Links to provide Relief Aid to Victims of the Earthquakes in Turkey & Syria

From the Communication Office of the Assembly of Canonical Bishops,

h/t Monomakhos

The Assembly of Bishops’ international humanitarian relief agency, International Orthodox Christian Charities (“IOCC”), is mobilizing direct relief on the ground. They have set a goal of $250,000 to provide immediate emergency relief. Here are their direct links:

IOCC Main Website - Donation Portal

https://www.facebook.com/IOCCRelief/

https://www.instagram.com/ioccrelief/?hl=en

https://twitter.com/IOCCRelief/status/1622701679731679232?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet.

Announcing a New Book from Robert Spencer

 

NEW! From Uncut Mountain Press

Available in paperback and eBook formats

The Church and the Pope

The Case for Orthodoxy

by Robert Spencer

OVERVIEW

Today, the place and authority of the bishop of Rome in the first millennium has become a matter of great interest and importance not only for the official dialogue but for all serious seekers of the true Church. One such seeker is the prolific New York Times Bestselling Author Robert Spencer, who applied his analytical acumen to a thorough examination of The Church & The Pope.

From the New Testament and the Apostolic Fathers through the Oecumenical Councils and the filioque controversy in the time of St. Photios the Great, on up to the Great Schism, all of the “flash points” of church history indicate the same conciliar nature of the Church as witnessed in Acts: “it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us.”

The whole “cloud of witnesses” give testimony to the truth of the Church vis-a-vis the post-schism papal claims: the Apostle Peter himself and the choir of the Apostles, St. Clement of Rome, St. Ignatius of Antioch, St. Polycarp of Smyrna, St. Irenaeus of Lyons, St. Cyprian of Carthage, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, St. Athanasius the Great, St. John Chrysostom, Blessed Augustine, St. Gregory the Great, St. Photios the Great and others.

Viewing the life and nature of the Church throughout the first millennium through the spiritual vision of these great saints, Spencer first walked, and now walks us, out of the weeds of innovation and division and back into the garden of the Church Fathers where unity and continuity shine.

Full info and online ordering...

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Robert Spencer is the director of Jihad Watch and a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. He is the author of twenty-three books including two New York Times bestsellers. Spencer is a regular columnist for PJ Media and FrontPage Magazine and has written hundreds of articles about Islam and other issues. He is also a regular on major news media outlets and speaker at universities across America.

DETAILS

First published: July 2022

Length (softcover): 112 pages

Size (softcover): 6 x 9 inches

ISBN (softcover): 978-1-63941-005-7

Father Seraphim Rose Speaks - New Videos

Special Post for the 38th Anniversary of the Repose of Blessed Hieromonk Seraphim of Platina 

Recent years have seen a wealth of Blessed Father Seraphim's writings and talks uploaded to YouTube. 

There are several recordings of Father Seraphim himself delivering some talks, but these are rare, and most of these YouTube videos feature someone reading the text. Some years back the trend was for such videos to use text-to-speech software to avoid the many hours of dictation involved, but such computer-generated recordings, with their soulless, robotic, AI voice, do violence to the text, and present Father Seraphim's teachings in the most ironic manner imaginable. They quickly become very difficult to listen to as a result.

The most recent offerings, several highlights of which are posted below, are well done readings by the dedicated hosts of these various YouTube channels, for whom, we can only assume, these labors are a holy podvig, and we give thanks for the efforts of the channels Orthodox Wisdom, Orthodox Reactionary, and others. 

In addition, there are numerous videos which present excerpts of Father Seraphim's teachings in scrolling text against a photographic backdrop accompanied by low volume Greek or Russian Orthodox chant, as seen on the Gregory Decapolite and Nicodemos Hagiorite channels. These presentations have enormous impact on the soul, and somehow impart what Father Seraphim called "the savor of Orthodoxy" even in spite of this post-modern technology, format and platform.

We offer these links for your prayerful edification . . .

Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future (12 videos)

Nihilism: The Root of the Revolution of the Modern Age (7 videos)

God's Revelation to the Human Heart (2 videos)

Orthodox Survival Course (21 videos)

Fr. Seraphim Rose - Articles & Teachings (5 videos) Three presentations, including:  

• The Royal Path - True Orthodox in an Age of Apostasy 

• Orthodoxy in the USA 

• The Holy Fathers of Orthodox Spirituality

For many more video listings, proceed to our special Fr. Seraphim Rose Resource Page . . .

 

My Ancient Faith Today Interview now available as a podcast

On Tuesday, August 4 at 9pm ET I joined Fr Tom Soroka on Ancient Faith Today for a Live Interview and Call-In Discussion on Reaching Muslims with the Gospel.

The hour flew by, and we enjoyed a wide ranging conversation with some very thoughtful questions from listeners which helped lead us into further deep reflections on this important topic.

LISTEN:
Ancient Faith Today Live - Reaching Muslims with the Gospel

Fr Tom and I have been friends for over thirty years, and it was a joy and an honor to join him on one AFR's flagship internet radio shows to discuss our hope "that none would perish, but that all might be saved and come to the knowledge of the Truth" which is in Christ Jesus.

This was the third of a three-part series on Islam-related topics on Ancient Faith Today Live. Listen to the other two podcasts here:

• Hagia Sophia - An Uncertain Future

• Islam: Historical Encounters and Contemporary Realities

(VIDEO) Proto-Martyr Evgeny Rodionov (May 23)

On May 23 the Orthodox Church commemorates the New Martyr Evgeny Rodionov, who in 1996 was brutally tortured and murdered by Chechen Muslims for refusing to remove his cross.

Evgeny is one of the ProtoMartyrs under the sword of the false religion of Islam for the New Cloud of Witnesses of the 21st Century. His refusal to deny Christ is both a sign and an inspiration to us today.

Evgeny's martyrdom at the end of the 20th century was a sign of the newly emboldened ascendency of the foul religion of Muhammad, which has led to new waves of persecution of Christians throughout the world, and an ever growing choir of New Martyrs for Christ, slain by Muslims across Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, Europe, America, and elsewhere.

Watch the video below, and learn more about Holy New Martyr Evgeny on our special resource page dedicated to him.

The Hundred Thousand Holy Martyrs of Tbilisi (+1227)

"The invaders goaded the people to the bridge, ordering them to cross it and spit on the holy icons. Those who betrayed the Christian Faith and mocked the icons were spared their lives, while the Orthodox confessors were beheaded."

_______

This is one of the most compelling mass-martyrdom accounts in Christian history. Of course, the "Turkmen" referred to are the Muslim Turks, who during the thirteenth century were waging jihad to expand the dar al-Islam.

Notice the practice of beheading by the Muslims, used by the Islamic State today, following the example of Muhammad, who personally beheaded between 600 and 900 Jewish men and boys from the Quraiza tribe at Medina. (See The Life of Muhammad, by Ibn Ishaq, trans. A. Guillaume, New York, 1980, pp 463-464).

The Hundred Thousand Holy Martyrs of Tbilisi are commemorated by the Orthodox Church on October 31 (which is today, on the 'Old Calendar').

See also:

OCA - Lives of the Saints - 100,000 Martyrs of Tbilisi by the Mongols

_______

The Hundred Thousand Holy Martyrs of Tbilisi  (+1227)

from Lives of the Georgian Saints, by Archpriest Zakaria Machitadze

St Herman of Alaska Press, Platina CA, 2006, pp 403-404.

From the book, 'Lives of the Georgian Saints'

In 1227 Sultan Jalal al-Din of Khwarazm and his army of Turkmen attacked Georgia. On the first day of the battle the Georgian army valorously warded off the invaders as they were approaching Tbilisi. That night, however, a group of Persians who were living in Tbilisi secretly opened the gates and summoned the enemy army into the city.

According to one manuscript in which this most terrible day in Georgian history was described: "Words are powerless to convey the destruction that the enemy wrought: tearing infants from their mothers' breasts, they beat their heads against the bridge, watching as their eyes dropped from their skulls...."

A river of blood flowed through the city. The Turkmen castrated young children, raped women, and stabbed mothers to death over their children's lifeless bodies. The whole city shuddered at the sound of wailing and lamentation. The river and streets of the city were filled with death.

The sultan ordered that the cupola of Sioni Cathedral be taken down and replaced by his vile throne. And at his command the icons of the Theotokos and our Savior were carried out of Sioni Cathedral and placed at the center of the bridge across the Mtkvari River. The invaders goaded the people to the bridge, ordering them to cross it and spit on the holy icons. Those who betrayed the Christian Faith and mocked the icons were spared their lives, while the Orthodox confessors were beheaded.

Order the book from St Herman Press!

One hundred thousand Georgians sacrificed their lives to venerate the holy icons. One hundred thousand severed heads and headless bodies were carried by the bloody current down the Mtkvari River.

0 ye thousands of stars, the chosen people guarding the Georgian Church with your golden wings, intercede for us always before the face of God!

VIDEO: Islam, Holy Icons & St. John of Damascus

A superbly produced video documentary of St John of Damascus, with in-depth presentations of his denunciation of the heresy of Islam, his systematic exposition of the Orthodox Christian Faith, and his defense of the holy icons against the ruthless persecution of the iconooclasts (literally, "icon smashers").

This is yet another excellent video from Trisagion Films, which has rapidly established itself as one of the premier Orthodox Christian platforms on the internet.

The writers frame the narration using the old Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times," noting at the conclusion that John not only lived through such "interesting times," but himself made major contributions to the defense and advancement of the Orthodox Christian Gospel during a time when the Church faced grave challenges from within and without.

Holy St John, pray to God for us!




Source: Trisagion Films.

VIDEO: Why it is of the Utmost Importance to denounce and expose the 'Same God Heresy'

At the root of today's confusion over Islam is the widespread acceptance of the 'Same God Heresy'.

"When the Church is being betrayed and the faithful led astray, it is no time for compliments and polite 'dialogues', nor for placing sympathy above truth." 

 ~ Blessed Hieromonk Seraphim of Platina

Consider this brief video, and the exhortations from Church Fathers on standing for the Truth and not remaining silent when Christ is being blasphemed:

Lastly, consider this excerpt from the Epilogue to my book, Facing Islam:

WHEN I WAS A YOUNG CONVERT new to Orthodoxy, the late Archbishop Michael (Shaheen) of the Antiochian Archdiocese came to our parish. In delivering the homily, he stated unequivocally that (and I paraphrase), 

“We must embrace the Muslims, the Hindus, the Buddhists, for we all worship the same God; we just worship in different ways, and are merely traveling different paths to the same destination.” 

In doing so, he was blatantly standing against Jesus Christ, the Apostles, the Fathers of the Church, the Seven Ecumenical Councils, the Confessors and Martyrs and all true Orthodox believers of every age. 

Fr Seraphim Rose - Russian Documentary w/English Subtitles

This excellent film has been out for a few years, but only recently was it given English subtitles by the Russian Faith website.

UPDATED 9/11/21: My original attempt to embed the video here failed when it was blocked by YouTube on copyright grounds, so I am simply posting the link to Russian Faith website for you to view it there. 

There is still some worthy info below if you care to scroll down and explore.

My apologies for any inconvenience:

https://russian-faith.com/saints/american-monk-who-inspired-russians-video-documentary-fr-seraphim-rose-n2330

Icon of Hieromonk Seraphim from Mt Athos

September 2 is the anniversary of the Repose of Blessed Hieromonk Seraphim Rose in 1982. Visit our Special Resource Page to learn more about this extraordinary figure in contemporary Orthodoxy.

I return to Father Seraphim Rose on this blog again and again because of his clear warnings against ecumenism and syncretism, against the tendency in our age for even well intentioned Orthodox Christians to compromise the True Faith in Jesus Christ in their confused efforts to appeal to other Christians or even to non-Christians.

Blessed Hieromonk Seraphim is widely venerated as a saint in traditional Orthodox nations such as Russia, Greece, Romania, and Serbia, and is considered by the Monks of Mount Athos as one of their own, as evidenced by photographs and icons of him seen by pilgrims to the monastic republic in northern Greece.

Pilgrims to Orthodox monasteries across North America will likewise notice photographs and the occasional icon of Father Seraphim at numerous monasteries, both men's and women's, under various jurisdictions, and there are a growing number of parishes which openly venerate Father Seraphim. Some, with direct ties to the St Herman of Alaska Monastery in Platina CA, which Father Seraphim co-founded, have secondary relics such as his vestments or other items which they make available for the faithful to venerate.

____________

Fr. Seraphim Rose on Islam - Fr Seraphim didn't write much about Islam, or did he? A look at Fr Seraphim's teaching on the Monotheistic Religions, and how he might have approached the challenge of Islam.

____________

This organic and heartfelt growth in the veneration of Hieromonk Seraphim of Platina, by monasteries, parishes and the faithful touched by his life and intercessions, points to his eventual glorification as a saint by the Orthodox Church... if the Lord doesn't return first.

VIDEO: A Legendary American Monk Who Inspired Christians in Russia - Fr. Seraphim Rose

Russian-Faith.com, July 26, 2019:

Russians have long appreciated Fr. Seraphim Rose, the beloved Orthodox monk who started a monastery in northern California. This documentary was produced in Russian, and is available here for the first time with English subtitles.

He was a Protestant in California, an atheist genius at Berkeley, a practicing Buddhist, and finally — a Russian Orthodox Monk in the American wilderness. Fr. Seraphim Rose became a legend in Russia, where many now recognize him as a Saint.

This fascinating film was produced by NEOFIT.TV, a quality production company that creates numerous documentaries about Orthodox Christian saints, apostles, prophets, well known preachers, and Church history. Many excellent films are available on their website.

TRANSCRIPT:

After 1 Million Views, What's Next?

This landmark on the Facing Islam Blog calls for a little reflection, and looking towards what lies ahead.

First of all, my sincere thanks to all my readers and visitors, who have helped put this blog over 1,000,000 views, and to be ranked #35 in the 2019 list of Islam blogs.

That number includes at least one DOS attack, when malicious bots tried to overwhelm the servers and shut down my blog, but that merely resulted in a spike in my numbers, and no loss of service. I am proud to have been attacked on the internet. It is a badge of honor and a sign of the integrity of this site, which speaks Truth to the Enemy, and warns about the threats from Islam.

What now?

Having passed 1 Million page views, and having been posting only sporadically over the past year or so (while working on an unrelated project), I am striving to ramp things back up here, emphasizing more consistent output and focus.

Here are my goals, which I hope to diligently work towards, if the Lord doesn't return first, and if He grants me time, health and energy:

'Parakletos', not 'Periklytos' - The One to Come is the Holy Spirit, not a False Prophet from Arabia

As Orthodox Christians celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, this seemed like an opportune time to excerpt my refutation of the common Muslim claim that Jesus Christ prophesied of the coming of Muhammad.

Detail from an ancient Syrian icon of Pentecost.

The following is excerpted from my book, Facing Islam, pp 101-106, slightly reformatted, with new topic headings. Sections 4 and 5 have been added for this presentation. (Updated 6/17/19, 8:07am.)


Parakletos, not Periklytos -

The One to Come is the Holy Spirit, not a False Prophet from Arabia

1. Manuscript Evidence

Fragment p75 of the Bodmer Papyrus,
showing John 14:9-26a,
with the Greek word “Parakletos”
in verses 16 and 26.

Muslim attempts to prove that Muhammad was prophesied by Jesus as the “messenger to come” are typically based on these passages in the Gospel According to St John:

“And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper [Greek: Parakletos], that He may abide with you forever” (Jn 14:16).

“Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper [Greek: Parakletos] will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you” (Jn 16:7).

Muslim apologists would have us believe that the New Testament was corrupted so as to eradicate the prophecies about Muhammad. They claim that the true Greek word in these verses should be Periklytos, not Parakletos. Periklytos may be translated as “glorious,” so Muslims argue that it refers to Muhammad (spoken of in Sura 61:6 as Ahmad), whose name means “the praised [or glorious] one.”

This is of course absurd, but it is educational for us to turn to the actual manuscript evidence, which is undeniable. There are, in fact, over seventy existing Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, all of which date from well before the time of Muhammad, and all of which prove that the original Greek word used in John 14:16, 14:26 and 16:7 is Parakletos. Two of the oldest manuscripts, Codex Sinaiticus (mid 4th c.) and Codex Alexandrinus (late 4th or early 5th c.) are actually housed in the British Museum in London and may be examined. The oldest complete manuscript of the New Testament, Codex Vaticanus (early 4th c.) likewise confirms the use of Parakletos in these verses. The even more ancient Bodmer Papyrus fragment of St. John’s Gospel (ca. 200 A.D.) also verifies the use of Parakletos in Chapter 14: 16, 26.

The Miracle of the Holy Fire - God's Encouragement to Christians following the rise of Islam

"Miracles come when they are needed, and it seems that the Holy Fire first came when it was needed most — during the time of the Islamic oppression of the Church, when the Christians suffering under the yoke of Muhammad most needed confirmation that their faith in the crucified and risen Christ was true." — Fr. Lawrence Farley

Today, May 2, 2019, the Holy Fire arrived at a wonderful parish I am closely connected to, by circumstance and by the heart. Alas, I could not travel to be with them to greet and receive the Holy Fire, brought all the way from Jerusalem, but it did spur me on to read up on the annual Miracle of the Holy Fire.

In doing so, I came across a typically wonderful article by Fr Lawrence Farley. It is his quote at the top of this post, and his observation is no less true today than it was when the Sword of Islam cut its wide and bloody swath across the Christian world, decimating churches and slaughtering and subjugating Christians across the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia, and even into Western Europe, the Balkans, Italy, and Russia.

Today, 80% of the countries where Christians suffer the worst persecution are Muslim majority and/or an Islamic dictatorship. Muslim persecution of Christians worldwide jumped almost 15% from 2017 to 2018, also according to Open Doors' World Watch List.

Christians in the West and in the USA and Canada are being increasingly pressured to acquiesce to the secular agenda. While open persecution of Christians in America has recently been highlighted by lawfare against Christian bakers and florists, outbursts of demonic hatred against Christians is encountered everywhere. Just recently, the peaceful Abbot Tryphon of Vashon Island was assaulted by a tormented soul who saw his cross and could not hold back his venom, and truly like a serpent, struck a potentially deadly sucker punch without any warning.

So, the Holy Fire remains with us, a visible annual miracle, a gift from God to bolster the faith of Christians the world over.

More sucker punches — and Muslim jihad terror attacks — are surely coming. Just ask the persecuted Christians in Nigeria and elsewhere.

But for now, let us give thanks for this powerful miracle.

What Good is the Holy Fire?

May 15, 2017 · Fr. Lawrence Farley, No Other Foundation

The so-called “Holy Fire” is the name given to the fire that appears on ends of the candles of the Patriarch of Jerusalem and others every Holy Saturday. The Patriarch, accompanied by a church crammed filled with others, awaits for the annual miracle every Holy Saturday. On that day the Patriarch strips himself of his holy robes and enters the Tomb of Christ with a bundle of unlit tapers, says certain prayers, and then awaits for his tapers to be miraculously lit from heaven. He is not disappointed: his tapers are miraculously lit every year and he emerges from the Tomb with the flame to the tumultuous shouting of everyone in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

Raymond Ibrahim: 'The Dhimmi in the Mirror'

"If Christian minorities living under Islamic authority have little choice but to speak well of their 'coexistence' with Islam, why are Western leaders, politicians, and talking heads of all varieties—who are not under Islamic authority—also behaving like cowed dhimmis?"


Raymond Ibrahim applies his penetrating insights into the historical continuity of Islamic persecution of Christians to the tragic case of the Coptic Pope Tawadros II's recent remarks.

It should be noted that Orthodox Christian patriarchs and bishops subjugated under Muslim rule in the Islamic world have also made similar such statements, and some have even gone much further, to the borders (and beyond?) of outright blasphemy, heresy, and apostasy:

His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople has written of a “dialogue of loving truth” with Islam, and of Orthodoxy having for centuries “coexisted peacefully” with Islam, and projects the chimera of an “interfaith commitment... still felt and lived by Greeks [and] Turks” as an example for all to follow (Encountering the Mystery, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, Doubleday, 2008, xxxvii, 196, 174). 

Bartholomew has also called for the tearing down of “the wall of separation between East and West, between Muslims and Christians, between all religions of the world,” and has also asserted, “One who achieves the state of inner peace in relation to God is a true Muslim” (Encountering the Mystery, 205, 209). 

Patriarch Parthenius of Alexandria, in the Orthodoxos Typos 854, May 1982, praised Islam and Muhammad thusly: "The Prophet Muhammad is an apostle, He is a man of God, who worked for the Kingdom of God... When I speak against Islam, then I am not found in agreement with God." 

Metropolitan George Khodr of Lebanon has written: "I am completely sure that if you are a Christian and you know a lot about Islam and love what you know, your heart will embrace the Muslims around you and if you are educated, you will hold in esteem much from their religion and openly recognize the truth that is in their religion."

Christian bishops are called to "rightly divide the word of truth," not to praise a false religion, false god, and false prophet which vehemently denies Jesus Christ and violently persecutes and slaughters Christians. These false teachings are bound to at the least confuse the faithful, and at worst may lead them directly into apostasy and denying Jesus Christ. 

Orthodox hierarchs, including, tragically, the "first among equals" (the Ecumenical Patriarch) who spew forth such bald faced praises of the "forerunner of the Antichrist" should be met by swift denials and cries of "ANAXIOS" from faithful Orthodox Christians who are not ashamed of the Lord Jesus Christ and care not about those who kill the body but cannot touch the soul. 

The Dhimmi in the Mirror

by Raymond Ibrahim, August 1, 2018:

During a recent ceremony that was attended by more than 50 ambassadors and diplomats, many from Western nations, Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II reportedly said “that Egypt had a long history and civilization and has been a model for coexistence between Christians and Muslims for 14 centuries,” to quote the online website, Egypt Independent (I cannot locate his original speech in Arabic to confirm his precise words).

This assertion raises a host of questions, from its veracity, to the reason it was uttered by the representative head of the nation’s indigenous Christians.

As to the claim itself—that “Egypt … has been a model of coexistence between Christians and Muslims for 14 centuries”—this is somewhat literally true: from Islam’s initial invasion of Egypt in the late 630s, to the present, Egypt has indeed been a “model”—a paradigm—of what happens to native Christians when Muslims conquer their territory. Even the word “coexist,” though connoting living peaceably with others, literally only means to live together (including its Arabic form, ta‘ayush).

At any rate, and as documented in my new book, Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West, those 14 centuries saw a continuum of hostility ranging from wholesale persecution (in the worst of times) to mere discrimination (in the best of times) in Egypt. Much of this is confirmed by the History of the Coptic Patriarchs (which no doubt the latest Coptic patriarch is aware of). This multivolume account, compiled over the course of a millennium, covers the history of the Coptic Church under Islam till 1894.

Unmitigated Muslim persecution of Christians permeates its pages, including the burning and banning of churches and crosses; the fiscal extortion, slaughter, enslavement, mass rape, and forced conversion of Christians. Think what the Islamic State (“ISIS”) has been doing to Christians and others but on an exponential scale. Moreover, the persecutors weren’t “radicals” who have “nothing to do with Islam,” but leading heads of Islamic states, whether Arabs, Fatimids, Ayyubids, Mamluks, or Turks.

SPECIAL LIMITED TIME OFFER - Facing Islam book now 50% off List Price!

The Facing Islam blog recently passed 900,000 views, and it's time to celebrate. And what better way than to offer a blowout special on my book, Facing Islam - What the Ancient Church has to say about the Religion of Muhammad.

• Regular List Price, $10.99

• Now through May 31, 2018, 50% off ($5.50) plus shipping and sales tax (where applicable).

This is basically selling the book below wholesale. This is my way of saying "Thank You" to all you readers...

• See the product page and endorsements

• Proceed to my online store to order now, at 50% off!

Though published in 2010, I feel this book is more important than ever. Facing Islam is unique in providing a robust defense of the Christian Faith against the 'theological jihad' of Islam, which presents "a different Jesus, a different spirit, and a different gospel" (cf, 2 COR 11:3-4, also GAL 1:6-8).

Rather than being "ripped from the headlines" of its day and thus outdated, Facing Islam presents timeless theological sources and arguments not usually heard in the ongoing debates about Islam. The teachings and warnings of the saints of the Christian East are not only rarely encountered nowadays, they are often obscured by scholars who are so "nuanced" in their treatment of Islam as to paint a completely opposite and false picture of the Islam encountered by Christians in the 7th, 14th, 15th and subsequent centuries. My main purpose is to decisively repudiate the 'Same God' position and to show it to be a dangerous fallacy and a Christian heresy, as well as being a real and physical threat to Christians everywhere. 

I hope my message is reaching people. We certainly have seen an amazing growth since our humble launch in April 2011: 900,000 views, with the very real possibility of hitting 1 Million by the end of the year.

A couple of years ago Facing Islam was named a 'Top 50 Islam Blog', and I am honored to feature that badge on this site. We started out at about #45, but when I checked just now, we have risen to #37! And this without Facebook and Twitter feeds. The Top 50 Islam Blog category includes not only counter-jihad blogs, but Muslim sites and Islamic dawah blogs seeking to spread their false religion to the unsuspecting. To be in this top tier of Islam blogs means we are having an impact and reaching people.

Longtime followers know I have never monetized this blog. It is truly an independent effort, and has succeeded on the strength of its message, which is the Truth of the Orthodox Christian Gospel of Jesus Christ. Along the way, my original articles have been picked up and republished by outlets in America, England, Europe and Russia. I have also been a regular contributor for Jihad Watch and Raymond Ibrahim. I've been hit with a couple of DDOS attacks, and have seen some posts go viral and reach audiences in the tens of thousands.

But through it all I have refused to seek ad revenue, refused even to be an Amazon affiliate. 

So, if you've ever thought of buying my book, NOW IS THE TIME!  Buy two copies (or more!) and share them with your friends and family. I have one friend who purchased ten copies to give away! 

• Proceed to my online store to order now, at 50% off!

Thanks again so much for your visits, and I hope you profit from and are blessed by my efforts here.

Serbian Orthodox Church to canonize three holy neo-martyrs, killed for refusing to convert to Islam

A young monk, a simple baker, and a pure maiden — each bravely confessing to the death their Orthodox Christian Faith in Jesus Christ — are soon to be formally recognized as saints and martyrs by the Serbian Orthodox Church.

These three — Gregory of Peć, Vasilije of Peć, and Bosiljka Rajičić, who lived during the 17th-18th centuries — are among the "great cloud of witnesses," the thousands of holy neo-martyrs killed by the Muslim Turks during the Ottoman occupation. You can learn about many of them in the landmark book, Witnesses for Christ, Orthodox Christian Neomartyrs of the Ottoman Period, 1437-1860, by Nomikos Michael Vaporis.

The plight of the Holy Neomartyrs under the Ottoman yoke is part of the historical continuity of Muslim persecution of Christians across the centuries from Muhammad's time until now, wherever Islam has conquered. We see the exact same phenomenon in our own day in such geographically far flung nations as Egypt and Indonesia, Nigeria and Malaysia, Pakistan and Sudan, etc. Different languages, different geographies, different politics, yet all these countries are among the worst persecutors of Christians in the world, and they are all Muslim majority countries. In fact, about 80% of the 50 worst countries for persecution of Christians are Muslim.

We are now well into the 21st century and this new era of Christian martyrs under the sword of Islam. Those still in denial about the true nature of Islam may be helped to see clearly by the witness of the Holy Neo-Martyrs under the Muslim Turks, and by the witness of todays New Martyrs, all of whom were killed for refusing to deny Jesus Christ and convert to Islam.

Two of these accounts also tell of Christian maidens being kidnapped by Muslims, who then tried to force the girls to covert to Islam and marry their captors, a practice sanctioned by Muhammad and the Koran [1], and prevalent today in Egypt, Nigeria, Iraq, and other Muslim countries.


Serbian Church canonizes Three Martyrs

OrthoChristian.com, May 12, 2018:

(Belgrade) At its latest session, from April 28 to May 10, the Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church resolved to canonize three holy martyrs among the saints, reports The Union of Orthodox Journalists.

The official canonization of Sts. Gregory of Peć, Vasilije of Peć, and Bosiljka Rajičić and those who suffered with them will soon be held.

***

St. Gregory of Peć (17th-18th C.) was a young monk of the monastery of the Patriarchate of Peć. He was martyred after refusing to convert to Islam. Miracles began to take place at the place where he was secretly buried by faithful Christians and a small church was later built on the site. Atheist authorities demolished the church and built an institute in the mid-20th century, although the martyr’s incorrupt relics were discovered during the demolishing of the church. His memory will be celebrated on January 22/February 7.

The Church and Islam: 'Dangerous Illusions' can have Eternal Consequences

While preparing to post William Kilpatrick's article,  'The Church and Islam: Dangerous Illusions',  I ended up with quite a long introduction which, I felt, took away from Mr. Kilpatrick's presentation. Therefore, I decided to hold back that introduction and use it to create this follow-up post to further address the 'Dangerous Illusions' which plague those Christians who praise Islam and refuse to see it for what it is.

For an Orthodox Christian to praise and affirm Islam and the Qur'an is akin to spitting on the holy icons of Christ and His Most Pure Mother. When the Muslims invaded Tbilisi, Georgia in 1227, they set icons of Christ and the Theotokos in the middle of the bridge, and promised to spare all those who spit on the icons, denied Christ and converted to Islam. 100,000 Georgian Orthodox Christians chose martyrdom rather than deny Jesus Christ. Let us honor their memory by confessing Jesus Christ to our dying breath! (Source)

William Kilpatrick warned in his article about the threat Islam poses to non-Muslims everywhere, depending on how seriously Muslims take the commands in the Qur'an to wage jihad against the unbelievers. We have seen Islamic jihad attacks climb dramatically in the years since 9/11/2001, with over 33,000 deadly terror attacks since then. This is undeniable evidence that there is something dark and violent at the heart at Islam.

However, in addition to the deadly threat Islam poses in this age, there exists also a grave spiritual danger for Christians who praise and affirm Islam, or who even affirm that Muslims worship the 'Same God' as we do.

Consider:

• the Qur'an explicitly and vehemently denies Jesus Christ to be the Son of God, [1]
• presents Jesus as an apostle and prophet only,
• denies the Holy Trinity, 
• denies that Christ was crucified, 
• curses Christians, 
• and commands Muslims to attack, persecute and kill Christians until they embrace Islam or pay the jizya. [2]

Therefore, whether they realize it or not, a Christian who praises and affirms Islam, Muhammad and/or the Qur'an is praising and affirming a false and militant religion which forcefully denies Jesus Christ and persecutes those who follow Him.

Christ is Risen! In TRUTH He is Risen!

The Incarnation of the Son of God, His crucifixion, death and burial, and His Resurrection on the Third Day, are true and actual historical events in God's plan of salvation for us. 

Islam hates God and Jesus Christ, and so denies the Christian Revelation and fights against Christians. This proves its antichrist spirit.

Glory to Thy Holy Resurrection!

We worship Thy Third Day Resurrection!

We confess Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, and we stand in solidarity with our Christian brothers and sisters throughout the Islamic world who are being persecuted and killed by Muslims for their faith in Him. As the Lord Jesus teaches us:

“If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.  

"Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.  

"But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me. 

The Resurrection of Christ and the Rise of Christianity

Because the false prophet Muhammad and the false-god Allah in the Koran deny that Jesus Christ was crucified, deny the Resurrection of Christ, and deny that Christ is the Son of God, now is an ideal time, as we in the Orthodox Church celebrate Jesus' Bodily Resurrection from the Tomb, to defend the historical truth of these events. 

In proclaiming the Truth and defending the Orthodox Christian Faith, we note that Islam's bizarre fabrications about Jesus Christ reveal it as an antichrist religion, and are a strong proof against the 'Same God Heresy'.

Below is one of the finest articles on the Resurrection I have ever encountered.

To my Muslim readers, do not be deceived! Learn about the true Jesus and God's love for you, in the Orthodox Christian tradition, and "Come and see" what "Life in Christ" is all about! We are waiting for you with open arms!

Christ is Risen!

Indeed He is Risen!

_______

The Resurrection of Christ and the Rise of Christianity
by Fr. Steven C. Kostoff

The Myrrhbearing Women encounter the angel at the empty tomb: "Why do you seek the Living among the dead?" (MT 28:1-8, MK 16:1-8, LK 24:1-9, JN 20:1-2, 11-13)

Orthodox Christians believe that the New Testament Church and the Christian faith itself appeared at a particular point in history because the crucified Jesus of Nazareth was raised from the dead. The cause behind the emergence of the Church and the Christian Faith was not a crucified, dead and buried Jesus. Rather, that very crucified, dead and buried Jesus was revealed to be both Lord and Christ following His Resurrection “on the third day.” 

God vindicated the messianic claims of Jesus when He raised Jesus from the dead “according to the Scriptures.” Contemporary Orthodox Christians readily agree with the Apostle Paul’s insistence on the absolute centrality of the bodily resurrection of Christ as the foundation of Christian faith in Jesus: "If Christ is not raised, then your faith is in vain and our preaching is in vain” (1 Cor. 15). Among all Christians this has been an overwhelming consensus since the initial witness of the apostles to the Risen Lord.

But since the emergence of critical biblical scholarship within the last two centuries or so, we find Christian scholars and those influenced by them questioning, reinterpreting or openly denying the bodily resurrection of Jesus. This process may be more accelerated today, or simply more prominent and public in its expression. A vivid – if not lurid - expression of this skeptical approach to the resurrection claims of the first Christians can be found in the work of the New Testament scholar Dom Dominic Crossan. In his reconstruction of events, the body of the crucified Jesus was discarded in a shallow grave, there to suffer the further humiliation of becoming the food of ravenous dogs. That is also the kind of counter-claim that will attract a good deal of publicity. 

Can There Have Been Two Annunciations?

Islam claims the archangel Gabriel came to Muhammad commanding him to "Recite" and ushering in his prophetic calling. What are we to make of this "Second Annunciation? 

On March 25, the Orthodox Church commemorates the Annunciation of the Archangel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary.  As the hymn for the Feast says,

Today is the beginning of our salvation,
The revelation of the eternal mystery!
The Son of God becomes the Son of the Virgin
As Gabriel announces the coming of Grace...

Islam also begins with an annunciation of sorts, to Muhammad, (not) coincidentally by a spirit being also identified as the angel Jibril (Gabriel). However, the nature and outcome of that annunciation is quite different from the one to the Virgin Mary six centuries earlier. As St Gregory Palamas noted in the 14th century, Muhammad's actions were "instigated by the devil":

"[Muhammad] came with war, knives, pillaging, forced enslavement, murders, and acts that are not from the good God but instigated by the chief manslayer, the devil."  (Source)

This article contrasts the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary, with that 'second annunciation', to Muhammad. This is one of the most significant and revealing facts about Islam, one which forces us to confront at least two very serious questions:

1. If Muslims worship the Same God as Christians, how could that Same God possibly send two such radically opposed revelations and messages? 
2. And, could the sender of those two messages be the Same God if He chose to send His revelation to Muhammad through such a dark, threatening and blatantly evil "annunciation"?

'This is our festival: the arrival of God among us...'

"He that is full empties himself, for he empties himself of his glory for a short while, that I may have a share in his fullness..."

As we continue to celebrate the Birth of the Son of God in the Flesh, here is a soaring homily by St Gregory the Theologian, which should encourage all Christians to cling to Christ, to stand firm in the True Faith, and not to assent to the voices of antichrist who preach the "Same God" heresy.

May we be found steadfast when He, Jesus Christ the Lord, returns in glory! Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus!

On the Nativity of Christ

By St Gregory of Nazianzus, Another City, December 25, 2017:

Christ is born: glorify him. Christ comes down from heaven: go out to meet him. Christ descends to earth: let us be raised on high. Let all the world sing to the Lord: let the heavens rejoice and let the earth be glad, for his sake who was first in heaven and then on earth. Christ is here in the flesh: let us exult with fear and joy—with fear, because of our sins; with joy, because of the hope that he brings us.

Once more the darkness is dispersed; once more the light is created. Let the people that sat in the darkness of ignorance now look upon the light of knowledge. The things of old have passed away; behold, all things are made new. He who has no mother in heaven is now born without a father on earth.

The laws of nature are overthrown, for the upper world must be filled with citizens.

He who is without flesh becomes incarnate; the Word puts on a body; the invisible one is seen; the intangible one is touched; the timeless one makes a beginning; the Son of God becomes the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and for ever.