Today we’re going a little off the beaten path to a social studies lesson related to thinking Biblically.

The Wall Street Journal reported (Friday, April 14th 215, “Mideast’s Christians Trapped by Extremists”) that the Christian population of Lebanon has been decreasing since 1900. Where at that time Christians made up 80 percent of the population that number has steadily dropped and as of 2010 that number is only a tick above 34 percent. My conjecture is that this drop in the Christian population has directly led to the destabilization of the country.

Set the way-back machine to the second Iraq war. While most of the world believes the war was either about weapons of mass destruction or a personal vendetta regarding the Bush family’s failures in the first gulf war, the truth is more complicated. It was well known Hussein had weapons of mass destruction as he had used them against Kurdish populations in the northern Iraq; hundreds of thousands were killed by the government. That on its own doesn’t warrant an invasion, after all the same kinds of things are happening in other countries around the world, primarily in Africa (albeit without the use of WMDs).

One of the (many) reasons for the Iraq invasion was the country’s percentage of Christians. At 20 percent, higher than any other Muslim country in the region, it was believed that Iraq stood the best chance of becoming a democracy. A democracy that was friendly to the US in the region would go a long way to establishing peace. That dream ended the moment the US left the country and allowed ISIS to enter and attempt to wipe out the Christian population.

Today in Lebanon Christians stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Kurdish military in an attempt to deflect ISIS advances into Lebanon. They do so knowing that, should they succeed, the same Kurds that they fight with today will very likely turn on them.

We are praying each day for the toppling of the Syrian regime and for its figures to be put on trial for all their crimes, especially the Al-Qaa massacre. The regime has been saved because our focus now is on the imminent danger – ISIS. – Bashir Matar, head of the Lebanese Forces Party, who lost his father and three other family members in the 1978 attacks.

ISIS continues to fight their battle for Islam on multiple fronts. In Iraq, Mr. Bello (head of a political coalition seeking to establish a self-rule area in northern Iraq for Christians and other minorities, states: “It’s like having your hand stuck under a rock. Today the enemy is ISIS, but I know Kurds still covet our areas.”

It’s the same story throughout the Middle East. The physical enemy today may be ISIS, but the ideological enemy is Islam, and ultimately the figure behind the mass extermination of Christians and other minorities is the devil himself. Despite what the secularists in our own country proclaim, Christianity is the stabilizing philosophy of the world’s greatest republics and mankind’s best hope for moral rule. While imperfect and subject to man’s sinful nature, it remains God’s plan for justice and peace in the world. As such, we ought to pray for our brothers and sisters abroad, for God’s protection and endurance, and against the enemies of God and his people both near and far. May we never forget what the headlines fail to report, that our struggle is less against flesh and blood and against the empty philosophies of this world and the powers of darkness.