Is the British Government Against Christianity?

A Home Office official has refused asylum to an Iranian convert to Christianity. The convert has said they converted because Islam is violent but Christianity is peaceful.

The penalty for converting from Islam in nations such as Iran is death. He made the reasonable assumption that he could appeal for asylum from a Christian nation and so turned to the United Kingdom.

However, some Home Office bureaucrat refused his appeal on the basis that he believes Christianity is not a religion of peace and therefore, does not believe the Iranian truly converted.

Let’s ask the question first. Is Christianity violent?

No.

Having read the New Testament multiple times and studied it extensively, I have never, never, never felt compelled to physically harm anyone. In fact, I have been encouraged to love my enemies rather than injure them.

The only times I have felt the desire to harm someone else is when I have actively ignored the teachings of Jesus Christ.

After misquoting several portions of the Bible the Home Office gave their judgment,

“These examples are inconsistent with your claim that you converted to Christianity after discovering it is a peaceful religion, as opposed to Islam, which contains violence and revenge.”

Letter from the Home Office refusing to an Iranian convert to Christianity

Here are some photos of the letter that have been made available,

What Verses Did They Use?

I understand that some of my explanations for Old Testament passages here will not suffice for some. And this is a subject vastly larger than I can cover here. However, here are some quick responses.

Old Testament Israel Sent to War – The Home Office isolated one verse in Leviticus 26, but I’ll approach all such verses. Without a doubt, there are some portions of the Old Testament which are violent. I cannot and will not deny that. But upon examination several facts are plain.

  • Israel was not to go to war arbitrarily. They were not to make everyone their enemy, just a select number of nations selected by God. Other nations were free to do as they pleased so long as they did not attack Israel. The only nations attacked were those on the portion of land given to Israel. So, while this will not mean anything to many, the nations attacked were invaders. These nations were burning their own children alive as part of the system of religion. While wholesale destruction is hard to fathom, we must not assume these were peace-loving farmers just minding their own business.
  • Israel had laws foreign to our times but were radically better than those of contemporaries and many that followed. In fact, the very ideals of law and order that our nations are built upon today are from the Judeo-Christian heritage.
  • Many battles were defensive, not offensive.

Matthew 10

Jesus was not speaking of a literal sword to be used by His followers. Because He also said,

But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; – Matthew 5:44

The passage referenced in Matthew 10:34 plainly does not advocate actual violence. Instead, it refers to the division that would come. It is figurative language.

Only one occasion did a follower of Christ literally take up the sword. When Peter tried to defend Jesus on the night of His betrayal, Jesus rebuked him and healed the individual who had been harmed.

Revelation

The violence in Revelation is two-fold. One, it is non-Christians torturing and killing Christians. Two, it is God acting directly, and not calling upon His followers to do violence.

What About the Crusades?

Good question. And I feel the Home Office official was lazy not to bring this up. So I did.

I can only think of two scenarios in which Christendom has been involved pro-actively in violence.

(1) When a government or political leader has corrupted the Bible’s true message for their own purposes.

(2) When a deranged individual has corrupted the teachings of the Bible for their own purposes.

Christendom is when Christianity is perverted into something monstrous and used for the very opposite purpose for which God designed it.

Christianity is that body of believers that genuinely follow Christ, who love their enemies as much as their love their friends, and who would never encourage nor excite violence.

During the Crusades, many unforgivable acts occurred. Let me be clear, I do not believe they should have never happened. However, most, if not all, were defensive. The first gathering of Western, Christian nations to march east against Islamic nations only did so after 2/3 of the ancient Christian world had been invaded. This is not just Christian propaganda to be swept away. The Encyclopedia Brittanica begins it’s description of the Crusades this way,

The Crusades were organized by western European Christians after centuries of Muslim wars of expansion. Their primary objectives were to stop the expansion of Muslim states, to reclaim for Christianity the Holy Land in the Middle East, and to recapture territories that had formerly been Christian.

https://www.britannica.com/event/Crusades

Is the UK Systematically Against Christianity?

I don’t think so. But there is definitely something wrong.

When Muslim women falsely accused Asia Bibi, a Christian, of blasphemy, she was arrested and convicted and sentenced by death by hanging. Following 8-years in prison, numerous appeals and petitions from hundreds of thousands around the world, Bibi was released. However, a Muslim cleric offered over $7000 to anyone who would kill her. Bibi appealed to the United Kingdom for asylum and was refused. Why? Because they were afraid of upsetting Muslims in the United Kingdom.

This week the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, refused to state whether or not Christians could read the Bible in public without fear of being arrested.

The Spectator shared this as evidence of something wrong at the heart of Britain,

While in the first three months of 2018 not a single Christian was admitted to the UK out of 1112 Syrian Refugees. An appalling statistic made worse by the fact that the UN High Commissioner for Refugees only recommended four

https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2019/03/the-home-offices-shameful-treatment-of-a-christian-asylum-seeker/

I am not saying there is persecution in Britain akin to North Korea or the Middle East. But something is certainly wrong.

Conclusion

Whether or not this Home Office staffer believes Christianity is violent or not. They cannot deny that Islamic governments condemn converts to death. The asylum appeal should have been upheld.

If the official does not believe in God, then they have nothing to worry about. If they do not believe God exists, then He cannot judge them, and His followers are not tasked with violence.

We cannot expect moral sanity from an insane world. Without the Bible, there is ultimately no moral compass and I believe we can only expect the madness to continue. While Islam is demonstrably violent, it’s proponents in the West uphold it as a beacon of civility. At the same time, Christianity is demonstrably a religion of peace, and yet its adherents are repeatedly accused of violence.

We must pray for this convert. If the convert is killed it will be tragic. However, if they know Christ as their Saviour then the glory they will know in Heaven will infinitely outweigh any supposed benefits of any earthly, “Christian” nation.

We must pray for the United Kingdom. God only knows what the future holds. Open persecution of believers may or may not come. Our prayer should not be for a Christian government, that never ends well. Rather we should pray as Paul did, that we should essentially be left alone to live a godly life. We do not want the government to either help or hinder, just leave us alone.

(1) I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; (2) For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. (3) For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; (4) Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

1 Timothy 2:1-4

Read more here:
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/what-does-britains-government-have-against-christianity-and-christians

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/03/21/church-attacks-home-office-saying-christianity-not-peaceful/

https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2019/03/the-home-offices-shameful-treatment-of-a-christian-asylum-seeker/

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