Those who know me would probably tell you that I can be stubborn, opinionated, impatient and...fill in the blanks!  I have all those qualities to my personality.  However, I don’t think my friends would say I have a hard heart, am a hypocrite or care nothing about the less fortunate, including the “widows and orphans” the President says are coming to our shores by the thousands.  Recently, a post stated that any professing Christian who questions the wisdom of bringing in these displaced people from countries that house and promote Islamic terrorism, is a hypocrite, and worse.  To do so, they contend, judges the faith tenets of another religion, generalizes the violence of some to all those who follow that faith, and does not reflect the mind and heart of Christ.   A comment to the post replied by suggesting that at their core, Islamic beliefs and those of the Christian, are the same!   

What I do NOT understand is when Believers react in the same way! 

I am convinced that at the heart of every issue we face in this country is a spiritual solution.  However, I doubt that the Church, the Body of Believers, is sure enough of what they believe, what they stand for, and who they are to be a force in such a solution. Or maybe we are just too timid to speak Truth because we might be attacked verbally, or Heaven Forbid! Get negative slams on FB!

Well, here goes!  

Christians absolutely cannot put Islam on the same level with Christianity, as was  suggested, by the writer who commented on the similarity of Islamic core beliefs and those of Christianity.  Sadly, many “Christians” argue that, as well.  Nabeel Qureshi, a former devout Muslim, knows better.  !n his book, Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus, Qureshi embraced the truth through a college roommate.  He says, among many other discoveries, “I realized I had missed the big picture. The Bible and the Quran were nothing alike.”

Christianity teaches a God who came to earth in human form as Jesus Christ, who died on a cross to forgive the debt of sin we all have; a God who rose from the dead in bodily form.  Christianity teaches that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life.  Jesus Himself said “NO man (or woman) comes to the Father but through me!”  Jesus said again and again throughout His ministry that He and the Father are One.  Jesus proved His Divinity when he rose bodily from the dead, and offers eternal life to anyone who will have faith. (Read just a little of the book of John for the Truth of what I just said!)

Our God died for the very ones He created, the very ones who betrayed him, and betray Him now.  Real Truth is found ONLY in the mystery of the God-Man. That is the core belief of Christianity.  And if we do not hold with that foundational doctrine, we can call ourselves anything we want to, but we are not Christians.  

(I John 4:14-15)

Islam teaches none of this.  Islam believes none of this.  Islam recognizes Jesus as a human prophet; yet even so, Mohammed is the greater prophet.  Islam does not believe Jesus died on the cross.  Islam rejects the bodily resurrection of Christ. 

Islam does not receive Jesus as God Incarnate. And Allah requires the extermination of those he calls Apostates: Jews and Christians.  A command that Islamists take very seriously as we see today.

As a true believer in Jesus, I can make a judgment.  Islam is a false religion that is enslaving nations of people by deception. Does that make me a hater of the Muslim people?  NO!  It simply makes me a speaker of Truth.  It makes me sad to see the results a teaching can have on the lives of it followers. Jesus says “The Truth will set you free!”  I pray for the Muslims.  I cannot, however, compromise the truth of salvation because I might be called a “hater”!  If I truly care about a Muslim person, or anyone who is being deceived, I want them to know there is ONLY one who can save them.  And His name is not Allah.  (John 17:3)

Jesus spoke many warnings about false teachers during his ministry. Jesus saw false teaching as a tool of Satan.   Jesus loves sinners;  but He never compromised the Truth for love. Indeed, it was Truth that drove Him to the Cross.  God’s love cannot be separated from His truth.  Jesus is the Living Word. And the Word is Truth. ( John 1:1-5) 

It may shock you when I say that Jesus did not come to unify people. His entire mission was to call out a people.  To set them aside.  Throughout His ministry, Jesus spoke in separation terms...separating the wheat from the shaft, the bad soil from the good soil, the sheep from the goats. And is there a greater symbol of separation than the Cross of Jesus?  Everyone is either on one side or the other.  The Cross is the eternal separator.   

Jesus wanted unity among believers.  In 1John 4:7 Jesus commands believers to love other believers.  Unity among believers, that was what Christ taught. 

Jesus is the answer to those who cannot bring peace to their own hearts.  Jesus is the answer to those who feel powerless and hopeless. He calls out to those of us who know Him to feed the hungry, clothe the naked.  But we give them no more than food stamps do, or local food banks if we do not give them the truth of God. John 6:27 says,”Labor not for the meat which perishes, but for that meat which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give to you:  for him has God the Father sealed.” 

The food for which humanity is starving will never be found in anything or anyone other than the Savior of the World. Jesus wants to save them, to give them a new heart and a new life.  He will not behead them if they reject him.  

So... I will not be discouraged by FB posts from those who do not know THE Lord.  The day will come.  And I will not be silenced by those who do not know THE Truth.  I speak to the Glory of God.  His pleasure and approval is that I seek. Should it not be yours, fellow Believer? 

In the words of an unknown speaker:  “The early disciples were fishers of men, while modern disciples are often little more than aquarium keepers.”