Coptic Orthodox Church

This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes, written by Jonathan Clark and heard on 140 radio stations and at theworldview.com. I'm Adam McManus.

Authorities in Egypt arrested a Christian last month for criticizing Islam.

Sharifami is a 41-year-old Coptic Christian who works as an engineer in Alexandria.

He recently expressed his beliefs online, opposing Islamic education in the country's schools.

His arrest follows many others.

Officials have arrested 14 people since September.

for simply voicing non-Islamic beliefs.

Fahmy's sister, Emy, told Coptic Solidarity, "...there is no freedom of belief or freedom of expression in Egypt." Write a polite four-sentence note to the Egyptian ambassador to America, Muhammad al-Mu'la, urging him to take a stand for the right of Egyptian Christians to express their convictions.

On January 1st, Estonia officially adopts the Euro currency, becoming the 17th Eurozone country.

Also on January 1st, a bomb exploded as Coptic Christians in Alexandria, Egypt leave a new service killing 23 people.

So a bomb exploded, people leaving a church service of some sort.

And 23 people were killed.

The Caliph's Court, Cairo Al-Mu'izz al-Din Allah rules Egypt, and he likes his afternoons filled with theology.

Muslim scholars, Jewish scholars, and Pope Abram, the Coptic patriarch, all invited to argue in front of him like it's a sport.

On this particular afternoon, the Pope wins, cleanly enough that a Jewish minister at court named Ya'ub ibn al-Khalis walks out of the hall carrying a grudge he has no intention of losing to time.

He doesn't go looking for a butthole.

But Caliph keeps his word past the letter of it.

He has a baptismal font built inside the church of St. Mercurius and is still there today, 900 years of Cairo later.

The Coptic Church adds three extra days of fasting before the Nativity fast every year, forever, so that a miracle nobody could take credit for doesn't get forgotten simply because the man behind it made sure nobody could.

For 900 years, that's all Simon leaves behind.

Again, for personal reasons, because he, there's a reason I'm going through this, so I apologize for taking so long.

But see, his family are Coptic Christians.

The Coptic Christians are almost exclusively Orthodox Christians from the area around Egypt.

And he has apparently had, I didn't know he had family members in Gaza, but apparently he's got relatives in Gaza.

who have suffered because of the attacks on Gaza after October 7th.

We can say the St. Michael prayer anytime.

Anytime we feel that we need the assistance of this great protector whom God has appointed as guardian and guide of his holy people.

Michael was identified in Scripture as the prince of Israel, as the guardian and guide of Israel, this heavenly assistance that came to their attention, especially in times of dispersion in times of exile in times of persecution well whenever we're feeling those things even on a small scale we can invoke saint michael we can keep an image of him in the home and we can go to him we can celebrate his feast day what's interesting is um you know i i became very much interested as i did my research in the devotion of the coptic christians the christians of of egypt and and and they've been very much attracted to saint michael since ancient times since the early church and i think it's because they've they've suffered so much persecution down the years so that today they celebrate not one feast of saint michael every year they have 12 feasts of saint michael that they mark every year one per month because he's that that integral to the practice of the faith.

And as I said earlier, this is something that's evident from the practice of ancient Judaism, too.

In my book, I bring out what archaeological digs have discovered.