Iraq Persecution

Many people do not know that loving your enemy is the heart of the gospel. Although loving and praying for your enemy may seem impossible at times, it is written in the gospel of Matthew that loving your enemy is loving God. In Matthew 5:43, Jesus teaches about loving your enemy, praying for your enemy, and shows examples of loving your enemy.

The Bible has many teachings of Jesus, that show what we as Christians can learn from and apply it to our lives. In Matthew 5:43-48, Jesus tells us to love our enemies. It’s easy to love the same people who love and care for us, however, loving someone who hates you is a difficult task. We all want to feel appreciated and valuable. When someone makes us feel worthless or unloved, the last thing we want to do is to show them love. Jesus also tells us to pray for people who wrong us which is just as hard, if not harder than the prior command to love our enemies. Jesus’ point in this teaching is to call us to be more like God by having an unconditional love for everyone. He holds us to a high standard in Matthew 5:48 when he commands us to “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly father is perfect” (Thurston, B. B., (1987) para 6). How does loving our enemies relate to other

From verbal attacks to hostile feelings, attitudes and actions, Christians experience religious persecution in areas with severe religious restrictions. On average, there are 322 people killed, 214 churches or religious buildings destroyed, and 772 other forms of violence performed against Christians each month. According to The Pew Research Center, over 75% of the world's population lives in areas with severe religious restrictions. Additionally, according to the United States Department of State, people in more than sixty countries face persecution from their governments or surrounding neighbors simply because of their

“Prayers through centuries of persecution. Father Joseph Ibrahim is one of only seven monks left here. He told us the monastery was founded in 363, and has survived the Persian and Ottoman empires, Mongol invaders and Kurdish conquests. Today, it's threatened by the Islamic State, whose fighters advanced towards St. Matthew's gates shortly after taking Mosul last summer. Kurdish soldiers pushed them back to this village where their flag still flies only four miles from the monastery.” In Iraq, ISIS invaded the most crowded city, Mogul and started to assassinate Christians. Their mission is to convert everyone to islam or kill them. There are many different christians in Iraq and Syria that are dying everyday because they will not submit to the will of the savages of ISIS. This is a great example because ISIS is taking away their right to decide what religion they have. If it isn’t what they want, then they kill

As we talked about previously Christians were heavily persecuted throughout the Roman Empire. Although Christianity was growing rapid there was an enormous amount of people that did not like Christians. The citizens of Rome did all that they could to stop the spread of Christianity. The Christians were thrown in jail, spit on, beat, stoned, and killed all because they believed in God. Christianity showed us that when you are living in unbearable situations trust God even if it seems

They have suffered from cruelties that need psychological and moral support in order to live with dignity and have hope for the future. To get a true understanding of what it is like living in the Middle East as a Christian, I recently contacted Sara Touchan, a Christian who used to live in Syria. She escaped the war and ISIS and joined Ponte Vedra High School as a junior. She said that living in Syria before the war was simple and really nice. She did not have a chance to meet a lot of Muslims because she attended a private Catholic high school. However, her parent and brothers had Muslim friends through jobs or public universities. Before the war, Syria was one of the better countries for Christians in the Middle East. However, when the Syrian civil war began, it just kept getting more violent and dangerous. She said “We really were not sure if we were going to survive the next day or not. The bombs, voices, and gunshots became a daily routine. Some days were worse than others of course, and a day that was consistent of only hearing bombs without seeing any fight was considered a good day.” Their electricity, water, and Internet used to go off. They had to take showers with cold water from small bottles in the winter. Christians felt unsafe because of ISIS, who wanted to kill Christians solely based on their religion.

Christians have been persecuted around the world for their faith during varying periods of time since the birth of the religion. Even today there are stories of Christians being killed or beaten severely at the hands of Hindu extremists in India or in places like China and North Korea. Yet Christianity thrives as the world’s largest religion. Persecution of Christians was especially brutal and widespread during the fourth century in the Roman Empire. Christians were tortured until they denied Christ or killed if they refused, their possessions, houses and buildings were confiscated and they were forced to observe pagan sacrificial traditions. Constantine the Great’s rise to power brought about tremendous change in Roman attitudes and laws from absolutely destroying Christians to accepting, protecting and even supporting the furthering of Christianity.

When looking at the history of Christianity, a common occurrence that is found is persecution. Christians have been persecuted throughout the history of Christianity, and it is something that still happens today. While Christian persecution in the United States is not much of a concern, persecution throughout the world is still a major problem. Muslim nations and communist nations still openly persecute Christians. The persecution of Christians around the world is unjust and needs to be stopped.

Iraq’s current turmoil has displaced more than 1.8 million people in total, many of them Christians. Some estimates suggest that between half and two-thirds of the 1.4 million Christians counted in Iraq in 2003 have since fled from central Iraq. Father Douglas watched his church shrink from 2,600 members to only 250, some of his flock perishing and many more fleeing to the safety of Iraqi Kurdistan.

Many people think that the Jews are the most persecuted because of the Holocaust. However, Christians are the most persecuted in the world. Since the death of Jesus Christians have been suffering forever. Right now Christians are being persecuted all over the world and under the United States government.

Since the early 13th century Missionaries have been traveling to foreign lands proclaiming the name of Jesus, but Persecution wasn’t activated immediately, “It wasn't until the 14th century that they began to be persecuted for their faith”, (Macevitt, 2015, p.5). The persecution many of them faced developed them into martyrs (one who dies in relation to their religious beliefs). The lack of protection offered to Missionaries, people who want to share the divine love of Jesus Christ, has gradually became a pressing issue over the duration of many years. “The correlation between religious persecution and national security threats is not just a 21st century phenomenon” (Inboden, 2012, p. 55).The persecution of Christians has been sustained by

Persecution is a serious issue that throughout history has shown to be misinterpreted and sometimes even taken out of context. Defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as “the act or practice of persecuting those who differ in origin, religion or social outlook/ the condition of being persecuted, harassed or annoyed.” Other sources define it as hostility and even ill-treatment towards these groups. My goal with this paper is to focus specifically on Christian persecution from early civilizations (more specifically within the Roman Empire) and then fast-forwarding to persecution within the world today. For modern persecution I’ll be focusing on the RSS () which is ….. in India. “If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.” (1 Peter 4:14)

Since the evolution of sin, people were concerned about humans’ consistent ambition to degrade people in order to save themselves. In a hierarchy, the kings ruled over the nobles, the peasants, and the slaves. Slaves became the “unpopular” crowd where people treated them like animals. In John Milton’s Paradise Lost, Milton describes Satan’s refusal to serve God’s purpose has created dysfunction between God and him; his reason is that he wanted to uphold his position over the angels. As a result, God threw Satan and one-third of his angels out of Heaven (1.36-49).

Christians are being persecuted for their faith in more than the forty nations around world today. In some nations, it is illegal to own a Bible, to share one’s faith in Christ, and even teach one’s children about Jesus Christ. Those who boldly follow Christ, in spite of government decree or opposition, can face harassment, arrest, torture and even death. Dr. Nhia Vang Vang, the pastor of the First Hmong Alliance Church in Longview, NC, mentioned that Christianity has been persecuted for over 2000 years up until now. However, more Christians have been arrested, harassed, and persecuted in this century than in the previous nineteen combined (Vang). Christian persecution is a world-wide problem, having an effect

The gospel according to Matthew is full of the Lord’s messages of love, how you should love people, and the types of people you should love if you follow the messages and teachings of Jesus. This gospel also provides an outline of the way people who seek to be a part of the Catholic faith should live their lives. Focusing specifically on love and how you should treat other people, Jesus gives precise directions on how we should approach and deal with others, especially those who wrong us. One of the instructions Jesus provides for us through Matthew is, “But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven;” (Matthew 5:44-45). The word of Jesus is very clear here, that we should love all those around us, our neighbors and even those who wish the worst on us. His message becomes even more clear when