CAN YOU BE A CHRISTIAN IF YOU DO NOT MINISTER TO JESUS?

In Matthew 25 Christ tells us that when we minister to the least of His brothers and sisters, we minister to Him. Unfortunately the leadership of many Christian organisations, which are opposing American President Donald Trump’s directive that in 2017 the United States will in its selection of refugees give preference to Christians, are ignoring this scripture. Trump said that Christian refugees had been “horribly treated” and that it had been “impossible, or at least very tough, for Syrian Christians to enter the United States.”[1]

 

Was Trump wrong in his assessment of the Syrian Christians situation?

The conclusions of this writer’s research show that Trump’s assessment is certainly valid.

The CIA World Fact Book states that, at the commencement of the civil war in Syria in 2011, Syrian Christians comprised 10% of the population, which would have been around 2 million persons.[2] According to the non-partisan Pew Research Centre, 99% of the nearly 12,600 Syrians granted refugee status in the United States in 2016 were Muslim. Less than 1% were Christian.[3] Yet Syrian Christians are more discriminated against than other minority groups in this region and face far greater persecution.[4]

The International Society for Human Rights, a non-religious organisation, has stated that “80% of all acts of religious discrimination in the world today are directed against Christians.”[5] In addition, the Council for Justice and Peace of the Irish Catholics Bishops Conference has stated that at least 100,000 Christians are killed each year because of their faith.[6] In the Middle East, since the commencement of the Syrian civil war, the number of Christians killed each year for their faith has been estimated to be at least 40,000.[7]

However, Christians seeking resettlement as refugees by accepting countries do not enter the United Nations’ refugee camps for fear of assassination or kidnapping by ISIS groups within these camps.[8] The Express newspaper has reported the shocking on-the-ground reality that, “The jihadists are sending teams of trained killers into the UN camps disguised as refugees to kidnap and kill vulnerable Christians.”[9]

There are also Muslim refugee groups in the camps who are seeking refuge from the Assad government. As Syrian Christians have supported the Assad government, these refugees are also seeking the demise of Christians.[10] In addition, when Syrian Christian refugees have joined overland refugee marches through Europe and have been housed in German and other refugee camps, they have been threatened with death by some of the other refugees. Rather than to remain in such camps they have returned to Syria as it has appeared to be a safer location for them.[11]

Consequently, more than two thirds of the Syrian Christians who have fled from ISIS-controlled lands do not live in the UN camps. Instead they live in camps provided by churches, schools and individual families.[12]

Fadi Esber, in an article in the January 2016 edition of the National Caucus for the Persecuted Church Newsletter/’The Final Exodus of Assyrians from Syria’, states that church officials in Syria refuse to give an exact estimate of the number of Christians remaining in Syria. However, when pressed for an answer in private, some suggest that only half a million Christians remain.

Indeed, a member of the Barnabas Fund who regularly visits Syria and the Middle East told me that to his knowledge there are nearly 400,000 Christians stuck in Syria, not in UN camps, needing evacuation.[13] However, as Western countries such as Britain, the USA and Australia in practice only accept refugees from UN camps, the number of Christians being settled in these countries is minimal. This discrimination against Christians was also highlighted in the Barnabas Fund July 2016 Newsletter, which reported that the number of Syrian refugees admitted to America in May 2016 was 1,037, but that only 2 of these were Christians.

Furthermore, when you research the total number of Christians not in refugee camps in the Middle East, who are being rescued each year by Christian organisations such as the Barnabas Fund, the Knights of Columbus and others, it appears that this activity assists less than 1% of those persons needing to be rescued.

These figures support Fadi Esber’s contention that, “At the present rate and with peace nowhere on the horizon, the country [Syria] might very well lose its centuries-old Christian community by the end of this decade.” Hence it is very clear that, unless the number of rescues being undertaken by various Christian organisations can be increased by greater funding, ISIS will succeed in its genocidal aims with only a small number of Christians having been rescued from this fate, notwithstanding the recent military victories the Assad government has had with Russia’s support. These victories will unfortunately only slightly delay the time frame for the genocide’s completion as the situation will not change.

Hence President Trump’s directive to reverse this appalling situation is one positive step in the right direction and needs to receive Christian support. If in 2017 the United States’ Syrian refugee intake is the same as 2016, but with the composition instead being 99% Christian and 1% Muslim, the additional 12,500 rescued Christians would increase the percentage of Christians rescued in 2017 to around 4%.

However when this is compared with the previous annual genocide of Christians figure of around 10% in the region, the rescue of Christians there is still a losing battle.

 

Other applicable scriptures to this situation

Those Christian organisations which have opposed Trump’s directive on the basis that it is a “Muslim ban” have some scriptural support for this.[14] Galatians 6:10 (KJB) states, ‘As we therefore have opportunity let us do good unto everyone, especially unto those who are of the household of faith.’ Christians are clearly required to have compassion and do good as regards meeting the needs of all refugees, whether they be Christian or Muslim. It is not a choice of either one or the other – it must be both. However this scripture does specify that a priority is to be made for the ‘household of faith’ (Christians). This has not happened however. The priority has in fact been reversed.

Indeed, as has been argued, since the commencement of the Syrian civil war in 2011 the slaughter of Syrian Christians has been ignored by most Western governments and many Christian Churches have also chosen not to take any action to rescue these Christians. There is clearly a need for the positive discrimination proposed by the Trump directive so as to make up for past abuses and to rescue the remaining Christians in the region whilst this is still possible.

For some Christian organisations to advocate a return to the previous refugee selection system on the grounds of discrimination against Muslims is therefore both obscene and a perversion of the previously mentioned scriptures.

 

How then should the followers of Christ carry out His direction to do good to all people, including their enemies?

The answer may be found in Christ’s command to his followers in Matthew 10:16, to the effect that they should be ‘as wise as serpents but as innocent as doves.’

How may Christ’s followers implement the command of Galatians 6:10 in accordance with the wisdom required by Matthew 10:16? It first needs to be recognised that the religion of Islam is an enemy of Christianity. The Quran and the teaching of the Prophet Mohammad are that Muslims should curse and conquer Christians.[15] He also taught that it is permissible to lie to Christians.[16] These are core foundational issues which have not changed over the centuries.

Notwithstanding that Islam is an enemy of both Christianity and Judaism, for Christians Romans 12:20 requires that, ‘If your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.’ In the Old Testament, Proverbs 25:21–22 has a similar requirement for Jews: ‘If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat. If he is thirsty, give him water to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you.’

 

In response to this scripture, how has Israel responded to the suffering meted out to the innocent victims of the Syrian civil war?

Israel has treated the injured in their hospitals so as to ‘help them rehabilitate their lives.’ [17] However, after rehabilitation, the injured have not been permitted to remain in Israel due to its need to protect its citizens from terrorism.[18] Yet when you consider Islam’s longstanding hatred of the Jews and its desire to see them destroyed, there is considerable wisdom in Israel’s decision not to accept Syrian Muslim refugees. [19]

 

Does Israel’s approach provide a lesson to other Western countries as to how they may act in innocence and wisdom to satisfy the requirements of Romans 12:20?

In this writer’s view it does. Christ’s command to Peter was to care for His sheep. If we recognise that in doing this we are ministering to Him, how can we support a refugee system which history has shown will cause harm to His sheep?

 

Conclusion

The atrocities in the Middle East are caused not only by those who commit them, but also by those who are silent and do not act to oppose them. They also are aided by some Christian organisations which have a faulty interpretation of scripture whereby their love of their own interests replaces their love for Jesus. In these circumstances there is a form of religion but without the potency.

If the Christian reader would minister to the needs of their Christian brothers and sisters trapped in Syria in response to their love for Jesus, they would be ministering to Jesus. They would be members of His family and may truly describe themselves as Christians.

 

 

Diego Colina  

An advocate for the rescue of Christians

facing genocide in the Middle East.

 

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[1] http://edition.cnn.com/2017/01/27/politics/trump-christian-refugees/, accessed 23.02.17.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Jude Simion, ‘Churches rally to help Christian refugees’, Eternity Newspaper, May 2016.

[5] http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2015/05/17/eleven-christians-killed-every-hour-says-irish-bishop/, accessed 14.07.16.

[6] http://www.catholicbishops.ie/2015/05/13/presentation-joint-committee-foreign-affairs-trade-council-justice-peace-irish-catholic-bishops-conference-on-the-ongoing-persecution-christians/, accessed 14.07.16.

[7] Telephone interview with certain Barnabas Trust staff, who regularly visit the Middle East, August 2016.

[8] https://barnabasfund.org/news/Muslim-refugees-persecute-Christian-refugees-in-German-camps, accessed 07.11.15.

[9] http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/614249/ISIS-sends-ASSASSINS-UN-refugee-camps-could-come-Britain, accessed 06.12.15.

[10] Express Newspaper, op cit.

[11] Barnabas Fund, op cit.

[12] Ibid.

[13] Telephone interview with certain Barnabas Trust staff who regularly visit the Middle East, August 2016.

[14] https://barnabasfund.org/news/Editorial-Why-are-Christian-organisations-campaigning-against-helping-Christians-flee-the-Middle-East-genocide, accessed 11.02.17.

[15] http://.answering-islam.org/Silas/hassaballa_violence3.htm, accessed 22.02.17.

[16] http://www.muslimfact.com/bm/terror-in-the-name-of-islam/islam-permits-lying-to-deceive-unbelievers-and-bri~print.shtml, accessed 21.02.17.

[17] https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/07/world/middleeast/netanyahu-rejects-calls-to-accept-syrian-refugees.html, accessed 23.02.17.

[18] https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/07/world/middleeast/netanyahu-rejects-calls-to-accept-syrian-refugees.html, accessed 23.02.17.

[19] https://www.answering..islamorg/authors/roak/hate_jews.html, accessed 13.03.17.