One day during our conference in Jerusalem, as I was about to go up to speak, I felt that the spirit of holiness was going to be released in the meeting. So I whispered to the worship leader, I said, "Don't stop. Sing a song about the holiness of God and lead the people into a holy presence of God." And as soon as I said that, the worship leader, a very godly man of God, he knelt down. And as soon as he knelt down, his entire worship team knelt down and lifted up their voices and began to worship the holiness of God. And when they did, without a single word being spoken, every one of the 800 delegates, they all knelt down and began to worship the holiness of God.
And I was on the stage and as I was kneeling down, the Lord Jesus Christ manifested before me and when l saw his face he was weeping. Not only he was weeping but there was great sorrow on his face But in such an atmosphere of worshiping the holiness, we would rather expect him to be like in either Dietrich Bonhoeffer in as a God of holiness or as a King of glory.
That was what I was expecting. But I was moved with a wonderment, shock and bewilderment to see the sorrow on his face and the tears that were rolling down like rivers. And I was wondering what was the problem. And then Lord Jesus said, "Persecution and martyrdom is coming. My people are going to flee and be persecuted but they are not prepared for it.
Saying that he again he was crying weeping with tears and more importantly I saw the great sorrow on his face.
Persecution and martyrdom is coming. But my people are not prepared. They're not prepared at all.
Nominal Christians as well as all those who claim to be remnant Christians, they're not prepared.
And the reason why we are not prepared is because we have been wrongly taught that before all this persecution, martyrdom takes place, we'll be raptured. So it's all inside us an escapist theology. A mentality that not to worry about all this. Before the mark of the beast comes, we'll be raptured. before the persecution comes, before the antichrist comes, we'll all be raptured. So, we need not worry about all that. You know that theology is absolutely wrong.
I started my ministry in the 80s under old Pentecostal teaching and the old Pentecostal teaching teaches all this. So, I grew up under that and I was also very furiously preaching that about the rapture. He comes first and then followed by all the other things.
But in the year 2006, in the last week of the month of May, the Lord Jesus Christ appeared before me and he said, "The time has come for some for Matthew chapter 24:8 to be fulfilled." So I looked at my Bible and it says these are the beginnings of sorrows.
So I wondered what that word literally meant beginnings of sorrows. So I asked the Lord Jesus and then he explained to me that all these persecution are going to come one after another. So I told the Lord Jesus, but we need not worry about all this because the rapture will come and we'll all be caught away. And the most important factor, isn't it that we should get ready for the rapture?
The Lord Jesus looked at me and he said, "All you guys are wrong. All your theology is wrong." And then for the next 90 minutes he sat by my bed, went through the book of Revelation explaining clearly how the events will take place that before the rapture, the persecution will begin. The mark of the beast will be introduced. The whole world will be tried. The whole world will be forced to make a decision concerning their allegiance to who? To the one true living God Jehovah or through the so-called self-proclaimed God antichrist. Who this will be the challenge that will be before us.
A global persecution resulting in martyrdom is coming all over the world. Not just in one nation or two nations. So all over the world includes the United States. Am l right? It includes everybody.
You know a global persecution was prophesied not by the prophets, yesterday and today is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ himself. In Revelation 3:10, he says like this, "Because you have kept my command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world to test those who dwell on the earth."
From the first century till now, such a thing of a persecution or a test or a trial on a global scale has not happened yet. It has happened on a national scale. In this nation there, in that nation there, nations like China, nation like Russia, pockets here and there, and then one nation here, one nation there, but not on a global scale.
So this word that the Lord Jesus prophesied is for these last days. These last days. So in these last days, a trial is going to come upon the whole world. And the trial will result in a test.
Now look at these two important words in that scripture. Trial and test. The word trial in the Greek means a putting to proof by experience of evil.
You will experience an evil that will put you to the test of your faith.
You will be allowed to experience evil. Just like how you may have heard of stories of ministers of God in Russia and China been persecuted. They experienced the evil in their bodies, in their minds. They experienced it. And that was a trial they went through. Some came out gold. And some fell away, backslided. They couldn't take the torches. They couldn't take the pain. And they denied the Lord Jesus Christ and embrace communism or atheism.
It has happened in the past. It will happen again in our days. It will always go in a circle. So the word test in the Greek means to test or discipline.
So it'll be a discipline. A discipline is something of like punishment, of like tortures.
So if you put these two words together, it conveys a concept that tests of an experience of evil that will be a proof if our faith can test, can stand the test, will be subject to evil.
Evil will come in many forms. Evil can come through legislation, a law being passed and as a result of the law, you can do this, you can do that. And if you try to do that, be imprisoned, persecuted, put to jail, or even die in jail.
You know recently, just about two years ago, President Putin of Russia has signed a new law that you cannot even conduct a Bible study in your own home. *¹
You cannot be a Christian, cannot read his Bible on the public anywhere. If you want to read your Bible, you read it at home. That's number one.
Number two, no foreigner is allowed to go to Russia to preach. Not allowed. Even if there is a sponsoring church or church in Russia that will invite you, you are not allowed.
And even Russians cannot go from house to house conducting a prayer meeting. You can't do all that. This is not during the cold war before the Berlin wall 🧱 came down. This is right now. Right now.
So how far away from all this in the whole North Korea? America is now shaking hands with North Korea. But do you know how much of persecution takes place in North Korea?
Similar to what I just told you about Russian, in North Korea, there's one religion called juche. *³
And the religion of juche is the worship of the president of North Korea. He is the god. So everybody, every North Korean, they must bow down and worship him. him the present president Kim that president you must have seen pictures of President Trump meeting President Kim (at Singapore) right him his father and his grandfather. So every Korean homes have three portraits of these three generations and they all bow down and they worship them . So Christianity is outlawed in North Korea.
So the nations are facing this. This has begun in pockets. But now it will become worldwide on a global scale. Every nation will persecute Christians. It is coming and it will result in martyrdom.
In Revelation chapter 6, verses 9-11, you read about a vision that the Apostle John saw when the fifth seal in the scroll that the Lord Jesus had in his hand was broken. And he saw a large altar in one place in heaven. And below the altar, he saw a huge company of men and women and children. Standing there and they were crying.
A few weeks ago, I had an awesome experience of seeing this exact scene in the exact place and the exact spot where the Apostle John stood in heaven.
And I saw in greater detail than what you read in that script three scriptures. There was a river of blood that flowed from the altar and it flowed down all the walls of the altar fresh warm blood and it's flowing nonstop.
You know, last week when we were in Canada, we had a day off and we went to see the Niagara Falls. And the one thing that amazed me about the Niagara Falls was the waters flow nonstop from where they were coming, where they were going. I stood there and wondered for a long time, non-stop. That was how I saw the blood on the altar. It was flowing nonstop, flowing and flowing and flowing. And below the altar stood a company of martyrs and these martyrs came and told me how they were killed. Every one of them shared their testimony how they were killed.
And then the Lord Jesus told them. So they cried to the Lord in Revelation 6:10. 19
How long, oh Lord, holy and true until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth? How long will you keep quiet? How long will you remain patient?
The blood of Thomas, like them, have been crying for 2,000 years. for against all those who killed him in India. India is a blessed land because the apostle Thomas was sent there and do you know how he was martyred?
His back was skinned that his back was peeled. They peeled the skin and they threw chili powder on his back and he was screaming and crying and they forced him to run up a hill. As he was running they took spear and it speared him. That's how saint Thomas died.
So does every martyred saint in every nation. They all standing there lifting up their hands. Have you heard of Dietrich Bonhoeffer? I saw him standing in the center of Germany. He lifted up his hands looking up to heaven and was praying for Germany. And the words come out. 'How long Lord? How long? '
But there is a different perspective to the word 'how long.' This I was shown explained by the martyr saints in heaven when they said how long, will He not take vengeance for our blood? It meant how long more Lord, will He not cause salvation to come as a result of the life that we laid down for the sacrifice that we did. That's the real intent of why until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who would be killed as they were was completed.
So God has apportioned a number. How many we don't know.
Now look at those two important words there.
Fellow servants and brethren. They talk of two groups. Fellow servants meaning the ministers of God. And brethren meaning believers. Brethren does not mean just brothers but also includes sisters and children.
How long, until the number is completed. A certain number is set aside. If you read Revelation chapter 7, 144,000 were sealed. See, there's a number there, 144,000. The scriptures very specifically gives a number 144,000.
And then later on, if you when you read in the book of Revelation, when the judgment was poured out, the Apostle John heard it been said 7,000 were killed. See, again, an accurate number is given there.
And when the wrath of God has been poured out, Revelation chapter 15 tells us seven angels came out from the temple of God bearing the bowls of the wrath of God. And in Revelation chapter 8, we read seven angels with seven trumpets came out from the temple of God to blow. See, there is a number, a certain number that has been apportioned by God to be fulfilled in the same manner.
A number for martyrs has been apportion. Apportion, you may be called. Apportion means distribute according to a plan or set apart for a special purpose.
One of the calls the Lord has given me is to raise up an army of martyrs.
Raise up an army of martyrs. I didn't know much about martyrdom.
But one day in the month of May 1984, I was in one city to attend a seminar and the Lord Jesus came to me and he said, "I want to speak to you. Take your notebook and write down whatever I'm going to tell you now." And he spoke to me about martyrs.
Little did I know why he's sharing those to me. And for 30 minutes he spoke about martyrs. And then he said, ''Keep this in your heart and when the time comes, I will tell you what to do.'' That was in 1984.
30 years later. the Lord told me, ''Now the time has come. Raise up an army of martyrs and teach them what I have taught you.''
And we conducted the first martyrs conference two years ago in Chennai, followed by another martyrs conference recently. And this year, I mean in the coming new year in 2020 the Lord has told me to conduct seven martyrs conference in seven nations. And one nation is the United States.
And two days after, the Lord told me this wonderful couple of my wonder minister friends from Cincinnati.
Please stand up for a moment please. These are my wonderful friends ministers from Cincinnati. They wrote me inviting me to a convention. Was it last year that I came or the year before?
So two years ago I came to the conference in Cincinnati. It was an ordinary prophetic conference. You could have invited me for an ordinary prophetic conference but they specifically wrote to me, ''We want you to come and do a martyr's conference.'' And you didn't know that the Lord had given me a mandate. And when the Lord told me about US. I was wondering where in the US to do the conference. Whether to do it in our hometown, home city in Lancaster, that's where we usually do our conference. But then when I got your invitation, I knew that's the place in Cincinnati. So next year in Cincinnati will be where the conference for martyrs will be conducted. Please sit down. So you want to know more about ... No, don't clap. If you want to know more about that conference, please talk to them after the meeting. Zealous Christian warriors. Now this is a council from the Lord. Zealous Christian warriors must arise as willing martyrs.
You know to be a martyr is the greatest honor and greatest call any Christian can receive. They have a special place in heaven. The martyrs stay in a different place, a different kingdom for them. They have such a privilege like no other person. And every wound in a martyr's body shines like stars in heaven. They retain in their body those marks. Even in their glorified immortal body, the Lord allows the marks to remain as a testimony for eternity that these are the ones who laid down their lives for me.
For a proof of that, find in Revelation 5 verse 6, a lamb of God appeared before the throne as if it was slain. It is the Lord Jesus Christ. And the lamb appeared with a mark around its neck as if it was slain and blood was dripping.
That's how it appeared before God to take the scroll. So the marks even on the Lord Jesus' body, the marks remain for eternity as a sign.
You know when all the other future generations that will be born even in the new millennium, they will never know about the Messiah. They'll not know about the crucifıxion that the Lord Jesus Christ went through.
When they see the wounds on the hands of the Lord Jesus, then the drama of the crucifixion, the passion of the Lord Jesus Christ will all be retold them.
I once saw in heaven you know babies when they die in at child birth or miscarriage, they know nothing about the Lord Jesus , they are kept in a place in heaven, in one place in paradise called children's paradise. On my very first visit to heaven in 1984, I was taken to the place and I saw how children are tortured, the children that are killed, the children that are aborted, they all are safely kept in this part of heaven and there they are taught about the Lord Jesus Christ story. They all gather in a classroom and an adult angel that looks like a female is their teacher. And as he narrates the story, the children all sit in a circle, you know, and in the center they see in 360 degree dimension in vivid video color, three-dimensional, the entire life of the Lord Jesus from the day he was conceived in Mary's womb till the day he was taken up to heaven. They see everything and when especially, when the Lord Jesus was arrested in the garden of Gethsemane, all these little children fall on their faces and they cry and they cry and they cry. They beat on their chest and they weep and they weep and they weep the loudest when he was crucified on the cross.
Tears rolled down uncontrollably and the whole faces becomes red when they see the suffering of the Lord Jesus.
And then they get consoled when they see that the Lord Jesus was resurrected.
They all get consoled and the angels then explain to them why the Lord Jesus died because salvation must also be brought to them. Everyone must be redeemed. The message of redemption is preached over and over again.
So the life of a martyr, the blood of a martyr is very, very very precious.
Now persecution and martyrdom will take place on a global scale. In Revelation chapter 11 verses 3-6 we read about the ministry of the two witnesses who will come in these last days. And if you read the passage of scripture, the Holy Bible is silent about their identity. Who they really are, we don't know. However, if you look at the signs and the methods of their ministry, it resembles the ministries of the prophets Moses and Elijah. So who they really are, theologians are debating over it. So we'll not go into that theology of fighting. So when people ask me the question I tell them I said I said I know the identity. So they'l ask me what who they are when they come to Israel. You will all know them. We don't need to split hairs over all these non-essential issues. You will know who they are because their ministry will be in Israel. Period. Very simple. Two mighty prophets who will do miracles like how Moses and Elijah did. The whole world will hear about that. If not reported on CNN, Angel TV will report it. Amen.
That is why God has raised us up. And do you know that out of the 12 channels that we have, we have one channel dedicated to Israel. And our channel is viewable in 600 homes in Israel through a local network called the hot cable system. 600 to 900,000 homes.
And lately in the last one year we have been receiving letters from many Israelis who are watching Angel TV.
And we have programs in not just the Indian language, also simultaneously interpreted in the Hebrew language. So all the Jews hear it in their own language. Amen.
And when the two ministries began their ministry, we were live telecast Amen.
That is the reason why God has been training us from the year 2008 to do live telecast of our television programs. Even this conference right now is been televised live on all of Angel TV's 12 networks that covers the whole world.
We were the first Christian television, not even Christian television, if not even among secular. We were the first television station to broadcast live continuously for 5 days in the history of Israel. Not even secular television has done that. The very first conference that we did in Jerusalem in the year 2008, it was televised live over the whole world. And then 3 years later, the conference that we did in Mount Carmel, it's in a remote place and it was almost impossible to hold all the instruments for satellite dishes up on Mount Carmel. The satellite company told me it is impossible to do because there is no electricity up on the mountain. I said, ''I will bring electricity. You bring your vehicle.'' And that's exactly what we did. We spoke to the power company and we brought electricity to the mountain of Mount
3 0:50
Carmel and it was televised live to the whole world on Mount Carmel.
Now why all this? The Lord is preparing preparing a network for Him so that when he comes, when his ministers, when the two witness ministry the whole world because the two witnesses will personally be in Israel to do their ministry simultaneously there'll be two remnant companies the Moses company and the Elijah company all over the world. And these two witnesses will be like captains giving them directions how they should do their ministry. So, how are the rest of them going to see Angel TV Network? Amen.
Amen. Thank you, Lord.
For that purpose, God raises us up to do that work. So, everyone will be guided by the Spirit of the Living God for one last final harvest.
And the scripture says the two witnesses will do their ministry for 3 and 1/2 years exactly like how the Lord Jesus did his ministry. At the end of the 3 and 1/2 years, okay, before the end and during the period of the 3 and 1/2 years, the antichrist and the false prophet wil also be in this world during that time.
But the Holy Spirit will restrain the antichrist from coming against them and the world powers from coming against the remnant.
Which means during the three and a half years of ministry, suppose all the remnants in the United States, no evil government will be able to lay their hands on you and you equip with the powers of the age to come.
Equipped with all the seven horns of the lamb, equipped with all the seven eyes of the lamb and equipped with the seven spirits of God, you will go from coast to coast in the US to preach that Jehovah God is Lord God. Amen.
And the kingdom of God is coming back again.
And you will perform signs and wonders exactly like how the two witnesses will do in Israel.
For such a time as this, God is preparing his remnant people. Amen.
Remnant people. That is why a greater level of consecration is demanded. Not required. Demanded from his people.
If you cannot consecrate yourself, doesn't matter. You'll be just asked to step aside.
That doesn't mean you will go to hell. You won't go to hell.
Just the only difference is you have just missed the first call. That's all.
You know in a race when people run race when they participate in Olympics the first three wins the prize right the gold, the silver and the bronze. And they all come and stand on a platform. All the three are winners. They all get a medal. But there's nothing like a gold medal. A silver medal is good. So is a bronze medal. At least you get a medal. But the person who got a silver medal will feel prick in his heart. If only I had run a little faster. Am I right? If only I had run a little faster. I lost by one second. Oh my. If only, if only. That's how those who miss will feel.
They are the foolish virgins. The foolish virgins are not bad. You know, eventually I'm sure they have entered into the supper after everybody had left.
See, they still had the lamps in their hands. They still had the little oil. So, and they were virgins waiting to meet the bridegroom. So, they are not evil people. Just that they were foolish.
They were foolish and they miss the best wine. The first wine they missed it. That's their only fault.
The call is extended to everybody.
The honor is extended to everyone irrespective of who you are, of what is your spirituality. Whether you are mature Christian or immature Christian, it doesn't matter. The call of God goes to everybody.
You saw how I prayed for the little children. I prayed for them exactly like how I pray for the adults because they have a destiny similar to the adults. In fact, greater. Amen. It was 7 years ago. An angel of God visited me and he read from a scroll, the time has now come for Psalms 8:2 to be fulfilled. So therefore raise an army of children. And if you read Psalms 8:2, it talks about babies who are still drinking milk from their mother and thoughtless, which is from age of zero from the time they were born right up to 2 or 3 years old.
(Psalm 8:2 declares that God establishes a stronghold or strength through the praise of children and infants to silence His enemies and avengers. The verse highlights God's power to use the weak and innocent to confound the proud and opposing forces, a theme Jesus later referenced in Matthew 21:16 to validate the children's praise in the temple.)
That age group of children have a call for these last days
That is why I urge churches and pastors, don't neglect the children.
Don't neglect them and consider them as stupid or unintelligible or they don't know. Don't treat them like that. To your eyes, it may appear they are children. This was the same debate I had, you know, when the Lord told me to start a TV program for fetus. I said the Lord you told me to do program for children, at least the children who can sit down and watch television. How can a fetus in the mother's womb watch television?
So the Lord told me that's not your problem.
Your responsibility is to create a program and invite women who are 6 months pregnant and above to come and sit before your program.
And when they're watching your program, the fetus in their womb will hear what you are speaking.
And when you pray for their spiritual eyes to be opened, their eyes will be open. Amen.
And when you pray for them to be filled in the Holy Spirit right in their mother's womb, they will be filled in the Holy Spirit. Amen.
So I was still wondering, Lord how is it possible?
So the Lord told me, they can hear. I said how? Then he said, have you not read the scriptures? When Mary visited Elizabeth who was 6 months pregnant and Elizabeth says, ''as soon as I heard your voice, the baby in my womb leap for joy. ''
Hallelujah. And the Lord said a six-month-old fetus can hear. And later on, I made some discovery. I read some medical journals and I found the first organ to be fully developed is the ear, at 6 month organs in the body. The ear is completely developed. So that proved the scriptures right that the babies they can hear.
So when the first program we conducted, I invited six women to our television studio. So it was a 1-hour program and we had some worship and then I have my staffs have the mothers make some confessions and all that and after that I share the message. After sharing the message, this is the very first program that we ever recorded. So I asked all the six women to stand up. I said, "Lay your hands on your stomach." Now this is a testimony from one of my cameramen. Said as I started praying, for some reason this cameraman said he was just moved by the Holy Spirit to point the camera at one woman's stomach and she was about seven either six or seven months pregnant. And as I prayed, he saw the baby jump up and poop. It was caught on camera. And the mother later on testified that was the first time the baby jumped in her womb and the baby got filled in the Holy Spirit right there.
So now you tell me who are we to prevent this from being trained for the kingdom of God. Who are we?
Don't use your intellect to prevent them from being trained as warriors, from being trained as prophets, from being trained as martyrs.
THE GREAT KING IS COMING (HERE)
Note:
*¹
Vladimir Putin signed the Yarovaya law package in July 2016, which effectively banned religious evangelism, missionary work, and religious gatherings in private homes and online, restricting such activities to registered church buildings only.
Scope of Restrictions: The law prohibits sharing faith, teaching, or recruiting in residential spaces, on the internet, or in public areas without a government permit from a registered religious organization.
Penalties: Violations result in heavy fines (up to $765 for citizens, $15,000 for organizations) and deportation for foreign nationals, with individuals as young as 14 subject to prosecution.
Motivation and Impact: While framed as an anti-terrorism measure, critics and religious groups argue it targets evangelical Christians, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and other non-traditional faiths to protect the influence of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Implementation: The law went into effect on July 20, 2016, leading to immediate arrests, fines, and the closure of home Bible studies across Russia.
*2
A New Russian Law Targets Evangelicals and Other ‘Foreign’ Religions.
Published Sep 15, 2016.
On a recent Sunday morning, Donald Ossewaarde, a Baptist preacher from the United States, hosted an informal Bible study group at his home in Oryol, a small city 225 miles south of Moscow. Most of the dozen or so people who attended had been coming to Ossewaarde's weekly gatherings for years, and they were looking forward to an hour of Christian song, prayer and discussion.
But as the lesson began, three police officers walked into Ossewaarde's house. They waited silently until the lesson was over, then started questioning everyone, and they eventually insisted that Ossewaarde and his wife, Ruth, accompany them to the local police station. There, the police told Ossewaarde that a woman had filed a complaint against him, saying she was outraged that "foreign religious cultists" were allowed to operate in the city.
At a hastily arranged court hearing just hours after his arrest, a judge found Ossewaarde guilty of illegal missionary work and fined him 40,000 rubles (about $600). For Ossewaarde, a fluent Russian speaker who has lived in Oryol since 2002, the court's ruling was shocking. "We had been perfectly free all these years to give out literature, to talk to people on the street," he says. "People have either been friendly or indifferent."
Not anymore. In July, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a new law that cracks down on missionary work and evangelism. Among other things, it mandates that people share their religious beliefs only at state-registered places of worship. Critics say the law, which was approved as part of a swath of "anti-extremism and terrorism" legislation, contradicts Russia's post-Soviet constitution, which guarantees citizens and foreigners the right to disseminate their religious beliefs. "Soviet history shows us how many people of different faiths have been persecuted for spreading the word of God," wrote Sergei Ryakhovsky, head of the Protestant Churches of Russia, in an open letter to Putin. "This law brings us back to that shameful past."
The law comes at a time when the Kremlin is pushing a major anti-Western propaganda campaign, from accusing the U.S. and U.K. of plotting to overthrow Putin to boasting about Moscow's ability to reduce the U.S. to "radioactive ash." And so far, the consequences of the law have exclusively affected members of minority "foreign" religions—the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, Jehovah's Witnesses and Protestants with Baptist, Pentecostal and Seventh-day Adventist roots. Believers of these religions have frequent problems gaining state permission for churches and temples, and they often have little choice but to gather informally at the homes of their congregants.
The Russian Orthodox Church, a powerful Kremlin ally that has traditionally been hostile to minority faiths, has not been affected, and Orthodox officials have dismissed criticism of the law, saying it does not prevent believers from sharing their faith. Russia's Muslims, who make up some 10 percent of the population, seem divided on the legislation, with regional muftis split on whether it's a gross violation of human rights or a necessary step in the fight against Islamic extremism.
Ossewaarde believes it's the former. Two days after his conviction, he received a warning from his court-imposed lawyer, Andrey Butenko; if he and his wife chose to stay in Russia, the lawyer said, they could be in danger. Concerned that Butenko's warning was an indirect message from the authorities, Ruth Ossewaarde flew to the United States on August 22. Donald Ossewaarde remained in Oryol to appeal his conviction.
Butenko tells Newsweek he was not acting on anyone's orders and says his warning was inspired by genuine concern for the couple's well-being. "All religions except traditional Russian faiths are being slowly forced out of Russia," he says. "The state will do whatever it thinks it needs to do in order to achieve this. This is how the security forces work. If they need to, they could do something bad to him."
The Ossewaardes are not the only ones who have been affected by the crackdown. In late July, police officers detained Ebenezer Tuah, a student from Ghana, as he carried out a baptism at a swimming pool in Tver, a small city near Moscow. Tuah and a group of Ghanese nationals had rented the pool for their Protestant group for the day, and there were no Russian citizens present. The officers handcuffed Tuah and kept him overnight in a police station. The authorities later fined him 50,000 rubles (about $780) for "conducting religious rites and ceremonies" without the necessary documents. (He declined to comment on the matter.)
"They treated him like a common criminal," says Konstantin Andreev, a lawyer at the Slavic Center for Law and Justice, which has filed appeals against the convictions of both Ossewaarde and Tuah, as well as others charged under the new law.
Andreev, who is also a Protestant preacher, believes the legislation is part of a broader crackdown on civil liberties that has occurred since Putin became president for the third time, amid mass protests, in 2012. He says the courts and police officers enforcing the law are doing so with a flawed understanding of it, as the law technically concerns only members of organized religious groups who are attempting to convert those who do not share their faith. In reality, critics say, the authorities can label almost any religious activities not carried out in state-registered churches as missionary work or evangelism.
"This law has been joyfully welcomed by nationalist-minded people, who say at last we have a means of fighting against those who are not Russian Orthodox Christians and do not share our ideas," Andreev says.
Mormons in particular have experienced problems since the law came into effect. In August, Russian authorities deported six Mormon missionaries for allegedly violating compulsory registration requirements. Although the deportations were not directly linked to the law on sharing beliefs, analysts say the expulsions are part of a new intolerance for foreign religions in Russia. "Lawmakers have decided that missionaries are dangerous people," says Roman Lunkin, a religion analyst at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow. "They have been stripped of the right to the presumption of innocence."
Some members of the Russian Orthodox Church have also criticized the legislation. "This law plainly contradicts the Gospels," wrote Karina Chernyak, who runs an Orthodox Christian youth club in Moscow, in an article for the Sova Center, a nonprofit that monitors religion and Russian society. "It is the mission of every Christian to go and teach his or her belief to others. In many ways, this is the essence of belief."
Back in Oryol, Ossewaarde is preparing for his appeal, which is set for September 19. And for now, he has shuttered his Bible study group. A Russian-language notice on the door of his home reads: "Dear friends! Until further notice, there will be no meetings here. There is an official assertion that these activities are illegal. Sorry for the inconvenience. Donald."
*³ Juche
Juche Religion: Juche permeates all aspects of the North Korean society. Juche is most often thought to be a socio-political ideology. In reality, Juche is a religion, and North Korea's 25 million adherents make Juche the world’s fifth largest religion after Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism.
Moreover, Juche is modeled after Christianity. Instead of God the Father, Juche worships Kim Il-sung, the founder of North Korea who died in 1994 yet continues to rule today as North Korea's "Eternal President" and official head of state. Juche teaches North Koreans that upon death, they will be reunited with Kim Il-sung and live with him forever.
Instead of God the Son, Juche worships Kim Il-sung's son, Kim Jong-il, who until his own death in 2011, reigned as his dead father's surrogate. And instead of God the Holy Spirit, Juche worships Kim Jong-soko, the mother of Kim Jong-il and the wife of Kim Il-sung.
Juche requires North Koreans to bow daily to the three Kims' portraits (above), which must hang on the “best” wall of their homes. Neglecting proper care of the portraits is a capital crime and North Koreans are praised for rushing back into burning homes to save the portraits of the three Kims.
The death of Kim Jong-il in 2011 led to the accession of his son, Kim Jong-un, who is expected to eventually replace his grandmother in Juche's idolatrous trinity.
How did Juche come to be modeled after Christianity?
Before it was ruled by Kim Il-sung, North Korea was the site of an early 20th century Christian revival. So many Christians lived in and so many churches dotted Pyongyang, the present North Korean capital, that the city was even called, “The Jerusalem of the East.”
The son of Christian parents and the grandson of a Christian pastor, Kim Il-sung was intimately familiar with Christianity and witnessed Christians choose martyrdom over worshipping the Japanese Emperor during Japan’s 1910-1945 colonization of Korea.
Recognizing the power of Christianity, Kim wanted it to be directed at himself. So he took Christianity, removed God the Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, set up himself, his wife and son as the new trinity, and called it Juche. At its core, Juche is a counterfeit Christianity that is deathly afraid of the True Gospel, and rightfully so.
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