A Christmas wish: Christians in the Middle East need American support to live free from persecution

At this time of year American Christians are free to celebrate Christmas in any way they like, because freedom of religion is a cherished right in the U.S. for people of every faith. But in many predominantly Muslim nations in the Middle East, the Christian minority is threatened and persecuted 365 days a year.

As an Assyrian Christian who fled my native Iran in 1989 I know about this harassment and persecution from first-hand experience.

And as the founder and president of the Iraqi Christian Relief Council I know about this persecution because of the work my nonprofit does to assist persecuted Christians throughout the Middle East and in other nations where they have taken refuge.

The Iraqi Christian Relief Council has been operating since 2007 and last year alone we helped 110,000 displaced Christians. We offer food and medicine, job training, home rebuilding and other services. With more support, we could help many more Christians.

Vice President Mike Pence is scheduled to visit the Middle East in January. His visit would be a good time to speak up about the persecution that his fellow Christians endure and to press nations to do more to protect the Christian minority in the region where the faith first took root some 2,000 years ago.

Such a move by the vice president would be in keeping with America’s role as a beacon of religious liberty and other human rights for people around the world.

“need American support to live free from persecution REALLY? John 16:33”

I think you are using this passage out of context. It is inevitable that the world will hate those who follow Jesus, but it is not wrong to seek the end of Christian persecution. There are many scriptures that recognize the true human need for relief from such persecution.

Psalm 34:14
Depart from evil and do good;
Seek peace and pursue it.

Proverbs 16:7
When a man’s ways please the Lord,
He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.

Matthew 10:23a
When they persecute you in this city, flee to another.

Matthew 25:37-40
Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, “Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?” And the King will answer and say to them, “Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.”

Acts 12:5
Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church.

Acts 25:11
For if I am an offender, or have committed anything deserving of death, I do not object to dying; but if there is nothing in these things of which these men accuse me, no one can deliver me to them. I appeal to Caesar.

Romans 12:18
If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.

Romans 15:25-26
But now I am going to Jerusalem to minister to the saints. For it pleased those from Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints who are in Jerusalem.

(The poor here were probably so due to persecution as in 1 Thessalonians 2:14.)

1 Thessalonians 3:1-3
Therefore, when we could no longer endure it, we thought it good to be left in Athens alone, and sent Timothy, our brother and minister of God, and our fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ, to establish you and encourage you concerning your faith, that no one should be shaken by these afflictions; for you yourselves know that we are appointed to this.

1 Timothy 2:1-2
Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.

1 Peter 5:8-9
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.

Revelation 12:11
And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.

So the proper Christian response to persecution is to help those suffering by giving, comforting, praying, speaking out, and appealing to governmental authorities for relief. Those suffering are not told to embrace persecution but to flee when possible. Seeking to end persecution of Christians is not unbiblical.

“trying to infer that [Christian persecution] WILL end is merely wishful thinking”

Such persecution, down through history, has come in waves, at different places and in different times and ways.

We have had relatively little in America.

It is not “wishful thinking” to pursue the “end of persecution.”

That’s like saying “global evangelism” is wishful thinking because, clearly, not all men will be saved.

Christians, as the many scriptures I referenced point out, are to seek to resolve and end such persecution. Where it can not be eradicated, the suffering can be eased.

What we’ve seen recently in the Middle East probably represents what is coming on a global scale. How often have we seen, historically, even children being tortured to get them and their parents to renounce their faith?

This has happened under ISIS (which our former president and State Department helped to unleash).

Matthew 18:6-7
Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the world because of offenses! For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes!

“Offenses must come,” Jesus said. Notice that Jesus spoke of the inevitability of offenses, i.e. persecution in this context. He was specifically prophesying that it would ultimately come to attacks on children, which is now happening.

But it is not universal. Not ever in the history of the Church was there continuous, universal persecution. The apostles faced the worst of it. After them, prophets and evangelists. But the Church responded as God directed, by praying, giving, comforting, speaking out, appealing, and seeking the end of it. The Church does not acquiesce to the suffering of Satanic persecution as inevitable, but resists. And Satan flees and is defeated.

The persecution is only going to get worse. Antichrist will appear on the world stage. And with him will be the worst persecution of all. The Bible warns Christians of him. The early Church fathers wrote of what they were personally taught.

And yes, persecution has to happen. Defeat does not. So, in context, it is important to look at the overall Biblical message. The article is exactly right about the role we should seek for America. George W. Bush unseated Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq, but he had no plan in place to protect Christians who have now been slaughtered in the hundreds of thousands, and possibly millions, as the result of our so-called “War on Terror.”

It is the duty of Christians in free countries, like the USA, to seek the relief from persecution against Christians in other parts of the world who are defenseless against their attackers. Your arguments are splitting hairs over the reality of persecution. If your house was on fire, you would not debate theology while your loved ones were killed. You would simply do everything in your power to rescue those who could be rescued.

If the article was declaring what steps the USA could take to turn Iraq into a Christian nation, you might have a point that this is an unrealistic objective. Even that could be within the realm of possibility. After all, the repentance and salvation of Nineveh was the greatest example of this in the Bible when Jonah was sent there. But at least allow for the possibility of putting a temporary, local end to the tremendous suffering Christians have encountered there lately.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.