PRAY WITH US that the persecuted, persecutors, complicit and silent ones encounter Jesus. Nothing can separate us from his love. (Matthew 5:10, Romans 8:35)
The persecution of Christians has reached “historic proportions,” Rabbi Jonathan Cahn said when recently addressing the United Nations about what he called one of the “greatest crises in the modern age.” Cahn, the best-selling author of The Harbinger and The Mystery of the Shemitah said. “It is happening all around the world, yet very few are doing anything to stop it.” At the event, Christian and Jewish leaders, businessmen and high-ranking military officials spoke out against the worsening Christian persecution in the Middle East and around the globe. The historic event came amid growing concerns regarding widespread crucifixions, beheadings, kidnappings and the torture of Christians in the Middle East by the Islamic State, or ISIS.
In the last couple of years, thousands have died at the hands of ISIS – more than 24,000 in the first eight months of 2014 alone, according to a U.N. report. The slaughter of Christians in the Middle East isn’t just a recent phenomenon. A century ago, Middle Eastern Christians represented about 20% of the population. Now they represent about 4%. In Iraq before the Gulf War, there were about 1.4 million Christians. Today, there are only about 200,000 left. Best-selling author Joel Rosenberg wrote “We are literally watching the genocide of Jesus’ followers in the Middle East. We are living in a time of unprecedented persecution of Christians around the world.
Kevin Jessip, president of the Global Strategic Alliance, a ministry that stands against the campaign to delegitimize the nation of Israel, said ISIS is seeking to abolish Israel and is a growing menace to Jews and Christians throughout the world. “The Islamic ideologies of ISIS is a danger that mirrors the Holocaust aggression of world domination seen in World War II,” Jessip said. “ISIS has declared Christianity as its No. 1 enemy. I think Christian persecution is happening just as Jesus said it would. I would say the persecution we are witnessing today is known in the Bible as the Antichrist spirit. What we are seeing with Islamic jihadism is really an attempt by Satan himself, to unleash an Antichrist spirit and create an Islamic caliphate worldwide.
Recent studies reveal that Christians are the most persecuted religious group today, with the worst form of persecution occurring in Muslim lands at the hands of extremists. Christians in Syria and Iraq are facing more persecutions than ever with the political upheaval in the region and the emergence of ISIS. A majority of Christians in Syria and Iraq belong to the ancient Assyrian or Chaldean churches which trace their spiritual heritage to the prophet Jonah. Beyond the carnage wrought by the Islamic State, Christians are being persecuted throughout the world—often by their own governments in North Korea, Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, Nigeria, Pakistan, Vietnam and Indonesia.
Cahn said “In North Korea, Christians are imprisoned, sent to labour camps, tortured and killed, for the crime of owning Bibles. In Nigeria entire Christian village populations have been massacred. In Orissa, Indian, 70,000 Christians have been forced to flee their homes. In Syria, 80,000 Christians have been quoted ‘cleansed’ from their homes. In Indonesia, Muslims have put 10,000 Christians to death. And now, after almost 2,000 years, some of the most ancient communities of Christians, from the Copts of Egypt, to the Nestorians and Assyrian believers of Syria, to the Chaldean and Assyrian believers of Iraq are now in danger of extermination, genocide.
As the evil of ISIS and its allies sweep across the Middle East, an ancient civilization is being annihilated, its people perishing, crucified, decapitated, and buried alive in their ancestral soil. The Vicar of Baghdad recounted this year how ISIS ordered four Christian children to renounce Jesus and follow Mohammed. ‘No,’ they said, ‘We love Yeshua … He has always been with us.’ These were the last words the children were ever to speak in this life as ISIS beheaded them.” Each year, 100 million Christians suffer persecution, imprisonment and even death for their faith in Jesus Christ. According to The Voice of the Martyrs, “more people have died for their faith in Christ in the last 100 years” than in the previous 19 centuries combined.
“This very body, the United Nations, adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which declares that everyone has the right to ‘manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance,’ Cahn said. “In the World Summit Outcome Document of September 2005, paragraph 139, the United Nations declared that the international community has the responsibility to protect populations from genocide, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity. “So the question must be asked, ‘Where are all the resolutions?’ ‘Where are all the troops?’ ‘Where are all the actions taken to protect the most persecuted people on earth?’ ‘And where’s the universal outcry?’
It’s a strange and immoral silence, the same strange and immoral silence that allowed 6 million Jews to be delivered to their deaths. We must not repeat the mistake of the last century. Evil never stays put. The same darkness that destroyed 6 million Jewish lives would end up destroying over 60 million lives throughout the world. The media, until recently, has largely ignored the plight of persecuted Christians in the Middle East and elsewhere. Kevin Jessip, president of the Global Strategic Alliance said “The plight of Christians globally is a growing threat and the frightening situation facing Christian minorities in Muslim countries and elsewhere should cause grave concern for all peace loving free societies.”
Those speaking at the event called on the U.N. Security Council to sponsor a resolution regarding the protection of Christians and religious minorities in the Middle East. They also called on President Obama to appoint an envoy to begin taking action against persecution around the globe and for an International Day of Prayer in solidarity for the plight of Christians. “The Lord will not hold us blameless if we pretend this isn’t happening. We must act and we must act soon. We have been called by the Lord to serve at this critical time, not only in the history of our nation, but in the history of the world.
Source: Charisma News via Australian Prayer Network.
