Engaging the Religion of Peace
The Islamic religion is forwarded by an ideology derived from a book written by an Arab trader in the seventh century following Christ. For fourteen hundred years, Islamists have waged war against the rest of the world. They have invaded lands, slaughtered the people until they submitted to their religion, and then claimed these territories for their Arabian moon god (note the crescent moon on the flag of nations that have submitted to the kingdom of Islam).
Islam’s god has no name. Allah, in Arabic, simply means “god.” According to their own admission when murdering people, “allah is great.” Each year during the month called, “Ramadan,” pilgrims earn favor with their god by traveling to Mecca (Saudi Arabia) to pay homage to the idols enclosed in a black box called,” the Ka’aba.”
Adherents to this religion work on five tenets that make the religion simple. These are called, “the five pillars of Islam.” The simplicity makes the religion very attractive. People love rote religion because it does not take much effort, and the effort that is made is repetitious. Prayers are said five times per day. They are exactly the same Arabic words said five times a day, every day.
In Islam, a works-based religion, adherents find no eternal security in allah. When they die, they have no assurance of salvation. When Muslims die, they traverse a bridge from this world over the fiery pit of hell. If they are lucky, they get to paradise on the other side. If, however, they arrive on a bad day for allah, he casts them into the fire.
The one exception to this uncertain eternal destiny is jihad. Jihad is holy war against the infidel, non-Muslims. If one participates in the terror of jihad, and dies as a martyr, then paradise is automatically secured. 72 virgins await the jihadis for an apparent eternity of sexual promiscuity. You understand now why Islamic killers are so motivated.
When Mohammed invented Islam, he opted out of the Arabian trader life and became a tribal warlord. At first, he was rejected by everyone. An amazing resurgence occurred, and the movement gained momentum. Killing people into submission was the method. When the slaughter of human lives was accomplished to the favorable measure, the remaining citizens submitted to the religion. The spread of Islam was nothing short of stunning during its first one hundred years, even despite bloody infighting between disputed heirs to the throne (Shia and Sunni).
From Arabia, Islam spread clear across North Africa, and all the way to Constantinople before resistance kicked in. In France, it was the venerable Charles Martel who pushed Islam back over the Pyrenees into Spain in A.D. 732. Western Turkey finally succumbed to Islam in A.D. 1453. Islam has made repeated attempts to force its way into Europe, but since the Fall of Constantinople, it has not been successful. The resurgence of Islam, in Europe, may be our generation’s unfortunate witness. This time it is by immigration intrigue. Liberal government policy is unaware of the tragic mistakes they are making.
The Syrian refugee crisis of A.D. 2015 posed an ethical problem for Europe. With tens of thousands of people traversing Turkey and entering Europe, jihadis joined their numbers. Islam thrives on numbers. It poses itself as a “religion of peace” when it is a minority people group. When Islam secures the majority of the population, it claims that territory as its own. Muslims must fight to regain territories Islam has lost, according to the Qu’ran. Today, this would include Spain and France.
The Islamic capitol of Europe, today, is Paris. Through immigration and propagation by childbirth, Muslims now represent the majority religion in France. In this regard, their war has been successful, but they still do not have the majority of the population, so their war continues.
Nominal Roman Catholicism has been the course in France since the 18th century revolution; but of course, France has a much longer history of Roman Catholicism, dating back to the early church. The practical atheism of most people in France makes Islam’s objective of domination and submission much easier. Muslims know what they are fighting for, but atheists are clueless about the battle forced upon their libertine lifestyles.
The objective of Islam is world domination. Lying to the infidels is a key strategy in this war for submission. This is why we always hear “moderate Muslims” say, “Islam is a religion of peace.” Even Muslims play good cop/bad cop. All of the evidence we have of Islam, in daily world events, is completely contradictory to this statement about peace. All day long we hear, “Peace, peace!” But there is no peace (Jer 6:14).
Islam is the furthest thing from a religion of peace. It is a religion of terror, killing, and submission. The carnage everywhere and throughout history proves this to be true. Who can possibly refute it? Still, the threat of terror means the people remain silent, while being lied to by non-Muslim leaders, who live in fear of retaliation for anything true said about Islam.
Second, beyond the lie, is the public scare of terrorism. This is where we understand the true origin of Islam. Jesus said, “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44).”
As Islam grows in the United States from its hubs in Detroit and Minneapolis, Islamic jihadis in the future will likely be attacking liberal cities in acts of terror, in order to push the liberal Democrats to confiscate guns from law-abiding citizens. In this, Islam and Liberalism find their common goal of desired totalitarianism that is anti-American and anti-Christian. The liberals will remain oblivious to their being used by terrorists in this way. This is also why Muslims in the United States vote for the Democrat Party.
Islam means, “submission.” There are only two kingdoms truly operational in this world, and both of them require submission. All people submit to one kingdom or the other. One of them is built on lies and murder. The other is built on truth and grace. Let us further consider these two kingdoms.
The kingdom of this world is the kingdom of Satan, who is called the “god of this world (2 Cor 4:4).” The devil offered Jesus Christ all of the kingdoms of this world if Jesus would simply bow His knee to him. Interestingly, Jesus did not refute Lucifer’s claim to possessing all the kingdoms of the world in the wilderness temptation (Mt 4, Lk 4). Satan was the king of the kingdoms of this fallen world; but Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. He defeated our adversary at the cross. So why is the world still at war, especially religious terror wars?
When Jesus wrested dominion away from Satan, it was a game changer. Satan no longer had control over death. He was bound like a mob boss in prison. Still, he remains highly influential in the realm of lies, deceit, and destruction; but the restrainer of evil (2 Thess 2:4), the Holy Spirit, limits his works. The Gospel must be preached to all nations (Mt 24:14; Mk 16:15) and the harvest of souls into the kingdom of heaven must take place until every elect soul is gathered in (Jn 10:28–29). The laborers are few (Lk 10:2), so the work continues in God’s providential timing.
King Jesus’ agenda is to redeem and reconnaissance His people, so nothing has really ever changed in the world. Genesis 3:15 is in full effect, today, even as it was some six thousand years ago. The kingdom of Christ is advancing like wheat growing in a field. The kingdom of Satan is ever polluting that field with tares of many kinds. The variety of false religions in the world simply represent species of weeds in the garden of God. They are counterfeit green matter.
From a distance, the world looks like a green field where everything seemingly coexists. Upon closer scrutiny, we discover the difference in the green stuff. Some of it is good, and some of it is waste. There is a war for space. Weeds are thorny, prickly, and dominate the good plants. To the extractor, weeds are monsters in comparison to the feeble, fragile stalks of wheat. Jesus taught that weeds and wheat must grow up together, and only in the harvest will they be separated (Mt 13:30). We have Islam and every other concoction of weed matter until the end.
Islam, therefore, is a counterfeit kingdom. Often, in the annual ritual “stoning of the devil,” during the “Haj” to Mecca, thousands of pilgrims are crushed to death in undetected irony. The evil one they have come to symbolically kill has turned and killed them in reality. Islam is fatalistic in response to this annual death march, “let allah’s will be done.” With cold eyes and colder hearts, Muslims operate as helpless pawns in a devilish game of destruction. The will of Satan is to steal, kill, and destroy (Jn 10:10). The parallel identities between allah and Satan are simply missed by the average Muslim, as if someone were blinding them (2 Cor 4:4).
Satan is a cruel master. He oppresses people into submission, whereas Christ employs love, the grace of God, and the forgiveness of sins (Mt 26:28; Eph 1:7). Christ Jesus is the Lord of hope (Col 1:27). Thus, we can observe methods in conversion, as a case for exposing the evil of Islam (Eph 5:11). Converts to the kingdom of Christ are made by grace. Converts to Islam are forced into submission, first by lies, and second by the sword. If you object to Islam and its method of conversion, you get a “fatwa” against you. This is a declared death sentence by Islamic pastors (Imams) and executed by killers if they catch up with you.
An honest comparison between the Qu’ran and the Bible reveals two radically different books with two radically different ways of subduing the world. Clearly, both ways cannot be truth. One of them must be a lie and lies usually end up with somebody murdering someone else.
One might argue Christianity and Israel have much blood to answer for in their own right. Not all Israel is Israel (Rom 9:6), and not all who claim the name Christian are Christians. In addition, God’s ways are sovereign, and sometimes He uses His people to fight wickedness in the physical realm (ie. King David). Nation will rise up against nation until the end. Killers will kill in whatever name motivates them, never suspecting the devil, as the name behind every other name that brings death (Jn 16:2).
There will be wars and rumors of wars between sinful men, but the Christian does not war with a physical weapon (Eph 6:10–20). We are commanded to live peaceably with all men (Rom 12:18). Our battle is in the spiritual realm, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places (Eph 6:12).” The war in heaven has come down to earth (Rev 12), and the question at stake in the whole matter is, “Who is Lord?”
During the early church, “Caesar is Lord,” was the required statement of allegiance in the very religious Roman Empire. Today, pillar number one claims “allah is god”, and the second claims, “Mohammed is his prophet.” Islam is simply the flavor of the day. It is a big weed in the garden. It is yet another counterfeit kingdom demanding allegiance. As Solomon wrote, “There is nothing new under the sun (Eccl 1:9).” False prophets must come and sow weeds in the garden of truth. Some of those weeds grow bigger than others.
The kingdom of Christ is an everlasting kingdom (Ps 145:13; Dan 4:3, 34; 7:14, 27). Today, it can be found on the earth in the hearts of men and women who fearlessly claim, “Jesus Christ is Lord (Phil 2:11),” to the glory of God their Father. It is found with attributes, “for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking (meaning “halal” and “kosher”), but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom 14:17).” Who ever speaks of the joy of allah? No one does. Who ever speaks of the love of allah? No one does. Islamic peace is an oxymoron.
The kingdom of Islam is temporary, for all rival kingdoms to the kingdom of God will be destroyed by Him on the day of judgment (Rev 19:11–21). Until then, the counterfeit kingdom of Islam will grow like a weed, fierce and strong; or in God’s providence, it may disappear from people’s choice in the marketplace of false religion, only to be replaced by something else.
Our spiritual battle includes resisting the devil in these evil days (Jas 4:7); preaching the Word of truth as an act of war (Eph 6:17; 2 Tim 4:2); and loving people deceived by Islam. Muslims position themselves in opposition to Yahweh, the God of heaven and earth; but every Christian knows how he, too, was deceived by some lie of the evil one, before the Spirit of truth and the Word of truth graced his ears and opened his heart (Rom 10:13–17; Acts 16:14). Therefore, we must expose the evil of Islam without fear, speaking the truth about it, in love for our neighbors. We must proclaim the perfect love of Christ, to set captive Muslims free from bondage to a corrupt ideology of lies and murder.
Islam continues to deceive, kill, and dominate territories like a big weed; but we must live in the same world, the same garden. Only truth kills bad religious weeds, so our hope remains in the Vinedresser, whether in Eden, Gethsemane, or the garden city of New Jerusalem…our God reigns. His Word declares victorious truth and so do His people.
We preach a kingdom: true, eternal, and good. Let us not shrink back from our task to make the nations glad (Ps 67:4). A simple encouragement is for all people to compare the kingdoms in word, method, and result. This should suffice to close our case against the counterfeit kingdom of Islam. May God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit help us in sharing the love and truth of Christ with our Muslim neighbors, for His glory and for their joy.
David E. Norczyk
Spokane Valley, Washington
March 23, 2021
