The videos at the end of this article, are quite telling, in that they both feature men who were born and raised here in America, who have embraced a radical change of ideology. I, as illustrated in my last article “The Stand”, went through no less extreme a transformation. I have heard that one of the fellows in the videos was a Jew who spent time living in Israel before converting to Islam. I know nothing of the background of the other, except that he is an Islamic convert.
Aside from changes in ideology, there is another characteristic we share. An unbiased approach to the paths we have chosen to follow. Let me clarify that statement. There are many people who claim to be Christians because they grew up attending church and come from a Christian background. This does not make you a Christian. Let me repeat that. This does not make you a Christian.
You are a Christian when you have first, come to grips with the fact that you are, (regardless of how good a person you think you are), in fact a wretched sinner in need of Salvation from your sin. You then actively seek out that salvation, recognizing that Jesus Christ is the Savior, you then repent, asking His forgiveness for those sins and give your life over to Him by confessing He is Lord. After you have believed in your heart that He is Savior and are born again by that belief, you are a Christian.
This is what the Holy Bible prescribes, there is no legacy program in Christianity.
There is, however, a church culture, I don’t mean church in the Biblical sense of the Body of Christ, I mean church as in the building and the people who go to the building. Within that culture, in some churches, there are practices that do not line up with scripture, but are practiced out of tradition and in some cases habit. This subject alone could fill several articles. Suffice to say, that when you come to the Bible without having been immersed in the culture of the worldly church, you see things from a strictly Biblical perspective. A point of view uncluttered by churchy cultural stuff!
You begin to wonder why the church is more concerned with church singles ministries than with evangelizing outside the walls of the church. Why are we more zealous in raising money for a new sound system for the band and choir than for raising money for the poor widows and children? Most people who go to church have never participated in the great commission:
“And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” Matthew 28:18-20
This is the end of the Gospel message and our marching orders given directly by Christ, to the disciples. A personal message to all of us to have faith that Jesus has all power and that we should exercise that faith by spreading this fact to the world. Here is a clear expression of deity from Christ Himself. He says in the Gospel of John; “If ye love me, keep my commandments” Yet most of us are content to carry our flashlights into a well lit church Sunday after Sunday, without ever using them to illuminate the darkness outside.
This is a perplexing thing for those of us who come to the church from outside of the church culture. It is the same thing with the Muslim. Often the most zealous jihadist are the ones who come to Islam from outside of Islam. Just as many who go to church and claim to be Christian, never open their Bibles except when instructed to go to the passage undergirding the sermon delivered by the pastor on Sunday. Most Muslims are cultural Muslims who do not have a clue as to what the Qur’an says.
So, when Muslims do actually read the Qur’an, they generally become jihadis, because the Qur’an has that agenda. This is why it does not matter what race you are dealing with, or the nation you happen to be in, you have Islamic terrorism wherever there are Muslims. Filipino Muslims, Indonesian Muslims, American Muslims... If they are reading the Qur’an they will enter the struggle for Islam.
This is a spiritual battle made manifest in the physical world.
“And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him. 20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. 21 But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year. Genesis 17:19-21
Here we see the covenant being made between God and Abraham, God promises that covenant will be established through Abraham’s soon to be born son Isaac. The Christian is the spiritual offspring of Abraham grafted into the promise God made to Abraham through our belief in Christ.
“Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.” Galatians 4:28
The Muslims believe that God made His covenant with Abraham through Ishmael because the arabs are the descendants of Ishmael. In Genesis 17 verse 20, we see that God also blessed Ishmael for Abraham’s sake. Though Ishmael was not to be the son of promise, v21, he was still blessed and indeed the arabs sit on top of some of the worlds largest oil reserves. Just as the gentile who embraces Christ becomes a Spirit born offspring of Isaac. The non arab who embraces Islam, becomes the spiritual offspring of ishmael.
Galatians chapter 4 goes on to say:
v29 But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.
Ishmael was born after the flesh, in that instead of waiting for the child of promise through Sarah, Sarah & Abraham thought they could help God out by Abraham conceiving a child with Sarah’s servant Hagar, thus Ishmael. There was immediate enmity between Ishmael and Isaac, with Ishmael and Ishmael’s offspring persecuting Isaac and his Offspring. That persecution continues to this very day.
Galatians 4 continues:
“30 Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. 31 So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.”
Hagar was the bondwoman and Sarah was the freewoman. v31 is particularly salient because as believers in Christ; we are no longer bonded to sin. These two verses also clearly state that Muslims are in spiritual bondage with the son of the bondwoman and therefore not free of the bondage of sin.
After Hagar became pregnant with Ishmael, she grew to hate Sarah and because of it, the Bible says that Sarah treated her hardly. So, Hagar ran away and God stopped her, this is what the angel of the Lord told her:
“And the angel of the Lord said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the Lord hath heard thy affliction. And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.” Geneisis 16: 11,12
I don’t know how you can doubt that the Holy bible is the word of God when it stated thousands of years ago what could just as easily be lifted from the headlines of any newspaper across the face of the earth in regards to the practitioners of Qur’anic Islam.
It is ironic that the fellow in the second video lists President Clinton’s Bosnian war amongst the “unjust wars” America wages against Islam, when we fought on Islam’s side in that one as we bombed the Christian Serbs, who in reality, were reacting to Islamic aggression.
It is patently silly for those who try to make a comparison between fundamental Islamists and fundamental Christians, that they are equally dangerous. The Bible does not say proselytize with the sword. There have been tens of thousands of terrorist attacks perpetrated by those who follow the Qur’an; just since 911. The people who make such inane statements, could not name you five cases of “Christian terrorism” in the history of the world on the spot if pressed.
Even if they could the Bible does not in anyway advocate terrorist actions. As Christians, when we see attacks like the Fort Hood terrorist action; or even 911, we should not hate the Muslim, we should pray for them if they still live. Christ made it clear in His Sermon on the Mount that if you hate your brother, it is the same as murdering him.
The Videos:
Traitors celebrating Ft Hood Shootings
The Bible makes it plain that there is a time for war and a time for peace, a time to kill and a time to heal. But, there is never a time to murder. The Bible says be angry but sin not. We should seek justice-But not with the hatred that typifies our enemies as displayed in these videos. If you are seeking truth and a faith, I can think of no better criteria to judge by than these words:
“Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.” Matthew 7:16-18
Hatred always bears bitter fruit.
Digital Publius
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