When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. Revelation 6:9
The ongoing purge of Christians from northern Iraq by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria has brought horrific news reports that continue to capture the intense abuse and persecution believers face. A story recently shared by Canon Andrew White, the vicar of Baghdad, shows just how brutal the tragic crisis has become.
White, an Anglican faith leader at St. George’s Church in Baghdad, posted on his Facebook page August 1 that he saw a photo “too awful to show” — an image that depicted the horrors being perpetuated by the “restored caliphate”.
“You know I love to show photos but the photo I was sent today was the most awful I have ever seen. A family of 8 all shot through the face laying in a pool of blood with their Bible open on the couch,” he wrote. “They would not convert it cost them [their] life. I thought of asking if anybody wanted to see the picture but it is just too awful to show to anybody.”
He continued, “This is Iraq today. The only hope and consolation is that all these dear people are now all with Yesua in Glory.”
The Agence France Presse and Lebanon’s The Daily Star reported Wednesday that extremists are waging fresh attacks on Christians in north Iraq.
According to the outlet, sources claim that the towns of Tal Kayf, Bartella and Qaraqosh — some of the locations places where displaced Christians from Mosul fled last month — have now come under attack by
Last month, His Beatitude Ignatius Ephrem Joseph III Younan, overseer of Assyrian Christians around the globe, also spoke out about the crisis, accusing many in the West of turning a blind eye to their plight.
Such stories are not being reported very often by the worldwide media as the Islamic State grows in power. Reports were made this weekend that they had started to move on Lebanon. The Lebanese government confirmed 16 soldiers had been killed, with dozens either missing or injured, Reuters reports.
The fighting took place in the village of Arsal, which is 120 kilometers northeast of the capital, Beirut, and it erupted after an Islamist commander was captured by Lebanon’s security forces on Saturday. The attack was quickly condemned by Lebanon, with Beirut saying, “the attack on Lebanese national dignity will not go unpunished.”
Iraqi Prime Minister, Nuri al-Maliki, ordered his air force to protect Kurdish forces for the first time from the threat posed by Islamic State militants. On Sunday, the group (previously known as ISIS) inflicted a humiliating defeat on the Kurds with a rapid advance through three towns to reach the Mosul Dam, acquiring a fifth oil field to fund its operations.
The Islamic state of Iraq and Syria is bent on world domination. Their wealth, power and military are growing rapidly but they are still able to be defeated for now. For some reason the world and America in particular do not see this group as a serious threat. Iraq has barely begun to defend itself, which may prove to be too little, too late. It may be too late for Syria, Iraq and soon Lebanon. It is certainly too late for Christian families that refuse to renounce Jesus Christ.
While I was considering the horns, suddenly another horn, a little one, came up among them, and three of the first horns were uprooted before it. There were eyes in this horn like a man’s, and it had a mouth that spoke arrogantly. Daniel 7:8
