Paul Rolland| Night Watchman Ministries |The False Prophet Endorses the World’s Worship of the Beast and His Image

Co-option of religion by Saudi’s MBS spells disaster. Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman has demonstrated a deft touch in the misuse and exploitation of religion to serve his own brand of authoritarianism. ‘Those Who Worship the Beast During the Tribulation.’

Middle East Monitor Nasim Ahmed

The misuse of religion has become something of an art form in the Middle East. On the one hand many of the region’s autocrats and dictators, calling for greater secularism, warn of the dangers of mixing religion with politics, pointing to Daesh and the Muslim Brotherhood. One the other, the same dictators and autocrats conscript religion to advance some of the worst forms of repression.

Egypt’s former Mufti Sheikh Ali Gomaa’s support for 2013 coup that overthrew the government of democratically elected Mohamed Morsi is perhaps the most striking recent example of this deadly union between the region’s autocrats and religion. “Shoot them in the heart … Blessed are those who kill them, and those who are killed by them,” said Goma in what is believed to be a speech delivered to the Egyptian military and police leadership prior to the August 2013 Rabaa Al-Adawiya massacre.

Some 1,000 people were killed in what has been descried as the “the worst mass killing” in modern Egypt. Ali Goma’s chilling words, needless to say, generated the kind of frenzy that’s required for such blood-letting. The hatemongering of the cleric against his political opposition is worth quoting in full: “We must cleanse our Egypt from these riffraff … They shame us … They stink. This is how God has created them. They are hypocrites and seceders … Stand your ground. God is with you, and the Prophet Muhammad is with you, and the believers are with you … Numerous visions have attested that the Prophet is with you. May God destroy them, may God destroy them, may God destroy them. Amen!”

More recently, Egypt’s religious institutions were recruited in support of military intervention in Libya. Following President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi’s July announcement to deploy armed forces in support of rebel group led by General Khalifa Haftar against the UN recognised Government of National Accord (GNA), Cairo’s top official religious institutions offered resounding endorsements. Al-Azhar, one of the most respected religious institutions in the Sunni Muslim world, issued a statement in support of Al-Sisi’s military intervention. A second institution, Dar Al-Iftaa, which describes itself “among the pioneering foundations for fatwa”, urged Egyptians to back their president warning that any opposition would be considered haram, or forbidden, under Islamic law.

These examples are by no means rare. Across the Red Sea in Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman has demonstrated a deft touch in the misuse and exploitation of religion to serve his own brand of authoritarianism. The 34-year-old de-facto ruler of the kingdom, popularly known as MBS, obtained a fatwa authorising the extra judicial killing of one of his critics. Details of what can be described as nothing less than religious sanctioned murder, were part of series of bombshell allegations made in a legal documents filed in the US last week.

In the yet to be proven claims, MBS is said to have ordered a hit squad to seek out and kill one of his former top intelligence official, Saad Al-Jabri, in Canada just 13 days after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The case filed by 62-year-old Al-Jabri, who is living in an undisclosed location in the Toronto region, has striking parallels with the murder of Khashoggi nearly two years ago in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Bin Salman is said to have personally orchestrated the attempted extrajudicial killing of Al-Jabri “to fulfil his murderous desire”. It’s alleged that the notorious “Tiger Squad” which killed Khashoggi was directed by the prince himself to assassinate Al-Jabri.

In a section describing how “Defendant bin Salman Obtains a Fatwa Endorsing the Extrajudicial Killing of Dr. Saad” the legal document claims that MBS convened a meeting with close advisers in or around May 2020, where they were overheard saying that he had obtained a fatwa for the killing of Al-Jabri. The fatwa that was issued justified the extrajudicial killing of the former intelligence czar. As a result of the fatwa, described as “the newest stage of a multi-year campaign of execution” Al-Jabri’s life “remains in dire peril to this day.”

Paul Rolland | Night Watchman Ministries | MbS Beheads Tribulation Saints

Canadian sources reported yesterday that Al-Jabri has been placed under heightened security after it emerged that there was a new threat against his life. In the latest development in the case, the US District Court for Columbia issued a summons order for MBS over the failed assassination attempt of Al-Jabri. The same court also summoned 13 Saudi officials, including former Deputy Director of Intelligence Ahmed Al-Asiri and former adviser in the royal court Saud Al-Qahtani, for their involvement in Khashoggi’s assassination.

Such misuse of religion and religious institutions is nothing new. Throughout history and across faiths, the recruitment of religion has been a constant feature of empires. In more modern times autocrats and despots see in the manipulation of religion a powerful means to cement their position. Democracies too are not immune to such tendencies. Evangelical Christians groups, for example, mobilise support for the Republican party and for the state of Israel. The Zionist state also has its own very special brand of union between religion and state. Not only do its leaders cite biblical text to justify the finding of the state, religious narrative remains a powerful force in the ongoing takeover of Palestine by Jewish extremists and elected Israeli officials.

Across the Middle East, the urge to misuse religion has taken a unique form. The likes of MBS speak on the one hand of wanting to create a more secular country but at the same time have skilfully enlisted religion to justify their repressive policies in a manner that is unprecedented. Prominent clerics are often seen propping up regimes by declaring that protest is prohibited in Islam, or blaming the victims of colonialism and ethnic cleansing in what appears to be an attempt to divert attention from state sanctioned terror and human rights abuse.

The Middle East is in desperate need of space that allows for the free expression of religion as much as the free expression of ideas. For too long autocrats have co-opted religion to cement their power while at the same time using the fear of Islam to mobilise support across the West to silence critics and opposition. Their long time survival depends on this balance.

But how can they call on him (Jesus Christ) to save them unless they believe in him (Jesus Christ)? And how can they believe in him (Jesus Christ) if they have never heard about him (Jesus Christ)? And how can they hear about him (Jesus Christ) unless someone tells them?” —Romans 10:14

In His Service,

Night Watchman

Paul Rolland

Night Watchman Ministries

Make Your Decision for Christ NOW!!!!!!! Time is Up!!!!!!!

Jesus Christ’s Offer of Salvation:

The ABCs of Salvation through Jesus Christ (the Lamb)

A. Admit/Acknowledge/Accept that you are sinner. Ask God’s forgiveness and repent of your sins.

. . . “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23).

. . . “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one.” (Romans 3:10).

. . . “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:8).

B. Believe Jesus is Lord. Believe that Jesus Christ is who He claimed to be; that He was both fully God and fully man and that we are saved through His death, burial, and resurrection. Put your trust in Him as your only hope of salvation. Become a son or daughter of God by receiving Christ.

. . . “That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. (John 3:15-17). For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Romans 10:13).

C. Call upon His name, Confess with your heart and with your lips that Jesus is your Lord and Savior.

. . . “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” (Romans 10:9-10).

. . . “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” (John 1:8-10).

. . . “And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. (John 2:2).

. . . “In this was manifested the love of god toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.” (1 John 4:9, 14-15).

. . . “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.” (Romans 5:8-10).

. . . “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23).

. . . “Jesus saith unto them, I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6).

. . . “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth.” (Romans 1:16).

. . . “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts: 4:12).

. . . “Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth for there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” (1 Timothy 2:4-6).

. . . “For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Thessalonians 5:9).

. . . “But as many as received him, to them gave the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” (John 1:12).

True Church / Bride of Christ Spared from God’s Wrath:

 Romans 5:8-10. “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.”

Romans 12:19. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.

1 Thessalonians 1:10. And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.

1 Thessalonians 5:9. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,

Romans 8:35. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

Jeremiah 30:7. Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble, but he shall be saved out of it.

Revelation 3:10 Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.