The news has been filled with stories and articles about ISIS (ISIL) and its treatment of Christians. I saw the video where Coptic Christians were beheaded on a beach in Libya, just because they were Christians. My friends, the fight against radical Islamists isn’t won through guns and bombs, because the war isn’t decided through soldiers, tanks and planes. This is a war for the soul of the Arabic peoples, who have been suckered into this religion Muhammed invented 1500 years ago.
But it’s not just people of Arabic descent, for now many Americans are starting to turn to Islam as a source of truth. Several Americans recently were arrested for trying to go overseas and join ISIS (Islamic State) and fight for Allah. As American Christians we may feel that this war is somewhere else, but I would imagine everyone in this church has encountered Muslim people, whether out shopping, standing in line at the Post Office, or receiving medical care.
Muslims are a large fraction of our medical providers in Morehead, and I know we are just a rural hospital. We are encountering Muslims more and more every year in our social fabric.
Now do all Muslims believe as ISIS does? Are all Muslims “radicalized” and want to hurt you in the name of Allah? We know they aren’t, just as most Christians are not rabidly Christian. But make no mistake, the war against ISIS will never be won simply by sending in troops. We need to send missionaries.
It’s a simplistic solution, I know. But Islam is a religion based on a false idea of God. God is not Allah, nor is Allah God. Do not believe the lie that Allah is just another name for God, nor fall under the presumption that Muslims worship the same deity. We need men and women who are willing to confront the claims of Islam head-on, even on the front lines, to combat the notion that Allah is God. Allah through the Koran denies that Jesus is the Son of God, even to vehemently denounce such an idea. Yet the Christian Bible makes this the central point.
My hope and prayer for you this month is to examine the claims of Christianity and Islam side by side and see for yourself why Islam falls short of true and authentic religion. I don’t intend to bash Muslims, for I believe they are lost souls who need the love of Jesus, but their truth claims need to come under close scrutiny. They need to be convinced to examine their faith, just as closely as we do. They need to examine the truth claims of Mohammed and the Koran. They need to see the evidence, with just as much scrutiny as our enemies demand of Jesus. This will not be an easy task, but remember that it is God’s will to save any many as possible, and He will send laborers into the field.
Please pray for a Muslim friend. Pray for hearts to be changed. It’s time for He that is in you to overcome he that is in the world.
Meritt Musings 