THE REAL WAR

 

  

  When Donald Trump first made his statement about banning Muslims from coming into the country I was a little taken aback. I have learned, however; to reserve judgement until I can hear everything that he said and in context. What I learned was that he was suggesting a moratorium on Muslims coming into the country until some kind of plan can be put in place to vet who is coming here. I agree with this and as I have predicted Trumps poll numbers have risen. On September 11th 2001 the FAA grounded every domestic and foreign flight coming into this country in order to determine if any other planes had been hijacked. I look at Trumps proposal as a similar thing. We have to be able to weed out those people who are trying to hurt us. The other day I was thinking of a historical analogy with what we are facing now. Slavery was the cause of the Civil War. Many will argue that the war was caused by states rights. I challenge anybody that holds this view to tell me one right that the North was trying to take away from the South. Lincoln and the Republicans didn't like slavery but they were willing to let it exist where it already existed in the South. They simply did not want slavery to expand to the new territories of the southwest acquired by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ending the Mexican War. The war was caused by slavery, more specifically the expansion of slavery. 

 The Founding Fathers were forced to compromise with the evil of slavery in order to form the United States of America. As Lincoln stated, however; in his House Divided speech, a house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become lawful in all the States, old as well as new — North as well as South. So without slavery their would have been no Civil War. The question has to be asked then. If there was no Islam would we be at war right now? 

  In my mind Islam is a religion straight out of the pits of hell. Ever since Jesus threw Lucifer and a third of the angels out of heaven, before the creation of the earth, there has been a war between Christ and satan. Jesus won that war at the cross and satan is defeated but his goal is to take as many with him as he can. Islam is a religion created by satan. Satan can appear as an angel of light and in my mind the angel Gabriel did not appear to Muhammad but it was satan himself, 2 Corinthians 11:14, and no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Abraham, who is the patriarch of Judaism, Christianity and Islam came out of paganism. As a religion paganism was the blight of the earth at that time and still is. Paganism was polytheistic in that the pagan believed in multiple gods. God approached Abraham who would became the father of the Jewish nation. The Jews were the original true church that worshipped the living God. It was God's purpose to prepare them for their primary mission of spreading the gospel to the pagan world and a lost world. 

 This is why he gave Moses the law. There was the permanent law, the Ten Commandments, and the temporary civil and ceremonial law, the law of Moses. The permanent law was written on stone and the temporary law was written in a book. Jesus was the fulfillment of the permanent law. Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. Matthew 5:17. Matthew 22:36-40 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”  If  you love God with all your heart mind and soul, you obey the first four commandments. When you love your neighbor as yourself you obey the last six. The law of Moses was given to prepare the Jews for the coming of Jesus the Messiah. It was a tutor or schoolmaster. Galatians 3: 23-24-25…But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. A teaching tool for the Jews was the temple. Moses was commanded to build the temple in three sections. It was to represent the threefold ministry of the coming Messiah or the Anointed One. There was the sacrificial alter which represented Christs sacrificial ministry. This is where the unblemished lamb was brought for sacrifice. The inner compartment which represented the intercession ministry of Christ. Finally the Holy of Holies where Jesus as God sat on his throne. The lesson was that Jesus is our sacrifice, our lawyer, and our judge.

  Over time the Jews became so prideful and stiff necked that they did not recognize Jesus as the Messiah when he appeared as the unblemished lamb and the ultimate sacrifice for sin. The Jews rejected Christ because they did not recognize him. Three and one half years after the death of Christ the gospel was offered to the gentile, or non Jew, because they were accepting of the gospel. The gentile would become spiritual Israel. However Israel is the apple of Gods eye. Zechariah 2: 8 says For thus saith the LORD of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye. God is not finished with Israel. Amos 9:13-15 says “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman and the planter by the one treading grapes. New wine will drip from the mountains and flow from all the hills, and I will bring my people Israel back from exile. They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them, says the Lord your God. This is Israel today. 

  The hatred against the Jews is irrational which can only be spiritual. Ever since their founding as a nation they have been hated. They were dispersed throughout the world and through the Middle Ages and into the modern age they have been hated and persecuted. Hitlers persecution was so horrible that it would be the event that would bring about the fulfillment of Amos 9:13-15. Israel is not going anywhere. The Arabs tried to dislodge them in 1948, 56, 67, and 73. While I was painting the other day I had the pleasure of listening to a segment of the Michael DelGiorno show called WWTN University. I can't recall the guests name or position but he gave a brilliant presentation on how Hitler eliminated the influence of the Christian church in Germany in order to enable himself to carry out the persecution of the Jews. Hitler was successful in perpetuating two myths. First, there should be no politics in the church and second there is a separation between church and state. He pointed out how the church is being marginalized in this country because the left is successfully perpetuating these myths in America. When I speak of politics in the church, I am not talking about church politics. You will always have that. Far too many Christians use scripture and religious belief to excuse inaction and apathy as a citizen. They are no earthly good because they are too heavenly minded. 

 I hate to hear a Christian say something like, I'm not worried, I know who wins in the end or the end times were prophesied so we should just accept it and go on. I think God will hold Christians accountable for allowing evil to triumph. It was the church that condoned slavery but it was the church that helped end it. The church supported segregation but the church helped end it. We have bought into the myth that there is a separation of church and state in America. Unconstitutional court decisions like Everson vs. the Board of Education in 1947 and Engle vs. Vitale in 1962 have perpetuated this myth. There is no separation of church and state in the constitution. The 1st Amendment to the constitution simply says that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion. There is a separation of the Federal government from interfering in the religious affairs of the state. For example, if the people of the state of Tennessee wanted a state religion, or they wanted prayer in public schools, public venues, nativity scenes on public property, or the Ten Commandments in their courthouses they have every right under the 1st Amendment and the Federal government cannot interfere. If the state of Tennessee wanted mosques, or did not want mosques, it would be the right of the people of the state to decide. Far too many of us have bought into the leftist lie that Judeo - Christian displays of faith has no place in a public setting. 

 We have come to believe in a freedom from religion, and not freedom of religion. We are intimidated into silence today. Christianity is being marginalized as it was in Germany. The government uses political correctness to silence us. They also intimidate us with the threat of removing the tax exempt status of the church if our sermons do not pass the standards of political correctness. If a preacher preaches against the sin of homosexuality that church could lose that constitutional right. The church in Germany was intimidated into silence which paved the way for the holocaust and Hitlers crimes. In our country the same thing is happening. Things are happening today that would have been unimaginable forty years ago in this country. As a result we are also losing our liberties. With Christianity and the Judeo-Christian ethic being marginalized America is being marginalized. Multi-culturalism and the influx of so many people unwilling to assimilate is further weakening America's role as the moral leader of the world. Ronald Reagan said Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same. On God he said If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under. We are a nation going under. Obama may not be Hitler, but with the Judeo-Christian ethic being marginalized a Hitler could arise at some point because the influence of the church will be so weakened that it will no longer have influence on the actions of the state. 

  In the days and weeks after September 11th 2001 I was astonished at the fact that nothing was done to secure our borders or control entry into this country of our potential enemies. Sure there were successful actions taken to thwart individual attacks but it never made sense to me that nothing was done by George W. Bush to secure America's borders. Especially since the government was acknowledging that we were at war. Bush was emphasizing that our enemy was not Islam because Islam was a religion of peace. We were fighting against people who had hijacked Islam. Bush, similar to Obama, was playing with words. He identified this war as a war on terror. Terror is a tactic used by radical Islam. So according to Bush we were at war with a tactic. That would be like saying in WW2 that we were at war with Blitzkrieg instead of being at war with the Nazi's. 

 The Nazi's wanted to destroy the Jews. This was the main goal of Hitler. Sure, he wanted to conquer the world but it was to have access to all the Jews, who he considered the lowest on the racial scale. Evidence of this obsession is the fact that he was systematically killing Jews right up to the moment that Allied and Russian troops entered the death camps. Hitler diverted men and resources from the fighting so he could kill as many Jews as possible, even though it endangered the war effort. At first, I believed George W. Bush and I bought into the lie that Islam was a religion of peace. That it was being hijacked by a radical element that was misinterpreting the Quran, much like many Christians perform unspeakable acts because they misinterpret scripture for their own selfish or misguided purposes. In the years since September 11th I have studied Islam. I am not an expert but I have come to realize a number of facts about Islam and I have confirmed these facts by a Christian friend who was a Muslim for many years.

Fact 1 - Islam is not a religion of peace. It has not been hijacked by a bunch of radical extremists. The radicals are following true Islam. Peaceful Muslims are not following the dictates of the Quran. If they were they would be terrorists. The following is from the religion of peace.com. The Quran contains at least 109 verses that call Muslims to war with nonbelievers for the sake of Islamic rule. Some are quite graphic, with commands to chop off heads and fingers and kill infidels wherever they may be hiding. Muslims who do not join the fight are called'hypocrites' and warned that Allah will send them to Hell if they do not join the slaughter. The Quran is what Muslims follow. If it is not in the Quran they don't believe it. This is what my friend kept emphasizing to me. If I didn't believe him then I just needed to read the book, he said. 

  Jihad is the manner in which this will be accomplished. (Among Muslims) it is defined as a holy war or struggle against unbelievers. Apologists for Islam will define Jihad this way. The spiritual struggle within oneself against sin. I have read that both definitions are right. Many Muslims believe that spiritual Jihad is the most important aspect of Jihad. When I asked my friend about this he said emphatically that Jihad always means war and violence against the infidel. The infidel is defined as anyone that is not a Muslim. An atheist, agnostic, Buddhist, Hindu, Scientologist, Mormon, Jehovah's Witness, Christian or Jew. An infidel has two choices. Convert or die. At one time the Jew and Christian were called (people of the book) because we all can trace our roots back to Abraham and Christians believed in Jesus. Jesus is a prophet of Islam but he is not God, the way Christians believe. Under the Ottoman Empire Jews and Christians were tolerated and allowed to live as long as they submitted to living under Sharia law and the authority of the Muslim state. I asked my friend if Christians and Jews are still considered people of the book by Muslims today. He said no, because in their eyes we have strayed so far from the truth we are considered infidels. It is convert or die for us. 

 There is offensive Jihad and defensive Jihad. Offensive Jihad is the holy war to establish Islamic authority in those areas of the world that Islam does not control. Defensive Jihad is holy war directed at the infidel when they are trying to conquer Islamic territory. For example the war in Afghanistan and Iraq are seen as defensive Jihad. This is why Israel will never have peace with their Muslim neighbors. American presidents have tried again and again to compel Israeli's and Palestinians to come to terms and establish a Palestinian state. It will never happen. They will never agree that Israel has the right to exist. The Muslims have the same goal as Hitler. The destruction of the Jew. Muslim SS units were formed to help the Germans in WW2. Israel is the little satan and America is the big satan because as a superpower we have always supported Israel. Death to America and death to the Jews are the real goal of Islam. In this sense there is no difference between Hitler and Islam. They hate us for being a christian nation and they hate us even more for supporting Israel.   

Fact 2 - Islam wants to establish a global caliphate. A Caliphate is defined as Islamic government led by a caliph —a person considered a political and religious successor to the Islamic prophet, Muhammad and a leader of the entire Muslim community. If Hitler hadn't been stopped he wouldn't have been satisfied until he had conquered the entire world. Islam will never be satisfied until it conquers the entire world. Eventually they intend to do this by violence. They are also doing it in an insidious fashion by migrating to non Muslim countries. Migration has been very successful in Europe and they are attempting to do the same thing in America. This is why there are huge Muslim enclaves in Europe now. They have a very high birth rate at a time when European and American birth rates are declining. Under Sharia law a Muslim man is allowed four wives which gives them a huge advantage when it comes to procreation.  

Fact 3 - The definition of martyrdom in Christianity is when you willingly die for Christ. You would take a bullet or have your head cut off before you would reject Christ. A true Christian would lay down his own life as an expression of love for Christ and to glorify him. It is also a testimony to the unbeliever. A Muslim martyr is a person that dies in a holy war (Jihad) or in the act of killing infidels or unbelievers. This is the only way that a Muslim is guaranteed that they will go to heaven. In the days before September 11th 2001 the hijackers were seen drinking and going to strip clubs. For the pious Muslim this behavior is taboo. For the Muslim intending to martyr themselves it doesn't matter what they do. They will automatically go to heaven. My friend laughed and said it would be bad for the person who participated in this sinful behavior and died from a heart attack before they could martyr themselves. This is why I believe that Tashfeen Malik, and Syed Farook, the San Bernadino terrorists, chose to hang around town rather than flee. They could have made good their escape but they were eager to be martyrs.

Tashfeen Malik and Syed Farook

  Again I repeat the goals of Hitler and Islam are one and the same. Except in the case of Islam the destruction of the Jew and by extension the Christian, because the true Christian and the church is the number one defender of the Jew outside of Judaism itself. This is part of that spiritual war between Christ and satan. Paul said in Ephesians 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. I believe that there has always been a remnant of Gods true church in the world and eventually Christians will be a remnant and exiles in their own land if Americans and the church doesn't wake up.