by Matt Barber
Mankind’s enduring “culture war” is nothing new. It first began in a
garden long ago and today has reached a fever pitch worldwide. The
battle lines are drawn, not so much between conservative vs. liberal, as
many presume, but, rather, between biblical vs. unbiblical, truth vs.
deception. In its most distilled form the culture war signifies the
worldly manifestation of an otherworldy spiritual battle between good
and evil.
African Cardinal Robert Sarah, a man many view as a potential future pope, recently
made news
by boldly drilling down into this reality. During the Vatican’s ongoing
Synod of Bishops, Sarah noted that the “idolatry of Western freedom”,
which he described as “atheistic secularism” (aka modern liberalism),
and “Islamic fundamentalism” represent twin threats to the world, not
unlike Nazism and communism. Atheistic secularism and Islam, he
observed, are “almost like the Beasts of the Apocalypse.”
“What Nazism-fascism and communism were to the 20th century, Western
ideologies on homosexuality and abortion and Islamic fanaticism are to
today,” noted Sarah. “Certain keys allow us to discern the same demonic
origin of these two movements: they both advocate a universal and
totalitarian law, they’re both violently intolerant, destroyers of
families and the Church, and openly anti-Christian,” he concluded.
Indeed, while there are exceptions, the “progressive” left is
overwhelmingly anti-Semitic, anti-Christian and pro-Muslim. Liberals and
Islamists, such as those belonging to the American-Islamic terrorist
group CAIR, as well as Obama’s pals in the Muslim Brotherhood and Iran,
have forged a bizarre and notably incongruous sociopolitical partnership
I call the “Islamo-’progressive’ axis of evil.” The only explanation
for this, as far as I can tell, is best illustrated by the maxim: “The
enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
The common enemy, of course, is Christ Jesus, who is Truth.
Whereas Cardinal Sarah clearly recognizes the existence of this
“demonic” Islamo-”progressive” axis, it seems, and distressingly so,
that the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Catholicism’s official
doctrine, does not. While, on the issues of abortion, sexual sin and
natural marriage, the Catechism is
deeply rooted
in Scripture and, as such, taps the living waters of Truth, on the
problem of Islam, it has, conversely, tapped the fiery pits of hell.
On, “The Church’s relationship with the Muslims,” the
Catechism states:
“The plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator,
in the first place amongst whom are the Muslims; these profess to hold
the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful
God, mankind’s judge on the last day.”
Where to begin. Rarely does one find so many mistruths packed into a single sentence.
First is the troubling assertion that, “The plan of salvation also
includes those who acknowledge the Creator.” Wrong. Even the demons
“believe there is one God” (see James 2:19). The plan of salvation
includes, exclusively, those who at once acknowledge the Creator and
have faith in His only begotten Son, Christ Jesus. Says He: “I am the
way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except
through me” (see John 14:6).
Islam expressly denies both the deity of Christ and that He is the
Son of God. Any religion that denies Christ, the Messiah, as the Son of
God, is a false religion. Any false religion that worships a god without
the Son worships a false god – an idol of its own making.
Islam is idolatry. It is a false religion.
And Allah, a false god.
While, as the Catechism suggests, Muslims “profess to hold the faith
of Abraham” and “adore the one, merciful God,” the fact remains that
they do neither. The “faith of Abraham” foretold the coming of Christ,
the Messiah, who is, in fact, the “one, merciful God” incarnate. Not
only do Muslims deny Christ, they persecute, under flame and sword, His
very body – the Christian faithful.
A central tenet of Islam is to convert, enslave or kill the infidel.
An infidel is anyone who is not Muslim or, depending on who’s doing the
killing, belongs to a different sect of Islam. Those who fall into that
minority category tagged “moderate Muslim” are also infidels or
“idolaters.” “When the sacred months are over slay the idolaters
wherever you find them,” commands Surah 9:5 of the Quran. “Arrest them,
besiege them, and lie in ambush everywhere for them.”
Islam is about control. The word itself means “submission.” It is a
socio-political pseudo-religion based upon the incoherent scribblings of
one man – the “prophet” Muhammad, a warring tyrant who, as even the
Quran concedes, was a murderous misogynist and pedophile. This unholy
book is loosely plagiarized from the Bible’s Old and New Testaments –
scriptures that, by contrast, were seamlessly transcribed over centuries
by roughly 40 men under the direct and divine inspiration of the Holy
Spirit.
Islam is Christianity’s photo-negative. While Christianity brings
eternal life to those choosing to surrender to Jesus, who alone is “the
Way, the Truth and the Life”, Islam brings eternal death to those who
surrender to Allah, who is “the
best of deceivers” (“[A]nd Allah was deceptive, for Allah is the best of deceivers.” [see Surah 3:54]).
It’s worth mentioning here that the Bible similarly calls Satan a
deceiver. Revelation 12:9, for instance, explains that he “deceives the
whole world.” Even though it is often claimed that Muslims, Christians
and Jews “worship the same God,” nothing could be further from the
truth. Allah is not God. Allah
is the deceiver, and insofar as
Christianity, true Christianity, spreads peace, love and truth – Islam,
true Islam, spreads violence, hate and deception. Allah is definitely
real. He’s just not God. Though he wanted to “ascend above the tops of
the clouds” and “make [himself] like the Most High” (see Isaiah 14:14),
Allah, most assuredly, is not God.
And so, the “best of deceivers” cares not whether we worship the idol
of self, as do the secular-”progressives,” the deceiver himself, as do
the Muslims, or some other false god. The deceptive one cares only that
we deny God the Father, Christ His Son and the Holy Spirit, three in
one.
Those who refuse will face persecution, even unto temporal death.
But those who refuse will likewise face salvation, even unto eternal Life.