US Pastor Imprisoned, Accused of “Terrorism,” in Turkey
By Julio
Severo
An American pastor is imprisoned in Turkey
since October 2016 on accusations that he aided terror groups or spied against
Turkey.
 |
| Andrew Craig Brunson |
Brunson, who denies any wrongdoing, was
arrested in 2016 for alleged links to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, the Kurdish
socialist party that has fought for independence from Turkey.
“We have seen no credible evidence that
Mr. Brunson is guilty of a crime and are convinced that he is innocent,” U.S.
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement.
Brunson served as pastor of Izmir
Resurrection Church, a small Protestant congregation in Izmir, the old Bible
city of Smyrna, and has lived in Turkey for 23 years.
President
Donald Trump has asked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for Brunson’s
release, but his request has not been answered.
Turkey’s accusation against the
evangelical minister is nonsense. Even though terrorists are common in Islam,
they are not common in Christianity, especially among evangelicals.
It
is a huge affront for Turkey to imprison an evangelical minister of the nation
that lead NATO, because the presence of Turkey in NATO was a privilege
exclusively — and undeservedly — granted by the United States. Turkey is
radically Islamic and its values are contrary, religiously and historically, to
the Christians values of Europe and the United States. There is no
justification whatsoever for Turkey to be a NATO member and a U.S. ally.
Yet, it is not only Turkey’s attack on an
innocent pastor that proves that Turkey does not deserve to be an ally of
Christian nations.
Last month, Erdogan said Israel is “a
terror state” and that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “a terrorist” over
Israel’s defensive efforts against Palestinian terrorists. Turkey has funded
and armed Hamas against Israel and, with Saudi Arabia, it has funded and armed
Islamic terrorist groups, including ISIS, against the Syrian government. This
is real terrorism. How can Islamic Turkey hypocritically accuse Israel of terrorism?
One
of the largest modern genocides of Christians was committed by Turkey. About 100
years ago in Turkey, an estimated 1.5 million Armenian Christians in 66 towns
and 2,500 villages were massacred; 2,350 churches and monasteries were looted,
and 1,500 schools and colleges were destroyed. Nevertheless,
to appease Turkey’s wrath, Trump
has avoided to say that the Armenian Genocide
was a genocide. Israel,
which every year rightly remembers the Holocaust, has also avoided to recognize
the Armenian Genocide, even though evangelical
Christians have worked very hard to press nations to recognize the Holocaust.
Both America and Israel do not recognize the Armenian Genocide because Turkish Muslims
hate to hear about their crimes against Christians.
For
these obvious reasons, Turkey poses concerns to Christians, who also look at
historical facts regarding Turkey’s violence against Christians and Jews.
Hagia Sophia, the oldest and largest
Christian cathedral in the world, was conquered by Muslims in 1453 in
Constantinople, the Christian name of the current Islamic city of Istanbul,
Turkey. A Christian civilization was destroyed by Islamic invaders who
transformed the conquered Christian land — the land of the seven churches of
Revelation — in Turkey.
Not
only a traditional Christian land was conquered, but the land of Israel too.
From 1517
until 1917, Turkey — which was then the Ottoman Empire —
conquered and owned the Promised Land. This is, during four centuries the land
of Israel was under Islamic control. So when the Bible talks about Gog and
Magog coming from North and conquering Israel, this was Turkey, which is on the
North of Israel, and owned Israel for centuries.
In fact, Jewish and Christian scholars
pointed to Turkey as Gog and Magog, as shown by evangelical author Joel
Richardson:
Hippolytus
of Rome (170–235), an early Christian theologian, in his
Chronicon, connected Magog with the Galatians in Asia Minor, or modern-day
Turkey.
Moses
Ben Maimonides (aka Rambam) (1135–1204), the revered
Jewish sage, in Hichot Terumot, identified Magog as being on the border of
Syria and modern-day Turkey.
Nicholas
of Lyra (1270–1349), a Hebrew scholar and renowned biblical
exegete, believed that Gog was another title of the Antichrist. Lyra also
affirmed that the religion of the “Turks,” a term used to refer to Muslims in
general, was the religion of the Antichrist.
Martin
Luther (1483–1546), understood Gog to be a reference to the
Turks, whom God had sent as a scourge to chastise Christians.
Sir Walter
Raleigh (1554–1618), in his History of the World, also placed Magog in Asia
Minor, or modern-day Turkey.
John
Wesley (1703–1755), in his Explanatory Notes on Ezekiel 38
and 39, identified the hordes of Gog and Magog with “the Antichristian forces”
who would come from the region of modern day Turkey.
Jonathan
Edwards (1703–1758), one of American history’s most renowned
theologians, also viewed modern-day Turkey as the nation from which the coming
Gog Magog invasion would come forth.
Why has the United States enlisted
Gog and Magog — which treats an evangelical minister and Israel as “terrorists”
and which killed 1.5 million Armenian Christians — as a NATO member and its
ally? To come from North and conquer Israel again? To come from North and
conquer Christians and treat them as “terrorists” again? To kill Christians, as
in the Armenian Genocide and in Syria through Islamic terrorist groups?
Turkey has a prophetic profile that
not only fits Gog and Magog, but also as a major threat to Christians and
Israel in these last days.
With information from the Associated Press,
WorldNetDaily, Haaretz and the Jerusalem Post.
Portuguese version of this article: Pastor
americano é preso, acusado de “terrorismo,” na Turquia
Source:
Last
Days Watchman
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