Muslims Murdering Christians on Land and Sea

This week at least 28 professing Christians were murdered by Muslim jihadists. Muslim refugees traveling from Libya to Italy across the Mediterranean threw 12 Christians overboard and left them to drown (“Italian Police: Libyan Muslims Threw Christians Overboard,” Breitbart, Apr. 16, 2015). ISIS beheaded 15 Christians by the sea shore and shot another 15 in the desert (“You Will Not Have Safety Until You Accept Islam,” Christian News Network, Apr. 19, 2015). In Pakistan, a 14-year-old Christian boy was burned to death. He was asked by two masked men if he was a Christian, and when he replied that he was, they doused him with kerosene and set him on fire (“Burned Christian Boy Dies,” Voice of the Persecuted, Apr. 18, 2015). We understand that these poor victims were probably Christian in name only rather than by regeneration, but the fact remains that they were targeted as Christians by Muslims who have a burning hatred for the Jesus Christ of Scripture, the Son of God who died on the cross to save men from their sin. In its video of the slaughter of the 30 Christians, ISIS said, “To the nation of the cross, we are now back again. ... You will not have safety even in your dreams, until you accept Islam. Our battle is a battle between faith and blasphemy, between truth and falsehood.” This video followed another one in February documenting the beheading of 21 Egyptian Orthodox Coptics.

(Friday Church News Notes, April 24, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

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