Christian Martyrdom

[Jim Watt]

*"TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE" MINISTRIES*

*Jim & Marie Watt – Beth Chesed, **Tacoma***

*PO Box **25116 – Federal Way** **WA** **98093-2116***

*Web: www.2rbetter.org – Fax: 253.474.0189*

*Tel: 253.874.4265 – Email: jmbetter at gmail.com*

*May 11, 2007***

* *

*CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM – Gary Bauer's "End of Day" – May 9, 2007*

* *

A few weeks ago three Christians working at a Bible publishing house in
Turkey were brutally murdered by a group of young Islamofascist
Universitystudents. Reports indicate they were tortured for three
hours before finally
having their throats slit. U.S. media generally relegated the story to the
back pages. I can only imagine what the head lines would be if a group of
Evangelicals or Jews had murdered three Islamists. But we don't murder in
cold blood.

            Our friend Chuck Colson did a moving radio editorial on the
funeral for the three men. He reported that as one coffin was brought into
the churchyard five hundred mourners broke into a chorus based on the book
of Lamentations: "The compassion of the Lord never fails; His mercy never
ceases." One of the men's wives quoted Christ on the Cross, saying of her
husband's killers, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do."



The following is a corrected Update on the situation in Turkey re the
massacre of the Christians last week. Please pass on to others the final
truth of this whole dreadful saga. May the Lord remind us all to keep
praying for the saints in Turkey – Merv & Merla Watson, May 8, 2007.



Please read the attached file about the massacre in Turkey. This is the most
detailed report yet to come out from those church leaders who were
eyewitnesses. If you have read reports of hundreds of stab wounds, body
parts being cut off, etc., then you need to know that these were
exaggerations, possibly by the perpetrators themselves to inflame the
situation and achieve their ends.                Thank you, Jim Mellis
(close friend to the Watsons)



*CORRECTION FROM **TURKEY** – **SMYRNA** REPORT*

*(From Ahmet Guvener, pastor of **Diyarbakir Church**, **Turkey**, **April
30 2007**)*

* *

Dear brothers and sisters:

            I greet you in the peace and love of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. May the Lord abundantly bless you, your families, your churches, and
your work. We know and appreciate very much your heart for us.

            Brothers and sisters, in the last ten days we have experienced
very painful moments, which words cannot begin to express. Our painful
experience has shown us that our lives are as the Lord describes: *"What is
your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then
vanishes." *For this reason we have understood one more time how holy and
close to the Lord we should live our lives.

            We have also understood that our society is easily given to
emotion and that in such painful moments some people, whether intentionally
or not, report certain events inaccurately and we have not prevented this
nor have been able to do so.



When the Malatya massacre happened we, the brothers from Diyarbakir, besides
those already on the scene at the time of the crime, were the first to get
there. When we got to Malatya our brother Ugur was still alive, but his
condition was critical. Around 5:30 PM Ugur entrusted his spirit to the
Lord.

            Dear brothers and sisters, that painful moment has slowly come
into perspective for us so that now we have begun to see some things as we
should. For example, it appears that those who murdered or arranged for the
murder of these brothers are getting what they hoped for. By means of our
reactions we may unwittingly help them. If we do not bring the facts into
the light, these people will end up getting what they desired.

            Brothers Tilmann, Necati, and Ugur were murdered in a
bloodthirsty way. This is a fact. But there are also some inaccurate claims
about this massacre and one of these is the extent of the torture. According
to rumors brother Tilmann was stabbed with a knife 156 times. Brother Ugur
had countless knife wounds, it has been said. These rumors, however, are
unfounded. At the morgue we wanted to put brother Tilmann's body, which was
in a plastic bag, into the coffin, but the officials and police did not like
this. "It is sinful to do it this way; we should wrap the corpse in a
shroud," they said. I accepted this idea and did what was right in their
eyes. I asked them for a shroud (white cloth) and the officials moved
Tilmann's body out of the plastic bag, which they placed to the side. I took
advantage of this opportunity to examine brother Tilmann's body as far down
as his stomach. I did not see any knife wounds. Only Tilmann's throat had
been slit 8-10 centimeters and there was the stitched autopsy incision down
the middle of Tilmann's chest. Unfortunately there are very different rumors
circulating about brothers Tilmann and Necati. It has been said that their
noses, lips, and ears were cut. These rumors do not reflect the truth. I
telephoned our brother Ed Grudier in Adana because I knew he had seen
brother Tilmann's body. I asked him about the knife wounds on brother
Tilmann's body. Ed said to me, "Brother, I came across three or four knife
blows in the chest area. I didn't see his back. On his face I can't say
there were knife wounds, but scratches, maybe from hitting his face when he
fell down." I knew that Ihsan Ozbek from Ankara had seen bodies. I asked him
which bodies he had seen and he said, "I saw the chest area of both Tilmann
and Necati. I saw purple [from bruising] on Necati's lips and chin, but I
did not see knife wounds. I looked at brother Tilmann's chest, but I did not
see knife wounds." These are the statements of those who saw the bodies of
these two brothers.

            It is true that our brothers were knifed and tortured. But it
was not to the extent of statements such as "too many wounds to count,
beyond description." Apparently Ed Grudier looked more carefully that
brother Ihsan and I did. Ed saw three or four knife wounds in the chest.

            No one saw brother Ugur's body because on the night of the same
day the murder happened, around midnight, his family took his body for
burial.

            I believe that brother Ugur had knife wounds similar to those of
our other two brothers. It has been said that Ugur was stabbed all over his
body, including his genitals. I do not believe this. You may ask why I don't
believe this. I think someone stabbed this much would die on the spot. Ugur
would not have been able to remain alive until 5:30 PM if he had been
stabbed so much. That nothing abnormal happened to Ugur can be understood
[from the fact that] exaggerated statements have been about our other two
brothers, too.

            Therefore we reach the following conclusion: yes, these brothers
were tortured, but not to the extent that has been explained.



We are sons and daughters of the truth. Unfortunately unfounded news reports
and media exaggerations have now gone out all over the world. Our brothers
and sisters and people sensitive [to such news] have been misinformed. We do
not intend to offend anyone. But whatever the true facts are, let us report
them without exaggeration. Let people everywhere think about the plain
facts.



Who started these exaggerated facts [about the Malatya massacre]? We propose
two possibilities:

(1)    Those who perpetrated the crime planned this [the spreading of
exaggerated facts] from the beginning and the murderers were simply tools
for these people [who had planned to blow the murder into exaggerated
proportions]. The goal of those who planned this murder and the exaggerated
claims was both to frighten the Christians living in Turkey, causing them to
shrink back and be timid, and to humiliate Turkey as a country that invites
and causes such bloodthirsty massacres, thereby damaging Turkey's chances of
entering the European Union and making matters worse in the country.
Furthermore, [the planners of this massacre] wanted to give the government
and our people the impression that Christians distort and exaggerate
everything.

(2)          In every situation we see that the media either totally
disregards something we say or totally exploits it. We investigated the
bloody clothing that was submitted to the public as the underclothing of our
brothers. None of this clothing belonged to our brothers. That clothing had
been taken off the bodies of people shot to death weeks earlier. But what
did the media do? They took this clothing and presented it as freshly
removed from the bodies of our brothers. Is there anyone who does not yet
know about the exaggerations and sometimes boldfaced lies of the media?



Therefore, brothers and sisters, if we do not explain the true facts to you
our hearts will not find peace. I have written this report because I have
read exaggerated or unfounded facts in news both home and abroad. The true
facts are those in this report. Before sending these facts to you, as you
will see below, I have requested statements from our brothers Ihsan Ozbek
and Ed Grudier. I have had these statement translated into English in order
to pass them on to you

            May the Lord bless you abundantly.

            Ahmet Guvener, pastor of Diyarbakir Church.



*Brother Ihsan Ozbek's remarks:*

*            "*Brother Ahmet, your report of my testimony is entirely
accurate. I have no problem with anything else you have written in this
report. Thank you for writing this report. It would be good for everybody to
read what you have written.

            Peace, Ihsan Ozbek"



*Brother Ed Grudier's remarks:*

*            "*Brother Ahmet, Thank you for writing this report. It is
necessary for wrong information to be corrected. Everything you have written
is correct.

            May the peace of the Lord be with you, Ed"



*Zekai Tanyar's remarks:*

*            *"Dear Ahmet – I cannot make any firsthand comments on the
subject. But I have spoken in person with Necati and Tilmann's wives, Semsa
and Susanne. Their impressions link up best with yours. Unfounded
exaggerations about the wounds and torture are circulating and apparently
some brothers and sisters, still affected by the shock of the massacre, are
repeating these exaggerations to others everywhere. This is unfortunate.

            The report that you have prepared in order to correct wrong
information has been done well and at the first opportunity should be sent
to all interested people at home and abroad.

            Peace, Zekai"



*NOTE:*  And how would Abraham Lincoln have responded to it? In Doris Kearns
Goodwin's "Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln," 2005,
Simon & Schuster, ISBN-10: 0-7432-7075-4 (Pbk) – she records how
Lincolntook more than a dozen trips to the front (of the Civil War),
both to
consult with his generals and to inspire the troops. Scenes of the dead
littered on the battlefield tore at his heart.

            Speaking in Springfield, Lincoln attacked the decision of the
Supreme Court in characteristic fashion, NOT BY CASTIGATING THE COURT but by
meticulously exposing flaws of logic. The Chief Justice, Lincoln said,
"insists at great length that negroes were no part of the people who made,
or for whom was made, the Declaration of Independence, or the Constitution."
Yet in at least five states, black voters acted on the ratification of the
Constitution and were among the "We the People" by whom the Constitution was
ordained and established. The founders, he acknowledged, did not "declare
all men equal *in all respects. *They did not mean to say all were equal in
color, size, intellect, moral developments, or social capacity." But they
did declare all men "equal in 'certain inalienable rights, among which are
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.' … They meant simply to declare
the *right*, so the *enforcement* of it might follow as fast as
circumstances should permit." (p. 190)

            "A house divided against itself cannot stand," Lincoln said,
echoing the Gospels of Mark and Matthew, as he began his now famous
acceptance speech at Springfield. Straightaway, he set forth an instantly
accessible image of the Union as a house in danger of collapse under the
relentless pressure of the slavery issue. "I believe this government cannot
endure, permanently half *slave* and half *free*," he continued. "I do not
expect the house to *fall* – but I *do* expect it will cease to be divided.
It will become *all* one thing, or *all* the other." (p. 198)

            As Lincoln repeatedly said in many forums, slavery was a
violation of the Declaration's "majestic interpretation of the economy of
the Universe," allowed by the founders because it was already among us, but
placed by them in the course of ultimate extinction. Although unfulfilled in
the present, the Declaration's promise of equality was "a beacon to guide"
not only "the whole race of man then living" but "their children and their
children's children, and the countless myriads who should inhabit the earth
in other ages."

            Lincoln agreed that "the doctrine of self government is right –
absolutely and eternally right," but argued that "it has no just
application" to slavery. "When the white man governs himself," he asserted,
"that is self-government; but when he governs himself, and also governs *
another* man, that is *more* than self-government – that is despotism. If
the negro is a *man*, why then my ancient faith teaches me that 'all men are
created equal'; and that there can be no moral right in connection with one
man's making a slave of another." (p. 203)



*NOTE:*  Lincoln was not in the habit of castigating individuals. From a
position of careful research, thoughtfulness and logic – he set forth his
beliefs and a practical solution to problems of his day.

            Now back to the appalling action of the above Islamic Terrorists
– How would Lincoln put himself in the shoes of an Osama bin Laden? I
believe he would seek to understand how he would react had he been born a
Muslim. He would seek to show his search from a book majoring on hate and
death to a Bible majoring on the love of God and His desire for Redemption
through the life of His only begotten Son – so that people of all races
should not perish but have eternal life.

            God would have parents to be like Lincoln. We should say to our
children – "We love you, but we do not accept all the things you do." In
like manner we love Muslims – but we do not approve of Terrorism, nor of
seeking to make the Koran the leading light of other nations they settle in.
We pray for Turkey. We desire God's best for this nation – but we deplore
the action of these 5 young men.

            In the book of Jude, not even Michael the archangel castigated
the devil – but had the Lord rebuke him.

            May God help us to be like Lincoln and Michael. May we stand
against evil deeds, but not reject the doers of such deeds.
Jim Watt

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