“Convert or
die!” That’s the ultimatum given to Christians in northern Iraq. Most of them
refuse to convert. As any one ought to know no ‘conversion’ made under threat
of death is a true conversion. It has to be a matter of the heart and of faith.
One can go through the whole outward form of religion without being truly converted.
Canon Andrew
White, affectionately known as ‘The Vicar of Bagdad’ received a photo of a Christian
family of eight slaughtered because of their refusal to deny Christ, an open
Bible placed beside them. They will be
with the Lord now. As Paul says “To live is Christ, and to die is gain.” and “In
all these things we are more than conquerors.” Canon White said that the photo
was too graphic to show anyone.
Such is the
nightmare that is Iraq and Syria as the murderous hordes advance intent on
establishing their Islamic Caliphate believing they are instruments of Allah’s
will. An email I received this morning states:
“Tens of
thousands of Christians are fleeing for their lives. ISIS now reportedly has
access to weapons of mass destruction. The only thing standing between
Christians and death at the hands of these barbarians are the people of
Kurdistan who are offering refuge and protection. Yet, the Kurds are running
out of ammunition. They are out-gunned by jihadists bent on genocide.”
[I am
thankful that France and now Australia has offered to take thousands of
refugees, and there are humanitarian efforts to bring relief]
“What is
happening? The Satanic kingdom is on the rise.
I believe
that Irvine Baxter is right in his identification of the fourth horseman of the
Apocalypse [Revelation 6]. The four horses are systems which operate in the
Earth. It follows that the horsemen show the nature of the systems. He says,
the white horse is Catholicism, the red horse Communism, the black horse
Capitalism, and then there is the ‘pale’ horse.
“And I
looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death,
and Hades followed with him. And power was given to them over a fourth of the
earth, to kill with the sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the
earth.”
‘pale’[chloros]
is elsewhere translated as ‘green.’ Who is the green horse? Well who runs
around waving green flags and says ‘we love death.’ You guessed it! This is the
horseman from Hell. Yes we know that not all Muslims do these things, but if
they choose to they can look to their scriptures to provide the authorization.
And where are the voices of ‘moderate’ Muslims condemning these atrocities? Are
we seeing the real Islam? We are told that it is a religion of peace. Peace only
if we submit it appears.
What do we
do? It’s easy to feel anger but that’s not going to change things. As
Christians, we have the greatest weapons of all.
“For the weapons of our warfare are not
carnal [of the flesh] but mighty in
God for pulling down strongholds….” 1 Corinthians 10:4
We have
spiritual weapons to bring down spiritual strongholds which hold many captive
in this deceitful and deadly system.
Through the power of His victory over Satan, Jesus has given His people “authority to trample on serpents and
scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy…” Jesus has restored
dominion to the people of God, the dominion to subdue the earth which was lost in Eden. Through
prevailing prayer in Jesus’ name we can bring the nations out from under the
power of darkness into the Kingdom of God. This is the fulfilment of the
Commission Jesus gave His Church before He went back to Heaven. [Matthew 28:
18-20]. As hundreds of thousands of Christians obey the call to prayer for the
nations, millions of Muslims are coming to Christ very often through dreams and
visions. Jesus died for all people and the love of God in Christ Jesus is the
most powerful force in the world.
Meanwhile
the battle in the heavenlies rages. Have you joined the Army? We do win in the
end. Ask the Lord which nation/s He
would have you pray for and change our world.
