Rex M Rogers - Discerning What Is Best

Discerning What Is Best
with Dr. Rex M. Rogers

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 30 August 2021

The tragedy unfolding in Afghanistan understandably dominates the news. So, I thought I’d share a few perspectives on Afghanistan with you:

1. Afghanistan is a country of 39.8 million people who speak Dari or Pahsto, dialects of Farsi. 97% Muslim. US State Dept estimating Afghan Christian underground Church 500–8,000 Christians. Others say 12,000-15,000. No one knows for sure.

2. 90% of world’s opium comes from Afghanistan, sold into the West, sadly much of it into the US where it’s processed into heroin and other opiates.

3. Afghanistan is #2 behind North Korea for persecution on the Open Doors World Watch List.

4. We’re hearing mixed reports of Taliban killing or violent harassment of Christians. No one is sure what’s happening with Afghan Christians.

5. Some believers have reported needing to flee but are unable to do so. Those who remain are under immense pressure. Some sharing that if their faith is discovered, they expect to be tortured or sentenced to death.

6. Afghan citizens are not legally permitted to convert to Christianity, although there are no explicit laws forbidding evangelizing by non-Muslims.

7. There is only one legally recognized Christian church building in Afghanistan, the Catholic chapel at the Italian Embassy.

8. Estimated 3 M Afghan refugees worldwide, nearly 1 in 10 of all refugees. Pakistan building a fence along its border with Afghanistan. Turkey has become a destination for Afghan refugees (200,000), along with Syrians and Iraqi.

9. With collapse of the government and the expansion of extremism, food and water shortages are occurring and the pandemic continues.

10. Result can be desperate people take desperate measures –people do anything to feed their families = Crime, Violence, Chaos, Family breakdown.

11. Since 2002, SAT-7 has broadcast daily throughout Afghanistan in Farsi, the language of Iran, which Afghan Dari speakers understand, and now also some Dari programs too.

12. SAT-7 is virtually un-censorable – anyone in Afghanistan with a TV, satellite transponder, satellite can access SAT-7.

13. Praise God for on ground Christian and humanitarian organizations trying to meet physical needs.

14. SAT-7 works to meet spiritual needs. For Afghans unable to attend secret, house churches, SAT-7 on TV is a last resort and a lifeline.

15. In the face of adversity, people ask, “Does God even exist?” “Does He care about what’s happening here?” “Why is God allowing this to happen?”

16. Enormous opportunity to speak Christian truth into a society turned upside down and seeking answers that make sense, a God who is there and is not silent.

17. "My sister and I recently turned to Christ. We live here in Afghanistan, and we fear difficulties relating to security – it is very challenging and frightening to attend Christian meetings or try and find other Christians."

18. "I ask that you pray for me, that the love of Jesus Christ will always be found in my heart and that He will never forget me because I am in Afghanistan, and I have no one beside me."

19. “As Christians we are in real danger. Sadly, in the past two to three days, my family and I have received death threats. In this emergency situation, I have no other way but to escape from the country. Please be our voice; please help us to be heard so that we can flee from this hell as soon as possible.”

20. What should we remember?

o God is sovereign. As Os Guinness said, “We don’t know Why, but we know the God who knows Why.”

o While we understandably pray for deliverance, protection, or even flight from Afghanistan…this may not be God’s will and purpose.

o SAT-7 Farsi Bible teacher Tat Stewart observed, “Suffering purifies the Church, and God’s glory will shine through for all to see.”

21. How should we pray?

o Pray for isolated believers and Afghan Church.

o Pray for the security of NGO staff, and American forces and allies, working to help desperate people.

o Pray for an anticipated new wave of internally displaced peoples and refugees.

o Pray for the vulnerable: women and girls, elderly, sick, ethnic and religious minorities.

o Pray Afghanistan will not become a haven for extremists.

o Pray for the Taliban, sinners like us in need of grace.

o Pray for SAT-7’s ongoing ministry in Afghanistan and Iran.

o Pray for peace.

Grace be with you.

*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 26 August 2021

Last week’s presentation.

Idea is:

1) Modern-day false prophets are not just preachers but celebrities, intellectuals/professors, politicians, media personalities, activists, online influencers.

2) Greatest existential threat to America is not external, ie., China or international radicalism, but internal, ie., moral relativism, which these false prophets “preach.”

Modern-Day False Prophets from First Baptist Middleville on Vimeo.

© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2021 *This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 23 August 2021

Pray for the Taliban.

What? Why?

1 – “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” (Matt 5:43-44).

2 – “‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways!” (Ezek. 33:11). “The Lord… is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance,” (2 Peter 3:9).

What if the next Billy Graham is presently an Afghan Taliban?

What if, like Iran, Afghanistan became the fastest growing Church in the world?

What if the Taliban emerged as the next “Berean” Church, that “received the message with great eagerness”?

“Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,” (Matt. 6:10).

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 21 August 2021

Yesterday during his press conference describing strategy to get Americans and allies out of Afghanistan, President Biden said, “And thank God, so far, knock on wood, we’re in a different position.” Interesting juxtaposition of phrases.

Side-stepping partisan politics or a critique of the Afghanistan debacle, let’s focus on the phrases.

Pres Biden uses the superstitious “knock on wood” phrase a lot, including back into his vice presidency. Pres Trump used the phrase as well. But again, the point here is not politics.

When celebrities are complimented on their success they regularly say, “I was lucky.” Really? Are they saying they have no talent, did not work hard, made no good decisions, are subject only to the "fates"? Somehow, unlike the rest of us unlucky woebegones, they lucked out?

Maybe, but more likely this is their way of being modest and avoiding any reference to religion.

What makes Pres Biden’s comment so interesting is his combination—thank God, knock on wood. To cover the bases, acknowledge some sort of supreme being but, just in case, tap into mythology too.

This is American religious culture in a nutshell.

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 20 August 2021

I’m not a person who gets embarrassed. Maybe that’s some chink in my armor. I don’t know. But I’ve learned this about myself over the years.

I have to say that in the past couple of years, I confess I’ve periodically felt embarrassed for my country.

—when a President acted boorishly on the world stage, making juvenile comments about, well, a lot of things.

—when mayors, district attorneys, and sometimes governors blithely dismissed rioters, refusing to prosecute and hold them accountable before the law.

—when universities, corporations, and American elites rushed to adopt new sexual orientation and gender identity and critical race theory paradigms, ostensibly to demonstrate their woke virtue, but in actuality to preserve and develop their position and profit.

—when elected officials acted like wanna-be dictators, mandating a long list of lockdown restrictions in the name of public health.

—when a President talks about the debacle in Afghanistan in alternative reality terms no one, except maybe those who report to him, believes is happening on the ground.

It’s not so much a matter of pride or patriotism as it is a sense of lost moral credibility, a loss of place and purpose in the world that looks to this last best hope for democracy.

Ideals are important. Losing them to hubris or irrational idealism is not something I find comforting.

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 18 August 2021

“We do not know why God is doing what he is doing, but we know why we trust God, who knows why…We may be in the dark about what God is doing, but we are not in the dark about God.”

I thought of this favorite Os Guinness quote this evening watching coverage of Afghanistan and Haiti, then hearing of a young family in our church just in an auto accident in which the teen daughter was seriously injured.

Why? I don’t know, but I am blessed to know and trust God who is at once the omnipotent, omniscient Sovereign God of the Universe and our Heavenly Father. These are not hollow platitudes. This is knowable truth.

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