{"id":50547,"date":"2015-12-27T17:13:18","date_gmt":"2015-12-28T00:13:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=50547"},"modified":"2015-12-27T17:15:59","modified_gmt":"2015-12-28T00:15:59","slug":"massacre-of-the-innocents-isil-are-todays-king-herods-say-archbishops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2015\/12\/27\/massacre-of-the-innocents-isil-are-todays-king-herods-say-archbishops\/","title":{"rendered":"Massacre of the innocents: Isil are today\u2019s King Herods say Archbishops"},"content":{"rendered":"

By John Bingham<\/a>, Religious Affairs Editor Courtesy The Telegraph
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Jihadists driven by vision of \u2018apocalypse\u2019 warns Welby in stark Christmas message<\/p>\n

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Britain\u2019s two most senior clerics have drawn on the darker side of the nativity story in hard-hitting Christmas sermons warning of the possible elimination\u201d of Christianity from the region of its birth.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby, and Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, both draw comparisons between the Biblical account of the mass murder of children around Bethlehem on the orders of King Herod and the 21st Century Jihadist threat.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In his Christmas morning sermon at Canterbury Cathedral, Archbishop Welby is expected to warn that that the so-called Islamic State group \u2013 also known as Isil, Isis or Daesh \u2013 wants to bring apocalypse\u201d to the Middle East and beyond, driven by an obsessive belief that they are living in the last days\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Meanwhile Cardinal Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster, also used his Christmas address to speak of the surge in murder driven by faith, something he condemned as abhorrent\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"\"Islamic State fighter on the march in Raqqa<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In a homily during Christmas midnight mass at Westminster Cathedral he also alluded to Herod\u2019s massacre of the innocents and described Christians being murdered by Islamist extremists as martyrs.<\/p>\n

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“Today\u2019s Herods, Isis and the like around the world in so many faiths, propose false apocalypses.”<\/div>\n
Archbishop Justin Welby<\/div>\n