ICC Note: Patriarch Ignatius Aphrem II of the Syriac Orthodox Church warns that Christianity is not only disappearing from Iraq but also countries like Syria, Turkey and Lebanon. Christianity was born in this land and now we are seeing it completely disappear. With 8 out of 10 Christians leaving Iraq in the last ten years, the magnitude of the loss is great. While this news is not anything new it is also not over. The world first became concerned with Christians in the Middle East in 2014 with the rise of ISIS, yet nothing has been attempted to curb their efforts.

09/02/2016 Iraq (WND): A Patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox Church has issued a dire warning that Christianity is in danger of disappearing across entire countries in the Middle East, the very land of its birth.

And the onslaught of ISIS has prompted an American Bible teacher, Joel Richardson, to observe that “we have begun to see the prophecy of Daniel fulfilled in our midst.”

There have been repeated warnings about the decline of Christianity in Iraq under the onslaught of the Islamic State, also called ISIS. Eight in 10 Christians have left Iraq since the 2003 fall of Saddam Hussein, who had protected the 1.5 million Christians who lived there under his rule.

But the Patriarch of the Syriac Orthodox Church, Ignatius Aphrem II, has now told the Assyrian International News Agency that Christianity is also at risk of disappearing in Syria and Lebanon.

The massive decline of the Christian population in Turkey from 3.5 million to 150,000 in the last 100 years alone could be repeated in Syria and Lebanon, he told the news agency.

“I am worried that Christianity is on the way out both in Syria and Iraq as well as in Lebanon,” he said.

Already, in Syria, half of the Christians are either displaced or have fled abroad. Many are also fleeing Lebanon.

The Associated Press reported Tuesday that thousands of bodies were found in 72 mass graves as images reveal the shocking scale of ISIS’ industrial-scale murder of Christian and Yazidi minorities. Satellite photos show the spot where more than 600 male prisoners were lined up and shot in northern Iraq. Aerial photos also offer the clearest look yet at massacre sites such as the one containing 600 male bodies at Badoush Prison in Mosul, a city with a once-large Christian population in northern Iraq.

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