Bethlehem's Persecuted Christians

When Peter, Paul, John and all the other apostles originally started preaching the Gospel, they preached it in the Middle East.

Present day Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, Iraq, Jordan, etc....is where Christianity really started and spread.

That all started to change about 700 years later, when a guy named Muhammad started telling his followers about strange revelations he was reportedly receiving from an angel calling himself Gabriel. (this is unconfirmed by anyone else...which then would define Islam as a cult)

It wasn't long until this new cult had turned violent towards anyone who believed it to be bogus and would not convert.

Islam soon had armies that took over Christian lands and did horrendous evil towards the Christ followers who would not convert.

Today we find the above mentioned nations with the overwhelming majority of their citizens claiming Islam as their faith....and we are still finding many Muslims to be VERY intolerant of their Christian neighbors.

On Christmas Eve, the Wall Street Journal (of all places) published an article about the few remaining Christians who live in Bethlehem. Most don't know it, but Bethlehem is in Palestinian controlled territory and is growing increasingly violent to anyone who won't submit to Islam.

Mr. Ibrahim's crime in that Hamas-ruled territory was to be a Christian, a transgression he compounded in the Islamists' eyes by writing love poems.
"Muslims tied to Hamas tried to take me twice," says Mr. Ibrahim, and he didn't want to find out what they'd do to him if they ever kidnapped him. He hasn't seen his family since Christmas 2007 and is afraid even to talk to them on the phone.

Speaking to a group of foreign journalists in the Bethlehem Bible College where he is studying theology, Mr. Ibrahim describes a life of fear in Gaza. "My sister is under a lot of pressure to wear a headscarf. People are turning more and more to Islamic fundamentalism and the situation for Christians is very difficult," he says.

Always a minority religion among the predominantly Muslim Palestinians, Christians are, Mr. Qumsieh says, "melting away," even in Bethlehem. While they represented about 80% of the city's population 60 years ago, their numbers are now down to about 20%, a result not just of Muslims' higher birth rates but also widespread Christian emigration. "Our future as a Christian community here is gloomy," Mr. Qumsieh says.

Palestinian plight not attributable to Israel barely seems to register in the West's collective conscience. As Christians around the world remember Jesus' birth, perhaps we can think of Mr. Ibrahim and those Christians still suffering in Gaza and Bethlehem.

Read it here; http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704304504574610022765965390.html

Isn't it interesting that the very place where God chose to birth Himself in human flesh....is being overrun by followers of Satanic lies?

1 John 4 reminds us, "....every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world."

Friends, put very simply, Islam does not acknowledge Jesus Christ as God in flesh. So the word of God tells us plainly....it is a lie sent to us by Satan himself.

This fact then makes it clear why Satan is so desirous of Bethlehem....and is working hard towards having Christ's birthplace fully inhabited by antichrists.

And the world holds Israel responsible to make peace with these antichrists.