As
Satan perceives time running out on him with the impending arrival of the Lord
Jesus Christ (Rev 12:12), being reminded of his irreversible momentous loss that
began at the first Easter has, not unexpectedly, gotten him really agitated and
desperate.
His fierce but
toothless goons were all over the place trying to wreak maximum havoc over the
Easter period. In the cities of Tanta
and Alexandria in Egypt, Islamists attacked two Coptic churches with bombs on
Palm Sunday (April 9), killing at least FORTY NINE people and wounding another
100. In mourning the dead, the Coptics in
Egypt decided to curtail
“festive manifestations” during the Easter prayer services.
It
wasn’t only Christians who were killed in the two Palm Sunday attacks. Three
officers stationed at the site of one of the attacks were Muslim. The Egyptian
government was fully sympathetic and has declared a 3-month emergency rule in
the country to enable it squarely address the security threats to
Christians. It also has promised to help
rebuild the Churches involved – of course lives lost are irreplaceable!
There were
pockets of incidences in several other parts of the world, including assaults
in public transport systems. For
instance 20 year old Hanah Bladon, an exchange student from Birmingham studying
Hebrew and the Bible in Jerusalem, was stabbed to death in the Light Rail near
Jaffa Gate on Good Friday (April 14). On
the other side of the globe in Australia, Mike, also traveling by train from Campsie to
Bankstown in southwestern Sydney, was accosted and thoroughly ruffled up in
broad day light by “four young men of Middle Eastern appearance”. Cursing the
name of the Lord Jesus and eulogizing Allah, the men violently ripped Mike’s
dangling Greek Orthodox cross off his neck and stomped on it. https://www.jihadwatch.org/2017/04/australia-muslims-assault-orthodox-christian-while-screaming-f-jesus
Unfortunately,
Nigeria still continues to feature in these tragic religious persecution
stories. After a few weeks of respite
since the widely denounced Christmas killings, islamist cattle herdsmen came
a-visiting again to Southern
Kaduna,
leaving the corpses of least one dozen local people behind. The attack occurred at the Asso Community in Jemaa local
government area on Saturday, April 15, shortly after a “peace and
reconciliation” meeting between the natives and the Fulani herdsmen. As usual, Governor Nasir El-Rufai promptly
expressed heartfelt condolences to the victims and assured that “security
operations are being ramped to rid the forest areas of the bandits”. The
operation by the herdsmen lasted for about 30 minutes without any help from the
security agencies deployed to the area. For details, see https://www.naij.com/1099825-12-killed-fresh-southern-kaduna-attack.html
Thank God, the
Church of God is however not deterred by all these rampages of the devil. A video posted on Facebook following the bombings at
the Coptic churches in Egypt shows hundreds of Coptic Christians outside of a
church enthusiastically chanting the Nicene Creed in Arabic. A widow of one the
slain Christians in Egypt, speaking on behalf of the families of the martyred
saints, said she has already forgiven the murderers. The Rev. Markos Ayoub of the Coptic Orthodox Church
of St. Mark in New Jersey summarised the general attitude of Copts
to the terrorism: “We do not accept injustice. In the same breath, we have no
animosity towards anybody,” he said. “This is our faith. To love our enemies.
No vengefulness. We love everybody, including even the terrorists.” Possibly nothing can be more frustrating to
the devil than this. No looking back, Church! The King is at the door!
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