According to Iraqi officials, at least 900 Christian families have fled their homes, frightened by a series of killings by Muslim extremists and threats to convert to Islam or face death. The main focus of this persecution of Iraqi Christians is in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. The Iraqi Defense Minister has ordered more checkpoints in Christian neighborhoods, with additional security patrols and more aerial surveillance of Christian areas.
Iraqi officials say Iraqi security services and armed forces must protect the Christians because they are partners in the rebuilding of the war-torn nation of Iraq.
Jimmy's Prophetic Prospective on the News
The killing of Christians in Iraq today is a precursor to the fulfillment of Bible prophecy in the future.
There have been reports of Christians being killed in Iraq since the days of Saddam Hussein. In fact, Hussein ordered the killings of thousands of Christians under his leadership. Since the fall of Saddam and the beginning of the insurgency, the Islamic struggle to take over Iraq, there has been an increase in the killings of Christians. This report indicates that even the present Iraqi leadership recognizes what is happening in Iraq's Christian community.
Bible prophecy predicts a time when believers in Jesus Christ will be killed in Iraq. Revelation 18 reveals that Iraq, (biblical Babylon), will be the economic, political, governmental center of the earth. Revelation 13 speaks of the world leader at that time, the Antichrist, forcing people to take a mark in their forehead or the back of their right hand in order to be able to buy and sell the necessities of life. Believers in Christ who refuse to take the mark will be killed, (Revelation 6:9, 20:4). This will happen during the reign of the Antichrist in Babylon.
Threats against Iraqi Christians and the slaughter of these believers in Christ today is evidence that Bible prophecy will be fulfilled.
