More Christians were brutally murdered by Muslim savages in Kenya for just being Christians:
CBN NEWS – At least nine Christians were recently murdered in Kenya for not reciting the Islamic statement of faith, the Shahada.
International Christian Concern (ICC) in an exclusive report said the attack occurred earlier this month when nine Christians who were traveling by bus to Mandera were separated from the other passengers and killed in northeast Kenya. When they would not recite the Islamic creed, the Shahada, they were “paraded out of the bus and shot dead at close range by those believed to be Al-Shabaab militants.”
Two passengers are still missing. Local authorities believe they were also killed by the militants.
The names of those confirmed as killed are Athanus Kiti, Enos Odhiambo, Kelvin Mandela, Wisely Meli, Tikane Kasale, Leonard Mukanda, Francis Mbuvi, Rodgers Machuka, and Anchari Okerosi. The two still missing are Emmanuel Barasa and Nathan Bett, according to the ICC.
One rider attributed his survival to a Muslim passenger who tossed him some Somali clothes to put on when the bus was first hijacked. From the look of the clothes, the hijackers assumed he was a Muslim. In August, a group of concerned Muslims thwarted an al-Shabaab terrorist attack on Christian workers at a hospital construction site by warning the Christians to flee, and lives were saved.
As horrible as Christian persecution like this is, and we’ve covered so much of it, there’s a different perspective that some of the fathers of the church have taken on it.
For instance, this is what was recorded from St. Ignatius of Antioch, the Bishop of Antioch and a former disciple of St. John the Apostle, when Emperor Trajan pronounced his death sentence in the early second century, which was to be thrown in the colosseum in Rome and be eaten by hungry animals:
Then Trajan pronounced sentence as follows: “We command that Ignatius, who affirms that he carries about within him Him that was crucified, be bound by soldiers, and carried to the great [city] Rome, there to be devoured by the beasts, for the gratification of the people.” When the holy martyr heard this sentence, he cried out with joy, “I thank thee, O Lord, that Thou hast vouchsafed to honour me with a perfect love towards Thee, and hast made me to be bound with iron chains, like(2) Thy Apostle Paul.” Having spoken thus, he then, with delight, clasped the chains about him; and when he had first prayed for the Church, and commended it with tears to the Lord, he was hurried away by the savage(3) cruelty of the soldiers, like a distinguished ram(4) the leader of a goodly flock, that he might be carried to Rome, there to furnish food to the bloodthirsty beasts.
I believe St. Ignatius of Antioch would say that these nine Christians, who were brutally murdered because they refused to renounce Christ, were given the greatest gift of all which was a perfect love for Christ, in that they willingly gave up their own lives up for Him and became martyrs.
From a Heavenly perspective that means everything, and we as Christians still on earth can rest knowing that these souls are in God’s protection and with Him now eternally, which is where we all hope to be soon enough.