Greetings, this is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a moment of truth where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith. Today, how should Christians respond to Islam, in particular aggressive and militant Islam, in the wake of the Orlando shootings in which Omar Mateen, a second-generation Muslim who had pledged his allegiance to ISIS, that is the Islamic State in Syria, killed 49 and severely wounded 53 at the gay nightclub Pulse in Orlando.

Since then, thousands of Christians experience an inner conflict to turn the other cheek and witness to the gospel and maybe another impulse to strike in revenge or at least self-defense. Which is right? Which is wrong? Are they mutually exclusive? You'd better think through these issues, dear Christian, and you'd better think through them clearly because we are going to be facing Islam as an increasingly militant force in our country for the foreseeable future.

You will be facing these issues. Islamic terror events will multiply and Muslims will only feel emboldened by a passive and ignorant Christian majority. You will find no protection and relief from government corridors either. This administration cannot protect us. This administration has worked closely, in fact, with the Muslim Brotherhood and Saudi Arabia to arm and assist ISIS in its conquests in Egypt.

Remember the so-called Arab Spring when a radical Islamist overthrew President Hosni Mubarak's government in Egypt? They've also tried to do the same in Libya, Iraq, and now Syria. Obama is living as if he is a radical Muslim, if he is not one in reality, and he has aided and abetted our enemies as they slaughter our brothers and sisters, crucifying them, burning them, cutting off their heads. This administration has supplied ISIS with arms and military intelligence under the foolish illusion that ISIS is better than the dictators they replace.

Now, even, our own troops are facing an enemy equipped with weapons that are the best the world has to offer. That is, our own weapons given to ISIS. What does that have to do with us, you might say? Let them kill themselves over there. It doesn't affect me here.

Au contraire, dear listener, Omar Mateen, dedicated himself to ISIS before he went on his rampage. The existence of a pure Islamic state, you must realize the effect of a pure Islamic state, now extant in the world, a growing new caliphate, is that to which every Muslim aspires. Read the Quran, read and understand Islam. And the Obama-aided and abetted enemy of the United States of America, the Islamic state in Syria, is precisely that today. And it will continue, ISIS will.

ISIS will continue to serve as a beacon and model for future shooters in America, which we have in increasing measure because Obama has also flooded our own borders with radical Muslims from Syria, the so-called refugees, the majority of whom are veterans of the failed coup in Syria to overthrow President Assad. An estimated 80 percent of these so-called refugees are precisely that, veterans of the failed military coup to overthrow President Assad. So, dear listener, dear Christian, gird up your loins as Gideon would exhort you. That's a biblical metaphor from an Old Testament judge to prepare for battle.

And, dear listener, know how you should think and act now before all these things transpire because these things are no longer at your doorstep, but they're here. How should then the 21st century church in the West respond to Islam? Number one, we must respond with the truth of Christ. We must respond with the truth of Christ. Islam is not a companion religion to Christianity.

Islam is not one of the three great monotheistic religions of the world. Islam and Christianity do not have shared truths to serve as common ground. Yahweh of the Bible and Allah of the Quran are not different names and different revelation of the same deity. This is all weak, sniveling drivel from teachers whose desire is to compromise and go along, to get along, even if it means giving away all of the essential truths of the biblical faith, even if it means giving away the store completely to Islam. Islam and Christianity are opposite, diametrically opposed religions 180 degrees in opposition to one another.

For example, Yahweh Elohim is the alone, self-revealed God of the universe. As the Bible puts it in Isaiah, I am the Lord and there is no other. Besides me, there is no God, unquote. Allah, however, is actually one of the 360 gods of the old polytheistic system of the Quraysh tribe on the Arabian Peninsula from which Muhammad derived. It was not until Muhammad returned from exile in Medina back to Mecca and he cleared out the remaining 359 gods that had remained from the shrine of the Kaaba stone that Allah was fully and finally established to be the only God of Islam.

And of course, in the Quran, as Muhammad puts it, there is now no God but Allah. Also, the conceptions of Jesus are mutually exclusive in Islam and Christianity. Both books, the Bible and the Quran speak of Jesus, but they are mutually exclusive pictures of him. The Bible says there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved, unquote. John also says in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.

This runs counter to Islam. And also then 1 Timothy chapter 2 says, for there is one God and there was one mediator between God and men, that is the man Christ Jesus, unquote. In the completely 180 degree different direction, the Quran teaches that Jesus is not divine, nor is he the son of God. Surah number 9, for example, says, the Christians call Christ the son of God. Allah's curse be upon them.

The Surah number 19, verse 34 also said, it is not befitting that he should beget a son, that is Allah. And then, of course, Muslims portray Jesus as just another one of the prophets like Muhammad in the line of other prophets like Moses and Elijah. Also, the means of the salvation in Islam and Christianity could not be more different. This is another reason we must bring the truth of Christ, because the means of salvation in these respective religions, Christianity and Islam, could not be more different. The Bible tells us, for by grace you have been saved through faith.

And this even, that is the faith with which we appropriate grace, is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, Paul says, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. We also know of Jesus, as Peter says, he himself, that is Christ himself, bore our sins in his body on the tree, that is the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness, unquote. But in stark contrast to this grace, this abundant grace that God gives, Islam inculcates salvation by a man's own works, the highest work of which, of course, is jihad. Correct.

Surah number five, verse nine says, to those who believe and do deeds of righteousness, that is good works, Allah has promised forgiveness and a great reward, unquote. And then, of course, the most famous Surah number three, verse 157, says this about jihad, if you are slain or die in the way of Allah, forgiveness and mercy from Allah are far better than all they could amass, unquote. So jihad becomes the highest and the most guaranteed way of getting to paradise.

And then Surah number four says, of Christ and his crucifixion, that they, that is the Jews, said in boast, we killed Christ Jesus, the son of Mary, the messenger of Allah, but they killed him not, nor crucified him, unquote. So they deny the crucifixion, the resurrection, and the death of Jesus. Our pluralistic, tolerant, diverse apostles of compromise will try to persuade you and the world that religious common ground can be found between the two religions. And therefore, we should be open to dialogue and compromise. All such advocates are by definition care more about that compromise than they do the truth of Christ.

We must hold forth the truth of Christ because in the end, only that truth will save. Even Jesus himself said in John chapter eight, if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. That truth and its liberating effect is conditional. It is conditional on abiding in Christ's word. So be fearless and determined, dear Christian, hold forth Christ's truth.

Only by articulating clear biblical truth will Islam be shown in sharp contrast for the false hate-filled religion that it is at heart. And this brings me then to my second point, the heart. With the love of Christ, we must meet Islam with the love of Christ. All of us must be loving ambassadors for Christ and his gospel. We are commissioned to be so now.

Second Corinthians chapter five says this of us, all this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That is in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you and we implore all of you Muslims. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

Yes, dear listener, that is our job. Now we must bring the love of Christ to the Muslim. We must remember that Muslims are what we once were, that is separated from Christ, lost and perishing without Christ. Paul says in Ephesians 2, remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world, unquote. So even in the midst of their savage butchery, Muslims can be humbled to see the love of God.

Romans 5 says, and Paul says, God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. That's grace, dear listener. We are obliged to show this grace in word and deed to all wherever and however possible. When we are persecuted and slain and reviled, we are to nevertheless love those who are our enemies. Jesus says, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

And there are ample opportunities to do this in the context of a religion that converts by the sword, a religion that forcibly humiliates those who submit to them, and a religion who sees love and doing good to an enemy as a weakness. That is Islam. So many of our brothers and sisters have followed Christ's example. However, in their deaths, who, as Peter says, when he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When Christ suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.

Instead, our brothers in Christ have prayed with Christ, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. So in the proper time and context, this is important. In the proper time and context, I pray that I could respond in this same manner. But this response, which is often called the pietistic or Anabaptist response, after the tradition of nonviolence as the absolute and only way for a Christian to behave is not the only response for a Christian to Islam. This Anabaptist or pietistic response is not the only response for a Christian to Islam.

No, not in every circumstance. Because number three, the Christian must also respond to Islam with appropriate personal self-defense. There are times indeed when the Christian must respond to Islam with appropriate personal self-defense. The pietistic response of nonviolence and pacifism is not an absolute response, only in certain contexts. Christians are very ignorant of their own biblical right to self-defense and bearing arms, dear listener.

And this is because, very important, this is because of the general ignorance of covenant in the life of the Christian. Covenants are the great economies of God by which he deals with man. We know economies in the society of man and how they distribute goods and services, don't we? A feudal economy in which a lord ruled over a tract of land and had vassals labor under him with a series of princes and kings in ascending order over them. There's also a capitalist economy in which goods and services are distributed in an open, free market where each man is rewarded according to his own gifts, talents, and industry.

And then, of course, there is also a socialist economy in which goods and services are distributed by the state, as Mark says, from each according to his abilities to each according to his need, unquote. Well then, God also has an economy by which he distributes things like justice and love, mercy and wrath, blessing and curse, and punishment and peace. That economy by which he distributes these things is covenant. There is no other economy. For example, dispensationalism is a false economy created in the recent past by teachers who are in grave error.

The Bible gives us four great covenants by which God deals with man. Those four covenants are, number one, the covenant of creation. The covenant of creation. We see even in the structure of Genesis 1, the very shape of an ancient suzerain vassal covenant, with God being the suzerain and Adam and Eve and all their progeny being the vassals. There is also, secondly, the covenant of marriage.

This covenant is that established in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve providing the economy of interpersonal blessing between God and his creatures and their progeny. Thirdly, there is also the covenant of redemption, or it's often called the covenant of grace as well. This covenant of redemption or grace is that covenant between God and his son and his church by which lost and fallen man would be redeemed. In it, we find salvation by grace through faith in the life of the church, the covenant of redemption or grace. Then the fourth great covenant that God has made with man is the civil covenant.

Very important to keep in mind. This is that covenant established in Genesis by which fallen man would govern temporal affairs amongst his fellow man, and that he would do it with justice and mercy. So, under these great covenants, four of them, all of man's actions can be determined in a godly fashion, depending upon the covenant under which they fall. So, with biblical wisdom, we can know when and where a particular action falls and how we are to respond, therefore. This is the purpose of the wisdom literature, for example, to teach us when and where we are to execute a particular act.

From Ecclesiastes chapter 3, verses 1 through 8, we read, for everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven, a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to pluck up what is planted, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to break down and a time to build up, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to seek and a time to lose, a time to keep and a time to cast away, a time to tear and a time to sow, a time to keep silence and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.

Unquote. Wisdom from Ecclesiastes chapter three. So as you can see, there is no absolute prescription for any particular behavior as the Anabaptist pacifistic school understands it. Rather, the man of biblical wisdom knows when the appropriate time to defend himself arises and when he should turn the other cheek when persecuted. There is a time for both of these actions and the key to understanding our right to self-defense or any other act for that matter.

The key to understanding our right to self-defense is understanding under which covenant we are acting then in true biblical wisdom. For example, the entire Sermon on the Mount is an explication and illustration of how the Christian behaves under the covenant of redemption and grace. The entire Sermon on the Mount under the covenant of redemption and grace. This is, of course, where we find Jesus exhorting us to love your enemies. When we are dealing with the salvation of souls and the presentation of the gospel, this is how we are to behave.

But when it comes to defending ourselves, our families, and our communities against robbers and murderers, predators, and Muslim aggressors, we must understand that we are acting according to the civil covenant and its understanding. This is where the entire Second Amendment debate falls for the Christian, under the civil covenant. To respond with response is meant for the covenant of redemption or grace, things like turning the other cheek, loving the rapist, even as he's raping your wife. When the action demands a response under the civil covenant, it's foolish.

It's not only foolish, it's the opposite of wise, but it is very destructive too. If Christians had even a scintilla of understanding of the covenant structure of God's dealings with man, they would understand why our founding fathers saw the Second Amendment as a God-given right that cannot be taken away. And it is not a government-granted privilege that can be extended or withdrawn at the whim of a tyrant. The Christian must be prepared to meet the aggressive Muslim with force in order to defend himself, his family, and his community. The civil covenant demands it.

To think that our police and government institutions will do this is utterly ludicrous and foolish in the extreme. Please tell this to the communities of Orlando and San Bernardino recently, right? In the Bible, for example, we see a number of principles operative for self-defense under the civil covenant. First of all, we see, number one, the civil covenant requires the protection of the vulnerable amongst us. The Bible is replete with the information that the civil covenant requires the protection of the vulnerable amongst us.

Oh, I speak to men now. Men, our wives, children, and elderly are those requiring protection. In addition to those classic groups mentioned by the Bible, that is the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. The Bible tells us in Proverbs chapter 24, rescue those being led away to death. Hold back those staggering towards slaughter.

If you say, we knew nothing of this, does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who guards your life know it? Will he not repay each person according to what he has done? Oh, from Proverbs chapter 24. Secondly, the civil covenant also requires a citizen soldier.

The civil covenant also requires a citizen soldier. Whenever Israel was threatened by an enemy, an external enemy like the Philistines, or perhaps an internal enemy like the rebellious tribe of Benjamin in the book of Judges, all of the men of Israel were called up in a citizen's militia. This principle, our founding fathers recognized, they ensconced it in the Second Amendment, which reads in part, a well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, right? The civil covenant requires a citizen soldier. Thirdly, as well, the civil covenant requires an armed citizenry.

The Bible is very clear. The civil covenant requires an armed citizenry. Ergo, the Second Amendment. When an enemy faced Israel, the shout went up. Even as David called, every man strapped on his sword.

Every man was to be armed if the citizen militia was to be effective. This too is reflected in our constitution because of the need for a well-regulated militia. The Second Amendment says, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed, unquote. And this doesn't mean that guns should be stored in armories for distribution in times of war and crisis, as the progressives maintain. No, this means that guns should be in the possession of the average citizen for their own personal use and protection.

The possession of arms in the ancient world was ubiquitous too. Every Israelite was expected to own one, not only for his place in the citizen army, but also for his own protection of family and property and that of the property and life of his neighbor too. We have, for example, reflections in the rabbinical literature, that is the Jewish Talmud, that by extension in Old Testament law, if a neighbor was expected to lift a fallen ox from a ditch, even though the neighbor was not there, well then, by extension, he must also seize by the sword the thief who was breaking into his neighbor's home, though the neighbor was not there.

Oh, dear listener, how necessary it is for the Christian to understand God's economy of covenant if he is to meet the very real Islamic threat to our nation. Of the four great covenants under which can be subsumed our entire menu of choices for human behavior, those four great covenants, the covenant of creation, the marriage covenant, the covenant of redemption or grace, and the civil covenant, our response to aggressive Islam falls under that of the civil covenant that regulates our defense of person, family, and community.

To say, for example, I love you in Jesus and want to witness to the gospel by letting you slaughter me, my wife, and my children, to say these kinds of things is not only egregiously foolish, that is the opposite of wise, but it is sinful, precisely because you utterly fail to, as Proverbs says, rescue those being led away to death and holding back those staggering towards slaughter, when in fact you could have done something to save them, that is shoot the Muslim aggressor who would slay them in an act of terror on behalf of Allah in jihad.

So wake up, O Christian, arm yourselves, train yourselves with arms, learn how to use them, and learn true biblical wisdom. For everything there is a season, as Ecclesiastes says, and a time for every matter under heaven, a time to be born, a time to die, a time to plant, a time to pluck up what is planted. There is a time to kill and a time to heal. There is a time to tear and a time to sow. There's a time to keep silence, a time to speak.

This is a time to speak. There's a time to love and a time to hate. There's a time for war and there is a time for peace, a time for everything under heaven, dear listener. The time to do any of them as well demands biblical wisdom. A time to kill is not when a woman is pregnant and about to abort her baby.

That's a time to heal. A time to kill is when an Islamic terrorist is about to bomb, stab, or shoot you, your family, or your community. And it requires biblical wisdom to know the difference. That is, under what covenant and its provisions does my proposed actions for. A time to love is not when a suicide bomber is charging into the local mall and you have the ability to stop him with a sidearm, but instead you say, I love you in Jesus and want to witness to the gospel by letting you blow up innocent men, women, and children.

This is the pietistic, pacifistic school of Christian. No, this is not the time to love. It is a time to hate, as Solomon puts it, by putting as many rounds into the suicide bomber as it takes to stop him at the door of the mall before he gets in to blow everything up. And it requires biblical wisdom to know the difference. That is, under what covenant and its provisions does my proposed actions fall?

A time for war is not when a rogue president like Obama arms and advises ISIS to overthrow President Assad of Syria, which in its application of the Quran is manifold more barbaric and evil than Assad ever was. ISIS is. In fact, as we have seen, Obama's actions themselves are evil. They're not neutral or righteous by any stretch. A time for war is when we and our national interests are attacked, as they were on 9-11, by an evil Islamic regime in Afghanistan.

And it requires biblical wisdom to know the difference. That is, under what covenant and its provisions does my proposed actions fall? So, therefore, when it comes to our response to Islam, especially aggressive Islam, when it becomes dangerous and warlike, we have articulated three of these six responses. We respond with the truth of Christ, the love of Christ, and appropriate self-defense. Next week, we will treat it of the other three necessary responses, and they are, we must respond with appropriate cultural and societal self-defense.

We must respond with the proven solutions of history, and we must respond with a sober, reasoned antidote to political correctness. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church. New Geneva meets for holy worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street, on the corner of 4th and Boulevard in Idaho Falls. And you may call us for comment or information at 523-0196. That's 523-0196.

Or check out our websites, which are newgenevaopc.org and our brand new website where we have chronicled for you many past radio messages. And that website is omnispotestas.org. Let me spell that for you. Omnisprotestas.org. O-M-N-I-S dash P-O-T-E-S-T-A-S dot org. Omnisprotestas.org.