By Theodore Shoebat 

A Christian pastor in South Sudan, named Adam Haron, was kidnapped by Muslims and horrifically tortured for three months straight, as punishment for leaving Islam. Even after suffering so much, he still cries out:

“I am ready to die for the sake of the gospel.”

Haron sees himself as worthy of suffering for Christ, and does not see his persecution as a misfortune, but instead as a blessing. I did a whole video on this saint:

According to the report:

A Sudanese pastor in South Sudan was jailed and tortured for more than three months after Islamists who tried to kill him accused him of being a spy, sources said.

Adam Haron, a 37-year-old convert from Islam and a native of West Darfur, Sudan, said Muslim extremists called him on Nov. 9 and 10 threatening to kill him if he continued to proclaim Christ among Muslims in Aweil, near the Sudanese border. Pastor of a church in an undisclosed area of South Sudan, Haron had gone to Aweil, about 800 kilometers (500 miles) northwest of the capital city of Juba, to plant a church.

Evangelism is not illegal in South Sudan, where Christians outnumber Muslims, and the Transitional Constitution following the country’s secession from Sudan in 2011 guarantees religious freedom, including the right to propagate one’s faith.

Haron said he knew the Muslims who threatened him as they were from his home region of West Dafur. The following day they tried to kill him when a Land Cruiser with no license plate nearly ran him over, he said.

Haron, who came to South Sudan in 2010 after converting to Christianity in 2005, said that three days later six armed men, including three in military uniform, entered his hotel room in Aweil and started to search his personal bag and laptop and scattered his clothes around. They also took his cell phone.

As the armed men ordered him to get into their car, they began kicking his legs and groin, he said.

“Thank God, who protected me from serious injury from them,” he said.

One of assailants took out a pistol, pointed it at Haron’s head, and asked him if he was a Christian pastor. He answered, “Yes, I am a pastor,” and they took him to a detention center in Aweil, he said.

Haron said the three men in uniform were military intelligence personnel. Based on a military officer’s interrogation of him, he concluded that the radical Muslims had the military personnel arrest him after falsely accusing him of being a spy for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir’s National Congress Party.

On Nov. 15, two soldiers gave him 364 lashes using a tree branch as a whip, he said.

“We will beat you every Saturday in this way,” one of them told him during the lashing.

Haron told Morning Star News he was encouraged because he was considered worthy to suffer for his faith and replied, “I am ready to die for the sake of the gospel.”

They threw him into a narrow cell, his legs bound with chains, he said. On Jan. 3 he was transferred to another jail cell. He was released on Feb. 18.

In the course of his incarceration, those who arrested Haron stole 2,600 South Sudanese Pounds (US$820) from him, he said.

Haron, who pastors an underground church made up primarily of converts from Islam, said he was gratified that the mistreatment tested his faith.

“This detention has been a great encouragement to my spiritual life,” he said.

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The saint weeps in the deepest melancholy, begging God for His defense, because his enemies surround him, just as Christ was surrounded by enemies, and wept, as the thick darkness of the earth’s evil surrounded Him. It is so for all the saints, for Christ was encompassed on all sides by viperous wolves. As the Savior Himself said,  “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.” (John 15:18)

And thus is the life of the saint: struggling endlessly with the world, as the shepherd is forever vigilant against the wolves. When the saints are persecuted, they are engulfed  by the love of God, for in their state of agony, they are being tested by the Lord Who is love. To be persecuted is to be loved by God; it is a sign that the Father desires that you be as His Son, to live as Christ lived, to suffer just as He suffered.

Those who are not persecuted, who live entrenched in the fat of comfort, without enemies from amongst the wolves, and in the avoidance from the struggle that the Sword of Christ brings, are hated by God, and thus God deprives them of the honor of persecution. As David wrote in the tenth Psalm:

“The Lord tests the righteous, but the wicked and the one who loves violence His soul hates.” (Psalm 11:5)

God loved Elijah, and He thus blessed him with the oppression of Jezebel; He loved Moses and bestowed upon him the mission to confront the tyrant Pharaoh — a terrifying enterprise — to endure the arduous journey through the desert, and conduct battles against the pagans who sought out his destruction.

As Christ stood upon the lofty mountain, His face radiated with ineffable light as bright as the sun, and He, in all His glory, transfigured. The tall pinnacle upon which He stood, bridged Heaven and Earth, and those two persevering saints, Elijah and Moses, descended from the Eternal Realm, and spoke with their Messiah.

Their sufferings, the persecutions they were inflicted with, foreshadowed the agony their Lord was to suffer, and those around Christ, Peter, John and James, were struck with awe as though the sacred presence was a two-edged sword. And St. Peter said with innocent zeal:

 Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, let us make here three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. (Matthew 17:4)

While he was still speaking, “a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying,  “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!” (Matthew 17:5) And in hearing Christ, we obey His command that says,  “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” (Mark 8:34) Thus we take up our cross as Elijah and Moses, and as Christ, the fulfillment of the prophets, when they combated with the utmost of exertion the forces of darkness.

The Transfiguration

The ardent warriors of Christendom, when they combat the enemies of the Church, putting their bodies and their spirits through the suffering inherent in combat, with death and deep wounds, emulate Christ in His long-suffering when He underwent His most grueling martyrdom; in fighting with zeal and force the thieves of mens’ souls, they parallel Christ when He took up a whip and drove the thieves from the Temple.

The Crusaders of Christendom, the Militia of Christ, seeing their brethren persecuted and abused by satanic tyrants, and executing noble wrath upon the evil doers, imitate Moses when he “defended and avenged him who was oppressed, and struck down the Egyptian.” (Acts 7:24) The holy fighters of Christ, in never bowing the knee before Satan, and in slaying those who attack the churches of God, and kill His priests, emulate Elijah when he refused to bow the knee to Baal, and when he slaughtered the prophets of Baal, who oppressed with bloodshed and violence the prophets of God.

The angel appears before Elijah after he flees Jezebel

It was on that holy mountain, upon where the Transfiguration occurred, where Christ, Elijah and Moses stood, and it is in these three, where the spirit of the warrior is found. Elijah, Moses and Christ, were not friends of the world, and because of this they were forsaken by popularity.

But, the worst form of loneliness and rejection was experienced by Christ. When the Savior was upon the Holy Wood, in the presence of spiteful eyes and scoffing tongues, death was nigh, and the Son of God looked up the loftiest Heaven, and with agonizing voice cried out:

 My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? (Matthew 27:46)

And we find David, the warrior who followed his heavenly General, the Son of God, crying out with the same anguishing words:

My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, And from the words of My groaning?

O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear; And in the night season, and am not silent.

But You are holy, Enthroned in the praises of Israel.

Our fathers trusted in You;

They trusted, and You delivered them.

They cried to You, and were delivered;

They trusted in You, and were not ashamed.

But I am a worm, and no man;

reproach of men, and despised by the people.

All those who see Me ridicule Me;

They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,

“He trusted[b] in the Lord, let Him rescue Him;

Let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him!

But You are He who took Me out of the womb;

You made Me trust while on My mothers breasts.

I was cast upon You from birth.

From My mothers womb

You have been My God.

Be not far from Me,

For trouble is near;

For there is none to help.

Many bulls have surrounded Me;

Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled Me.

They gape at Me with their mouths,

Like a raging and roaring lion. (Psalm 22:1-13)

The words of the holy warrior David are the words of the suffering Messiah, the eternal and divine Son — the Suffering Warrior Who shed His blood in the heat of the fray, amidst soldiers and guards, swords and lances, and the blood of the Holiest Knight, and Who stained the wood upon which He vanquished His enemies.

Yes, He anguishes, He weeps, He mourns, but as a soldier in battle, mourning and weeping for his troops, sacrificing himself for the sake of those he loves, for the sake of peace, for the defeat of the enemy. He is slain in the battle in one moment, and in an ever glorious moment, He is resurrected, and He conquers. And in the end,

All the ends of the world

Shall remember and turn to the Lord,

And all the families of the nations

Shall worship before You.

For the kingdom is the Lords,

And He rules over the nations.

All the prosperous of the earth

Shall eat and worship;

All those who go down to the dust

Shall bow before Him,

Even he who cannot keep himself alive. (Psalm 22:27-29)

The warriors of Christendom share in the struggles of our Savior; He was struck and smitten by the followers of Satan, and we are struck by the same acolytes of darkness; Christ strikes the devil on the Cross, and the Church strikes with the spiritual sword — that is, doctrine — and her warriors attack with the temporal sword — the authority to crusade and execute holy wars — as we carry our cross.

Jesus makes Satan flee in the desert

The soldiers of Christ partake in the anguish and the ways of Christ, surrounded by enemies and so near to death, and yet so bridged with eternity; they express His hatred of idolatry, strive for true religion to triumph, and take comfort in their Father in Heaven. They are as David when he, foreshadowing Christ, wrote:

Bow down Your ear to me,

Deliver me speedily;

Be my rock of refuge,

A fortress of defense to save me.

For You are my rock and my fortress;

Therefore, for Your names sake,

Lead me and guide me.

Pull me out of the net which they have secretly laid for me,

For You are my strength.

Into Your hand I commit my spirit;

You have redeemed me, O Lord God of truth.

I have hated those who regard useless idols;

But I trust in the Lord.

I will be glad and rejoice in Your mercy,

For You have considered my trouble;

You have known my soul in adversities,

And have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy;

You have set my feet in a wide place.

Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am in trouble;

My eye wastes away with grief,

Yes, my soul and my body! My times are in Your hand;

Deliver me from the hand of my enemies,

And from those who persecute me. Let the lying lips be put to silence,

Which speak insolent things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous.” (Psalm 31:2-9, 15, 18)

David is here representing the suffering Messiah, the ultimate image of sainthood: continuously grieving for righteousness’ sake, and ceaselessly surrounded by enemies, and with much anguish, calling to God for protection and strength.

Here in this passage, the violent divide between the House of God and the house of Satan is illustrated. It is again blissfully described by David in the 32nd Psalm, where it says that “Many sorrows shall be to the wicked; but he who trusts in the Lord, mercy shall surround him. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous” (Psalm 32:10-11).

The struggle between the saints and their enemies, is from the beginning of the Psalms to their end, continuously expressed, in the strongest language of valor and impenetrable spirit. It is of the most sublime nature: the warrior communicates with his God, and the nature of God is profoundly reflected with images of battle, arms, sorrows, hope, strength, victory, the majesties of the divine and the beauties of God — all illustrations of holy war, with the spirit of the knight never afraid, always striving, always diligent, and always connected with the warring God of Heaven, as he battles with his enemies.

David says that “many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of all of them.” (Pslam 34:19) The life of the saints are filled with pains and struggles, just as Christ’s life was filled with agony and turmoil. The life of the saint is bittersweet, for in his suffering there is always resurrection. Just read the words of David to hear the cries of the oppressed saint’s soul:

Because of the voice of the enemy,

Because of the oppression of the wicked;

For they bring down trouble upon me,

And in wrath they hate me.

My heart is severely pained within me,

And the terrors of death have fallen upon me.

Fearfulness and trembling have come upon me,

And horror has overwhelmed me. (Psalm 55:3-5)

We have here the voice of the persecuted saint, suffering as Christ anguished on the Cross. But in such suffering there is a battle against the persecutor, and from God, the defender of His saints, comes a divine serenity, and the militants of Christ say:

“He has redeemed my soul in peace from the battle that was against me, For there were many against me.” (Psalm 55:18)

While the warrior for Christ plunges deep into persecutions, his spirit longs for God, his eyes weep, calling for his lord, amidst his enemies who seek his death. He asks the reason as to why God forgot him, just as Christ asked,  “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”

And even during such great suffering, his soul still desires God. Such is the spirit of the warrior; his soul, like a sword, drives out the devils who come to shatter his hope, and in the most violent of battles, he still perseveres.

There is a reason why David, the suffering saint and an image of the weeping Messiah, remembered God from Mt. Hermon, a most ascending peak, for it was here where Joshua defeated the heathen Canaanites, and it is on this same mountain where David meditated on God, the One Who brings victory to His warriors.

David suffers in his agony, and yet he contemplates on the God of true peace, upon a mountain where holy warriors triumphed. “I will remember You from the land of the Jordan, And from the heights of Hermon” (Psalm 42:6). On this holy mountain there is battle, there is suffering and struggle, and on this sacred peak there is victory and peace.

This writing is taken from my upcoming book on Christian militancy, which will be the most extensive book ever written on Christian warfare.

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