<div dir="ltr">ugyanaz a levél, mint az előbb:<br><div>Imádkozzunk ÉRTÜK!!<br></div>azonban többek között a következő internetes bejegyzést találtam:<span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:rgb(0,112,192)" lang="HU"></span><br>
<h1>Handling the urgent international prayer request</h1>
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<a href="http://matthiasmedia.com/briefing/authors/sandy-grant/" title="View all posts by Sandy Grant" rel="author" target="_blank">Sandy Grant</a>
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26 August, 2014 </div>
<p>In the last 24 hours, I’ve received notification via several church
members regarding an “URGENT PRAYER REQUEST” to do with systematic
beheading of children in Iraq.</p>
<p>How does a pastor handle such things?</p>
<p>To be honest I am a little conflicted.</p>
<p>Those who know me personally will know I am all in favour of prayer for the persecuted saints in Iraq and elsewhere.</p>
<p>I just organised and hosted an interdenominational prayer meeting for Iraq last Saturday. Inspired by <a href="https://www.opendoors.org.au/comingevents/dayofprayerforiraq" target="_blank">Open Doors Australia</a>,
and in fellowship with about 45 other venues across Australia, about
100 Christians from Anglican, Baptist, independent Evangelical,
Pentecostal, Presbyterian, and Reformed Churches united at St Michael’s
Cathedral, Wollongong, to Pray for Iraq. <a href="http://i1.wp.com/matthiasmedia.com/briefing/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/PrayForIraqWollongongB2014-08-23.jpg" target="_blank"><img class="" src="http://i1.wp.com/matthiasmedia.com/briefing/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/PrayForIraqWollongongB2014-08-23.jpg?resize=584%2C328" alt="PrayForIraqWollongongB2014-08-23" height="283" width="504"></a></p>
<div style="color:rgb(0,0,0)">It was moving to hear from an Iraqi sister
in Christ, originally from Mosul, now a post-grad student at the
University of Wollongong, share about the impact of persecution on her
immediate family. Her brother and sister had lost homes and jobs and
were displaced and dismayed. She has already shared a photo from our
meeting with her family members in the north of Iraq to let them know
Wollongong Christians have not forgotten them.</div>
<div style="color:rgb(0,0,0)">She especially asked us to pray for the
children of that land to be preserved from further harm, and also to
uphold those for whom these traumatic events cause them to doubt their
faith in God.
<p>In <a href="http://biblia.com/bible/esv/2%20Corinthians%201.9-11" target="_blank">2 Corinthians 1:9-11</a>,
Paul and Timothy write that those hundreds of miles away can help those
like them “in deadly peril”. How? Answer: “by your prayers”!</p></div>
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So I believe in international prayer requests!
<p>I have also been publicly speaking and sharing on social media about
persecution of Iraqi Christians by ISIS for well over a month, since at
least Sunday 14th July, when our parish’s sermon series on Revelation
began and I mentioned the threats to Christians in Mosul that day.</p></div>
<p>However I am also a little anxious that we check our sources
carefully, and be cautious about passing on some of the most dramatic
reports.</p>
<p>Even back on July 14, when I passed on reports of church buildings
being burned in Mosul, it turned out that the pictures supplied in web
stories of the ISIS invasion of Mosul, were <strong><em>not of burnt churches in Mosul at all</em></strong>,
but of churches in Syria and Egypt that had been burned months and even
years earlier, albeit, it appears by Islamic extremists in those
places.</p>
<p>Still terrible, but it’s not honest reporting to use pictures from
other events and to claim they showed churches were burning in Mosul.</p>
<p>This brings me to the “URGENT PRAYER REQUEST” forwarded to me, by my prayerful and well-meaning parishioners…</p>
<blockquote><p><strong>Date: 24 August 2014 </strong><br>
Subject: <strong>Urgent Prayers needed: Latest ISIS atrocities against Christians </strong></p>
<p>Urgent Prayer Request / Please Pray and FAST – Such evil needs Fasting as well as Prayers</p>
<p>URGENT PRAYER REQUEST!!!!</p>
<p>Please Pray. ..Fast</p>
<p>BREAKING URGENT NEWS! The email below was sent to Benny Mostert from Jericho Walls:</p>
<p>Dear Friends,</p>
<p>Just a few minutes ago I received the following text message on my
phone from Sean Malone who leads Crisis Relief International (CRI). We
then spoke briefly on the phone and I assured him that we would share
this urgent prayer need with all of our contacts.</p>
<p>“We lost the city of Queragosh (Qaraqosh). It fell to ISIS and they
are beheading children systematically. This is the city we have been
smuggling food to. ISIS has pushed back Peshmerga (Kurdish forces) and
is within 10 minutes of where our CRI team is working. Thousands more
fled into the city of Erbil last night. The UN evacuated it’s staff in
Erbil. Our team is unmoved and will stay. Prayer cover needed!”</p></blockquote>
<p>What made me wonder about this email was talk of Qaraqosh falling, and that children are being systematically beheaded.</p>
<p>You see, I’d heard these claims at least a fortnight earlier.</p>
<p>In fact, I know that the fall of Iraq’s largest Christian town,
Qaraqosh – terrible and sad event - was reported in mainline media <strong><em>almost three weeks ago</em></strong>, (for example, <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/isis-takes-iraqs-largest-christian-town-of-qaraqosh-9653789.html" target="_blank">in <em>The Independent</em> (UK) on 7th August</a>). It’s not something that is just happening now.</p>
<p>And when I googled “Benny Mostert Sean Malone Qaraqosh” I discovered
this “urgent prayer request” has been circulating on the internet <em><strong>since at least August 9th.</strong></em>
I saw other examples on 12th and 19th August. Some (not all) people
even passed it on on those later dates, seeming to imply it was as if
they had perhaps just received the text message personally and directly a
few minutes earlier. Not good.</p>
<p>In addition, I shared a <a href="http://thegospelcoalition.org/article/factchecker-is-isis-beheading-children-in-iraq" target="_blank">“Fact Checker” article published on August 12 from Joe Carter</a> at the Gospel Coalition, urging caution on the claims of “systematic beheading of children”.</p>
<p>Carter does not deny atrocities have occurred, even impacting
children. But he notes that most of the information is second hand, and
that evidence supplied has been very patchy, largely from a single
source located in America (but re-quoted numerous times). In some cases,
there are demonstrable inaccuracies.</p>
<p>Even the very disturbing report circulating from Canon Andrew White
(which I have viewed on Youtube) mentions just one specific atrocity
against a child, which it appears Canon White did not witness, but was
told about. He says other terrible things are happening, which he does
not specify (at least in the video I watched).</p>
<p>Again, take the email above, from others, quoting Mostert, quoting
Sean Malone. You’ll note, Malone is reported as saying ISIS troops have
come “within 10 minutes of where our CRI team is working”. In other
words, it seems logical that his reports of systematic beheadings of
children cannot come directly from his Crisis Relief International
colleagues, since they are not in the territory controlled by ISIS. The
reports must be at least third hand.</p>
<p>Again, as Joe Carter says, there have been terrible atrocities
occurring. No doubt there may even be worse ones than we have accurate,
first hand and substantiated information about.</p>
<p>You might want to nuance Carter on this or that detail himself. However I find Carter’s conclusion important…</p>
<blockquote><p>As Christians, we have a duty to champion the truth. We
should avoid spreading unsubstantiated claims and inflaming dread and
panic by playing on people’s natural disgust of harm to children. ISIS
is an organization that has committed heinous acts of violence and
violated the human rights of many of our fellow believers. But we must
not partake in the spreading of lies, even if it is against our enemies.</p></blockquote>
<p>Again, <a href="http://thegospelcoalition.org/article/factchecker-is-isis-beheading-children-in-iraq" target="_blank">read the whole article</a>, and note the C.S. Lewis quote at the end in his last update.</p>
<p>We ought to be often in prayer for persecuted Christians, and also
for all down-trodden and abused people, whether or not we know the
details.</p>
<p>But we should also be cautious about passing on highly dramatic
reports unless we have taken some care to see if they can be verified or
corroborated independently.</p>
<p>We should not need extra drama to persuade us to pray!</p><br></div>