The city of Dearborn, Mich., hosted its annual
2012 Arab International festival on Father’s Day weekend.
As can be seen in a video (below) of the attack, a group of Christians holding signs were viciously assaulted by an angry mob of Arabs – as the crowd chanted
“Allahu Akbar!” – Arabic for “God is the greatest!”
There is a lot of information in the Bible regarding Christian persecution in these end times. As believers we are to expect it. And it's only going to get worse. However, even though the Bible does mention that believers may face persecution, and even martyrdom, no where in the Bible does God ask us to be martyrs. That is something Allah asks his followers. Our God is not Allah.
What I am about to say may seem harsh. But as Proverbs 27:5 says, "Open rebuke is better then secret love" , and Proverbs 28:23 says, "He who rebukes a man will in the end gain more favor than he who has a flattering tongue". Perhaps what I am about to say will help somebody else out in the future who may be facing the same or similar circumstances.
Although these Christian men had good intentions, and their hearts were in the right place, what they did was foolishness. As I was watching the video (which is hard to watch) the scriptures that kept coming to my mind, over and over, were the scriptures that tell us to shake the dust from our feet if they won't except the Gospel message.
When leaving Gentile cities, pious Jews often shook the dust from their feet to show their seperation from Gentile practices. Jesus tells his disciples to shake the dust off their feet if a city or home didn't welcome them? If the disciples shook the dust of a Jewish town from their feet, it would show their separation from Jews who rejected their Messiah. This gesture was to show the people that they were making a wrong choice.
The verses are from Matthew 10, Mark 6, and Luke 9.
Mark 6
11 And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear you, when ye depart thence,
shake off the dust under your feet for a testimony against them.
Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrha
in the day of judgment, than for that city.
Matthew 10
14 And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words,
when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet.
Luke 9
5 And whosoever will not receive you, when ye go out of that city,
shake off the very dust from your feet for a testimony against them.
To shake the dust off one's feet meant total rejection of that place. When the message was rejected the bearers of the gospel were to shake the dust off their feet as a sign of protest and refuse to have anything to do with the place.
Acts 13: 51
But they shook off the dust of their feet against them , and came unto Iconium.
The disciples of Jesus did not hang around if they were rejected. Even Jesus himself did not hang around a crowd that wanted to throw him off a cliff.
Luke 4
28 So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath,
29 and rose up and thrust Him out of the city; and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which
their city was built, that they might throw Him down over the cliff.
30 Then passing through the midst of them, He went His way.
If these Christan men in the video below walked away, they would not have been cowards. Jesus is no coward. I don't mean to be harsh on these men, but because they didn't walk away the Bible actually calls them fools. Proverbs speaks a lot about fools. And when facing danger, Proverbs tells us that:
Proverbs 14:16 (KJB)
A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished.
Proverbs 22:24 (NKJV)
Make no friendship with an angry man, And with a furious man do not go,
Proverbs 17:12 (NLT)
It is safer to meet a bear robbed of her cubs than to confront a fool caught in foolishness.
You can’t argue or reason with an irrational person. Muslims have grown up in very evil circumstances, from the moment they are born, because of their religious beliefs. They know nothing else. Satan has poisoned their hearts to the good news of God's Kingdom. Rather then beating our heads against a brick wall that the evil one has erected in the heart of someone, God calls us to move.
2 Corinthians 4:4
In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
When both lines of Proverbs 22:3 and 27:12 are taken together they point out a very important fact. There are times in life when it is best to run and hide. Obviously there are also times when it is necessary to stand and fight. In typical pragmatic fashion, Proverbs bases the decision of when to do which on one’s chances for winning. There are certain temptations at certain times of our lives that are best dealt with by running. There are other times and temptations where we must take a stand. The measure of wisdom is the ability to understand oneself well enough to know when he or she can be victorious standing and fighting and when that will lead to disaster. The situation these Christian men were in would have been better off if they left. The end result is stated in Proverbs 14:18. The naïve become fools and the prudent begin to possess knowledge.
We must be careful how we approach others that do not share in our faith. Especially Muslims. And I don't say that because I'm racist. I say it because I have researched their Quran. And they are taught murder from the moment they can walk. Especially to murder anyone, ANYONE, who does not share their beliefs. They are a very dangerous people. They are not a religion of peace, as the media wants to brainwash us into thinking. They are allowed in their Qurran to even act like a friend to you so they can then find an opportunity to kill you later. This is just one of the horrible things they teach from birth. There are many, many other terrible things they teach such as this.
The Bible tells us:
Matthew 7:6
Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs.
If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.
This sounds like the exact circumstances these Christian men were facing. One of the keys is to understand the view of dogs and pigs in Hebrew culture. Pigs, of course, were considered unclean animals. Jews were forbidden to eat pork of any kind. Only Gentiles raised pigs (Matthew 8:30-34).
We think of a dog as "man's best friend," but that was by no means the view of the period in Jesus' time. Rather dogs were scavengers around the towns and cities. They might eat the decaying flesh of carcasses in the wild, which would have deeply offended the Jews' understanding of holiness and ritual cleanness. Dogs are looked down on in verses like Proverbs 26:11 and Matthew 15:26-27.
The Jews also used the word "dogs" to refer to Gentile outsiders (compare Philippians 3:2 and Revelation 22:15). Can you imagine giving holy food from the temple to an unclean dog scavenger? Of course not!
Revelation 22:15 - For outside are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.
Philippians 3:2 - Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision.
Other scripture on dogs:
Psalm 22:16 - Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet.
Psalm 22:20 - Deliver my life from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dogs.
Pearls were extremely precious. To throw them into the pig pen would be to not only lose them in the slime, but also may anger the pig, who might come after you for throwing him inedible food. That's exactly what happened to these Christian men!
So who are the dogs and swine Jesus is referring to? They seem to be people who openly reject the gospel of Christ.
The holy food and pearls were of value in the fact that the food was set aside for temple use and the pearls carried a value commercially. No one in their right mind would waste the sacred temple food on a dog, nor would they throw into the slime of a pig pen something as valuable as a pearl. The gospel carries just such a value, and, as I understand it, one should not waste time trying to continue to share it with those who reject it outright, and who slander and discredit it. We need to be sharing with those whose hearts are open and hungry to be fed.
Jesus tells us not to let our evangelistic efforts become fruitless by wasting time beating our heads against walls erected by the dark one, but how do we know when it’s time to do so? The danger here is to rely on our own personal emotional reaction to rejection when witnessing. In Titus 3:10 we are instructed to walk away from a heretick after one or two admonitions. It is useless to continue to witness to someone who is convinced that you are wrong.
The Bible also instructs us to discern those who reject the gospel outright, and not to continue to declare it to them so that it is continually slandered and discredited. Rather, go to those who are receptive and hungry for hope. Although, this crowd was not hard to discern. They made their intentions clearly known, and loudly. If the police weren't there, I'm sure that the crowd would have attempted to kill them. I really believe they only got out of their because of the grace of God.
God calls on us to discern the hearts of unbelievers, and refuse to continually preach to those who reject, who show themselves to be like unclean animals, unworthy of the Good News. Jesus says that we should not entrust Holy teachings to Unholy or unclean people. It is futile to try to teach Holy concepts to people who don't want to listen, and will only tear apart what we say. We should not stop giving God's Word to unbelievers, but we should be wise and discerning in what we teach, and to whom, so that we will not be wasting our time, or put ourselves in danger.
We have to remember, persecution for the Christians is all part of the end times. It's only going to get worse. So be prayed up, keep the Word in your heart, so you remain strong, like the saints in the following video. I don't condone what they did, but I do believe they are strong, loving, brave, Christian men.
Christians Assaulted at 2012 Arab International festival
