a God of justice, who will not leave the guilty unpunished. So, we should also recognise that this same Jesus, whom we, mankind, crucified, will come back to judge the living and the dead. Let’s see what will happen when Jesus returns:
‘After these things, I heard as it was a large voice of a large crowd in heaven, saying, Hallelujah! Salvation and power and glory, is from our God: because true and righteous are his judgments, because he has judged the great prostitute [i.e. Babylon the Great], she who was corrupting the earth in her fornication and he has avenged the blood of his bondservants from her hand [including the blood of our Iranian asylum seeker if Her Majesty’s Government get their way].
And they have said a second time, “Hallelujah”. And her smoke goes up forever and ever. And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who is sitting upon the throne, saying, “Amen. Hallelujah”.
And a voice came forth from the throne, saying, “Praise our God, all his bondservants, and those who fear him, the least and the greatest.”
And I heard as it was the voice of a large crowd and like the voice of many waters and like the voice of mighty thunders, saying, “Hallelujah, because the Lord our God, the Almighty reigns. We should rejoice and should be glad and should give the glory to him, because the marriage of the Lamb has come and his wife has prepared herself.”
And it was given to her that she might dress herself in fine-linen, bright and clean; for the fine-linen is the righteousness’s of the holy-ones.
And he says to me, “Write, those who have been invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb are fortunate”.
And he says to me, “These are true words of God”.
And I fell down before his feet to worship him. And he said to me, “See that you do not do that. I am a fellow bondservant of you and of your brethren who are holding the testimony of Jesus. Worship God; for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”
And I saw the heaven has been opened, and behold, a white horse and he who sat upon it being called Faithful and True, and he is judging in righteousness and is making war [Note well: even the Prince of Peace has to make war – this does not make God violent. Those who love bloodshed are violent].
Now his eyes are a flame of fire and upon his head are many diadems, and he has names written which no one knows except he himself.
And he has been dressed in a garment, having been dipped in blood and his name is called The Word of God.
And the armies which are in heaven were following him upon white horses, having themselves having clothed themselves in fine-linen, white and clean.
And a sharp two-edged sword travels out from his mouth, in order that he might strike the nations with it and he will shepherd them with an iron rod.
And he tramples on the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God, the Almighty.
And he has upon his garment and upon his thigh a name has been written, KING OF KINGS and LORD OF LORDS.
And I saw a messenger standing in the sun, and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in mid-heaven, “Come here. Be gathered together to the great supper of God; in order that you may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of commanders and the flesh of mighty men and the flesh of horses and of those who sit upon them and the flesh of all men, both free and bond and both least and greatest.”
And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies, have been gathered together to make a war with him who sat upon the horse and with his army.
And the beast was clutched and with him the false prophet who made the signs in his sight, in which he misled those who had received the mark of the beast and those who are worshiping his image. The two were cast while living into the lake of fire which is burning in brimstone. And the rest were killed with the sword of him who sat upon the horse, which came forth out of his mouth and all the birds were fed from their flesh.’
So, we can see that in the end Islam, the Beast, and Babylon the Great, the globalised economic system with its political system, will both be destroyed by none other than Jesus Christ himself. Does this make the Iranian asylum seeker wrong to seek to leave Islam, the Beast, and ally himself to the One who will defend his own?
Or is our civil servant hopelessly in the grip of a political system that has given its power to the Beast?
‘These have one intention and they distribute their power and authority to the beast. These will make war with the Lamb . . .’ [Revelation 17:13-14]
As a matter of national policy, it is generally better to pick the winning side. Let us read a little further:
‘. . . and the Lamb will overcome them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those called and chosen and faithful with him’ [Revelation 17:14, MLV]
Many ask, as do I, just how many persecuted Christians have been denied asylum in the UK – and have so been sent back to torture and death at the hands of Islamic thugs – because profoundly ignorant (or perhaps Muslim?) assessors in the Home Office have set themselves up as judges and juries of spiritual truth, in order to facilitate Islam’s cruel jihad against the Christians?
‘And it was given to [the Beast] to make a war with the holy-ones and to overcome them and authority over every tribe and people and language and nation was given to him.’ [Revelation 13:7, MLV]
This is bad enough, but Christian asylum seekers do not expect Her Majesty’s government to be at war with them alongside those Muslims who see it as Allah’s will to ruin the lives of and kill as many Christians as they can find.
What is the point of the Foreign Office pledging to stem the persecution of Christians across the globe when the Home Office seems intent on dispatching them to certain persecution, torture and martyrdom?
I know I am supposed to ‘render unto Caesar what is Caesars’, but surely this cannot be a right and proper use of my taxes?
Graham Ford
President – Jesus Christ for Muslims