​9 November marks the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
Across the world, from Trafalgar to Tiananmen Square, voices long repressed began to be heard. Unrest became pandemic. Nation after nation began to shake off the shackles that had bound them and assert their human rights and religious freedom. Those were heady days.

​​Bible Smuggling
Decades of Bible smuggling and Gospel radio broadcasts, behind the Iron Curtain, had supported the tenacious persecuted Christians who were winning their neighbours, and even some of their persecutors, to Christ.

10 Years ago the Lord led me on an 11 nation Mission to Europe. This was my Report on that watershed event, which led to the establishing of The Reformation Society and Livingstone Fellowship.

Mission to Europe - 2005
This Mission to Europe was both heart-breaking and heart-warming. I travelled across a continent in decline and crisis. Secular Humanism with its materialism and unbelief is pervasive, and, in many surprising places, Islam is on the ascendancy. Yet I had the privilege of ministering in some of the brightest outposts of vibrant spiritual life and dynamic faith.

​Crisis and Contrasts
While Europe has a dynamic and rich Christian heritage, most of its inhabitants today barely seem to give it a thought. Most Europeans seem to have forgotten or rejected their Christian heritage. Yet, I witnessed strongholds of Protestant Christianity and dynamic evangelistic churches as far afield as Northern Ireland and Romania.


Reclaiming Europe for Christ
It was a tremendous privilege and a very humbling experience for me to be able to visit monuments and churches precious to our Reformation heritage. So this month long Mission, across 11-nations in Europe was both a time of ministry and of research. I had 50 speaking engagements in 6 countries, including being the main speaker at a Missions Conference in England, speaking at Missions rallies in London, Belfast, Berlin, and Geneva. I lectured at a University in Romania, conducted missions seminars in Poland, preached in 14 churches, spoke at 3 Missions bases, and concluded with preaching in Geneva and lecturing at the Geneva Bible Institute.

England for Christ
Arriving in England was quite an experience. In Birmingham, I saw a large gold statue of Buddha outside some shop or restaurant, and a little further on a large gold statue of the Hindu goddess Kali. At a traffic circle they were building a pagoda (the baby towers where unwanted infants were abandoned to die of exposure or from birds of prey). Litter, graffiti, newspaper headlines of murder and crime, alarm systems, security gates and burglar bars informed me that England was no longer the law abiding and crime free country it once was renowned as. Here I was in the land where my father was born. The greatest missionary sending country of the 19th Century, today in the 21st Century, is most certainly now a mission field.

Evangelistic Zeal
The church which had invited me to conduct their Missions Conference was a dynamic, evangelistic church with a history going back to the 17th Century. Each Sunday afternoon many of the members of this congregation are involved in a Sunday School outreach programme bringing in children from the community. Members of the church also went on outreaches into the marketplace. They had a broad missionary vision.

Civilization in Decline
As I ran around the community I was struck by how many homes had security systems, alarms and even close circuit television cameras, and by the wide variety of nationalities and foreigners living in the community. I also saw an ancient castle and the ruins of a monastery and chapel dating back almost a millennium. I wondered how many of our churches, which today are vibrant, will in the future lie in ruins if we fail to fulfil the Great Commission in each generation. What a warning and rebuke it is to us to be more diligent in discipling the next generation.

Reunion with Precious Friends
After the Missions Conference, I travelled to London by bus. I was met by Robert McCafferty, a teacher in England who was once a valuable member of our mission. His wife, Christine, was my co-author of The Pink Agenda – Sexual Revolution in South Africa and the Ruin of the Family. We have all greatly missed the McCaffertys, and from the welcome I received, it would appear that they also missed us.

Missionary Heritage
First Robert drove me to the All Nations Christians College in Easney, the famous home of the Buxtons. C.T. Studd's daughter, Edith, married Alfred Buxton, who was C.T. Studd's first recruit for his Heart of Africa mission. Alfred went on to distinguish himself in Ethiopia. Alfred died in the bombing of London in 1940. In her brilliant novel, Reluctant Missionary, Edith Buxton wrote of the Buxton estate in Easney, which today is the All Nations Christian College. The library had large oil paintings of the Buxtons, and there was a Chinese outfit which had been worn by C.T. Studd in the principal's office.

Hijacking History at St. Albans
Next we were off to Saint Albans, one of the oldest and longest churches in England, built on the site of the martyrdom in the 3rd Century of the first English martyr, Saint Alban. The impressive cathedral evidences its Saxon origins, the Norman developments and the later Gothic additions. As Robert and I were admiring the many facets of this sanctuary, an official guide came up and began to tell us numerous anecdotes about St. Albans. It soon became apparent that the man was more than skeptical, he was downright atheistic. Somewhat surprised that the church would employ a person who obviously had no faith to be its representative to visitors, we began to challenge some of his presuppositions. After some discussion the man asked us: "Are you missionaries? "Well, yes, we are." I answered. "Well then, I better keep my mouth shut!" He responded!

Derailing the Christian Faith
This man was just one symptom of a national crisis of faith which seems to be afflicting the English nation. They have a great Christian heritage, but they don't know what to do with it. Here was this church guide, apologising for the Reformation, slandering Oliver Cromwell, criticising the great Missionary movement which went out from England and brought the Christian Faith to much of the world - yet he had absolutely no convictions about anything! Not even the conviction that God existed! He said that we'd certainly given him food for thought, and we prayed that this reflection will lead to true repentance.

Exploring Historic Sites
That evening I gave a missions presentation to a home fellowship of Rob and Christine's church. The next day I got something of an idea of just how big London was when it took me over two hours and five trains, including three undergrounds - and lots of stairs and passage ways to connect with the different underground or rail links - just to get across London. Once I delivered my luggage (which was mostly books) to the hosts, I went back into London to do some sight-seeing. I walked from Tower Bridge for many miles through London to the Palace of Westminster, saw the statue of Oliver Cromwell, the Bible in his left hand and his sword in his right. A magnificent lion statue lay at the foot of his statue. The only other statue within the grounds of the Houses of Parliament, was a statue of Richard the Lionhearted.

Westminster Abby
Across the road I entered Westminster Abby and saw the grave of David Livingstone. Westminster Abby has been a place of worship for over 1,000 years. It contains tombs, monuments and statues remembering some of the greatest names in British history, including Queen Elizabeth I, Oliver Cromwell, Charles Dickens, and William Wilberforce. Most of the kings and queens of England have been crowned in Westminster Abby. There is even a monument to "innocent victims of oppression, violence and war", including a memorial to Bishop Janai Luwum, who was murdered by the Muslim dictator Idi Amin, in 1977, in Uganda.

Humbling and Heart Searching
Surrounded by such inspiring architecture and history, I was deeply humbled and spent an extended time in heartfelt repentance and prayer in a side chapel provided for those wanting to be separate from the many tourists and sight-seers passing through the cathedral.

General Charles Gordon
I could have spent many days in London just visiting cathedrals, museums and monuments, but I had a missions rally to speak at that evening, so I had to hurry on. On the way I passed by a statue to the great Christian General Charles Gordon, who was killed in Khartoum fighting against the Islamic slave trade. Appropriately, the evening Missions Rally was close to Gordon's English home. This congregation was also dynamic, evangelistic and with a great missionary vision. Although I had never visited there before, we had many friends in common, particularly in Romania where this church had a very active involvement.

Northern Ireland
The next morning I was up early to travel to the other side of London for a flight from Heathrow to Belfast, Northern Ireland. Dr. Ian Paisley had invited me to minister at Martyrs Memorial Church. I had first heard Dr. Paisley when he was a speaker at the KwaSizabantu Ministers Conference in Zululand. At the time I was somewhat shocked to see his name on the programme, because I'd only heard the most negative reports about him. However, when I heard Dr. Paisley expound the Scriptures and preach the Gospel, all my reservations were swept away, and I knew that here was a man who loved the Lord with all his heart, who loved the Bible, and in whom the power of the Holy Spirit was mightily working.

When All Men Speak Well of You
In the twelve years since that conference, the Lord had given me numerous opportunities to speak up for Dr. Paisley when he was being slandered. On each occasion I would ask the detractor: "Have you ever heard Dr. Paisley preach?" When these detractors admitted that they hadn't, I was then able to respond: "Well, I have heard Dr. Paisley preach, and he's the finest Gospel preacher it's ever been my privilege to hear." As you can imagine, this kind of response has the effect of pouring a bucket of cold water over the fires of malicious backbiting.

A Time of Transition
After all the violent reports I had read about Northern Ireland, I was somewhat surprised not to see any soldiers during the visit. I was told that all British troops were confined to barracks as part of the peace process being discussed. I saw very few police either. I was informed that in response to the demands of the IRA and the Irish Republic, the Royal Ulster Constabulary had been disbanded. Northern Ireland had a woefully inadequate police force as a result.

A Land of Conflict
What I did see were heavenly fortified police stations encased in concrete, grenade shields, wrought iron fences and high close meshed fences stretching ten meters or higher to protect the police stations from petrol bombs, rocket launchers and grenade attacks. The barriers between the Protestant and Roman Catholic suburbs seemed to be even higher and even more formidable than I remember the Berlin Wall in the 1980's.

Evangelising Catholics
Dr. Paisley arranged for me to travel in the Catholic areas with their evangelist who conducted door-to-door evangelism throughout Falls Road, Shortstrand and other Roman Catholic areas. This brother's goal is to place a Gospel of John in every Catholic home in Belfast. As I travelled past the barriers and the heavily fortified police stations into these IRA strongholds, I was astounded to see vast quantities of Irish Republic tricolours. The orange, white and green flags were accompanied with elaborate pro-IRA wall murals, graffiti and propaganda.

IRA Terrorism
I was shown the Magennis bar where the McCartney brother was murdered, the Northern bank, the site of the recent bank robbery by the IRA, the Europa Hotel - reported the most bombed hotel in the world and the vast amount of anti-British, anti-American, anti-Protestant, anti-Israeli and pro-PLO and IRA terrorist wall murals in Falls Road. These huge wall murals honoured Bobbie Sands and other hunger strikers who had committed suicide. This seemed quite inconsistent as the Catholic Church traditionally denies suicides a service or church burial. Yet, I was informed that not only have each of the hunger strikers received Roman Catholic Church funerals, but not one of the IRA terrorists, (many of whom had committed heinous acts of mass murder), not one have been excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church. I was also informed that the Irish Republic has not extradited any of the IRA terrorists to stand trial in Northern Ireland either.

Not that the IRA have only been murdering Protestants, policeman and British soldiers. Some of the most heinous atrocities committed by the IRA have been against fellow Catholics. For example the brutal kneecapping, a trademark torture by the IRA whereby their victim is crippled by having their kneecap either shot or drilled, is traditionally reserved for those Roman Catholics who are considered traitors, compromisers or "sell-outs", by the IRA.

Ulster Unionists
It was very obvious when one moved out of the Catholic areas because suddenly, instead of IRA flags and graffiti, one was welcomed by the British Union Jack flag, Scripture verses prominently painted on the sides of churches, and numerous loyalist wall art, memorials to victims of IRA terrorism, and slogans such as: "Ulster will always remain British - no surrender."

​A Giant of the Faith
Dr. Ian Paisley, at age 78, has been at the centre of political and religious controversy in Northern Ireland for the last 50 years. Ian Paisley is the pastor of Martyrs Memorial Free Presbyterian Church and started his preaching 58 years ago. Martyrs Memorial is one of the largest churches in Northern Ireland. Dr. Paisley is the moderator of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster, a growing denomination with 98 congregations throughout Northern Ireland, the UK and further afield. Incredibly, Dr. Paisley has managed to not only be a dedicated pastor, but a successful politician.

Record Breaking
As a Member of Parliament for North Antrim for 34 years, he is recorded in the Guinness Book of Records for overthrowing the largest electoral majority and turning it into a majority for himself. Ian Paisley's DUP party now controls the majority of seats in Northern Ireland. Dr. Paisley has also been a Member of Parliament in Great Britain at the Palace of Westminster for 30 years, and for 25 years he was the longest running Member of the European Parliament. So it is apparent that despite Dr Paisley being so despised and denigrated by the mass media, he is obviously popular in Northern Ireland!

Ireland for Christ
I was also given a guided tour of the Parliamentary buildings at Stormont, as well as their George Whitfield College of the Bible. On the Saturday night I presented my testimony to the Martyrs Memorial congregation at their International Missions Rally. Dr. Paisley concluded with an impassioned plea for church planting and Evangelists to win all of Ireland for Christ.

Sunday Services
On Sunday they had me preaching at four congregations. First, at Sandown Free Presbyterian Church, which had been destroyed by a bomb, and recently rebuilt. Then I was off to a church planting project to preach in the afternoon. After the evening service, I was rushed over to a Youth Rally at Randallstown where over 750 young people from all over Belfast had gathered for a late night Youth Rally. I don't know how long they had been singing when I arrived just before 9PM, but I don't think anyone left there before midnight. 

Earnest Youth
As at all the other services in Northern Ireland, I was impressed by the high standard of dress of the young people, and their earnestness. There were no gimmicks, bands or plays. There was just the singing of hymns with gusto, earnest prayer and the preaching of the Word. After giving the message, I stood in front of the pulpit and spoke for about an hour to eager young people, answering their questions. It was a great way to end a tremendous visit to Northern Ireland. I was sorry that I had to leave the next day.

The Power of Prayer
Plainly Northern Ireland is a stronghold of Protestantism. It is one of the brightest spots spiritually in Europe. The churches in Belfast are dynamic, evangelistic, with a strong missionary vision. They are engaged in door-to-door evangelism, street preaching and earnest wholehearted prayer. After one evening meeting, Dr. Paisley asked the men to stay behind for a further time of prayer. The hours of prayer at Martyrs Memorial with Dr. Paisley into the early hours of the morning, were a highlight. Seldom have I experienced such a unity and intensity in prayer since Frontline Fellowship began in those late night prayer meetings in the South African Army so many years ago.

Romania for Christ
Somewhere in England I had picked up some virus and in Northern Ireland I'd begun to invest in large quantities of decongestants and throat lozenges. By the time I headed off to Romania, I was seriously ill. First I flew to London and then to Budapest, capital of Hungary. At Budapest I was picked up by a friend who drove me through to Emanuel University in Romania. Emanuel Baptist Church is the largest Baptist church in Europe, East, or West. 

Behind the Iron Curtain
I first preached at Emanuel on Easter Sunday 1989. I had just married Lenora, and we were joining her parents on a mission to Eastern Europe. At that time, their pastoral training programme was called The School of the Prophets. Dr. Paul Negrut invited me to present lectures to their students. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the overthrow of Communism in Romania, the execution of the dictator Nicoli Ceausescu, I continued to return to Romania and to minister to their Theological students.

Emanuel University
Dr. Paul Negrut was the Principal of Emanuel University and they had 18 hours of lecture periods and 2 chapel services scheduled for me to speak at. There was great excitement at the college over the opportunity they had to send the choir to Saint Petersburg, Russia, for a special concert recital and outreach. I was encouraged to see the growth of the work in Romania and that their evangelistic zeal was still vibrant. In 1990, shortly after the collapse of Communism in Romania, I warned our Romanian friends: "You have survived persecution, but now you will need to resist temptation. Secularism, materialism and immorality are even more insidious enemies than Communism." Now, on this trip, several pastors, who had then been students, told me how they remembered those words and how true they had found them in their experience over the last 15 years.

Dramatic Transformation
There are many evidences of the new freedoms and prosperity. Whereas before the border crossing into Romania had taken an average of three hours, I think we made this one in under three minutes! Whereas before in a congregation of 3000 people there were about 20 cars, now almost every family had a vehicle. There were also cellphone shops, money changers, satellite dishes and shops overflowing with every kind of consumable product imaginable. Although the girls now wore slacks, which would have been completely unacceptable back in the past, and scarves were seldom worn, the girls still maintained the Eastern Europe church tradition of not wearing make-up, jewellery or earrings. The dress codes for both men and women in churches were definitely more relaxed than before, but the singing was enthusiastic and the prayer meetings well attended.

The Dangers of Joining the EU
Some pastors shared their concern that when Romania joined the European Union next year they may be forced to end their practice of Bible reading, hymn singing, prayer and Religious Instruction at state schools. The EU has just declared itself a secular state. By the time I had to leave Romania and drive back to Budapest, to catch the overnight train to Berlin, I was at my sickest, and was losing my voice. No amount of medications seemed to work. I croaked and rasped my way through my last lectures at the college. I must have consumed hundreds of throat lozenges by then.

Germany
With all the interruptions for customs and all the checks from Hungary into Austria, from Austria into Germany, and the shunting around of our railway carriage, to connect with the next train, as well as the coming and going of other passengers, precious little sleep was had that night. So I was not only very sick but quite tired when I reached Berlin early the next morning. There I met up with my father-in-law, Rev. Bill Bathman. He had already arrived in Germany for other ministry early in the week. Together we now drove to Poland. As we negotiated through Berlin, my mind raced through so many memories of my Mom. My mother had been born in Berlin. She was a young girl of six years old when she experienced her first aerial bombardment in 1940. She was at the Berlin circus and was trampled underfoot in the rush of people and animals to escape the explosions.

Through the Remains of the Berlin Wall
In 1988, I had gone behind the Berlin Wall, smuggling through Checkpoint Charlie. How different everything was now. I wondered how many other countries in the world could have successfully assimilated a socialist basket case like East Germany and modernised it in one generation. The advances in the last 15 years since the re-unification of Germany were absolutely astounding. That West Germany could have offered the East Germans a one-to-one exchange rate for the Deutschmark with the Oostmark without the entire country going into bankruptcy was incredible.

The Divided City
What other city in history had gone through the trauma of near total destruction through aerial bombardment, the wholesale looting, massacres and hideous destruction of the Red Army, and 45 years division where West Berlin was a little island of freedom in a sea of Communist oppression. I remembered from a previous visit to the Checkpoint Charlie Museum the ingenuity of the many thousands of successful escapes from East Berlin recorded there. Four million East Germans voted with their feet by fleeing from the "workers paradise" of East Germany.

Poland for Christ
Poland had also changed dramatically since my previous visits. Plainly Poland was enjoying the advantages of being a member of the European Union. They are also very proud of being a member of NATO and an ally of the United States of America. It was quite interesting noticing how anti-American much of Western Europe is, and how very pro-American Eastern Europe is.

Church Planting and Bible Transformation
My father-in-law's Mission, had an impressive work in Poland. The Director of their work in Poland, leads a growing and dynamic group of American and Polish missionaries and evangelists who are involved in a wide range of evangelistic and discipleship ministries. Piotr Zaremba has planted five churches in Posnan and he is involved in the first translation of the Bible from the original languages of Greek and Hebrew into the Polish language. Piotr's wife, Kristine, is a doctor, and she quickly diagnosed me as having a high temperature and fever. I was promptly placed on antibiotics. Within a couple of days I was healthy enough to begin running again in the mornings.

Sunday Services
The next day, I conducted Missions Seminars in Posnan and Gniezno. On Sunday we split up to take services in Gniezno and Posnan. Rev. Bill Bathman preached at the International Church service in Posnan which was held in a large cinema. In the afternoon we met with the 30 missionaries and Polish pastors and evangelists involved with Bill's ministry in Poland. The churches that I saw in Poland were very modern, Western style churches. We were most impressed with the missionary vision and generosity of the Polish churches who even took up offerings to sponsor Gospel Recordings Messengers for evangelists among whom we work in Africa.

Spiritual Birthday and the Death of Pope John Paul
Sunday 3 April was my spiritual birthday. It was Sunday, 3 April 1977, 38 years ago, that I first heard the Gospel and walked the isle at a cinema which was being used for a church outreach to commit my life to Christ. It was that same night that I received my call to missions. I praised God for His grace, mercy, provision and protection over the last 28 years. And I praised God that I could be found proclaiming His Word in a church in Poland on that day. 3 April was also the day the Pope's death was announced. You can imagine being in Poland on the day that the Polish Pope died. All across the country flags were at half-mast with a black sash across them. Polish Catholics attributed to John Paul II, along with Ronald Reagan, as having been instrumental in liberating them from Communism.

Germany for Christ
On the Monday morning Bill Bathman and I drove out of Poland back to Germany. We were en route to Lutherstadt - Wittenberg. Despite some deviations caused by road works on the back country roads we were traveling, we managed to reach this historic Reformation town before noon. My father-in-law was determined that I should visit Luther's town, and so he had arranged the schedule that we could spend two days in Wittenberg. For a Protestant historian this was a great privilege and an indescribable blessing. We spent most of the rest of the day in the Schlosskirche, the castle church where Luther nailed his 95 Theses. It was perhaps appropriate that the day after the Pope's death, we were in Wittenberg, the cradle of the Protestant Reformation.

Wittenberg through the Wars
Considering the amount of wars and invasions of occupying armies which Wittenberg had seen over the last five centuries, it is somewhat miraculous that so much of our Protestant heritage remains intact. From the invasion of Charles V, through The Thirty Years' War, The Seven Years' War, the Napoleonic Wars, (Napoleon himself even stayed in the town), the bombing of the Second World War, and the Russian occupation, much damage and destruction was endured, and yet, so much remains to instruct and inspire us.

Heritage
It was an inspiring and humbling experience to be reminded of some of what the Protestant Reformers went through to win the freedoms which we benefit from today. We visited Melanchthon's House, Luther's House, the Stadtkirche - where Luther conducted most of his preaching, the university, and the memorials in the market square.

Examples of Excellence
As when I visited Zwingli's Zürich and Calvin's Geneva, I was struck by how each one of these Reformers were such humble men, men of prayer, earnest students of the Bible, enthusiastic Reformers, energetic soul winners, hard workers, courageous, and persevering. I accumulated many books and documents, and we must have taken over 1,000 pictures in Wittenberg! All this will be invaluable for future Reformation celebrations, lectures, PowerPoints, articles and for my upcoming book The Greatest Century of Reformation.

Ministry in Berlin
On Tuesday afternoon Rev. Bill Bathman needed to leave for commitments in Austria and the USA. I took the speed train back to Berlin where I had an evening meeting at the KwaSizabantu Mission. When I commented on the number of mosques in Berlin I was informed that Berlin was now the fourth largest Turkish city in the world. The Berlin police are now dealing with a number of "honour murders" where brothers, or cousins murder a female relative because she is perceived to be "too Western" or "not Muslim enough". One mosque built in Berlin had blatantly ignored the building restrictions. They were ordered to lower their minarets (towers) in accordance with municipal regulations. When they refused, the municipality let them get away with a nominal fine, which they were quite happy to pay. They had successfully defied the municipality and now architecturally dominated the area for the mere price of a fine. The Saudi Arabian government is using its immense oil wealth to finance the construction of thousands of mosques worldwide, including in Germany.

The Threat of Islamisation
Both Germany and France have such low birth rates, that effectively coffins are outselling cradles. More people are dying in these countries than are actually being born. The shortfall has been made up by "gastarbeiters"guest workers, foreigners, mostly Muslims. Muslim groups are openly declaring that France will be a majority Muslim country under Sharia law by 2050. They trust that they will have Germany shortly thereafter. With the high abortion rates and low birth rates amongst Western Europeans, along with the massive influx of Muslim immigrants, the possibility of Western Europe falling under Islamic control within two generations is now a distinct possibility.

Reformation or Islamisation
I wondered how it was possible that these lands of the Reformation, once known as Christendom, could have forgotten the tremendous struggles raged by previous generations to keep Europe free from Islam. Have they forgotten The Siege of Vienna, The Battle of Tours, The Battle of Lepanto? Have they forgotten the 1.25 million Christian Europeans kidnapped by Muslim slave raiders between 1500 and 1800? Or the 200,000 Hungarian Christians carried off to Muslim slavery in 1526. Or the nearly half million Christians slaughtered by Muslim Turks in 1915, or the last Christian city in Turkey, Smyrna, destroyed with its 300,000 inhabitants in 1922. All over Europe my new book Slavery, Terrorism & Islam was received with comments such as: "This book must be translated into German"; "This book needs to be in French"; "This is just the right book for this hour!"

Switzerland
Flying in from Germany to Switzerland was a pleasure. Teugel Airport was the most efficient I have ever experienced. From the Air Berlin staff to the customs officials, security and police personnel, all were polite, efficient and quick. The airport's design was the most efficient and practical I have ever seen. Like Germany, Switzerland was clean, efficient, but also beautifully green. While the rest of Europe was still an autumn grey and brown, Switzerland was sparkling green and colourful. 

If You Want Peace Prepare for War
The military preparedness of the country was also quite apparent with numerous armoured cars, and other military vehicles on manoeuvres. At one missionary home where I'd been invited for supper, I questioned the young man across the table how long it would take him to get ready for war. I timed him. It took him 5 minutes and 20 seconds and he was back in military uniform, boots laced up, weapons ready. The family then pulled out an assortment of WW1 and WW2 rifles and bayonets, another machine gun, an assortment of swords, daggers and other wonders of Swiss technology. It was very apparent why Switzerland has continued to remain free from invasion for almost two centuries. If you want peace, prepare for war. Switzerland doesn't have an army, Switzerland is an army.

Dynamic Mission
I was invited to the KwaSizabantu Mission station at Kaltbrunn for the mid-week service. The mission base at Kaltbrunn includes a Christian school and a variety of ministries which reach out across Europe.

Zwingli's Zürich
The next day I was taken on a tour of Zürich, including Grossmünster, the church where Ulrich Zwingli launched the Swiss Reformation on 1 January 1519. It has been a place of worship since the 8th Century. We also managed to see Zwingli's monument, the Manse where Zwingli lived and at Wildhaus, up in the Alps, Zwingli's home where he was born.

Calvin's Geneva
The next day I travelled by train to Geneva where I was able to visit and pray in Saint Peter's Cathedral where John Calvin ministered. I'd been invited by the Geneva Bible Institute, and on Sunday I had the privilege of preaching in Geneva, and then visiting the Reformation Wall. This imposing monument to the Reformation faces the Geneva Academy, the university which was established by John Calvin.

Geneva Bible Institute
On Monday and Tuesday I lectured at the Institute. In the evening the hall was filled up with visitors from numerous churches around Geneva for a presentation on Missions in Africa. When I concluded the presentation, the congregation broke up into small groups to pray for the people that they'd heard about and seen in the slide presentation.

The French Mission Field
Much of the French speaking world is under-evangelised. There is a desperate need for more pastors, missionaries and evangelists who can minister in French. There is a tremendous need for more discipleship books in French. Islam is also a tremendous threat to the churches in the French speaking world. We praise God that the IBG is involved in leadership training, missionary outreaches and library programmes for the French speaking world. Geneva itself is a tremendous mission field. A full third of the inhabitants of Geneva are foreigners. There are 200 non-governmental organisations, and the European headquarters for the UN is in Geneva.

Europe for Christ
My last engagement in Geneva, and of this Europe trip, was a series of radio interviews which started with the crisis in Africa and the aggravating role of the UN. Europe is a mission field. There is a battle for the soul of Europe. As I prayed and wrote in the various guest books in Wittenberg, Zürich and Geneva, it is my earnest prayer that the Lord would have mercy on Europe and grant it a new Biblical Reformation and a fresh spiritual revival. We, in Africa, who had benefited so much from previous generations of Europeans who brought us the Gospel, may we be faithful in prayer and action to take the Gospel back to Europe.

Reformation 500 FIRE
I have put together a number of presentations on the countries of Europe, and particularly of our Reformation heritage, Luther's Wittenberg, Zwingli's Zürich and Calvin's Geneva. If you are interested in radio interviews on any of these, or presentations in your church, on Northern Ireland, Eastern Europe, the Islamic threat to Europe, or the Reformation Heritage of Germany, England and Switzerland, please contact us and arrange for a visit and presentation to your church or school.

"Will You not revive us again that Your people may rejoice in You?" 

Yours for the fulfilment of the Great Commission

Dr. Peter Hammond

Frontline Fellowship
P.O. Box 74 Newlands 7725
Cape Town South Africa
Tel: 021-689-4480
Fax: 021-685-5884
Email: mission@frontline.org.za

Website: www.ReformationSA.org

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​This Mission to England coincided with a whole series of historic events and international crisis. Before boarding the flight for London, I ensured that we sent out an article to challenge the annual celebration of the French Revolution with: What is Bastille Day Celebrating?

Protecting Children
As I arrived in London, the big news was that over 660 suspected pedophiles had been arrested in Britain as part of a nation-wide crackdown on child pornography. The United Kingdom's National Crime Agency (NCA) announced that doctors, teachers, scout leaders, care workers and police officers were amongst those arrested. To highlight the fact that nothing anybody does online is really secret, the police released images of their mobile monitoring units, which can track all the online pornography viewing throughout the United Kingdom, pinpointing the individuals, computers and addresses where these crimes were being committed. Scotland Yard also exposed the illusion that the Dark Web was untraceable.

​The Euthanasia Controversy
At the same time, there was much discussion over the campaign to legalise euthanasia in Britain. Archbishop Desmond Tutu's comments on how Nelson Mandela had been denied the right to die with dignity by keeping him artificially alive long after he was brain dead, last year, was given much coverage in Britain and used as a justification to legalise euthanasia.
​
Targeting the Elderly, Weak and Vulnerable
In South Africa, Taryn Hodgson of the Christian Action Network, went on national TV and made the point that there is a world of difference between allowing a person to die naturally, letting nature take its course, and making someone die, through, for example, a lethal injection. The example was given of how, in Belgium, euthanasia is meant to be only carried out by a doctor, and with the patient's consent. However, more than 100 nurses had admitted to researchers that they had taken part in terminations without either the request, or consent, from the patient, or their relatives! Investigations have shown that nurses regularly go well beyond their legal role, and that one fifth of nurses in Belgium admitted being involved in the "assisted suicide of a patient" even though half of them had not even requested it!

Devaluing the Weak and Elderly
Dutch professor Theo Boer, a former euthanasia supporter in Holland, told the House of Lords, in London, that he had been "terribly wrong" to support assisted suicide. Professor Boer declared that the very existence of a euthanasia law turns assisted suicide from a last resort into a normal procedure. The Utrecht University academic said that Holland is now heading towards a record 6,000 euthanasia deaths for this year. Euthanasia devalues the weak and the elderly. Compassion and support are needed for those who are ill, or depressed - not euthanasia!

When Doctors Become Executioners
In the Soviet Union state doctors regularly called in troublesome pastors for a "routine check-up", only to report later that day that they had "died!" Turning a health professional, who should be dedicated to saving lives, into a taker of lives, effectively a state executioner, is a terrible perversion of the healing profession.

Where is the Watchman on the Wall?
I was invited to speak at a Summer Convention on: Where is the Watchman on the Wall? As 2014 is the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of what we know as the First World War, I spoke on A Tale of Two Conferences: contrasting Edinburgh in 1910 (The first World Missions Conference) and Cape Town 2010. How the Greatest Century of Missions was Derailed into the Worst Century of Persecution? The Causes, Consequences and Catastrophe of the First World War; Jeremiah 6:16-17; What Dangers Should Watchmen be Warning Against?; The Islamisation of Europe; Isaiah 62:6 - Where Are the Watchmen on the Wall?; and Ezekiel 33 & 37 - The Valley of Dry Bones.

Remembering the Romanovs
On 17 July, I posted on our Reformation 500 Facebook page a picture of the Russian Imperial Royal Family (Tsar Nicholas II, his wife Tsarina Alexandra and their five children: Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and Alexei), who were murdered by the communists in Yekaterinburg on 17 July 1918.

Air Malaysia Shoot-down
Later that same day the shocking news came through of the shoot-down of Air Malaysia Flight 17 over Donetsk, Ukraine, killing all 298 passengers on board. The Air Malaysia shoot-down was rightly condemned for the outrage it is. Terrorism is terrorism and it should always be condemned and fought against… whether from communists, Muslim Jihadists or IRA bombers.

Air Rhodesia's Viscounts
However, I could not help but be reminded of the deafening silence that followed the terrorist shoot-down of Air Rhodesia Flight 825, a scheduled passenger flight that was shot down by Zimbabwe Peoples Revolutionary Army (ZIRPA) insurgents on 3 September 1978, during the war against Rhodesia. The aircraft involved a Vickers Viscount named the Hunyani, was flying the last leg of Air Rhodesia's regular scheduled internal flight from Victoria Falls to the capital, Salisbury, via the tourist resort town of Kariba.

Bayonetting Survivors
Soon after Flight 825 took off, a group of ZIPRA guerrillas scored a direct hit on its starboard wing with a Soviet-made Strela 2 surface-to-air infra-red homing missile, critically damaging the aircraft and forcing an emergency landing. An attempted crash landing in a field just West of Karoi was foiled by an unseen ditch, which caused the aircraft to cartwheel and break up. Of the 52 passengers and 4 crew, 38 died in this crash. The insurgents then approached the wreckage, rounded up the 10 survivors they could find and bayonetted, or shot, them. Eight other passengers survived because they had gone to look for water and help.

Communists Claim Credit for Carnage
ZIPRA leader Joshua Nkomo publicly claimed responsibility for shooting down the Viscount on BBC television the same evening. Five months later, in February 1979, the communist terrorists shot down another Rhodesian Viscount, Flight 827, another civilian flight, in a similar atrocity.

A Deafening Silence
At a memorial service held on 8 September 1978 for Flight 825's passengers and crew at Salisbury's Anglican Cathedral, about 2,000 people crowded inside, with another 500 standing on the steps and pavement. Many more were listening to the service on the radio. Dean John de Costa delivered a sermon damning what he described as a "deafening silence" from overseas. "Nobody who holds sacred the dignity of human life can be anything but sickened at the events attending the Viscount," he said. "But are we deafened with the voices of protest from nations who call themselves civilised? We are not! Like men in the story of the Good Samaritan, they pass by on the other side... The ghastliness of this ill-fated flight from Kariba will be burned upon our memories for years to come. For others, far from our borders, it is an intellectual matter, not one which affects them deeply. Here is the tragedy!"

International Disgrace
It is a matter of international disgrace that the United States government, the British Foreign office, the European Union, the United Nations, the Pope, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Organisation of African Unity, all failed to condemn the shooting down and murdering of innocent passengers on these internal civilian flights in Rhodesia.

Lest We Forget
There is a monument at Voortrekkerhoogte which lists the names of the victims of these terror attacks. It reads: "This memorial is to commemorate the lives of 107 holiday makers and crew murdered in the world's first 9/11 styled attacks to destroy passenger aircraft in flight, when Air Rhodesia Viscounts Hunyani and Umniati were brought down with Sam-7 missiles on leaving Kariba airport on 3 September 1978 and 12 February 1979." Of 18 passengers who survived the Viscount Hunyani crash, 8 escaped while 10 others, mostly women and children, were bayonetted and shot to death. There were no survivors of the Viscount Umniati crash."

​Mandelamania and International Idolatry
The next day, 18 July, in response to what the United Nations calls International Mandela Day, our Mission sent out e-mailings: The Most Condemned Sin in the Bible - Idolatry and Mandela Day and The Making of a New Religion, which can also be viewed as a PowerPoint through Slideshare.
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Exploring Historic Sites
As the conference concluded on Saturday 19 July, friends in England took me on an exploration of historic sites in Somerset, including the oldest Christian site in England. The great Glastonbury Church was 220 feet long and 45 feet wide. The choir section was 155 feet long and the transept another 160 feet long. St. Josephs Chapel was 110 feet long and 24 feet wide. The Lady Chapel, which is built over the original church established by Joseph of Arimathea in the first century, was 100 feet long and 24 feet wide. All these buildings were interconnected.

Glastonbury
At one time, Glastonbury was one of the largest monasteries in the British Isles and was the destination for many pilgrimages. Amidst the ruins, close to the high altar is a sign: "Site of King Arthurs tomb. In the year 1191 the bodies of King Arthur and his Queen were found on the South side of the Lady Chapel. On 19 April 1278, their remains were removed in the presence of King Edward I and Queen Eleanor to a black marble tomb on the site." There is so much to report from the historic significance of Glastonbury, that I will leave that for a future article.

Wells Cathedral and the Dark Ages
We also visited Wells Cathedral, dedicated to St. Andrew the Apostle. This Church of England place of worship in Wells, Somerset, was built from 1175. It is considered the first truly Gothic structure in Europe, having broken from the last constrains to Romanesque. I could not help wonder again, as to just how accurate it is to call the Middle Ages - "The Dark Ages" - when they built such magnificent cathedrals. The clustered piers, pointed arches and magnificent giant stained glass windows, which date back to the 13th century, present an eloquent argument against Voltaire's attempt to denigrate the Christianisation of Europe as "The Dark Ages." Voltaire, who laid the philosophical foundations for the French Revolution, preferred the paganism of ancient Rome to the Christianity of Middle Ages Europe. Unfortunately, many Christians have ignorantly adopted the term, "The Dark Ages", to refer to this tremendous era of cathedral building and magnificent art, when Europe was evangelised and discipled.

Worship in Wales
Sunday was a full day with three church services and a Fellowship Lunch at a Reformed Baptist Church. This also included a dynamic service in Welsh. This congregation also maintain Sunday school on Sunday afternoons. Today many people think Sunday school was designed as a baby-sitting service for the children of church people, so that parents could enjoy the Sunday morning service without the distraction of their restless children.

Sunday School Evangelism
Actually, Robert Rakes, founded Sunday schools in the 18th century to provide education and Evangelism for children who were newly urbanised and unchurched. As most of the children were involved in the workplace six days a week, Sunday afternoons presented the only opportunity to teach many of these children how to read and write. Sunday schools provided literacy training using the Bible. Like many other congregations I have come across in the British Isles, this Welsh church integrated many of their members in conducting the Sunday afternoon Sunday schools as an Evangelistic programme to children in the community who came from families who would not normally attend church.

Heat Wave in Britain
Between services and Sunday school, there was a short opportunity to go for a walk in a nearby park. My time in Britain coincided with what the British people called "a heatwave!"Temperatures were reported to even reach such heights as 32°C in some parts of the country! While it never felt that hot to me, it was treated like a national emergency in Britain. There was no end of announcements and warnings of the dangers of sunburn, dehydration and heatstroke. Police and social workers were mobilised to parks, swimming pools and other public areas to remind people to wear hats, liberally apply sun cream and stay in the shade as much as possible. Parents were approached to ensure that they were keeping their infants in the shade and making sure that their children had adequate sun cream applied, were wearing hats and drinking lots of water.

Snow in Africa
Now, all this may seem quite amusing to those of us brought up in Africa, however, I also had to remember that the people in Europe would probably find it hilarious how much excitement attends a light snow fall on some of our mountains and a fall of hail during an extremely cold spell in one of our winters in Cape Town. Earlier in July, as hail fell on the ground in Cape Town and snow covered the top of Table Mountain, my wife, Lenora, who was brought up in Austria, just smiled and recalled how they would sometimes have to dig out their vehicle from under the snow.

Imperial War Museum
After Somerset and Wales, I had the opportunity of exploring historic sites in London. The Imperial War Museum had just opened their doors to an entirely new exhibit, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the First World War. I spent six hours examining their exhibits.

St. Pauls Cathedral
I also had the privilege of participating in an inspiring classic prayer book Evensong service at St. Pauls Cathedral. St. Pauls Cathedral in London is a Church of England cathedral. It sits at the top of Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the City of London. Its dedication to the Apostle Paul dates back to the original church on the site from the first century. The present church, dating from the late 17th century, was designed in the English Baroque style by Sir Christopher Wren, after the great fire of London in 1666. St. Paul is a busy church with three or four services every day.

General Gordon
In the cathedral I found the memorial to Major General Charles Gordon, who was once the Commandant General at the Castle in Cape Town. General Gordon is most famous for his campaign to end the slave trade in Sudan. It was his year of archaeological research and Bible study in Palestine that identified the garden tomb and the site of Golgotha. The memorial to Major Gordon, which shows him with his hand on a Bible, declares: "Who at all times and everywhere gave his strength to the weak, his substance to the poor, his sympathy to the suffering, his heart to God. He was born at Woolwich, 28 January 1833 and slain in Khartoum, 26 January 1885. He saved an empire by his war-like genius. He ruled vast provinces with justice, wisdom and power. Lastly, he was obedient to his sovereign's command, and died in the heroic attempt to save men, women and children from imminent and deadly peril. 'Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.' (St. John XV.13)"
 
During this ten day Mission, I attended 27 meetings, distributed 30kg of literature, and gathered invaluable research for the Reformation Society.

Pray for Britain

May we continue to pray for Britain to be won back to Christ.

"Will You not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You?" Psalm 85:6

Dr. Peter Hammond

Frontline Fellowship
P.O. Box 74 Newlands 7725
Cape Town South Africa
Tel: 021-689-4480
Email:  mission@frontline.org.za

​BRUSSELS - THE CAPITAL OF EUROPE
During my recent Mission to Europe I was struck by the high number of Muslims in the cities of Belgium and the Netherlands. The capital of Belgium, Brussels, is also the headquarters of NATO and the home of the European Parliament. Brussels describes itself as the capital of Europe. It is now one of the most Islamic cities in Europe.
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Demographic Shift
Sociologist Felice Dassetto, author of The Iris and the Crescent book, projects that Muslims will comprise the majority of the population of Brussels by 2030. Muslims are now officially 6% of the total population of Belgium, but over 25% of the population of Brussels. His year long research has shown that Islam now mobilises more people in Brussels than the Roman Catholic Church, political parties, or even the trade unions.

​Abortion and Immigration
With the low birth rate of Belgians, and extremely high abortion rates, the indigenous Belgian population is in steep decline. However, the Muslim community continues to grow through both high birth rates and marriage migration. Nearly 35% of the Moroccans and Turks in Belgium are below 18 years of age, as compared to 18% of Belgians. In Antwerp, Belgium's second largest city, 40% of elementary school children are Muslim.
De-Christianising the Calendar
The French speaking Southern region of Belgium, Wallonia, has officially renamed the four major Christian holidays on the Belgian school calendar, replacing them with secular names. All Saints Day is now to be referred to as Autumn Leave. Christmas is now described as Winter Vacation. Lent is now Rest and Relaxation Leave, and Easter: Spring Vacation. Along with the official move to de-Christianise the holidays of Belgium, has come a new decree, allowing Muslims to add Islamic religious holidays to the official school calendar.
Replacing Christianity with Islam
Reformist Movement Member of Parliament, Francoise Bertieaux, accused the Wallonian Minister of Education of pandering to Muslims at the expense of Christians. The government claims that they want to push religion out of the door, but the new decree actually opens the way for reintroducing religion, in the form of Islam through the window. Under the guise of letting Christian religious traditions go, the government's policy has now made way for new vacation days for the religion of Islam.
War Against Christmas
For the first time, last year, Christmas 2012, Brussels did not have its traditional Christmas tree in the Gothic Central Square. Instead it was replaced with a politically correct structure of abstract art. The Mayor's office, where more than half of the city's eleven councillors are either Muslim or socialist, or both, vetoed the €5,000 project of placing a 20-metre fir tree from the forests of the Ardennes with a 25-metre New Age structure of lighted boxes. The avant-garde abstract art structure that replaced the traditional Christmas tree, cost €44,000! The traditional Christmas Market in downtown Brussels was renamed Winter Pleasures. Residents of Brussels were outraged and asked: "What will be next? Will all Easter eggs also be banned in Brussels?" 
The Failure of Multiculturalism
Even the Flemish Minister for Integration, Geert Bourgeois, admitted that years of expensive government efforts to make Belgium more multicultural have failed. He commented that "perhaps the Muslim youth do not belong because they do not want to belong."
Shari'a Law in Belgium
Two Muslim politicians who won municipal elections in Belgium's capital, Brussels, on 14 October 2012, vowed to implement Islamic Shari'a law in Belgium. Redouane Ahrouch declared: "We are elected Islamicists, but above all we are Muslims… we embrace the Quran and the traditions of the prophet Muhammad. We believe Islam is a universal religion." He said that he will strive to make sure that the town councils' motions and solutions all emanate from Islam. He said that his ultimate goal was creating an Islamic state in Belgium based on Islamic Shari'a law.
Islamic Belgium
When a reporter from the State television, (RTBF) interjected: "An Islamic state in Belgium?" Ahrouch responded: "In Belgium, of course! I am for the Shari'a. Islamic law, I am for it. It is a life-long struggle that will take decades, or a century, but the movement has been launched!"
Inconsistency and Hypocrisy
Ahrouch who was sentenced to six months in prison, in 2003, for assaulting and beating his disabled wife, talks much in public about ethics and respect for others. He refuses to shake hands, or make eye contact, with women in public.
The Islamisation of Belgium
The Islam Party, which he represents, has campaigned on three core issues: Halaal meals in public school cafeterias, securing the official recognition of Muslim religious holidays, and legalising the wearing of Islamic headscarves in public places. The political movement NOOR: "Le Parti Islamique" which he launched in 1999, has a 40 point programme which includes: 7) Abolishing interest payments, 10) Redesigning the Belgium judiciary to comply with Islamic law, 11) Restoring capital punishment, 15) Promoting teenage marriage, 16) Segregating males and females in public, 39) Creating an official Islamic alms (zakat) fund.
The Most Dangerous City in Europe
The growth of the Muslim population in Belgium has been accompanied by a sharp increase in violent crime, which according to ZDF TV, has made Brussels the most dangerous city in Europe. Much of this crime is attributed to the Muslim youth. Muslim dominated areas such as Anderlecht and Molenbeek districts, have become "no go" areas where the police "have lost control." 
Chasing Out Employers and Investors
Growing insecurity in Molenbeek, where 25% of the population is Muslim, has led multinational companies to leave the area. In an open letter to the then mayor, Philippe Moureaux, the American advertising agency BBDO reported that each of its employees had been a victim of violent crime. BBDO listed smashing of car windows, bag snatching and assaults, (over 150 assaults on its staff by local youth.)
Socialist Multicultural Political Correctness Leads to Inaction
BBDO criticised the mayor of inaction due to his socialist multicultural notions of political correctness.
Anti-Semitic Muslim Youth
A 426-page study, Jong in Brussels (Young in Brussels) produced by the Youth Research Platform, documented that more than half of Muslim students in Brussels openly expressed strong anti-Semitic sentiments. The conclusion of the study was that the anti-Semitism of Muslim youth is theologically inspired, by the Quran.
Criminalising Dissent
However, if multiculturalists in Belgium have their way, asking Muslims to integrate into Belgian society, or expressing views such as that which the BBDO executive wrote to the mayor, would become a criminal offence. 6 Belgian senators have introduced a draft resolution in the Belgian parliament that would make Islamophobia a crime punishable by fines and imprisonment. If passed into law, the audacious draft legislation would deal a devastating blow to the exercise of free speech.
Defining Islamophobia
According to the drafters of this resolution, three of whom are Muslim, a person would be guilty of "Islamophobia", if he, or she:

• Considers Islam to be a monolithic group, incapable of adapting to new situations.
• Considers Islam to be separate and different from other cultures.
• Considers Islam to be inferior to the West, to be barbaric, irrational, primitive, or sexist.
• Considers Islam to be violent, threatening, or supportive of terrorism, or actively engaged in a clash of civilisations.
• Considers Islam to be a political ideology.
• Rejects criticisms made by Islam of the West.

Outlawing Free Speech
Such a broad and outrageous definition of Islamophobia would effectively outlaw any critical discussion of Islam in Belgium. It would deal a deathblow to free speech and freedom of conscience, freedom of the press, freedom of association and freedom of religion.
THE RESULT OF PERMISSIVENESS IN THE NETHERLANDS
Already in December 2004, the Dutch Ministry of the Interior published a 60-page report entitled: From Darwa to Jihad. Prepared by AIVD, the Dutch Intelligence Agency, the report claimed that over 50,000 radical Muslims were based in the Netherlands. Their key ideological aim was to target the Western way of life and to confront Western political, economic and cultural domination. The report From Darwa to Jihad concludes that Dutch society was poorly equipped to resist the threat of radical Islam because of its culture of permissiveness.
Assassinations Lead to Resistance
The high profile assassinations of Dutch politician, Pin Fortuyn in 2002, and of Dutch filmmaker, Theo van Gogh, stabbed to death in 2004, for producing a documentary film critical of Islam, along with Islamic death threats against Geert Wilders of the Freedom Party, (PVV) along with escalating violent crime, led many Dutch voters to oppose the government's multicultural policies.
An Open Door to Islam
When Minister of the Interior, Piet Hein Donner, was Minister of Justice, he provoked a nationwide outcry when he stated, in September 2006, that he welcomed the introduction of Shari'a law in the Netherlands, if the majority wanted it.
Abandoning Multiculturalism
Now Minister of the Interior, Piet Hein Donner, has announced that the Dutch government will abandon its longstanding model of multiculturalism which has encouraged Muslim immigrants to create a parallel society within the Netherlands.
Attempts to Stem the Tide
The new Integration Bill will place more demands on immigrants to learn the Dutch language and to obey Dutch law. The new legislation aims to outlaw forced marriages and will impose tougher measures against Muslim immigrants who lower their chances of employment by the way they dress. The government has also announced its intention to impose a ban on face covering Islamic burkas.
Popular Opposition to Islamisation
According to a Maurice de Hond poll, in 2011, 74% of Dutch voters say immigrants should conform to Dutch values and 83% wanted a ban on burkas on public.
Importing Muslim Guest Workers
Muslim immigration to the Netherlands began in the 1960s when a labour shortage prompted the Dutch government to conclude recruiting agreements with Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Turkey.
Welcoming Refugees
In the 1980s and 1990s, Muslims also arrived as asylum seekers and refugees from Afghanistan, Bosnia, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan and Somalia.
Islamic Invasion
There are now at least 1.2 million Muslims in the Netherlands, about 6% of the country's overall population. Most of these come from Morocco and Turkey. Most Muslims live in the four major cities of the country: Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, and Utrecht. As their numbers grew, the Muslim immigrants became increasingly more assertive and aggressive, systematically undermining Dutch law and introducing Shari'a.
Arrogant and Aggressive
The high profile assassinations of Dutch public figures who have spoken out against radical Islam, and the snubbing of Queen Beatrix during her visit to the Mubarak mosque, where the Muslim leader refused to shake hands with her, has led many previously easy going Dutch citizens to recognise that the multiculturalism proposed by their government is unworkable. Now they are insisting that immigrants must be made to conform to Dutch values and obey Dutch law.
THE ISLAMISATION OF FRANCE
When most people think of the French city of Marseille, they will probably think of the national anthem of France. Unfortunately the old port city is now being overshadowed by a grand mosque heralding a new revolution. Since 1989, Saudi Arabia has been pouring money into this project to build a super-mosque in a city which already has 60 mosques.
Laying Claim to France
Muslim invaders had taken the city in the 9th century and enslaved its inhabitants. However, although they were soon ousted, Muslim theologians insist that whatever Muslim's once took, belongs to them in perpetuity. Many Muslims are speaking of this new mega mosque as a way of making it clear to all the infidels that the religion of Islam owns Marseille and by extension, all of France.
Terror in Marseille
In 1994, Marseille was where the Christmas hijacking of Air France flight 8969 came to a bloody end. The Armed Islamic Group terrorists had hijacked the plane on Christmas Eve shouting "Allah Akbar" and announcing to their victims that Allah had chosen them to wage war in his name. They forced the stewardesses to veil themselves with cabin blankets and they recited verses from the Qur'an, while they murdered a number of passengers. The AIG made it clear that their goal was to fly Air France 8969 directly into the Eiffel Tower.
Decisive Action
Marseille was only meant to be a refuelling stop before their final fatal flight to Paris. However, French Special Forces stormed the plane and prevented the planned massacre of the passengers and destruction of the Eiffel Tower. Recently French security broke up another Islamic terrorist ring, which were targeting the Eiffel Tower and the Notre Dame Cathedral. 
Architectural Aggression
Many are seeing the grand mosque of Marseille as an indirect form of architectural aggression. If they cannot blow up Marseilles Notre Dame de la Garde church, the guardian and protectoress of the city, they will overshadow it instead. The mega mosque in Marseille is reported to be a €22 million project, with a minaret 82 feet high and room for over 7,000 worshipers in a vast prayer hall. The first cornerstone of the 8,300m² (90,000ft²) project was laid in May 2010 at an elaborate stone laying ceremony attended by diplomats from a dozen Muslim countries. The grand mosque will also include a Quranic school, library and restaurant.
Opposition
It has faced stiff opposition from local businesses and residents who have taken the matter to court. The French Appeals Court finally granted permission for the construction of the mega mosque in June 2012.
Changing the Skyline
In Northern Paris a 2,000m² (21,500ft²) three storey mega mosque has altered the skyline of the Paris suburb, projecting: "A new symbol of Islam in France." 
Against the Cross
As approximately one third of Marseilles residents are Muslim that city may be on its way to becoming the first Muslim majority city in the European Union. At the moment, Marseilles' coat of arms still bears the cross, but Muslims in Marseille have made it clear that once they have control of the municipality, the cross will go.
Lawlessness
Police have reported numerous Muslims who refuse to respond to their request for identification by declaring: "I don’t obey the laws of the French Republic." Muslims in Marseille who attacked police near the mosque were released by the prosecutor as "a gesture of appeasement during Ramadan." However, the police who defended themselves are now facing an administrative enquiry for doing so!
Provocation of Arrogance
The previous president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, in an election speech in Marseille, warned: "These foreigners who arrive each year to impose their way of life… on the French… is a form of provocation, and arrogance." With over 6.5 million Muslims, France has the largest Muslim population in the European Union. Muslims make up the majority of the 100,000 people naturalised as French citizens each year.
Muslims Determined the Presidential Elections
The last French presidential elections in May 2012, was decided by the Muslim voters. Le Figaro published the results of the polling firm Opinion Way that 93% of Muslims in France voted for the socialist Francois Hollande. As an estimated 2 million Muslims participated in the 2012 presidential elections, and as Hollande won by only 1.1 million votes, this indicated that Muslims cast the deciding votes which thrust Hollande into the Elysee palace.
Amnesty for Illegals
During his campaign, the socialist Hollande offered an amnesty to all the illegal Muslim immigrants in France. He also pledged to change French electoral laws so that Muslim residents without French citizenship would be allowed to vote in municipal elections, as of 2014.
Changing the Balance of Power
Such measures, if implemented, would enable the socialist party to tighten its grip on political power. As the Muslim population is highly politically active, and as the native French population generally avoids voting, moderate and conservative parties will find it increasingly difficult to win future presidential elections in France.

​An Islamic Revolution
La Marseillaise, the national anthem of France, got its name from the revolutionaries in Marseilles who sang this song. Today Marseille seems to be at the centre of a new revolution, an Islamic revolution, that aims to Islamise France and Europe.
The Crime Connection
Opponents of the construction of these mosques complain that the architecture is out of harmony with the neighbourhood's economic and social fabric and that areas dominated by Muslims frequently become crime infested districts and even "no go" areas where police fear to enter. The most crime-infested areas of France are in areas where Muslims form a heavy percentage of the population. 700 Muslim neighbours in France are described as "violent", 400 as "very violent."
Foreign Interference
The Persian Gulf Emirate of Qatar has announced plans to invest €50 million into the French suburbs to build mosques and madrassas. Qatar's leader, Emir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa al-Thani has vowed to spare no effort to spread the fundamentalist teaching of Wahhabi Islam across the whole world. These investments in the blighted French suburban slums known as Banlieuesare being seen as to stir up and indoctrinate the mostly unemployed and marginalised Muslim youth in France.
SHARI'A IN SCANDINAVIA
Muslim immigrants in a town near Copenhagen forced the cancellation of traditional Christmas displays even while voting public money to lavishly celebrate the Islamic Eid at the end of Ramadan. Kokkedal is 30 km north of Copenhagen. Turkish and Arab immigrants now comprise more than half of the population in Koddedal. The Muslim majority on the Board of Directors of a Tenants Association refused to spend 7,000 Danish kroner for the annual community Christmas event, but at the same time voted 60,000 kroner on a large communal celebration of the Muslim Eid festival. 5 of the 9 board members are Muslims.
Eradicating Christian Culture
Tom Behnke of the Danish Conservative Party, pointed out: "We have to remember that in the past, the Eid festival was the Muslim victory celebration after they had slaughtered Christians. So I do not know how much there is to celebrate in Denmark! Still people should be allowed to celebrate whatever festivals they want to, but they also must respect the festivals in the country they have come to." Behnke said that: "It is deeply alarming that our integration efforts are so ineffective, that the moment there is a Muslim majority they do away with good old Danish traditions and introduce Muslim traditions instead. We are living in Denmark… Yet there is a lack of respect for Danish traditions and culture." 
Violence Against the Media
The Christmas tree controversy turned violent when a van from TV2 News was attacked by 25 masked hoodlums in the Egedalsvaenget housing complex. For attempting to report on the story, the journalists and their van were bombarded with bricks and cobblestones. The van was destroyed and the journalists fled the area. TV2 reported that the attackers were Muslim youth seeking to silence media coverage of the Christmas tree controversy.
Blaming the Victims
Incredibly the local police blamed the journalists for going into what they should have realised was a "no go area!" Danish TV2 reports that there are a growing number of "no go" zones in suburbs in Copenhagen and other areas that have Muslim majorities. These are areas where Danish police are excluded.
Muslim Mob Invades Court
In March 2012, more than 140 gang members raided a Court House where two fellow Muslims were being tried for attempted murder. The mob, wearing masks and throwing rocks and bottles, attempted to force their way into the district Court House in Glostrup, a heavily Islamised suburb of Copenhagen, 6 March. The police used batons and pepper spray to fend off the gang members who were armed with 20 different types of weapons, including crowbars, darts, hammers, knives, screwdrivers and clubs. The trial in Glostrup involved two Pakistani immigrants who had shot and attempted to murder two fellow Muslims who belonged to a rival gang.
Crime Wave
Immigrant Muslim gangs in Europe are involved in countless criminal activities, including automobile theft, drug trafficking, illegal weapon smuggling, extortion, robbery, prostitution, racketeering, human trafficking and murder. Many of the gang members are Arabs, Bosnians, Turks and Somalians. They also include Moroccans, Palestinians, Pakistanis and Iraqis. Danish authorities estimate that every year more than 700 immigrants between the ages of 18 and 25 are choosing crime as their permanent career by joining gangs such as Black Scorpions, Black Cobra, the Bloodz, the Bandidos, and the International Club. There are more than 100 identified gangs operating in Denmark.
Hospital Invaded
In August 2012, more than 80 Muslim gang members raided a hospital in Odense, the third largest city in Denmark, in a failed attempt to kidnap a 26-year old rival gang member who had been shot and stabbed in a shopping centre in Vollsmose district. An ambulance and four police cars were destroyed in the hospital raid and police had to use force to prevent the angry mob from getting their hands on the shooting victim.
Protection Racket Extortion
Numerous districts where there are large numbers of Muslims have reported gangs extorting shops and bars threatening local business owners with violence if they refuse to pay them protection money for operating in what they term, "Muslim territory!" 67-Year old Jane Pedersen, the owner of Café Viking, has endured repeated attacks by Muslim gangs because of her refusal to pay their so-called protection money. Pedersen has set up a Facebook page called: "No to Bullies!" Pedersen declared: "I refused. I could be their grandmother, and it simply cannot be justified!" 
Media Censorship
The politically correct BBC managed to report on Pedersen and Copenhagen's gang problem without once using the word Muslim.
Scandalous Statistics
Muslim immigrants and the violence they have brought has changed the landscape of the once peaceful and law-abiding Denmark into a national scandal. Although Muslims make up only 5% in the population, they consume over 40% of the social welfare spending and make up more than 75% of the country's convicted rapists.
Creating a Vacuum for Islam to Fill
A commentator in Sweden observes a reoccurring cycle throughout Europe: "The indigenous population are too busy working, contributing to the welfare state and life-styling to have kids or apply any degree of critical thinking to the government's short-sighted policies. This creates an economic vacuum which is filled by immigrants from the Middle East. They enter the country and are not so bothered abut contributing to the welfare state as they are benefiting from it. The government allows them to work less than the indigenous population while they reproduce at a staggeringly higher rate. Their numbers are fuelled by the welfare state whose generosity and tolerance knows no bounds. This obliges the indigenous population to work even harder and pay even more taxes to support the growing number of immigrants." 
Hijacking Sweden
CBN News recently reported about Sweden's third largest city, Malmö, which has been so accommodating towards immigrant Muslims that a local Muslim politician declared: "The best Islamic state is Sweden!" 
National Suicide
"The irony borders on the absurd. Anyone in Sweden who endorses traditional Christian values and the preservation of Swedish culture are stigmatised by the media as fascist and bigoted. Basically they are side lined to allow an influx of people endorsing traditional Muslim values and the promotion of Arabic culture. A culture, incidentally, which is pretty much at odds with most of the core values that Swedes claim sets them apart from any nation on earth." 
Multi-Cultural Madness
For many Muslim immigrants, Sweden offers a better life for them and their children - with no strings attached. Swedes have naively created a huge social vacuum and the Muslims are filling it. Kent Ekeroth, the international secretary for the Sweden Democrats (SD), has spoken of the destruction being wrecked throughout Sweden by "political correctness and multiculturalism." 
Censoring Reality
He describes Sweden as a "politically correct dictatorship. The Swedish media is censoring the fact that the perpetrators of violent crimes are foreigners." Swedish newspapers even go to the extent of pixilating out the face of criminals to avoid identification of the race of the perpetrator.
Double Standards
Courts have even started to take into account the culture of the person being prosecuted for domestic violence and abuse, stating that in their home country, this kind of behaviour is more acceptable!
Violent Intimidation
Swedes who have started to express concern about the Islamisation of their country have been attacked with teargas, baseball bats, knives and stones. Homes of representatives of political parties concerned about the situation have been attacked. This has included: axes on doors, smashed windows, threats painted on doors, cars burned, bullying in the streets, attacks by gangs, glass bottles thrown… Yet, when a political party was attacked by a gang of extremists, the police commanding officer said that he could not investigate "due to political pressure!" 
Cowardice and Compromise
Ekeroth explained: "Crime rates have sky rocketed, especially violent crimes, but in addition, Swedish society has adapted to Muslims demands. Pork meat has been withdrawn from some schools in Sweden. The Muslim holiday, Ramadan, has been introduced in some schools. Separate swimming times for men and women have been effected in Malmö." The leader of the largest Muslim organisation in Sweden has called for the introduction of Shari'a law.
Appeasement
Anti-Semitism has risen to such an extent that the Social Democrat Mayor of Malmö issued a boycott against a tennis game between Sweden and Israel to cater to his Muslim constituency.
Aggression
When riots erupted in and around Stockholm and Malmö, police were attacked with stones. Fire fighters were prevented from putting out the blazes caused by arsonists, as Muslim gangs pelted them with rocks. Reportedly Muslim immigrants are 500% more likely to be involved in violent assault, or rape, than the rest of the population (Front Page Magazine).
THE BATTLE FOR THE SOUL OF GERMANY
Despite being devastated by the saturation bombings of WWII, which killed 2 million civilians and destroyed 63 cities, and the 45-year partition of East and West Germany by the Iron Curtain during the Cold War, Germany remains Europe's strongest economy. Even after the ruinously expensive reincorporation of crippled East Germany, with the extremely high social security costs of rebuilding the entire infrastructure of the East, Germany is still one of the world's largest industrial producers, with a massive trade surplus, built on a solid export base.
Economic Powerhouse
The Protestant work ethic has made this land of the Reformation phenomenally productive, innovative and resilient. Despite the tumultuous events of WWII and the traumatic occupation of East Germany by the Soviets during the Cold War, Germany is one of the strongest and most stable democracies and economies in Europe.
Spiritual Crisis
However, the nation’s spiritual health is failing. Secular humanism and the marginalisation of Christianity in the public sphere have led to a drastic decline in church attendance. In 1960, 97% of West Germany would have described themselves as Christian. Today, only 63% would identify themselves as Christians. Church attendance is something around 6% nation wide. The state funded Catholic and Lutheran churches are steadily losing members and closing churches.
Spiritual Renewal
Before the First World War, Germany was the second largest Protestant nation in the world, the third largest Evangelical nation on earth and the third largest Missionary sending country on earth. However, the decline of Christianity in Germany has drawn Evangelicals together. Many dynamic prayer movements are forming and multiplying. City and region wide prayer initiatives are revitalising Evangelism in Germany.
Church Growth
Over a thousand Evangelical churches have been planted in the last 15 years.
Missionary Vision
Germany still has over 3,000 missionaries from over 165 Mission agencies serving worldwide. Many German missionaries are in Brazil, Kenya, Russia and Tanzania. Over the last 30 years there has been a steady growth in Protestant Missionaries being sent out from Germany (Operation World).
Youth Ministry
There is an urgent need for more focused ministry to the youth. A large majority of church attenders are over the age of 50. Most of the youth are secular. There are also over 250,000 international students in Germany, a tremendous and strategic Mission field.
Secularisation
Many of the cities of Germany have become extremely secular, particularly Berlin where 65% of the inhabitants have no link to a church and only 3% regularly attend services.
Islamisation in Germany
Due to massive immigration, only 88% of the population of Germany are ethnically German. Muslim Turks make up 3% of the population. There are officially 3.6 million Muslims from over 40 nations residing in Germany at this time. There are one million Muslim Kurds, 300,000 Bosnian Muslims, 100,000 Iranians, and 3,000 Arabs living in Germany, many of them on social welfare. Muslims in Duisburg, one of the most Islamised cities in Germany, are clamouring for the right to occupy empty churches and turn them into mosques! Germany is now home to more than 200 mosques (including more than 40 mega mosques), and 2,600 prayer halls and madrassas. According to Zentral Institut Islam - Archiv, another 128 mosques are under construction.
Winning Muslims to Christ
Through dynamic Evangelistic efforts, an estimated 4,000 to 5,000 Muslims come to faith in Christ each year, in Germany. However, almost a thousand ethnic Germans officially convert to Islam each year.
Migrating Mission Fields
While some of the foreigners migrating to Germany have a vibrant Christian faith, most have never even heard the Gospel. Since the year 2000, over 700 Roman Catholic churches and more than 100 Protestant churches have been closed in Germany.
Islamisation of Academic Institutions
In January 2012, one of the oldest universities in Germany, Tübingen, opened a taxpayer-funded Department for Islamic Theology. Although the government claimed that this will be an antidote to the hate preachers in the mosques (most of the Imams in Germany are from Turkey), many academics are concerned that the Islamic department in Tübingen will only become a gateway for radical Islamicists who will introduce their hard line Islam into the main stream of the German university system.
Pacifying
The Interior Minister of Rhineland - Palatinate, Jochen Hartloff, said that he favoured the introduction of Islamic Shari'a law in Germany, claiming that it "could have a pacifying effect!"
When Self Defence is an Offense
When a young German defended himself against a mob of 20 knife-wielding Muslims in the Islamised neighbourhood of Neukölln, of Berlin, one of the attackers, an 18-year-old Muslim, died in the struggle. More than 300,000 Muslims attended Yusuf Al-Abed's funeral. Although the police determined that the German citizen, Sven, had acted in self-defence, Muslim mobs have threatened to burn the neighbourhood down.
Saturation Bombing of Qurans
Islamic Salafist radicals have launched an unprecedented campaign to distribute 25 million copies of the Qur'an, translated into the German language, free of charge, into every household in Germany. This they have called: Project Read! The Salafists claim that their goal is the establishment of a Sunni Islamic Caliphate (dictatorship) across the Middle East, North Africa and Europe, eventually the entire world - governed exclusively by Shari'a law.
Violence Against Police
In May, more than 500 Salafists used bottles, clubs, rocks and other weapons to attack German police in Bonn. 29 Police officers were injured, two with serious stab wounds. Although more than 100 Salafists were arrested, most were later released.
Contempt for the Law
One of the attackers, Murat K, a 26-year-old Turk, admitted that he had attacked and wounded two police officers with a knife, but he showed no remorse and said that he had been morally obligated to follow Islamic Shari'a law, because the authorities had allowed the publication of cartoons that were offensive. Murat responded to his verdict, of being sentenced to 6 years in prison, by declaring that the German courts were illegitimate. "I do not accept this court as legitimate. I will answer only to Allah."
Islamic Terrorism in Germany
On 10 December 2012, German authorities reported on an attempted bombing of the main train station in Bonn. A man with links to Al Quieda had activated the detonator of a bomb on a platform in the main train station, but it had failed to explode. In August 2012, the German intelligence chief of the BND, Gerard Schindler, reported, that they were particularly concerned about the threat posed by home-grown terrorists who had travelled through to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia or Yemen, to obtain terrorist training. At a high security trial, four Muslim terrorists in Düsseldorf, were charged with planning a sensational terrorist attack in Germany. This included plotting to assassinate the former Commander of German Special Forces and to attack the US Army base in the Bavarian town of Grafenwöhr.
Radicalised Youth
The 103-page study German - Turkish Life and Values, has found that each generation of Turks living in Germany hold progressively more radical views than their elders.
Islamic Extremism
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on 21 November 2012, published a 28-page study: Fear of the East in the West, which showed that 64% of the German population believes that Islam is prone to violence, 60% that they have a tendency towards revenge, and 80% believe that Islam deprives women of their rights. 70% said that Islam is associated with religious fanaticism and radicalism. The study concluded that despite decades of multiculturalism, toleration, integration and generous welfare subsidies, the image of Islam is "devastating".
Counter Productive
Turkish Imams are preaching hatred against the West in mosques throughout Germany. Yet the Domestic Intelligence Agency (BfV) have reported that they are monitoring German language Internet sites and social media, to see whether German citizens who criticise Islam on the Internet are fermenting hate and are thus guilty of a crime!
Criminalising Criticism
The implication for freedom of speech and freedom of thought are serious as the authorities have confirmed that they are monitoring Internet sites that are critical of Muslim immigration and the Islamisation of Europe. Instead of dealing with the problem they seem to prefer to blame and criminalise the messengers who draw attention to the problem.
Dynamic Evangelistic Initiatives
Evangelicals in Germany are making use of a wide variety of mediums to Evangelise the nation. There are more than 150 Evangelical Magazines. ERF, the German partners of Trans World Radio, is making a tremendous impact with broadcasts in 20 languages in Germany. Bibel TV and ERF are broadcasting 24 hours a day. Internet Evangelism is growing. There are 70 Campus Ministries and 800 Christian Fellowships in secondary schools. There are 200 Good News Clubs ministering to children and a growing number of Christians are calling for a return to another Reformation, to go back to the Bible, as Dr. Martin Luther did nearly 500 years ago.
Practical Steps to Stop the Islamisation of Europe
SION (Stop Islamisation of Nations) has called for:

• Immediate halt of immigration by Muslims into nations that do not have a Muslim majority population.
• Surveillance of mosques and regular inspection of mosques to look for pro-violence materials.
• Any mosque advocating Jihad should be closed.
• Deportation hearings against all non-citizens who promote Jihad.
• Immediate investigation into foreign mosque funding in non-Muslim nations.
• A halt to foreign aid to Islamic nations with Shari'a-based constitutions and/or governments.
• For Jihad to be recognised as a crime against humanity.

WHAT CAN BE DONE TO STOP AND REVERSE THE ISLAMISATION OF EUROPE
In the Book of Nehemiah we read of the successful strategy that rebuilt the walls and the gates of Jerusalem.
INFORMATION
Nehemiah gathered his information from eyewitnesses. He investigated the situation personally, confirmed the facts, separated truth from rumour and then presented the facts to the people and the authorities. We, too, need to gather and distribute information. We must be informed. "My people perish for lack of knowledge." Hosea 4:6
A Battle for the Mind
This is first and foremost a battle for the mind. Obtain Slavery, Terrorism and Islam – the Historical Roots and Contemporary Threat (290 pages, 200 pictures), the Muslim Evangelism Workshop audio MP3 (20 lectures), and the Islam Rising DVD. These are the absolute basic minimum introduction to the threat confronting us. There are many other books, DVDs and audio MP3s that we can recommend once you have gone through these. Visit the www.frontline.org.za website and find the Reformation 500 Facebook page. We need to distribute and make better know these publications, audio-visual resources, use social media and spread the word.
INTERCESSION
Prayer was an integral and essential foundation of Nehemiah's strategy. We need to establish prayer groups, prayer chains and prayer networks to seek God for spiritual Revival, Biblical Reformation and the restoration of spiritual life and Scriptural principles in all areas of our society (2 Chronicles 7:14). "Then Jesus told His disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up." Luke 18:1. We are either praying, or we have given up. If we have given up, it is probably because we neglected to pray. We need to be informed, and we need to be interceding. Prayer is our foundation for action.
INVOLVEMENT
Nehemiah researched amongst the rubble and developed a plan to motivate and mobilise the community to rebuild their portion of the wall. Nehemiah enlisted qualified help, encouraged his workers, motivated them and organised them in delegated tasks. We need to be involved in Christian Action groups and Reformation Societies to restore Biblical values in our homes, congregations, businesses, schools, media, community organisations and government. "Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called repairer of broken walls, restorer of streets with dwellings." Isaiah 58:12
While each group of families had their own part of the wall to work on, they were united in the common defence. They "worked with all their hearts" together, to achieve the main goal, to rebuild their walls. When Nehemiah sounded the trumpet, all rallied to that part of the wall that was under attack for the common defence. "The work is extensive and spread out, and we are widely separated from each other along the wall. Whenever you hear the sound of the trumpet, join us there. Our God will fight for us!"Nehemiah 4:19
Networked
The trumpets in our Operation Nehemiah to stop and reverse the Islamisation of our countries, include the www.reform500.orgwebsite and Reformation 500 Facebook page, the Christian Action Magazine, Frontline Fellowship News, the www.ReformationSA.org website, community Christian radio stations, prayer chains, E-update networks and other social media. Contact: mail@christianaction.org.za to receive regular E-updates from Frontline Fellowship and Christian Action.
"Does not wisdom call out? Does not understanding raise her voice? On the heights along the way, where the paths meet, she takes her stand; beside the gates leading into the city, at the entrances she cries aloud." Proverbs 8:1-3
Understanding the Times
We need to recognise God's enemies:
Secular humanism is rotting our countries and our churches from within and radical Islam is threatening it from without.
God's weapons: Bible teaching, Evangelism and prayer - including the Imprecatory Psalms.
God's battle plan: The Cultural Mandate and the Great Commission. God-fearing families are the basic building block of society. We need to Reform our families and institute a thorough discipleship plan for our churches as we mobilise to fulfil the Great Commission.
Resources for Reformation
To aid you in this we have produced: Reforming Our Families (120 pages, 23 pictures); The Power of Prayer Handbook (96 pages, 21 pictures); and Practical Discipleship (212 pages).
Two Extremes
There are two extremes we need to guard against:
There are those who refuse to see the crisis.
They say that there is no problem! Then there are those who panic and say that there is no hope!
The Problem
We must recognise the problems - honestly and soberly. Man is depraved and in rebellion to God and His Word. Sin inevitably reaps tremendous trouble.
The Hope
However, we must also recognise that God is sovereign and almighty. There is power in prayer. The Gospel is the power of God unto Salvation for all who believe. How can any Christian say that there is no hope?
"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Philippians 4:13
Wake Up!
1.  We must wake up to the urgent and serious crisis. Most churches are asleep, or in apostasy. The world is rushing by on its way to hell. Yet our prayer meetings are sparsely attended and lacking in fire and fervour. Most Evangelical churches engage in little, or no, Evangelism. Missionary vision is generally weak and much that is done in the name of Missions has little to do with the Great Commission, "making disciples …teaching obedience…" We need to learn from The Greatest Century of Missions.
By abandoning its Christian heritage, aborting its babies, embracing heathenism and perversion, demanding unlimited personal freedoms, Europe is heading towards the repression of Islamic Shari'a law. By rejecting Christianity, Europe is in danger of falling under Islamic totalitarianism.
The combined effects of affluence and a rapidly falling birth rate, have made Western Europe a magnet for millions of impoverished Muslims from North Africa and the Middle East. With most Europeans embracing a practical atheism, or a fuzzy New Age spirituality, they are incapable of comprehending, let alone effectively dealing with, radical Islam. We therefore need a comprehensive response to the threat confronting us. We need to start by reviving our own personal prayer lives. Work through The Power of Prayer Handbook. Pray the Psalms.
Make Disciples
2.   We need to get serious about discipleship. Work through the Discipleship Training Manual and Practical Discipleship. Take the members of your prayer fellowship, mid-week Bible study, or congregation, through the principles of discipleship.
The Battle for the Family
3.   The family is the basic building block of society. Work through Reforming Our Families and ensure that your family is thoroughly grounded in the Word of God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
Mobilise to Evangelise
4.   We need to mobilise to Evangelise. We need personal training in effective Evangelism. Living Waters Africa provides Way of the Master, Ten Commandments based Evangelism. The Law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The Law of the Lord is the schoolmaster that leads us to Christ, that we can be justified by Faith. Go through the Way of the Master training series by DVD and Evangelism Explosion Manual. We have also designed a comprehensive Great Commission Course. The Great Commission Course 2013 4 disc MP3 boxset has 73 audio lectures on three MP3s, and a data DVD with over 80 PowerPoint presentations, the whole Great Commission Manual, supplementary lecture notes and much more. We have also produced the Answering Skeptics book (144 pages) and the Answering Skeptics MP3 audio 2-disc boxset.
Examples of Excellence
5.    We need to rediscover our history and know how to counter the disinformation of the guilt manipulators who seek to steal our heritage. Victorious Christians - Who Changed the World (380 pages, 250 pictures) and the supplementary Heroes of the Faith audio MP3 with 37 lectures presents 32 biographies of examples of excellence who will inspire and encourage you.
6.   We need to mobilise Reformation FIRE (Fellowships for International Reformation and Evangelism). To this end a Coalition on Revival Reformation 500 FIRE Manual has been compiled. This can be ordered from the Christian Action Network, P.O. Box 23632, Claremont, 7735, Cape Town, South Africa. Or info@christianactioin.org.za, Or it can be accessed freely on www.Reform500.organd downloaded as a free E-book.
Additional Practical Steps That Can Be Taken to Stop and Reverse Islamisation:

• Learn more about Islam, so that you can effectively Evangelise Muslims.
• Obtain the Muslim Evangelism Workshop audio MP3 and Manual.
• Distribute Gospel booklets, the Jesus film and More Than Dreams DVDs to Muslims in your area.
• Organise a Muslim Evangelism Workshop in your church, or college, to encourage, educate and enlist more dedicated Christians determined to win Muslims to Christ.
• Be informed and speak up for the persecuted Church. Visit www.frontline.org.za and www.idop.org for updates.
• Send your email address to admin@frontline.org.za and request to be placed on the E-update list for Frontline News.
• Do not support Halaal products (which subsidise radical Islamic causes).
• Choose to support Christian businesses rather than Muslim ones.
• Use your social media to educate and motivate friends and family for Reformation and against Islamisation.
• Do everything you can to support alternatives to petrol. One out of three barrels of oil from the Middle East goes to buy weapons. Biofuel and alternative energy sources must be explored and developed to move Europe off from dependence on Mid-East oil. Every time we buy petrol, we are actually subsidising Jihad against ourselves.

INVESTMENT
Nehemiah invested his time, money, resources and his very life in rebuilding Jerusalem. In the same way, we need to sacrifice and work for the necessary resources to support those people, publications and projects that will seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.
IMPLEMENTATION
Nehemiah did not allow any obstacle to prevent him from completing his task. Although he had limited resources, little experience, and minimal security, he did not hesitate. Despite criticism, slander, discouragement and opposition, in less than two months, Nehemiah had transformed a pile of rubble into a secure wall for defending his city. So too, we must stand firm and put our plans for Biblical Reformation into action. Get involved in the Parent-Teacher Association and School Governing Board in your local school, or be involved in a home schooling movement. Write letters to your local newspaper and to members of Parliament. Vote Biblically. Make yourself available to Bible-based groups where you can help in co-operating with others concerned for Reformation.
Let us work together to "Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness." 
May we be found Faithful to His Word and effective in His service. 
Dr. Peter Hammond
Frontline Fellowship
P.O. Box 74 Newlands 7725
Cape Town South Africa
Tel: 021-689-4480
Email:  mission@frontline.org.za

​A World War of Worldviews
From the French Revolution of 1789 to the collapse of the Iron Curtain in 1989, Europe has been a continent in conflict with the forces of secular humanism, socialism and Marxism waging a war on many fronts - against the Christian heritage and institutions of Europe.
​
Fruit of the Reformation
From the time of the Reformation, Europe led the world in scientific innovation, industrial development, economic and military power, and political influence - worldwide. All of this grew out of the dynamic spiritual growth of the continent.

Retreat from Victory
However, the dominance of Europe was devastated by the two world wars which crippled its economic development and devastated the spiritual foundations of most of its countries.

The Failure of Socialism
In the East, the communist countries completely failed to achieve the Marxist utopia they had promised, leaving behind polluted ecologies, rusting infrastructures and a devastated work ethic.

Magnet for Migrants
The affluence of the free market countries of Western Europe proved to be a powerful magnet for millions of immigrants from impoverished lands of Africa and Asia.
Demographic Disaster
With the population of Europe severely decimated by the saturation bombing of cities in the Second World War, and by the abortion industry, the demographics of Europe have changed dramatically. Now Muslims are officially more than 6% of the population of Europe and growing at a far greater rate than indigenous Europeans.
 
MISSION TO BELGIUM
As I flew into Brussels, the crisis confronting Europe was apparent. Belgium became a nation in 1830 as a constitutional monarchy. It has always been deeply divided along linguistic lines. For 2,000 years, Belgium has straddled the cultural divide between the Latin and the Germanic worlds. Rivalries and resentments colour the use of language, the economy, politics, religious life and the worldviews of both the Walloon and the Flemish people.

Muslim Migration
The growing immigrant population, which has been described as an Islamic invasion, has added an even more volatile third dynamic to the demographics of Belgium.

Battlefield
Belgium may have witnessed more battles and blood spilt on their land than any other country in Western Europe. Once an overwhelmingly Protestant population, Belgium was targeted by the Inquisition and by Spain with such ferocity that over 600 Protestant congregations were destroyed and about half of the population fled north for sanctuary in the Netherlands. To this day the Protestant community in Belgium is an extremely small minority.

Catholicism in Decline
Catholicism today is in rapid decline in Belgium. Less than 48% of Belgium would describe themselves as Catholic in surveys. Nominalism is pervasive and the Catholic Church faces a devastating decline in commitment, a waning influence in society, a severe lack of students in their seminaries and mass defections. Nation wide, less than 7% attend Mass, and in some parts of Flanders, less than 1%.

Over 30% of the population of Belgium now describe themselves as atheist, or non-religious. The rapid secularisation of Belgium has led to some of the worst liberal laws in Europe, violating the sanctity of life and marriage. Widespread recreational drug use, sexual immorality, the occult and new age activities have led to a nation lacking in moral absolutes and ripe for Islamic take over.

Islamic Invasion
The number of Muslim people, mostly from North Africa and Turkey, has continued to increase through both legal, and illegal, immigration. Most Muslims live in the urban areas of Belgium. There are many hundreds of mosques in Belgium and numerous radical groups are demanding the implementation of Shari'a Law in Belgium.

A Strategic International City
Belgium must be one of the most spiritually needy countries in Europe. Brussels is a strategic city with many international organisations, the headquarters of NATO and the European Parliament. Officially 32% of the population of Brussels is foreign, with Moroccans and Turks making up a large percentage. Much of the capital city looks dilapidated and numerous neighbourhoods more resemble ghettos. Numerous Muslim areas are considered No-Go areas for the police.

Tyndale House
On my first day in Belgium I spoke at the Arab Evangelical Church in Vilvoorde. This church meets in a 16th century building where English Reformer, William Tyndale, was arrested for his Bible translation work. William Tyndale was imprisoned in Vilvoorde and burned at the stake. My presentation: Remember the Persecuted, included reports on the increasing persecutions of Christians in Egypt, the Nuba Mountains of Sudan and Northern Nigeria.

European Parliament
The next day I had media interviews and testified outside the European Parliament in Brussels. Together with the Council of the European Union and the European Commission, the EP exercises the legislative function of the EU. It has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world. The parliament currently consists of 754 members of the European Parliament, representing the second largest demographic electorate in the world, after the Parliament of India. There were officially 375 million eligible voters in the EU in 2009. However, less than 43% of all European voters turned out for the last EP elections in 2009.

Stalinist Stature
One of the first things I noticed about the EP was the Euro statue which was reminiscent of the communist propaganda statues of Joseph Stalin's time. A very serious looking female worker holding aloft an E, to represent the Euro currency, looked eerily like the many statues I saw behind the Iron Curtain during the Soviet Union - holding aloft, a hammer and sickle. In fact, anyone from a distance, could be forgiven for assuming that it was a hammer and sickle being held up at this Euro monument.

Panoramic Propaganda
A 36 panel panoramic visual presentation dominated the EP square. Entitled: "Out of the Abyss: How Europeans built peace together - recognising 60 years of making peace in our continent." It was a remarkable demonstration of propaganda, again very reminiscent of the communist propaganda so prominent in the Soviet Union. I carefully took pictures of each of the panels intending to incorporate them into my propaganda lectures.

Censoring Out the Spiritual
The first and most obvious omission from this visual panorama of Europe's history is any reference to God, or Christianity. There is not a cathedral, church, or even a cross depicted. No prayer meetings, no Bibles, no Christian symbols, or events. The European Union can best be described as godless. Most parliaments that I have seen throughout Africa have some Scripture and/or Prayer incorporated in the architecture. The European Parliament is thoroughly secular and humanistic.

Hijacking History
The visual history panorama is a demonstration of what Karl Marx declared: "The first battlefield is the re-writing of history." Vladimir Lenin declared that it was even more important than taking away people's firearms, to take away their history. To remove them from an understanding of their past is essential to controlling them in the present and shaping the future in the way desired by the communist party.

Deceptive
One of the first panels was entitled: Hope - Liberation for many, 1944. One is given to asking, why they could not say, Liberation for all? However, the fact is that Europe was immeasurably worse off after WWII than it was before. We often speak about Eastern Europe, but actually the countries betrayed into the bloody hands of dictator Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union were Central Europe, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, East Germany, Checkslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Albania are not Eastern Europe at all. Russia is Eastern Europe. The betrayal of Central and Eastern Europe at the Yalta Agreement is nowhere referred to in this sanitised portrayal of Europe's history.

Selective
Another panel depicts: The Depth - War destruction in Warsaw, 1945. However, no panel depicts the vastly worse firebombing destruction of Dresden, Hamburg, Cologne, Berlin, or any of the other more than 60 cities of Germany devastated by 1945.

Obscuring
The Iron Curtain is depicted by a most strange and obscure picture of somebody holding an umbrella on a scaffold. Nothing in the panel conveys the immensity, or the horror, of the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain. Similarly, there is no reference to Communism, or Islam, in the panels. No reference to abortion, or portraits of pro-life protestors.

Distortion
No Communist regimes are described as dictatorships. However, Greece, Portugal and Spain are singled out as the only countries that are described as having had dictatorships in Europe over the last 60 years!

Dishonest
The Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968 are not depicted. Neither are the Leipzig prayer meetings/protests which led to the coming down of the Berlin Wall. For the end of the Cold Wall, some strange picture of a group of people around a graffitied wall is the only image given. One would have thought that Ronald Reagan's speech in front of the Brandenburg gate challenging the Soviet dictator: "Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" would have been most visually impactful and appropriate. However it is not depicted in this EU version of history.

Concealing
A snowman is depicted with the title - Hard fought freedom: Romanian Revolution, 1989. No people are visible. Nothing in the picture communicates the horrors of communist oppression under Ceausescu, or the intense battles in the streets of Romania to liberate the country from Communism. Nor the Christmas celebrations and public prayer rallies that followed.

Ignoring the Context
A panel declaring - Sealing the peace: UK - Ireland reconciliation, there is no hint of the IRA terrorist campaign, or of the massive prayer gatherings in front of the City Hall in Belfast, or Prayer Vigils on the grounds of Stormont, the Parliament in Northern Ireland.

Presumptuous
Another panel declares that the EP is: "Standing up for peace and freedom in the world." That would be nice!

Communist Chaos inthe Congo Concealed
Another panel has a picture of 3 unarmed soldiers with an EU flag like a superman cape and the caption: Working for peace in the world, EUFOR in Congo, 2006. We could ask why the EU needed to work for peace in the world, and how they were actually achieving that. However, the fact is that Belgium betrayed the people of the Congo into the hands of a Marxist mass murderer, Patrice Lumumba in 1960. The UN compounded the problem by invading the pro-Western Katanga Province and forcing it to re-join the Communist chaos of the Congo. However, of course such facts are not allowed to get in the way of the propaganda being depicted at EP.

Illusion
Another panel declares: Supporting democracy in the world: Election observation. Anyone wanting to do some research on these so-called "free and fair elections" which the EU and UN have endorsed, such as the fraud and farce in Angola and Zimbabwe would be sufficient to explode this deceptive bubble.

Meaningless Awards
Another panel declares: "A prize for all: Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony…" How is a Nobel Peace prize a prize for all? How independent and neutral is such a prize when it can be offered by the US State department for political leaders for doing their bidding? The fact that terrorists such as Yasser Arafat could receive a Nobel Peace prize would seem to make the award worse than meaningless.

Hypocrisy
Numerous EU posters declare: human rights, freedom, citizens’ rights, justice, liberty and other high-sounding ideals. However, the fact is that the EU does not protect the rights of the most helpless and innocent of all: pre-born babies, from the violence and injustice of abortion. Indeed the EU has sought to bully its members to expand access to abortion, for any reason, through every trimester.

Encroaching on Religious Freedom
Freedom of public religious expression continues to be eroded in Europe as the EU promotes an aggressive secularism. Practising Christians in Europe are being increasingly marginalised and caricatured in the media, in popular culture, and discriminated against by EU governments. Human trafficking has also been documented to be prevalent in many of the countries represented in the EU. All this, despite their own Charter: Article 1: "Human dignity is inviolable. It must be respected and protected." Article 2: "Everyone has the right to life." Article 10: "Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion."
 
MISSION TO THE NETHERLANDS
Following my ministry in Belgium, we drove to the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The Netherlands has a glorious history as a Christian nation, in its courageous fight for religious freedom. Once a Spanish possession, the Dutch people, under the leadership of William, the Prince of Orange, freed the country from oppressive Spanish rule and established the Netherlands as one of the most productive nations in the world. The Dutch navy in the 17th century became one of the most powerful in the world, defeating the superpower of Spain and dominating Europe's trade with Asia through its strategic settlement in Cape Town. To this day, the Netherlands has a strong industrial, agricultural and trading economy. It is one of the world's leading exporting nations.

Secularisation and Intolerance
There is officially religious freedom in Holland, but anti-discrimination legislation increasingly threatens Christian liberties and absolutes in the name of tolerance. Fear to speak out stifles the truth and the Netherlands today seems to be mostly a secular society which has turned its back on its Christian past and fallen headlong into extreme decadence. Drugs, deviant lifestyles, prostitution, perversion and abortion are not only tolerated, but in many cases actually promoted by the laws of the land. The Netherlands has legalised euthanasia and is at this time discussing laws to enable even depressed teenagers to request physician assisted suicide! Euthanasia is legal in Belgium, Netherlands, Washington and Oregon.

Islamisation
The tolerance for which the Dutch are famous is becoming strained as many of the Muslim immigrants who have been welcomed, and are sustained on the country's generous welfare programme, are increasingly aggressive in promoting radical Islam and hostility to everything Dutch.

Liberalisation
The mainline churches in Holland have succumbed long ago to a deadening liberalism, which has emptied the churches to such an extent that already almost half of their membership are now over the age of 65. In the last 40 years, 1,000 church buildings have been sold and another 300 demolished in the country.

Hunger for Reality
Yet, amidst the secular humanism, materialism and heathenism, many are becoming disillusioned with the emptiness of materialism and self-centeredness. There is a growing spiritual hunger and some are eager to rediscover their Christian roots and reach out with the life transforming Gospel of Christ to their neighbours. My hosts, Christians for Truth, and the pro-life movement, Cry for Life, are amongst those in the Netherlands who are eager for Biblical Reformation and Spiritual Revival.

The Mission Fields of the Netherlands
There are over 7,000 congregations in the Netherlands, but with a population approaching 19 million, that is not nearly enough. Most of those congregations are liberal and spiritually lifeless. Yet, incredibly, Holland is still a Missionary sending country with 1,250 missionaries serving abroad under 120 Mission societies. A small number of churches in Holland are recognising the tremendous missionary challenge around them - with Muslims building mega mosques and madrassas in their towns and cities. There are many Turks, Moroccans and Arabs in Amsterdam and Rotterdam. There is a steady trickle of Muslims converting to Christ, but most of the Muslims in the Netherlands have never been confronted with the Gospel of Christ. There are also 100,000 Chinese in the Netherlands, many of whom are Buddhist. There are only 25 churches working amongst these Chinese people in the Netherlands.

Reformation or Islamisation
At a seminar for mission, ministry and church leaders, which was filmed, I presented: Reformation or Islamisation, and presentations on Islamic persecution of Christians in the Middle East and North Africa. During the discussion time we also dealt with the increase of persecution in Egypt, the Jihad in Northern Nigeria, the Arab Spring, which has turned out to be such a bitter winter, and the persecution of Christians in Northern Sudan and in the Nuba Mountains. I also gave a presentation on the Persecuted Church in North Africa, and at a mid-week Bible study meeting, I was able to present a Missions Report on Sudan, and Will Animals Be in Heaven?

A New King
On 30 April, Queen Beatrix's 33-year reign ended and William Alexander, Prince of Orange, became king of the Netherlands. His daughter, Catharina – Amelia, 9, became next in line to the throne. With a kiss on both cheeks for her son, on the balcony in front of cheering crowds, a proud Beatrix presented the Netherlands with its new King. William Alexander and his wife, Queen Maxima, have three daughters. The inauguration of the new King of the Netherlands took place in Amsterdam's Nieuwe Kerk (New Church). Despite the name, the Nieuwe Kerk is 600 years old! Princes from royal families from all over the world took part in the investiture. The royal guests and the upper and lower houses of parliament of the Netherlands sang a hymn to mark the inauguration of King Willem Alexander.

Monumental
In preparation for the inauguration of new King of the Netherlands, William Alexander, I was interviewed at the historic monument in The Hague, celebrating the liberation of Holland from the French Revolutionary occupation in 1813. This monument in The Hague prominently displayed Scriptures and prayers including: "If God be for us, who can be against us", and "the Lord has done great things for us and we rejoice." (Psalm 126:3), and "Ebenezer" (Hitherto has the Lord helped us), and "What has God has joined together, let no man separate."

The South African Connection
Christian media had wanted my African perspective on the Dutch Christian heritage. I was able to remind them of the prayer of the first Dutch Governor, Jan van Riebeeck, who knelt in Table Bay and prayed that Cape Town would be for the spreading of the light of the Reformed Faith throughout the Dark Continent of Africa.

The House of Orange
The largest river in South Africa is named the Orange River, and one of our provinces, the Orange Free State, in honour of Prince William of Orange, the Father of Dutch Liberties and champion of the Protestant cause. The House of Orange - Nassau was instrumental in the Dutch War for independence in the 16th and 17th centuries, and is a cornerstone of the national identity in the Netherlands.

A Land of Bicycles
It was notable how the Netherlands is surely one of the most bicycle-friendly countries in the world. A very high percentage of the population use bicycles as their primary form of transport. I saw many innovative bicycle designs enabling mothers to accommodate two, three and even four children on a single bicycle! In the Netherlands bicycles have right of way. Very huge parking areas are reserved for bicycles and I even saw multi-levelled parking garages, entirely set aside for bicycles

Reclaimed Land
The Netherlands has the highest density of population per square kilometre of any country in Europe. For centuries they have been reclaiming land. About one sixth of the entire country of the Netherlands has been reclaimed from the sea, lakes, marshes and swamps. This represents over 7,000km² in total. Much of the land lies under sea level and the nation depends on strong dykes and effective windmills and pumps to keep their homes and farms from flooding. Historically, there have been some severe floods, such as the 1953, North Sea flood disaster which also afflicted Belgium, England and Scotland. A high spring tide and a severe European windstorm over the North Sea caused a storm surge, which combined wind, high tide and low pressure to overwhelm the dykes and cause extensive flooding, killing over 1,800 people in the Netherlands and hundreds more in Britain and Belgium. The Netherlands is highly urbanised and seeks to make the most of its limited space. It seems that every available piece of land is being used for farming, right up to the airport runways.

Evangelistic Challenge
Evangelism in the Netherlands is difficult as many young people regard Christianity as irrelevant and intolerant, a threat to their precious vices, drunkenness, immorality, abortions and perversions. Some dynamic Christian media initiatives and outreaches are having an impact, but much more needs to be mobilised to reclaim the Netherlands for Christ.

Contrasts in Airport Security
My next Mission was to Switzerland. As I went through airport security in Schiphol International Airport, Amsterdam, I could not help but compare the friendly, efficient and smooth handling of security in European countries, such as the Netherlands and Switzerland, with the awkward, invasive and extremely time-consuming ordeal now increasingly common in the United States. During my ministry in 18 different countries in Europe, I have found their officials generally pleasant and efficient, (with the exception of the United Kingdom, where they seem to be patterned more after the American style, although more efficient.) Continental Europe has managed to have effective and efficient, streamlined airport security screening without delays and without making air travellers feel that they are all suspected criminals, guilty until proven innocent.
 
MISSION TO SWITZERLAND
Established in 1291, the Swiss Confederation is the oldest Republic in the world today. With its strong Reformation roots, Switzerland is one of the freest and most independent countries in the world. It is a decentralised country with most of its powers resting with the local cantons and citizens. There are many referendums determining important laws and policies by the direct vote of the population.

Armed Neutrality
Switzerland has maintained a strict policy of non-involvement in world politics and armed neutrality. It has been well said that Switzerland does not have an army, Switzerland is an army! For centuries their policy has been: "If you want peace, prepare for war."To this end, Switzerland is one of the few countries in the world still maintaining compulsory military conscription.

An Exceptional Country
Switzerland is a small mountainous country, 41,293km². 48 Mountain peaks in the Swiss Alps are over 4,000 metres above sea level. Switzerland is an exceptional country, where the Protestant work ethic has produced one of the best-educated and most highly skilled work forces in the world. It is a very productive industrial state that is also agriculturally self-sufficient. Exports play a large role for their high tech and traditional commodities. The Swiss Alps are one of the greatest tourist attractions in the world. Tourism and banking are also important foreign exchange earners. Official languages are German, French and Italian. 62% of the population are German speaking and 18% French.

Land of the Reformation
Switzerland was home to some of the greatest Reformers, including Ulrich Zwingli, Heinrich Bullinger, John Calvin, William Farel, and Theodore Beza. It was a joy to be in this beautiful Alpine country, one of the great lands of the Reformation, where Ulrich Zwingli launched a dynamic Reformation. On 1 January 1519, Ulrich Zwingli dispensed with Latin and began to expound the Scriptures, to the congregation in Grossmunster. Starting with Matthew 1:1, he line by line expounded the Scriptures. This bold action of replacing the mass with the preaching of the Word as the central focus of church services, marked the beginning of expository preaching. The Swiss are so neat and efficient that it is an absolute joy to travel and minister in such a spectacularly beautiful and efficiently run country.

Secularisation
However, despite its rich Christian heritage, spiritual decline and political apathy are threats to future stability. Voter turnouts can be as low as 40%. Birth rates are very low, and many of the churches are in decline. There are over 5,000 congregations in Switzerland, and church attendance in the country is higher than most of Europe. However, wealth, comfort, secularisation and indifference have led many to drift away from the church. Materialism and secularisation has affected much of the country. 75% of the population would identify themselves as Christians. 32% describe themselves as Protestant.

The Youth
Many of the younger generation are being enticed by Hollywood films and Western music, to explore Eastern religions and the occult. Many of the young people are drifting away from the church and there is a great need for effective student ministry to reach and teach those at university.

Globalism
Along with legalised abortion, and low birth rates amongst the Swiss, has come a rapidly growing foreign population, including from Muslim backgrounds. More than 22% of the 8 million people living in Switzerland are foreign born. More than 45% of the residents in Geneva are not Swiss. There are more than 100 foreign nationalities living in and around Geneva, which has become internationalised. A huge concentration of international agencies has moved into Geneva, including the World Council of Churches and numerous United Nations organisations.

Islamic Invasion
The vast amount of crimes in the country, are committed by foreigners, many of them Muslims. Most of these criminals are living on the generous welfare of the Swiss. Officially 6% of the people living in Switzerland today are Muslim, and few Swiss Christians are informed and confident enough to approach these resistant people with the Gospel. Some of the cities of Switzerland are experiencing tremendous social problems, particularly with the many Muslims who resist integration and express hostility to everything Swiss. Many Swiss citizens are calling for the expulsion of criminal elements from the country.

Resistance and Renewal
A Referendum in 2009 outlawed any minarets being built in Switzerland. However, amongst the general secularisation in the country, there has been some spiritual growth and renewal in Free and Reformed churches. The pro-life movement is dynamic and there are numerous vigorous missions from Switzerland. Switzerland has mobilised over 2,000 missionaries worldwide. There are also numerous dynamic media ministries using radio, television, print medium and social media to reach and teach Switzerland for Christ.

The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Gunfire
Switzerland has an entrenched firearm culture, with every community having a shooting range as it is their national sport. The Swiss Shooting Association has 85,000 registered members. The Swiss take their target shooting very seriously and even primary school children are taught the safe and effective handling of firearms. One of the biggest events of the year in Switzerland is the Schützenfest. Participants can range from 50,000 to 150,000 competitors, making it the largest shooting competition in the world.

Land of William Tell
Swiss marksmanship is legendary. The inspiration for Switzerland's struggle for independence was William Tell, who was forced to shoot an apple off his son's head with his crossbow. He went on to lead the resistance against foreign domination and championed the independence of the Confederation.

A Citizen Army
Switzerland's military is overwhelmingly made up of conscripts, it is a truly citizen-army that requires its soldiers to keep their own personal equipment and military weapons at their homes. There is compulsory military service for all male citizens, however, women can serve voluntarily.

Preparedness
Swiss building codes require radiation and blast shelters for every home - to accommodate the entire population. Numerous hospitals and command centres have also been built in such nuclear bombproof shelters. Many tunnels and key bridges have tank traps and have been primed with demolition charges to be used against invading forces. They have underground air bases and permanent fortications established in the Alps.

Resisting the New World Order
I was invited to be a guest speaker for the Europe Christians for Truth Conference in Switzerland. The theme of this conference was The War of Worldviews Between the Christian and the Secular. I presented Resisting Babylon and the Beast. At the Sunday Morning church service, I presented: Conviction and Courage – Choose You This Day Whom You Will Serve. I also gave a presentation for morning chapel at the Domino Servite School on Faith Under Fire in South Sudan. A brother from Berlin also travelled through to record an interview with me for a Christian radio station in Germany.

Literature and Audio Visual Ministry
There was tremendous interest in the literature, book table, CDs, DVDs and MP3s. Along with great fellowship with dedicated Christians in Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland, I was also able to conduct many strategic interviews and planning meetings for the Reformation FIRE movement, to Reclaim Europe for Christ.

Pray for Europe
Europe must be one of the most spiritually needy continents on earth. The secularisation and paganisation of large sections of Europe is tragic. Yet, by God's grace, there are many surprising dynamic pockets of spiritual vitality and life amidst the general atheism and heathenism. Please continue to pray for the vibrant Christian communities who are seeking to be faithful to Scripture and effective in fulfilling the Great Commission in Europe.

We must reclaim Europe for Christ!

Dr. Peter Hammond

Frontline Fellowship
P.O Box 74 Newlands 7725
Cape Town South Africa
Tel: 021-689-4480
Email: mission@frontline.org.za

​Devastation
​However, World War I shattered Europe. An entire generation of young men died in brutal trench warfare. 1914 marked the end of the greatest century of Christian advance and the beginning of what proved to be the worst century of persecution. The consequences of the First World War, continues to have far-reaching repercussions to this present day. Of the 60 million European soldiers who were mobilised from 1914 to 1918, over 9 million were killed, 7 million permanently disabled and 15 million seriously injured.

Retreat from Victory
At the first World Missions Conference, in Edinburgh, in 1910, delegates were anticipating the completion of the Great Commission within their generation. No one in 1910 would have anticipated the wholesale abandonment of entire nations to communism, false religion and heathenism. Nor would anyone have predicted that the church would retreat from victory to such an extent that they would even be questioning the existence of the devil, or hell, or reinterpreting marriage to include what God and the Bible describes as perversion and an abomination.

Secularism
The cataclysmic conflict of the First World War has to be recognised as one of the most tragic and senseless conflicts in history. Even more devastating than the actual numbers of the people killed, crippled, or seriously injured, was the damage to the spiritual life of Europe. Europe went from being a majority church attending population to a continent where most people do not go to any church.

Revolution
The secularisation of Europe and the moral breakdown coincided with a great resurgence of revolutionary fervour and Marxist communism which filled the vacuum left by the collapse of the Russian Empire and emergence of many new countries in Eastern Europe.

The de-Christianisation and secularisation of Europe was not only unprecedented in its scope and speed, but would have been unthinkable before the First World War. Social Darwinism had become popular amongst most governments in Europe. This thinking emphasized the importance of armed struggle between nations as healthy and necessary for progress and evolution. In the wake of the two World Wars, many came to speak of a post-Christian era. Wars and revolutions through the entire world led to disorder and Christianity was generally marginalised throughout Europe.

Christophobia
Christians in Britain are speaking of a Christophobia, where an irrational hatred and fear of Christianity is increasing. Church buildings have been vandalised with anti-Christian graffiti on the walls and property looted. British Hotel and Bed and Breakfast owners have been sued and fined for refusing accommodation to homosexual partners. Street preachers have been arrested for proclaiming what God's Word says about perversion.

Unethical Compulsion
Medical staff have been placed under extraordinary pressure to participate in procedures which they are convinced are unethical, such as sterilisations, euthanasia and abortions. Many European Union States, do not provide for conscientious objection for medical personnel. Many midwives, doctors, nurses and pharmacists are being placed under unbearable pressure to go against their conscience. In France, pharmacists are being compelled by law, to sell the abortion drug, RU486.

Desecration
Churches and cemeteries in Spain and France have been desecrated and vandalised by Muslim immigrants. In Norway many historic Christian churches have been burned down by arsonists.

War Against God
Prominent black metal adherents have been convicted of arson, including burning down the 850 year old Fantoft Stave Church. Black metal fans have declared war on Christianity and a prominent black metal band Burzum, produced an album entitled Aske (Ashes) with a picture of the charred remnants of this famous Viking Church. Many black metal and witch house music groups openly declare their hatred of Christianity.

Marginalisation
The marginalisation of Christians and legal limitations on them is increasingly being recognised as a serious problem. Even Queen Elizabeth II has spoken out against this ominous trend. From hate crimes to legal restrictions, arrests and lawsuits, freedom of religion, freedom of expression and freedom of conscience are under severe stress in most of Europe.

Libel
One example is how Norwegian mass murder, Anders Breivik, was instantaneously and falsely labelled a "Christian fundamentalist"by media worldwide. There was absolutely no evidence of this. In fact, his own writings on the web made clear that he rejected Christianity and rejected the Christian God. Yet anti-Christian prejudices needed a Christian equivalent to Muslim terrorism. All too many journalists thoughtlessly and hastily welcomed this anti-Christian fanatic as a "Christian fundamentalist". In many cases this is the same media that refuses to identify the terrorists inspired by Islamic Jihad as Muslim fanatics.

Fired for Prayer
Dr. David Drew was fired for e-mailing a prayer to hospital colleagues. 64 year old, Dr. Drew, who for 40 years had been a senior Medical Director at the hospital, was dismissed for e-mailing a prayer which he thought would be inspirational to his colleagues. The offensive prayer was: "Teach us Good Lord to serve as You deserve, to give and not to count the cost, to fight and not to head the wounds, to toil and not to seek for rest, to labour and not to ask for any reward, save that of knowing we do Your will."

Double Standards
The head of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Mark Thompson, admitted that Christianity is treated with far less sensitivity than other religions, because "it is pretty broad-shouldered." He said that as other faiths have a very closely identity with ethnic minorities and as they had to consider the possibilities of "violent threats" instead of polite complaints, which is more common from Christians. The BBC tended to apply satire towards Christianity rather than, for example, Islam. "Without question, 'I complain in the strongest possible terms,' is different from, 'I complain in the strongest possible terms and I am loading my AK47 as I write.'"

No Crosses Allowed
Although British Airways allows members of other religions special status for religious garments, such as the Muslim Hijab, the Sikh turban, or Kara bracelet, Christian employees have been forbidden to wear crosses which they claim breach BA's uniform code.

Senseless Hypocrisy
The BBC has also been criticised for its "senseless hypocrisy" in no longer referring to dates by BC (before Christ) or AD (Anno Domini), but to what they call religiously neutral terms of BCE (Before Common Era) and CE (Common Era).

Anti-Christian Bias
British member of parliament, David Simpson, responded to the frequent claims of secular campaigners that Christianity has been the cause of the world’s worst historical crimes by pointing out that it was, in fact, ideologically atheist regimes that committed the very worst atrocities throughout the 20th century. He also pointed out that Christians are facing increasing persecution at the hands of aggressive secularism: "In the United Kingdom, the policy seems to be that people can do whatever they like against Christianity - criticise it or blaspheme the Name of Christ - as long as they do not insult Islam. It is sad because this country is based on civil and religious liberty for all." 

Legal Harassment
He catalogued numerous cases where British Christians who publically object to homosexuality, sex education and abortion, or who simply try to share their faith with others, have faced prosecution.

A Deafening Silence
Yet the British government remains mostly silent about the massacres of thousands of Christians at the hands of Muslim militants in Northern Nigeria, in Ethiopia, in Sudan and in Pakistan. Christianity is completely outlawed in many Arab States, including Kuwait, Syria, Yemen and Saudi Arabia. The fact is, secular humanism is the most destructive religion of all time and the most intolerant.

Europe for Christ
Europe today must be one of the most spiritually needy continents on earth. The Church is called to be "a house of prayer for all nations." Are you, your family and your congregation praying regularly for Christians suffering intolerance and discrimination in Europe? Pray that the Lord of the harvest will thrust out labourers into His harvest field to win this continent back to Christ.

Dr. Peter Hammond has been a missionary to Africa and Europe for over 30 years. He is also a conference speaker and writer. Tel: 021-689-4480; mission@frontline.org.za

This article has been published as a feature article in the July 2012 edition of JOY! Magazine.

A Europe for Christ MP3 audio boxset is also available. It included 23 lectures and sermons by Dr. Peter Hammond given in Europe at Reformation Conferences and services. Several of these lectures are translated into Danish, Flemish, Romanian and German.

The Greatest Century of Reformation book (220 ages, 180 pictures) and
Europe for Christ MP3 are available from: 

Christian Liberty Books, 
PO Box 358, Howard Place 7450,
Cape Town, South Africa,
tel: 021-689-7478,
email: admin@christianlibertybooks.co.za 
and website: www.christianlibertybooks.co.za

​“Houses are bourgeois-capitalist! We must all be equal, they say. Do they bring us all up? No! No, they must drag us all down to the lowest level. So they destroy perfectly good houses, our family’s home for generations, and squeeze us into badly-built, overcrowded concrete apartments. This is Scientific Socialism!”

“In our houses life was hard, there were no luxuries, but it was our home. We could grow vegetables in the garden, keep a dog for a pet and have Christian friends around for fellowship. Now in these apartments, we are no longer free to do this. The communists can spy on us much easier now. We have no space, no garden and no privacy. This forced relocation policy — this "systematization” — is to increase the control of the communist party over our lives.”
​
The people in Rumania point out that this bizarre scheme is destroying the folk culture which was rooted in village life. It is also destroying hundreds of village churches — none of which are ever likely to be rebuilt. Many of the “Agro-Industrial centres” have only the most rudimentary amenities, with communal kitchens and shared sanitary installations. Traditional country life is being ruined and privacy has become a novelty of history.

Hardship is aggravated by a “redevelopment” scheme that is levelling large tracts of land. For the past five years, wrecker’s balls and bulldozers have been tearing down central Bucharest, displacing more than 40 000 residents and demolishing historic monuments and churches. In their place, crews are building a modern civic centre and government palace, marble-clad apartment blocks for senior communist party cadres and broad boulevards. Similar projects have ripped out the centres of provincial towns.

Disastrous central-planning directives compound the misery. The electricity allocation for a one-room apartment is barely sufficient to boil two kettles of water a day. Most of the power supply is soaked up by dilapidated industrial plants, except when assembly lines are shut down for weeks at a time for lack of raw materials and Western spare parts. The regime has instituted a seven-day work week in factories and imposed pay cuts of up to 30% on workers who fail to meet production quotas.

Late at night, as we left church services or home meetings, we could see the food lines starting up in the unlit streets. Only in the communist world do people regularly stand in lines through the night in the hope of purchasing food. The average housewife in Eastern Europe must spend 35 hours a week in lines, patiently lining up, first for the ration coupon, then for a slip of paper representing the item, then with this slip they line up to pay for the item at the cashier, who provides the cash receipt. With this receipt the housewife can then begin the final line for the actual item.

“Send me one of your liberals from the West to come and do my shopping for a week. This will cure him of his infatuation with socialism,” we were told.

Peter Hammond
(Director)

​After the Red Army’s invasion of the Caucasian republics in 1920, Nagorno Karabakh was administered by Armenia. But later, on Stalin’s orders, the Christian republic of Karabakh was awarded to the Muslim state of Azerbaijan.
​
Despite enormous, sustained and often violent pressure to convert to Zoroastrianism, Islam and more recently to Marxism, the Armenian people have steadfastly maintained their Christian faith - especially as defined by the Nicean Creed.

Under the Turks the Armenian Christians were strictly segregated from the Muslim community. They were forced to wear distinctive clothing, pay higher taxes and provide many of their sons for slavery to the Muslim Turks. The Christians were also denied their right to possess weapons for self defence.

The Muslim Turks then subjected the Armenian Christians to one of the most vicious campaigns of genocide in history.

In 1883 over 1 800 Christian leaders were arrested. Most were tortured. In 1 895 a systematic campaign was launched to annihilate the Armenians in Turkish territory.

Approximately 300 000 Armenian men, women and children were murdered by the Turkish soldiers and police and by Muslim mobs and Kurdish tribesmen. Another 100 000 Armenians fled the country. Tens of thousands of Armenian women and children were enslaved. Others escaped death only by conversion to Islam.

At Urfa, 3000 Christians were locked into the cathedral and burnt alive as Turkish troops set the church alight with kerosene and kindling.

Then in 1915 the Turkish government unleashed a country-wide campaign of genocide: “The Armenians must be exterminated. If any Muslim protects a Christian, first his house shall be burnt; then the Christian killed before his eyes then his family and himself.”

Concentration camps for Christians were set up. A systematic campaign of rape, the roasting of women and children to death, the Turkish falaka (hanging the victim upside down while beating the soles of the feet) and crucifixions were carried out. By 1918 over 1.5 Million Armenians had perished - approximately 2/3rds of their total population.

In 1905 the Armenians in the Russian empire suffered a widespread series of attacks by the Azeri - Turk community of Azerbaijan. Then in the power vacuum created by the collapse of the Russian empire in 1917 the newly independent republic of Armenia was invaded by the Ottoman Turks and Azeri-Turks. The vicious massacres and oppression by the Turks only ended with the Soviet occupation in 1920.

The Armenians (together with the Lithuanians, Latvians and Estonians) were amongst the first to use the opportunity offered by Gorbachev’s glasnost to campaign for autonomy and freedom. Sensing a historic opportunity to escape from the stranglehold of Azerbaijan, the Nagorno Karabakh Supreme Soviet passed a resolution (20/2/88) calling for their transfer back to Armenia.
However, even as most of the population of Karabakh turned out in mass demonstrations in support of the resolution - fanatical Muslim mobs dressed in black, carrying clubs and Turkish flags chanting “Death to Armenians!” went on the rampage killing Christians. Soon there were no Armenians left in Azerbaijan. Those who hadn’t been killed were refugees across the border.

Then the Azeri-Turks launched “Operation Ring” where soldiers of the 23rd Division of the Soviet 4th Army began to systematically burn the crops, rape the women, maltreat the children, murder the men and deport all surviving Armenians. Only with the demise of Gorbachev and the election of President Yeltsin did the Soviet Army begin to adopt a neutral role in the conflict.

After enduring 3 years of blockades and attacks the population of Nagorno Karabakh was down to 180 000. In the 1991 referendum and elections over 90% voted and of these over 90% voted for independence.

At this point Karabakh became an open battlefield - besieged, blockaded and bombarded. GRAD rockets rained down upon the capital city of Stepanakert (GRAD is the Russian word for hail). Amidst the rubble of demolished homes, mutilated animals and dismembered people littered the town.

By April 1992 the Armenians had captured enough weapons from the Azeri-Turk troops to fight back. They captured the Azeri mountain stronghold in Shusha and halted the bombardment on their capital. Then the Karabakh forces opened a corridor through Azerbaijan to Armenia. This broke the blockade and enabled convoys to transport in food, fuels and medicines.

Since then the fighting has escalated with Turkish officers aiding the Azerbaijan military in massive aerial, tank and rocket bombardments of Karabakh’s Armenians. SU 25 bombers and MIG fighter-bombers continued to attack the Christians. Many however have been shot down by the Karabakh forces.

Kidnapped Armenians have been subjected to the most appalling tortures by Azeri-Turks. A full report on the sufferings of the Armenian people and the atrocities perpetrated upon the Christians of Armenia has been compiled by John Eibner:

“Ethnic Cleansing in Progress - War in Nagorno Karabakh.” It is available from the Institute for Religious Minorities in the Islamic World, P0 Box 881 Forchstrasse 280 Zurich 8029 Switzerland.

Frontline Fellowship has been invited to join our friends of Christian Solidarity International to minister to the besieged Christians of Nagorno Karabakh. As this truly is in the frontline of the fight for faith and freedom - please pray with us for the precious people of Karabakh and that we would be able to practically help them.

“Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are 
mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.” Hebrews 13:3

​The telegram was signed by Reformed Bishop Papp, Orthodox Patriarch Antonien, Chief Rabbi of the Jewish community Moses Rosen, and Muslim leaders.
​
Romanian Christians complained to me of the treachery of the Baptist World Alliance (BWA), Lutheran World Federation (LWF), World Council of Churches (WCC), and World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC). “They seek to make collaborators out of the church.” “They sympathise with the communist persecutors — not with the persecuted Christians.” “They betray the uncompromising believers and collaborate with our persecutors!”

From early in the 1960’s, testimonies and reports of persecution and atrocities in Romania were well documented and widely published in the West. Yet despite the personal testimonies of Richard Wurmbrand and other tortured believers, the WARC, WCC, LWF and BWA remained silent. The Queen of England conterred an honorary knighthood upon Ceausescu in 1978, the USA conferred “most favoured nation” status upon Socialist Romania for 14 years, and leaders like Billy Graham and George Bush were entertained as guests of Ceausescu — giving public thanks and praise to the dictator.

In 1978, the Hungarian Conference of the Lutheran Church of America criticized the Lutheran World Federation because it had condemned South Africa, yet had said nothing about the human rights violations in Romania.

While Christians were imprisoned, churches demolished, ministers tortured, and hundreds of thousands continued to flee Romania, the churches in the West were silent. Even when Ceausescu began to demolish 8 000 villages (including hundreds of churches) the Western churches had nothing to say. Even when most of the international community were exposing and denouncing the Socialist “systemetization” scheme that required millions of people’s homes to be demolished, the WCC, LWF, WARC and BWA refused to criticise the communists. It’s a sad day when one can learn more from Time magazine about persecution of the church than one’s own denomination’s magazine.

At the WCC’s Central Committee session in Hanover, in 1988, Hungarian Bishop Toth proposed discussion on the reign of terror in Romania — especially on the German and Hungarian minorities in the country. But the discussion was abruptly ended after an objection from Rumanian Orthodox leader, Antonien.

At the WCC’s Central Committee meeting in Moscow, July 1989, the General Secretary, Emilio Castro, vetoed and suppressed a belated declaration condemning Ceausescu’s human rights violations.

“You are doomed, you shepherds. You take care of yourselves, but never tend the sheep. 
You drink the milk, wear clothes made from the wool, and kill and eat the finest sheep. 
But you never tend the sheep. You have not taken care of the weak ones, healed 
those that are sick, bandaged those that are hurt, brought back those that wandered 
off or looked for those that were lost. Instead, you treated them cruelly. Because 
the sheep had no shepherd, they were scattered, and wild animals killed and ate
them. So my sheep wandered over the high hills and the mountains. They were 
scattered over the face of the earth, and no one looked for them or tried to find 
them.” Ezekiel 34:2-6

In the midst of the popular uprising, Lutheran Bishop Albert Klein openly repented of his guilt of collaborating with the communists in a December 22 Church service. He expressed remorse at not having spoken out earlier.

After Ceausescu’s fall and capture, his faithful followers suffered the consequences: Bishop Papp tried to flee the country and suffered a heart attack and the reformed Bishop of Cluj, Gyula Nazy, resigned.

But while governments and organisations from all over the world recognised the new interim government and celebrated (perhaps hypocritically for some) the overthrow of, tyranny in Romania, a deafening silence emanated from the WCC. The World Council of Churches maintained its silence over Romania, having no apparent interest in either aiding or encouraging the victims of communism.

Christians in the West now have ample reason to take a critical look at ourselves. Did we trust Ceausescu’s faithful bishops too much? Did we ignore the voice of the martyrs? Were we too quick to discount those who sought to call attention to the vic ious persecution in Romania? How can we continue to trust the World Council Churches and the spineless bureaucrats inhabiting the LWF, BWA and WARC?

“The officials are like wolves tearing apart the animals they have killed. They commit murder in order to get rich.  The prophets have hidden these sins like men covering a wall with whitewash. They see false visions and make  false predictions. They claim to speak the word of the Sovereign Lord, but I, the Lord, have not spoken to them.  The wealthy cheat and rob. They ill-treat the poor and take advantage of foreigners. I looked for someone who could  build a wall, who could stand in the places where the walls have crumbled and defend the land when my anger is about  to destroy it, but I could find no one. So I will turn my anger loose on them, and like a fire I will destroy them for  what they have done.” Ezekiel 22:27-31

However, Romania’s recent history not only illustrates the untrustworthiness of church leaders — much more than that it proves the faithfulness of God. For in the midst of treachery, betrayal and persecution, the suffering Christians continued to study God’s Word, witness to their faith, enjoy fellowship and celebrate in worship. Whether on the communal farms, in labour camps, in food lines or in prison cells, the believers testify that God sustained and blessed them, “adding to their number daily such as were being saved.” Anyone attending Romania’s overflowing church services will experience the rich faith and contagious joy of God’s people who have come through the tribulation victoriously.

“Our brothers won the victory over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the Word of their 
testimony and they were willing to give up their lives and die.” Revelation 12:11

Peter Hammond