While in America Christians are still deciding whether it is “safe” to gather in our churches, Afghan Christians are apparently fleeing to the mountains in a desperate attempt to escape the Taliban. They are now going door to door trying to kill believers in Christ.
An underground church that is in partnership with Frontier Alliance International (FAI) has given a report that the Taliban are targeting Christians to put them to death. FAI said this in a statement: “The Taliban has a hit list of known Christians they are targeting to pursue and kill. The US Embassy is defunct and there is no longer a safe place for believers to take refuge. All borders to neighboring countries are closed and all flights to and from have been halted, with the exception of private planes. People are fleeing into the mountains looking for asylum. They are fully reliant on God, who is the only One who can and will protect them.”
FAI described the Taliban as going door-to-door and taking women and children. They said that people have been instructed to mark their house with an “X” if they have a girl over 12 years old so that the Taliban can take them. If the Taliban finds a young girl and her house was not marked, they will execute the whole family. And if a married woman 25 years or older has been found, the Taliban will immediately kill her husband and have their way with her. They will eventually sell her as a sex slave.
FAI also stated this horrific situation: “Husbands and fathers have given their wives and daughters guns and told them that when the Taliban come, they can choose to kill them or kill themselves—it is their choice.”
Apparently, the Taliban are also searching through people’s phones to look for any apps that would give them away as Christians.
Dr. Rex Rogers, the president of the Christian non-profit SAT-7 North America, reported to Religion News Service, “We’re hearing from reliable sources that the Taliban demand people’s phones, and if they find a downloaded Bible on your device, they will kill you immediately.”
“It’s incredibly dangerous right now for Afghans to have anything Christian on their phones. The Taliban have spies and informants everywhere,” he also added.
“Because it’s so dangerous to seek the company of other Christians, many Afghan believers are totally alone, with not even one other Christian with whom to talk,” Rogers said. According to a video released by FAI, a member of the underground church in Afghanistan wept as they described their horrific situation.
“We are unable to control our emotions because we’ve worked so hard for 20 years. All of our work over the past 20 years has been lost overnight. Only God understands how much pain we have and how broken our hearts are. We are not crying out of fear, but because our hearts ache for our beautiful country. It has now been destroyed by this savage and extremist group,” the man whose face was blurred for safety said.
He went on to charge that the “whole world has abandoned us,” but promised not to leave the field of ministry and to continue God’s work.
Many pastors and leaders of faith-based refugee resettlement organizations in the U.S. have challenged President Biden for his botched exit from Afghanistan.
According to The Christian Post, Harvest Christian Fellowship Pastor Greg Laurie said, “There is no question this whole withdrawal has been grossly mishandled, and for a rare moment in time people on both sides of the political aisle are in agreement on this.”
Pastors across the country and around the world are calling their people to pray for the Christian brothers and sisters in Afghanistan. There is a warning of increased attacks on Christians across the country.
