Free Republic

FULL TITLE: “Pretend to be Christian”: ISIS handbook tells Muslims to lose beard, shun mosque and wear cross before killing ISIS has issued a handbook for Muslims in the West. The gist of the instruction booklet is the necessity to blend in with the Western way of life and to avoid “looking like a Muslim” — pretend to be Christian — so as to stay below the radar of the security services. This is important. It is key to understanding the enemy and their tactics. The media and the Democrats are deliberately misleading the public. You must educate yourself and...

Unbelievable! I was watching a great video on YouTube as a result of reading this article posted on FR: Mid-East Prophecy Update - January 10th, 2016 . The video is essentially a "prophecy" sermon by Pastor J.D. Farag of Calvary Chapel Kaneohe, Hawaii from yesterday, 1/10/16 addressing current events in the middle east, Israel, America, Europe and the rest of the world. (Very, very interesting!) Lot's of info about Islam, etc. Also addresses guns. At the 22:30 minute mark Pastor J.D. Farag begins to talk about Matt Bracken's "Tet, Take Two: Islam's 2016 European Offensive". He says it is "a...

New Zealand-born evangelist Ray Comfort is best known by many for street evangelism in which he asks people about God, the Bible, sin and salvation. And on Tuesday the minister continued sharing the promise of eternity in Heaven for believers in a post-New Year's Day Facebook message to his followers. Comfort's post, in it entirety, can be read below: "Some people have the idea that Christians will spend eternity sitting on clouds playing rusty harps. If that's all I hoped for, I wouldn't be a Christian. The hope I have is not nebulous; it is concrete. It is an 'anchor...

It's time to draw a proverbial "line in the sand" on the abortion issue and how it relates to our Christian faith. As Christians, we cannot continue to dance around the genocide that is taking place in our midst, and while many incredible individuals and organizations have been doing hard work fighting against this unimaginable injustice, it's time that we all stand with them. So who I want to address this to is Christians who have been wavering in their opinions on whether or not abortion is compatible with their faith, because we need you to recognize abortion for what...

In the early days of my ministry, I was speaking at a very modest sized church in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The church was celebrating a major anniversary. That church also had the distinction of having turned Billy Graham down when he candidated as a young man to enter the pastorate. They probably did him the greatest favor in recognizing the difference between a pastor and an evangelist. What I remember on the occasion that I spoke was another young man sitting next to me, thoroughly bored by the proceedings. So I leaned over and inquired, "Are you okay?" He...

<p>In 2008, our nation broke through a barrier, electing an African-American to be president of the United States.</p> <p>In 2016, another barrier may very well be broken. All polls indicate that a woman or a Latino has a very good chance of being elected to be our 45th president.</p>

o say it’s logically tricky to reconcile support for abortion with Christian religiosity would be an understatement. Pro-abortion Catholics like Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi manage to skate by because their target audiences don’t really care how seriously they take their faith, but the fact remains that the circle simply can’t be squared. The Bible’s prohibitions against shedding innocent blood are clear, it carves out no exemption for the preborn, and pro-abortion interpretations of Scripture invariably collapse under scrutiny. Ostensibly mainline Christians trying to justify abortion are unconvincing enough, but when self-professed pro-abortion nonbelievers try to get clever about it,...

A Christian man was attacked and arrested in Iran just before Christmas, a time when Iranian officials have been cracking down on those celebrating or observing the holiday, according to an Iranian news agency. Meysam Hojjati, a convert to Christianity from Islam, was arrested Dec. 23 by plainclothes officers at his home in Isfahan, where they presented him with a warrant for his arrest, Mohabat News, an Iranian Christian news agency, reported. The officers inspected Hojjati’s home, confiscating Bibles, a Christmas tree, all cell phones, a computer and other personal belongings, while assaulting him in front of family members, the...

Carolyn Payne grew up in a good Christian home with loving parents and opportunities to make the most of her life. Instead, she decided to become an abortion doctor. Payne, an Ob/Gyn resident (pictured above), wrote a shockingly bold column for the women’s website XO Jane about how her faith and upbringing influenced her to abort unborn babies for a living. Through her experiences, Payne flaunted her career goal and what she perceived as the importance of training programs for abortion doctors in the U.S. “I love providing abortion care to women, and I am proud to do so,” Payne...

Despite much hand-wringing by Republican leadership, the GOP is actually complicit in the persecution of Christians in the Middle East because of its vocal support for Israel, argues Doug Bandow in a Forbes essay Saturday. Bandow rightly notes that Christians are the most persecuted religious group in the world today and are “harassed and harmed in more than 100 countries.” Christians, he writes, “are particularly vulnerable to government abuse, especially in Muslim-majority states.” Yet Bandow takes issue with Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) 79% ’s Christmas Eve article denouncing attacks on Christian communities, contending that the GOP, rather than the Obama...

Egyptian President Al-Sisi Congratulates Christians on Christmas: We Are All Egyptians, What Divides Us Destroys Us Video at link

Brunei, Somalia and Tajikistan ban Christmas In yet another sign of increasing Islamist intolerance around the world, the celebration of Christmas has come under attack in at least three countries this year: Following in the footsteps of the English Puritans who banned Christmas in the Middle Ages, Brunei, Somalia and Tajikistan are now clamping down on the Christian festival. Now, the announcement from Somalia, which is struggling to get back on its feet after decades of civil war, is possibly the least surprising. The country is officially under sharia'h law; it has almost no native Christians; and Islamist militants still...

This Christmas brings joy rather than terror to Christian pastor Farshid Fathi, who was released from an Iranian prison after spending nearly five years in jail for his Christian faith. Fathi originally was arrested on Dec. 26, 2010, with 60-plus other Christians from house churches in Tehran by agents of Iran's Intelligence Ministry. World Watch Monitor announced Tuesday that the Iranian pastor was freed on Monday, despite the fact his sentence recently was extended...

president Obama was flying over Los Angeles in June as he listened to the first accounts from a courtroom in Charleston, S.C., where family members of nine dead parishioners who were gunned down at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church had just addressed the accused killer. He heard the words of a daughter who had lost her mother: “May God forgive you. I forgive you.” He heard the words of a daughter who had lost her mother: “May God forgive you. I forgive you.” He listened to the plea of a mother who had lost her son: “Every fiber in my...

A group of prominent Orthodox rabbis in Israel, the United States and Europe have issued a historic public statement affirming that Christianity is "the willed divine outcome and gift to the nations" and urging Jews and Christians to "work together as partners to address the moral challenges of our era." "Jesus brought a double goodness to the world," the statement reads. "On the one hand he strengthened the Torah of Moses majestically" and on the other hand "he removed idols from the nations," instilling them "firmly with moral traits."

...During this time I was single, and friends set me up on a lot of dates. When they asked me if there were any deal breakers, I explained there was only one: No religious people. Shortly after I made that declaration, I started dating a guy who mentioned, in passing, that he attended a Presbyterian church. I flinched. But I liked him, and because I was so religiously illiterate, I didn’t understand that some Presbyterian churches are evangelical. I assumed he was a cultural Christian, like the few other Christians I knew. A few months into the relationship he confronted...

Wheaton College is stirring up an old debate this week that’s worth revisiting. Professor Larycia Hawkins, in an effort to show solidarity with Muslims, decided to wear a hijab during advent. While wearing a hijab may have been tolerated by the school, what she said about the relationship between Islam and Christianity, was not. She wrote: “I stand in religious solidarity with Muslims because they, like me, a Christian, are people of the book. And as Pope Francis stated last week, we worship the same God.” For the crime of saying, “we worship the same God” Hawkins was suspended from...

As we wrote in “Set to abort, mother who changed her mind says without her son, ‘I wouldn’t have had a purpose yet,’” The Cincinnati Enquirer, no hotbed of pro-life sentiment, ran a series of six stories headlined “Abortion: The most important decision of her life–How six women, who each considered abortion, made their decision.” Our first post was on Brittany Davis who had intended to abort but by mistake wound up in the parking lot of a CPC. She realized she really didn’t want to have an abortion and now is the proud and happy mother of Liam. This...

Wheaton College is stirring up an old debate this week that's worth revisiting. Professor Larycia Hawkins, in an effort to show solidarity with Muslims, decided to wear a hijab during advent. While wearing a hijab may have been tolerated by the school, what she said about the relationship between Islam and Christianity, was not. She wrote: "I stand in religious solidarity with Muslims because they, like me, a Christian, are people of the book. And as Pope Francis stated last week, we worship the same God." For the crime of saying, "we worship the same God" Hawkins was suspended from...

From KTNV in Las Vegas:  Parishioners are terrified after protesters have disturbed Mass at several Catholic churches across the valley.The group, Koosha Las Vegas, includes members who clearly identify themselves as former Muslims turned Christians. They’ve been entering churches during services, shouting at Catholics that they need to repent now or else, and filming the acts and posting them on the internet.The videos make clear the group has been active on the Las Vegas Strip and several other places around the valley; they’re often seen with large signs and megaphones. The difference now is that they’re going into houses...