THE MARTYRS.
On January 3, 2015 at 2:30 a.m. in the city of Sirte, Libya, masked gunmen raced from house to house beating viciously on front doors before rushing in. They pulled frightened men from their beds, grabbed their arms, and searched for the traditional tattoos that marked them as Coptic Christians— Christians from the Egyptians Orthodox Church . Fourteen men were pulled from their homes, taken to an on disclose location, in Lybia along with seven other Christian hostages who had been kidnapped a week earlier.
On February 15, 2015, after five weeks of imprisonment, the twenty-one were beheaded for their faith on a beach near Sirte.
The Coptic Christians kidnapped in Sirte had been working there for some months and sending their incomes home to feed extended families. In the rural areas of Egypt, the economy is poor and work is hard to find, so scores of Egyptian husbands and fathers leave their impoverished towns to work in the more prosperous, oil-based economy of Libya.
These twenty-one workers were not singled out for being Egyptians in Libya’s hostile countryside, however. They were targeted by radical Islamists for being followers of Jesus Christ.
The caption on the video labels the captives as “the people of the cross, the followers of the hostile Egyptian Church.” Egypt has been the home of a Christians minority since the days of early apostles. St. Mark, who wrote the Gospel of Mark, likely brought Christianity to Egypt in the first century, during the reign of Nero. The Coptic Church traces its roots all the way back to Mark! Coptic Christians, w ho make up 15 perc ent of Egypt’s population of 80 million, have survived Roman persecution, Turkish conquerors, and modern Arabian conflicts, but now they face a new enemy— the rise of Islamic terrorism.
Of the gruesome video, the Egyptian government identified twenty of the men as Egyptian citizens and Christians, thirteen from the small farming village of Al-Our, Egypt, one hundred and fifty miles west of Cair o . The tight - knit village was filled with loud weeping and grief the week the video surfaced, over the husbands, brothers, nephews, and friends who were killed.
Matthew Ayairga; he was from Chad, and, like the others, he had come to Sirte toNfind much-needed work. Unlike the others, however, Ayairga was not a Christian when he was first captured. No one knows why the ISIS militants kidnapped him with the rest. But as Ayairga spent five weeks with the Coptic Christians in prison, his heart was eternally changed.
On the video, an ISIS militant asks Ayairga, “Do you reject Christ?” His resolute response was, “their God is my God.”
Egyptian Christians believe that Ayairga would have had a much better chance at life had he embraced Islam, or at least denied that he was a Christian. But instead, he boldly proclaimed a faith in the God of his companions.
This is what makes the martyrdom of these twenty - one Christians both so terrible and so important: it is a picture, gruesome and in-our-faces, that forces of evil are doing all they can to darken the world with violence and to especially target followers of the cross. Yet, it is also a powerful confirmation that they are no match for the witness of Christ through the death of His followers.
Ayairga’s confession was not the only positive report after the ISIS brutality.
“In the month and a half while the people were kidnapped, the whole congregation was coming to the church to pray for their return, but in their prayers later on, they asked that if they died, they die for their faith, and that’s w hat happened. The congregation is actually growing, psychologically and spiritually,” one of Al-Our’s pastors, Father Makar Issa, explained soon after the men had been slain.6
Also, one week after the video was released, 1.65 million tracts entitled Two Rows by the Sea, with a photo of the Islamic militants marching the orange- clad Christians down the beach, were published by the Bible Soc iety of Egypt. “We mus t have a Scripture tract ready to distribute to the grieving nation as soon as possible,” the head of the Society, Ramallah Atallah, told his staff.7 Christ’s message w as c irc ulated throughout the nation of Egypt, reaching the hurting and lost once again with the message of salvation.
Jesus’ words from the Sermon on the Mount are a clear reminder of God’s eternal promise:
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:10–12).
- God’s General’s ( The Martyrs )
- JESUS SAVES TV
On January 3, 2015 at 2:30 a.m. in the city of Sirte, Libya, masked gunmen raced from house to house beating viciously on front doors before rushing in. They pulled frightened men from their beds, grabbed their arms, and searched for the traditional tattoos that marked them as Coptic Christians— Christians from the Egyptians Orthodox Church . Fourteen men were pulled from their homes, taken to an on disclose location, in Lybia along with seven other Christian hostages who had been kidnapped a week earlier.
On February 15, 2015, after five weeks of imprisonment, the twenty-one were beheaded for their faith on a beach near Sirte.
The Coptic Christians kidnapped in Sirte had been working there for some months and sending their incomes home to feed extended families. In the rural areas of Egypt, the economy is poor and work is hard to find, so scores of Egyptian husbands and fathers leave their impoverished towns to work in the more prosperous, oil-based economy of Libya.
These twenty-one workers were not singled out for being Egyptians in Libya’s hostile countryside, however. They were targeted by radical Islamists for being followers of Jesus Christ.
The caption on the video labels the captives as “the people of the cross, the followers of the hostile Egyptian Church.” Egypt has been the home of a Christians minority since the days of early apostles. St. Mark, who wrote the Gospel of Mark, likely brought Christianity to Egypt in the first century, during the reign of Nero. The Coptic Church traces its roots all the way back to Mark! Coptic Christians, w ho make up 15 perc ent of Egypt’s population of 80 million, have survived Roman persecution, Turkish conquerors, and modern Arabian conflicts, but now they face a new enemy— the rise of Islamic terrorism.
Of the gruesome video, the Egyptian government identified twenty of the men as Egyptian citizens and Christians, thirteen from the small farming village of Al-Our, Egypt, one hundred and fifty miles west of Cair o . The tight - knit village was filled with loud weeping and grief the week the video surfaced, over the husbands, brothers, nephews, and friends who were killed.
Matthew Ayairga; he was from Chad, and, like the others, he had come to Sirte toNfind much-needed work. Unlike the others, however, Ayairga was not a Christian when he was first captured. No one knows why the ISIS militants kidnapped him with the rest. But as Ayairga spent five weeks with the Coptic Christians in prison, his heart was eternally changed.
On the video, an ISIS militant asks Ayairga, “Do you reject Christ?” His resolute response was, “their God is my God.”
Egyptian Christians believe that Ayairga would have had a much better chance at life had he embraced Islam, or at least denied that he was a Christian. But instead, he boldly proclaimed a faith in the God of his companions.
This is what makes the martyrdom of these twenty - one Christians both so terrible and so important: it is a picture, gruesome and in-our-faces, that forces of evil are doing all they can to darken the world with violence and to especially target followers of the cross. Yet, it is also a powerful confirmation that they are no match for the witness of Christ through the death of His followers.
Ayairga’s confession was not the only positive report after the ISIS brutality.
“In the month and a half while the people were kidnapped, the whole congregation was coming to the church to pray for their return, but in their prayers later on, they asked that if they died, they die for their faith, and that’s w hat happened. The congregation is actually growing, psychologically and spiritually,” one of Al-Our’s pastors, Father Makar Issa, explained soon after the men had been slain.6
Also, one week after the video was released, 1.65 million tracts entitled Two Rows by the Sea, with a photo of the Islamic militants marching the orange- clad Christians down the beach, were published by the Bible Soc iety of Egypt. “We mus t have a Scripture tract ready to distribute to the grieving nation as soon as possible,” the head of the Society, Ramallah Atallah, told his staff.7 Christ’s message w as c irc ulated throughout the nation of Egypt, reaching the hurting and lost once again with the message of salvation.
Jesus’ words from the Sermon on the Mount are a clear reminder of God’s eternal promise:
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:10–12).
- God’s General’s ( The Martyrs )
- JESUS SAVES TV
THE MARTYRS.
On January 3, 2015 at 2:30 a.m. in the city of Sirte, Libya, masked gunmen raced from house to house beating viciously on front doors before rushing in. They pulled frightened men from their beds, grabbed their arms, and searched for the traditional tattoos that marked them as Coptic Christians— Christians from the Egyptians Orthodox Church . Fourteen men were pulled from their homes, taken to an on disclose location, in Lybia along with seven other Christian hostages who had been kidnapped a week earlier.
On February 15, 2015, after five weeks of imprisonment, the twenty-one were beheaded for their faith on a beach near Sirte.
The Coptic Christians kidnapped in Sirte had been working there for some months and sending their incomes home to feed extended families. In the rural areas of Egypt, the economy is poor and work is hard to find, so scores of Egyptian husbands and fathers leave their impoverished towns to work in the more prosperous, oil-based economy of Libya.
These twenty-one workers were not singled out for being Egyptians in Libya’s hostile countryside, however. They were targeted by radical Islamists for being followers of Jesus Christ.
The caption on the video labels the captives as “the people of the cross, the followers of the hostile Egyptian Church.” Egypt has been the home of a Christians minority since the days of early apostles. St. Mark, who wrote the Gospel of Mark, likely brought Christianity to Egypt in the first century, during the reign of Nero. The Coptic Church traces its roots all the way back to Mark! Coptic Christians, w ho make up 15 perc ent of Egypt’s population of 80 million, have survived Roman persecution, Turkish conquerors, and modern Arabian conflicts, but now they face a new enemy— the rise of Islamic terrorism.
Of the gruesome video, the Egyptian government identified twenty of the men as Egyptian citizens and Christians, thirteen from the small farming village of Al-Our, Egypt, one hundred and fifty miles west of Cair o . The tight - knit village was filled with loud weeping and grief the week the video surfaced, over the husbands, brothers, nephews, and friends who were killed.
Matthew Ayairga; he was from Chad, and, like the others, he had come to Sirte toNfind much-needed work. Unlike the others, however, Ayairga was not a Christian when he was first captured. No one knows why the ISIS militants kidnapped him with the rest. But as Ayairga spent five weeks with the Coptic Christians in prison, his heart was eternally changed.
On the video, an ISIS militant asks Ayairga, “Do you reject Christ?” His resolute response was, “their God is my God.”
Egyptian Christians believe that Ayairga would have had a much better chance at life had he embraced Islam, or at least denied that he was a Christian. But instead, he boldly proclaimed a faith in the God of his companions.
This is what makes the martyrdom of these twenty - one Christians both so terrible and so important: it is a picture, gruesome and in-our-faces, that forces of evil are doing all they can to darken the world with violence and to especially target followers of the cross. Yet, it is also a powerful confirmation that they are no match for the witness of Christ through the death of His followers.
Ayairga’s confession was not the only positive report after the ISIS brutality.
“In the month and a half while the people were kidnapped, the whole congregation was coming to the church to pray for their return, but in their prayers later on, they asked that if they died, they die for their faith, and that’s w hat happened. The congregation is actually growing, psychologically and spiritually,” one of Al-Our’s pastors, Father Makar Issa, explained soon after the men had been slain.6
Also, one week after the video was released, 1.65 million tracts entitled Two Rows by the Sea, with a photo of the Islamic militants marching the orange- clad Christians down the beach, were published by the Bible Soc iety of Egypt. “We mus t have a Scripture tract ready to distribute to the grieving nation as soon as possible,” the head of the Society, Ramallah Atallah, told his staff.7 Christ’s message w as c irc ulated throughout the nation of Egypt, reaching the hurting and lost once again with the message of salvation.
Jesus’ words from the Sermon on the Mount are a clear reminder of God’s eternal promise:
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:10–12).
- God’s General’s ( The Martyrs )
- JESUS SAVES TV
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