MUSLIMS SEEK TO MUZZLE OPPOSITION

Much has been said concerning the passage and signing of the new “hate crimes” law. Readers here probably already understand that this new law adds no teeth to shutting down crime but is instead designed to shut down opposition and stifle debate concerning not just homosexuality but also false religious systems. The Hate Crimes law, passed as a part of the 2010 Defense Authorization bill, is just one more hurdle for Christians to jump if we intend to truly carry out the scriptural mandate to reach the lost and warn them of the godless eternity ahead for all who reject Jesus Christ. The real hate crime occurs when we shrink back from adequately sounding the fire alarm concerning sin and worthless religions.

If you think the newly enacted hate crimes bill is an affront to free speech and unconstitutional (which I believe it will be found to be), then you need to understand that there is an influential movement within the United Nations that has attempted to muzzle all vocal opposition to Islam every year since 1999. Though couched as a generic “defamation of religion” resolution, make no mistake this move, sponsored yearly by the Organization of Islamic Conference, is all about silencing the critics of Islam. If such a resolution is ever adopted as “binding,” it would probably be enforced through an international police-like watchdog agency and could realistically bring a halt to legally conducting Christian apologetics as we know it. Referred to as a “global blasphemy law,” dozens of human rights and free speech advocates have denounced the adopting of such a law which this year received its highest number of votes, inching closer toward passage at the UN. Remarkably, even Secretary of State Hillary Clinton blasted the UN’s adoption of the yearly non-binding resolution as an encroachment on individual liberty, saying, “An individual’s ability to practice his or her religion has no bearing on others’ freedom of speech.” (Source Here) It may be a completely foreign concept but can you say “Way to go, Hillary”?

APOSTATE CHRISTIANS ON ISLAM AND GLOBAL WARMING

Over the past twenty-plus years we have observed the growing rejection of Christian principles, biblical morality, and the core message of the Church. This is surely a sign of the days we are living in as the love of many is indeed growing cold (Matthew 24:12) - and as the world is heating up in its opposition to biblical standards and the truth that our Savior is not just “a way” but indeed the only way. However, perhaps the most viral danger facing Bible-believers is not from global warming nuts or Islamic extremists but rather from within the recognized Church.

For example, you may be aware that the godfather of the Emergent Church, Brian McLaren, recently encouraged his followers to fast with Muslims during their celebration of Ramadan.

In September, McLaren wrote on his blog "Ramadan is the Muslim holy month of fasting for spiritual renewal and purification. It commemorates the month during which Muslims believe Mohammed received the Quran through divine revelation, and it calls Muslims to self-control, sacrificial generosity, and solidarity with the poor, diligent reading of the Quran and intensified prayer." He also encouraged Christians to “…come close to our Muslim neighbors and to share this important part of life with them."

McLaren and others identifying themselves as “Christians” have for some time been busy trying to find commonalities between Islam and Christianity. Ignoring history and the Bible, these foolish “Christians” continue to push their Muslim-Christian agenda, based on the misguided notion that the two religions share a common spiritual bond - namely that their god is our God. As I have written and reiterated, Allah and Jehovah are not and could not be one and the same; thus, it is impossible for authentic Christians to form righteous spiritual alliances with Muslims. (See “Their god is NOT our God” at www.ericbarger.com.)

It seems to me that instead of apparently agreeing with Muslims in the yearly celebration commemorating Mohammad’s alleged reception of the Qur’an from Allah (i.e., Ramadan), we should instead be fasting and praying against the effects of the Qur’an. In the wacky spiritual world of Emergent thinking they have lost sight of the more than one billion Muslim souls who are lost in Islam and destined for eternity in the Lake of Fire!

Now, perhaps just as troubling is the recent interreligious symposium promoting some kind of "common ground" between Buddhism and Christianity held at the aforementioned Bethel University in St. Paul, MN. This is just the sort of thing we can expect to see more of in the days ahead if the Emergent Church crowd has their way.

At the same time, some “evangelical” Christian leaders, such as National Association of Evangelicals President, Leith Anderson, and Rick Warren, perhaps today’s most visible professed evangelical, have cast their support behind the global warming fallacy. For several years Anderson, Warren and others, such as Ron Sider and Brian McLaren (who receives tour sponsorship from the far-left leaning Sierra Club), have followed political correctness and have treated the supposition of manmade carbon emissions (anthropogenic global warming) as a factual reality. This goes on even though there is no clear cut consensus concerning planetary temperature trends across the majority of the scientific community, whom the mostly PC media is unwilling to acknowledge.

Understand that I don’t like smoggy, dirty air, I want clean water and, yes, I recycle. But people who claim to be Christians should understand the perspective that God created the planet for mankind…mankind was NOT created for the planet. It is truly troubling to hear people alleging to be Christians making statements that Jesus sent us to save the planet (i.e., McLaren) when in reality we are to present His truths to the lost humans instead. Did I mention that mankind is not going to destroy the planet? No, God is going to take care of that, as the Scriptures clearly indicate, replacing it with a “new heaven and a new earth” (Rev. 21:1)! It is advisable that Christians stop the untoward, New Age-prone affection many are showing the planet and start upholding a biblical worldview instead. (Read Romans 1:21-32)

WHAT TO DO?

If a Copenhagen-like treaty were enacted, it could cause funding for evangelism to quickly dry up due the financial hardship, joblessness, and resulting depression. Many experts warn that such an extreme international law might foist this economic condition upon developed countries, in particular the United States. Secondarily, if a binding UN resolution, like the one the OIC is relentlessly pushing, were passed into law, believers would also be faced with another dilemma. Even with ample funding to spread the Gospel, evangelistic Christians would conceivably have to defy powerful political and legal pressure in carrying out our duty to publically uphold that Jesus is indeed the only way for mankind to be saved.

These treaties and so much more are all signals of just where we are in time. We are observing just a small portion of the predicted End-Times predicaments of freedom of speech, finances, and solidarity concerning outreach and evangelism to a lost and dying world. Surely, Jesus’ warnings in Matthew 24, Paul’s in II Thessalonians 2, and the construction of the three-tiered system described in Revelation 13 are all taking shape before us. Yet, I reiterate that fatalism is certainly not the answer.

Scripture teaches that prayer, obedience and complete surrender to the Lord determines many outcomes. Surely God has the answers for our day just as he did for King Jehosophat when he faced seemingly overwhelming pagan foes (II Chronicles 20). He and the people of Judah were staring certain death in the eye but when he could have given up, turned tail and run, he heard the confidant and sure word of the Lord and stood fast. I believe the same is true today for us, the remnant, who refuse to let go of God’s precious Word in the face of hostile and mounting opposition. We may be about to experience some of the greatest victories ever granted by our supernatural and mighty God!