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"Take
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Cecil Andrews, 29 Edengrove Park, Ballynahinch, BT24 8AZ, Northern Ireland Telephone/Fax 028 9756 5511. E-MAIL - takeheed@aol.com WEBSITE - http://www.takeheed.net Quick Links - Home - Assorted Articles - Audio/Video - Ministry Newsletters - Words of Wisdom |
“Be thou faithful unto death”
Shortly after 18th April I received an
Internet link that posted a report under the heading – “A letter to the
http://chezkneel.blogspot.com/2007/04/from-protestant-church-of-smyrna.html
This
report gave the horrific details of how 3 Christian leaders in the area of
Smyrna in Turkey had been savagely butchered to death by members of a Muslim ‘tarikat’
– a group of Islamic ‘faithful believers’. These 3 brothers in Christ,
missionary and father of 3, Tilman Geske, pastor and father of 2, Necati Aydin,
and former Muslim [like Pastor Aydin] Ugur Yuksel had all been
involved in both printing and proclaiming God’s TRUTH and had arranged to meet
with these Muslim men to give them a Bible study. Tragically this was merely a
ruse to lure God’s servants to a meeting where they would be martyred for
seeking to spread God’s TRUTH.
This
is but one of many equally horrendous instances in recent years where God’s
faithful servants have paid the ultimate price in the cause of God’s TRUTH. All
these brutal slayings give the lie to Tony Campolo’s
devilish statement in his book ‘Speaking My Mind’
where he wrote [page 139] ‘It is… wrong for us… to define Allah as a god who
wills the annihilation of non-Muslims’.
As
I write this article I have just started to read Pastor John MacArthur’s latest
book ‘The TRUTH War’ and I
want to quote some extracts from his introduction. On page XV he starts a
section headed ‘What is truth’ and writes [pages XV-XVIII] ‘God and truth
are inseparable…to reject God is to reject the Giver of all truth, the final
Judge of what really is true, and the very essence and embodiment of truth
itself…The contemporary aversion to truth is simply a natural expression of
fallen humanity’s innate hostility towards God [“Because
the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God,
neither, indeed, can be” Romans 8:7]. It is exactly the same attitude with which
Pilate summarily dismissed Christ [“What is truth?” John
Our
3 brothers in Christ gave their lives in this warfare to proclaim God’s TRUTH.
Earlier in his introduction in a section headed ‘The Eternal Value Of The
Truth’ Pastor MacArthur wrote [pages XII-XV] ‘the church is
supposed to be “the pillar and ground of the truth” [1st Timothy
3:15]…Much of the visible church nowadays seems to think Christians are
supposed to be at play rather than at war…Contemporary Christians are
determined to get the world to like them…the thought of even identifying
someone else’s teaching as false (much less “contending earnestly” for the
faith) is a distasteful and dangerously counter cultural suggestion…But
Christians of all people ought to be most willing to live and die for
the TRUTH…And if called upon to sacrifice for the TRUTH’S sake, we need to be
willing and prepared to give our lives…that is exactly what Jesus was speaking
about when He called His disciples to take up a cross [Matthew 16:24].
In
the light of the reality of these terrible events in Turkey and also faced
today as we are with a seemingly never-ending flood of ‘purpose driven’,
‘seeker sensitive’ ‘health and wealth,’ ‘inspiration-only’, ‘non-offensive’
“gospel” messages and movements, these words by Pastor MacArthur on page XIV of
his introduction should come as a sombre challenge in particular to all who
identify with these branches of ‘Contemporary Christianity’ – ‘Does anyone
really imagine that many of the entertainment-hungry churchgoers who pack
today’s megachurches would be willing to give their lives for the TRUTH?’
Let
me close this item, in memory of our late brothers, with these words from
Christ Himself to the Church at
In the
“The TRUTH War” you can phone ‘Grace to You’
on 01233 662262
Cecil
Andrews – ‘Take Heed’ Ministries –