Latest / Journey Elgin / Sunday Message 9/13/26- Christian's Relationship with Muslims and the Ideology of Islam
Transcript
- Phillip Thomas: Well, I is this week has been a a challenging week. ⁓ and I I I do think it's important. This is gonna kind of be a a introduction to another issue that we're going to to discuss. ⁓ what I'm trying to to do with with this series of we're in the end game now is not to freak us all out. It's not to say I know when the end is going to happen because I don't. But it is to recognize there are things that we're dealing with in our culture right now that that we have not had to deal with exactly in this way before. It's not there's nothing new under the sun. So this stuff has been around before, but but there are things that are that are happening and we need to recognize them. I I also I you know, so I I remember starting back this series kind of looking at that we are called to be the watchman on the wall. Right, that we are called to say, Hey, look, our our culture's going the wrong direction, and that has consequences, whether you believe in God or not. Right. Like there there are consequences for living ⁓ against the principles that God has set. Right. And and we're on that path. And so as a church, I think we need to be aware of that. It doesn't mean we're defeatist, right? We went through Joshua, be strong and courageous. Right. We're we're called to engage this. We're not supposed to hide from the darkness. We're supposed to go into the darkness and bring the light. But in order to do that, we need to understand what the darkness is. ⁓ we've ⁓ had a couple of sermons about the deceivers. ⁓ that there are there are many who are deceiving. ⁓ there are many voices out there. And and even within the Christian circles, there are different voices that are out there that we have to be careful with. And so I I spent a couple of weeks looking at the ⁓ the ⁓ question of the relationship between Jews and Christians. Okay, what does that look like? You may have no idea that that that's even a ⁓ a a topic out there, but it is, right? And and things like that, all of a sudden you that they can become very evident. And I think it's important for us as a church and for us as Christians. To have wrestled with some of those things because there are people that are speaking very much against the Jewish people and and and as Christians. And so we need to we need to wrestle with that. Okay, what does the Bible say? Well, I I also believe that we are in a ⁓ a a heightened spiritual time. And one of the evidences of that ⁓ is when when you start seeing things. ⁓ like Isaiah says, Isaiah says, Woe to those who call good evil and evil good. Right? Now that that's not all the time. Sometimes you live in societies where people at least try to follow into those, you know, keep those separate. Then there's times where literally people are calling good evil and evil good. ⁓ we're there. ⁓ there's also a passage at the end of Romans chapter one. That says not only that they knew the righteous God, but that then they chose to disobey him and do evil and then affirm those who do evil. Right? Not only did they do evil, but then they actually cheered on others who do evil. So there's some things that have been been happening this week that to me it just just point to this. I don't know if you've been following ⁓ this Clancy trial. It's a tragic, just horrific incident of a of a mom who strangled her three children. ⁓ and so the debate was whether I mean it was insanity, all of this stuff. I I'm not gonna get into the ⁓ minutia of the case, but seeing reactions to this is shocking. It's it's like the the The three children whose lives are no longer with us didn't even play into the into the conversation in the b in the real world. Right? You it from my understanding, there were eleven jurors that just wanted her to be able to go be be done, that she was not guilty by reason of insanity. And ⁓ and I don't know I know Massachusetts, you know, she could stay in a mental institution, but after five years would be free to leave. ⁓ there's there's lots going on here ⁓ but the amount of people supporting her is it it's it's it's shocking and it's it's disturbing ⁓ and and not recognizing what and and one of the jurors came out and literally said ⁓ was talking about the one individual said you know we tried to show him evidence and so so all this stuff and ⁓ you know for some reason he just couldn't He just couldn't get over how she viciously murdered her children. Y thank you. Go right. Right. Again, we can argue on what the punishment should be and how insanity fits with that. I we can do that. But justice requires someone to to be held to that to account, that you're ac you are held for account for your actions, even if you were mentally insane. I'm I I'm sorry. It was very disturbing to me that I think and then not only that, the one juror who held out. People are investigating him, trying to destroy his ⁓ past. This is not healthy as a society. And you may think, ⁓ it's just one case, stuff like that. This starts trickling down. We've already had another mom who hung. Her toddler in the basement and they as they're in doing the investigation, she had spent hours a day in chat rooms about the Lindsey Clancy thing. This is evil and we better recognize it as evil. This is also the one year anniversary of Charlie Kurt. You know, I I remember preaching that a year ago. And and at that time, I I felt that there was something different. This wasn't just someone being murdered for their political stances. I believe he was a Christian martyr because there are lots of people who have a political bent that he does. But he was doing it from a biblical worldview and intentionally trying to share Christ. That was what was informing his ⁓ his ministry. Right. And you can disagree with him politically. Okay, that's fine. But I can remember talking to pastors that were like, how are we gonna handle this? You know, we have people in our church who disagreed with some of the stuff he said. Okay, I hope you don't agree with everything anyone says except Jesus Christ. Right? Because but but any Christian who disagreed with the principles that Charlie Kirk did ⁓ talk about, they may disagree with his application of them in a fallen world. But if you disagree with the principles that he was ⁓ sharing, you may reevaluate whether you are understanding biblical principles. Right? And and and and I I'm not here to deify him, I think sometimes that we go too far in that, but this was a seminal moment in our in our world whenever he was was was shot. And so there you know, there were people mocking it that day, which is shocking. Well, it started trending Kirkiversary. ⁓ this this year, there were college campuses that were setting up ways to celebrate this. Now again, college kids, I my daughter surprised us today. most college kids are they get caught up and they just are not using their critical thinking skills and they just get swept up in that. But it's different to have Different understandings ideal ideal ideolog ideologically. Holy cow. That's way too many. Yes, see how see these those those ⁓ college kids could probably pronounce that. I cannot. But the fact that it moved from just having a disagreement on talking about principles to celebrating the brutal, most viewed murder in the history of the world. Right? But the number of people that were watching that, I I promise there's no with with the way that the internet is. It's the most viewed murder ever. So I understand why people can get caught up into that, but we should never look at that and say, ⁓ that's an okay way to react. Right? Here's part of an article from USA Today on September 10th. The memes, memes, which if you don't want know what memes are, you know, they're just kind of things to, you know, pictures and little comments that that people will put up to try to make a point. The memes have ramped up in the lead up to the one year anniversary of Kurt's death on September tenth. If something it's something users across social media are calling kirkaversary. On its face, these posts may appear bizarre, tasteless, and tone deaf. Yes. And evil when you're mocking the murder of someone. Right? And again, we joke about things in time. That's one way that you cope. It's different when you are mocking that death and celebrating that death. Says on its face, these posts may appear bizarre, tasteless, tone deaf, but experts, experts, I love the experts, experts who study media and digital culture explain that as Gen Zers make sense of political violence, polarization, and constant exposure to bad news, these posts Are actually a good example of how many young people today use humor to distance themselves from the emotional weight of reality. So, shouldn't we just come by and say, yeah, the emotional weight of reality is bad? You celebrating the death of someone is evil, and you're participating in that evil. And guess what? If you think you're going to find peace whenever you are celebrating things that are evil as good. You the weight's just gonna get heavier. Right? We are in a world where good is called evil, evil is called good. Then on Friday, twenty-five years since September eleventh. Wow, the world has changed. I It's it's hard to even fathom that that we're where we are given what happened twenty five years ago. We ⁓ we are not recognizing the danger. We are not recognizing the evil that is behind these ideologies. So I see a little headline. It's about the Texas Board of Education approving curriculum. Here's here's the the headline. Texas Board of Education approves controversial. New high school curriculum tying radical Islam to 9-11 attacks. Now, just spoiler alert: there is no controversy to say that radical Islam inspired 9-11. In fact, you are an idiot if you don't acknowledge that radical Islam. inspired nine eleven. You you are putting your head in the sand, you you are not facing reality. And then we had the president at that time. is they're they're talking and they're talking about, you know, all the things and how they handled it and all this stuff, right? And they they talk about the attack itself and they start talking about, you know, the response. And ⁓ and and he stops the conversation. He goes, Now, now it was important. We made a mate we emphasize that Islam is a religion of peace. In the aftermath, we emphasize that Islam's a religion of peace. Okay. Twenty five years ago Friday, I didn't see a lot of peace. Okay? Now, does every Muslim desire for the world to be destroyed? No. Do they desire peace? Yes, they do. Do you know what peace means ultimately for that faith? Well, that the world has been given the opportunity to respond to Allah. Either through conversions, right? Or if you're not going to convert, some will let you pay a tax, or you die. Now, are all extreme? No. But the goal is that is to get the world to be completely Islamic. And the way you do that, there's different methods. But there's no alternative. You either are that or you are not part of society. Right? So yeah, they want peace on very specific terms, and it's their terms only. And we are going to be running into lots of conversations on Islam in the days to come. I I'm gonna go deeper into that next week because I I want us it is important to have a historical perspective on on things, right? And and we're just not a mature society, but but Islam, we have to take this seriously. Now, we are actually called as Christians to walk the most difficult path. So we have to see every Muslim as an individual, and we have to treat them that way. Our prayer should be that they come to know Jesus Christ, just like our prayer is for Jews, so that they will come to know Jesus Christ. Because guess what? Both belief systems. Right now, lead to an eternal separation from Christ. So on an individual level, we should be praying. And if God puts a Muslim in your path, do not be fearful. Pray for Him to give you an opportunity to share Jesus Christ with that individual. We need to be careful using blanket language. However, we also have to acknowledge that. Islam is not a religion the way we think of a religion. Islam is an ideology. There if you believe in Sharia law, you are not under you can you cannot pledge to believe the Constitution. You can't. Right? It is a different worldview. And we need to understand that. There's doesn't mean there's there's Some people that are using really bad actions to try to address this. But as Christians, we have to remember this. And we because we do not need to get caught up in in being deceived. Two passages that I think are very important. First one, first John chapter two. Starting in verse 18. There it is. Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that Antichrist is coming, so now many Antichrist have come. So, real quickly, this clearly isn't just talking about the one singular figure of Antichrist, is it? It's talking about something bigger than that. So now many of the Antichrists have come. Therefore we know that in the last hour they went out from us. But they were not of us, for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us, but they went out that it might become plain that they are not of us. But you have been anointed by the Holy One, you have knowledge, I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth. Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the Antichrist, he who denies the Father of the God. And the Son. No one denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If you had heard from the beginning, ⁓ abides in you, then you too will ⁓ abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that He made to us, eternal life. I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you. But it but the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as your anointing teaches you about everything, and is true and is no lie, just as it has taught you, abide in him. So what is the basic premise there? Is that those who do not believe in Jesus Christ as God, right? That the Father and the Son are one, that God literally entered into this world. Anyone who does not believe that is an antichrist. They are against Christ, right? Because they don't believe in who Christ is. Right? Does that mean that we should treat them all really poorly? No. It just means that's who we need to be trying to tell about Christ, right? But They need that's exactly right. Pray for your enemies, right? Pray that they come to know Christ. However, ideologies that deny the Father and the Son, if you start to be receptive to them, you are being deceived. That applies to Judaism today, right? It applies to Islam today. Islam in a different way. And here's one thing that's very important because there you're gonna start hearing people that say, ⁓ Islam it freedom of religion, right? We just should let them do whatever. We're gonna talk about that next next week. Countries have tried that. You don't want to immigrate there. Right? But this ideology, there's there's something very, very deceptive about it. And in Galatians, I think this is just very important. Galatians chapter one, starting in verse six, and it's just verse six through nine. I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel. Now, he's not talking about Islam. Islam has not come around. Islam doesn't come around until the late 500s, 600s. That's whenever Islam comes around. He's talking about people that are trying to combine following Jewish law in order to be saved. And that's a false gospel. However, listen to the principle that we continue to see. Not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we Or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preach to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you to a gospel contrary to the one you receive, let him be accursed. So isn't that interesting that Paul says, even if somebody or even an angel comes to you? And proclaims something different than what we are proclaiming about Jesus Christ, that is false. Islam begins with a guy named Muhammad in a cave talking his claim that Angel Gabriel, I believe, was talking to him, giving him the true scripture, correcting some wrongs. Right? Okay. So what you may say, well, may maybe that that was a good thing. But if it's a false gospel, if it goes against God being fully manifest in Jesus Christ, and that Christ died and rose again, then it is a false gospel. So what does Islam believe about God? Well, the word Israel. Actually means to wrestle with God. It is a relationship that we have with God, right? That it's an individual relationship that we have with God. The word Allah means submission, to submit. There is no relationship with God. You submit to God no matter what. Right? Should we submit to our God no matter what? Yes. But guess what? It's a choice. And God warns us, if you don't, here's what's going to happen. In Islam, there is no question, you submit to God no matter what. Right? There is no real relationship there. In fact, there's really no guarantee of how you're going to be able to get to God, except that you follow the hadith, you follow the five pillars, all of these things that they that they will do that show that they are faithful. But even that doesn't guarantee you a spot with God. Because it's relying on his mercy and he may choose not to bring you in, which is why in one of the hadiths that are the extra teachings of the Quran that it came out that if you die in jihad in in that role, you are guaranteed a place in heaven. Pretty good motivation. Because you don't have that. You could follow the law to the T. It doesn't guarantee you a place. Right? So does that sound like the same gospel? No, it's not. When it comes to Jesus, does Islam do they believe in Jesus? Yeah, they do. They consider him a great teacher. They consider him a great prophet. One thing that they don't, they don't believe that he was actually crucified. They believe that it was either another another body or the spirit left him, whatever. They don't believe that he was crucified. Also, They don't believe that he's God because they believe that it is polytheistic to say that God the Father and God the Son. In the Dome of the Rock, that's the abomination that's that's built ⁓ where the temple should go, right? In it, it says something to the effect that God is one. Right? It's a direct refutation of Christianity. They do not believe. Do not listen to anyone. There's a there's a politician right now that is out there saying that Islam, Judaism, Christianity, we all believe in the same God. We're all going to the same place. No, not if this is right. Now, if we're if if it's not, I'm fine with that. Why that's that's good. But that is not what this says. And anyone who says that, especially Christians, are being deceived and then And and do the they don't really love the other people, or you would tell them the truth. They come across as this is being loving, that hey, all of us go to the same place. I'm sorry, but you know, ⁓ Muhammad Adda, who flew the first plane in, I don't want to be anywhere near eternity with that guy. Right? And and God can change my heart if he needs to, but by what a lot of Christians say That he's just fine. He was just following his faith, right? His faith told him to fly a freaking plane to try to kill tens of thousands of pe innocent people. But hey, that's his faith. It we we're following the same God. Really? No, we are not. And this is going to split churches. This is why I'm talking about this now. This is going to split churches. Islam is growing rapidly. Rapidly. And the how asinine is it that twenty-five years later there are more Muslims living in our country that we have just brought in after we we knew what the the what they were capable of. We this is stupid. We have caused this problem. We d I doubt we have the political will to deal with it, but we need to be preparing for it. And ⁓ and there will be churches that will stand up to support Muslims and new mosque and all of this stuff. We better think about that really hard. Understand. Ultimately, these two faiths cannot coexist. I love the bumper sticker. It's BS. I won't spell that out. It does not, unfortunately. Now we can we can live at peace. We should live at peace. But eventually, eventually, there is no reconciliation in these faiths. We do not need to be deceived. I do believe that Islam is a nearly a perfect inverse of the gospel. uses a lot of religious words. By the way, most Muslims are actually very good people. But they are following a false God. And we need to be ready for that because this is going to, this is going to grow and it's going to cause more challenges as we move forward. And do not be deceived. It is not a faith that we can reconcile. It is different. We are called to stand up for what is true. And to love every Muslim that God puts in our path and to pray for them. And if he gives you the opportunity to share the light, share the light. But don't be deceived. Don't be supportive. of that ideology sweeping our country because it is not compatible with Christianity and it is not compatible with our system of government. It does not work. We're in difficult times. But there's been difficult times before. When Jesus entered into the world, he came into the largest pagan empire that the world had ever seen. And with a couple hundred years, it was Christianized. But we need the power of Christ. Come, Jesus, come, as we engage the world around us. Let's go to him in prayer. Little lights in Christ Pacting his kingdom To him