Scientists Praise Pope Francis’ Encyclical on Climate Change, Foresee ‘Unbelievable’ Impact on Over 1 Billion Catholics, Challenge to Skeptics

-
0
Scientists Praise Pope Francis’ Encyclical on Climate Change, Foresee ‘Unbelievable’ Impact on Over 1 Billion Catholics, Challenge to Skeptics

Pope Francis (Photo: Reuters/Alessandro Bianchi)

Christian Post Report – Pope Francis arrives to lead a special audience for Vatican employees at the Paul VI’s hall at the Vatican, Rome, Italy, December 22, 2014.

Scientists are praising Pope Francis’ upcoming encyclical on climate change, a major written work calling on Christians to care for the planet and reverse harmful effects, which is set to be released on Thursday.

“The encyclical is going to go out to over 1 billion Catholics — that’s a way of getting a message across to a segment of society that the scientific community could never do,” said Jeff Kiehl of National Center for Atmospheric Research, according to USA Today. “I mean it’s just unbelievable.”

NASA climatologist Gavin Schmidt added:

“The pope’s encyclical is probably going to have a bigger impact than the Paris negotiations,” he said, referring to a major U.N. climate change conference set for December.

The document will put into written words the pontiff’s numerous calls for people to take care of the planet, which he calls God’s creation, that he has made throughout his papacy.

Francis agreed with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon back in April that tackling climate change is both a “scientific reality” and an urgent world issue.

“The relationship of mankind with nature must not be conducted with greed, manipulation and exploitation, but it must conserve the divine harmony that exists between creatures and Creation within the logic of respect and care, so it can be put to the service of our brothers, also of future generations,” the pope has said.

Francis, who holds a master’s degree in chemistry and a history of environmental concern, has agreed with scientists that people bear a great responsibility for climate change.

“Mostly, in great part, it is man who has slapped nature in the face,” the Roman Catholic Church leader has said.

Father Michael Perry, minister general of the Order of Friars Minor in the U.S., pointed out that the title of the encyclical, “Laudato Si,” is a reference to a hymn by St. Francis of Assisi that emphasizes being in the harmony of God with other creatures and with other human beings.

Perry said, according to Catholic News Service, that the canticle “is not just a flowery song about how we should live with nature. It is challenging us to revise our entire way of living our lives” in accordance with Gospel values, he said. “If someone is starving somewhere in the world, we are responsible.”

He added that the document will highlight the Vatican’s call for the entire church to be in solidarity with the poor, strive for peace, and respect the planet.

Perry suggested that the encyclical is not supposed to “shame” those who disagree with scientists, but is Francis’ way of promoting dialogue and trying to be “the bearer of that white flag,” calling on all of “God’s children” to care for creation.

Source : Christian Post

Greg Laurie Shares Jesus’ Teachings on Israel and the End Times Prophecy: ‘America Needs Israel More Than Israel Needs America’

-
0
Greg Laurie Shares Jesus’ Teachings on Israel and the End Times Prophecy: ‘America Needs Israel More Than Israel Needs America’

GregLaurie Screenshot

Christian Post Report – Pastor Greg Laurie speaking to his congregation about future event

California megachurch pastor Greg Laurie shared with the congregation of his Harvest Church on Sunday what Jesus taught about Israel in the end times, and said that the United States needs Israel more than Israel needs America.

Israel is a tiny little piece of land, and yet we hear so much about the country in news, Laurie said in his message, titled, “What Jesus taught about Israel in the end times.”

“Israel is at the eye of the hurricane of the great events of the end times,” he stated.

Laurie added that God has said that He will bless those who bless Israel and curse those who curse Israel.

“One of the reasons God has blessed the United States is because of our support to Israel. … America needs Israel more than Israel needs America … because we need the blessing of God,” the pastor said.

Israel is under attack from all sides, he emphasized. It is also under pressure, including from the U.S., he went on to say, referring to the recent 50-day conflict between Israel and Gaza. More than 4,500 rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel, and America pressured Israel to stand down, the pastor said, disapprovingly.

What’s common between the enemies of Israel and the enemies of the U.S. is that they are radical Islamists, and their objective is to establish a Caliphate through jihad and rule through Shariah, Laurie added.

He said the Islamic State terror group is targeting Christians in the Middle East and elsewhere.

Both Sunni and Shiite radical Muslim groups want Jerusalem, he said, quoting Zechariah 12:2-3, “I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem. On that day, when all the nations of the Earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves.”

Laurie preached his message mainly from Matthew 24 and 1 Thessalonians 5.

“The Bible is the one book that dares to predict the future … with 100 percent accuracy,” he said, adding that about 30 percent of the Bible is prophecy, and that God wants us to know these prophecies. “The more we know about the next world, the better we’ll live in this one.”

According to Ezekiel 37:11-12, Israel will be re-gathered as a nation, the pastor said. The re-gathering of Israel will be the super-sign of the end times, he explained.

He quoted Matthew 24:32-34, “Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near — at the doors! Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place.”

After the re-gathering of Israel, an attack will follow from the north of Israel — and it could possibly be from Russia or Iran, he said. But God will intervene and frustrate their plans, he added.

The Bible prophecy is not to scare us, but to prepare us, he said, and reminded the congregation that Jesus said, “I will come again.”

He read 1 Thessalonians 5:7-8, which reads: “For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.”

Your reaction to the promise of Christ’s coming is a litmus test of where you stand in your belief, he said.

Source : Christian Post

Are Modern Career Women Longing for Chivalry?

-
0
Are Modern Career Women Longing for Chivalry?

Are Modern Career Women Longing For Chivalry?

Christian Post Report – I don’t know if you’ve ever watched the long-running, and recently departed, television series, “Mad Men.” Frankly, as a Christian, I really can’t recommend it to you.

Set during the 1960s in New York City and depicting the go-go advertising industry on Madison Avenue —hence the title, “Mad Men”— the cleverly written series is full of values and behavior that, shall we say, cross the line. Okay, that’s an understatement: sexism runs rampant through the series and hot-shot male executives chase skirts as much as they do clients in the office pool. But all of this is why I found an article about the show in the New York Post so intriguing.

Writer Heather Robinson says that many single career women in their 30s and 40s in Gotham these days look wistfully at “Mad Men” and the simpler era it depicts, when men dressed up for dates, held the door for women, and actually had to work for their attention.

Read more at http://www.christianpost.com/news/mad-men-and-christian-chivalry-what-women-want-from-men-140116/

Source : Christian Post

The Gungors: That’s an Expensive Sunday School!

-
0
The Gungors: That’s an Expensive Sunday School!

The Gungors: That's An Expensive Sunday School!

Christian Post Report – Popular alternative Christian rock musician Michael Gungor of the musical collective Gungor, along with an eclectic mix of people belonging to a group called The Liturgists, is offering 100 people a $300 chance to join the group in a high level conversation expected to, among other things, discuss the “cultural ghettoes” of the church and secular society.

The event billed “Belong,” is expected to feature a conversation with several members of the creative group including Gungor, who rattled the Orthodox Christian world last year with the revelation that he does not believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible.

Read more at http://www.christianpost.com/news/christian-singer-michael-gungors-liturgists-group-charging-100-people-300-to-question-orthodox-beliefs-of-the-church-140294/

Source : Christian Post

Christian ‘Tied Up Like an Animal,’ Tortured and Forced to Eat Trash for Preaching the Gospel in Eritrean Prison

-
0
Christian ‘Tied Up Like an Animal,’ Tortured and Forced to Eat Trash for Preaching the Gospel in Eritrean Prison

<b>Christian Post Report</b> – An African migrant from Eritrea holds a placard during a protest near the Ministry of Defence in Tel Aviv October 18, 2012.” title=”<b>Christian Post Report</b> – An African migrant from Eritrea holds a placard during a protest near the Ministry of Defence in Tel Aviv October 18, 2012.” name=”jpg” src=”http://images.christianpost.com/full/84330/an-african-migrant-from-eritrea-holds-a-placard-during-a-protest-near-the-ministry-of-defence-in-tel-aviv-october-18-2012.jpg” class=”imgPhoto” width=”550″ height=”450″ /> <small class=(Photo: Reuters/Nir Elias)

Christian Post Report – An African migrant from Eritrea holds a placard during a protest near the Ministry of Defence in Tel Aviv October 18, 2012.

A Christian man has shared his story of how he was imprisoned, tortured, and starved for his faith in an Eritrean prison, shedding light on some of the abuses the U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights has recently accused the government of carrying out.

“They take you outside in the hot sun with nothing to make you suffer and leave you out in the cold at night. … I was praying and God told me, ‘Don’t be afraid. It will pass. Stand in your faith,'” the man, identified as ‘Yohan,’ told International Christian Concern.

The persecution watchdog group added that Yohan had been “tied up like an animal” and forced to eat “trash mixed with dirty rain water,” while bound outside and exposed to torrential rains, a burning desert sun at day and bitter cold nights.

The Christian had been sent to jail in 2003 for preaching the Gospel after he was forcibly conscripted at age 18, which is illegal in Eritrea.

“They don’t allow preaching and they don’t allow religious movements,” Yohan said. “They are afraid always if people get together in groups. … They know if they gather to make fellowship, they think it will turn into a movement to end their power. They don’t allow very large groups of people to gather for any reason.”

There are only three legal Christian denominations in Eritrea, namely Catholic, Lutheran, and Orthodox; all others are banned.

Yohan managed to escape prison and fled to Sudan in 2004, and eventually made his way to the U.S., where he now lives under asylum.

Last week, the U.N. Commission released a 28-page report that found “systematic, widespread and gross human rights violations have been and are being committed in Eritrea,” and said that some of the government’s actions may constitute “crimes against humanity. “

The report accused the Eritrean government of using torture, imprisonment and fear to control the population.

“Torture is either directly ordered by officials or inflicted with their consent and acquiescence. The recurrence, coherence and similarities of the many torture incidents documented are a clear indication of the existence of a deliberate policy to inflict torture in a routine manner during investigations and interrogations, as well as during national service,” the U.N. said.

“Perpetrators of torture enjoy general impunity. The commission concludes that the government is accountable for the widespread torture inflicted on Eritreans throughout the country.”

Journalists have also been routinely targeted by the government, as the watchdog group Reporters Without Borders pointed out.

“The international community will no longer be able to ignore the situation in Eritrea. It is crucial that the mandate of the special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Eritrea is renewed so that she can continue investigating a country that is an information black hole,” the group said.

Source : Christian Post

Os Guinness: Why Balaam’s Ass Is the Patron Saint of Apologetics and Christians Need to Recover the Art of Persuasion (CP Interview 1/2)

-
0
Os Guinness: Why Balaam’s Ass Is the Patron Saint of Apologetics and Christians Need to Recover the Art of Persuasion (CP Interview 1/2)
  • Os Guinness
    (Photo: InterVarsity Press)
    Book cover for Fool’s Talk: Recovering the Art of Christian Persuasion by Os Guinness (2015).

Christians have lost the art of persuasion and they need to get it back, Christian author Os Guinness argues in his new book, Fool’s Talk: Recovering the Art of Christian Persuasion.

Balaam’s ass is the patron saint of apologetics, Guinness likes to say, because the story from Numbers 22 illustrates that the key to being a good apologist is obedience to God.

In the story, Balaam is a prophet being disobedient to God. Several times, his donkey tries to turn him around, to put him on the correct path, but he is still resistant. Balaam only corrected himself when, in verse 28, “the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey,” and the donkey talked to him.

“The Lord used a dumb donkey to speak when the prophet was resistant to it. You can see there something that’s very humble, somewhat ridiculous, and the Lord is able to use him,” Guinness said in an April 24 interview with The Christian Post. “Many of us don’t have the answers to all the questions, but are we prepared to be used by the Lord? That is the key.”

Guinness is a popular Christian speaker who has authored or edited over 30 books. His most recent books were A Free People’s Suicide, The Global Public Square and Rennaissance.

Guinness waited 40 years to write Fool’s Talk, he explains in Chapter Two, because he made a promise to God that he would always do apologetics more than write about apologetics.

Christians have lost the art of persuasion, Guinness argues, by separating apologetics from evangelism. Apologetics has become about winning arguments when it should be about winning hearts, minds and people.

In this part one of his CP interview, Guinness says that Christians have been too formulaic in their evangelism. They rely on techniques that assume every non-Christian is spiritually in the same place. Christians need to first love and listen to people to understand where they are at. Francis Schaeffer modeled this approach well, he added.

In part two of the interview, Guinness tells a story about a time that pastor Rick Warren, through listening and loving, helped lead a gay activist to Christ. He also talks about another book he is working on that argues what the Church needs most right now is courage — “trusting to live the Gospel whatever the cost, whatever the consequences.”

Fool’s Talk will be available on July 5 and can be pre-ordered now.

Here is the first transcript, lightly edited, of CP’s interview with Os Guinness:

CP: What’s the main thing you hope to accomplish with this book?

  • Os Guinness
    (Photo: InterVarsity Press)
    Os Guinness has been a guest scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Studies and the Brooking’s Institution, and is the author of over 25 books.

Guinness: I’d love to help restore the much needed art of Christian persuasion. Many years ago I was at a dinner with a founder of MTV and he said, you know most pro-life supporters, or most Christians, are very good at most of the P-words except the one they most need — preaching, pronouncements, protests, picketing — he mentioned a whole string of them. But they’re not so good at the one they really need — persuasion.

In other words, we need to know how to speak to people who are not open, not interested and not needy. Most of our evangelistic methods, particularly in America, assume that people are open, interested and needy, when most people today simply aren’t. So that’s the objective of the book, to open up the art of persuasion and to suggest the ways people can learn how to do it.

CP: You say that Christians are losing the art of persuasion. Some Christian groups do not put much emphasis on evangelism to begin with. But what about Christian circles that place heavy emphasis on evangelism already; why are they failing in the art of persuasion?

Guinness: Well you’re right that too many people have gone whole hog into social justice and abandoned evangelism, and that’s tragic. We can never be faithful to Jesus and abandon evangelism.

But of people who do value evangelism, which is sadly fewer than the old days, many are using methods that are formulae and recipes, or 1-2-3-4 methods of doing things. Some of them are good. Think of the incredible fruitfulness of Bill Bright’s Four Spiritual Laws. But they’re simply not persuasive in the sense that they assume God immediately — “God has a wonderful plan for your life.” But what about people who don’t believe in God, or who at the very mention of the word “God” react like a red rag to a bull?

The fact is that Jesus never spoke to two people in the same way, and nor should we. In other words, good evangelism assumes that we talk to people, loving them enough that we listen to them, and then we know where they are. Our Lord knew immediately where people are, we don’t. So we have to listen, discern and pray, and then speak. But every communication should be tailored to the person you’re speaking to.

View article on single page
Next Page
Pages: 123
Contact: [email protected], @NappNazworth (Twitter)

Source : Christian Post

Caitlyn Jenner’s Gender ‘Choice,’ NAACP Leader Rachel Dolezal’s Black Ethnicity Claim Show ‘Longing to Belong,’ Says Christian Blogger

-
0
Caitlyn Jenner’s Gender ‘Choice,’ NAACP Leader Rachel Dolezal’s Black Ethnicity Claim Show ‘Longing to Belong,’ Says Christian Blogger

Rachel Dolezal (Photos from Left: Facebook/Spokane NAACP and Dolezal family photo)

Christian Post Report – Rachel Dolezal, president of the Spokane chapter of the NAACP, is pictured here with New Hope Baptist Church Assistant Pastor James Watkins (L), and Senior Pastor Happy Watkins (R). Dolezal, who is white and president of the Spokane chapter of the NAACP, is accused of misrepresenting her race by portraying herself as black in an application to serve on the Citizen Police Ombudsman Commission, which is a volunteer commission.

A DesiringGod blogger notes in a blog post how America has accepted Caitlyn Jenner’s acquired gender while rejecting the black ethnicity claim of Rachel Dolezal, the leader of the Spokane chapter of NAACP, who was born white. They long to belong, she says, and the Gospel offers answers to their struggles.

“We are told, on the one hand, that we must tolerate Jenner’s choice to live as a woman, and, on the other, that we cannot tolerate Rachel Dolezal’s decision to live as a black American,” writes Jasmine Holmes, a fifth grade teacher at a classical/university model school in Minneapolis, on the website of the desiringBlog ministry.

Dolezal, a prominent civil rights leader in Washington who identified herself as black in an application to serve on the Citizen Police Ombudsman Commission, a volunteer position, is at the center of a Spokane city ethics probe after her estranged parents outed her as being white.

However, Dolezal, who is also a part-time Africana studies professor at Eastern Washington University, maintains she still considers herself to be black.

“Biology doesn’t matter when you’re born a man yet know you’re a woman, but it does matter when you’re born white but feel you should be black?” Holmes asks.

Former track and field Olympian athlete and television star, Jenner – formerly known as Bruce Jenner – recently revealed that “I’m a woman,” though not biologically.

“What makes a black American?” Holmes goes on to ask, pointing out that it’s neither skin tone and nor merely our heritage. “I have relatives that look a lot like Dolezal… My mother’s great grandfather on one side was full-blooded Cherokee, and the one on the other was full-blooded Choctaw,” she writes.

“Is it our shared experience,” she further asks. “This last facet is seen as one of the most sacred aspects of being black in America. Dolezal did not just put her hair in box braids and keep her skin tan; she has taken on the struggle of African Americans as her own. Some have said that she, as a white woman, has used her privilege to make a decision that most black Americans are not able to make: She has chosen to be black.”

We can turn to the Gospel to find the answer, she suggests, explaining, “Though gender and sexuality have become fluid concepts, we are still working hard to define the boundaries of ethnic constructs, even as the lines of ethnic delineation are muddled by the diversity of our colorful heritage. We long for identity – we long to belong.”

The Gospel helps us identify the root of our dissatisfaction with our place in the world, which is “the sin that separates us from our Father.” It also offers the cure for that “bitter root,” she adds, referring to 1 Corinthians 15:57, which says, “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

“We were created in God’s image, for his glory (Genesis 1:26). That image includes male and female, as well as the beautiful display of diversity that we see in all four corners of the world,” Holmes writes.

Neither Jenner nor Dolezal was born into the body that they would have preferred, she says, adding that by changing their present status, “they are trying to change a backstory that they never wrote in the first place.”

“They are grasping to change the facts on a scantron and avoiding the true test,” she states.

It is important to recognize that “a master craftsman has chosen both our ethnicities and our genders for his glory,” she adds. “To try to live outside of those beautiful truths is to question our Creator, and to run from the purpose that he has given to every aspect of who we are — and the true joy that only he offers.”

Source : Christian Post

Saddleback Pastor on How to Have a Marriage Last a Lifetime

-
0
Saddleback Pastor on How to Have a Marriage Last a Lifetime

marriage (Courtesy of Candida.Performa/Flickr Creative Commons)

Christian Post Report – The photo is titled “It’s all about love” and was cropped from its original size.

What does it take for love in marriage to last a lifetime? As California’s Saddleback Church held a “Marriage Renewal Weekend” during the worship service on Sunday, Pastor Tom Holladay answered this question, sharing four qualifications for enduring love.

1 Peter 1:22 says, “You must keep on loving with all your heart,” Pastor Holladay told the congregation.

Four decisions are needed for that, he said. And those who are single should look out for these decisions or indicators when they look for a life partner, he added.

One, listen with all your heart, he shared. Open your ears to listen to your spouse so you know what she or he is going through in life, he said.

The pastor quoted James 1:19, “Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.”

We need to actively find ways to listen; it won’t happen by itself, Holladay said, encouraging spouses to have a “built-in time for listening” to each other.

But it isn’t as easy as it sounds, he acknowledged. Men and women are wired differently, and they’ll have their own ways of saying what they want to say. “Listening is hearing the other person the way they want to say,” he underlined.

TomHoladay Screenshot

Pastor Tom Holladay preaching on marriage at Saddleback Church

The second decision is that we forgive with all your heart, Pastor Holladay said.

Acceptance and forgiveness are two different things, he cautioned. If someone is not perfect and is different, we need to accept them as they are, and not “forgive,” he explained.

Acceptance is, of course, needed, he said, quoting Romans 15:7, “Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.”

Married life is a challenge; it’s not easy, he added. In marriage, you’re living together for life, and one of the challenges is acceptance. “And even greater challenge is forgiveness,” he said.

Forgiveness is needed when someone wrongs or hurts you, he explained, quoting, Ephesians 4:32, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”

“In marriage, one sinner is marrying another sinner. Of course, some of those sins are going to hurt each other in our lives together… Marriage is a union of two great forgivers,” he added.

View article on single page
Next Page
Pages: 12

Source : Christian Post

Home!

-
0
Home!

Christian Post Report – “We are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives.”
— Philippians 3:20

  • Greg Laurie
    (Photo: rever Hoehne for Harvest Ministries)
    Greg Laurie, senior pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, California and Harvest Orange County in Irvine, California, shares the Gospel with a sold-out crowd of 19,000 for Harvest America at the American Airlines Center and Victory Park in Dallas, Texas, Oct. 5, 2014.

My granddaughter Allie is a little homebody.

She will come to visit Cathe and me, and will be so excited (we have lots of toys and fun things for the grandkids to do), but without warning, Allie will just say “home” and walk out the door!

Have you ever felt that way? Like everything this world offers just leaves you cold? We each have a longing deep inside of us for “home.” This world is not our home, but it is our location at present. One day, we will truly go home.

The Bible says of our lives on earth, “We are here for only a moment, visitors and strangers in the land as our ancestors were before us. Our days on earth are like a passing shadow, gone so soon without a trace” (1 Chronicles 29:15 NLT).

When you become a Christian, you become a citizen of heaven, your real home. Philippians 3:20 says, “But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for Him to return as our Savior” (NLT).

We long for something that this earth can never deliver on. That’s why we will always be a bit “out of tune” with this world and all it celebrates—because we, as followers of Jesus, know there is something more. Much more.

Heaven should draw us, engage us, pull us in its direction. We should long for it. As Augustine wrote, “You have formed us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in You.”

Thus, we see this world for what it is: empty, temporal, and passing.

E. M. Bounds said, “Heaven ought to draw and engage us. Heaven ought to so fill our hearts and hands, our conversations, our character, and our features, that all would see that we are foreigners, strangers to this world. The very atmosphere of this world should be chilling to us and noxious, its suns eclipsed and its companionship dull and insipid. Heaven is our native land and home to us. And death to us is not the dying hour, but the birth hour!”

Copyright © 2015 by Harvest Ministries. All rights reserved.

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Bible text from the New King James Version is not to be reproduced in copies or otherwise by any means except as permitted in writing by Thomas Nelson, Inc., Attn: Bible Rights and Permissions, P.O. Box 141000, Nashville, TN 37214-1000

Used with Permission

Source : Christian Post

ISIS Releases Anniversary Documentary Year After Capture of Mosul; Says Group ‘Fulfilled Sharia’ by Taking Money From Rich to Give to Poor

-
0
ISIS Releases Anniversary Documentary Year After Capture of Mosul; Says Group ‘Fulfilled Sharia’ by Taking Money From Rich to Give to Poor

ISIS (Photo: Reuters)

Christian Post Report – Militant Islamist fighters take part in a military parade along the streets of Syria’s northern Raqqa province, June 30, 2014. The fighters held the parade to celebrate their declaration of an Islamic “caliphate” after the group captured territory in neighbouring Iraq, a monitoring service said. The Islamic State, an al-Qaeda offshoot previously known as Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, posted pictures online on Sunday of people waving black flags from cars and holding guns in the air, the SITE monitoring service said.

On the first anniversary of the Islamic State’s capture of Iraq’s second largest city, Mosul, the terrorist group released a 29-minute propaganda documentary showing never-before-seen footage of the group’s takeover and also explained how the group established bureaucratic governmental services to serve the city’s residents.

According to AFP, the propaganda film shows footage of ISIS forces strolling into the city without being contested by U.S.-trained Iraqi security forces, who are shown fleeing the city. The video also shows ISIS fighters freeing prisoners and being welcomed into the city by its residents.

“It was unthinkable that the advance would be so much greater than was planned,” the video’s narrator stated, according to a SITE Intelligence Group translation. “

As it was previously reported that ISIS rise in Iraq was masterminded and blueprinted by one of Saddam Hussein’s former intelligence officers, the narrator further detailed ISIS’ military preparations for the advance on Mosul, proving how organized ISIS’ siege on the town that once had 2 million residents was.

“The operation began with cutting the supply lines of the members of the Safavid army,” the narrator said. “Three convoys of military vehicles entered the outskirts of the city coming from the Jazeera area.”

The documentary added that ISIS’ strategy was to “control neighborhoods on the right side of Mosul to be a starting point for the mujahideen [jihadis] to conquer the remainder of the city.”

ISIS’ advance on Mosul began on June 9 of last year and the city was under ISIS’ control by the very next day. Throughout last Summer, ISIS conquered swaths of territory in the Nineveh Plains and Sinjar regions in northern Iraq and murdered thousands of religious minority men and sexually enslaved thousands of religious minority women.

Today, ISIS controls approximately one-third of Iraq, including the city of Ramadi, the capital of the Anbar province, and portions of Syria.

The group has established a reign of sovereignty to enforce its strict brand of sharia law. It established a court system to dole out criminal punishments, which includes public executions for those accused of adultery, homosexuality or espionage. The group’s brand of sharia is so strange that it also reportedly executed 13 Mosul teens for watching a World Cup soccer match in January.

“The Islamic Court was opened and stabilized security among the people and applied prescribed punishment,” the narrator explained. “It cut off the hands of thieves, stoned to death the adulterers, whipped the drinker of alcohol, and struck with the sword the heads of sorcerers.”

Although ISIS’ sharia law leads to injustice and the killing of harmless human beings, the documentary highlighted a socialistic aspect of sharia, as ISIS has established a tax on the rich that goes directly to the poor residents, Foreign Policy reports.

“The Islamic State fulfilled its sharia duty by collecting money from rich Muslims and giving it to the poor, and it established offices for that purpose,” the narrator explained.

The video adds that ISIS has also established bureaucratic departments in Mosul to handle domestic needs, such as a education and agriculture.

“The Islamic State took care of the sharia interests and the security of the people, and it also took care of their worldly interests and the necessary services,” the narrator asserted. “Through that, it established the Office of Health and Education, and also the Office of Agriculture, and the Office of Natural Resources.”

Due to the rise of ISIS in Iraq, hundreds of thousands of Christian and Yazidi refugees, who were lucky enough to escape ISIS, have fled from their homes and are now living in refugee camps, containers, unused buildings and other makeshift housing accommodations in the Kurdish-protected north.

Source : Christian Post

1...3,3793,3803,381...3,893Page 3,380 of 3,893