October 31st, 2014
This week on 'The Hal Lindsey Report'
While the threat of Ebola within the United States continues to dominate many of the headlines and much of the attention in the electronic media, there's another growing contagion that has me even more concerned.It's sweeping across North America and it's far more dangerous than Ebola. It's radical Islam.
Last week in Canada, two recent converts to Islam killed two Canadian soldiers. One used his car, the other a gun. Then the second one attacked the Canadian Parliament building where he spewed gunfire inside the building before being shot dead by the Parliament's Sergeant-at-Arms.
The next day, another recent Muslim convert used a hatchet to attack three New York police officers posing for a picture on a public street.
Three teenaged girls from Colorado were intercepted in Germany attempting to make their way to Syria to join the jihad.
Another young lady from Colorado recently pled guilty to charges of conspiring to help terrorists in Syria. In fact, she had fallen in love with a jihadist online and intended to join him in Syria.
Some members of the mainstream media and government are trying to say that the terrorist events in Canada and the U.S. are not important because A) they're "lone wolf" attacks, not coordinated by any terrorist organization, and B) the assailants had been in trouble with the law before converting to Islam.
I think that makes them even more disturbing. First, the fact that they're "lone wolf" attacks only confirms the size and scope of the challenge. It's more subversive and dangerous than if they were "card-carrying" members of an organization. This means they harbor jihad in their hearts and heads until they're ready to unleash an attack. That makes it impossible for them to be identified by the authorities. It's much easier for them to fall through the cracks or operate under the radar.
As to being in trouble with the law before conversion, that's part of the plan. Radical Muslims actively recruit people whose lives seem hopeless or who are thoroughly disenchanted with the system.
Jihad is overwhelmingly attractive to those who love violence. That increasingly describes our culture. Have you seen any popular video games lately. Even their prime-time television ads are alarming. Today's culture not only teaches violence, it exalts it as a human ideal and great fun!
In fact, Muslims have used this love of violence to recruit angry young men around the world. One of their main recruiting tools has been to compare that aspect of Islam with the "peacefulness" of Christianity. Jesus said to "turn the other cheek." They proudly tell potential recruits that they do not believe in turning the other cheek. They believe in full bore retribution for every slight.
And don't make the mistake of assuming that Muslim jihadis are backwoods buffoons. Though their ideology is straight out of the seventh century (and that's exactly where Sharia law seeks to return societies), their social media skills are impressive. They are adept at using media portals such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to connect with millions of potential recruits around the globe.
And the images and language they use are slick and effective.
It doesn't help that our young people have diminished immunity to this "disease." Day by day, the capacity of our youth to resist this contagion is being systematically weakened. It's a bit like a spiritual chemotherapy. Those who are trying to rid our society of the restraints of Christianity are making our young increasingly vulnerable to the message of violent jihad.
And it's made even more dangerous and insidious by its subtlety. In fact, the message of "jihad" is being quietly preached in Ferguson, Missouri.
You will never hear about this in the mainstream media, but the forces of Islam are out in impressive numbers in Ferguson. And they're trying to subvert the "civil rights" issues of that conflict and refocus it into a hatred of Israel.
Yes, you read me right. There are more than a dozen major Islamic, Palestinian, and anti-Israel organizations that have converged on Ferguson in a coordinated attempt to co-opt those protests. They are seeking to equate the Israeli-Palestinian issue with the American civil rights movement. They want to foment the unrest by suggesting that African Americans are victims of the same "militaristic policing" tactics that they say the Palestinians face in Israel.
I have neither the time nor space to delve into the utter absurdity of those assertions and comparisons. Unfortunately, the distinctions will be lost on most Americans who aren't paying attention.
One of the hallmarks of the American civil rights movement has been its generally nonviolent nature. In fact, in his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., said, "Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. Indeed, it is a weapon unique in history, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it."
The Muslims' attempts to equate their "struggle" -- which is universally characterized by inhuman, grotesque violence, beheadings, tortures, crucifixions, rapes, murders of all kinds, the subjugation of women, children, and minorities, and the destruction of even the most basic human rights -- with the nonviolent tradition of the American civil rights movement, implies that they equate Islam's exaltation of death and bondage with Judeo-Christianity's reverence for life and equality.
That is a lie straight from Satan himself. To pit the Koran against the Bible is to pit death against life.
Islam teaches that one can never be certain of his or her ultimate "salvation." It teaches that the ONLY way to know for certain that one is gaining paradise, is to die in an act of martyrdom for Allah. That's why so many of the terrorists involved in 9/11 were discovered to have spent time at strip clubs and in other sinful pursuits just prior to the attack. They were taught that this one deed (dying as a martyr for Allah while killing infidels) immediately and automatically outweighed every other bad deed or act they had committed in their entire lives.
That's what makes radical Islam (which is actually "fundamental" Islam) so dangerous. The threat of violent death means nothing to an enemy who welcomes that violent death -- if its received while killing enemies of Allah -- because he mistakenly believes it's his only certain ticket to paradise.
On the other hand, Jesus told us that only in Him we will find true life -- both here on earth and in eternity. In fact, He values EVERY person's life so highly that He sacrificed His own so that we could all be assured of life eternal with Him after our time on this earth.
That's the glaring difference between the claims of Mohammed and those of Jesus Christ. Jesus says that we can KNOW for a certainty that we will share eternity with Him in paradise. And all we have to do is BELIEVE that He is who He says He is; RECOGNIZE and CONFESS our sin; ACCEPT the free gift of pardon from that sin that He purchased for us by His death at Calvary; ACKNOWLEDGE that He is Lord; and FOLLOW Him with the power and help of His Holy Spirit.
The Gospel infinitely surpasses any man-made system of faith because Jesus is the only true life.
Don't miss this week's Report on TBN, Daystar, CPM Network, The Word Network, various local stations, www.hallindsey.com or www.hischannel.com. Check your local listings.
Please don't forget to vote on Tuesday, November 4. Ask God to guide you through this process and help you make the choices that will benefit our nation. Study the issues and the candidates. Learn what they believe and how they propose to vote on the issues that are important to you. Choose those candidates whose values most closely reflect the Bible's and your own.
Then, get out and vote. Take another registered voter with you. It only takes a few minutes, but it affects generations. Remember, elections have consequences. As a citizen -- and especially as a Christian -- it's your duty to vote!
God bless you for doing so, and God bless America!
Hal Lindsey
mail: HLMM, P.O. Box 470470, Tulsa, OK 74147
email: comments@hallindsey.com
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