On Sept. 11th, the Parliament of Iran approved the use of the death penalty for those determined to be apostate. Anyone turning from Islam and its teachings would lead to execution. This even includes blogs that it is determined promoted apostasy. Apostasy by definition is the abandoning of ones religious beliefs, political party, or cause. There are people in jail in Iran for converting to Christianity, who now could face the death penalty. In Matthew 24:9 Jesus in talking about signs of the end times says ” Then they will hand you over for persecution, and they will kill you. You will be hated by all nations because of My name.”. As we look at the world today, we can see that more and more nations are turning against Christ.
Where does the United States stand as a nation? While we are not to the point of persecution, we are slowly sliding in that direction. The day will come when Christian persecution comes to our country. The above verse says Christians will be hated by all nations, not just some.
Another sign of the coming of Christ is the apostasy of the Christian church. How many people would be left in our country if we adopted the death penalty for Christian apostasy? In the two verses following Matthew 24:9, Jesus describes the apostasy that will take place. Because of the persecution some will turn against one another. And the love of many will grow cold because of lawlessness. It is easy to say you are a Christian when there are no consequences for belief. But when persecution sets in, we can truly see who is Christian and who is not. Those who have not truly committed to Christ will fall away when things get hard. A person only needs to look at the number of liberal churches in our country to realize that apostasy already abounds in our country. They change their doctrine with every new wind of cultural change. Instead of trying to change the culture to fit the bible, they change their interpretation of the bible to suit the culture around them. Many want to enter heaven by following the broad and easy path. Few want to follow the difficult path that leads to the narrow gate. The broad gate leads to destruction, and many liberal churches are leading people to destruction.
What will Jesus find when He comes back? Read the parable of the persistent widow in Luke 18:1-8. Jesus talks about praying always and not being discouraged. But He ends it with this question, “when the Son of Man comes, will He find that faith on earth?”. If Christ came back today, would He find that kind of faith in you? What kind of faith would He find in your church? Would He see that you have pressed through during tough times? Or would He see that you gave up and took the easy path?
Voice for the Nations 
Maybe its because USA seems to represent Christianity and have taken the Moral High ground guised as the war against Terror and war against evil (even though its proboably just for the oil and securing and ecnomic future) And thus USA etc seem to have made a lot of enemies in other parts of the world, especially the middle east. The worst part is its covered up as a religious thing…people are being made in to fools..Iraq and Afghanistan never posed a threat to the US…
Its too late now USA has sent the ball rolling they can’t back out..the mission will continue and hatred will increase…and Light always prevails over darkness. And light may culminate in the second coming of Jesus, a belief shared by both Christians and Muslims, in oder to restore peace in the world.
Maj’ness,
As a Christian, I really don’t think the US represents Christianity. The US is becoming more and more secular by the day. The oil argument is old and I have never seen anyone provide proof for it. How does going into Afghanistan improve US interest in oil? The Islamic countries are the ones making it into a religious thing. For the US it is a terrorist thing. The US is the most religiously tolerant country in the world. I am not sure how Afghanistan was not a threat, when the terrorists of 9/11 were trained there.
I can’t speak for the United States, but as a Christian, Jesus said the world would hate us because of His name. I agree Jesus is the light that is coming back. Unfortunately, we believe in a different Jesus. Christians believe Jesus was the Son of God, that He was divine, and that He was crucified for our sins. All things which Muslims deny.
Back to the actual point of the blog, apostasy. Do you agree with Iran’s position on apostasy?
Iran is shia islam im a sunni.
I was in a resturnt once having dinner alone had been working away from home. There was a group of men on the other table amongst them was a ASian man whose father was a muslim..he was drinking his alcohol and telling his friends he didn’t belive in “all that” and his dad practiced it ..basically he bd mouthed his fathers religion : Islam. On that night I could understand why apostates are scorned at as that one persons in that restaurnt he turned 4 peoples view away from Islam and he probably never even practiced his religion ever in his life.
Sometimes you have to chop the bad limbs off if they can’t be treated. Otherwise the disease spreads.
This attitude is why Islam and Christianity will always be at odds. There is always the acceptability of violence in Islam. The spread of Christianity is not encouraged to be by the sword. It is by the martyrdom of Christians that Christianity has grown most. The more that Muslims kill Christians, the more Christianity will grow.
Islam didn’t spread by the sword. If you look at the early HIstory there were only a few muslims in Mekkah and they were persecuted..held siege, killed, etc..If you think about it IF Muhammad Peace be upon him was the first “Muslim” his wife the first convert etc..then where did all the sword bearers come from?
Maybe in later times when ISlam flourished and conquered and there were battles..again you have to see the psychlogy behind it..Just Like the USA nd the West want to “Libertate” the Arabs etc from what they perceive to be an evil religion maybe the muslims were liberting too so they could enter in to light and be saved from punishment eternally in Hell fire. Maybe the sword was then the only way for the liberation from darkness if the leaders of those countries were obstacles to the true religion..
This argument con go on forever..but at the end of the day we all have to seek and find the truth. My God is your God and your God is my God too. God we beg you to guide both of us to the Truth..Ameen.
This argument could and will go on forever until Jesus returns. Unfortunately, I don’t believe my God and your god is the same. I believe Jesus is God in flesh, which you do not believe. Therefore, my God and yours can’t be the same. I pray that everyone in Islam would see Jesus for who He really is. Thanks for the discussion.
Thank you as well… and… Gods have to be the same..same God who made you made me. There is only One Creator of All.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/3673730.stm
There is one Creator of all. We just differ on who that Creator is. As for the link about the conversion of the woman to Islam, there are thousands of conversions to Christianity in the Middle East daily.
lol @ thousands daily..if that were the case every in a year we would have 365 000 converts there wouldnt have been any muslims left.
Anyways..
God didn’t make people different so we can hate each other ..we should try to understand the point of view from both sides. I guess we may agree on that.
bye 4 now
http://joshuafund.blogspot.com/2008/03/big-untold-story-in-middle-east-2008.html
Apostasy is wrong. However, has happen since the beginning of mankind. The countries that practice and enforce this will be delt harshly by God. There are many examples in the Bible that demonstrates God’s judgement.
These harsh sitautions exist for a reason and we need to allow God to show us His plan. As we well know God will make it clearly known on His time table. We need to fully direct our attention to where God has put us by sharing the “Good News” of Jesus Christ to the people we come in contact. Our committment to loving our people the way Christ expects us, will do more to break down the walls of Apostasy than any man-made wars.
God Bless
Tom Spangler
Tom,
I agree that we need to be sharing with people we come in contact with, but it shouldn’t stop there. We are to reach out to all the world, not just our own communities. There are different ways in which we can do that. And we also need to make sure that we aren’t forgetting our brothers and sisters in those harsh situations. I also think that war should be a last resort, but there are times when it is needed and is biblical.
Jason, I am back home in Indiana after a long week in taking my mother back to Michigan for internment. Thank You for your e-mail and it was good to see Misty at the funeral home.
Just some final comments on Apostasy. Yes, war is Bibical, but so is oppression and persecution. However, I believe that God did not intend man to use war as a means to change a countrys religion or belief culture. He is in charge of everything and evil will always be defeated on His timetable.
We need to continually follow Jesus example of love, concern, empthy and a constant desire to point and lead people to the truth and saving grace of Jesus Christ.
God Bless
Tom Spangler
Freedom of apostasy is guaranteed by the UN’s Declaration of Human Rights, and yet several countries have laws against apostasy with penalties of imprisonment or death. The issue of crimes against humanity perpetrated against apostasy is rising as waring factions involving religion dominates world news.
It is time for the UN to remember its charter and pressure countries that commit human rights violations against apostates to cease and desist. In an effort to improve awareness about these human rights violations and to solicit support for that cause, the following site provides further details:
http://freedomofapostasy.wordpress.com/