Latest / The Daily Article / Egypt’s government threatens world’s oldest monastery

Transcript

Egypt’s government threatens world’s oldest monastery · The Daily Article

• 0:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Good day and welcome to the Wednesday, August the twentieth-twenty-twenty-five edition of the daily article podcast from Dinnison Forum.
• 0:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm narrator Chris Elfkins, voicing to days daily article written by our co-founder Dr. Jim Dinnison.
• 0:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: St.
• 0:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: Catherine's monastery, two hundred and seventy-five miles from Cairo in the depths of the Sinai Desert, is the oldest continually inhabited Christian monastery in the world.
• 0:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: But at the foot of the mountain, where many believe Moses saw the burning bush and subsequently received the tin commandments, it has served as a sanctuary of worship, refuge and scholarship for more than fifteen hundred years.
• 0:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: I was privileged to visit the monastery some years ago, where I was deeply moved by the monks' compassion for worship, community, and scholarship.
• 0:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: They are stewards of some of the world's oldest biblical manuscripts, treasures they continue to study and make available to the world.
• 1:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: However, their future is now in peril.
• 1:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: In May, an Egyptian court issued a ruling that allows the state to control what is, and is not allowed at St.
• 1:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: Catherine's, stripping the monks of all legal authority.
• 1:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: The government has already taken control over academic access to the site and continues to undermine its autonomy.
• 1:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: With enough pressure, the monks may be forced to abandon the ancient monastery altogether.
• 1:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Ironically and tragically, the oppression is being conducted in the name of religion.
• 1:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: Egypt's Islamic government is gradually subsuming non-sony religious institutions and refuses to shield coptic Christians, churches, and homes from attacks.
• 1:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: It also refuses to permit renovations of churches while pouring enormous sums into buildings and renovating thousands of mosques.
• 1:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: Oppressing Christianity in the name of religion is nothing you of course.
• 1:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is greatest persecutors.
• 1:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: were religious leaders convinced they were serving God by their actions.
• 2:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: Saul of Tarsus was similarly certain referencing Acts twenty-two verses three through five that by persecuting Christians, he was imprisoning heretics.
• 2:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: Gihatus Muslims seek Christians as infidels according to Koran two verse one ninety, who opposed the one true faith and must therefore be opposed in the name of Allah.
• 2:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: However, we don't have to persecute the church to fall prey to the temptation of religion that competes against a genuine relationship with Jesus.
• 2:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm old enough to remember a day when church activities consisted primarily of worship and Bible study.
• 2:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: Then churches discovered that they could add buildings and programs to attract the community and hopefully attract them to the Lord.
• 2:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: gymnasiums, family life centers, children's and youth weekday activities, and need-based programs like AA, divorce recovery, and others proliferated.
• 2:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: These strategies follow Jesus' example as he met felt needs to meet spiritual needs, healing bodies, to heal souls.
• 3:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: Such programs can be effective ways to reach people who likely would not come to a worship service or a Bible study.
• 3:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: I know of pastors and other Christian leaders who reach for Christ through softball leagues, sports programs, recovery groups, and similar ministries.
• 3:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: But the downside of the upside is that we can confuse activities at church with a transforming relationship with Jesus himself.
• 3:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: Our great commission stated in Matthew twenty eight versus nineteen and twenty is clear and simple.
• 3:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: The church exists to make disciples of Jesus by evangelizing the lost and equipping the saved.
• 3:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: If we make anything else the priority, we can be many things, but we are no longer the church.
• 3:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: Our Lord was clear in Matthew eleven verse twenty eight, come to me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.
• 3:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: Not come to my teachings or come to my movement or even join my church, but come to me.
• 4:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: Experiencing the risen Lord Jesus himself is the essence of Christianity.
• 4:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: In his book, Confessions, Saint Augustine famously prayed
• 4:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.
• 4:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: The second phrase explains the first.
• 4:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: God made you and me in his own image, so we could have a personal relationship with our maker affirmed in Genesis one verse twenty-seven.
• 4:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: This only makes sense.
• 4:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: Humans can relate to humans on a level different from our relationship with any other living beings, not to mention inanimate objects.
• 4:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: Because first John for eight teaches God is love, he made us for intimacy with himself.
• 4:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: This is why we are commanded in Mark twelve, verse thirty, to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.
• 4:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: Everything religious we do is to be a means to this end.
• 5:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Kirkigard reminded us that we worship God as our audience of one.
• 5:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: We read Scripture to your God preaching as J.I.
• 5:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: Packer noted, we pray, to commune with our Lord, we serve others to serve Him.
• 5:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, God says everything we do in life is to be a means to the end of knowing Him and making Him known, noted by Jeremiah nine verses twenty three and twenty four, let not the wise man boast in his wisdom,
• 5:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: Let not the mighty man boast in his might.
• 5:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: Let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this that he understands and knows me.
• 5:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: According to Paul, anything we must give up to no God personally and intimately is a cost worth paying that he stated in Philippians III verse eight, I count everything as lost because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
• 5:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: The Psalmist agreed in Psalm seventy three verses twenty five and twenty six whom have I in heaven but you and there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you my flesh and my heart may fail but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
• 6:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: On the Mount of Transfiguration, Peter said in Matthew Seventeen, verse four, Lord, it is good for us to be here.
• 6:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: St.
• 6:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: Anastacius, the Seventh Century Abbott of St.
• 6:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: Catherine's Monastery at Mount Sinai, commented on Peter's Declaration this way.
• 6:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: Let us run with confidence and joy to enter into the clouds like Moses and Elijah, or like James and John.
• 6:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: Let us be caught up like Peter to behold the divine vision and to be transfigured by that glorious transfiguration.
• 6:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: Let us retire from the world, stand aloof from the earth, rise above the body, detach ourselves from creatures and turn to the creator to whom Peter in ecstasy exclaimed, Lord, it is good for us to be here.
• 6:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: It is indeed good to be here as you have said, Peter.
• 6:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: It is good to be with Jesus and to remain here forever.
• 7:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: What greater happiness or higher honor could we have than to be with God to be made like Him and to live in His light?
• 7:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: Therefore, since each of us possesses God in His heart and is being transformed into His divine image, we also should cry out with joy
• 7:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: It is good for us to be here, in quote, when last did you retire from the world to turn to the Creator?
• 7:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: When last was it good for you to be with Jesus?
• 7:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: Why not today?