Showing posts with label Middle East. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Middle East. Show all posts

Wednesday 10 June 2015

Wycliffe Associates supporting underground Bible translators

English: The study translation Bible 2009 Česk...
English: The study translation Bible 2009 Česky: Český studijní překlad Bible 2009 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Bible translation from the jesuit and professo...
Bible translation from the jesuit and professor for oriental languages Ignaz Weitenauer, printed at Joseph-Wolffische Buchhandlung, Augsburg 1783 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
In a region with nearly 1,000 languages, representing 280 million people, we find that many are without the Scriptures.

 Bible translators need technology, training, and resources to translate the Bible as quickly and effectively as possible.

Over the past year, 11 of the 28 Bible translators living and working in the Middle East and Central Asia, where there is a widespread, deadly presence of extremists, have been reported dead or missing.

Like everywhere in the world we can find extremist which do everything to get rid of those who do not fit their teachings or ideology.

Bruce Smith, President and CEO of Wycliffe Associates says:
“Given the realities of the world in which these translators live and serve, some people might think the best thing they could do right now is to go into hiding and lay low for a while.”
This would not be in line with Jesus his teachings. He asked us to go out in the world and not to fear man, but in the fear of God try to bring His Holy Name over all the world. Only by spreading the Word of God, people may come to find the Only One God and His only begotten son Jesus Christ.

Even when there are a lot of trinitarian translators and organisations working at bringing God's Word in other languages, this is an important work of the evangelisation. Even when those churches are bringing false human doctrines, by providing the people with a Bible translation in their own language they should be able to come to find the real True God.

Smith says these Bible translators want the Scriptures to be distributed by every possible means, and they
“want an audacious number of printed copies, which reflect their conviction that everyone who speaks their language needs to have God’s Word.”
Wycliffe Associates which empowers national Bible translators to provide God’s Word in their own language, partners with the local church to direct and guard translation work, harnessing their passion and desire for God’s Word, and engages people from all around the world to provide resources, technology, training, and support for Bible translation. It is currently raising $300,000 to equip these local translators with the technology and training they need to work more safely.

According to Wycliffe Associates
Of the 6,901 languages spoken worldwide, only 531 have a full translation of the Bible. A Bible translation is currently in progress for 2,195 languages, and 1,023 languages in the world have at least one book of the Bible. Wycliffe Associates is striving to achieve the goal of beginning the translation of God’s Word into every remaining language by 2025.

Wednesday 14 January 2015

Europe and much-vaunted bastions of multiculturalism becoming No God Zones

for the Daily Telegraph looking at the situation in Europe about religious groups remarks that Jews are not alone envisioned to be mocked at. or endangered for life In some parts of the world, wearing the label "Christian" also carries a death sentence.
Whether executed for the crime of apostasy in Pakistan, or attacked as "kefirs" (infidels) in Mosul, in northern Iraq, Christians are forced to die for their faith in parts of the Middle East.
We do not have to think Muslims are safe and that they are the ones threatening others. Muslims are not spared the persecution the other Abrahamic religions suffer: in western China and episodically in India, public allegiance to Islam is punishable by death.
In ever-greater swathes of the world, being a believer means embracing martyrdom. "Civilised" countries have failed to defend the persecuted – and in fact have created an atmosphere where the person of faith finds themselves pushed into an intolerable place. The extremists want their blind allegiance or will claim their lives; while the secularists suspect their collusion with hot-head co-religionists
Soon Europe, even London, the much-vaunted bastion of multiculturalism, will become No God Zones, banning any public display of religiosity. ‘For your own good’, the authorities will tell their pious citizens, "you must carry out your ancient rituals in secret. We cannot vouch for your safety otherwise." Believers will have to hide their precious religious symbols, and conceal their rites. Like the early Christians in the catacombs, they will lead lives in the shadow. 
Ultra-orthodox Jewish mother wins right to send children to mainstream school

Read more > Europe is becoming a no God zone
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Thursday 18 December 2014

Israel not building up their weaponry for nothing

Map of Israel, the Palestinian territories (We...
Map of Israel, the Palestinian territories (West Bank and Gaza Strip), the Golan Heights, and portions of neighbouring countries. Also United Nations deployment areas in countries adjoining Israel or Israeli-held territory, as of January 2004. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Is Israel building up their weaponry in preparation of their defence of their nation as part of the stage  set in fulfilment of Psalm 83?

We can see the nations listed are currently the nations being mentioned in the media, Iran working at obtaining a nuclear weapon, Hamas working on plots to terrorize Israel in an attempt to provoke Israel’s hand to do the unthinkable and that is to completely destroy the Gaza strip that would cause the international community to come down hard on the nation.

For the Saudis there is the heat building up as the Sunnis and the Shias fight over who will become the dominant player in the Middle East.

We are told in Scriptures that in the end Israel will become the dominant player when Jesus returns to establish his kingdom on earth.

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Israel is Preparing for war

Monday 6 October 2014

Malaysia requires sole use of God's title for Muslims

In June Malaysia authorities ruled that non-Muslims cannot refer to God as 'Allah'.


Allah in Arabic
Allah in Arabic (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
A Muslim-majority country, many Malays believe that the national conscience must be firmly rooted in Islam, therefore they are happy that Putrajaya’s persistence in refusing non-Muslim Malaysians the right to use the word “Allah” so that their faith can be honoured by having the only right to use that title.

The Malaysian people and government forget that God belongs to the whole world. I would have thought the court ruling will soon be made unfinished, but it did not. Holding strong to this court ruling it is not only tantamount to the systematic destruction of the language and culture of the Bumiputera community in Sabah and Sarawak,but also does damage to all other languages where they use "Allah" as title for the the Divine Creator.

Archbishop Datuk Bolly Lapok said the word “Allah” has been part and parcel of the community’s language for generations and has become “embedded” in every aspect of their culture, including for the Bumiputera Christians, who make up the majority of Malaysia’s Christian population.

The government’s prohibition and the Federal Court’s denial for the Catholic Church to appeal for the right to publish the “Allah” in its weekly newspaper, had made the Bumiputera Christians feel they had been wronged, said the Sarawakian senior clergyman.
“We feel there has been a miscarriage of justice. It is insidious. It is tantamount to an act of language and culture genocide,” said Bolly, who also chairs the Association of Churches in Sarawak.
Malaysia’s Bumiputera Christians are accustomed to praying in their native tongues and the national language, Bahasa Malaysia. Their bibles, scriptures and hymns too have been translated into their respective indigenous languages, many of which contain the controversial “Allah” word as reference to God.
In its landmark ruling on June 23, a seven-judge panel at the top court had in a majority decision dismissed the Catholic Church’s bid to overturn the Court of Appeal’s decision last year, which held that the word of Arabic origin was not “integral” to the religious practice of Malaysia’s Christians.
The Federal Court has however noted that the “integral” comment in the Court of Appeal was non-binding on other cases as it was just a remark made in passing.

The Catholic Church recently applied for a review of the Federal Court’s June decision while a Sabah evangelical church, Sidang Injil Borneo (SIB), succeeded in clearing the first hurdle for its “Allah” challenge to be retried at the High Court, providing a glimmer of hope for Malaysia’s native Christians.

Those people should know that all people who speak Arabic or do have words in their language which came from Arabic, will have "Allah" for the title of "God", be it atheists, Hindus, Jews, Christians or Muslims. It is not a word which Muslims can claim only for themselves. In case such a thing happens all sorts of groups could claim singular words in any language claim for their own use, and forbidding others to use it in their own daily language.

Syed Putra Jamalull writes:
This whole problem can be traced to the home ministry directive way back in 1986 prohibiting non muslims from using certain arabic terms that snowballed malay intolerance. Who was the home minister then? It could either be Musa Hitam or Dr M. Just like books and ideas, words should never be prohibited from being used as its the foundation.
Mark Beaumont, senior lecturer in Islam and mission at the London School of Theology, says that while there is controversy regarding the way that God and Allah are referred in Malaysia, in other parts of the world it's considered far less of a contentious issue.
"In the Arab speaking world there's no difficulty in calling God 'Allah' – they've been doing it in the Christian church and in the Bible for hundreds of years,"
he explains. Which is logical, because it is a word like any other word in the Arabic language and is in that language also used to indicate other gods that the Most High Divine Creator of heaven and earth form the Abrahamic faiths. In the early days of Egypt Pharao was also called Allah.

Muslims also should be aware that in many countries is spoken about "Allah" in respect, presenting the Divine Supreme Being, Whose Name was also given to His People, the Israelites and should come to be known all over the world as Jehovah.

In several churches not always is used the Name, but more often the title of the Elohim, as such
"In the Coptic Church in Egypt, the church in Syria, Jordan, Iraq and even Iran, it's always been the practice to call God 'Allah' using the Arabic form. Although the Arabic Bible wasn't translated fully before Islam came, it's obvious that people were reading the Gospels using 'Allah' before the rise of Islam.
Whatever people want to believe about creation and all that, accepting or not believing in a Divine Creator, they should know that in the ancient history of the Middle East, 'Allah' was the equivalent of 'Elohim', the Hebrew word for the Most High God.

While it may be mostly Malaysian Muslims who are offended by the Christian use of the word 'Allah', many Christian believers the last decennials also have been reluctant to use the Name of God (Jehovah) as well as His title "Allah". With the growing of non-trinitarian Christians and with the growing of the Islamic faith more Christians find the use of "Allah" to be controversial.
in Arabic language. The book was written by th...
in Arabic language. The book was written by the end of 16th century (Photo credit: Wikipedia)


Lots of Christians and Muslims do think they have a different God. This makes that people wonder if it  is really possible to reconcile the name 'Allah' with the God of the Bible?
"Anything is possible! You just have to think about the person who is saying 'I believe in Allah,'"
Beaumont insists.
"When I lived in Morocco, there was a Christian man who was being interrogated by the police. He had grown up as a Muslim but came to know Christ and became a Christian. He was told to confess his faith, and he said:
 'There is no God but God, and Jesus Christ is my saviour and Lord'. He confessed it in Arabic, using the word 'Allah', and so he was quite happy to use the Muslim testimony of faith as a Christian because of course we also believe there is no God but God! He was able to affirm the basic statement of faith for Muslims – There is no God but Allah – but wasn't able to affirm Mohammed as God's prophet, which is the second part of it.
Normally Jews, Christians and Muslims should have one and the same God, but I do agree with Jews and Muslims, in case certain Christians take Jesus to be the God of gods, than I as a Christian would also dare to question those trinitarian Christians if they have the same God as me.
An other difficulty by Muslims is that they do get more and more a distorted image of Christians and cannot come to see that a person can really embrace a genuine faith in Christ Jesus, accepting this rabbi and prophet as their Messiah, but still believing in the Only One True God.

Beaumont also says:
"It's usually not that big a difficulty using the word 'Allah' and filling it with a Christian meaning. There are of course people in the West who worry about that – it makes some Christian missionaries feel uncomfortable, and I can understand that – but it's not my personal position."
Beaumont contends that it is not only just possible to use Islamic terminology while offering a Christian meaning, but it is, in fact, a vital part of helping Muslims to understand the message of Christ.
"I favour beginning where Muslims are, with what they understand, and trying to draw them into another way of thinking," he explains.
According to him
"The word 'God' came when the Bible was translated into Anglo-Saxon, and comes from a pagan name for a deity – it's a northern European understanding.
and as such in our regions it is also used regularly for indicating higher or in the picture standing figures, like fashion queens, film-stars, sports-favourites, etc.
So when Christians have strict view on using the word 'Allah' but are very happy to use the King James translation of the Bible, or even more recent, I smile to myself,"
Beaumont says.
"Language can take a word and change it – you can fill an old word with a new meaning, and that's what's going on here. Some people feel uncomfortable with that – they say 'you can't fill an old wineskin with new wine' but nobody says you can't use the Anglo-Saxon word for God.
"There's also a parallel with William Carey, who translated the Bible into Bengali and used the word 'Ishvara' – 'Ishvara created the heavens and the earth' – and that's the word Christians in India still use today.
"Ishvara is the God Hindus believe created the earth, and so Carey thought it would be best word for the Biblical creator – it's interesting to see how different translations use local deities to help explain the Bible, rather than 'Elohim'."


Read more about it:
  1. For Bumiputera Christians, ‘Allah’ ban akin to cultural ‘genocide’, says archbishop
  2. Continues Syrian conflict needing not only dialogue
  3. Islamic State forcing the West to provide means for Kurdistan
  4. Migrants to the West #5
  5. Migrants to the West #10 Religious freedom
  6. An Ex-Muslim’s Open Letter
  7. Muslims should also Fear God
  8. Patriarch Abraham, Muslims, Christians and the son of God
  9. Prophets making excuses
  10. Jesus begotten Son of God #12 Son of God
  11. Pluralis Majestatis in the Holy Scriptures
  12. Quran versus older Holy Writings of Divine Creator
  13. Being Religious and Spiritual 1 Immateriality and Spiritual experience
  14. Are Christians prepared to Rejoice in the Lord
  15. Sharing a common security and a common set of values
  16. Not true or True Catholicism and True Islam
  17. Why is it that Christians don’t understand Muslims and Muslims do not understand Christians?
  18. Al-Fatiha [The Opening/De Opening] Süra 1:1-3 In the name of Allah the Merciful Lord Of The Creation
  19. The Immeasurable Grace bestowed on humanity

In Dutch:

  1. Sharia een kwaad voor Islam
  2. Rellen en Oude Geschriften
  3. Koran tegenover veel oudere Heilige Geschriften
  4. Onze God ook deze van de moslims
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Wednesday 21 May 2014

Holy land Christian exodus

The Christian exodus, underway for decades, has reached critical levels in recent years. Emigration is a central concern to local Vatican officials, who are trying to stave off the flight with offers of jobs, housing and scholarships.
"I am sad to think that maybe the time will come in which Christianity will disappear from this land,"
said the Rev. Juan Solana, a Vatican envoy who oversees the Notre Dame center, a Jerusalem hotel for pilgrims that employs 150 locals, mostly Christians.
Solana said he employs Christians to encourage them
 "to stay here, to love this land, to be aware of their particular vocation to be the witnesses of Christianity in this land."
The Christian exodus is taking place across the Middle East. Jordan, where Pope Francis will begin his three-day trip Saturday, has thousands of Christian refugees from war-torn Syria and Iraq.
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The decline began with high Jewish immigration and Christian emigration after the 1948 war surrounding Israel's establishment, and has been abetted by continued emigration and a low birthrate among Christians who stay.
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About 38,000 Palestinian Christians live in the West Bank, 2,000 in Gaza, and 10,000 in Jerusalem, according to the local Roman Catholic church.
Israel has 130,000 Arab Christians. There are also nearly 200,000 non-native Christians in Israel, including Christians who moved from the former Soviet Union because of Jewish family ties, guest workers and African migrants.
by johnib
Father Ibrahim Shomali, the parish priest of Beit Jala

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Wednesday 7 May 2014

Israel the Oil and Gas Opportunity

The partners in Israel’s Tamar natural gas field said on Tuesday they had signed a letter of intent with Spain’s Union Fenosa Gas to export up to 4.5 billion cubic meters of gas annually over 15 years to the company’s liquefied natural gas plants in Egypt


Middle East Revollutionary Turmoil
2011 saw unparalleled historic events - most notably the massive political  &  social upheaval in the Middle East.  With the ' Arab Spring ' rattling through more than 14 separate nations in the Arab World ,  overthrowing longstanding governments  &  dictatorships  ( Tunisia , Egypt , Libya )  &  throwing others into chaotic civil wars ( Syria , Yemen )  it has created a  maelstrom of political dynamics  transforming this already volatile region into a tinder-box of instability   &  strategic uncertainty.  In 2013 ,  the continuing emergence of brutal terrorists groups such as  Al Qaeda , Al Nusra , ISIS , Ansar Al-Islam  has  further escalated the violence , bloodshed &  suffering in this troubled region.   These events are the  prelude  to the final global conflict , long prophesied in the Bible  &  centered around God's people , the tiny nation of Israel.

Since natural gas was first discovered offshore Israel in 1998, the country has seen the growth of an oil and gas industry that promises to provide not only an economic boost to the country itself but could also prove to be a diplomatic tool that can be used to build better relations with some of its neighboring states.
 

writes Jon Mainwaring,

From Ezekiel we learn that when Russia and the EU invade the Middle East they do so to take a "spoil", could Oil be the "spoil" they will be after? 



Map of oil and natural gas in Middle East.
Map of oil and natural gas in Middle East. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Read more about it in:

Israel's OIL and GAS Opportunity 03-05-2014: Israel the Oil and Gas Opportunity
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Find also:
The 'Sanhedrin' - History, Relevance, Warning
 

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