Transcription
Don't read Time magazine. Read what they said.
According to Karen Armstrong in Time magazine, most of what we hear in the news media today is no. Islam is peaceful. Don't think that this attack was by Islam. But as we search God's word and seek his perspective on all of life, when we examine today's news and this month's events, we find the truth. And God's word is that Islam is just the surfacing of the ancient enmity in one family.
Do you remember what went on in Genesis 16 when Ishmael was born? Do you remember Hagar's anger and bitterness and the jealousy? And you remember how Ishmael turned out, as he was not even considered the son of Abram. Do you remember all that? Think about this to understand the spiritual dimension of the current events.
Remember the essence of modern Islam can be found in the Bible in the record of the founders of the people involved. Now, what do I mean by that? Hagar, the mother of Ishmael. And now, now the modern Arabic people. And I'm not talking at all about Arabic people. I have many Arabic friends. In fact, I have to even say I have Muslim friends when we're over in Israel. And I'm not talking about individuals. I'm talking about Islam, the religion.
Islam, the religion, has been embraced by the descendants of Ishmael and the descendants of Esau. That's what the Bible declares. The Bible explains that the Ishmaelites moved into the Arabian Peninsula, as well as the descendants of Esau, the son of Isaac, the firstborn son. Just like Ishmael was the firstborn son of Abram. And those two firstborn sons were not chosen. God chose the secondborn Isaac and the secondborn Jacob. And that has engendered a lot of hatred, bitterness, jealousy, pride, and a despising attitude, which you will see in Esau and Ishmael, which I have to say has been institutionalized by Islam. That's the essence of this conflict.
If you read the Quran, Islam teaches revenge. And if Arabs are harmed, they seek to harm those who harm them, in the West, primarily America and Israel's Jews. And in the Quran, Allah is a crafty, warlike God. And Islam, if you read history, not Time magazine, but if you look at history that hasn't been edited lately, you'll find out that Islam has always spread by war and never by love. And love is entirely absent from that book.
What does that mean? Well, let me just contrast the true Yahweh, God, Jehovah of the Bible, and Allah of Islam. Allah is presented as unknowable in the Quran and capricious. He does whatever he wants to do, whenever he wants to do it. But the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob delights in making and keeping covenant promises. He is knowable, and he keeps his word. He doesn't flit all around capriciously.
Allah of the Quran calls for a warrior agenda, the sword. Islam has divided the world into two parts today. There's dar al-Islam. That's the domain of the faithful to Islam. And all the rest of us are dar al-harb, which is those with whom Islam is at war till judgment day. That's what it says. The agenda of Islam is conquest by the sword when necessary.
But the God of the Bible, summarized by our Lord Jesus Christ, said this: The two great commandments are love God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, and love your neighbor like yourself. Paradoxical, antithetical, opposites. These gods. [Music]