When you hear the term New Atheism, you may think of Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins. But you are probably less familiar with Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who stood right by their side in strongly denouncing Christianity. This influential scholar and intellectual was essentially the fifth most prominent new atheist behind Hitchens, Dawkins, Sam Harris and Daniel Dennett.

Hirsi Ali was raised as a Muslim in Somalia. But she eventually began to oppose forced marriage, honor killing, child marriage, and female genital mutilation. Ayaan renounced her Islamic faith and became an atheist. She moved to the Netherlands at the age of 23 and rose to become a top-ranking politician.

Hirsi Ali’s books, Infidel: My Life (2007) and Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now (2015) became bestsellers. But rejecting Islam and embracing atheism still left her soul feeling empty, in spite of the fact that “Hirsi Ali was a central figure in New Atheism since its beginnings.”

Last year, Hirsi Ali announced that she had become a Christian, which of course shocked her atheist friends. But it wasn’t intellectual arguments that ultimately convinced Hirsi Ali to embrace Christianity. It was what happened when she humbled herself before the God of the universe. Hirsi Ali prayed fervently and cried out to the Lord for help.

In a friendly discussion & debate with Richard Dawkins a few months ago, Ayaan explained her journey: “I had a personal crisis … I lived for about a decade with intense depression and anxiety, self-loathing. I hit rock bottom. I went to a place where I actually didn’t want to live anymore, but I wasn’t brave enough to take my own life. I was self-medicating. Over a long period of time, I saw psychiatrists and other doctors. I was trying to understand my condition and I was trying to treat it with the help of pure evidence-based science.”

Hirsi Ali continued, “I saw one therapist who said, ‘Perhaps you have something else.’ She described it as ‘spiritual bankruptcy,’ and that resonated with me. And having reached a place where I had absolutely nothing to lose, I prayed, and I prayed desperately. And for me, that was a turning point. And what happened after that is a miracle in its own right.”

Hirsi Ali learned the painful lesson that Islam provides no inner peace, but only brutality and fear, especially for women and young girls. Likewise, she discovered firsthand that atheism also leaves your soul feeling empty. Ayaan was terribly unfulfilled, in spite of her close friendships with Hitchens, Dawkins, Harris and Dennett. Atheism simply did not satisfy the deep longings within her, and even brought her to the brink of suicide.

Dawkins finds it next to impossible to see where Hirsi Ali is coming from today. She has tried to help him understand that there are “different planes of perception.” She compares it to her inability to perceive the significance of Jackson Pollock’s abstract impressionist art. Where one person perceives brilliance, another is left perplexed as to its beauty.

Hirsi Ali said, “When I was an atheist, I was going all over the United States and Europe, mocking Christians, making fun of them, making fun of faith, as you’re doing now dear Richard. I was walking with six to seven men at any given time, protecting me, armed, from things that I said that were offensive to Muslims. Christians were writing me letters saying, ‘We’re going to pray for you. You are misguided.’ And I think that alone defines for me the distinction between mainstream Christianity and mainstream Islam.”

Hirsi Ali is learning that not only does Christ bring peace to your soul when you accept Him as Savior, but Jesus actually turns His followers into peace-loving people who pray for their enemies, rather than taking up arms against them.

Dawkins asked Hirsi Ali, “You don’t believe Jesus rose from the dead, surely?” She said, “I choose to believe that Jesus rose from the dead.” Every follower of Christ believes in the Lord’s death on the cross for our sins, as well as His resurrection from the dead. Hirsi Ali then said, “It has to go back to, ‘Is there something or is there nothing?'” Dawkins obviously believes there is nothing, which is precisely what his ideology provides for those who choose atheism. Hirsi Ali admitted, “For years I agreed with you that there is nothing.”

Dawkins chose to blurt out this sarcastic and blasphemous comment about Christianity: “The idea that God couldn’t think of a better way to forgive the sins of humanity than to have His Son crucified. That is a disgusting idea.”

How can Dawkins remain so blind to the truth? He is hardening his heart and deliberating sinning against the Holy Spirit by continually rejecting God’s plan of salvation. Sadly, Dawkins may have already reached his personal point of no return. Many wondered the same thing about Hitchens, which I addressed in a CP op-ed earlier this year: “Christopher Hitchens Now Realizes God is Great.”

How are we to understand these different planes of perception? The Apostle Paul explained it this way: “The man without the (Holy) Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them” (1 Corinthians 2:14). “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18).

Richard Dawkins remains on a much lower plane of perception than Hirsi Ali. The only way to gain what I refer to as “sanctified reason” is to do what Hirsi Ali did when she humbled herself before Almighty God in prayer. It requires humility to “repent and believe the good news” (Mark 1:15). When Dawkins referred to Christ’s crucifixion as a “disgusting idea,” Hirsi Ali gently responded, “God gave us free will.”

By the grace of God, Hirsi Ali was “rescued from the dominion of darkness and brought into the kingdom of the Son, He (the Father) loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13-14). And there is no greater peace than having a relationship with your Creator and knowing that your sins are forgiven and washed away by the blood of Jesus Christ who “died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God” (1 Peter 3:18).
Sources:Christian Post

http://theendtimeradio.com

ഒക്കലഹോമ : ഒക്കലഹോമ ശാരോൻ ഫെല്ലോഷിപ്പ് ചർച്ച് സിൽവർ ജൂബിലി മീറ്റിംഗും ശാരോൻ നോർത്ത് അമേരിക്ക സൗത്ത് റീജിയൻ കൺവൻഷനും ഒക്ടോബർ 25 മുതൽ 27 വരെ ഒക്കലഹോമ ശാരോൻ സഭാഹാളിൽ നടക്കും.
പാസ്റ്റർമാരായ റ്റിങ്കു തോമസ് (പ്രസിഡന്റ്), ജോൺസൻ ഉമ്മൻ (സെക്രട്ടറി), ജോസഫ് റ്റി ജോസഫ്, ബാബു തോമസ്, ജോയ് തോമസ്, സ്റ്റീഫൻ വർഗീസ്, പ്രകാശ് മാത്യു, റെൻ റെന്നി, സിബിൻ അലക്സ്,എന്നിവർ മുഖ്യാതിഥികൾ ആയിരിക്കുമെന്ന് റീജിയൻ കോഓർഡിനേറ്റർ പാസ്റ്റർ തേജസ് പി തോമസ് അറിയിച്ചു.
സിൽവർ ജൂബിലി ആഘോഷം ഒക്ടോബർ 26 ശനിയാഴ്ച രാവിലെ 10 മുതൽ 12 വരെ നടക്കുമെന്ന് സഭ സെക്രട്ടറി വർഗീസ് ജേക്കബ് അറിയിച്ചു. റീജിയൻ കൺവെൻഷൻ വെള്ളി, ശനി ദിവസങ്ങളിൽ വൈകിട്ട് 7 മുതൽ 9 വരെ നടക്കും. ഞായറാഴ്ച നടക്കുന്ന റീജിയണിലെ സഭകളുടെ സംയുക്തസഭായോഗത്തോടെ സമ്മേളനം അവസാനിക്കും.
സമ്മേളനത്തിന് സൗത്ത് റീജിയൻ കമ്മിറ്റിയും, SFCNA കമ്മിറ്റിയും സഭ കമ്മിറ്റിയും നേതൃത്വം നൽകും. പാസ്റ്റർ സിബിൻ അലക്സ് റീജിയൻ റീജിയൻ ക്വയറിനു നേതൃത്വം നൽകും
Sources:Middleeast Christian Youth Ministries

http://theendtimeradio.com

Algerian Pastor Youssef Ourahmane, arrested and sentenced for leading worship services in his home country, recently shared his experience, highlighting the ongoing repression of religious minorities in Algeria.

At an event hosted by the legal group ADF International, Youssef, a Christian convert and leader in the Protestant Church of Algeria, advocated for religious freedom and the reopening of Evangelical churches forcibly closed by Algerian authorities.

He recounted his arrest and conviction for the so-called crime of “illegal worship.”

“We have had a lot of opposition,” he told the audience. “By 2019, most of the Evangelical churches in our country had been shut down. When the churches were closed, a lot of the Christians felt that something was gone in their Christian faith because the building had been part of their identity.”

Born into a Muslim family, Youssef converted to Christianity as a student and has been leading congregations for over 30 years. Despite legal challenges and personal risk, he remains steadfast in his faith.

When asked why he is willing to face imprisonment, he responded, “God knows the number of my hairs on my head, and none fall without His will. We have to accept God’s will, and God’s sovereignty. I try my best, by His grace, to be a good testimony to others.”

On July 2, 2023, Pastor Youssef was sentenced to two years in prison and fined 100,000 Algerian dinars ($750) for leading the Emmanuel Church in Algeria. Although his prison sentence was reduced to one year in November 2023, the Court of Appeal in Tizi Ouzou upheld his conviction in May and added an additional six months of suspended prison time.

“Despite their small numbers, Algeria has systematically been working to prevent the Evangelical community from being able to simply worship together,” said Kelsey Zorzi, director of advocacy for global religious freedom for ADF International, during the event. “Pastor Youssef’s case is one of roughly 50 spurious cases against Christians in the past few years. His advocacy throughout the years on behalf of the entire Evangelical church in Algeria, even in the face of potential imprisonment, is an inspiration.”

ADF International says it’s collaborating with other non-governmental organizations to support Youssef, aiming to raise his case with government officials from over 40 countries. “The United States and the international community must take a strong stand against the unlawful church closures and unjustified arrests and imprisonments of pastors,” Zorzi said.

Algeria, a nation where 99% of the nearly 43 million population identify as Sunni Muslim, has seen increased restrictions on religious minorities. The government enforces laws that limit religious freedom and expression, including blasphemy and anti-proselytism statutes targeting Christians and other minorities, according to ADF International.

Since 2019, authorities have forcibly closed 43 churches affiliated with the Église Protestante d’Algérie (EPA), leaving only one open, according to ADF International. Security police, acting on orders from the Ministry of Interior, have cited alleged “health and safety” code violations to justify locking church doors and declaring worship inside illegal.

“In one case, they physically beat a pastor in front of his young child because he was peacefully protesting the closure of his church,” ADF International reported.

Youssef has also faced baseless criminal prosecutions since 2008 for his peaceful Christian activities. He is among 50 Christians convicted under vague offenses such as “shaking the faith” of Muslims, illegal worship or embezzling tithing donations.

“In the 1970s, the government gave out licenses to churches which were largely full of expats,” Youssef explained at the event. “Today, the government is concerned that our churches are almost entirely filled with large numbers of Algerian converts.”

The crackdown has also affected small house congregations.

According to 21 Wilberforce, “The government mandates they can only have 10 people per gathering, forcing many house churches to operate underground. Church leaders who continue to hold services in Algeria are threatened, and several have been arrested and prosecuted by the government.”

Open Doors International reported that only four out of 47 churches under the Evangelical Protestant Church of Algeria remained open at the end of 2023.

“Christianity’s long history in Algeria is threatened,” stated 21 Wilberforce. “As the government closes churches and slows down the registration process for religious groups, Algerian Christians are finding life increasingly difficult.”

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has recommended that Algeria be included on the U.S. Department of State’s “Special Watch List” for severe violations of religious freedom. In its 2024 Annual Report, USCIRF highlighted the escalating repression of religious minorities in Algeria.

Violations of the rights of religious minorities contravene both international and domestic law, according to ADF International.
Sources:Christian Post

http://theendtimeradio.com