Islam’s Agenda and God’s Purpose
The advance of Islam in the West “is not by chance or coincidence, nor even through sheer weight of numbers,” says a writer in the Barnabas Fund magazine. “Rather, it is a deliberate and well-planned process.” This sounds like a conspiracy theory, but “there’s no plot,” says Anthony Browne in The Spectator. “Islam really does want to conquer the world. That’s because Muslims, unlike many Christians, actually believe they are right, and that their religion is the path to salvation for all.”
The Barnabas Fund magazine also states that “in 1980 the Islamic Council of Europe published a book called Muslim Communities in Non-Muslim States which clearly explained the Islamic agenda in Europe. . . . The ultimate goal of this strategy is that the Muslims should become a majority and the entire nation should be governed according to Islam.” Other Islamic sources point in the same direction. A Saudi Arabian embassy, says The Spectator, directs one to the home page of its Islamic Affairs Department, which says, “The Muslims are required to raise the banner of jihad in order to make the Word of Allah supreme in this world”.
Even Dr Badawi, the former director of the Islamic Cultural Centre in London, who is regarded as a moderate, has said, “Islam is a universal religion. It hopes that one day the whole of humanity will be one Muslim community.” Already, according to The Spectator, Islam is the second religion in the USA, Australia and Europe. In Britain, attendance at mosques is higher than it is in the Church of England.
But the Lord reigns. He shall yet say to Islam, “Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed” (Job 38:11). Not only so, but He will say to His own Church, “Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes; for thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left” (Is 54:2,3). It is God’s purpose and not Islam’s programme which will prevail.
NMR
Perverse Christianity
A measure of the growing power of the homosexual movement is the capitulation of sections of the Christian church to its demands. Although it is not legal for couples of the same sex to marry, a Church of Scotland minister, Rev Iain Whyte, is reported to have officiated at a same-sex “wedding” in Edinburgh in July. Two men, who wanted a Christian ceremony, made marriage vows before him, and he “blessed” the union. Last month two women in Inverness had a similar “wedding ceremony”, but the name of the minister who officiated and gave the ceremony his blessing has not been released.
A Church of Scotland spokesman said after the Edinburgh ceremony that the General Assembly has declined to forbid giving a ministerial blessing at same-sex ceremonies. How shameful that our national Church should lead the way in giving them the stamp of moral approval!
We note also that Alpha course leaders in the UK are in talks with the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement about enrolling more homosexuals, but the Movement requires courses to “avoid discussion about issues where people may have differences”. Alpha USA has already said that “homosexuals can be Christians whilst remaining active homosexuals”.
In whatever way one may define this kind of Christianity, it is not that of the Bible. Scripture is unequivocal in its condemnation of such unnatural and perverse conduct. To be a true Christian one must “repent and believe the gospel”. Therefore, if such people are to be Christians, they must, as God requires, repent of, and renounce, such conduct, as did some of the Corinthians in the days of the Apostle Paul. “Such were some of you,” he told them, “but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor 6:10,11). NMR
“The Classroom of History”
The above title of the concluding chapter in Steve Taylor’s The Skye Revivals (published in 2003) rightly reminds us of the important principle that we should learn from the records of the past. It is said of the inspired historical writing of Scripture that “all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come” (1 Cor 10:11). We are also to apply the interpretative principles of the Bible to the history of later times and seek to profit from the experiences of mankind and especially of God’s people in the past. Nothing less can be expected of those who believe that history is the outworking of the purposes of God – that it is, in the phrase popularised by Jonathan Edwards, “the history of redemption”.
Mr Taylor’s popularly-written account of some chapters in the history of Evangelical religion in Skye in the nineteenth century brings together the fruit of his reading and research. He presents his narrative in an interesting and largely-factual and sympathetic manner. When he does speculate or comment he occasionally reveals the angle from which he is coming, as is the case with most writing of this kind, since presuppositions do influence conclusions. We are not aware of Mr Taylor’s ecclesiastical affiliation, but his concluding chapter indicates that he has read the history of Skye through the tinted spectacles of the modern charismatic. He bemoans “dead formalism” and the “many churches that are devoid of the freshness and freedom that the Holy Spirit brings”, but seems to explain this in terms of suppression of culture; “Sabbatarianism”; repudiation of the “gifts of the Spirit”, especially “prophecy”; opposition to phenomena which sometimes accompanied awakenings; and the substitution of legalism for grace.
The lack of historical and theological perspective in the conclusions of this book – shared with many others who should know better – is illustrated, for example, in the author’s tendency to equate the experiences of modern charismatics with those of the godly ministers and people of whom he writes. This may be partly explained by their use of terminology, regarding which they would exercise more caution in today’s religious climate, but mainly by a failure to appreciate the true nature of the experiences which they recounted. The failure to acknowledge the fundamental relation between theology and practice and experience is seen in the author’s conclusion that it is ironic that a (Calvinistic) minister, who considered that he had experienced revival under his own ministry in Skye, should have criticised the (Arminian) revival movement associated with Duncan Campbell and the Faith Mission in Lewis. It is seen in the conclusion that this was because “theological prejudice knows no bounds”.
Spending time in “the classroom of history”, with the Holy Spirit as our teacher and the Bible as our textbook, will certainly lead us to bemoan the degeneracy and apostasy of modern Scottish Christianity and the absence, even where the gospel is, of spiritual power in general, as compared with former days of spiritual prosperity. But it will also let us see that the remedy is not along the lines of desiring the “charismata” which characterise much current bankrupt Evangelicalism. These “charismata” are not to be compared with the fruit of the Spirit which accompanies His reviving work in the souls and communities of His people. “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither His ear heavy, that it cannot hear: but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear” (Is 59:1,2). There is also the solemn truth of Ezekiel 14:14: “Though these three men, Noah, Daniel and Job were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord God”. It is for the Lord’s people to seek grace to repent and to “live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world” (Titus 2:12) and to wait upon the Lord in the spirit of the psalmist: “Wilt thou be angry with us for ever? Wilt Thou draw out Thine anger to all generations? Wilt Thou not revive us again: that Thy people may rejoice in Thee?” (Ps 85:5,6). HMC
Sabbatarianism
“Sabbatarianism” is a word generally used with strong undertones of disapproval. The perpetuity of the Sabbath as a creation ordinance, as a requirement of the moral law and as a day subject to the Lordship of Christ in the interests of mankind – and its transference from the seventh to the first day of the week with all the implications of this fact for the manner in which the Lord’s Day is to be observed – are principles to which most sit loose who profess regard for the Bible today. Steve Taylor in The Skye Revivals presents a typical caricature of Sabbath observance, equating it with the hypocritical legalism of the Pharisees and regarding it as a “thorny issue” which “has continued to plague Evangelicalism in the Highlands and Islands”. He disposes of it by an irrelevant reference to Colossians 2:16, which refers to Jewish festivals and not to the weekly Sabbath.
Some time ago Rutherford House published a booklet, The Lord’s Day in a Secular Society, intended “to challenge Christian people to think seriously about their use of the Lord’s Day, and to ask them if they are fully persuaded in their own minds from Holy Scripture that their lifestyle and family patterns are founded firmly on the Word of God, recognising His gracious purposes for His people”. However, there was no desire “to foist one particular view upon today’s Evangelical Christians” and the booklet offers “two different viewpoints in the prayerful hope that readers will find each author presenting an understanding of the Bible’s teaching which will enable them to focus more clearly on their own attitudes and practices”.
In the first part, “Why I love the Lord’s Day”, Douglas Kelly helpfully points out “the dangers of splitting the Lord’s Day from its true home in the original, universal Sabbath” and shows the influence of the Sabbath in promoting the worship of God, bringing blessing to the whole of life and hindering the progress of secularism, with all that means for individuals, homes and society. In the second part, “Sabbath and Sunday in a Secular Society”, Graham Dickson denies that the Sabbath is a creation ordinance and that its principle applies exclusively to the first day of the week. He claims that “a change is as good as a rest” and that, for those in sedentary occupations, playing sport or digging the garden might be “just the right kind of Sabbath activity”. While he regrets, for social reasons, the loss of a recognised day of rest he sees no reason to insist that one day be the day of rest and of worship.
More recently The Evangelical Magazine, July/August 2004, follows a similar pattern. One article, “The Right Use of the Lord’s Day”, by Stuart Olyott, argues from the Bible for the Christian Sabbath as “a holy resting from one set of objectives so that we can pursue some very different objectives”. Another article, “The Lord’s Day – an Abiding Sabbath?” by Peter Baker, basically argues that a particular approach on matters such as sport on the Lord’s Day, “whether sabbatarian or libertarian, like so much else in our glorious cultural heritage in Protestant, Reformed Wales, is a non-essential – a non-essential that we can spend far too much time arguing about when there are more important battles to fight”.
Certainly, legalists may use the Fourth Commandment, as they use other commandments, in a vain endeavour to secure their own salvation by works of righteousness which they have done. But, as with all the revealed will of God, the endeavour of those who are saved by grace must be to manifest their love to the Lord their God by hallowing the Sabbath Day according to the pattern shown in His Word. It is to the godly in gospel times these words are especially addressed: “If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour Him, not doing thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord” (Is 58:13,14). The absence of Sabbath observance in the churches today is indicative of the low state of religion and of delight in the God of holiness and grace. The Sabbath has always come into its own in times of true spiritual revival and will do so again. Let us value our heritage and seek to keep the Sabbath in spirit and in truth as “the pearl of days”. HMC