CALLED TO MARTYRDOM

In my last post I identified the true nature of Islam, and its true enemy(Christianity). In this post I want to discuss strategies and remedies for the cancer of Islam. In general, the modern Christian world has been asleep, ignored and underestimated the threat of Islam. Islam has spread like an undetected cancer, infesting most of the western world. Today Islam worldwide holds over a billion and a half souls in its python grip. Western Europe has fallen under its influence and polititians offer policies of appeasement and political correctness. In the US Muslims number over six million, with over twelve hundred mosques. With its rapid population growth Islam has become the fastest growing religion in the world. At that rate you can plan on loosing your head or bowing down to Allah in the not too distant future. So what can we do to face this threat? I have always said, "What you fail to face today, will face you tomorrow." Historically Christians have confronted Islam militarily. The goal of the Crusades was focused more on the liberation of the Holy Land than on stopping Islam. Today, George W. Bush has resurrected the mantle of the crusades and like the crusaders of old has achieved some military success, but has failed in winning the hearts and minds of the Muslim people. Military planners fail to see the beast they are fighting. Islam is like an octopus with her tentacles spread around the world. You cut off one tentacle and there is another one to take its place. At the rate we are cutting tentacles we will exhaust our resources and energy before we win the war. I believe God has allowed the rise of Islam to provoke the Body of Christ into arising into her destiny. In the book of Revelations 19:10, "the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophesy;" I have paraphrased this verse, "The martyrdom of Jesus is the judicial decree of heaven that is shaping the destiny of the nations." God has a plan to bring the entire universe under the Lordship of Jesus Christ and has chosen the church of Jesus as His instrument to accomplish this purpose. In many ways the church has failed miserably in her mission of evangelizing the world. As a Native American I have many bones to pick with Western Christianity on the way they evangelized my people, or should I say subjugated the Indians. Much of the energy and resources of missionary organizations has focused on East Asia and Africa, but very little in the direction of the Muslim world. While our attention has been diverted elsewhere, Islam has crept in the back door. Fear is one of the reasons Native Americans were not evangelized, and I believe fear is the main reasons we have not evangelized the Muslims. The image of heads being cut off, and Christians being jailed and killed is enough to strike fear into our hearts. In the book of Acts 1:8 Jesus said, "I have given you power to be my witnesses." A correct interpretation of that scripture should be, "I have given you the grace to be martyrs for me." I believe the church will not come into the glory and power of God until we have surrendered our lives to this cause. Islamists have perverted the doctrine of martyrdom for their evil purposes while we Christians sit in our air conditioned auditoriums listening to prosperity preaching. As I said in my last post that the true nature of Islam is spiritual and therefore we can only achieve ultimate victory through spiritual warfare. Yes, God has given our nation authority to use the sword to combat threats, and I believe we must use that sword to survive as a people, but the ultimate victory can only be won when the church of Jesus rises up into her destiny and wins the battle on the spiritual playing field. In my next post I will define spiritual warfare, and strategies for winning the victory.