RADICAL ISLAM AND THE CHRISTIAN – 1 (Truth #14)
In this series of blogs, we have been talking about the absolute truths God gives us as Christians. Those who reject His Word come up with their own so-called ‘truth’. This is postmodernism. They do not believe in final, total truth. However, there is one large, influential group that is active today which also believes they have complete truth which all are to follow. However, their ‘truth’ is in direct conflict to Christianity and the Bible. This group is radical Islam.
Radical Islam, also called Islamic fundamentalism. It is defined as a puritanical, revivalist and a reformed movement of Muslims who aim to return to the founding scriptures of Islam and Muhammad. To them, this also means returning to the Islamic culture of the seventh century AD world. This is when Islam began and was strongest. Fundamentalist Islam has a critical view of women, non-Muslims (whom they call infidels) and other Muslims who disagree with them, whom they call apostates.
We had heard of some of the rules of the Taliban in Afghanistan where girls were forbidden to attend school, women were confined to their homes and forced to wear a full hijab, boys were forced to learn rote recitation of the Quran and women were banned from leaving their houses without a male relative. Polygamy is approved, and so is physical abuse of a wife in order to keep her living as she should. If a woman brings shame to the family, the nearest male relative can take her life to keep the family honor. Becoming a Christian is one of the ways of bringing shame, and many Moslem women have been killed because of their faith in Jesus.
Islam still controls most of the land that they did in the seventh century, except for Spain, France and Palestine. Spain was the heart of the Muslim world, the base of operations to overtake all of Europe. God did not allow that to happen. Charles Martel stopped their advance at the Battle of tours in 742 AD. However, Muslims stayed in Spain until 1492. In fact, Columbus’s voyage to the New World was financed as a way of thanking God for the removal of the Muslims from Spain.
Today, radical Islam seeks to control all the land it once did, including Palestine. They want to regain their seventh century rulership and then spread to the rest of the world. They see their biggest enemy as other Muslim rulers who do not share their commitment to worldwide Islam. They believe these leaders of Muslim countries have been corrupted by Western influence and are not pushing for Islam to take over the world.
We call these people ‘radical’. But what they are is true to their beliefs. Radical Islam is real Islam, true to the worldview of the Quran and all that it teaches. Non-radical Islam, the ones who don’t participate in violence and terrorism, is considered liberal, apostate and westernized. They have watered down what original Islam stood for and what the Quran teaches.
Now, think of us as evangelical Christians. To the rest of the world, and to liberal Christianity, we are seen as radical Christians. We put our faith in God’s revelation to us in the Bible. We want to return to the early church practices and complete commitment to God’s will. We believe we have the only true revelation from God, and it is our responsibility to bring the whole world under that authority.
Do you see the parallel? They are radical Islam; we are radical Christian, but we each are trying to do the same thing in our faith. The biggest difference is that they feel the way to bring the world under their influence is by violence and force. God tells us to do it by love and peace. Both of us are committed and willing to give our life for what we feel God wants us to do.
We can see an example of this in Afghanistan. Sometimes we wonder why we failed in Afghanistan. Why didn’t our Christian ideals gain hold and grow? We tried our very best. How did everything fall apart so quickly and completely? It goes back to worldview. You can’t build Christian truth on an Islamic world view. We in America are different because of Christianity. Afghanistan is what it is because of Islam. They are two greatly conflicting worldviews. Beliefs determine actions, and beliefs must change before actions will change. We changed the actions of the people in Afghanistan, but not the beliefs. Worldview prevails. (June 27, 2022 Doylestown, PA)
How well do you understand God’s truth as revealed in the Bible’s world view? Can you explain it to others? If not, look it up online and make sure you know, follow and teach it.
Do you know any Muslim people? What are you doing to show them the truth of Jesus? Do you pray for them regularly? If you were in their place and they were in your place, what would you want them to do for you? Do it for them.
cto Rev. Dr. JERRY SCHMOYER
Christian Training Organization
Jerry@ChristianTrainingOrganization.org
(India Outreach, Spiritual Warfare, Family Ministries, Counseling, World View)
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