Prayers for Afghanistan and the World (Pastor's Podcast)

Welcome to Conversations with a Calvinist. This podcast is dedicated to helping believers better understand Scripture, defend truth, and engage culture. Get your Bible ready and prepare to engage today's topic.

Here's your host, Pastor Keith Foskey.

Welcome back to Conversations with a Calvinist. My name is Keith Foskey, and I am a Calvinist. The American military pulls out of Afghanistan. China makes it illegal for foreign teachers to teach in their country.

And, of course, there are many who have died in the earthquake in Haiti, along with many people who are still continuing to suffer with the COVID crisis here in the United States. It's a lot that's going on, and that's going to be the subject of today's program.

I want to talk to you about things that are happening in the world, and really today's a different program. I'm not really going to be discussing a lot of theology today, as I often do, but rather today is this week, this episode for today, and for this week is going to be an encouragement for prayer.

So whether you're a member of our church or not, if you're a listener to this program, you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. I just want to give you some things for which you should be praying and invite you to pray with me at the end of the program for these particular things.

So let's begin with, and I do have notes for the show today, I'm going to be going through my notes, try to stick to them. If I don't, I'm sure I'll go off and the show will end up taking a lot longer than intended.

Praying for Christians in Afghanistan

Let's look first at what is transpiring in Afghanistan over the last few days. As many of you know, the American military has pulled out of Afghanistan and the Taliban has taken over that country, and opinions are divided over whether or not our presence in Afghanistan was warranted or positive, but no one disagrees that our departure has been a disaster.

In fact, I saw some photographs comparing this departure from Afghanistan to the departure from Vietnam at the end of that conflict, and a lot of people are making comparisons to those who fought in Vietnam to those who fought in Afghanistan, feeling as if they are questioning the value of the many years, you know, 20 years of work that was put in over there and seems like all of it has been undone overnight.

I watched the address yesterday from President Biden, and he made the case that 20 years was long enough to be there. We didn't need to waste more lives and more money on a country where the people are not willing to stand for themselves.

I listened to his, I tried to listen every time I listened to anyone, especially the president or whomever, I tried to listen closely, try to hear what they're saying and not immediately try to attack every word that comes out of his mouth.

And, you know, I watched this video of him talking about the things that happened and talking about this decision to pull out, this decision to do this. And he said very clearly that he stands by his decision.

He says, I stand squarely behind this decision. And then my attention went to another video, and that was a video of people literally clinging to the outside of the aircrafts as they were flying away and literally people falling off the aircrafts as the aircrafts began to climb into the sky.

I listened to Biden claim that this was partly the result of a deal that President Trump made with the Taliban. And I got to wondering, would this have happened under President Trump? Would what have happened, what has happened in the last few days, would this have happened this way if President Trump were still in charge?

Of course, many people who are supporting Trump would say, absolutely not. He wouldn't have allowed this to happen. He would have done something different. He would not have done it this way. And, you know, I understand that sentiment, and I'd like to think that that's the case, but that's not where we are.

We are in a situation where Joe Biden is the current President of the United States. A decision was made, whatever led up to this decision, whatever predicated this decision, the decision was made and the vacuum of power was quickly filled by the Taliban.

And again, you know, that one of the things that was said yesterday when I watched the video was President Biden said, well, you know, this unfolded much more quickly than we could have anticipated, meaning the hostility unfolded a lot more quickly than could have been anticipated.

And I say that's an understatement. Much more quickly, we're talking a matter of just a couple of days that it took for the Taliban essentially to take over. And I want to quote a quick, this is from Christian headlines .com.

It said this quote, earlier this year, Biden, against the wishes of his top military commanders, announced the removal of all U .S. troops by September 11th, 2021, the 20th anniversary of the 9 -11 terror attacks.

So this is something that we have been told was coming. This is something that now has come and the things that the concerns of what could take place have taken place. And what disturbs me, of course, the most is there are people dying over there right now.

As we speak, as you're listening to this, there are people who are suffering the results of this decision. And the ones that obviously are on my heart tonight, as I am thinking about them, are those who are Christians in the area, because they're now completely defenseless.

According to reports, Christian workers in Afghanistan have received letters from the Taliban saying, quote, we know where you are, we know what you are doing, and we are coming for you. I mean, imagine, it's hard to even fathom as a pastor, knowing that the very things that I am doing as preaching the gospel and seeking the lost and proclaiming the truth of Jesus Christ, that these things would be would be causing such a danger.

I mean, most of us who live in America have never even considered living in the danger that those in Afghanistan have lived in and are now living in under a much more real and serious and immediate threat.

I want to quote again from Christian headlines. It says, quote, ICC spoke to a Christian in Afghanistan who said he knew of a Christian friend who had received a letter from the Taliban saying they would take his house.

The Christian told ICC that believers understand the dangers of practicing their faith. Every Muslim background believer like myself that converted to Christianity, he knows the consequences of their conversion.

Islam is very clear. Quran is very clear. Hadith is very clear. For the apostasy, the Christian told ICC, they give three days after that, and if you don't repent, there is no mercy on those people. Christians often, the quote goes on, Christians often must flee Afghanistan or risk being killed.

ICC reported even before the United States announced its withdrawal, Afghanistan was a dangerous place for Christians with open doors ranking it number two on the world watch list ranking of nations where believers face the most persecution.

When the list was released, the Taliban controlled only certain parts of the country. Now, though, the Taliban controls the entire nation. So the first call to prayer today is a prayer for Christians in Afghanistan.

They are facing a threat that is just unbelievable. It is one that many of us, again, unfathomable, one that is such a terrible and horrible thing. I just wanted to begin again today's program by calling for prayer for the Christians in Afghanistan.

Of course, not only the Christians, but also those who are under the threat of the Taliban simply because they aided the United States. That is another issue. From what I understand, having read one article, I didn't bring it with me, but one of the articles I read said that any of the military who had aided in the United States or trained with the United States or whatever during their battles against the Taliban are now being hunted and their lives are in peril.

So we need to pray for them. Second call to prayer today is going to be for the nation of China. I mentioned this in my opening. China is ratcheting up their control of their people. Now, about a year ago, I think it was, we actually had one Sunday in our church where we dedicated time to pray for the Chinese people, and I brought in a video, and I showed how the Chinese Christians were being threatened.

Churches were being basically, if it was not a state-controlled church, they were being eradicated. Churches that had pictures of Christ were taken down and replaced with pictures of Xi Jinping, who is the leader in China.

And for many of you who know me personally, you all know that my wife has a very strong tie to China for the last three years. She has been a teacher of Chinese students. She has taught online ESL, which is English as a second language, and that has come to an end, not because my wife decided to end it, but because the company that she worked with has now been told by the Minister of Education that they are no longer allowed to use foreign teachers, and all foreign teachers have basically been banned from giving instruction to Chinese students.

And some of you might say, well, that's not surprising. I mean, it is a communist country. They tend to be more heavy-handed, but first of all, it was a heartbreak to my wife. She has many students and their parents who she loves, who she has wonderful interactions with.

This has been taken away, but according to a journalist, and I hope I'm saying this correctly, Paul Kisharma, she said, quote, Xi Jinping has set his eyes on Chinese schools. His regime is taking over private schools and banning foreign textbooks.

So it's not just banning foreign teachers. It's banning foreign thought. It's banning foreign textbooks. And she calls this the cultural revolution 2 .0, and quote, a communist cleansing of China. She basically said the purge is on.

He wants to control the government, the military, society, and schools. And he already has the first three. He has the government. He has the military. He basically has the society. And now it's about control over the schools.

I'm going to link her video in the description of today's program. She talks about five different things that are happening in the schools in China. And the reason, again, not only to call for prayer, but to call this to your attention, we need to know that this is happening because our own country, in our own country of the United States, those of you who are American and who are watching this program, we know there are people who are calling for socialism.

There are people who are lauding the value of communism in our own country. And I know there's a difference between socialism and communism. But the joke is, I always say communism is just socialism with guns.

But both of them use guns. Both of them are willing to enforce their ideas and their thoughts by the power of the sword, by the power of the gun. And here's the thing. They have an eye toward this type of power.

The power that Xi Jinping is exercising in China is the same type of power, complete thought control, that is ultimately, in my opinion, the desire of those who are on the far left, who are in this movement to try to push socialism on our country.

And it's working. It's working because our young people don't understand the dangers of this type of thought coercion, thought policing, and thought manipulation. And it's a horrible reality, but it's life for the Chinese people.

This is what they live under. There is no multiple parties where there is debate and dialogue and dissension and disagreement. No, there is one party, and that party rules all. And that may be the life for us one day, if we continue going the direction we're going.

So we need to pray for China. We need to pray for Christians in China who are seeking to bring the gospel in a place that is more and more and more unwilling to allow the freedom of thought that is required to allow the gospel to go into a place like that.

See, this is the thing. Oftentimes you hear atheists say all Christians are against free thought. No, it requires freedom. It requires things to be free for the gospel to be proclaimed. And it's often the groups that want to censor freedom, that want to censor speech, that are the biggest enemies of the gospel.

And that's what we see. Well, we also, I want to call the attention to prayer for Haiti. And this is not in regard to a military or political campaign, but rather a disaster, which happened just this last week.

The Haitian government declared a state of emergency after a 7 .2, this is from CNN, by the way, a 7 .2 magnitude earthquake struck the country Saturday, leaving at least 1 ,297 people dead and more than 5 ,700 injured.

Now this was, this is an older article because the current numbers are actually higher than this. According to the associate press, Haiti's civil protection agency on Monday raised the death toll from Saturday's earthquake to 1 ,419 people.

That's again, just thinking in numbers, that's about half of the people that died on 9 -11, 1 ,419 people died. And then a number of 6 ,000 injured. The quakes destroyed over 13 ,000 homes, damaged another 13 ,000 homes.

So that's total 26 ,000 plus homes have been either destroyed or damaged. The destruction has also pushed hospitals to the brink, blocked roads that carry vital supplies. This was a, again, 7 .2 on the Richter scale earthquake.

And it's just a horrible thing to think about that many of the people that are hurting have to wait in the burning heat, even on airport tarmacs where it's absolutely terrible as far as the heat and weather conditions there.

And again, we think about our Christian brothers and sisters who are in Haiti, who are seeking to bring relief, who are seeking to bring ministry, who are seeking to bring the gospel. They are right in the midst of this and hurting as well.

So we need to pray for the people of Haiti and pray for the disaster that has taken place there. And this brings me to the last thing I wanted to mention on today's program of things that I'd call us to pray for.

And that is the death and sickness that's been hitting close to home. Two local pastors near our church have died as a result of the COVID pandemic, and our hearts go out to their families. This is, it was, I just heard of the second one yesterday.

The other one was about a week and a half ago. And I just think about their wives. I think about their churches. I think about the heartbreak that is going on in their lives. And of course, they're not alone.

There's much in the way of sickness. We have had many folks in our community who have gotten very sick. And I have no statistics regarding the ages of those falling ill, but it does seem at least in just my anecdotal experience that I'm hearing more about younger and younger people falling very ill.

The pastor that died yesterday seemed to be a very young man, very healthy man. And people are going on ventilators or succumbing to the virus that seemed to a year ago not have been the case. And again, I haven't looked at any statistics.

I'm not quoting anything here. I'm just giving my own experience. There is a lot of death and sickness going on right here in our own backyard. And so that gives us something to pray for as well. And anytime we see this level of political upheaval, military upheaval, disease, and death going on in the world, a lot of people do want to know, well, is this the end?

Is this the sign of the end? And I did say today I wasn't going to make a lot of theological points, but I will say this. There have been bad times in the past, and it wasn't always a sign of Christ's return.

Sometimes it was something else that was happening. And so this may not be. I know there's a lot of prophecy preachers out there that are saying, well, look at what's going on in Afghanistan. Look at what's going on in China.

Look at what's going on in Russia. And we know that this is going to fulfill this prophecy, and this is going to fulfill that prophecy. And I have never been moved by their arguments to say that we know when Christ is going to return.

We don't. I was encouraged recently by Brother James White, who said, he said, maybe we're still in the early church, and maybe there's still hundreds and thousands of years of the church left to exist, and the church will continue to fight battles and will continue to succeed and will continue to grow and continue to reach the world for Christ.

Maybe that is the truth. And as I said, when it comes to the issue of eschatology, I tend to be less dogmatic about that than I am other areas of theology. But again, if somebody were to ask me today, do I think that all of these things that I've mentioned are signs of the end of the world, or signs of the return of Christ?

I don't know. I don't know. I tend not to try to make any types of predictions like that. But I will say this. It may be the end of some other things. Even if it's not the end of time, even if it's not the end of the world, it might be some end of some other things, and we need to be prepared for that.

It seems as if common sense has come to an end in many ways, and in many places it seems like common sense no longer exists. Basically, decency of thought and morality in many areas seems to have come to an end, and so we need as Christians to be prepared to continue to walk in a Christian worldview in a world that is steadily and increasingly unwilling to accept it and unwilling to abide it, and we need to be willing to continue to stand.

Common Sense, Moral Decline, and the U.S. Army Ad

And I wanted to end with just an illustration. I think that one of the pictures of us losing our common sense and losing our sense of decency and self-awareness is pictured in a recent ad that was posted for the U .S. military, and the ad did go viral, so many of you may have seen it, but it was entitled The Calling, and in my opinion it was a sick, woke joke.

That's the best way I could describe it. It was a sick, woke joke. The description, I'll read the description, and you can go on to the U .S., just go look up U .S. military ad woke. If you just look that up on YouTube, you'll find it quickly, and it's called The Calling, and this is the description that is underneath the video.

Raised by two loving and inspiring mothers, Emma excelled in school, but as a college student, she realized the challenge she truly sought required a surprising new direction. Well, that sounds like the start of a television program, start of a new series on the CW, but it's not.

It's the ad for the United States. Actually, I believe it's the army that put out this ad, and it presents the military as a place, according to the video, as a place to shatter stereotypes and have an adventure.

That's what the military is about now, shattering stereotypes. It's not about winning wars. It's not about protecting the country. It's about shattering stereotypes and having adventures. We have lost our minds.

We're in clown world. We have leveled up yet again, and there's another video that compares it to the Russian advertisement for their military, which is all about strength, unity, and discipline, and the Chinese advertisement for their military, which again promotes strength.

Then we've got Emma and her two moms that are advertising the U .S. Army. This is where we are. We have reached the end of common sense. I love the comment sections, though. If you do happen to go, be careful.

Comment sections can be dangerous, but this one person nailed it on the head. They said this. They said, quote, we sleep peacefully in our beds at night because Corporal Emma has two mommies. We have come to the end of common sense.

May not be the end of time, but it certainly is the end of many things, and as Christians, we just need to continue to pray that the Lord would be merciful, that the Lord will continue to build His church, and that the Lord will continue to do that which only He can do, change the hearts of men and women, and we as believers need to continue to be faithful to His Word and trust that He is able to do exceedingly and abundantly more than we could ever ask or think.

So with that in our mind, I want to end today's program with a prayer. I want to invite you to pray with me. I don't often do this on the program, but I invite you to pray along with me as we consider the realities of what we have discussed.

Father in heaven, we so thank you that you are an accessible God who listens to the prayers of your people. We thank you that your Word tells us that we can come boldly before your throne because of the work of Jesus Christ.

I pray right now for the people of Afghanistan, especially those who proclaim Christ, Lord, that you would watch over them and that you would protect them, that you would give them avenues of escape from their enemies, that you would protect them from danger, but Lord, for those who will be facing the sword, that they would face it with the confidence that you, O God, are the one who watches over your people and neither death nor life will be able to separate them from your love.

I pray for the people of China, Lord. We pray for Xi Jinping, Lord, that he might be converted, Lord, and change a nation. But Lord, if that is not your will, that you might be with those in the underground church, be with those who are seeking to minister to the people of China, and Lord, that you might open up doors for the gospel that weren't there before.

And Lord, I pray for the people of Haiti as they suffer this disaster, Lord, that help will arise. Churches and ministries will rise up to aid them, Lord, and those who have lost will look to heaven and know, Lord, that you are the God who is able to lift up the brokenhearted.

Your Word tells us that you are near to the brokenhearted. We pray that they would set their eyes upon you in this time. Finally, Lord, we pray for our community, pray for those who are suffering sickness, pray for those who are facing what seems like potential death, Lord, and that you might save folks from death, but Lord, that you might also be with those families who have suffered death.

Lord, for the ministers on my heart, those who have gone, Lord, who have passed away, and I pray, Lord, that you would be with their families, pray that you would watch over them, Father, give them comfort in knowing that you are the one who has us not only in life but also in death.

And I pray, Father, for our church, Lord, that we would continue to stand for the truth of the gospel, even in the midst of a people, a world that does not want to hear the truth. I thank you for this avenue of communication through this podcast.

I pray, Lord, that we will continue to take advantage of it as long as you see fit, and I pray, Lord, that you'll continue to use it to reach out to people. I pray this all, Lord, in Jesus' name and for his sake.

Amen. Thank you for listening to the program today and for continuing to support Conversations with a Calvinist. My name is Keith Foskey and I've been your Calvinist. May God bless you.

Thank you for listening to Conversations with a Calvinist. If you enjoyed the program, please take a moment to subscribe, and if you have a question you would like us to discuss on a future program, please email us at calvinistpodcast at gmail .com.

Christ Came to Save Sinners

As you go about your day, remember this, Jesus Christ came to save sinners. All who come to him in repentance and faith will find him to be a perfect Savior. He is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through him.

May God be with you.