Greetings. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a moment of truth, where we invite you to think through an important issue of life and faith. And today, I want to continue to challenge you to think seriously about Christianity and Islam. This issue is in our culture and in our headlines and in our foreign policy and in our homeland in a very real and personal way. So, I would like to challenge you to think seriously about Christianity and Islam.

In our first week, we examined some introductory ideas which covered Islam's origins and its five main tenets or pillars, including the less acknowledged shadow pillar, which is jihad. We further saw how jihad is broken down into four types of struggle, including the inevitable element of armed conflict and propagation of the faith by means of conquest and subjugation. And we contrasted this with Christianity's principles of propagation of the faith by means of word and sacrament. And we demonstrated that from the Bible.

Also last week, we looked at one of the little-known features of Islam, which makes it a direct threat to all that we hold dear in the West, and that is the Quranic idea of all-encompassing law, or Sharia. We saw how it is incumbent upon all good Muslims to impose the strict code of Islamic law wherever possible, without distinction between church and state. Now, Sharia is one of the basic tenets of Islam, which make it a religion that's not just another harmless religion among many, but one which has been at war with all other religions since its inception.

And today, we hope to do some more comparison and contrast between Islam and Christianity. And again, you will hear some things that have been deliberately overlooked and played down in discussing our current struggle with radical militant Islam. Now, these things are important, for until we understand the nature of the religion that makes Islam tick, no matter how much of their culture and psychology we may understand, we will always be slightly mystified by the ferocious commitment that drives them to throw their lives away in order to destroy us and all for which we stand. What is it about Islam that creates such fanaticism?

Well, one of the features is the simple division of the world into two camps. Two camps. Number one, there is the Dar al-Islam. Dar al-Islam, which is the house of Islam, inclusive of all Muslims. Now, technically, it spans all races and nationalities and borders, although Arabs have prided place.

They're a little more equal than the rest. And also, nationalities and race still make for bitter conflict. For example, Iran versus Iraq during the 80s, when millions were slaughtered and Saddam Hussein used chemical warfare against Iranians. Well, nevertheless, it is there in principle, the Dar al-Islam, the one house of Islam. And it's often appealed to, especially in conflict with the infidel, as did Nasser of Egypt, who strove for a pan-Arab state in the Middle East in the 50s and in the 60s.

Well, then there is also the Dar al-Harb. There's the Dar al-Islam. And then there is the Dar al-Harb. That is the house of war, composed of everyone else. The vast mass of unbelievers, the non-Muslim, the infidel, the Dar al-Harb, the house of war.

It is these with whom Islam is in a perpetual state of war, both figuratively and literally. Figuratively, in that Islam as a religion and way of life is always struggling against infidel religions, and then literally at war as well, in that, when necessary or opportune, Islam imposes itself by the sword. Now, while there are two simple divisions of mankind, the goal is to establish the Ummah, that is the Islamic State and Society, to extend the house of Islam over the entire world and either convert, eliminate, or dominate the infidel. This has been consistent in the history of Islam and the peoples, excuse me, over whom it has held sway.

For example, in Surah number eight of the Koran, ostensibly, then Allah tells the Prophet Muhammad, O Prophet, urge on the believers to fight. If there be twenty of you patient men, they will overcome two hundred. If there be a hundred of you, they will overcome a thousand infidels, for they are a people who understand not. Unquote. This has been the pattern throughout history, dear listener.

Fueled by the religious zeal of jihad, the Arab Muslims swept over the Middle East after Muhammad's death in A.D. 632. Damascus fell in 635. Jerusalem fell in 638. And on and on it went. Alexandria, Carthage, so that by the end of the 7th century, all of North Africa and across the Straits of Gibraltar into Spain were in Muslim hands by power of the sword.

And soon after, all of Asia Minor would fall to them by military conquest as well. What were all of these lands before they were brutally overrun? Oh, they were Christian, dear listener. Like the parable of the mustard seed, the church had started out as a small, humble faith in the shadow of the Roman Empire and had grown into a mighty tree extending from the Straits of Gibraltar to India and beyond. How was this accomplished, I ask?

By the sword? No. As we've seen over the last two weeks, word and sacrament. In fact, the sword had been used against the church by Rome to stamp it out. But that tactic by Rome had only served to spread the very faith it attempted to destroy.

As St. Cyprian said, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. A very famous saying that still holds true today. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. So, let this be understood. Islam is not a victim religion.

No. Despite the talking heads and the radical Muslim apologists who are using our very freedoms and our tolerance to destroy us, no. Islam is not a peace-loving, tolerant, and diverse religion. It uses the sword to propagate its faith. It tolerates no other religion than Islam.

It punishes diversity with prison, banishment, fines, and death. Where would those, oh, many, many Christians in Syria be? For example, if not for the glare of public scrutiny, propagation of any other faith than Islam is punishable by death or imprisonment under the Taliban in Afghanistan, for example, this is why its policy in state after state all over the world this very day, this was its policy in state after state that it established as it swept across the Mediterranean in the 8th and 9th centuries as well.

As the historian Sir Stephen Runciman says, and I quote him, unlike Christianity, which preached a peace it was never quite able to fully achieve, Islam unashamedly came with a sword, unquote. Islam unashamedly comes with a sword. So effective was this policy that, with a few notable exceptions, including the Coptic Church of Egypt, the church all but disappeared from North Africa. Gone were the great church fathers of North Africa. Augustine of Hippo, Cyril of Alexandria, and Tertullian and San Cyprian, and on and on we could go.

Often, where Islam could not entirely convert or destroy Christians and their churches, they practiced a system of taxation and relegation of Christians to a second-class status that all but strangled their survival. One of these agreements, which is now called the Pact of Umar. Now, Umar was the second caliph after Abu Bakr. After the death of Muhammad, there was first the succeeding caliph Abu Bakr, and after Abu Bakr was the second caliph, the great Umar. And he developed a system of oppression of the infidel, which is now called the Pact of Umar.

And some of its provisions are, for example, number one, no new churches built or repairs made to existing ones. Second provision, the Christian was forced to promise we shall not manifest our religion publicly or convert anyone to it. The third provision that we highlight here is that no Christian could bear arms either. Oh, there was no second amendment in Muslim lands for Christians. And fourthly, there was no intermarriage of Christians with Muslims, though Muslims could marry Christian girls.

And the final highlight we have here for you from the Pact of Umar is that Christians must pay a steep poll tax. So what do you think the net effect of this policy of toleration, quote, unquote? As one author has put it, these measures, and I quote, achieved exactly what they were supposed to achieve. Islam won the region, unquote. So, dear listener, do not be fooled.

Willing dupes in the West and Islamic apologists will try and extol the virtues of Islamic tolerance. This is what they mean by tolerance, though. And it's been borne out in history. Regarding the Pact of Umar, one author notes, Alicia Kaufman notes this about the Pact of Umar, and I quote, unfortunately, seventh century Christians failed to see the deeper threat of Umar's bargain. Modern apologists for Islamic tolerance generally make the same mistake.

Protected status really means second or third class status with strictures guaranteed to erode all religions but Islam, unquote. Very succinctly put. And there are several other historical bubbles, if you will, which must be Pact, too. Number one, well, some people say, you say Islam is not a victim religion. What about the Crusades?

Didn't the Christian West violate the Muslims during that whole period? Oh, the old canard of the Crusades. Well, thinking about the Crusades, then, we must note, first, the Turks themselves who were conquered converts to Islam, the Turks now dominated the Islamic world and had conquered Jerusalem from the Arabic Muslims, which was called the Saracen dynasty. But the Turks had conquered the Arabic Muslims in 1076. And the Turks began a vicious persecution of Christians in all of Palestine.

That helped to set the stage for the Crusades. And the Greek emperor, Michael VIII, made a direct and poignant appeal to the West for assistance against the Turks, who were moving on Constantinople. And there was also, thirdly, a sincere desire in both the Eastern and Western Church to heal the breach that had been developing over the centuries and had manifest itself in an open split between the Eastern and the Western Church in AD 1054. And then finally, the nations of Europe knew that it was only a matter of time before the Turks threatened them and how right they were.

It would take almost 600 years, but the Turks would eventually push their way to the very gates of Vienna. Oh, now just briefly, I have a whole series on the Crusades that I'd like to go over with you. But just briefly right now, a note about the Crusades. There were four major Crusades. There was one begun in 1095 called by Pope Urban II.

There was another Crusade launched in AD 1146 by St. Bernard, who preached the Second Crusade. The Third Crusade was launched in 1187 by Pope Clement III. And that was a crusade to free Jerusalem from Muslim Hans. And then the last crusade was called in AD 1202 by Pope Innocent III. So this does not excuse the excesses of the Crusades, that there were indeed four, at least four good reasons that the Crusades were launched.

But that doesn't excuse the excesses. Many joined the Crusades for ulterior motives, and the Crusaders were guilty of savage sub-Christian behavior. There were slaughter of the innocents. There were non-combative civilians who were killed, both Jew and Muslim. These are the first things brought out by everyone else, though.

You can find these anywhere. What you will not find are the three or four consistent, legitimate reasons for the Wests having gone to war against a foe that will not stop, that will not give quarter, and who neatly divide the world into two camps, the House of Islam and the House of War. So the upshot is, dear listener, Muslims were not victims of the Crusades. We cannot emphasize this strongly enough. Muslims were not victims of the Crusades.

No. They had brutally acquired the Middle East and Constantinople, and they brutally held on to it. For example, the Muslim sultan Baibars, with his Turkish troops, called Mamaluks. Baibars was in the habit of slaughtering whole villages, men, women, and children, as one historian puts it. And I quote, in general, the Crusades reek with a stench of brutality and death.

But the fall of Antioch, which was held by Christians at this time, just parenthetically, I go on to quote, the fall of Antioch to the Turks was laden with such horrors that even the Mamaluks themselves were sickened by the carnage which they caused or which they witnessed there, unquote. So make no mistake about this, dear listener. In the eyes of radical, militant Islam, you are a member of the house of war. And eventually, you will either be converted, killed, or controlled. This has been the pattern of militant Islam from the very beginning and continues to be the pattern.

So do not be a naive Pollyanna, dear listener. Know what is in store for you as you are categorized in the house of war in the eyes of radical, militant Islam? Well, secondly, another objection that comes forward is, oh, pastor, you're just talking ancient history. Certainly, no Muslim takes all of those antiquated ambitions seriously anymore, do they? Now, this is a fallacy of modern, right-thinking America, which no longer has a historical memory that extends beyond last year's Super Bowl or the last episode of The View.

No, to the Muslim mind, the Crusades were not last year's United Way fundraiser or last year's Billy Graham's evangelistic effort. No, the Islam, excuse me, Islam has an historical continuity with their past, and they long for the glory that once was Islam. The Muslim world has always been traumatized by the stagnation that set in after the high tide of Muslim advance was reached in A.D. 1683, when the Turkish Sultan Mohammed almost took the city of Vienna, Austria. Now, Mohammed had laid siege to Vienna in March of 1683, and he steadily wore away the defenders all through the spring and summer.

In September, the Turks had all but overwhelmed the city at various points, but as one historian has noted, and I quote, the valor of the besieged Viennese baffled the assailants. Then, on September 10, 1683, note that date, September 10 of 1683, a tremendous explosion from mines set under the walls of Vienna blew a hole so wide that, as one historian puts it, a battalion might have entered it side by side, unquote. The final blow was set to be delivered to Vienna on the very next day, September 11. But mysteriously, the attack did not come.

The defenders of Vienna waited all that day, expecting some inevitable slaughter at the hands of the Turks, but it didn't come. Why? Well, some say the ferocity of the defenders in Vienna finally gave even the militant Turks pause. Others say it was confusion and hesitation amongst the sultan's generals that caused delay. Others attribute it to the hand of God.

But, in any case, for whatever reason, September 11 was the furthest advance of Islam into the West. For, on September 15, the great Polish general, Stephen Sobieski had been raising an army, and he arrived that day with his army that delivered Vienna from the siege of the Muslim Turks. Stephen Sobieski, though he's not very well known here in America and in the West, Stephen Sobieski is one of the great heroes of history, history, and especially of the deliverance of Vienna and the keeping of the West from being under Muslim domination. History tells us that the furthest advance of Islam into the West peaked.

It crested on September 10, 1683, and the final blow failed to materialize on September 11, 9-11 of 1683, and Islam has been on the decline ever since. Now, we in the West, especially in America, we have become victims of deliberate historical amnesia. So many people are unaware of the things I have just disclosed to you from the history books, dear listener. History has been revised by the postmodern to try and cut us off from our Christian roots and thereby divest us of our racism and sexism and religious exclusivism and all the other isms that are seen to be evil in our day.

Well, to study our Christian roots and our Christian foundations of the West is to repeat old and destructive ways as far as they're concerned that will only prevent us from becoming truly diverse and inclusive and tolerant. We may not take history seriously anymore, but radical, militant Islam certainly does. They remember their roots and their past. They learn it on their mother's knee. There is true historical continuity with their past.

Islam is patient. They are in it for the long haul. The Quran in Surah number 22 puts it this way, from the Quran, I have repaid the infidels and I have seized them. Behold the horror of it. How many a city we have destroyed in its evildoing and how it has fallen upon its turrets?

How many are ruined well a tall palace? The infidel demands that you show him your supposed chastisement, but Allah will not fail his promise. And surely a day with Allah is as a thousand years of your counting, unquote. The Muslim is urged to patience in exacting his revenge. It took them over a thousand years to get to the gates of Vienna.

A little over 300 years later, they are in every major city of the West, including the great Babylon of the West New York City. They remember the motive force behind past Arab greatness. The historian Raphael Pattai puts it this way, and I quote, these past glorious victories of the Arabs were inspired by their Islamic faith. If the Arabs can regain their disciplined faith, they will, as did the early Muslims, defeat the great empires of the world, unquote. This is the appeal, dear listener, of radical militant Islam.

It evokes the past glories of Islam. It calls all good Muslims back to the plain, simple, literal understanding of their book. Oh, you're just talking ancient history, pastor. Certainly no Muslim takes all those antiquated ambitions seriously anymore, do they? They do take their history seriously.

Do you, O Christian? Unlike most of the major pagan world religions, Christianity is a historical religion. Historic, historical, excuse me. History is integral to our faith. God is the creator of time, linear time versus the cyclical time of Hinduism and the illusion of time in Buddhism.

Peter says, for example, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The end of all things is near, right? There is a beginning in which God established first principles for his creation, a middle in which he works out the implications of those principles, and there's an end in which he brings those principles to full consummation. Adam and Eve, the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, or Moses, Israel, King David.

As Paul says in Galatians, when the fullness of time had come, that is at the precise God-given historical moment, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive the adoption as sons. Oh, Christian, our salvation depends upon a Savior, God taking human nature in the person of Christ, who was born, lived, died, and was resurrected in time and space in actual history. Do not let our pagan culture sever you from your Christian roots and historical memory.

You have a rich Christian heritage, which has transcended all nations and cultures and will outlast America, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, or any other earthly kingdom fashioned by the hand of man. As Daniel says, the kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High. Their kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey them. Unquote. Oh, dear listener, when will this happen?

When Christ returns in time and space, he will return in history. As Daniel says again, to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall never pass away, and his kingdom is one that shall not be destroyed. Oh, dear listener, whether America survives the onslaught of militant Islam is a question yet to be decided. God is sovereign over history.

He will determine this nation's destiny. But you, oh Christian, remember your rich heritage in Christ. He has been faithful to this very day and will remain faithful to the end. He has manifest this faithfulness and his heritage throughout history. It is your task to repent of your sins, and as American Christians, to urge your fellow citizens to repent of their faithlessness in return to the God of their fathers.

This has been Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a moment of truth. New Geneva meets for holy worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard, and we invite you to join us for our worship services. You will find a warm reception and welcome, and you can call us for a feedback to this message or for further information at area code 208-523-0196. That's area code 208-523-0196.