BreakPoint This Week: Defying ISIS

John Stonestreet welcomes Johnnie Moore, author of “Defying ISIS,” to open our eyes about the holocaust Middle-Eastern Christians face–and what we can do to stop it.

ISIS has no doubt succeeded Al-Qaeda as the number one jihadist threat in the Middle East, and throughout the world. Their brutality cannot be denied, and recently their reach may have extended into Texas. What needs to be done? During this week’s broadcast, John Stonestreet delves into that question with author Johnny Moore, whose book, “Defying ISIS” sheds needed light on the subject.

Over the past two years, we’ve watched as the Islamic State has swept across the Middle East, claiming a region the size of the United Kingdom and killing or displacing tens of thousands from religious minorities in the process. Ancient Christian communities that have called Iraq and Syria home for centuries have suffered the worst of it. But despite repeated pleas to the international community for help, Middle-Eastern Christians have watched their homes, hopes, and even lives swept aside before the tide of Islamic extremism.

As a vice president at Liberty University, Johnnie Moore traveled to the Middle East on several occasions. What he saw there convinced him that the West’s inaction in the midst of this crisis was nothing less than a scandal. In his new book, he reveals not only how severe the persecution has become—going to far as to call it a “holocaust,”—but describes what Christians in the United States can do to help.

“…in cities like Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq, where there have been tens of thousands of Christians for many, many centuries,” he says, “there now isn’t a single Christian left in Mosul. And there are hardly any churches left, either, because ISIS has destroyed them all. We’re witnessing not only the brutal execution of brothers and sisters in Christ, but we’re also witnessing the wiping from the slate a history of Christianity in the Middle East that most Christians in the West didn’t even know to begin with.”

Christians in America and elsewhere must create the political will for Western leaders to intervene. But we mustn’t wait for them to do so. Praying and acting right now is crucial, says Moore. And there’s a lot we can do even without taking up arms against ISIS.

“Now is the time for us to educate ourselves, to give generously, and try to understand the crisis, and not to oversimplify it, and to show love like we’ve never shown it before. And we must pray. We must pray as we have never prayed before for the persecuted church around the world. The fact is, we’re seeing 1st century persecution in the 21st century. People are being beheaded the way they beheaded Paul. People are being crucified the way they crucified Peter. People are being killed with the sword the way they were killed with the sword as described in Hebrews 13. And now we need to pray a very specific prayer. It’s the prayer Paul told us to pray in 2 Thessalonians: “Pray that we might be delivered from wicked and evil men.”

As we seek to shake the global church from inaction, we’ve got to stay informed. Moore’s book, “Defying ISIS” is an excellent place to start, and we hope you’ll pick up a copy today. In it, he explains in detail what we must do if we hope to see Christianity survive in the place of its birth. Moore also lists organizations making a difference right now—organizations like WorldHelpThe Cradle Fund, and The Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East—all of which he urges us to support prayerfully and financially.

“[This is] a once-in-a-thousand-year crisis,” says Moore. “And the fact that we are alive while it’s happening means that God will hold us accountable as to whether we did something or not.”

Listen to the interview in full at Breakpoint This Week: Defying ISIS. 

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