Alright, now let us
look at another main manifestation of the
spirit of antichrist. It is extremely important
for us as Christians to be well-informed
about at this time; that is, Islam, which is the name for
the religion of Mohammed. Islam means perfection, completeness,
fulfillment. Mohammed arose in the 7th century of
this era in the Arabian peninsula, claimed to be
a prophet, claimed to receive in a
cave from an archangel the revelation of the religion
which then became Islam. And he claimed that his
religion, Islam, was the true fulfillment of
the Old and the New Testament. He claimed that the
Christians and the Gospels had perverted
the real truth, but he through Islam
was restoring it. That is the basic
claim of Mohammed. And he first believed that
because he rejected idolatry and because he rejected
the claims of Christianity, the Jewish people
would follow him. But he was
disappointed. And when they did not follow
him he turned against them and became a
persecutor of them. Now let’s consider the
teachings of Islam. Personally, this is my own
opinion, at the present moment, I think Islam is the most
sinister, powerful force opposing the truth of
God at work in the world. It is a tragedy that so
many Christians in the West have totally misunderstood
and underestimated Islam. If it once
gains power, it will first and foremost
suppress the Jews and second suppress
the Christians. In Moslem countries
throughout the centuries Christians and Jews have
been given the title 'dimmy' which means second
class people. It rather suits Islam to
have some of them around but to keep them in such a
low and debased condition that the superiority of Islam
is manifest to everybody. Ruth and I were in Pakistan in
1985 preaching the Gospel there. One of the first things
that happened to us was that we were taken to
visit the Jewish community– I'm sorry, the Christian
community in Karachi. And I still remember the awful
sense of physical sickness when I saw the squalor,
the poverty, the debased condition. They had open sewers
running in the streets. They just went to the
toilet out in the open. And this was the
picture of Christianity presented to the
people of Pakistan. It suited them,
you understand. They did not want to
eliminate them totally, they just wanted
to demonstrate the total superiority of
Moslems over Christians. For instance,
Moslems will never clean latrines. So all cleaners of latrines
in Pakistan are Christians. That is basically the Pakistani
vision of Christianity. This is just one of countless examples
of how the Jews and the Christians have been a totally suppressed,
inferior minority in Islamic countries. The oath of a Christian is not
accepted in Islamic courts. The evidence of a Christian
against a Moslem is not accepted. It is true that Islam
has not been guilty of anything so terrible
as the holocaust but it has a long record
of thirteen centuries of suppression and
contempt for Christianity. It is hard for you who are
not familiar to realize with what total contempt
they view Christians. You see, the things that we through
Christian inheritance and tradition regard as excellent,
like mercy and forgiveness, to Moslems they
are just weakness. You see, at the present time the
situation in the Middle East: Western politicians,
even if they are not Christians, have got a Christian
viewpoint. They have a background, they talk
about mercy, peace, forgiveness. To the Moslems
that is nonsense. In the Moslem thinking
revenge is a sacred duty. I just want to bring out the totally
different spirit that there is, because it is not
always obvious. Now,
as I pointed out, Islam again has the
marks, most of them. It started in association with
the Old and New Testament. It claimed to be the outworking
of that revelation of God. But it denies certain basic
fundamentals of the Christian faith. It denies the atoning death
of Jesus on the cross. Mohammed taught that
Jesus did not die. An angel came and spirited Him
away from the cross before He died. Because there is no death, there is no atonement. And because there is no atonement,
there is no forgiveness. And no Moslem has the assurance
of sins forgiven at any time. Second, and this they deny
with fanatical intensity, that Jesus is
the Son of God. You can talk to the Moslems
about Jesus as a prophet and they will give
you careful attention. In fact, the Koran acknowledges
Jesus as a prophet, even as a Savior,
even as a Messiah. But when you say
He is the Son of God, you bring out the most
intense, bitter opposition. In the famous mosque that is
called the Dome on the Rock that is built on the site of what was
the Temple of Solomon at one time, in the Arabic
inscriptions around it, twice it says God
has no need of a son. Until you’ve
encountered this, you have no idea of the intensity
of the opposition to this. And then,
as I have said, it denies the Father/Son
relationship within the Godhead. So, interestingly
enough, you see, both these two religions that we
have looked at, Judaism and Islam, originate in
the Middle East. If you go on a tour in
Israel and you have a guide, they will probably tell
you at some point that the Middle East is the origin of the
three great monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity
and Islam. It is my guess, and I just offer this
as something for you to think about, that the spirit of
antichrist will succeed in the professing Christian
church in eliminating Jesus. We will ultimately have a
Christianity without Jesus. It will be a moral system,
a legal system, a system full of all sorts
of pageants and religion, but without Jesus. And you see,
once you have eliminated Jesus, you have opened the way for a synthesis
of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. I am inclined to think
(this is just a personal opinion) that the antichrist will
head up such a religion, uniting Judaism, Islam
and apostate Christianity. I think we are a very
long way toward it. When you consider that both the Pope
and the Archbishop of Canterbury have in recent years conducted
in Christian churches ceremonies where
Islamic priests and all sorts of Hindus,
American Indians, were all welcomed as
brothers together. See, you can just read
that in the newspaper but that is the
spirit of antichrist. Its purpose is to
eliminate Jesus. He is the
stumbling block. The cross is the
stumbling block. Do away with Jesus on the cross
and Christianity can merge with all sorts
of religions and I personally think we are
far on the way toward that. That’s my
personal opinion. I think we have to
be very cautious in our attitude and our
approach to these things, because I think the spirit
of deception is at work.
