All over the world Christians are being killed, daily. Voice of the Martyrs has identified that: “more people have died for their faith in Christ in the last 100 years than in the previous 19 centuries combined.”
That’s a sobering thought!
The other week twelve professing Christians lost their lives when they were thrown overboard by Muslims. They were refugees from Libya on a course to Italy. More would have been killed had not the other refugees linked themselves together to prevent it.
According to several media sources – Italian police arrested fifteen Muslim refugee suspects while ten others rescued in another set of boats were also arrested for human trafficking.
The White House has condemned the latest ISIS massacre. This was a response to a video allegedly showing a mass execution of Ethiopian Christians in Libya. It isn’t an isolated case. National Security Council spokesperson Bernadette Meehan stated:
The United States condemns in the strongest terms the brutal mass murder purportedly of Ethiopian Christians by ISIL-affiliated terrorists in Libya….That these terrorists killed these men solely because of their faith lays bare the terrorists’ vicious, senseless brutality.
In the African Continent Nigeria’s Boko Haram has sworn allegiance to the Islamic State while adopting the same strategy as ISIS. According to Nina Shea of the Hudson Institute, it is probably the most lethal Islamic extremist group in the world. It wants a pure Islamic State and will happily kill all non-Muslims – including nominal Muslims – to achieve its goal.
Human rights advocates warn that Boko Haram is: “stamping out Christianity with a frightening fervor, putting Nigeria’s 70 million followers of Jesus in danger for their lives.” The situation in Africa and the Middle East has become so dire that the case has been brought to the United Nations’ attention.
According to Mission Network News the UN will be hosting a summit called: “Not Peace but a Sword: The Persecution of Christians in the Middle East as a Threat to International Peace and Security.” Speakers will be asking the UN and member states to both recognize and take action against the massacres of Christians perpetrated by Boko Haram, the Islamic State and other extremist Islamic groups.
Pardon me as I indulge my cynicism for a moment. The UN is fully aware of what’s going on. Getting the UN’s attention is a diplomatic expression. It really means pestering it to do something other than raising resolutions against human rights abuser Israel.
But don’t hold your breath for any practical intervention, other than a token reprimand. The UN has been busy with other important matters. It just elected Iran to the UN Women’s Rights Board.
Hillel Neuer of UN Watch and US Ambassador to the UN, Susan Powers, protested that this was an insult to women’s rights advocates around the world. The UN is legitimizing a regime which treats women as second class citizens. Women are barred from government positions; there are no laws prohibiting domestic violence and adultery is punishable by stoning.
Open Doors USA notes that ethnic Persian Christians are considered to be apostate and almost all Christian activity is illegal. Seventy five Christians were arrested in 2014. Saeed Abedini was imprisoned in 2012 for his Christian faith. His wife fears he will never be released unless he denies Christ and embraces Islam. Apostasy in Islam is punishable by execution.
Shadi Paveh observes that since the “nuclear talks”, and since Iran was removed as a terror threat, the International Committee Against Executions reported approximately 55 executions in less than three weeks. Seven hundred people have been hanged since the beginning of “moderate’ Rouhani’s tenure.
Gatestone cites Mina Ahadi:
Reliable sources told us that prisoners condemned to death are tied to a pole, and are left without food or water the day before they are hanged. No one ever heard of this sort of treatment before. The regime is becoming more barbaric with each day that the world remains silent and refuses to hold them accountable for human rights violations. (Emphasis mine)
I can’t imagine anyone being made to face this death. I wonder how many Iranian Christians will have to endure it because of their faith. Who is speaking out for them?
It’s like a bad Monty Python skit. The White House is obsessed with making a nuclear deal with Iran under the pretext that there are no better plans on the table. Yet the president never publicly reprimands the Iranian regime for its atrocities. Instead he focuses his attention elsewhere.
Mr. Obama’s abrupt comments about Christians during the Easter breakfast are troubling. At a time when most professing Christians encourage each other by remembering the resurrection, he chose to marginalize Christianity once again.
Under his watch, Christianity’s voice has been further silenced in the public arena. Military chaplains cannot invoke Jesus’ name without reprisal. Christians are being called to, not only tolerate diversity issues they biblically disagree with, but to embrace them. America isn’t killing Christians, but its leaders are working hard to silence those who don’t speak the narrative.
As the situation progresses, what might happen when Christians refuse to remain silent? Let’s remember that because a nation isn’t killing or imprisoning Christians one day does not mean the situation cannot change. History warns against that assumption.
Christians and Jews (especially Zionist types) have become an expendable commodity. They are a noisy nuisance to those who have different values and agendas. Other expendable commodities are the unborn, the disabled infants and the elderly infirmed.
There are those who think it can’t happen again because we’re too sophisticated and enlightened. Yet here we are empowering a regime which kills religious apostates. We ignore the Christian carnage around us and we’re considering killing the disabled and the elderly based on economic and practical considerations.
No, this isn’t enlightenment. It’s evil.
This worldview should serve as a warning that Christian persecution and martyrdom will eventually find its way into the west, and probably sooner than later.
But let’s not fear. Remember that our refuge is in our Lord and we have many sure promises to comfort us:
But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” 1Cor. 2:9
“And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” Rev. 21:4
Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus!
Further resources:
Christians Pay Islam’s Price for Freedom
Churches in Turkey on the Verge of Extinction
John MacArthur – ISIS’s War on Jews and Christians
This article first appeared on the Omega Letter
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