One Woman’s Fight Against a Narrative She Calls a ‘Lie’

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It started with a van full of paint cans on the streets of New York outside the Black Lives Matter mural in Midtown Manhattan. And then Bevelyn Beatty began her task, dropping to her knees with paint in-hand yelling, “They don’t care about black lives, they’re liars.”

Finally came her arrest as she chanted, ‘Jesus matters. Jesus matters. Stand up. Take your country back.’

Bevelyn Beatty’s actions and video went viral last month and she tells CBN News she had one thing on her mind the whole time. “I have to paint this mural. I have to cover this mural,” she explains from her home in New Jersey. “I was so tired of this black lives matter narrative…we’re going to hit it. We’re going to fight and we’re going to stand and God is with me. And that was it.”

To understand Bevelyn Beatty’s actions and motive you need to know her back story.

She grew up in the inner city on welfare. After seeing people close to her die, Beatty went out on her own, got into trouble, and seven years ago, wound up in jail on money laundering charges. It was there where someone shared the Gospel with her and she gave her life to Jesus Christ. “When I got out of jail, honey, you couldn’t get me to steal a pack of bubble gum,” she said. “You couldn’t get me to do nothing.”

As a changed woman, Beatty became a Christian activist in the fight against abortion working for “At Well Ministries.” Today, she’s speaking out against the Black Lives Matter organization, especially the part of its creed about how they look to disrupt the “western prescribed nuclear family structure.”

“Black Lives Matter is against black men because a man is truly not a man unless he’s a leader in his own family,” she said. “This is a portion of his identity because this is what God ordained from the beginning.”

Beatty also points out how the organization is selective on its topics. “The number one killer of black people is abortion, she said. “We’re killing ourselves.”

And then there’s the violence she’s seen. “Black Lives Matter will never address black-on-black crime,” she says. “As black people, we’re headed towards extinction. Black Americans won’t exist no more by 2050 with the route that we’re going because if we’re not killing each other on the streets, we’re aborting each other’s babies.”

She sees politics, especially the Democrat party, driving it all. “They’re using us, they’ve been constantly using us,” she said. “We keep giving them the votes. That’s why Joe Biden had the audacity to say, ‘if you don’t vote for me, you ain’t black.'”

As for the BLM movement, she blames Democrats for heightening the tension and violence in the streets. “The Democrats are the ones who really helped pivot and launch this Black Lives Matter organization. The Democrats are the ones screaming, ‘defund the police get rid of the police’ yet the Democrats are the ones that run these cities top to bottom.”

She’s fed up with it all. She sees America changing before her very eyes and wants to see other Christians rise up with her.

“Christians have to recognize that if we don’t stand up and smell the coffee, we are going to give away our freedoms and America is going to turn into a communist country,” she said. “Once America turns into a communist country, the world will be communism and we will be back in the days of Noah.”

For Bevelyn Beatty, in the end, it’s not politics that matter, it’s only Jesus. “I am a Christian, this is about Christianity, this is about Jesus,” she said. “They want Christians to shut up. They want us to bow…we’re going to be shaking it up and letting people know Jesus is Lord and the only thing that matters is Jesus.”

Christians ‘Standing in the Way’ of China’s Xi Jinping’s Totalitarian Rule

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It was 40 years ago this week that China opened its doors to the world and launched a series of ambitious reforms that would create one of the world’s largest economic engines.

“China is now the world’s second largest economy, the biggest manufacturer, top trader of goods, and the second largest consumer of goods and recipient of foreign investment,” Chinese President Xi Jinping said during a speech in Beijing celebrating the 40th anniversary of the landmark reforms.

“December 18, 1978, was an important day to be remembered in the history of the Chinese nation,” Xi added, saying that it marked the “start of a great journey of reform, opening-up and socialist modernization.”

But unlike Deng Xiaoping, who helped launch the country’s reforms 40 years ago and wanted to reduce the power and influence of the Communist Party over civil society, China’s current leader believes in the absolute power of the Party and wants his government to exert control over every aspect of Chinese life.

Since coming to power in 2012, Xi has severely cracked down on human rights, religious freedom and freedom of expression. Christians are experiencing some of the worst persecution in decades.

“Under President Xi, the government has further tightened control over Christianity in its broad efforts to “Sinicize” religion or “adopt Chinese characteristics,” Human Rights Watch said in a statement. “In other words, to ensure that religious groups support the government and the Communist Party.”

Christians are not alone. Muslims, Buddhists and other faith groups are also coming under intense scrutiny.

“The Chinese government has also ratcheted up restrictions over Buddhism in Tibetan areas and imposed unprecedented control over religious practices in the predominantly Muslim region of Xinjiang,” Human Rights Watch added.

The recent arrest of a prominent church pastor underscores the level of persecution against Christians.

On December 9, authorities in the city of Chengdu, in China’s southwestern Sichuan province, arrested pastor Wang Yi, along with his wife and 100 members of Early Rain Covenant Church.

Authorities shut down the church and charged pastor Wang with “inciting subversion of state power.”

Ian Johnson, who has written extensively on Christianity in China and knows pastor Wang personally, said, “One can only hope and pray that he will come out of jail or that the sentence will be light, but given the current climate I’m not so sure.”

Johnson, writing for the New York Times, said the charge against Mr. Wang and his wife, Jiang Rong, “was far more severe than what other leaders face” and that the term “subversion of state power” is “a catchall charge often used against dissidents and political activists who speak out against the government.”

Wang and his wife could face up to 15 years in prison if convicted.

This past Sunday morning, members of Early Rain Covenant Church were blocked from entering their worship building. With their leaders detained and facing jail, churchgoers decided to pray and worship outside.

Early Rain, like scores of other congregations, is outside government control as part of China’s burgeoning so-called underground or house church movement.

Appearing on CBN News‘ WorldBeat, Todd Nettleton of Voice of the Martyrs, says this movement has touched every corner of China.

“And that’s the exciting thing, all across China, there are house churches, there are what they call ‘family churches’ and the reason the Communist government is so worried is because there are far more Christians in China than there are members of the Communist Party,” Nettleton told CBN News.

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Letter From a Chengdu Jail by Wang Yi

On Dec. 9, Chinese authorities arrested Pastor Wang Yi and more than 100 members of the Early Rain Covenant Church.

As CBN News reported, Pastor Wang’s home was raided and ransacked by police. The raid may have been triggered by a 7,300 words manifesto titled “Meditations on the Religious War,” which Pastor Wang wrote and posted on social media.

In it, he condemns China’s Communist Party and urges Christians to perform acts of civil disobedience.

Pastor Yi criticized the government for forcing its citizens to engage in “Caesar worship” by treating President Xi Jinping like a god.

He wrote that ideology “is morally incompatible with the Christian faith and all those who uphold freedom of the mind and thought.”

“His home was ransacked. It was a mess,” Zhang Guoqing told The South China Morning Reporter. “The police said our church is an illegal organization and we cannot attend any more gatherings from now on.”

There has been no word from the pastor or the church members since their arrest.

Foreseeing his possible arrest, Yi wrote a letter titled “My Declaration of Faithful Disobedience” back in September with the instructions that it should be published by his church should he be detained more than 48 hours. Brent Pinkall and Amy Cheung are credited with the translation of the letter into English. The church released the letter on Wednesday. The entire letter is published below.

My Declaration of Faithful Disobedience

On the basis of the teachings of the Bible and the mission of the gospel, I respect the authorities God has established in China. For God deposes kings and raises up kings. This is why I submit to the historical and institutional arrangements of God in China.

As a pastor of a Christian church, I have my own understanding and views, based on the Bible, about what righteous order and good government is. At the same time, I am filled with anger and disgust at the persecution of the church by this Communist regime, at the wickedness of their depriving people of the freedoms of religion and of conscience. But changing social and political institutions is not the mission I have been called to, and it is not the goal for which God has given his people the gospel.

For all hideous realities, unrighteous politics, and arbitrary laws manifest the cross of Jesus Christ, the only means by which every Chinese person must be saved. They also manifest the fact that true hope and a perfect society will never be found in the transformation of any earthly institution or culture but only in our sins being freely forgiven by Christ and in the hope of eternal life.

As a pastor, my firm belief in the gospel, my teaching, and my rebuking of all evil proceeds from Christ’s command in the gospel and from the unfathomable love of that glorious King. Every man’s life is extremely short, and God fervently commands the church to lead and call any man to repentance who is willing to repent. Christ is eager and willing to forgive all who turn from their sins. This is the goal of all the efforts of the church in China—to testify to the world about our Christ, to testify to the Middle Kingdom about the Kingdom of Heaven, to testify to earthly, momentary lives about heavenly, eternal life. This is also the pastoral calling that I have received.

For this reason, I accept and respect the fact that this Communist regime has been allowed by God to rule temporarily. As the Lord’s servant John Calvin said, wicked rulers are the judgment of God on a wicked people, the goal being to urge God’s people to repent and turn again toward Him. For this reason, I am joyfully willing to submit myself to their enforcement of the law as though submitting to the discipline and training of the Lord.

At the same time, I believe that this Communist regime’s persecution against the church is a greatly wicked, unlawful action. As a pastor of a Christian church, I must denounce this wickedness openly and severely. The calling that I have received requires me to use non-violent methods to disobey those human laws that disobey the Bible and God. My Savior Christ also requires me to joyfully bear all costs for disobeying wicked laws.

But this does not mean that my personal disobedience and the disobedience of the church is in any sense “fighting for rights” or political activism in the form of civil disobedience, because I do not have the intention of changing any institutions or laws of China. As a pastor, the only thing I care about is the disruption of man’s sinful nature by this faithful disobedience and the testimony it bears for the cross of Christ.

As a pastor, my disobedience is one part of the gospel commission. Christ’s great commission requires of us great disobedience. The goal of disobedience is not to change the world but to testify about another world.

For the mission of the church is only to be the church and not to become a part of any secular institution. From a negative perspective, the church must separate itself from the world and keep itself from being institutionalized by the world. From a positive perspective, all acts of the church are attempts to prove to the world the real existence of another world. The Bible teaches us that, in all matters relating to the gospel and human conscience, we must obey God and not men. For this reason, spiritual disobedience and bodily suffering are both ways we testify to another eternal world and to another glorious King.

This is why I am not interested in changing any political or legal institutions in China. I’m not even interested in the question of when the Communist regime’s policies persecuting the church will change. Regardless of which regime I live under now or in the future, as long as the secular government continues to persecute the church, violating human consciences that belong to God alone, I will continue my faithful disobedience. For the entire commission God has given me is to let more Chinese people know through my actions that the hope of humanity and society is only in the redemption of Christ, in the supernatural, gracious sovereignty of God.

If God decides to use the persecution of this Communist regime against the church to help more Chinese people to despair of their futures, to lead them through a wilderness of spiritual disillusionment and through this to make them know Jesus, if through this he continues disciplining and building up his church, then I am joyfully willing to submit to God’s plans, for his plans are always benevolent and good.

Precisely because none of my words and actions are directed toward seeking and hoping for societal and political transformation, I have no fear of any social or political power. For the Bible teaches us that God establishes governmental authorities in order to terrorize evildoers, not to terrorize doers of good. If believers in Jesus do no wrong then they should not be afraid of dark powers. Even though I am often weak, I firmly believe this is the promise of the gospel. It is what I’ve devoted all of my energy to. It is the good news that I am spreading throughout Chinese society.

I also understand that this happens to be the very reason why the Communist regime is filled with fear at a church that is no longer afraid of it.

If I am imprisoned for a long or short period of time, if I can help reduce the authorities’ fear of my faith and of my Savior, I am very joyfully willing to help them in this way. But I know that only when I renounce all the wickedness of this persecution against the church and use peaceful means to disobey, will I truly be able to help the souls of the authorities and law enforcement. I hope God uses me, by means of first losing my personal freedom, to tell those who have deprived me of my personal freedom that there is an authority higher than their authority, and that there is a freedom that they cannot restrain, a freedom that fills the church of the crucified and risen Jesus Christ.

Regardless of what crime the government charges me with, whatever filth they fling at me, as long as this charge is related to my faith, my writings, my comments, and my teachings, it is merely a lie and temptation of demons. I categorically deny it. I will serve my sentence, but I will not serve the law. I will be executed, but I will not plead guilty.

Moreover, I must point out that persecution against the Lord’s church and against all Chinese people who believe in Jesus Christ is the most wicked and the most horrendous evil of Chinese society. This is not only a sin against Christians. It is also a sin against all non-Christians. For the government is brutally and ruthlessly threatening them and hindering them from coming to Jesus. There is no greater wickedness in the world than this.

If this regime is one day overthrown by God, it will be for no other reason than God’s righteous punishment and revenge for this evil. For on earth, there has only ever been a thousand-year church. There has never been a thousand-year government. There is only eternal faith. There is no eternal power.

Those who lock me up will one day be locked up by angels. Those who interrogate me will finally be questioned and judged by Christ.  When I think of this, the Lord fills me with a natural compassion and grief toward those who are attempting to and actively imprisoning me. Pray that the Lord would use me, that he would grant me patience and wisdom, that I might take the gospel to them.

Separate me from my wife and children, ruin my reputation, destroy my life and my family – the authorities are capable of doing all of these things. However, no one in this world can force me to renounce my faith; no one can make me change my life; and no one can raise me from the dead.

And so, respectable officers, stop committing evil. This is not for my benefit but rather for yours and your children’s. I plead earnestly with you to stay your hands, for why should you be willing to pay the price of eternal damnation in hell for the sake of a lowly sinner such as I?

Jesus is the Christ, son of the eternal, living God. He died for sinners and rose to life for us. He is my king and the king of the whole earth yesterday, today, and forever. I am his servant, and I am imprisoned because of this. I will resist in meekness those who resist God, and I will joyfully violate all laws that violate God’s laws.

The Lord’s servant,
Wang Yi

Yi is a prominent evangelical pastor in China. He was listed as one of the “50 Most Influential Public Intellectuals of China” by Southern People Weekly. He met with President George W. Bush at the White House in 2006 to discuss religious freedom in China. And Yi came back to Washington in 2008 to attend the Conference for Global Christians in Law and was awarded “Prize for the Contribution to Promoting Religious Freedom, according to Wikipedia.

Coming War Between the Cross and the Crescent

When the Ottoman Turks tried to invade Europe 500 years ago they were defeated at the Gates of Vienna. Today Turkey again has designs on Europe, but it’s using a different method.

It’s being called Turkey’s fifth column in Europe – a vast network of radical Islamists, working inside Turkish mosques and under the control of Turkey’s ambitious president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The Austrian government shut down seven mosques and expelled 60 Imams recently because they were being funded illegally by the Turkish government, and because photos from inside the mosques surfaced on the internet showing Turkish children being trained to be martyrs.

Austria’s move against the mosques infuriated Turkey’s government, and President Erdogan warned of a “coming war between the cross and the crescent.”

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READ: Austria Closes 7 Turkish Mosques, Expels 60 Imams After Kids Taught to Be Martyrs

The leading expert on Erdogan’s network of mosques and Islamic associations in Europe, Turkish journalist Abdullah Bozkurt of the Stockholm Center for Freedom, calls them Erdogan’s fifth column. He spoke to CBN News from Stockholm, Sweden.

“What we have been seeing in the last couple of years – an increase of activity on the part of the Turkish government to turn the mosques that were financed by the Turkish community and by the Turkish government, or imams that were deployed directly from Turkey, as sort of political operatives,” he said.

There are an estimated five million Turks in Germany and millions more across Europe. Bozkurt says several Islamic and charitable organizations run by the Turkish government are fronts for political activity.

READ: Islamic ‘Sultan’ Rising: Why Turkey’s Plan to Destroy Israel Could Line Up with End Times Prophecy

Shocking images show Erdogan supporters and Kurds fighting on the streets in Belgium. Bozkurt says Erdogan’s network is a proxy force that can cause social unrest on the streets of Europe and keep Muslims there in line.

“This is first and foremost a threat to the Muslims actually living in Europe and other countries because anybody who is not subscribing to this ideology of their own government is deemed a threat, traitors, not patriotic and terrorists or not even Muslim…infidels,” he told CBN.

Bozkurt says Erdogan’s fifth column is a strong card he can play if he needs to strike back at Europe.

Source of image

Will Christianity Be Ditched When Prince Charles Becomes King?

A new report from a leading UK think tank argues that Christianity should be reduced or purged from Prince Charles’ future Coronation Ceremony.

Prince Charles is next in line to the throne and will be the first king in decades after his mother, Queen Elizabeth II.

Before that happens, University College London’s Constitution Unit, says the coronation ceremony should cut back on its overtly Christian rituals for the sake of progress.

“The UK is no longer a global or a colonial power. Celebration will therefore need to reflect what the UK has become rather than what it once was,” the report said. “However welcoming to other faiths, a wholly Anglican coronation service is no longer capable of reflecting or responding to modern British society.”

The ceremony is performed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, who anoints the Monarch with oil, administers communion, and leads them in pledging their obedience to God in a series of Oaths. In the Oaths the monarch affirms he or she is a “faithful Protestant,” and will preserve the church.

The Constitution Unit says this needs to change, noting that half of the UK’s population has “no religious affiliation.” The report suggests that a separate non-Christian ceremony could take place at Westminster Hall to honor Britain’s religious diversity.

However, not everyone is on board with the idea of reducing the coronation’s Christian elements.

Wesley Carr, a former Dean of Westminster, believes the service needs to remain Anglican and stresses the importance of the Eucharist.

“To plan a coronation without a Eucharist would require a massive break with history.That alone would imply a long study of the intention behind a coronation at all, its venue and basic structure,” Carr argues.

Dr. Ian Bradley of St Andrew’s University, a minister in the Church of Scotland, agrees.He writes in his book, God Save the Queen: The Spiritual Heart of the Monarchy.

It involves symbolizing spiritual values, embodying the sacred, representing anddefending religious faith against unbelief and secular materialism, promoting order in themidst of chaos standing for the public good against private gain, and acting as a focalpoint for unity in a society which is increasingly fragmented and fissiparous.

It is yet to be seen how Prince Charles’ coronation ceremony will proceed, especially since it is the first one the country will see in more than 50 years. While Prince Charles has been quiet about his own personal relationship with God, he has been a strong advocate of the persecuted Church.

European Union a Titanic Wreck in Waiting?

The European Union has been called the most ambitious political project in history, but it faces a very troubled future. And in politics, as in boxing, the bigger they are, the harder they fall.

An Amazing Story of Sacrificial Love

500 Miles, Two Best Friends, One Wheelchair

“If you have those moments in your life where you just know inside and out it’s something you’re supposed to do, I just knew. I just knew,” says Justin.

For Justin Skeesuck, it would be the epic adventure he and lifelong friend Patrick Gray had talked about for years: a 500-mile trek on the legendary El Camino De Santiago. For centuries, people have been making the pilgrimage that traces the steps of James the apostle from the foot of the French Pyrenees to the Santiago de Compostela cathedral on the west coast of Spain. Every year, roughly 250,000 hike the trail, but very few do it in a wheelchair.

Justin says, “I just say, ‘Hey, do you want to go across 500 miles in northern Spain with me?’ And his answer was, ‘Yeah, I’ll push you.’”

Patrick says, “I didn’t have any other thought than, ‘Yeah, I’ll push you.’ Cause we-we’ve just shared so much of life together and it was just one more opportunity to build more memories.”

It’s a friendship that started forty years ago. Together, they have supported one another through tournaments, graduations, milestones, and even disease.

In 2004, Justin was diagnosed with Multifocal Acquired Motor Axonopathy, an autoimmune disease that has slowly robbed him of all his motor skills, and will eventually take his life. It has left him completely dependent on his wife Kirstin for daily care. But Patrick didn’t give it a second thought.

Patrick says, “We didn’t think about the challenge. We had no idea how difficult it was going to be. It was just, ‘Okay. The decision’s been made, it’s important to him so it’s important to me, we’ll figure it out.’”

The hike is a 5-week trek that traverses mountains, rivers, and desert. Training and preparing for the trip would take two years. Overcoming the doubt that crept in every now and then, took prayer.

Justin says, “Pat would be completely freaked out. I would be more calm and just kinda like “Okay, we’re going to get through this.” And then, you know, I would be then freaked out and he would be calm as well. Luckily we’re never in the same cycle together.”

Patrick adds, “Yeah. We felt like two hamsters on wheels, but they were going at different paces. Different points, and different points in time.”

Justin says, “But we had never – we’d never prayed so hard, I think, ever…EVER together.”

Then, in June of 2014, they said goodbye to their families in Boise, Idaho, and boarded their flight to Paris, France. With them was a film crew, documenting their journey to raise awareness for Justin’s disease. Two days later, as they made their way up the Pyrenees Mountains, reality set in.

Patrick says, “The trail it’s kind of cambered, and it pitches one way or the other. And so we’re always on a little bit of an angle to the right or the left. And so Justin’s constantly having to move back and forth to shift his weight, while communicating to me what he’s going to see coming up.”

Justin remembers, “We had some very steep declines and we had safety harnesses attached to me and two or three people would have to get behind Patrick.”

Justin says, “My wheelchair weighs about 250 pounds with me in it and the weight of gear and-and the chair itself and whatnot, so it’s quite, it’s quite heavy and it’ll pull you straight down – straight down a hill, and it’s very slow-moving going up.”

“There were moments where we literally thought, ‘This might be it for the day.’ Like I – ‘we’re done,’” says Patrick. But as only good friends can, they kept each other going.

Patrick says, “The dynamics that we just kinda just embraced vulnerability, accountability, kind of unabashed honesty about where we’re at, what we feel. If we don’t agree with something, just throwing it all out there and being okay A) saying it; and B) being okay receiving it, has just created this-this dynamic that exists where there’s no fear. There’s no fear within out relationship. And that, I think is-is where God has really been able to mold us into kinda one unit.”

Justin says, “We took our expectations off the table, and however that played out is however it played out. And if he just needed a listening ear, it was a listening ear. If he needed somebody to laugh with, somebody to laugh with. If he needed somebody to cry with, he needed somebody to cry with. I just wanted there for him.”

But their honesty and trust wasn’t the only thing that got them through the journey.

“God was with us every step of the way,” says Justin.

Patrick says, “Someone would show up out of nowhere. You have those call them angels and-and-and whether they’re angels or not, you know, I don’t know, but they’re people that God’s using. We met people from 27 countries. We had over 100 people help us. So at least 100 moments or periods of time where people were placed in our path for a reason.”

With God and the help of complete strangers, Justin and Patrick finished their pilgrimage in 35 days. Looking back, they have come to appreciate their friendship even more. For them, it’s not about sacrifice or humility. It’s about love.

Patrick says, “This whole journey has revealed to me the truth that we are so much better together than we are alone.”

Justin says, “We’re meant to live life together and that’s where God calls us to be. It’s way more exciting, way more fun, pushes you in ways you never thought you could go or who you could be as a person.”

‘Patrick says, “So often the beauty that-that God wants us to see is within one another. The opportunity for provision is in one another. The opportunity for experiencing God’s love is the love he’s pouring into our wife, or our husband, or our children. It’s community. It’s embracing others and loving them in just a recklessly, you know, passionate way.”

Since returning from Spain, Justin and Patrick founded Push Inc — an organization that helps groups and individuals achieve their dreams. Together, the two have co-written their first book, inspired audiences as motivational speakers, and are eagerly awaiting the documentary aptly titled, “I’ll push you,” which will be released this October.

Justin says, “You can see God at work, you can! You can see God at work right in front of us. When you ask God to take control of your life, hold on! Because you’re in for a wild ride.”

Image Credits: I Will Push You.com

The Battle For Nation States Escalates

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After unprecedented police violence against its citizens Sunday, Spain is headed for another showdown with the renegade province of Catalonia, which wants to become an independent state.With its capital of Barcelona, Catalonia has it’s own history, culture, and language. Catalonia also pays more in taxes to the Spanish government in Madrid than it gets back, and many Catalans want to be free of Spain.

There are reports the Catalan parliament will consider a declaration of independence from Spain on Monday.

Europeans were shocked at the extraordinary level of violence directed against Catalans trying to vote Sunday in a referendum on independence that the Spanish government declared illegal-and it made many wonder just how free and democratic the European Union really is.

Vaclav Klaus, a former leader of the Czech republic who grew up under communism, once told EU lawmakers that the European Union reminded him of the old Soviet Union, and he was booed.

But the violence seen Sunday could easily remind at least some Europeans about what life was like in the totalitarian governments behind the Iron Curtain. Almost 900 were injured by police.

I’ve called the European Union undemocratic, I called it anti-democratic, but never, ever in my fiercest criticisms here did I think we would see the police of a member state of the Union injuring nine hundred people in an attempt to stop them going out to vote,” said British Member of the European Parliament, Nigel Farage, “Whether or not it was legal nationally for people in Catalonia to have a vote, surely, surely, people are allowed to express that opinion.

We saw women being dragged out of polling stations by their hair, old ladies with gashes in their forehead. I think it is quite extraordinary to realize that this union is prepared to turn a blind eye.”

Catalans viewed the vote as a democratic expression of free speech and self-determination, but the European Commission has sided firmly with the government in Madrid, and said the Spanish government’s use of force was necessary to uphold the rule of law.

The independence movement in Catalonia is a big problem for the EU, because there are many regions of Europe, most notably Flanders in the northern half of Belgium, where other separatist movements also want to break away and declare their own nations.

‘Peace Through Violence’: How Antifa Works to Wreck America

The black-clad members of Antifa were treated as heroes for facing off against neo-Nazi’s and the Ku Klux Klan in Charlottesville.

CNN’s Chris Cuomo even compared Antifa to the soldiers fighting Hitler.

And CNN actually described Antifa as seeking ‘peace through violence’.

But what happened next, in Berkeley, when Antifa beat up peaceful demonstrators, has forced more and more leaders on the Left and Right to condemn the movement.

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Freedom Fighters or Thugs?

America is learning what Europeans already know – that Antifa, which claims to fight racism and fascism, is not what it seems.

Antifa has been marching and destroying things in Europe for decades.

What Americans call “An-TEE-fuh” is, in Europe, An-tee-FAH, a shortened version of the German ‘anti-fascistische aktion’.

It’s not a single organization but a movement, also known as the black bloc. It’s comprised of anarchists and Marxist revolutionaries who seek the overthrow of capitalist systems.

You Were Warned

In 2014, CBN News warned of the rise of Antifa in Europe, reporting:

If you want a glimpse into how bad it could become to America in the future, look to Europe. Take American conservative values of God, country and traditional family to Western Europe and you would be branded extreme right, anti-woman, homophobic and even Nazi. And should you be brave enough to actually demonstrate publicly for a conservative cause, you could be physically attacked. Or in Sweden your home might be wrecked.

Author and Journalist Lars Hedegaard told us, ” You could get beaten up. We see that in Sweden by the way. You have these so-called anti-fascists coming to known right wingers homes and wrecking their apartments; destroy the furniture, tear up the books and then they make a video of it and put it out on the web [to say] ‘See what we did to this guy.’

The ‘Anti-fascists’ Are the Fascists

Under the banner of ‘fighting racism,’ Left-wing radicals terrorize those who dare to speak out against mutli-culturalism.

Kim Møller is considered the leading expert on the extreme violent Left groups in Denmark. He told us, “Today they call them anti-racists or they fight for a better environment or a more humane society but their goal is to smash democracy as we know it.”

Dale Hurd: “It looks like they are against fascism but they’re really against parliamentary democracy?”

Kim Møller said “Yeah. They’re revolutionary communists.”

“If you say you want revolution, people say you’re crazy, but if you say you want to ‘fight racism,’ then suddenly everyone is against racism,” Møller said.

Antifa’s approach can be summed up in their slogans. They say they are resisting “hate and racism.” That sounds good, but they also include “patriarchy,” which is Leftist code for Judeo-Christian values, and “Corporate rule,” which is pure Marxist theory.

Antifa’s Alliance with Radical Islam

Antifa can also be defined – not only by who it opposes – but by who it almost never opposes – radical Islam.

But why? Radical Islam treats women as property and calls for death for adulterers and homosexuals. This should be repugnant to Leftist radicals.

But Antifa is more likely to march against so-called Islamophobia than against Islam. Islam expert Robert Spencer has had first-hand experience with Antifa violence in Europe, he’s dodged eggs and excrement thrown by Antifa demonstrators, and leftists tried to poison him in Iceland.

He explains the connection: “The Left and the Jihadis both hate America. They are both internationalists. They both have contempt for borders; for nation states. And they hate the United States as being the foremost obstacle to their vision for the world.”

The Left’s ‘Muscle’ on American Streets

The Left-dominated European media tends to give Antifa a pass, treating them more like rowdy teenagers. Some say Antifa has become the Left’s muscle in Europe; driving conservatives out of the mainstream and underground.

This is the same Antifa that has come to America. They’re attracting large numbers of so-called progressives frustrated with President Trump and the Democratic leadership. It’s even attracting school teachers.

Antifa offers frustrated liberals a radical solution, and its goal, according to one leader, is to “make America ungovernable.”

Learning to Worship Through Pain

Chris Quilala is recording artist and worship leader with Jesus Culture. He has been involved with the music label and church since its founding. If you don’t know his name, you probably know his music.

Studio 5 caught up with Quilala during a stop on the Outcry tour in Raleigh, North Carolina to talk about his music journey.

Efrem: “You’ve recorded your first solo project, Split the Sky. What experiences birthed that out of you?”

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOslAAUcKcc]

Chris: “For me, I mentioned this on my last album, my wife and I we lost our son Jethro. He was still born in Dec. 2014 and even in the hospital room we were praying that God would breathe life into him, and we didn’t see that. But we had to make a choice.

We were going to choose to believe that God is good. That God is a miracle working God. That God is a healer.

You may have been told otherwise from whatever perspective you’re looking at.”

“The truth is that God remains the same and my response needs to remain the same.So, for me, writing songs was my way for me to remind myself that God is.”

“I wrote a song called Miracles and it’s just about that miracle working power of God that god is faithful that he is with us, that he remains the same.”

“All that being said it was just a season of writing and a lot of songs came out of that season of writing and a lot of those songs came out of the place of encountering God in the midst of pain doing my best with the skills I have in front of me to remind myself that God is good that God is faithful.”

Efrem: “How do you worship through pain?”

Chris: “It definitely is a choice. For us, during the loss of our son – I remember my pastor telling us, which in the moment spoke volumes, ‘You can trust God with the mystery.’ In the middle of pain, whatever circumstance anyone is going through there is always questions and they may never get answered. And it does take a certain level of faith and trust on our part to say, “God I don’t understand but I trust you.”

Afterword:

I had the same experience 3 years ago, and when this happened to me, I thought I would handle it. But in all honesty, you don’t know how to respond when you lose a child except to surrender and worship Jesus Christ.