Kurds under attack

 

The Kurdis defeated the ISIS will help the of the United States. But now they are persecuted by Syrians president.

70 Christians beheaded in church in Republic of Congo

 

Image courtesy of Public Domain

Joel Kontinen

The Jews are not the only ones that are being sacrificed. It is  the Christians who have also been killed, especially in Congo, The culprit is Isis.

”Seventy Christians were beheaded in a church in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The Christians were murdered by terrorists from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) – a group with ties to the Islamic State (ISIS). 

According to sources, at around 4 am last Thursday (13 February) suspected militants from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) – a group with ties to the Islamic State (IS) – approached homes in Mayba in the territory of Lubero, saying: “Get out, get out and don’t make any noise.” Twenty Christian men and women came out and were captured. ADF terrorists surrounded the village and captured a further 50 Christians.

The 70 prisoners were taken to a Protestant Church in Kasanga where they were bound, murdered, and beheaded with machetes. Sources report that local Islamist terrorists wouldn’t let Christian leaders bury the dead for some five days.

Following the attack, many Christians fled the region, seeking safety. Muhindo Musunzi, director of the Kombo Primary School, stated that churches, schools, and health centers had already shut down due to the deteriorating Security Situation.”

Hundreds of Christians are being murdered every year.

Source:

Adam Eliyahu Berkowictz 70 Christians beheaded in church in Republic of Congo  - Israel365 News 23 February 2025

Brussels Bombings: Reminders of the Fall

Reminder of a world plagued by the consequences of sin. Image courtesy of Miguel Discart, Creative Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0).




Joel Kontinen

Despite all the beauty around us, we are no longer living in the perfect world that Adam and Eve were able to enjoy before they turned their backs on God, bringing death and suffering into human history.

The first murder soon followed. Their son Cain killed his brother Abel.

ISIS follows the path Cain chose.

We cannot understand evil if we don’t believe that Genesis means what it says.

But in the midst of all the turmoil God has not given up on humans. He is still in control. He still wants to give us hope.

He still loves the ones created in His image, the ones for whom He suffered and died, but rose from the dead.

ISIS, Cold-Blooded Executions and the Power of the Gospel

Scientific progress hasn’t improved our ethics. Some people are still reliving the horrors of the Warsaw Ghetto.




Joel Kontinen

Last week a terrorist group associated with ISIS celebrated the destruction of a civilian airplane over Sinai. Most people would instinctively say that something is very much amiss with the ethics of the group.

Describing the killed passengers – some of whom were babies – as crusaders cannot be understood as an extenuating circumstance that would make the killing less blameworthy.

We know it is wrong because we all have an inner witness:

“Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.” (Romans 2:14–15, NIV.)

In contrast, we would expect a Darwinian world to be callous and indifferent to human suffering.

But the recent atrocities have prompted evolutionists to search for a plausible (naturalistic) explanation of why “an apparently normal young adult” would “drop out of college and turn up some time later in a video performing a cold-blooded execution in the name of jihad?” as New Scientist puts it.

“It’s a conundrum we have been forced to ponder ever since a group calling itself ISIS declared war on infidels. But 70 years ago we were asking something similar of guards in Nazi concentration camps – and, sadly, there have been plenty of opportunities to ponder the matter in between.”

NS asks a pertinent question but cannot come up with a plausible answer.

“What turns an ordinary person into a killer? The idea that a civilised human being might be capable of barbaric acts is so alien that we often blame our animal instincts – the older, 'primitive' areas of the brain taking over and subverting their more rational counterparts. But fresh thinking turns this long-standing explanation on its head.”

The answer is not blowing in the wind, nor can it be found in neuroscience. It can be read on the pages of the Bible. People do bad things because they live in a world tainted by sin, marred by the consequences of Adam’s Fall.

They know instinctively that it is wrong, but they do it nevertheless.

The only antidote is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He died on the cross to transform people. In God’s eyes, a sinner becomes a saint (also known as a redeemed sinner), when he or she accepts the Lord Jesus.

It is a miraculous transformation, from darkness to light, from death to life.


Source:

New Scientist. 2015. Syndrome E: Can neuroscience explain the executioners of ISIS? (11 November).

Iraqi Christians and ISIS: Forgiveness Overcomes Hatred

Image courtesy of SAT-7.




Joel Kontinen

Forgiving one’s enemies is not an easy thing to do, especially if they are trying to kill you. However, some Iraqi Christians have done exactly that.

Last July, hundreds of thousands of Christians had to flee from Mosul, leaving their homes and possession behind. Some of them found a safe haven in Irbil in Kurdistan.

One of the refugees is Myriam, who is ten years old. Interviewed on SAT-7, a Christian TV broadcaster, she says of the men who hate her and would want to kill not only her but also her friends and her family: “I will only ask God to forgive them.”

Over a million people have already heard her testimony.

Christianity is much more than a religion. It is a living relationship with the One who prayed for those who crucified Him:

“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34, NIV).



Source:

Casper, Jayson. 2015. Forgiving ISIS: Christian ‘Resistance’ Videos Go Viral in Arab World. Christianity Today (17 March).