In the world, year after year, nations go to war because, fundamentally, there is a clash of ideas.
A review of history reveals some superficial reasons why wars are started.
The Revolutionary War began with “the shot heard round the world” when a Minuteman fired on British soldiers on April 19, 1775 at the battles of Lexington and Concord.
The Civil War started when Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, was attacked by Southern forces.
World War I was started over the assassination of the Archduke, and heir to the throne of Austria.
World War II was launched when Nazi Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. In America, World War II was engaged in when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
The Korean Conflict began on June 25, 1950, at 4:40 AM when North Korea invaded South Korea by crossing over the 38th parallel.
The War on Terrorism began in earnest on September 11, 2001 with the attack on the World Trade Center Twin Towers in New York City, New York.
But where wars reality begins is in the mind. Physical war is simply a direct result of what began in the mind with the war of ideas.
Political ideologies produce physical conflict over religious expressions, how financial markets are to be structured, and what form of government there is to be.
All conflicts begin in the mind, where there is a collision of world views.
There are three important ingredients that make up a person’s world view, or life view.
There is an understanding of God.
There is an understanding of man, or self.
There is an understanding of the earth, or the world.
In times of war, when worlds collide, it is not unusual to find people turning to God, to prayer, and to worship. Suddenly, people are concerned about the providence of God in their life.
In times of war, as people invoke religious principles, in America, there is the danger of embracing religious syncretism, which assumes that all religions are equally valid.
Any embracing of religious syncretism is illogical, because it is the religious differences that led to the attack on the World Trade Center. It is the religious differences between Christianity, and Islam that has fueled the flames for terrorism for centuries.
While the Constitution of the United States guarantees freedom of religion, there is a practical consequence that is being lived out.
The reality is that an intrinsically evil religion, such as Islam, will use the freedom it is given to destroy Christians, and Jews. It will then move on to destroy Buddhist, Hindus, and anyone who does not submit to Allah.
In America, Islam has equal protection as every other religion, under the Constitution.
Because all religions are equally protected under the Law, it is assumed, that in the final analysis, all religions are equally valid.
This foolish world view is reflected in the bumper sticker that spells out, with religious symbols, the word, “Co-exist”.
Many religious conferences have been held with representatives of major different views being allowed to speak.
Liberal medial commentators report on these religious conferences, and promote the idea they are valuable, without realizing any danger.
People are widely taught, we all believe in the same God, and pray to the same God.
The truth is, that there are radical differences in people’s understanding of God.
Jesus cannot be at the same time, very God of very God, and the promised Messiah, while being a delusional Rabbi, and false teacher.
Jesus cannot be the Son of God and Saviour of the world, and at the same time only a prophet, as the Muslims teach.
There is no way to reconcile Judaism, Islam, and Christianity, in the name of unity. There are real differences.
The first affirmation of Christianity, is that Jesus is the Christ.
The Christian concept of God has very little in common with the Islamic concept of Allah.
God’s only begotten Son is Jesus. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
Allah has no begotten son.
God made salvation available by sacrificing His Son, and promises salvation by grace to those who believe. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph. 2:8).
Allah sacrificed nothing, and only saves if sufficient works are done.
God has a payment for sins—Jesus Christ. “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God” (Rom. 3:25).
Allah has no payment for sins.
God’s Christ paid for the sins of the elect. “For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matt. 26:28).
Allah paid for nothing, and all men pay for their own sins.
God’s salvation is through Christ’s work. “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” (Rom. 10:9).
Allah’s salvation is through the good works of an individual.
God’s saving work is, “Come to Christ.” Matthew 11:28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28).
In order to be saved, a devout Muslim must believe Mohammed was the sum and seal of the prophets.
God’s book is very different from Allah’s book. They contradict each other, so they cannot both be true. The Bible declares that Christ was resurrected from the dead. “And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. 15 Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. 16 For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: 17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins” (1 Cor. 15:14-17).
The Muslim rejects the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and call the resurrection a lie.
God says his Son is the Way, the Truth and the Life. “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. 7 If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him” (John 14:6).
Allah says Christ is “only a messenger”, Koran, Chap. 5, “The Food” sect. 10, par. 75. “Christ the son of Mary was no more than a messenger; many were the messengers that passed away before him. His mother was a woman of truth. They had both to eat their (daily) food. See how Allah doth make His signs clear to them; yet see in what ways they are deluded away from the truth!”
God treats men and women equally. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28).
Allah commands women be beaten. Koran, Surah 4:34. “Men have authority over women because God has made the one superior to the other, and because they spend their wealth to maintain them. Good women are obedient. They guard their unseen parts because God has guarded them. As for those from whom you fear disobedience, admonish them and forsake them in beds apart, and beat them. Then if they obey you, take no further action against them. Surely God is high, supreme.”
God says marriages today (Christian) are to be monogamous. “Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband” (1 Cor. 7:2).
Allah allows for more than one wife. Koran, Surah 4:3. “And if you be apprehensive that you will not be able to do justice to the orphans, you may marry two or three or four women whom you choose. But if you apprehend that you might not be able to do justice to them, then marry only one wife, or marry those who have fallen in your possession.”
There is no marriage in God’s Paradise. “For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven” (Matt. 22:30).
Faithful men get many virgins in Allah’s Paradise. Koran, Surah 78:29-34 “And all things We have recorded in a Book. 30. So taste you (the results of your evil actions); no increase shall We give you, except in torment. 31. Verily, for the Muttaqun [pious], there will be a success; 32. Gardens and grapeyards; 33. And young full-breasted maidens of equal age; 34. And a full cup (of wine).
God says it is not necessary to have special days. “But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? 10 Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. 11 I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain” (Gal. 4:9-11).
Allah commands the keeping of special days. There is Ramadan, the Muslim holy month, during which Moslems fast during the day.
At the heart of the Christian’s life, and world view, is the idea of a triune God. God exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Classical Judaism rejects this.
How a person understands God, is how a person understands the world.
American civil religion teaches as its central thesis that all people worship the same God, and all religions are the same. Christianity says, “No. There is a radical difference.”
During the Old Testament era, the people of Israel were tempted to engage in religious, and societal, syncretism where they would borrow from the cultures that dominated, or surrounded them. For this, time after time, the prophets condemned the nation of Israel.
The practice of religious syncretism violates the first commandment. “And God spake all these words, saying, 2 I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (Ex. 20:1-3).
Nothing is more un-American, in the current modern secular society, than to have an exclusive understanding of God.
Nothing is more fundamental to Christianity than the exclusiveness of other gods in religious worship.
The prophet Elijah destroyed the prophets of God because they were not worshipping the one true God of Israel. “And Elijah said unto them, Take the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape. And they took them: and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there” (1 Kings 18:40).
The greatest element that led to the destruction of the nation of Israel in the Old Testament was not a military weakness, but a theological compromise with the world.
The primordial sin of the heart is idolatry, which destroys the image of the one true God.
The practical question is not, “What do other people think of God?” “Do they follow Him?” The question is, “Do I think correctly about God?” “Do I follow Him?”
As America remains under the judgment of God through the pandemic, acts of terrorism, moral relativism, along with religious syncretism, hope revives that God will bring the nation to repentance, and revival.
The face of evil can be clearly seen in the various faces of those who assault America by murdering in the name of Allah, by producing vile and immoral movies, by promoting ecumenical religious unity, and by insisting on the macro evolutionary theory for defining life.
The face of evil is the face of Stephen Hawking, who wrote, “”Spontaneous creation is the reason why there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist” (The Grand Design).
Who really believes that man is a grown-up germ? Who really believes that men are accidents of cosmic slime destined to oblivion? If a person really believes in evolution, then the destruction of thousands of grown up germs is nothing to be upset about. It is nothing more than using a strong chemical compound to destroy rodents in the yard.
Every person knows they are not a rodent, they are not a germ. Human life is sacred. Human life is meaningful. If God does not exist, then there is no purpose in life.
If God exist, then all of life, then every life has meaning.
Because God exists, because He relates to individuals, God has an involvement with nature.
Christianity affirms the existence of divine providence. “For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring” (Acts 17:28).
Nothing can live, nothing can be apart from the power of God. To remove God from the universe is to replace the priest, with the scientist, as the mediator of human existence and meaning.
