Islam
The Radical Difference Between the Biblical and Muslim Gospels
This evening President Obama gave a prime time speech on the importance of degrading and defeating ISIS–the cancerous Islamic State now fomenting in Iraq and Syria.
The president is good with words, but our success against this terror enemy will only be achieved through action–not phrases on a teleprompter.
I had planned to write a column this week called “The New Nazis”–which is an apt description of ISIS. Instead, I’d like to clarify the larger battle that is going on in the world which is a clash of ideas.
That clash really comes down to the radical difference between the Biblical and Muslim gospels.
First of all, I’m glad that The Washington Post’s Richard Cohen went on record stating the clear parallels between ISIS and Hitler’s Nazis. He writes:
“The Nazis are back — differently dressed, speaking a different language and murdering ostensibly for different reasons but actually for the same: intolerance, hatred, excitement and just because they can.”
He concludes his sobering article by declaring, “The decapitation of James Foley and the depredations of the Islamic State are evil returned, evil that can be understood only as beyond understanding. It needs to be eliminated.”
You can read the full text of “The Islamic State is Evil Returned” here.
New Gingrich has also written a good piece called “Ten Questions for Obama on ISIS” which gives a clear-thinking, statesmanlike view of what our president must consider as we face these 21st century Nazis.
But behind the need to militarily confront evil is a gigantic war of civilizations that comes down to the teachings of two books–the Bible–the basis of Western civilization and the global explosion of faith in Jesus that is taking place all over the world (60% of it in the Southern Hemisphere)–and the Koran–the Muslim book that is revered by 1.6 billion Muslims and for some, fuels bloody jihad.
Some comparisons are in order before we look at the “Good News” message of each book.
The Bible
The Bible is the world’s most translated bestseller, read and respected by 2.2 billion people. It is is a literary masterpiece–a library of 66 books written by over forty authors covering a span of some two thousand years.
The Bible contains reliable history, beautiful poetry and story-telling, amazingly accurate prophecy, and eyewitness accounts of the coming of the Savior (Jesus). It purports to be the inspired Word of God (2 Timothy 3:16) and as Youth With A Mission founder Loren Cunningham has written, it is The Book That Transforms Nations: How the Bible Can Change Any Country.
The Bible’s warfare references are all in the Old Testament when ancient cultures lived and died by the sword during primitive and uncivilized times. The New Testament champions the message of love as the highest virtue (1 Corinthians 13:13).
The Koran
The Koran professes to be revelations given to one man–Mohammed–in the 7th century AD. They are said to have been given over a period of either three weeks or 23 years–depending on the source.
The Koran is purportedly inspired only in its Arabic version and is not encouraged to be translated into other languages.
As a book, it contains little history, contains numerous historical errors, no memorable poetry or literature, and basically espouses one man’s rambling view of life and religion through a 7th century lens. It is composed of a series of “recitations” against Christians and Jews and how good Muslims should live their lives.
According to author Don Richardson in The Secrets of the Koran, the Koran contains 109 war verses that are just as relevant for today as they were in the Middle Ages. These verses form the backdrop of modern-day jihad or “holy war.”
Here are two more caveats.
1. Biblical followers are generally peace-loving people. However, at various times in history (notably the Crusades and the Reformation), they have resorted to violence to defend their faith. In doing so, they have gone against the teachings of the New Testament.
2. Many Muslims are peace-loving people. However, radical followers of Islam, throughout their history, have used violence and bloodshed as a primary tactic to advance their faith. Mohammed himself killed hundreds of people, participated in over forty armed battles, and lived as a religious robber baron. When Muslims kill people, they are following the one hundred warfare verses of the Koran.
Both books talk about God and what a person can do to come into a right relationship with Him.
Let’s first look at the Biblical “Gospel” (Good News).
Biblical Good News
The God of the Bible is a trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who desire such a relationship and intimacy with man that Jesus came to the earth to die for our sins to reconcile us to the Father (John 3:16). When people put their trust in his salvation, the Holy Spirit comes to live inside them to empower them to live a life of virtue and love (2 Peter 1:2-11).
The Biblical Good News contains four simple elements.
1. The Invitation: Come. Abba Father’s call to all human beings is to come back in repentance and faith into relationship with their Creator. This gracious invitation is found all throughout the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation (some examples are Isaiah 55:1, Matthew 11:28-30, and Revelation 22:17).
2. The Promise: Eternal Life. If we come back to God in repentance and faith, then God’s promises to live in us and with us, both in this life and the one to come. Eternal life is really “knowing Him” (John 17:3). One of my favorite verses in the Bible is John 10:10: “I have come that they might have life, life more abundantly.” God granting us a new chance at “life” is the key concept of both Old and New Testaments (Deuteronomy 30:19, and John 3).
3. The Means: Die to Yourself. The way a person enters into relationship to God and eternal life is brokenness, humility, repentance from sin, and child-like trust in God’s ability to save us through Jesus’ atonement. All these words describe a death to self process that helps us grow the character of God in our lives (Luke 9:23, Mark 8:34, 35 and 1 Corinthians 15:31).
4. The Result: Really Live! When we turn from our sins and give God his rightful place in our hearts, we come into alignment with the Kingdom of God and his righteous rule of truth and love. We become children of God who will be a part of his family forever–both in this life and the next.
Now let’s look at the Koranic “Good News,” or what is required to be pleasing to Allah.
Koranic Good News
1. The Ultimatum: Submit. Islam literally means “submission to God” (Koran 3:19). It is not really an invitation, but a command for a person to do every aspect of the will of Allah.
2. The Promise: Eternal Lust (Men Only). From the very beginning, Mohammed encouraged his fighters to die for the faith, promising them that death by jhad would guarantee them Paradise (jannah) which included exclusive access to seventy virgins (houris) who would satisfy their sexual appetites forever (E.g. Koran 56:22, 78:33 and Hadith 2687).
3. The Means: Death to Infidels. Though Islam encourages death to earthly appetites and passions (such as fasting furing Ramadan), the greatest reward is reserved for those who kill infidels (any non-Muslim) to advance Muslim dominance in the world (umma). Koranic examples: 9:123 – “Believers, make war on the infidels who dwell around you,” and 47:4 – “When you meet the unbelievers in the battlefield strike off their heads and, when you have laid them low, bind your captives firmly.”
4. The Result: Many Die. When radical Muslims take the Koran at its word, you get the 9-11 disaster of thousands dying, or the recent beheadings of American journalists by ISIS.
As you can see, the Biblical and Koranic Gospels are extremely different:
- The God of the Bible invites people to come, live, die to sin, and really live.
- The God of the Koran demands that people submit, lust, murder others, and force the world under sharia law.
Which message do you think is really Good News?
I sincerely hope in the coming months that we as individuals and nations understand the radical difference between the Biblical and Muslim gospels.
Only one is true–and is worth believing and living for.
That’s What Marriage is For
Most of us have known for a long time that God’s gift of marriage serves many purposes. It is a beautiful vehicle for intimate friendship, the opportunity to create new life, an advanced course in selflessness and learning to serve others, and a nurturing environment for children and family.
But a recent article on Islam turned on some light bulbs for me. Marriage is all of the above and more. But it is also a vital tool for world peace.
World peace? Isn’t that taking things a bit too far?
I don’t think so. I’ve had my “Aha” moment. World peace and stability.
That’s what marriage is for.
I don’t think it is a coincidence that after Genesis 1, which records the incredible, awesome, magnificent creation of the heavens and the earth, that Genesis 2 immediately records the importance of marriage to the overall creation.
Marriage seems to be the “key” to creation going well.
Of course, God-designed marriage is the joining together of a man and a woman into a relational and physical “oneness” that models the unity of the Trinity. That’s been the God-given definition of marriage for at least six thousand years.
Let’s take a moment to look at the passage that describes its origin: Genesis 2:18-24
“The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him. Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.”
“But for Adam, no suitable helper was found. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.”
“The man said, ‘This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.’”
“That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.”
That’s God’s equation for marriage.
A couple things leap out here. First, man needed a woman to make him complete. She was designed to complement him, to make him whole. Second, the woman was made from the flesh of the man (the rib). British theologian John Stott believes that the essence of marriage is God re-uniting male and female flesh through sexual intercourse.
On a micro-scale, that makes a lot of sense. The natural draw of men and women is the desire to reunite maleness and femaleness into a newly constituted unity of life and purpose.
However, from a macro point of view– the big picture of things–maybe the institution of marriage was meant to accomplish a far greater purpose.
Social harmony. Stability. Order. Peace.
This lofty thought came after reading an article on the roots of Muslim Jihad. It’s worth sharing in its entirety.
Is Polygamy the Cause of Muslim Violence?
By: William Tucker
“Syria is submerged in civil war. The Sunni and the Shi’ia of Iraq are renewing their 1300-year-old conflict. Libyan rebels have shut down the nation’s oil industry. Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood has been suppressed and is resorting to terrorism. Pakistan is a cauldron of violence and assassinations. In short, the Muslim world, as usual, is at war with itself.”
“This is not a contemporary phenomenon. Islam has been attacking its neighbors ever since the Prophet Mohammed received the Koran from the Angel Gabriel in the 7th century. Within 50 years of his death, Muslim armies had conquered the known world from Spain to Afghanistan. The Moguls invaded India, setting off a conflict that persists today. The Ottoman Empire besieged Europe for hundreds of years before its collapse in the 20th century. As historian Samuel Huntington has written, Islam has always had ‘bloody borders.’”
“Is there any explanation for this? Is it temperament or history? Is it the inevitable fight over scarce resources? Or, as Muslim cultures would insist, is it because Islam has always been surrounded by hostile neighbors?”
“In my book, Marriage and Civilization, I offer a novel explanation as to why Islam has always been at war with itself and others. It is because Islam it is the only major religious culture that embraces polygamy.”
“Polygamy? What does that have to do with anything? Am I suggesting that because some minor sheik outside Baghdad takes two wives, two young Muslim brothers in Massachusetts feel compelled to blow up the Boston Marathon?”
“Well, yes. In any human society there are approximately the same number of men and women. Under monogamy, which limits each man to one wife, everyone gets a fair chance to marry. When powerful and successful men are allowed to take more than one wife, however, as they are in a polygamous society, this creates a pool of unsuccessful men at the bottom of society who are constantly in conflict with the system.”
“The history of Islam has been one continuous story of rebel groups off in the desert and deciding that the religion being practiced by the authorities and their harems back in the cities is not the ‘true Islam.’ They come crashing back upon the palaces, overthrowing the leaders (no Ottoman Sultan ever died of natural causes) and establishing a new regime that is just like the old one, where powerful are allowed to take multiple wives.”
“The Prophet Muhammad had a novel solution to this problem. Go and conquer neighboring societies and requisition their women. If you die in the process, the reward will be even greater – 72 virgins waiting for you in heaven! ‘Jihad’ has been a clever and effective way of redirecting the hostilities of the ‘bachelor herd’ that polygamy inevitably produces.”
“The fruits of polygamy are visible all over the Middle East. Because women are always in short supply, families can charge a ‘bride price’ to any man who wants to marry their daughter. Because daughters are now worth money, they must be veiled and sequestered so they don’t run off with some callow youth. Older men desperate for wives push down into younger and younger cohorts of the population. Marriages between 35-year-old men and 13-year-old girls become common. (Muhammad’s last wife was age six.)”
“But the main product of polygamy is a population of angry young men who are ripe recruits for terrorism. The Koran supposedly limits a man to four wives but in countries where there are vast disparities of wealth this is routinely violated. Osama bin Laden’s father, a successful Saudi businessman, had 22 wives and 54 children. The unbalance between unmarried men and the available women in Saudi Arabia is the highest in the world. Is it any wonder that 15 of the 19 September 11th hijackers were Saudi nationals?”
“Ann Coulter once suggested that we would cure Muslim violence by converting the Islamic world to Christianity. This is not as far-fetched as it sounds. Christianity’s long enforcement of monogamous marriage has obviously played a critical role in establishing the more peaceful civilization of the West. The same can be said for China and India, where the vast majority adhere to monogamy. None of these cultures is plagued with the endless internal violence and outward aggression of Islam.”
“Converting the Muslim world to Christianity may be out of the question, but persuading it to give up polygamy on the grounds that it creates an inherently unstable society is a task that the rest of the world might be willing to undertake.”
I agree with everything Tucker postulates except the final paragraph. Ann Coulter is right. The key to eliminating Muslim violence in the world is the Good News of Christ which changes the heart and brings a human life into the blessings of God’s ways. One of those blessings is marriage–monogamy–and the peace and stablity it brings to human societies.
The most peaceful societies in the world are biblically based. Look at Europe, the Americas, Pacific Islands, and many other nations where the Good News has created marriages and cultures that create the greatest amount of peace possible in a fallen world.
Why?
Because marriage restrains sin through godly wives who keep men from giving in to their pugnacious natures.
This was a conclusion of Robert Bellah in his 1980s best-selling book Habits of the Heart. In his chapter called “Love and Marriage” Bellah explained that the genius of early America was the centrality of faith, marriage, family, and “superiority of the American women.”
Bellah quotes Alexis de Tocqueville, the French historian, who visited America during the 1930s: “[Christianity] reigns supreme in the souls of the women, and it is women who shape mores. Certainly of all countries in the world, America is the one in which the marriage tie is the most respected and where the highest and truest conception of conjugal happiness has been conceived.”
Bellah concluded what we men know from experience: Women are the superior sex and we desperately need their spiritual sensitivities to restrain our male excesses, guide and teach our children, provide an environment of love and nurture for the family–and in a phrase–keep the peace.
Is there any honest man out there that disagrees? Godly women are the fulcrum of stable families and nations. And it is the institution of marriage that ties us to their apron strings so that we don’t go off half cocked and destroy the planet.
Thirty years ago, in the margins of Bellah’s book, I wrote in my wife’s name–twice. Yes, I desperately need Shirley to bring peace, love, and unity to our home and family!
If we want peace on earth, less wars, and social stability, then godly women anchoring biblical marriages form the time-tested recipe for success.
God is awfully smart.
He knew that’s what marriage is for.
Getting Bin Laden: What Should Be Our Response
I’m in Washington, D.C. this week for meetings that include the National Day of Prayer on Thursday, May 5. Sunday evening I went down to the front steps of the US Capitol where a group of friends were beginning a “Bible-reading Marathon” where the Scriptures are read out-loud from cover to cover over a three day period. We anointed the steps with oil and then the public proclamation of God’s Word began.
Four hours later, now comfortably in my quarters directly behind the US Supreme Court building, I heard the news that President Obama was to make an unusual Sunday night announcement from the White House–just ten few blocks away. I and the nation waited an hour for the president to appear. But before he did (the White House must have been scrambling), the extraordinary news leaked out.
Osama bin Laden was dead.
Forty-five minutes later, the president came on television and told the American people the details of what had happened to the mastermind of 911 who killed thousands of innocent American citizens on September 11, 2001–now nearly ten years ago.
We had gotten our man. Justice had been rendered.
What should be our response?
Here’s how Family Research Council described the significance of the event:
“Four months from now, when Americans unfurl their flags over 10 years of loss, the families of 9/11 can finally mark the anniversary with the assurance that the man responsible has finally met his Maker. Most of us were just sitting down to Sunday dinner while, a half a world away, U.S. forces were engaged in one of the most significant military operations since 2001.”
“After months of coordination with American intelligence officials, an elite team of Navy SEALs stormed Osama bin Laden’s million dollar hideout in suburban Pakistan. With high-ranking security and military personnel watching from a situation room thousands of miles away, the assault was fast and furious. Forty minutes later, President Obama got the news the world had waited two decades to hear: the reign of America’s most wanted terrorist was over.”
“In an operation that showcased the power and precision of the U.S. military, 22 people were killed or captured–Osama bin Laden among them. For years, brave men and women, whose names we will never know, laid down their lives to see this mission accomplished. Today, their sacrifice is not in vain. The United States has sent a message to the world that terrorists can run and hide, but America will not rest until they’re brought to justice.”
There was an incredible atmosphere in the capital city that night. Thousands came down to the White House to celebrate the news. New York City also saw spontaneous crowds show up at Ground Zero–as did other US cities.
As I watched the details unfold, and in the coming forty-eight hours pondered the killing of the world’s most wanted man, I kept asking myself the following question: What should be our response to the death of one of the most evil men of our time?
Here are some of my conclusions. The second-to-last point may surprise you:
First, we should be very grateful for the courageous and skilled men and women of our US armed forces who are protecting our liberties and who exacted justice by killing Osama bin Laden. The elite group of Navy Seals who carried out the mission were amazing in their preparation and success. Behind them were all branches of our armed services who have been gallantly fighting the War of Terror for over a decade in Afghanistan, Iaq, and other nations around the world. Thousands have given their lives in that cause.
Because of their commitment and competence, we are still the “land of the free and the home of the brave.”
I salute our mighty warriors on a job well done. Their work is not finished–the greater war remains. But an evil and charismatic figure who guided much of the mayhem of the last ten years has now been removed from the battle field. This is good news for the world.
A Hitler of our generation is gone.
Thank you US military.
Second, praise is due for the leadership of President Obama, his Administration, those of the CIA and other intelligence branches who didn’t take their eye off the ball in finding the world’s most famous terrorist.
The story is now unfolding on how this operation came into being over the past five months; Five briefings with the president; Plans drawn up to carry out the mission including building a replica of the bin Laden fortress in Abbottobad that would be the site of the siege; The go ahead finally given; The president’s senior team watching and monitoring the mission; The word “Geronimo” being uttered–code for “we’ve found Osama bin Laden” just before his life was taken; Identifying his remains by DNA testing; His burial at sea being sensitive to Muslim practices and the wisdom to not allow a land-based burial “shrine” for the prince of terror.
Good job President Obama and team.
Third, thanks are due to former president George Bush and his administration who faithfully launched America’s response to terrorism after President Clinton’s dithering. George Bush laid the groundwork for the death of UBL. He didn’t get the satisfaction of seeing the terrorist leader brought to justice on his watch, but without his laser beam focus and policies he inaugurated, the Obama Administration would probably not have succeeded.
We are now learning that President Bush’s so-called “harsh interrogation techniques” including water-boarding were vital to getting the information that led to Osama bin Laden’s death. So was the use of Guantanamo Bay as a staging ground for captured enemy combatants.
Let’s put to rest the nonsense about “water-boarding” being torture and Guantanamo Bay needing to be shut down. These techniques are not torture and Guantanamo is necessary.
Thank you President Bush and team for preparing the way for victory.
Fourth, we should be happy for the survivors of 911 and the families who lost loved ones who now have a greater sense of closure after the attack. As President Obama declared, “Justice has been rendered.” That justice cannot bring back a lost loved one, but it reminds us that human life is important and should be avenged when it is unlawfully taken.
I will be visiting New York on Friday and Saturday and look forward to praying and having a greater sense of closure myself at the sight of Ground Zero. I’m sure many will be joining me there this coming weekend.
We need to keep persevering in prayer for the freedom and renewal of Islam worldwide. President Obama said one thing on Sunday night that was not true when he intoned that we were not fighting against the Muslim faith. Yes we are. We are fighting against one form of this global religion that is probably supported by thirty percent of its adherents.
Jihad is not an extreme fringe of the Muslim faith. It is a central teaching to many. Even those who are “peaceful Muslims” must admit that the advance of Islam over the past thirteen centuries has primarily been linked to violence and bloodshed. It is not the exception. It is the rule–from the time of Mohammed to the present day.
Most Muslim people are not murderers. But some of Islam’s tenets support it. They need to be repudiated.
Let’s pray that the current volatility in the Middle East and other Muslim nations will lead to an honest examination of their faith and the total rejection of violence. This could be a day of great salvation for the Muslim world.
Fifth, I was very disappointed by the celebrating in the streets over the death of Osama bin Laden. Though it was good for the world that an evil man had been taken from us, I don’t believe we should giddily applaud the death of anyone–even a mass murderer. Life and death are serious–and should be looked at with self-examination and sobriety. The European response to bin Laden’s death seemed to be more appropriate: sober joy.
Here’s why. As I looked at the pictures of the young people celebrating in the streets of Washington, D.C., I was struck with this reality: We, too, will meet our Maker one day. We, like Osama bin Laden, will have to give an account for the life we’ve lived, the choices we’ve made. That’s where real justice meets each individual–without exception.
As I looked into their celebrating faces, I thought about their lives–and mine. Are they sleeping with their girlfriends and will have to give an account to God? Do they cheat on their tests? Have some of them also joined in Obama bin Laden’s sin by killing other human beings through having an abortion?
Murder is murder–despite the quantity. It’s worthy of death.
When true justice dispensed, it’s not just for dictators. It’s for all of us. We stand on equal ground condemned by the sinful lives we’ve lived either in word or deed.
We should soberly think about that–and repent–before we celebrate or point fingers. Our day is coming too. Are we right with God through faith in Jesus Christ which washes away our sins?
Finally, let’s truly give thanks to God that justice has been achieved in small measure through the death of Osama bin Laden.
The theme of this year’s National Day of Prayer is “A Mighty Fortress is our God.” Let us celebrate his incredible holiness, justice, protection, and love.
That would be our wisest response.