The "fear" of the "if" is based on not obeying Acts 1:8.
IOW, if you're disobedient, you have reason to fear.
If we are obedient to His commands, then we have no reason to fear.
Disobedient to what?What part of disobedience to Acts 1:8? Those aren't commands from what I'm reading. He's telling them what they WILL be. If I remember my Greek correctly, the way shall is used makes it a future middle indicative voice verb meaning it WILL occur. So it's not a command. It's a statement of fact the way it's used here. So there can be no IF of something that Jesus has stated to be certain future fact.
I read the author as saying in light of Acts 1:8, we should look at the situation as "the uttermost part of the world" coming to us.
Since, Evangelical Christianity can not easily penetrate these refugees' home countries.
While his reasoning may not match yours, he is at least a lot more welcoming than some here.
Since they are here we should witness to them. However, we should no more welcome them into the country that we should welcome a murderer in our home who is standing outside our front door with a knife.
You gonna feed them?how about clothe them? you gonna put a roof over their heads or leave them in the elements?
Your "witness" will fall on deaf ears if you aren't helping to meet folk's most basic needs.
30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denariie]">[e] and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” Matthew 25:34-46
One of the goals of ISIS is to bring Christians to hate Muslims. Hatred, revenge, violent retaliation makes them stronger and helps them recruit new members. Love, help ... following Christ's teachings on how we are to treat
others, even our enemies will weaken them and take away much of their message.
When did we American Christians become so fearful that we condemn an entire group of people because of the horrible deeds of a few disarranged people?
The light of love of Christ will drive away the darkness of terrorist.
OK, meanwhile we will be attacking them and killing them. I bet some of the Israelites complained like the above when YHWH sent the armies of Israel in to annihilate all of them. We can see now why groups like this need to be annihilated.
Sorry but those are not the facts. It is not just a few, neither is it their goal to get Christians to hate them. That is an absurd statement with no foundation. They already hate us. Their goal is our end. Period. Their ultimate goal is world domination.
You misunderstand or misread my post. Of course they already hate us. That is a given. But, one of their goals is to get us to not action Christian, to hate them. This helps them in their recruitment of fresh cannon fodder. To think they do not use such tactics is very naive and show a great lack of thinking or understanding of the situation.