Baghdad, Iraq - Two
Assyrian Christian children have been killed in
Baghdad. Raneed Raad 16 and her sister Raphid 6 were
slaughtered in their home.
Bob Thiel is back with his holier-than-thou self-righteous smug attitude. This time he is using an article from the BBC that claims the number being thrown around on the Internet of Christians being killed around the world is not accurate.
BBC dismisses recent ‘Christian martyr’ estimates, but persecution exists and more is coming
Theil quotes this:
It’s often claimed that 100,000 Christians are killed
every year because of their religion. Earlier this year, the Vatican
called it a credible number. But is it?…
On the internet, the statistic has taken on a life of its own,
popping up all over the place, sometimes with an additional detail –
that these 100,000 lives are taken by Muslims.
The number comes originally from the Center for the Study of Global
Christianity (CSGC) at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in the US
state of
Massachusetts…when you hear that 100,000 Christians are dying
for their faith, you need to keep in mind that the vast majority –
90,000 – are people who were killed in DR Congo. This means we can say
right away that the internet rumours of Muslims being behind the killing
of 100,000 Christian martyrs are nonsense. The DRC is a Christian
country. In the civil war, Christians were killing Christians…
If you were to take away the 90,000 deaths in DR Congo from the
CSGC’s figure of 100,000, that would leave 10,000 martyrs per year.
And the number of Christians who are killed each year because they
are Christians is more likely to be in that order of magnitude,
according to Professor Thomas Schirrmacher from the International
Society for Human Rights. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24864587
Then Theil, God's greatest gift to the Church of God, says this:
I would add that although I do not consider that many killed were actual
Christians (and the Bible shows that real Christians would not be
killing other real Christians, see, for example ), the fact is that many
who profess forms of Christianity are being persecuted and killed in
many parts of the world and this is not setting off the amount of
international outrage that many would expect. And this BBC piece, while
correct in some points, seems designed to reduce outrage of violence
against those being persecuted/killed in Islamic and other lands.
Because some of these people were NOT Church of God members, and more specifically NOT part of Bob's cult, their deaths are not as important if they have been COG folk.
While I am well aware of the BBC bias towards Muslims, or Asians as the BBC refers to them, Thiel is correct in pointing out that it is written to negate those killed in Muslim lands. That is a topic for another time and place. The problem I have is Bob's incessant smear campaign towards Christians who are not part of the sabbath keeping, holy day observing, non-pig eating Church of God. Their deaths are not as important as they would have been if they were COG members.
He then tries to cover his ass with this:
What has happened to various people who profess Christians in places
such as Egypt, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, and other lands is wrong.
That being said, the Bible tells of a time when more persecution will hit those truly part of the Church of God.
...and then goes on to claim that TRUE COG members will be killed by the Catholic Church. His personality cult will face the brunt of that persecution. Again you will notice there are no REAL Christians outside of the Church of God
In the past, real Christians were persecuted because they:
- Kept Passover on the 14th
- Refused to eat unclean meat
- Would work on Sunday
- Had false accusations railed against them
- Were binitarian
- Kept the Sabbath
- Were not trinitarian
- Taught that the pope was an Antichrist and precursor of the final Antichrist
- Rejected papal authority
- Did not accept idols
- Had different teachings than the Church of Rome
- Had writings Rome did not like
- Rejected Roman sacraments
- Objected to the dress of the Roman ministry
- Considered Rome to be the prophecied Babylon
- Taught that in the time of the final Antichrist that some would fall away
- Had practices that Rome considered Jewish
- Refused to baptize infants
- Did not participate in carnal warfare
- Teaching the Kingdom of God
- Teaching the millennium
- Baptized adults
In the future, according to Catholic teachings, they ALSO will be persecuted for:
- Not accepting non-biblical teachings about Mary
- Not accepting the Great Monarch (Beast, King of the North)
- Teaching that the Kingdom of God will come soon
- Not accepting the ‘Great Monarch’ (who appears to be the King of the North of Bible prophecy)
- Not wearing crosses
- Teaching after the Great Tribulation begins that Jesus will return within a few years
Christians have been persecuted for holding doctrines that we in the Continuing Church of God hold and are clearly expected to be persecuted in the future for holding Continuing Church of God doctrines.
