Martyrdom and Hobbsean Warre

When I am talking of martyrdom I no longer are using rhetoric. 21 Copts have borne witness to their faith by the shedding of their blood. One should know their names: they were all Copts, working in Libya to make money, to establish their lives.

Shinuda Anis, who has seen footage of her brother featuring in the video, spoke of her loss to local Vetogate website with a mixture of defiance and resignation.

“Our blood is for the sake of the nation,” she said. But she also went on to criticise the Egyptian government for failing to act sooner, pointing out that the group was kidnapped nearly two months ago.

Among other victims was 26-old Samih Salah Shawqi, who left behind a daughter he had not seen since she was born; Milad Makin Zaki who left his a three-year son; and Mina Fayiz Aziz, who left behind elderly parents.

All were hoping to return home after their time in Libya and build better lives for their families.
line. The victims : Milad Makin Zaki, Abanub Ayyad Atiyah, Majid Sulayman Shihatah, Yusuf Shukri Yunan, Carlos Bushra Fawzi, Bishoy Astafnus Kamil, (brother) Suma’ili Astafnus Kamil, Malak Ibrahim Sanyut, Tawadaros Yusuf Tawadaros. Jirjis Milad Sanyut, Mina Sayyid Aziz, Hani Abd-al-Masih Salib, Bishoy Adil Khalaf, Samuel Alham Wilson, Izzat Bushra Nasif, Luqa Najati Wanis, Isam Bidar Samir. Malak Farraj Abram. Samih Salah Faruq, Jabir Munir Adli

Well the Islamists have scored an own goal. They have broadcast these deaths. They have not kept them silent. Fools. For they forget that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church, and those who have died, even in times of terror, do not weaken the church but strengthen it. The church grows strong.

The Islamists claim to be religious, but they are far too concerned about this world and action. They do not understand that what we can see and touch is not all that there is. Their posture of no quarter is a lethal: one, for if they give no quarter — eventually none will be given to them, for the rules of war (and we are in a war, like it or not, that will destroy the West or reform it) are those of reciprocation, or as my Maori friends would say, Utu.

Egyptian warplanes struck Islamic State targets in Libya on Monday in swift retribution for the extremists’ beheading of a group of Egyptian Christian hostages on a beach, shown in a grisly online video released hours earlier.

At the same time, Egypt called for international intervention in Libya against the Islamic State group. Loyalists of the Syria and Iraq-based group have risen to dominate several cities in the chaos-riven North African nation.

Italy, just across the Mediterranean Sea, says it is prepared to lead international action in Libya.

This is not a time for the apostate, but for the believer.

Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. It has been testified somewhere,

“What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him?
You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honour, putting everything in subjection under his feet.”

Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honour because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.

(Hebrews 2:1-10 ESV)

The time of peace, for the church is over. The militants are coming, and they are blinded, agreeing on one thing only: the Christians have to leave.

A French Bishop has ordered the Blessed Sacrament to be taken away from the Tabernacles all over his diocese, and the doors to the tabernacle to be left open to show there is no Blessed Sacrament inside. The only exception is if the Tabernacle is robust enough to resist an attack from your average French Satanist or wannabe Atheist Hero for one day.

It has come to this point.

The persecution is coming. It will not be in my generation I think, but the next one must be prepared for a hard and protracted fight.

We have had a period of peace, but like all seasons, it is ending. I did not think that we would see the Barbarism that sacked the Hagia Sophia in my lifetime, but a force nastier than the Turks of Sulieman is here, for even the Turkish Caliphate allowed Jews and Christians protection within their land. The Egyptian president (a Muslim) knows that, and (like his Jordanian counterpart) knows this is war to the knife.

What is our duty? Well, to pray that this cup is taken from us: particularly that the Church in Egypt and Syria has peace, and the same for the church in the Levant and Mesopotamia. That war passes this world by, and that we have peace.

To, as we can, and with wisdom, help those bereaving. This is probably best done by the institutional church.

And finally, to ignore the pretension of the Social Activists of the West, for their concerns about offence mean little when men lose their heads, literally, because they are identified with Christ.