WEEKLY LETTER #47

IS THERE A DIFFERENCE?

Ex 33:16 “ How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?" 

Some years ago the wife of the leader of Operation Mobilization in Spain was walking down the streets of Barcelona. A young Moroccan boy accidentally bumped into her. Instead of apologizing he turned around, looked at her and said: "we are going to take over your country." Where did he hear this and what does it mean?

We see in Europe as well as here in the States how Muslims are demanding their rights and using our laws and our system to obtain what they want. We find that in our "political correctness" people are claiming that there is no difference between Islam and Christianity. Is this true?

We point to the Jihadists and terrorism that is taking place and we say: "Yes, there is a difference". However, we find that they come back and say: "Look at your own Bible and especially the book of Joshua where Joshua was commanded to go into the land of Canaan and to wipe out every man woman and child and even in some places the livestock. Not to leave anything breathing. So what is the difference between Christianity and Islam”?

These are some of the questions that are coming up here in the West that we need to be able to have an answer for. Robert Spencer in his book RELIGION OF PEACE said: “It is a common assumption among many left – liberals in the West that Christian and Muslim extremist, radicals, or fundamentalists are two sides of the same coin.” Rosie O’Donnell put it in September 2006: “radical Christianity is just as threatening as radical Islam in a country like America.”

Pope Benedict XV1 said that "God must act within reason and to spread religion or belief through acts of violence goes against the nature of God or is something unreasonable." This was a speech that he gave in Germany in a place called Regenberg that caused such a ruckus throughout the Islamic world.

Muslim teaching is that God is transcendent. This means that he is not restricted by any of our categories, laws etc. in other words God transcends all these things. We Christians say that there are natural laws and God acts within these laws. In other words God acts rationally not irrationally. This was the brunt of Pope Benedict's speech that set off riots throughout the Islamic world.

Many people in the West, even including government leaders, believe that Islam has been hijacked by extreme Islamic Jihadists and that basically Islam is a peaceful religion. They go on to say that the reason we have the Jihadists today is because of the underprivileged and the poverty and if we can overcome these we will then defeat the Jihadists mentality. What we forget is that this has nothing to do with poverty etc., but it is a war by the Jihadists against 'the infidels' - people who are not Muslims.

'Moral equivalence' is the argument that modern liberalism is making here in the West. Is this right? Is there no difference between Christianity and Islam? Is there no difference between Osama bin Laden and Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell (who is now gone on to be with the Lord)? These are things that we need to look at and arrive at an answer.

I was speaking in a Bible school in Finland and during a question-and-answer session one student asked: "what is America doing in Iraq. It is oil isn't it?" Again it is like what Robert Spencer says in his book RELIGION OF PEACE: " Many Westerners think far worse of their own civilization than they do of Islam. They believe that the war on terror is an American imperialistic power grab for Middle Eastern oil, or that it is motivated by evangelical Christians who want a crusade against the Islamic world.” My answer to that question was, why didn't we stay in Kuwait when we were there, because we would have had all the oil that we needed. No, the war on terror is more, it is a clash of civilizations, ideologies and we need to be prepared.

For those who say that there is no difference between Islam and Christianity, who take 'the moral equivalence' argument I would say this. Why is there - in the Muslim world - no anti-bin Laden - anti-Al Qaeda - or anti-Jihad movement of any significance? Instead we find rioting taking place over Danish cartoons; a speech given by the Pope on why is it impossible to sit down and have a reasonable, rational dialogue? Do we find rioting taking place among what we call the 'Christian West' over any insults to our religion or our beliefs? Do we find Christian leaders giving out death threats to those who have offended our beliefs? The answer is an emphatic "NO".

We shall know the truth and the truth will set us free.