# Preaching the Gospel In Iraq



## Blue Tick (Dec 30, 2006)

Ok, I need someone to educate me. Prior to the U.S. invasion into Iraq were Christians allowed to preach the gospel and worship the God of the Bible freely? For some reason I have this idea in my mind that this true. Did Saddam allow Christians to preach the gospel, have Christian churches, and to meet openly.


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## Blueridge Believer (Dec 30, 2006)

Blue Tick said:


> Ok, I need someone to educate me. Prior to the U.S. invasion into Iraq were Christians allowed to preach the gospel and worship the God of the Bible freely? For some reason I have this idea in my mind that this true. Did Saddam allow Christians to preach the gospel, have Christian churches, and to meet openly.



You had a presbyterian church in bagdad for 140 years untill GW liberated them. They may not have had absolute freedom but they were protected.


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## Blue Tick (Dec 30, 2006)

Blueridge reformer said:


> You had a presbyterian church in bagdad for 140 years untill GW liberated them. They may not have had absolute freedom but they were protected.



Where can we verify this? 

Thank you.

Anyway GW is a Methodist. He probably doesn't like Presbyterian theology... Just kidding.

Seriously, where can we verify that there was a Presbyterian 
church in Iraq?


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## Contra_Mundum (Dec 30, 2006)

Check out this site:
http://merf.woh.gospelcom.net/merf/articles/iraqChurches.html
This information is dated, somewhat.
Search here for some old threads on this topic.
For example:
http://www.puritanboard.com/showthread.php?t=17626

Brothers, please do not turn this thread into another one of our periodic flame-wars.

Pax



> Iraq: Kidnappers Murder Church Elder in Mosul
> Dec. 4th, 2006
> 
> (Compass Direct News) -- Grieving Christians in Iraq’s northern city of Mosul completed three days of mourning for a murdered Presbyterian Church elder yesterday, only hours before another Iraqi clergyman was grabbed off the streets of Baghdad this morning.
> ...


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## rmwilliamsjr (Dec 30, 2006)

http://www.christianitytoday.com/tc/2003/002/5.50.html
http://www.christiansofiraq.com/nohelp.html
http://www.christiansofiraq.com/help.html
http://www.compassdirect.org/en/dis...length=long&idelement=4673&backpage=summaries


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## VictorBravo (Dec 30, 2006)

I can verify that you could preach the Gospel in Iraq during the 1983-1984 period, because I worked there. I wasn't a believer then, but I had a Bible and often read it to my Iraqi friends. There were indeed several Presbyterian Churches in Baghdad, many Eastern Orthodox churches, and at least one fundamentalist independent Baptist church.

There was freedom of a sort, but there definitely were government spies listening to sermons to make sure there was no government-bashing. The houses of most foreigners were bugged so that put a damper on even private conversations.

Iraq under Sadaam in those days was quasi-secular, had the external appearance of freedom, yet the cloud of Sadaam hung low on everything. Whenever my Iraqi friends wanted to confide their true feelings about the great Republican revolution, they would bring me into a tractor cab to "test the engine" at max power. That was the only way they felt safe to say anything.

There was a lot of bad back then, and there is now too. I've got conflicted feelings about all this.


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## Herald (Dec 30, 2006)

I'm not sure of the underlying reasons behind the question. Even the most godless of nations have had the gospel preached. Sometimes it cannot be done in absolute freedom. Vic's example is classic. Indoors...with no one else listening...this happens in many nations. Now...take the gospel message into the street and proclaim it loud for all to hear and you may get a different response. 

Bruce, I appreciate your admonition not to turn this thread into a political hate-fest. I would be surprised if anyone has verifiable stats on the state of the gospel in Iraq. Whether is a secular Arab state or a fundamentalist regime (ala Iran), we should pray that the Lord of the harvest sends forth workers. Regardless how you stand on the current conflict, there are believers in Iraq right now. We may never know (until glory) about their faithful witness in this life. We can pray that the Lord would call many Iraqi's to faith in Christ. 

fini


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## Pergamum (Dec 30, 2006)

I find this thread interesting and challenging to many of my former assumptions...


Do you think the church in Iraqwill go through a dark period because Christianity will be equated with Westernism now? What new strategies and ways of entry and ministry are being tried.


I am praying for the saints in that region.


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