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

Andrew Craig Brunson, a 50-year-old evangelical pastor from North Carolina, faces up to 35 years in prison on charges of “committing crimes on behalf of terror groups” and “espionage.”

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.

Erdogan should see this obvious difference and immediately release Brunson.

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

Recommended Reading:

Rising Turkish Menace: U.S. and NATO Ally Wants Islamic Advance in Latin America

Rising Turkish Menace: U.S. and NATO Ally Wants Islamic Advance in Latin America

By Julio Severo

The president of Turkey has re-written history by claiming Muslim explorers, not Christopher Columbus, discovered America.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, chief of America’s NATO ally, said November 15 that Islamic sailors found the New World in 1178. He said, “Muslims discovered America in 1178, not Christopher Columbus.” Turkey is the only Islamic nation in the NATO.

His theory — which is supported only by Islamic historians — came to light in a televised speech during an Istanbul summit of Muslims leaders from Latin America.

The summit was attended by 76 Islamic leaders from 40 countries. Latin America was represented by Brazil, Venezuela, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Suriname, Uruguay, Paraguay, Nicaragua, Panama, Colombia, Bolivia, the Dominican Republic, Guyana, Ecuador, Jamaica and Haiti.

Turkish summit for Latin America

Erdogan brought up the supposed connection in a bid to establish a long history for links between Turkey and Latin America.

The summit’s main theme was “Building Our Traditions and Our Future.”

Apparently, Turkey is aiming its Islamic expansionism at Latin America, which does not have a significant number of Muslims. In fact, with Turkey’s aid, Muslims intend an international Islamic confederation.

In a previous conference dubbed “Antichrist Confederacy,” Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, Chairman of the International Union for Muslim Scholars (IUMS), announced in Turkey:

“The Caliphate in today’s age must be established through a number of several states that are governed by Shariah and supported by both, the rulers and the people in the form of a federation or confederation and not as it was in the past.”

His announcement was published throughout the Muslim world, including CNN Arabic version. IUMS represents the largest body of Muslim scholars worldwide.

Before its summit of Muslim leaders from Latin America, Turkey organized the Eurasia Islamic Council meeting, focusing on Islamic expansion in Eurasia.

Yet, Turkish expansionism has never been under the radar of the U.S. and one of the main architects of the U.S. alliance with Islamic terrorist groups, Zbigniew Brzezinski. Ben Barrack has said,

“There is clearly a fixation on the part of Brzezinski that controlling Eurasia is key to U.S. dominance. However, what he’s clearly been missing is that Turkey is the country that has been seeking Eurasian dominance while NATO countries continue to view it as an ally.”

Brzezinski’s focus of concern is only Russia. To neutralize Russia, for decades he helped Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida. And today America is a backer of the two main sources for the Islamic terror in the world: Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

So while the U.S. and its NATO are focusing on Russia as an Eurasian threat, their only Islamic ally is expanding its Islamic dominance in Eurasia.

Erdogan and Obama

Not only in Eurasia, but internationally. Turkey has also organized the Summit of Muslim African Leaders, the Meeting of the European Muslims, Meeting of the Balkan Religious Affairs Presidents and the World Islamic Scholars Peace, Moderation and Common Sense. Turkey is working very hard for an Islamic confederation.

The only Islamic ally of the U.S. in the NATO is, according to Robert E. Kaplan, reconstructing the Ottoman Empire, with the U.S. military interventions’ aid. Kaplan said,

“Each of these United States military interventions occurred in an area that had been part of the Ottoman Empire, and where a secular regime was replaced by an Islamist one.”

And during the Ottoman Empire, the land of Israel was under Islamic control for three centuries. Christians also had their lot of suffering under this Islamic empire.

One hundred year ago, Turkey committed one of the worst Islamic genocides against Christians. It was the Armenian Genocide, which has never been recognized by supposedly large Christian nations, including the U.S., Germany and Brazil, which are apparently fearful of infuriating their ally, whose Islamic expansion in the past brought blood-shedding.

Even today, Turkey is involved in blood-shedding. According to WND, “Turkey has supported jihadist groups whose fighters later morphed into ISIS fighters,” who have been slaughtering Christians in Syria and Iraq.

WND also reported, “Turkey is now perhaps the biggest al-Qaida base in the world.”

What will Turkey’s expansionist plans, especially for Latin America, bring for the next years?

I do not know. But in its summit for Latin America, Turkey promised that it is “Building Our Traditions and Our Future.”

If you include Bible prophecies, the Turkish picture gets much darker.

According to WND, theologians, both Christian and Jewish, have long interpreted the Antichristian armies of Gog of Magog as coming from the land of Turkey. Some of these theologians are: Hippolytus of Rome (170–235), Moses Ben Maimonides (aka Rambam) (1135–1204), Nicholas of Lyra (1270–1349), Martin Luther (1483–1546), John Wesley (1703–1755) and Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758).

Do their interpretations about Turkey match the record and behavior of this Islamic nation? If so, will Turkey want to have its Ottoman Empire again? And will it want to invade Israel to reestablish its ownership over the land of the Jews?

The letters of the Apostle John in the Book of Revelation were addressed to the seven churches in Asia Minor — today Turkey. Other important Christian church that disappeared under Islamic Turkey is Hagia Sophia, in Istanbul (former Constantinople). Hagia Sophia was the oldest and largest Christian cathedral (from 537 to 1453) in the world. From 1453 to 1931, Islamic Turkey used it as a mosque.

Yet, if you thought that these Christian tragedies and Turkish Islamic expansionism are old stories, think again.

After 9/11, mosques began popping up across America, and Turkey, with Saudi Arabia, is one of the Islamic nations benefiting from the Islamic terrorist attack.

The government of Turkey is building a $100 million mega mosque, the Turkish-American Culture and Civilization Center in Lanham, Maryland. Would Turkey, or even Saudi Arabia, allow the U.S. government to build a $100 million mega Christian church in their lands?

Turkey’s Islamist Prime Minister traveled to the U.S. to attend the groundbreaking ceremony for the mosque in 2013. Would Turkey allow a U.S. president to inaugurate a mega church in its nation?

Another important question is: Did Muslims discover America? There is no evidence of it today. But if America keeps its Islamic ally free to advance, it might be impossible to disprove Turkey’s claims in the future that Muslims conquered America.

Today, Turkey helps Islamic terrorist groups slaughtering Christians in the Middle East, wants to conquer America, Eurasia and Latin America and it is advancing unpunished, because it is a NATO and U.S. ally.

Apparently, Turkey will play a major Islamic role in the dark future threatening Christians, Jews, Israel, Latin America and the world. 

With information from WorldNetDaily, DailyMail, Diyanet and GospelPrime.

Portuguese version of this article: Ameaça turca se erguendo: Aliado dos EUA e da OTAN quer avanço islâmico na América Latina

Source: Last Days Watchman

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Obama Using Marxist Experience to promote Muslim Expansion

After 9/11, Mosques Popping Up Across America