I'm not blaming the victims; the children are the victims. I am saying that the parents had reason to know or to at least strongly suspect that Pakistan was a very dangerous place, not a place a responsible Christian parent takes a child, for any reason. The article mentions no weapons. Did they not even carry weapons to defend themselves and their children?
Perhaps they were truly answering God's call. I won't presume to know what's in their hearts. But my reading of the Bible tells me that God does not require nor desire the sacrifice of our children, in fact He finds it abhorrant--that's why He stayed Abraham's hand. They could have found some other way, time or place to answer the call, or they could have left their children home. Our loving God would understand.
I'm not giving the Islamofascists a pass here. They will be judged for their deeds, one way or another. I would hope that judgement would come swiftly, but at any rate it will surely come.
I would no more take my children to live in a Muslim country than I would take them swimming in shark-infested waters, and for the same reason. The Islamofasists have as much of a conscience as your average Great White.
The parents were victims as well, so yes, you are.
I am saying that the parents had reason to know or to at least strongly suspect that Pakistan was a very dangerous place
I'm sure they did know.
not a place a responsible Christian parent takes a child, for any reason.
An obedient Christian would go if God said go, regardless of the expected safety level. A disobedient person would say, "No, I'm not going, no matter what you want, God. It's not safe."
Since God says to train up a child in the way he should go, a Christian parent should, therefore, want to teach their child to obey God. What better way to do that than to model that behavior, especially when it seems to go against the grain of worldly judgment.
Did they not even carry weapons to defend themselves and their children?
Neither of us knows whether they did or not.
But my reading of the Bible tells me that God does not require nor desire the sacrifice of our children
Good thing your name isn't Moses. There would never have been an exodus from Egypt.
They could have found some other way, time or place to answer the call, or they could have left their children home.
When God calls, God calls. If you say 'not now' or 'not there', you are simply being disobedient.
Missionaries commonly take their children with them to the mission field. A lot of mission fields are dangerous (or later become dangerous). Do you actually think it a good thing for parents to abandon the care of the children to someone else for the years they are out on the mission field? I don't. If God gives them children, God expects them to parent those children, not hand it off to someone else.
I would no more take my children to live in a Muslim country than I would take them swimming in shark-infested waters
I presume God has not called you to serve as a missionary in a Muslim country. If that's the case, then of course you wouldn't. But if these people were called (and I presume they were), they had a choice of obeying or disobeying. They chose to obey.
It's sad their children died, but we don't know - the witness they gave by refusing to give up Christ may have been the whole reason God called the family to go there in the first place.