Following on from his article last week, Clifford Hill continues his response to the recent attacks in France.
The huge press coverage of the Paris atrocities and the vast chatter on social media does little more than demonstrate the confusion that has arisen. Neither journalists nor politicians know what to do and the church stays silent.
President Hollande declared to an assembly of French mayors that he is proud of the secularism of France which they will continue to defend by increasing their bombing of the Islamic State.1 David Cameron wants to join in the bombing and Nicola Sturgeon is reconsidering her position.
Meanwhile leaders of the Islamic State posted their views saying: "In a blessed battle whose causes of success were enabled by Allah, a group of believers from the soldiers of the Caliphate set out targeting the capital of prostitution and vice, the lead carrier of the cross in Europe – Paris...And Allah granted victory upon their hands and cast terror into the hearts of the Crusaders in their very own homeland."2
By contrast the Muslim Council of Great Britain took out full-page advertisements in national newspapers on 19 November stating: "The barbaric acts of Daesh (or ISIS as they are sometimes known) have no sanction in the religion of Islam, which forbids terrorism and the targeting of innocents."
So, Where Does the Truth Lie?
I have lived and worked among Muslims for most of my working life in London and I know that most Muslims are ordinary, decent, peace-loving people - but also that most of them know nothing of the history of Islam and have very little knowledge of the Koran. The young men of the Islamic State are following Muhammad as their example.
Muhammad advocated violence in the 'Second Pledge at Al-Aqabah' through which he unleashed violence against those who refused to accept his new religion. He also used Koran 9.5 which demands conversion on pain of death.
Muhammad himself carried out horrendous acts of cruelty especially against Jews, as in the slaughter of Banu Qurayza in April 627 AD. The whole town had already surrendered to him but Muhammad decided to slaughter all the adult males. Some 800 to 900 captives were beheaded, with Muhammad himself cutting off the heads of two of the Jewish elders. This was justified from the Koran "Some ye slew and ye made captive some. And he (Allah) caused you to inherit their land and their houses and their wealth, and land you have not trodden. Allah is ever able to do all things" (Koran 33.26–27).3
Whilst the proper interpretation of such quotations as the above remains hotly debated amongst scholars, the fact is that they are still being used today to justify killing. We have to leave it to the Muslim scholars to sort out the truth. Clearly they have a problem. The Koran defines me, a Christian, as an 'infidel' so I cannot help them; I can only urge them to study their history and the writings attributed to Muhammad and to define what is valid for today in the 21st century. There will be no peace in the world until they do this.
Why Has God Allowed This to Happen?
The Western nations and especially Europe have despised their Christian birthright and have deliberately embraced secular humanism and all forms of depraved hedonism. The Queen, at her Coronation in 1953, received a Bible and promised to "maintain the laws of God and the true profession of the gospel". At this time, our nation agreed before God to be, corporately, a Christian nation.
Since then, Britain has forced the Queen to sign laws that break these promises. We are now reaping what we have sown so we no longer have the protection of God over the nation. We have sown the wind and we are reaping the whirlwind. Only repentance and turning to God can make any difference.
In 1953, Britain agreed before God to be a Christian nation. Since then we have broken those promises – and we are now reaping what we have sown.
It may be that God is allowing thousands of Muslims to come into Europe as part of his judgement upon us. But God is able to turn judgement into blessing and already there are reports of hundreds of Muslim refugees accepting Jesus as Lord and Saviour. Europeans are being given the opportunity of witnessing to the truth by showing love and compassion to refugees from war.
In Britain we have made no attempt to teach immigrants the history of our nation and our great Judaeo-Christian heritage. We have not even insisted that they all speak English. This is sheer madness! It drives migrants into cultural ghettos like the suburbs of Paris. Immigration without integration spells disaster!
We have despised our godly heritage while at the same time allowing secular humanists to spread their teachings in our schools and universities and to change the laws of the land to accommodate their perversions of the truth. We have dropped the teaching of the Bible; and our churches have lost their prophetic mission to declare the truth fearlessly.
What Should We Do?
I am grateful to all those who put comments on my article published last Friday. It is so good to have open discussion on these issues that affect the whole nation. Everyone I speak to thinks what happened in Paris will happen in Britain and none of us really knows how to deal with the threat of terrorism - because it's nothing like conventional war. We are dealing with spiritual evil.
The threat to the nation is very real and Christians should be mobilising prayer. A good biblical example is in 2 Chronicles 20 when Jerusalem was threatened by a vast enemy army and the King called the whole nation to prayer which he led, calling upon God for help, "For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you."
The threat to this nation is very real and Christians should be mobilising prayer. God always answers a true prayer of faith, especially when it is accompanied by repentance.
This prayer was wonderfully answered when the enemy army destroyed themselves through internal dissension. God always answers a true prayer of faith: especially when it is accompanied by repentance for our waywardness.
References
1 Paris Attacks: president Hollande addresses French mayors' congress. Youtube video (running time 27:45), France 24.
2 Fisher, M. Here is ISIS' statement claiming responsibility for the Paris attacks. Vox, 24 November 2015.
3 MA Khan, 2011. Islamic Jihad: A Legacy of Forced Conversion, Imperialism and Slavery. iUniverse, p35. Full text available here for free (PDF download).
4 Basilan, M. Muslim refugees converting to Christianity in Berlin church. Christian Post, 8 September 2015.
