{"id":8426,"date":"2015-03-20T19:41:19","date_gmt":"2015-03-20T19:41:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/?p=8426"},"modified":"2015-03-22T18:23:59","modified_gmt":"2015-03-22T18:23:59","slug":"christianity-in-the-face-of-isis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/christianity-in-the-face-of-isis\/","title":{"rendered":"Christianity in the Face of ISIS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As reports of ISIS\u2019 activity have increased, the stories have become more and more discouraging. But despite the atrocities being perpetrated by these terrorists, God is still sovereign over all:<\/p>\n<p>Isaiah 51:8 For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool: but my righteousness shall be for ever, and my salvation from generation to generation.<\/p>\n<p>Below are two stories showing that some good can come from the horror.<\/p>\n<p>Many have read about the 21 supposedly Egyptian Coptic Christians beheaded by ISIS in late February. However, the story of one of those men has not been widely publicised.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_8429\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8429\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Chadian-Christian.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-8429 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Chadian-Christian-300x210.jpg\" alt=\"This Chadian man, middle, converted to Christianity after seeing the faith of the other men.\" width=\"300\" height=\"210\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Chadian-Christian-300x210.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Chadian-Christian.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-8429\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">This Chadian man, middle, converted to Christianity after seeing the faith of the other men.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Of the twenty-one Christians that were beheaded, only twenty of these men were Egyptian and already Christians.<\/p>\n<p>Many, seeing the pictures, would have been puzzled by the presence of a black man amongst them. This man, a citizen of Chad, was not a Christian but he had been taken for one by the terrorists.<\/p>\n<p>As he watched the Coptic Christians being martyred for their faith, he was convicted of his own lack of faith. When the terrorist reached him and demanded that he reject Jesus Christ, the man said: \u201cTheir God is my God.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He was then executed like his Christian brothers. We do not know how this story emerged, but Patheos\u00a0News <a href=\"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2015\/03\/conversion-on-the-beach-one-mans-conversion-to-christ-before-isis-execution\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>reports<\/strong><\/a>, \u201cthe joy in this story is that 21 martyrs to Christ entered heaven that day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This man was <a href=\"http:\/\/bombayorthodoxdiocese.org\/what-made-a-non-believer-chadian-citizen-die-for-christ-along-with-his-20-coptic-christian-friends\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>kidnapped<\/strong> <\/a>along with twenty other Christians, and could easily have denied Christ. But the faith of the twenty other men convinced him he was lost without Christ, just as the thief in Luke 23 was convicted of his sin at Jesus\u2019 crucifixion:<\/p>\n<p>Luke 23:39 And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. 40 But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? 41 And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss. 42 And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. 43 And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>Find out how to join Christian Voice and stand up for the King of kings (clicking on the link below does not commit you to join)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/wp.me\/P1OVTZ-gb\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3940\" style=\"border: 0px;\" title=\"Join Today!\" src=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Join_donate_Logo2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"185\" height=\"180\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Please note that persons wishing to comment on this story must enter a valid email address. Comments from persons leaving fictitious email addresses will be trashed.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As reports of ISIS\u2019 activity have increased, the stories have become more and more discouraging. But despite the atrocities being perpetrated by these terrorists, God is still sovereign over all: Isaiah 51:8 For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool: but my righteousness shall be [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,184],"tags":[530,1291,390],"class_list":["post-8426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-freedom","category-uk-christian-constitution","tag-egypt","tag-isis","tag-syria"],"aioseo_notices":[],"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Robin","author_link":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/author\/robin\/"},"rttpg_comment":4,"rttpg_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/category\/christian-freedom\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Christian freedom<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/category\/uk-christian-constitution\/\" rel=\"category tag\">UK Christian Constitution<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"As reports of ISIS\u2019 activity have increased, the stories have become more and more discouraging. But despite the atrocities being perpetrated by these terrorists, God is still sovereign over all: Isaiah 51:8 For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool: but my righteousness shall be&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8426\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}