Friday, January 9, 2015

Islam

As I write this, the western world is up in arms about the killing of 12 by Muslims because of the publication of a satirical cartoon about Muhammad.

Some thoughts.

These Muslims understand that there are implications to their belief that Allah is the only God. And one of those implications is that all people everywhere are to submit to Allah according to what Muhammad, his prophet, has written. There are consequences for any who refuse to submit to him. They have a world view that takes in the whole world. Christians today need to develop a world view that takes in the whole world. At the heart of this world view is our belief that Yahweh, the God of the Bible, is the only God. There are, likewise, consequences for any who refuse to submit to Him. 'The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.' (Acts 17.30-31)

We are in a war, and one of the enemies that we face is Islam. Unlike some of the other religions that we oppose, this one is aggressive, and violently so. Thus, we need to be prepared for the possibility of offending a Muslim and paying for it with our lives. This will not be because we ridicule Islam. It will be because we state very clearly this truth: Jesus is Lord and not Allah. We state it, and live it. 'If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it.' (Mark 8:34-35) 

However, we fight this war in ways that are unlike these Muslims. 'For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.' (2 Corinthians 10:3-5) They have AK-47s and RPGs. We have the Holy Spirit. Who do you think will win?