India (IGL/MNN) — You may have recently gotten an e-mail prayer alert that reads like this: "Please pray for churches in India. Buddhist extremists in India burned down 20 churches last night. Tonight they plan to destroy 200 churches in the province of Olisabang. They plan to kill 200 missionaries within 24 hours."
Rev. Samuel Stephens with India Gospel League says this message is false. He writes, "If this were
true, I would have been one among the first few to receive such information because of the presence of our extensive network of pastors and church planters spread over a good part of the country. Further, there are no provinces in India. We have states and districts. There is no state or district named Olisabang."
Another fact that debunks the e-mail's veracity: Buddhist extremist groups are prevalent only in Sri Lanka, not in India. Violent attacks on Christians and pastors and the destruction of churches by Buddhist extremists are becoming increasingly frequent and widespread in Sri Lanka.
However, IGL says Buddhists and Christians in India have lived peacefully and in amity with each other for years. Stephens notes: "I am led
to believe that this message is a deliberate, planned and mischievous attempt by Hindu extremists to damage the good relationship between Buddhists and
Christians. It is intentionally sent out to create animosity between these two groups."
The ministry team believes the e-mail is the work of a Hindu extremist group operating from outside the country (probably the U.S.) sending out e-mails under the names "Pastor, Dalit freedom network," "Sudhir – Architect," and "United Church." They have been
widely distributing anti-Christian and anti-missionary e-mails. One of the stated strategies of the RSS–the leading Hindu extremist group that is behind all this–is to create confusion and disharmony between minority groups in the country.
Violence against Christians is a reality. Attacks on churches and against believers occur somewhere in India in some form every day.
However, IGL urges caution and wisdom on regarding information that is shared.
Pray that truth will be revealed. Pray, too, that the church will not shy away from persecution and tribulation but stand firm with the strength of the Holy Spirit and continue to grow and multiply.
Thanks for the information. We have received today 07.02.15 this message.There are too many believers who just press the button and send anything and everything without verifying the authenticity of it.
Kindly keep me informed of such texts. Thanks!! Yahweh be with you . Amen!!
I love Christ
Very kind of u..
In Christ..
Blessy
Thanks for this!!
At first I believed it but I have some doubts when I received the text message from a friend. So I searched it online and found this. Shared this to my friends also.
Thanks for good information,God bless you
Let us not think of trouble, anger , sickness etc. God wants us all to be happy, we’re one in God’s love regardless of what religion, God bless!
Thank you for clearing up this mis- information. The devil is roaring with pride and envy for the Gospel of purity. I have also received this bad and ugly information from friends and the email is doing it;s circulating rounds while this rumour is cause hatred and havoc.
Rev. Samuel please mail me on updates about your work in India. Be assured we pray for missionaries all over the world including India. India is on my heart for the Gospel message to be made known.
Love and Blessings
Manu –
South Africa.
I received this message on my phone today the 02/11/15 ! Thank you for your information.
GBY
nice information
We received this by line message 2/16/15. Thank you for sharing the truth. Will share with others. We will know the truth when we here it. Be tuned in.
Thank you all for your love towards our nation.LORD JESUS be glorified in all part of our Nation.I LOVE JESUS FOREVER.
India will be Blessed and Washed in the BLOOD OF JESUS.
Needed more of God’s work in India. [email protected]
I Received this message today 02/20/15 . Thanks for this information .
God Bless All O:) God Always With You O:) HALLELUYAA AMEN !!!
I lOVE JESUS CHRIST <3
Thanks for right information at right time
Thanks for info. God is Good.
I have received the same message…now I very happy to read your message. Thank You. May God bless you.
I have just received from India from one brother.
And I have started praying for this with hope that our God stops these evil spirits and brings peace not only in India, but everywhere the Christians are persecuted.
God bless you all.
Thank you for the info…god bless you. Praise the lord amen.
Thank you for giving right information.
Thank you for the update, nevertheless prayer has been sent for God’s protection. Blessings
GOD BLESS U….WE WILL PRAY FOR U IN ALL TIMES SO THAT THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD REIGNS FOREVER AND PEOPLE GET BAPTISED IN HOLY GHOST IN READINESS FOR RAPTURE!!
God bless you for putting this right. Yes, there is much persecution against Christians and prayer to our wonderful Saviour King Jesus are never overlooked by Him. Indeed, the Church is His Body on earth and whoever touches His beloved will have to account to Him at the Last Day. Pray for the persutors that in repentance they may turn to Christ.
Thank you very much for clarifying the information.
We will be alert !
I received this message by afternoon. Thanks for clarifying the information .
I received this message in Chinese thru WhatsApp yesterday (Aug 21, 2015), which also says that “Right now all Christians are hiding in the valley”. Source of the news claims to be “Pastor JIANG Guan-ming of MFCI”.
Thank you for finding out the relevant facts & posting them on the web.
Have to pray that the gospel of Jesus Christ also reach the Hindu extremists.
This is very clearly the handiwork of Hindu right wing elements.It is more of an attempt to drive a wedge between Dalits , who make up the bulk of Indian Christians and Buddhists and weaken them further.
I hope all right thinking Christians be cautious while reading such messages and be doubly sure before forwarding such messages.
I have recieved the text message from good friend of mine just today
Thanks for info. I received this 17/01/16.
Shows you how much long term damage a lie can cause.
Had the message just now. Thanks, indeed we
need the Holy Spirit to comeover you and all men of God
to be bold with truth. God will indeed build his church
and the gate of hell will not prevail over it.
Thanks for the right info. Blessings
I have received the txt message from good friend of our church network today. I did search online Praise God that nothing happened. But anyway we still praying to our God to have mercy on all christian churches and damilies in India and all over the world specially missionaries.
Love you all brother and sister in Christ. God Bless.
Thanks for the information
Praise the lord
Than you for the information, praise the lord-prem Kumar, hyderabad
Thanks.i just got this msg today from one friend, I’ll request him not to pass this message. I love christ
Thanks.i just got this msg today from one friend, I’ll request him not to pass this message. I love christ
I just received this false message via whatsapp, januari 2016. Thank you for your information. I shared this and asked for prayers for christians in dangerous situations.
Today 1 21 16 i got this as a whats app.
So thanks a lot for your info about this issu.
Tina, Germany
praying for all persecuted christians.may the lord send an armee of guardian angels to everyone that is in danger for jesus sake.lord your name is glory and your glory may shine in the darkness of ouer world i asked in jesus name that you mighty word be heart and fall like an accid drop onto the heards of all evill and antichristian humans in this world.
God walks with you ISAIAH 41:10
THANK YOU FOR THE INFORMATION
God saves the church
Received this message (translated into Russian and with some changes) today 27.01.16. Happy to read your info.
God bless you!
Olga, Russia
thx fyi. JESUS bless.
Received it on 1/31/16! Found this website and passed it on. Thank you.
I pray for above situation.
Thank you, Lord. At least it wasn’t true.
It is still sent out in 2016. (3 Feb 2016)
Niclose
Thanks too to JESUS
Thank God, Praise to Jesus.
God will wipe our tears
God bless
Very kind and thank you for sharing the right information
Thank you for the info. I got this message on Whatsapp. I immediately wanted to check if its true before forwarding it. Thank God I did it.
I just received dis mail through Watsapp today 10/3/2016. Thanks for this information. But then I think the Buddhist should find a way of debunking this wrong information. Jesus is alive. He lives forever. Happy Easter in advance
I received this in a message from my daughter in England! I am in Australia! It’s sure doing the rounds world wide which is terrible!
Unfortunately I usually check messages like this but since I’m very sick I just posted it on my FaceBook and thought nothing more about it except to pray for those affected and for the threats not to come about.
Thank God my son checked it out and found this link and the TRUTH!
Thank you for posting this very informative article. I learnt a lot about what is actually going on in regards to the various extremist groups there that I didn’t know about before.
What the devil meant or evil has actually been turned by God into good!! Due to this website, many more people are aware of the groups involved and what is going on in the countries where these extremist are at work and what the truth is in regards to India!:)
Than you very much, once again! God is good and has His eye on all of His own!!
Thank you for this very positive, objective and informative information clearing the religious doubt facing India from all over the world. I was actually planning to immediately fly out of India. But what doubted be was the fact that life in the street is normal. Let us use the socio networks for the benefit of the world and not instigating fear amongst ourselves in this small globe!
Thank you Pastor for sharing because my Pastor had the church praying on Thursday prayer meeting and on Sunday morning. He also asked the members to to bring in a special offering for the persecuted church.
We need to pray that Jesus will vindicate the false news-bearer.
God bless.
thank you for your protection the lord of salvation
It’s so frustrating when scare tactics like this run the rounds in Christian-dome. Something about this email felt off – mainly because of my assumption that the Buddhist religion wouldn’t seem to be so violently at odds with Christianity, at least to the point of sparking literal violence. If I recall correctly, Buddhists don’t really serve or worship a deity, but focus on achieving individual spiritual enlightenment, so it feels really weird that people of such a belief system could develop such violent tendencies towards another group unless the group were somehow provoked. Unfortunately, my assumptions still appear to be slightly at odds with the facts, given what you mentioned about the Buddhist extremists in Sri Lanka.
Regardless, I personally want to thank you for your following up on this rumor, and informing us of the actual status of relations between India Christians and Buddhists. We’re very quick to believe anything we hear, thanks to the Bible pointing out that we will suffer persecution during the Last Days, so I thank you, again, for your valiant efforts. The more such rumors are debunked, the more we can focus our prayers and energy on actual issues of persecution, rather than chasing phantoms.
Pray for sister rama she is in ICU, in D.Y.Patil Hospital Pray for her complete healing for god’s glory….
rama is 28 year old she is very serious
she have 4 small child
I just received emails from fellow church goers and sent them this link.
Thank you for this clarification.
I just hope that this news would not create animosity or hatred against
our non-christian brothers more so, to the Buddhist, who has a good
teaching in life. However, it may not be bad to pray that Jesus, our God, may touch their hearts and intellect of HIS Reality and Truthfulness. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen.
Thank you samuel i was shocked after receiving the message ths morning i told my mum about it we prayed and went to watch news but nothng of the kind was displayed.i therefore decided to check and found ths messege that cleared my doubt
Thank you samuel keep updating me
Thanks 4 ur kind fantastic positive message.
Our God Jesus bless u all.
Praise the lord in Jesus name amen….
Thanks for your kind reply
I just received this false message through watsapp today
God Jesus bless u.
Thanks to Jesus.
I received the message today and forward to the prayer group , then some one asked me where is this province I got confused thanks for the information still praying nothing will disturb
God bless You Rev. Samuel, I recieved today this messege too, decide to check too, nothing found, but our messege that cleared my doubt too. We very know that violence against Christians is a reality, attacks on churches and against believers occur somewhere in all over the worl every day. We need here in Brazil, to pray more, and be much grateful for freendon we got in here.God bless you
Sorry! God bless You Rev. Samuel, I recieved today ( Jun,1º, 16) this messege too, decide to check too, nothing found, but YOUR messege that cleared my doubt too. We very know that violence against Christians is a reality, attacks on churches and against believers occur somewhere in all over the worl every day. We need here in Brazil, to pray more, and be much grateful for freendon we got in here.God bless you
REPLY
I saw a program on Sat 18 June regarding Christians being persecuted and I would like to see it again for clairfication. Can you help me find the title and any related info on that show? Thanks in advance and may God bless you.
I just received the msg now 14/07/2016. Thanks for the sharing the right information. But I strongly believe there is persecution on Christians in that country and in all Islamic nations. The msg content might have been exaggerated, but there is some truth in it. Together, let’s pray for the entire Christian population. Jesus is Lord to the Glory of God.
these type messages spreading through whatsapp also. so please confirm the people to be cool. because of these type of message everybody can loose their peace of mind. and get unncessary reaction. please.
when God is with Us. who can be against Us.
pray for the Peace, Unity
thank you.
I just received this message thru messenger now 24-07-16. It came from my cousin in the Philippines but i hesitated to send it out because it wasn’t been on the news so far. I decided to go further investigation which i found out it was a hoax Thank you for your info.
Blessed and praised be the Lord, from whom comes all the good that we speak and think and do by Teresa Avila
God is good. God bless us all.
Thank you for the information. I received a wattsapp message on July 29, 2016 and undersigned Joyce Meyer.
I just received the message now 02/08/2016 on whatsapp. May the Lord richly bless you for this info. Jesus, I love you.
Thank you so much for that info…God bless & be with you always as we stand in unity for Christ the only hope for this world!!
Thanks for the right information and God bless you
Thanks for your clarification
Thanks for the info, I received this text today 9/25/16. So it’s still circulating.
God will intervian for his children Indians are just the Egyptian in the other side brethren take heart God will send his Moses to take you to the Promise land
Thank you for this news hope this does not exist anymore
Thanks for the clarification. Jesus is Lord
Thanks for this information, I just received today ( 10/31/2016) this message as well thru our prayer group and I told them to check thru Google this message they sent coz I doubted when I received it, so I google it and indeed it was a false message. GOD bless and protect us all !
thank you god bless you
thank so much brother
Amén
Same here… I research everything that takes away my peace of causes reason for anxiety anarchy ….
I received the message and nearly pushed the button to forward it.
But l decided to find out first, so l googled ,and behold is falsehood.
Many thanks and God bless you.
I have got this message this morning but last year i have got the same message. I went this morning online and surfe for information. And I have got the true behind this fals information. Its true People send from everything before search for the true. But I’am glad to Find it and i will spread the true not the lies. That is what God Almighty want. The true and not the lies thats the work of the evil.
Be blessing my brother and sister .
Whether they are in danger or not we should pray for one another as a family of God. Thanks for verifying the information.
Thank you for the msg, I received it just now 10.02.2017. Just wanted make sure whether it’s true or false. In a way this is an act to waste the prayer time which can be useful for someone else in this world.
Thank God … we pray fir all Christians in the world to be safe …. abd ww should pray for the whole world to live in peace and fear pf God
Thank you for laying us know the truth… the devil is been defeated…. praying for the church to stand and the truth to be reveled
Hey I’m sorry to disagree brother but I can’t agree with your statement. God the God who brought the flood and helped David strike down Goliath and protects the innocent and one day will aveng the pursecuted is not a fluffy teddy bear in the sky. God wants us to be happy is accurate however there is a condition. We can find happiness and joy without sin. We are free to do that. To back up my point with an example what if a serial killer finds happiness in killing people and causes heartach and pain for others. Does God really want him to find be happy doing that? No! And God being the loving God he is will actually judge a serial killer for his sins. I hope this makes sense to you….Please think about it!…. On the flip side God does want us happy…And he wants us to love others and make them happy. And ultimately God wants us to be happy about where we end up for in eternity. NO ONE WILL GO TO HEAVEN without wanting to go there. Just the same no one will go to HELL without WANTING to be there. We have choice. Heaven is essentially living with God and enjoying his blessings for eternity while hell could basically be a place void of God and his blessings. Joy is a blessing…Happiness. smiling. Giving. Family. The sun rising. All of creation. When a person decided they want nothing to do with God then God will certainly honor that person’s choice. I pray this makes sense to everyone who reads this. I mean no disrespect but I his is the truth and if you don’t like it it won’t change the truth!
I was worried by reading such worried news . Thank you so much for your information
Robin tailor
Thanks for clarifying real truth….
Thanks for clarifying… yesterday we got the message
God bless all
I received this last night I thank the Lord that this news is fake since I am a Christian I’m concerned also to all Christian around the world we need to unceasingly for the safety of our fellow Christian as we are now is perilous time and the fulfillment of the prophecy in the Bible we lift up our head for our salvation has drown near, yes we are save as we believe in our Lord but, we are three partite being spirit soul and body, when we believe the Lord Jesus thru faith only our spirit is inliven ephesians 2:1-8we we still work out our salvation with fear and trembling referring to our mind emotional and will our body will be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised incorruptible and will be changed for this corruptible body and this mortal must be put on immortality amen
Thank you for the information… I just received this email just now June 27, 2017 .
This shoiuld be stopped it might cause HATRED and WRONG JUDGEMENT to other’s.. This might cause a global war to religious aspect!!!
Thank you sir, for clarity
Thankyou Rev. for your kind information as i jst recieve the wtzapp message now i thought of searching in google n i got at the ryt time and ya nevertheless we can pray for our another,,,,, may our lord Jesus Christ be with us all
Such emails and watsapp messages are a regular feature. The people who receive the message simply forward to all known people without checking the authenticity. One more thing I would like to mention to avoid pinpointing and community. It is the duty of administration to pinpoint the culprit.
I am so glad that this message is false.God be on our side at all times.
Joseph