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Greetings. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church

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with a moment of truth, where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and

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faith. And today, I want to challenge you to think seriously about Christianity and Islam. Yes,

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we have had in the news here recently, deep interactions, have we not? The United States

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of America has been deeply involved, like punching a tar baby. We have gotten stuck in places like

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Iran and in Gaza and Israel, the Middle East. And once again, we are faced with, on one hand,

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an Islamic enemy, quote unquote, and as well as an ally in Israel and so forth. But Islam is a much

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broader scope, of a much broader scope than just in the Middle East, because Muslims do indeed

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comprise a growing number of Americans as well. Well, Muslims comprise about 15 to 20 percent of

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the world's population. 1.3 billion souls, concentrated as majorities in nations from

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North Africa to Indonesia. However, there are huge populations of Muslims of diverse nationalities

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in Western cities across Europe and North America, too. I have some statistics I'd like to share with

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you. American Muslims in 2025. So these are really updated stats here. The 2020 United States

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Religion Census says that there are 4.5 billion Muslims, or I'm sorry, 4.5 million Muslims in the

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United States. But that's contradicted by the American Jewish Committee. And they say Muslims are

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less than 3 million in America. So those are vying statistics. American Muslims are younger than all other

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communities. 26 percent of Muslims are between the ages of 18 to 24, compared with 2 percent to 12 percent

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of other groups surveyed. So the American Muslim population is young. And they will be taking their place

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even more solidly here in the near future. Also, a significant part of the Muslim community in America

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is in prison, since 30 percent of all incarcerated African Americans are Muslims with accepted Islam in

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prison, a la Malcolm X. Now, this has been done very deliberately. And Christians have great missionaries

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and chaplains and so forth in prisons. Well, so does Islam. And Islam has recruited and converted

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many a man in prison and converted them solidly and rehabilitated their lives and characters, for that

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matter, too. In America, most Muslims live in the major cosmopolitan areas of the United States.

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The largest number would be in New York, California, Illinois, and New Jersey. Now, 42 percent of the

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American Muslim population is born in the United States, and the rest are first-generation immigrants,

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although that's going to be changing as the birth rate for Muslims in America is increasing as well.

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Now, there are many prayer centers and Islamic centers. The prayer centers are masjids and many Muslim

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schools, the madrasas, if you will, and also many Islamic centers all over the United States now that have

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been seeded, if you will, planted, established, and opened. There's about 2,771 prayer centers,

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or masjids, in the United States, and about 300 Islamic schools, madrasas, serving more than 50,000

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students. 76 percent of American masjids offer weekend schools for children, too, and there are

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eight Muslim seminaries and madrasas for higher education in America, as well as three colleges

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and one university run by Muslims. Masjids in the United States are often not just a place to pray,

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by the way. They are the center of Muslim lives in America, participating in coalitions and civic

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engagements and social services. Well, there are also a few Muslims that are appearing in public service,

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some of them notoriously and famously, right? There are currently four Muslims serving in Congress,

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for example. Also, we find that there is an increasing warning about sensitivity to what Muslims call

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Islamophobia, and many Muslims are very, very sensitive about what they perceive to be

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Islamophobia in America. But the number of Muslims in the United States still does continue to grow.

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Muslims in the United States are not as numerous as the number of Americans who identify themselves as

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Jewish by religion, according to the Pew Research Center. At the same time, Pew projects that the United

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States Muslim population will grow a lot faster than the country's Jewish population. By 2040, Pew says that

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Muslims will replace Jews as the nation's second largest religious group, right after Christians.

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So, we are contending with these things, brothers and sisters, brothers and sisters in the Christian faith.

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The Muslim population has continued to grow at a rate of roughly 100,000 per year, according to Pew,

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driven both by higher fertility rates among Muslim Americans, as well as the continued migration

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of Muslims into the United States. Well, until recently, Islam rarely blipped the radar screens of most

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Americans, right until the near future came upon us with 9-11 and so forth. From its inception, Islam. What is

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Islam like then? What kind of religion is Islam? I'd like to give you a brief introduction here for the

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next few weeks, just so we know what we're dealing with when we talk about Islam. From its inception, Islam has

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been an all-encompassing religion, demanding utter allegiance to its principles. The very name Islam means

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surrender or submission. That is, a complete giving over of the self to Allah and His will, which then brings

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the subject peace and rest for his soul. It has the characteristic, as one commentator puts it,

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it has the characteristic of being able to generate a psychological certainty of possessing the truth,

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of following the right path, and of wielding the perfect key to the gate of the great beyond.

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And Islam has been at war, really, jihad, at war with the world from its beginning. Muhammad,

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Islam's founder, was born about A.D. 570, what's now Saudi Arabia. He lost both of his parents as a

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child, and he grew up with his uncle, who was an Arab merchant. Now, young Muhammad grew up in a time

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of religious turmoil, where he encountered many different religions, Christianity and Judaism,

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and multiple pagan religions of his own peninsula of Arabia. And none of the religions of his youth

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seemed to take with young Muhammad, though he learned from them all, and he sought after the true religion.

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And finally, in A.D. 610, in the month of Ramadan, the angel Gabriel, ostensibly, appeared to Muhammad,

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called him to be a prophet of God, that is of Allah, and the true religion. And he met and conversed with

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Jesus and Moses and Abraham, according to the Quran. And he ascended by a ladder provided by Gabriel to

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the seventh heaven. And then, from there on, at various times over the rest of his life, the angel

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Gabriel, ostensibly, would dictate a series of visions and prophecies which he recorded in chapters

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called surahs, and collectively would become known as the Quran. Now, as Muhammad began to communicate

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his visions, however, he met opposition, even from his wife. Oh, his own pagan peoples rejected him

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because he proclaimed a one true God. Christians and Jews rejected him because he considered Islam to be

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the true and final successor to both Christianity and Judaism. And while he and Muslims who followed him

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held the Bible to be true, he maintained it had been corrupted and that the Quran was the true, pure book. And he was

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increasingly persecuted in his hometown of Mecca. And so, therefore, he took all of his meager followers, they were a

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small band at this time, and made a famous pilgrimage to Medina in AD 622. Now, that year, AD 622 in the

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Christian calendar became seminally year one in the Muslim calendar. So significant was this pilgrimage to

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Medina. And here, in Medina, Muhammad continued to grow slowly but surely, and he adopted such practices as

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plural marriage in his own unique theology of marriage and the sexes. Surah number four, for example, clearly

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establishes the inferiority of women to men, whose primary purpose, that is, women, is to bear children,

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especially sons. A rigorous, obsessive chastity is enforced upon the woman, reflected in practices from

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female circumcision to the wearing of the burqa. That's that environmental contamination suit that's

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just the hazmat suit that you see on TV. Well, one of the great appeals of Islam is its simplicity

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of practice. It's simplicity of practice. Everyone can quickly observe and absorb and begin to practice

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the five things, if you will, that Muhammad insists every Muslim must do. Perhaps we can review that here

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briefly. Number one is the Shahada, that is the confession of faith. No big, thick book, but rather just a

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brief phrase, the Shahada, which every Muslim must confess, and that is, there is no God but Allah,

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and Muhammad is his messenger. Say that, and you have, say that sincerely from the heart, and you

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have converted then to Islam. Very simple, right? The Shahada, number one. Number two is Salat, that is prayer.

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And each Muslim is expected to pray five times a day facing Mecca, and we see this famously reprised in the

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vast sea of Muslims, wherever they may be breaking for the day, perhaps, and praying toward Mecca five times a day.

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The Salat, number two. Number three is the Zakat, which is the tithe. Each Muslim is expected to pay a tithe,

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especially to the poor and the needy, which is then distributed by the mosque. Number four is the

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Somm, the Somm, S-A-W-M, and pronounced Somm, which is fasting during the month of Ramadan, a whole month of

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fasting from sunrise to sunset, but you can eat then in the evenings, and so you have the great fast during

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the month of Ramadan. Number five, then, is the Hajj, as it's called. Number five, the fifth thing that

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every Muslim is expected to do is to go on Hajj, which is a pilgrimage, and every Muslim is expected

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to make pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in his life, and then worship at the Kaba stone. The Hajj,

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number five. The Shahada, the Salat, the Zakat, the Somm, and the Hajj. The five things that every

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Muslim is expected to do, very simple, very straightforward in terms of what's expected

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and what needs to be understood. You don't need to buy a great big thick book of theology.

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You have five things that you are expected to do. Some also say, though, that there is an unwritten

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sixth pillar of Islam, and that is jihad, often translated as holy war, though others say,

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what it really means is struggle or exertion after the good of Islam on behalf of Allah.

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Jihad, there are characteristically four different senses to the idea of jihad, which the imams of

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Islam teach, and they have reached a pretty good consensus on this. And the four areas of jihad

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would be, number one, the jihad of the heart, where one fights against sin. The second jihad would be

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the jihad of the mouth and the pen. That is a verbal defense of Islam. The art of cursing your enemies

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as well. Verbal pronouncement where it is reality to say and declare a thing. For example, Saddam Hussein

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said that indeed he was going to fight with America, the mother of all battles. And in his mind,

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the battle was won because he had so declared it, because he was fighting a jihad of the mouth and

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the pen. The third sense of jihad is the jihad of the hand. That is good deeds. Every Muslim is expected

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to do good deeds to earn his way towards heaven. And that is the jihad of the hand. And then fourthly,

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which we hear quite often, is the jihad of the sword, where one fights on behalf of Allah and Islam.

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That's the one we're most familiar with. Well, jihad goes to the heart of spreading the faith,

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which is an obligation of every Muslim and every Islamic society. First year to try peace.

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The Quran says, invite all to the way of the Lord with wisdom and beautiful preaching.

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Argue with them in ways that are gracious and patient. But if that doesn't work,

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as the Quran also says, in later surahs, fight in the cause of Allah, those who fight you,

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for Allah loveth not the infidel. Slay them wherever you catch them in surah number two.

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And then as well, in surah number nine, fight and slay the infidel wherever you find them. Seize them,

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weary them, and lie and wait for them in each and every ambush. From surah number nine.

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Well, over the centuries, jihad, as an instrument of conversion and imposition of Islamic law and

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society, has been perfected into high arts, as in no other major world religion. After the death of

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Muhammad, the first caliph, Abu Bakr, led Muslim armies out of Mecca and Medina to conquer the entire

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Arabian Peninsula and eventually into North Africa and Spain and India and Asia on conquest,

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not through peaceful conversion, but rather through the sword. Now, many critics of Christianity make a

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superficial comparison here. They say things like, well, Christians are just as guilty of war and

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bloodshed and spreading their religion. But that's not true. The Bible gives no warrant for spreading

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Christianity as a faith by means of the sword. That's a crucial distinction. Christianity does

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not countenance force as an instrument of conversion and imposition of Christian law and

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society. No. Well, some might say, well, how about those parts of the Bible where God commands the

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Israelites to kill men, women, and children? The Amalekites, for example. Well, they were so corrupt

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in their bloodlines that they were a danger and a plague to Israel. Monsters, they were not just

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regular human beings. No. Nephilim, many of the Amalekites were, and they were dwelling among them.

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So corrupt were they that they were a danger and a plague to Israel and her neighbors,

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an incorrigible stench in the nostrils of God. Or, wherever Israel engaged in military conquest,

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for example, which was brutal, thorough, and unrelenting, it was to establish a pure temporal

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earthly kingdom as a picture and emblem of the purest eternal heavenly kingdom God had established in

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Christ. John says, for example, our Lord says in the Gospel of John, a time is coming and has come

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when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of

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worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.

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Well, and secondly, we must also observe, since the advent of that heavenly kingdom in Christ,

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the means of entry and conversion into that kingdom have been essentially spiritual. The preaching of

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the word, the administration of the sacraments, all authority, our Lord said in Matthew 28,

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just before he ascended into heaven, he said, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given

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to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father

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and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.

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And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age. And then thirdly, we must observe

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about Christian conversion when it comes to propagating the faith. Our model is Christ.

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As Peter says in his letter, he says, in your hearts, set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared

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to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that lies within you.

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But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience so that those who speak maliciously

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against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. It is better if it is God's will

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to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous

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for the unrighteous to bring you to God. Well, that's just a sample of the abundant evidence in the Bible

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that when it comes to propagating the faith, our means are spiritual and heavenly. They're not fleshly

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and earthly. Another major misconception when we think of Christianity and Islam needs to be corrected.

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And that is, doesn't this mean that Christians should kill or shouldn't kill or serve in the

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military or be in favor of the death penalty? No, that's not what this says. Propagating the faith

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in peace? No. These are all functions of the state. The things like a killing or serving in the military

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or the death penalty, right? These are all functions of the state as an earthly institution,

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which is a legitimate power given by God. Romans chapter 13, Paul says,

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everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there's no authority except

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that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. The

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magistrate is God's servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the

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sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.

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So, not only is it permissible to serve with sword in hand, it is a Christian's duty to serve

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as a soldier, a policeman, a prosecutor seeking the death penalty, maybe, and as a judge presiding over

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capital cases. We have seen this throughout the history of Christianity in the West. For example,

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Charles Martel and his troops understood this when they beat the Muslims back at Tours, France in AD 732,

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defeating the Moors, which were North African Muslims who had conquered Spain, or Stephen Sobieski. He's one

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of the great ones we'll be covering in the near future. Stephen Sobieski and his Polish troops understood

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this. They defeated the Turks at the gates of Vienna in AD 1683. On and on, we could go and we will go

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with many other examples. But we must understand this in our day. Make no mistake. Let no Muslim

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talking head deceive you. Let no tolerance talking pluralist persuade you that if we just understood

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them more and talked to them more and looked within and corrected what's wrong with us, they'd stop being

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mean and we could just get along. Oh, that's not going to happen, dear listener. The jihad of the sword

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is the instrument of choice for the militant radicals and increasingly for the average Muslim who reads his

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Quran and takes it seriously. While we recoil in horror to terror, enrollment in radical Islamic groups has

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swollen. The typical Western response is perceived for what it is, and that is weakness, and it will only

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encourage more terror. What we need to understand, and what they understand, is strength. What kind

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of strength is that? Oh, understand this, dear listener. The battle we fight is a spiritual battle.

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First and foremost, this is a concept that's been utterly lost in our secular age, which is utterly

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cast aside its Christian heritage. No, our battle first and foremost is a spiritual battle. As Paul

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says in 2 Corinthians chapter 10, for though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.

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The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power

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to demolish strongholds. They are spiritual weapons. We do not fight with earthly weapons, but rather with

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spiritual weapons first and foremost, as indeed we represent Christianity and we struggle then to

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convert. We struggle indeed to establish Christianity and Christ's kingdom all over the world. The key

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missing components in almost every discussion of what it will take to defeat militant Islam. It's not

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budget. It's not guns. It's not a strong economy or determination, pure and simple. No, it is spiritual

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strength, spiritual resolve that comes from the Christian God of the Bible. This indeed is what will give us

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ultimate victory in the long run and establish Christ's kingdom over the entire globe, yea, throughout the

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universe. Well, this has been Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church, and New Geneva

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meets for holy worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard, and we invite

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you to come and visit us this summer. We have a delightful group of people, and we would more than

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welcome you into our midst, and we are very much aware, both politically and socially aware, and

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we have, as you can hear from our, this recent broadcast, and we would be glad to welcome you into

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our fellowship here on Sunday mornings. We meet at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and

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Boulevard, and you can call us for more information or give me some feedback, perhaps, on what you've

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heard, at area code 208-523-0196. That's area code 208-523-0196.