Southern Baptist leaders urge prayers for ISIS' defeat and salvation; hefty military response to ISIS

Moore: Pray for ISIS' defeat, salvation

Prayers for both the defeat of and the salvation of Islamic State terrorists are not contradictory, Southern Baptists' lead ethicist says.

Christians should "pray for the Gospel to go forward, and that there might be a new Saul of Tarsus turned away from murdering to Gospel witness," wrote Russell Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, in a Wednesday (Feb. 18) blog post. "At the same time, we ought to pray, with the martyrs in heaven, for justice against those who do such wickedness."

Prayers for both the defeat of such enemies and their conversion to Christ "are not contradictory prayers because salvation doesn't mean turning an eye away from justice," he said. "We can pray for Gospel rootedness in the Middle East, and we can pray to light up their world like the Fourth of July, at the same time." Keep reading

Jeffress: ISIS requires heavy U.S. response

The United States must do "whatever is necessary -- including boots on the ground -- to eradicate this cancer of ISIS and radical Islam before it destroys us," Southern Baptist pastor Robert Jeffress said on "The O'Reilly Factor" Feb. 17.

Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, contended on the Fox News program hosted by Bill O'Reilly that President Obama is "continually lecturing us that we're not in a religious war against Islam."

"While that's true, it's time for this president to get off his high horse and acknowledge that radical Islam is in a religious war against us," Jeffress said.

Until Americans understand they're targets in a war, they won't grasp the dangers ahead, he warned.

"These Islamists will not rest until they've exterminated every Jew and every Christian from the face of the earth, and if you think that is hyperbole, just listen to what they said on that Libyan beach after they butchered those 21 Christians," Jeffress said. Keep reading

ISIS is prosecuting a religious war against Muslims, as well as Christians and Jews. It would like the Muslim world to see any response to its brutal campaign to establish a so-called global caliphate as a war on Islam but the truth is that it itself is waging war on Islam. It shows zero tolerance for Muslims who do not subscribe to its particular brand of Islam.