Everyone in the world is now turning their attention to the northern plains of Iraq. There are some truths that the ISIS commander and his followers haven't given thought to.
Everyone in the world is now turning their attention to the northern plains of Iraq, to a city where Jonah first delivered the Lord's message thousands of years ago. Today the story of Nineveh (now called Mosul) isn't about a messenger of the Lord going into the city, but about thousands of Christ's followers being forced out of the city. The group has seized territories in both Iraq and Syria and declared an Islamic caliphate, celebrating its own shocking slaughter of Christians along the way.
Regardless of their rapid rise, the world needs to know, that there are some truths that the ISIS commander and his followers haven't given thought to!
1. For the Christian, dying is far better than doing evil: No Christian would ever desire to denounce his faith in Christ. It's much worse to deny Christ than to die. At death, our sin will end and we'll be with Christ forever. That's what Justin Martyr meant when he wrote to the persecutors in AD 150, "You can kill us, but you can't hurt us." To die believing in Christ is to spend eternity with God! Jesus told suffering believers to "rejoice???and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven." (Luke 6:23).
2. The church of Jesus Christ cannot be destroyed: Christians could be persecuted, murdered, mocked, or crucified, the church will still continue to grow because "the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Jesus Christ is building his church in Iraq and around the world, even as these deaths occur, and no one can stop its advance. Historian Will Durant wrote, "There is no greater drama in human record than the sight of a few Christians, scorned or oppressed by a succession of emperors, bearing all trials with a fierce tenacity, multiplying quietly, building order while their enemies generated chaos, fighting the sword with the word, brutality with hope, and at last defeating the strongest state that history has known."
3. God will destroy the wicked: God is Sovereign and his purposes are just. He may, for a while, allow the Caliphate to wield the sword. In the end, God's judgment will fall on the Caliph and his followers if they do not repent and turn to Christ. The prophet Habakkuk put it well: "I hear, and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones; my legs tremble beneath me. Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us." (Habakkuk 3:16).
4. The Caliph and his followers still have time to repent: As much as our hearts yearn for God's judgment to be poured out on the Caliphate for what they're doing, we sincerely pray that all these murderers would repent of their sins and come to Jesus Christ for salvation! For "the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance." (2 Peter 3:9).