November 28, 2016

What if You are Wrong About Islam?

If you think all Muslims are terrorists, you are wrong.  There are some Muslims who would like to live in peace, who do not hate people, who are not part of Islam, and who would like some distance between themselves and the majority of Islam.  The problem is that the percentage of these peaceful people is very small compared to the whole.  We have been lied to, brain-washed, and fooled into believing that it is a religion of peace.  We are told that the percentage of violent Muslims is very small, but the truth is that their number is very large. 

Some of those who spread the lies about a peaceful Islam do it because of politics.  It isn’t popular in our culture to tell the truth.  Others are just ignorant and far too lazy to do their own research.  The violent Muslim crowd is thrilled with people who are so gullible.  The liberal crowd is happy to give them a pass because it is one more way for them to buy votes.  The saddest thing of all is that popular evangelicals and pseudo-intellectuals actually support the tragic idea that Islam is just another religion.  

The one goal of this article is to get every reader working to do his own study and to challenge the false ideas being passed around like ice cream at a church picnic. 

SO, WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?

The first group is the active terrorists, including ISIS.  They are violent, inhumane, and eager to kill anyone who does not believe as they believe.  Compared to the whole, this category is not very large.  They represent the military aspect of Islam.  The second group would be those terrorist groups like Hezbollah and the Brotherhood.  They are not as active as the others, but are hateful and violent.  They hide under the radar and pretend to be peaceful.  Their violence, however, is practiced in the midst of peaceful people.  This category is not very large either. 

The majority of Islam would fall in the next level.  These are active Muslims who believe and practice hate, violence, and inhumane acts against anyone who is not a Muslim.  They refer to them as infidels.  It makes no difference whether they are Jews, Christians, or secular; they are infidels.  Active Muslims are free to create mayhem against infidels, depending on how much power they have.  In countries where Islam is in control, violence is a daily practice.  It is the law.  No one can name one country where Islam is a majority and where there is freedom or peace for infidels.  Their brutality rises as they gain power and control.  This can be seen clearly in some European countries at this very moment. 

In our nation, this majority group continues to claim respectability, while at the same time there are indications of the role they will play in the future.  The early signs of violence and radicalism are here, and we can see their true motive.  Note their “demands” that their ideas must be followed, including Sharia Law.  Anything that offends them must be removed from public view. The cry for Sharia law becomes louder by the day.  Even now they demand privileges that are not extended to others in this country. 

This group, with their potential for violence as required by their belief, has entered the halls of Congress and even the White House!  This category is far more dangerous than ISIS.  Lying is a practice that is expected, particularly if it is to an infidel.  In this huge part of Islam, women are viewed as property and animals, less than human.  Little girls are brutalized and treated as toys. 
Let me remind you that we will be told by ignorant peoples, and by those who lie, that these cruel things are far and few between, even when the opposite is true.  It is a way of life.   Those Muslims who desire a peaceful life and who might want to be good neighbors, or even to be honest with us, are few and far between.

IT IS THE LAW

I have before me a copy of the Quran.  I am not an expert in this subject but have learned in an extensive study of hermeneutics to be able to recognize true meaning in all languages by the normal use of language rules. 

This book clearly says that any Muslim who is friendly with a Jew, Christian, or other infidel is to be killed.  They might pretend to be friendly, but those people are obligated to kill the infidels when the time comes, or else they themselves are to be killed.  The lie about a peaceful religion will not stand, even if you are referring to those who are peaceful at the moment.  The Quran clearly identifies Islam as a religion of terror.  Do your own study, read it for yourself.  (3:151; 8:12; 8:60; 33:26; 59:2; 59:13) [Editor's note: See comment #1 in thread below for citation of these verses.]

Read what happens to someone who converts to another religion or someone who will not convert to Islam.  Converts are won, and they are kept - by fear, hate, violence and intimidation. Read about cruelty and torture.  Read about the abuse of women, dismemberment, beheading, and horrible treatment of infidels.  This is the majority of Islam, because that is the law.  If you can read this and still think it is a religion of peace, you deserve what is coming to this country.

COMPARE THIS

If I witness to you about your need for salvation in Christ and you refuse it, you go on your way to face God alone in judgment.  You need have no fear of me because of your rejection.  If, however, you are offered the choice of conversion to Islam and you refuse, no matter who you are, you are an infidel, and that person is commanded to kill you.  In Islam, the sons are sent out to commit suicide and kill as many people as they can.  In Biblical Christianity, God sent His Son to die on the cross so that many sons could live.

Those who claim peace for the majority of Islam must know very little about the history of this religion.  They must know very little about what Muslims are commanded to do.  They must not be reading about the brutal killing of Christians every day in this world by the Muslim majority.  I was told yesterday that hundreds of believers are killed every week by majority Muslims.  They must not know about the burning, beheading, drowning, beating, and death published in the news on a daily basis. 

To blaspheme, mock, or speak ill of the Quran will get you the death penalty.  On the other hand, Islam can reject and make fun of Christianity, and that is fine.  What if you are wrong about Islam?  I can tell you that you are wrong if you haven’t taken time to study why the majority of this religion is not peaceful.


Shepherds Staff if prepared by Clay Nuttall, D. Min.

A communication service of Shepherds Basic Care, for those committed to the authority and sufficiency of the Bible. Shepherds Basic care is a ministry of information and encouragement to pastors, missionaries and churches. Write for information using the email address shepherdstaff2@juno.com or Shepherd'sStaff

November 1, 2016

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep by Clay Nuttall

The book of The Revelation of Jesus Christ opens with a sobering description of our glorious Lord.  It is followed by messages to the pastors of each of the seven churches.  These were literal churches that existed in that day.  The meaning of each name reveals a good deal about what each church looked like.  In our day, there are churches that exhibit some of these characteristics.  While the text does not prophesy future historic periods, it takes only an elementary understanding of history to see that these names clearly identify each period from the early church to this very day.
 
The Laodicean church identifies with “the rights of the people.”  It is the “lukewarm” church.  It is also interesting that this is the church that is caught away from the earth.  That is evident from chapter four in that there is no mention of the church on earth during the following seven years.
 
This is the Laodicean age, the period of the lukewarm church when the church has fallen asleep at the wheel.  It possesses a lot of things and is very busy.  The essential things, however, appear to be missing.  There is snoring and plenty of noise, but it is snoozing spiritually.
 
WHERE IS THE BOOK?
 
The majority of professing Christians hardly ever pick up their Bibles, either electronic or printed.  For some, it's only once a week when they go to what is called “church.”  In most churches, the book is never even needed.  Personal Bible study is an unusual activity for most Christians, and serious Bible study in most churches has become a thing of the past.  For the minority that still have more than one meeting a week that might include any study, the time is short - just a God token.  If it is serious Bible study, perhaps a total of little more than one hour a week would be a stretch for most of today's churches.
 
Many of the current Laodicean churches provide only one service a week, and the amount of biblical truth provided in it could be put in a thimble.  If there are other meetings, they probably represent less than ten percent participation of the whole group.  This is exacerbated by the fact that, in most of these churches, more error is taught than truth.
 
This is the age of the goat church.  It would have been difficult to find any unsaved person in any of the early local churches.  On the other hand, in this lukewarm age it might be difficult to find any true believers in the entertainment church.  This is due in part to the fact that so few of these churches have leaders who actually know the Bible although they, of course, know about the Bible.  Note that when one of these leaders tells us that authoritative truth about God isn’t limited to the Bible, the crowds cheer.  Anything to make the Bible say what they want it to say.  You may not like them being described as goats, but if they look, smell, act, eat, and socialize like goats, what else might you call them?
 
The millennial age is the quintessential Laodicean church - forget a sovereign God and the authority of the Scriptures.  It despises the very message they need.  The “rights of the people” demand that we stop quoting God about sin.  They are asleep in the pseudo-love church.  God's love demands holiness, and that is the most hated doctrine of the current church of Laodicea.
 
WHERE IS THE CHURCH?
 
Many of these groups will not use the word “church,” particularly as part of their name.  In most cases, that is good since they really aren’t churches anyway!
 
A biblical church is a “family” with a local resident headship.  How can you have a core family when its members are in the same home only once a week?  How can you be a family when most of the members never function to the benefit of the family unit?  They are brothers and sisters only if God is their Heavenly Father.  God intended that every true believer should be part of a local church.  There are a hundred reasons why this is necessary. The local church is definitely Christ’s clear plan for this church age.
 
A biblical local church is a flock for sheep, with a local resident shepherd to lead the flock with all the implications of the illustration.  The loose affiliation of the Laodicean church certainly does not represent this picture, and that is why the individuals in these gatherings are so easily gobbled up by wolves who teach error.  False teachers in this lukewarm age can draw great crowds and have massive organizations because the people of this age know so little of what the Bible teaches about a holy God.     
 
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears.  (II Timothy 4:3)
 
The biblical local church is a body.  The present Laodicean church hardly represents a body, but is more like a pile of bones.  A healthy body would expect its members to function well and to do the things that are expected of each specific member.
 
Take an honest look around you.  There are many groups who call themselves a church, but where is the evidence?  There once were many churches that demonstrated the power of the gospel, but now many of them are gone.  Others have little spiritual power - not enough power to blow the nose of a flea!  What happened?  It is the age of lukewarm, and they are asleep.
 
THE GOOD NEWS
 
Take heart, however.  There are a few churches that look and sound like Ephesus (desired).  Some churches I know are going through suffering (Smyrna), and there are actually some Philadelphia churches (brotherly love).  There are churches where biblical preaching is the center of the ministry.  The idea that true believers are not interested in preaching that represents true doctrine is absolutely false.  Goats hate it, but true believers love feasting on the green grass every Lord’s Day.  They even have spiritual stomach upset when the “food” is ill- prepared and (God forbid) boring.
 
There are fellowships that act like a family, where the members long to be together. They care for one another and bear each other’s burdens.  They share in the sorrow of the home-going of the elderly and join in the joy of new babes born to the young.  These churches love to worship “in spirit and in truth” where God, and not man, is honored.  They feel safe in a congregation where sin is not welcome, but where the repentant sinner is comforted.
 
Do you know churches like that?
 
 
Shepherd’s Staff is prepared by Clay Nuttall, D. Min.
 
A communication service of Shepherd’s Basic Care, for those committed to the authority and sufficiency of the Bible.  Shepherd’s Basic Care is a ministry of information and encouragement to pastors, missionaries, and churches.  Write for information using the e-mail address shepherdstaff2@juno.com or the Shepherd’s Staff.