Baroness Cox, who was in Damascus last weekend, campaigns tirelessly for persecuted Christians worldwide
A group of peers and clerics was in Syria hours after Saturday’s bombing, Christian Today has reported. (All our links open automatically in a new tab.)
The delegation included Lord Dykes and was led by Baroness Cox. The trip was planned some months ago, and went ahead despite the bombings. Naturally, it attracted a chorus of disapproval.
Caroline Cox has a history of standing up for persecuted Christians worldwide. She has been in Armenia, China, Indonesia, Sudan and many other places.
On Syria, Baroness Cox asked a question in Parliament in December 2017 which forced the Government to admit it had given £60m to opposition groups in Syria, including £10m of our money to armed factions.
Rt Rev Michael Langrish, former bishop of Exeter, was present. So was Rev Andrew Ashdown, who organised the visit. Rev Giles Fraser, currently in charge of St Mary Newington (South London), was also in the group.
The report in the Sun quoted Nigel Evans MP describing them as ‘useful idiots’ of ‘Assad’. We reported just days ago on the ‘group-think’ in Parliament.
Giles Fraser ‘peacenik’
Anti-Christian journalist David Aaronovitch, writing in the Times, was even more scathing. He picked particularly on Giles Fraser, describing him as ‘a peacenik’.
Rev Giles Fraser posted this view of Damascus from the minister’s window.
A tweet from Canon Fraser drew the particular ire of Aaronovitch. Dated 15th April, it said: ‘Fascinating meeting today discussing the long tradition of religious pluralism in Syria with the Minister for Religious Affairs. And the view from his office window.’
Mr Aaronovitch wrote: ‘Given their ubiquity in Baathist Syria it’s quite possible that one of the buildings glimpsed from the window could have been a regime detention centre.’
Has anyone said the Syrian government is not repressive?
But the only alternative to it is the murdering jihadists financed by the UK, the US and the Sunni Muslim Gulf nations.
And out of the two, the Christians, Druze, Shia Muslims and Alawites of Syria know which they prefer.
Armaments fund Christians’ critics
The Daily Telegraph quoted one Dr Hisham Hellyer. “When British peers and Christian clergy have been to Damascus in the past, they were rightly condemned as presenting an image of appeasement to Assad’s regime, and showing him as some sort of protector of Christians, as though Syrian Muslims mattered for nought.”
Well, it isn’t that the Syrian Sunni Muslims, to be specific, ‘matter for nought.’ It is that if they were in power, all the others would be murdered or driven out.
Tomahawk missile. What the BBC graphic does not say is ‘Cost $250,000’. The 2017 attack cost the US Defense Department $14,750,000. Shares in Raytheon jumped 1.7% in the wake of the 2017 missile strike. Raytheon help fund the Atlantic Council.
But this is interesting. Dr Hellyer is ‘a senior research fellow at the Atlantic Council and the Royal United Services Institute in London’. The Daily Telegraph says so. And where does the seemingly-neutral Atlantic Council receive funding from?
Its own website lists the UK Foreign Office, US Dept of State, NATO and the United Arab Emirates. They all hate Bashar Al-Assad. Also listed are Rockefeller Brothers, Chevron Oil, Carnegie and a number of other merchant banks.
Arms manufacturers Raytheon, who make the Tomahawk missiles used last weekend, give money to Atlantic Council. Their shares rose after the 2017 attack. They have just risen again. No matter that at least two of the sites they bombed had no chemical weapons there, according to the OPCW. Arms manufacturers Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman also fund Atlantic Council.
Brendan McDermid of Reuters muses: ‘For some reason, diplomacy does not seem to be high on the Atlantic Council’s agenda.’
UK Christians met President Assad in 2016
President Bashar al-Assad flanked by (l-r) Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali, Rev Andrew Ashdown, Lord Hylton and Baroness Cox. We do not know the identity of the other three persons.
This is not the first time Baroness Cox and Andrew Ashdown have been in Syria. They formed part of a delegation in September 2016.
As we reported in our October 2016 newsletter, the Christian delegation flew to Damascus at the invitation of local Christian leaders.
They were condemned by anti-Assad voices in the UK, but Baroness Cox defended the trip.
She said: “You’re in the country, you want to meet as many people as you can. You go to raise concerns, which you can’t do if you don’t meet.
“The main purpose was to hear the voices of the people of Syria.”
‘Let us decide our own future’
Baroness Cox said the Syrian people were anxious about foreign intervention. “They plead with us: ‘Please do not let the British government and the international community bring about an enforced regime change, let us decide our own future’, and the government is doing a lot to try to promote reconciliation,” she said.
Rev Andrew Ashdown said: “The people within Syria, of all faiths and all sectarian backgrounds, are appalled at the narrowness of Western media reporting and one-sidedness.”
Bishop Nazir-Ali added, “Britain maintains relations with and encourages visits to countries like the Sudan, Iran and Zimbabwe. Why is Assad demonised to this extent? In the Middle East, the choice is not between angels and monsters but between one kind of monster and another. With all my experience, I cannot say that he is the worst of all.”
Baroness Cox voiced the fears of local people that “ the West’s plans for regime change would be disastrous … and they would become another Iraq.” That was why, before last weekend’s raid, we were praying: Douma: Stop the West rushing to war!
Christians in Syria
Orthodox Christians in Damascus
We (that is, Evangelicals) have a tendency to regard the Christians in Syria as not quite like us. They do weird things like light candles and wear funny hats. We can be tempted to think they are not even born again. (As if there are two classes of Christians, ‘born-agains’ and ‘non-born-agains.’) Discuss in the comments!
Most Syrian Christians are in communion either with the Greek and Russian Orthodox. There are also Eastern Orthodox. Then there are the Eastern, or Melkite, Catholics.
Christians in Syria used to form 10% of the pre-war 22 million population. Only a minority of Christians in Syria are Protestant. The Anglican church in Damascus is currently closed because of the unrest.
But nevertheless, this Easter, Christians all over Syria were able to celebrate the Risen Lord Jesus, as we reported at the time.
Russian Cyber Attacks
Recently, an MP told me that Russia is mounting ‘cyber attacks’ against the UK. (As if we don’t do exactly the same thing.) The attacks were not specified, but message was clear. ‘The Russians are attacking us! Stop seeing any good at all in them!’ That leads me to this fascinating quote:
“Why, of course, the people don’t want war. Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally, the common people don’t want war. Neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship…
“Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.”
The man who said that was Hermann Goering (as told to Gustav Gilbert during the Nuremberg trials)
Talking up the ‘Russian threat’
There is plainly no threat to the UK of a Russian invasion. Consequently, the ‘threat’ has to be of the mysterious ‘cyber’ variety. No doubt all countries are getting up to all kinds of cyber trickery on each other. And now news comes from the Independent that senior MPs are getting together. Chairmen of the top House of Commons Select Committees will collaborate on the ‘Russian threat’.
We read: ‘Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Tom Tugendhat will lead the new “Russia Co-ordinating Group”, along with Labour’s Home Affairs Committee head Yvette Cooper, Treasury Committee boss Nicky Morgan, and the heads of intelligence, defence, DCMS and national security bodies.’
And here is the Sun claiming Russia targets MILLIONS of UK computers. In 2016, the Washington Post claimed Russian hackers had gained access to the electric grid in Vermont. It was a false claim. Undeterred, the FBI have put out a new report claiming Russian hackers are trying to disrupt energy supplies. It seems light on security advice, such as ‘install security software’, ‘never open attachments’ and ‘do not click on unexpected links.’ But it’s heavy on scare.
Russia was suspected of a cyber-attack on the Ukraine electricity system in 2015. For all the effort whoever it was put into it, Wikipedia tells us a mere 0.015% of daily electricity was not supplied. It still cut off 230,000 people for between one and six hours. A second attack, a year later, caused little more trouble but was more automated. However, the same article says the US and Israel also targeted an Iranian nuclear installation in 2009. Clearly, everyone is at it.
Fake News and Money Laundering
Along with the ‘cyber threat’, the MPs will consider ‘fake news’ or propaganda. That’s the likes of Russia Today (RT), Sputnik, Off-Guardian and (surely not!) Christian Voice. But ‘fake news’ is in the eye of the beholder. Are the people of Britain not grown-up enough to decide who is telling the truth? That is the reasoning behind what we used to call ‘a free press’ and ‘freedom of speech’. Unless you take Goering’s view and conclude that the non-mainstream media interfere with the government’s process of telling us we are being attacked.
The third ‘Russian threat’ is the money laundering said to be done in London by Russian oligarchs. So here is where it all looks like an exercise in clutching at straws. ‘Money laundering’ is ubiquitous. Is it really a security threat?
So we are left with ‘cyber warfare’. And on that, we are urged to accept the word of our leaders that it is a real threat to the UK and that the UK (and US) is not also engaging in it. They will have, sadly, an uphill task. Some of us still remember Dodgy Dossiers, 45 minutes, ‘sexed-up’ intelligence and ‘the 70,000’.
Psalm 7:14 Behold, he travaileth with iniquity, and hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood.
Better to be at peace
Surely the best alternative (unless you are an arms manufacturer) is to be on better terms with the Russian Federation? Is that completely impossible? Who says so?
Rom 12:18 If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.
Heb 12:14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:
Prince Vladimir accepted the Christian faith for the ‘Rus’ in Kiev in 988 AD. Would it not be a good idea to talk peaceably to the leaders of this great Christian nation? Should we not seek common ground against the real threat of militant Islam, for example?
Psalm 34:14 Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.
Thank God for the UK delegation in Syria. Pray for words of peace and understanding. Pray for repentance in our leaders. Theresa May and Boris Johnson have only this week been trying to force gay rights on the nations of the Commonwealth. Lord, change their hearts. And send your Holy Spirit into your people as we pray for our land:
Jer 29:7 And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the LORD for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.
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21 comments
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We don’t seem to have much opportunity except to pray in our day. I have sent the OPCW report to our MP. I’m not convinced it will make much difference. Do they even want to know the truth or do they prefer to believe a lie? What are their hidden motivations?
We will keep praying as there does not appear to be any path for taking action for most people, apart from writing and demonstrating perhaps. We rely on God’s faithfulness to His praying church, but also take time to share our wonderful gospel on the streets. God is still on the throne and foresaw all this and therefore has the answers.
If God foresaw all this, it would have been better if he had intervened earlier. If his church has been praying, why has he not been faithful and put a stop to it before ?
These are difficult questions for any Christian to answer, but if you are going to make statements like this, you need to have some answer ready for the inevitable questions they provoke.
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No, the question is not difficult. God is God. He does God stuff. There are lots of things which people should do and they don’t. So evil flourishes.
But now he had finished all the really busy God stuff of creating everything, what God stuff is there left for him to do except to keep it running smoothly ?
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If you don’t believe in God anyway, you are just playing games. Trolling, I think they call it. You cannot speak of the Lord of heaven and earth as if he were a human being. That betrays deliberate ignorance. God just is.
So for the benefit of others, yes, God sustains creation by his power:
Hebrews 1:3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
He hears and answers his people’s prayer:
1Kings 8:45 Then hear thou in heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause.
he sends out evangelists to bring more people into the Kingdom:
Luke 10:2 Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.
And he calls everyone everywhere to repent and believe the Gospel:
Act 17:28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.
Act 17:29 Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device.
Act 17:30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:
That was the Apostle Paul in Athens. Here is the Apostle Peter:
Acts 4:12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
There is hope even for you. The Apostle Paul again:
Romans 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Yes, but asking people to believe in him and pray to him and then “saving” them is not the same thing as improving the world he has created, which he ought to be perfectly capable of doing.
Are you saying that there is no point in living in this world, all that is needed is to be saved and cosy in Heaven ? I don’t think that goes along with your usual line, but of course some Christians have always seen it like that.
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I can’t see the world needs a lot of improvement, but if people were to behave in a manner commanded by Almighty God in the Bible it would be a far better place to live in. One task of Christians is to try to explain that and call people, especially those who lead us, back to those Biblical principles, which God gave for the good of mankind.
I have often wondered about this myself, Rox. However, “His ways are not our ways, His thoughts are higer than our thoughts”. I have had enough God-incidences, things happen and direction, etc that could only have come fro God, to keep my fiath alive. For example, I cry out to God: 50,000 children starve to death EVERY day: why doesn’t God do something? But He gives us free will, it would cost US$30 to $40 billion a yearto feed, clothe and educate everyone on the planet apparently, according to the UN. Peanuts really. There is even enough money in so-called CHRISTIANS’ pockets alone to do it, you’d have thought they’d be concerned. The amount of money that goes on brand, spanking new church buildings, with all mod-cons (COFFEE included, of course, must have coffee!!!!) is a disgrace, imo.
But it isn’t just 40 billion dollars. The dollars won’t do it. You need to produce the stuff which you are assuming the dollars would buy. And it’s not just lying around already waiting to be bought.
You may think that Rothschilds are sitting on huge piles of food, clothes, and trainee teachers, waiting for enough money to come in for them to be prepared to release them. I don’t think so.
Why would the Rothschilds need to do anything like that when they own the central banks and can just print as much money as they want in any currency at any time ?
Needless to say, I don’t subscribe to your belief that Rothschilds do own the central banks. Nor are they sitting on all the food.
think about it. Its not just a case of printing money.
Unfortunately your comment, Stephen, about asking if there are two classes of Christian; those “born again”, and those “not born again” is thoroughly disingenuous. The Bible makes it clear the only thing that matters is being a “new creation” as nothing else “counts”! You shouln’t need me to tell you this. As for the so called “Orthodox” churches, most are frankly horrendous & worse than the worst aspects of Roman Catholocism. We have personal experience of most of them, finding them deeply disturbing Spiritually, and clearly even Satanic. You yourself identify that Protestant Christians are the minority in Syria, and even they (as in our own country) will mostly NOT be “saved”; as we have again encountered by personal experience. As previously identified, we do these people no service by pretending they are christian, and loving them into hell; when their organisations are riddled with heresy & un-Biblical doctrine, superstition & idolatry. Once “saved”, they will flee these false churches, as have the many we know.
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That was my point, Woolley. One is either a believer in the Lord Jesus, born ‘from above,’ or not. But I think I should want to be generous. You see, when Islamic State singled out the 21 Coptic Christians in February 2015 and sentenced them to death unless they renounced Jesus, and they all knelt down to be martyred, I find it hard to accept they were not, every single one, at that moment, true born-again followers of the Lord of Life and qualified to avail themselves of this verse: Psalm 116:15 Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.
Agreed. But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven. Matthew 10:33. I hope we will have the same Holy Spirit courage and boldness in our time of testing. But, I consider how silent the Church is NOW in the UK when evil & unjust laws are made-I despair. Thank God for Christian Voice . God willing more vocies will be heard loud and clear…including mine!
If you really believe that millions of fairly ordinary and sincere people in Europe and South America are in the hands of a clearly satanic organisation, you can’t expect to be taken very seriously. Who are you to make this pronouncement, with your “personal experience”. Don’t you think they have personal experience ?
I absolutely agree about the Coptic Christians you refer to, Stephen; one of the father’s of these dear souls actually thanking I.S. for not editing their executions as it included their testimony refusing to renounce Jesus, so the families were comforted in their son’s eternal destiny. This moved me to tears, as I had previously been very sceptical about the Coptics, and certainly re-assessed my views. In answer to Roxy G I can only point out the Bible clearly refers to the Roman Catholic doctrines of celibacy & dietry rules as being demonic, and praying to relics & Mary are clearly heresy. We must contend earnestly for the faith once & for all handed down to the saints, and if we fudge these issues we risk encouraging immature believers into false doctrine and wrong faith. The Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible must be our guide for faith & life; not vain teachings & doctrines of men or institutions of men. I want to be generous too, but I also know we must honour our Lord & Saviour & Heavenly Father in Spirit & Truth.
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I don’t think you can call celibacy demonic. It wouldn’t suit me, but some say they are called to it. Fasting is commended in the Bible. Routine abstinence from meat on Friday transfers some of the solemnity of Good Friday to every Friday. The veneration of relics was seen as consistent with Christ’s incarnation (as well as big business) going back in history. How we wish we could have been there in the seventh century, David, you and I, to tell them where they were going wrong.
As to praying to the saints, and Mary is not the only one, maybe they seem to be more accessible, or to have more time on their hands, than our blessed Lord. We ask each other for prayer after all. Mind you, I see the saints (not just the Saints!) as asleep waiting to be raised. However, I may be wrong. In Rev 6:10 they are not asleep but crying out to the Lord to avenge their blood. On the other hand, perhaps that is a pictorial illustration of a yearning in heaven. Personally, I should rather pray to the Lord of Life if I am to spend any time in prayer at all. Which I do, I hasten to add.
Stephen, I’m frankly staggered, as well as very concerned, by your remarks above. The difference is, one is optional, as Paul makes clear in his epistles to the Corinthians & others (which is acceptable); the other is compulsory as in the case of the Roman Catholic Church (& others) which is not acceptable. 1 Timothy 4:1-5 makes this clear, (headed as The Great Apostasy) “Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits & doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe & know the truth”. This has nothing to do with “fasting” which is a different matter altogether. Celibacy of the Roman Catholic Priesthood & their doctrine of abstaining from meat on Fridays clearly falls within this. Their so called Priesthood is also obviously un-Biblical, as the New Testament clearly shows we are all part of the “holy priesthood” (1 Peter 2:5) ; the Old Covenant Priesthood being done away with (Hebrews 4-8) finishing with verse 13 “In that He says,”A new covenant”, He has made the first obsolete”. You are right about there not being “Saints”, but now only “saints” which is what all true believers are, but to suggest they “maybe have more time on their hands than our blessed Lord” is frankly very disturbing as no one has more time than our precious Lord Jesus, and it could also unwittingly encourage people into an un-Biblical practice, praying to the dead (or for the dead) being clearly forbidden in Scripture. Asking our living Brethren to pray is a totally different matter, and we do well not to confuse these issues & muddy the water.
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Fair play to you David. But I think you’ll find the ‘forbidding to marry’ verse was directed at the Gnostics who absolutely forbad their followers to marry so as not to bring more material people into the world. Because for them only the ‘spiritual’ was any good. Homosexuality was OK, because that did not lead to procreation. Parallels with secularism and especially population controllers today?
As to a class of believers being celibate, I don’t like it, and as I said, it wouldn’t do for me, so I struggle to understand how anyone could go for it. But the Apostle does write:
1Cor 7:1 Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman. 2 Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband. … 6 But I speak this by permission, and not of commandment. 7 For I would that all men were even as I myself. But every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner, and another after that.
So I cannot say men (or women) deciding to be celibate in the quest to follow the Lord is contrary to scripture, however odd I find it myself.
As to the second point, apparently the Gnostics forbad the eating of meat too. (So did Dewi Sant in his rule – and that was the Celtic Church. Mind you, Gildas was less than impressed with that kind of asceticism and the danger of a kind of spiritual superiority that came with it. I am so with Gildas!)
As to a ‘priesthood’, I am with you again, but the Anglicans claim to have priests as well. And in most of our churches there is a class of person whom we call ‘Pastor’ or ‘Minister’. We respect them as maybe having studied more, prayed more, having more of the Holy Spirit, etc, than us. We should not call him a ‘Priest’ with a big ‘P’, but nevertheless …
As to praying to the faithful departed, I was merely trying to understand, not to endorse. I believe some people ask these saints to pray for them, not in any way to answer their prayer. But, as this article shows comprehensively, and as you say, praying to anyone departed is not scriptural. Indeed, Saul was cursed for bringing up Samuel. Additionally, no-one has more time, or understands our needs better, than our Saviour, the Lord of life.
Stephen, Thanks for your helpful clarifications. Gnostics or not; as a doctrine, instruction & practice it is Biblically wrong & cannot be supported – hence all the paedophilia that is rampant in the R.C. church (and other denominations). We used to have an Evangelical R.C. Minister in Malton, everyone calling him Father Joe, but I could not call him such and referred to him simply as “Joe”; but talking to him one day about being”born again”, he said “We don’t use that term” to which i replied, “Jesus did” which ended to conversation.
We would see all these titles as false & not Biblical. They all lead to the clergy/laity divide. How any man of God (so called) can allow himself to be called Father, Vicar, Reverend or even Pastor with a capitol is beyond me; never mind Priest. None of this is in the Bible. Many of them do not have the Holy Ghost, never mind “more of the Holy Spirit” as you suggest. If they had the Holy Ghost, He would convict them of their error, and they would not allow themselves to be so called. I well remember discussing this with a dear Vicar friend of ours who in the end denounced me by saying, “For goodness sake David, I’ve been earning my living at this for years” ending the discussion & literally leaving us dumb-founded. What the Bible said didn’t matter, even though we “Revere” God, not man. Vicar is from the word “vicarious” meaning instead of and intermediary, which stems from the Pope’s other title of “Vicar of Christ”! Outrageous!!
The Church is the Body of Christ, and should be “overseen” by a group of elders & deacons, and ministry should be from the Body according to the gift & calling recognized by the Body & overseen accordingly.
Now you know why we’ve got into so much trouble with the established churches! May our Lord Jesus bless & keep you, and guard & guide you as you seek to serve Him. With much love & prayer, David.
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Hi David. Every blessing. Yes, sure, but a class of men will always arise as leaders, like it or not. And we shall always give them titles. You realise the title of ‘vicar’ in the Anglican church is nothing to do with anyone in Rome. The vicar of All Saints or wherever is the stand-in on behalf of the diocesan or local bishop, who is the true overseer.
As to your first point, I am going to suggest that paedophilia, or more properly pederasty, occurs in churches and scout groups and teaching situations because a certain kind of man seeks out these positions as a means of getting close to his prey. As opposed to celibacy leading of itself to those desires. It follows that those interviewing men for such positions should go out of their way to exclude anyone homosexual. But they aren’t allowed to by law and prevailing fashion. And if that sort are already in position doing the interviewing, then the problem will only grow. We live in a bad time.
Thanks Stephen. Appreciate your point, but we’re sort of modern day Dissenters & Non-Conformists. If it’s not in the Bible, we would dissent, and like-wise refuse to conform. Hence often branded as trouble makers, like most of our predecessors such as Bunyon. Praise the Lord!