ISLAM AND CHRISTIANITY CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS Session 9

ISLAM AND CHRISTIANITY: CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS Session 9: The Spirit of Islam

Ayatollah Khomeini came to power in Iran in 1979. He was viewed by the Muslim world as the “savior” of Islam. Algerian president Ahmed Ben Bella declared, “A brilliant light appeared in Iran which illuminated the whole Muslim world. ” Khomeini, upon assuming power, declared, “The government of the world should know that Islam cannot be defeated. Islam will be victorious in all countries of the world, and Islam and the teachings of the Koran will prevail all over the world. ”

Throughout history, false religions sponsored by Satan, have had a religious spirit. Cain’s spirit toward God was to approach Him through an offering of his own will, design, work, and ritual. No faith, love, or obedience was behind the offering. As a result, Cain was filled with rage and hatred toward Abel, and so rose against his brother and killed him. The Pharisees and Sadducees of Jesus’ time persecuted Christians in the name of God. They sought to maintain and propagate a legalistic system which kept them in power while enslaving their followers in a false religious system.

I John 4: 1 tells us, “Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirit, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. ” False religions are usually inspired by and led by one or more false prophets. Usually the false prophet claims inspiration by an angel of light (e. g. Moroni). I Cor. 14: 29 warns, “Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge. ” The Bible warns us to test the spirits because Satan can appear as an angel of light. The test of the truth of any spirit and any revelation is- “How does it explain the deity, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ? ”

Because Islam denies the shed blood of Christ, the redemption of Christ, and the forgiveness of sins through Christ, it is therefore, a false religion and Muhammed is a false prophet. The spirit of Islam has three objectives: 1. To challenge and deny Christ, His Word, and His Church 2. To hinder and oppose the end time revival 3. To oppose and annihilate the Jews and take control of their homeland

Islam may be an ideology of revolution, a religion of strict ethical and moral laws, a political system opposing both capitalism and socialism, but it definitely is a spiritual force opposing the plan of God as expressed in the Judeo-Christian Bible. Islam is a totalitarian system which demands total submission. To become a Muslim is to become a slave of Allah. Sura 49: 14 declares, “You have not believed until you say, we have submitted ourselves. ” The goal of Islam is to create a theocracy under Allah with no democracy, no free will, and no freedom of person, religion, or expression.

When Islam takes over a home, family, country, or society, it controls everything. The laws legislate and enforce all areas of life: ethical, moral, social, political, economic, and religious. The god, Allah, predates Islam. He was worshipped in Mecca prior to Muhammed as one of many gods. In pre-Islamic times, the god Allah was associated with the worship of Baal and represented the moon god, hence the symbol of Islam is the crescent moon.

The Bible says, “by their fruits you shall know them. ” The historical experience of Islam has been based upon hatred, bloodshed, revenge, and retaliation. The Hadith says, “One must wash with blood. ” Khomeini echoed this belief in the modern era when he said, “Our nation is no longer ready to submit to humiliation and subjection; it prefers a bloody death to a life of shame. We are ready to be killed. ” The true Spirit of Islam is militant and violent. Why do I say this? Because the only sure way to eternity that is taught is through martyrdom.

Fear and terror is the strategy employed to control people holding them in bondage to fear. Leaders like Khomeini, Saddam, Quadafi, Idi Amin, and Sheik Omar are not loved, they were feared. The force of fear held them in power. The spread of Islam is through either coercion or conquest, not grace and peace. Therefore, since Islam is spreading so rapidly now, it is due to an increase in violence and fear at this time. What about the Black Muslim movement in America? This religion teaches that black people were the original people of the earth.

They were subjugated by white men who were created by an experiment as a race of devils to rule the earth for 6000 years. At the end of these 6000 years, the black people would be resurrected from their sleep and converted to Islam where they would destroy the white devils and transform earth into a black paradise. Christianity is seen by Black Muslims as weak and naïve. Christianity teaches “turning the other cheek to the offender. ” Islam in contrast teaches, “And those believers who, when an oppressive wrong is inflicted on them, must defend themselves. ” Surah 42: 39

Returning to theme of fear in Islam, the Koran records 24 times that “Allah does not love sinners” Surah 2: 190, but rather only “those who fear him. ” Surah 3: 76 The Bible however, says in I John 4: 18, “that perfect love casts out fear. ” Also in II Tim. 1: 7 “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. ” Islam has the power of conversion to a religion, but not the power of conviction of the heart because of the absence of the person and work of a Holy Spirit. The God of Christ does not love us by chance. He loves us by choice.

God has a plan for the world which includes roles for three people groups. These are: 1. the church 2. the Gentile nations 3. the Jewish people The role of the church is outlined in Revelation; the role of the Gentile nations is outlined in Isaiah; the role of the Jewish people is outlined in Daniel. The church is God’s chosen tool to bear the gospel message to the Gentile nations. When they have been reached, God will return to fulfill His promise to the Jewish people.

Muslims, interestingly, do not strive to read the Koran. Since it is a recital, they believe the approach is to hear the words recited. This is what takes place in the mosques. Further, Muslims believe the Koran must be heard in Arabic and that heard or read in any other language is not a translation but is an interpretation, which would be subject to error. The Koran is organized into two parts. The first part concerns how an Arabic community should live to work toward doing God’s will. These revelations were given in Medina from 622 -632 A. D.

The second part concerns who God is and comprises short verses warning of God’s wrath and judgment. These revelations were given in Mecca from 610 -622 A. D. The order as purportedly revealed is reversed in the order collected in the Koran. There is no chronology of events. The revelations were given progressively over a 22 year period. The nature of God giving the revelations progressively is explained that God did not want to reveal more than this first fledgling community could absorb.

The lack of chronology is explained that the messages were given at a moment in time of God’s choosing when the message was needed and that the message is appropriate for all people for all times. In the Muslim world, man cannot know God but can only learn what is revealed in the Koran about his attributes. The spirit of Islam functions only in hearing about God, never in knowing him. A Muslim stands alone before god on his own responsibility to know and do what is spoken in the Koran.

There is no help for illumination by a Holy Spirit, nor is there any intercessor, nor priesthood to guide, nor is there any redeemer Christ to deliver you. The era of the 11 th, 12 th, and 13 th centuries brought the great conflict of Islam with the forces of the Crusaders of Europe. The Crusades were not successful for Christendom except in Spain, the Maghrib.

At the same time the Islamic world was threatened in the 12 th and 13 th centuries by the invasion of the Mongols of Central Asia. However, even though the Mongols conquered the Arab empires, they themselves converted to Islamic belief. In the 8 th and 9 th centuries Al Ghazali, a scholar incorporated the ancient Greek philosophy into Islam to understand the universe. This incorporation was to embrace logic, deduction, and human reasoning of Plato and Aristotle to understand the Koran.

In the 7 th an 8 th centuries Sufi’ism emerged as a mystical belief system based upon revelation of the nature of God and to attain a better understanding of him. The practice of this system is based upon meditation and repetitive recitation. Sufi masters, through the power of emotion, sought to get closer to God. The most visible of the Sufi’s were the “whirling dervishes. ” The Sufi orders are known as Tariqas. These two approaches, i. e. human reasoning and emotion, conflict with the literal approach to Islam espoused by the Shi’ite believers.

Many Muslims view the Western civilization as positive for its modern technology and its expression of liberty, but at the same time secular, without reverence for God, morally corrupt, materialistic, militaristic, and crime-ridden. These issues are a key part of the conflict between Western and Muslim civilizations. The growth of Islam is due to four factors:

1. population growth in the Islamic world 2. the superiority of a monotheistic deity over a polytheistic deity 3. the appeal to ethnic diversity and appeals to the poor 4. the militant and cultural control of populations through military, economic, political, and religious institutions, organizations, and governments. In contrast, the reluctance of Islamic countries to be influenced by Judeo-Christian, Western values takes the following forms:

1. resistance and rebellion 2. borrowing the technology but rejecting the values 3. assimilation of certain values 4. adopting the political structure to organize civil life such as under nationalism, socialism, or communism. The Ba’ath political parties are examples of socialist ideologies in Syria and Iraq. The least supported regimes in the macro-Islamic world were Syria and Iraq because the Ba’ath ideology of socialism was not viewed as Islamic in nature. Secondarily, Assad and Saddam are viewed as tyrannical dictators.

The most universal Islamic movement is that of fundamentalism, which is the attitude of returning to the first principles of Koran and Sunna. This is a renewal and a return to the ideals of the original Muslim community of 630 A. D. to 700 A. D. This is the growing Islamic response to the threats to Islam from Western values.

First, we see the response of Saudi Arabia to return to traditional values and practices of the Wahabi. Second is the response of Egypt to liberal reformism to change by incorporating modern concepts while retaining Islamic beliefs and values by accommodating these modern concepts. Third is the response of Iran, known as neo-traditionalism, which literally attempts to return to the original Muslim community rejecting all concepts of the West.