by Botrus Mansour The “Arab spring” that hit the Middle East in the last few years with the gross disturbance accompanied with it has affected the dwindling Christian Arab Communities in the region and rocked them to their roots.
In the eyes of the west, the most dramatic action coming from the Middle East were the televised beheadings of American and British journalists and relief workers. However for Middle Eastern Christians, it is a different scene. It is the scene of ISIS driving tens of thousands of Arab Christians from the City of Mosul out after confiscating their property. They just emptied Mosul from a community that has thrived in the North Iraqi town for more than 1500 years.
These monstrous fanatic frictions of Islam (ISIS, El Qaeda, Jabhat Al-Nasra etc.) have become the nightmare of Arab Christians.
This phenomenon of religious groups has caused a lot of Christians in the Middle East to use the following logic: A group of “devout” followers of Allah (“God” in Arabic for both Muslims and Christians) who claim to do his will are mean and ruthless. They are basing the performance of this genocide on Allah’s teachings therefore he must be a cruel blood thirsty god and he is not worthy of our adherence.
Such logic will lead to a possible reaction amongst Arab Christians and maybe other Christians around the world abandoning their faith in God and declaring Atheism. For them-“If this is the kind of behavior that a faith in Allah brings then all faith is bad and not worthy of my loyalty”.
It is the responsibility of real people of faith to emphasize that this “god” is a fake god. He has caused people to hate. He has caused anguish and suffering and he is just a bad imitation of the real god: God.
If the fake god caused all this trouble then the real God is the one who will solve it. god and God should not be mixed up.
The real God came to serve. He held the towel and washed the feet of his disciples including the man who would soon afterwards betray Him and turn Him over to death. He forgave the woman that was accused of idolatry when all religious leaders wanted to condemn her. He is the one who taught the finest sermon ever taught on the mountain near the Sea of Galilee. He, that never committed sin, became sin for us. He went willingly to the cross of shame in order to redeem mankind from eternal condemnation. He is not just a good God but He is Goodness itself.
But make no mistake –He is not a tame lamb. He is a roaring lion and in His perfect timing He will abolish all evil gods and their adherents.
Source: http://www.comeandsee.com/view.php?sid=1251
Botrus Mansour, an Arab Palestinian Israeli Evangelical Christian lawyer and general director of the Nazareth Baptist School, is married with three children.
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