These are the subtitled words shown in the 5 minute ISIS video right as they are showing the beheading of 21 Coptic Christians on the shore in Libya. At the most gruesome point of the explicit video, as men kneeling on the backs of their victims are literally sawing through their necks with knives, those are the words on the screen. Coincidence? This is a thoroughly edited video—it is no coincidence.
Western media overlooks these words. Christians cannot. Theology matters. It matters to worldview as well. And when it comes to ISIS militants, it is vital. That’s one of the reasons secular Westerners can’t seem to predict or anticipate their actions—a secular mindset is not up to the task.
I, like many of you reading this brief article, could not suppress the feelings of anger that arose in my heart as I saw these images. Yes, I watched the whole thing. Comes with my job. There is surely a part of me that would love to see a Hellfire missile come in at the end and take the whole bunch out. Justice, at least, would be served. But then I am reminded to think as a Christian. And when I do, I realize that 1) if justice were to be done, a Hellfire missile would have to take me out, too—at least prior to my bowing the knee to Christ, and 2) that group of militants is just one large band of men named Saul, of Tarsus. Blind zealots engaging in mindless evil out of ignorance and deception. Oh sure, I know some of them are doing it just because they love murder and bloodshed and evil. But some of them do it because they really believe Muhammad was a prophet and that Muhammad showed them the way the day he and his cohorts did exactly what they did on that beach…not to 21 Christians but to between 400 and 900 Jews of the Banu Qurayza tribe. (Click here for a more in-depth discussion of this event in Muhammad’s life).
