Expert: Liberal Christianity Intensifies Radical Islam Threat
ICC Note
There is a movement across the Muslim world and no country is left out where there are not now people being saved,
By Michelle A. Vu
Thu, Feb. 07 2008 Islam (The Christian Post)- The Western churchs growing tendency to blur theological differences and not uphold the absolute truth is contributing to the threat of radical Islam to the Western world, said a highly respected expert on Islam.
Patrick Sookhdeo, the director of the Institute for the Study of Islam and Christianity, said churches are moving away from central doctrines that teach about separation and instead conforming to secular societys ideology of inclusion.
Christians are afraid to admit that only believers in Jesus Christ will be saved and others Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists are lost, because that would be arrogance in a society dominated by secular humanist ideology, Sookhdeo argued.
What worries me is this, he added. I say this to churches in Britain . I cant say it of the U.S. Is the Lord taking His candlestick from Britain and from Europe ? Is the Lord saying: Im going to vomit you out of my mouth, because your sickness is beyond cure? You are so taken with other gods, you have prostituted yourself enough. Im finished with you. It is a question and a question we must address, not just in Europe but here also.
Islam is one of these gods which Christians are embracing, said Sookhdeo.
Some Muslims live peacefully among Westerners while others like Al-Qaeda want to blow us up to bits. While some Muslims say our religion is one of peace, the Koran has been used throughout history to justify violence.
Sookhdeo noted that the top 200 U.S. companies are sharia (Islamic law) complied. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has tried to influence the American education system by donating tens of millions of dollars to top U.S. universities.
He noted that Muslim extremists dont distinguish between Christians in the West and those in the Middle East and that they are seen as being one of the same thing.
We are in a spiritual battle it is not just the great powers lining up all the technologies, but we understand and interpret the world in an altogether different ways, Sookhdeo said. If there is a solution, its a spiritual solution, a Christian solution.”
There is a movement across the Muslim world and no country is left out where there are not now people being saved, he said encouragingly to a room of applause. We are not in a position of defeat actually; the church is growing at a fair pace within the Islamic world. We have to thank God for that.
Sookhdeo who is also the director of the Barnabas Fund which works with the persecuted church repeatedly urged Christians in the West to remember the persecuted church and to pray, support and lobby the government on her behalf. But he also called on Americans to learn from the persecuted church.
There is considerable disillusionment within the Muslim world and I think violence which we see is producing an inner hunger within many Muslims for reality, Sookhdeo said. The danger is at the very time we should be holding fast to our faith and onto our foundation and sharing those, the temptation is to weaken our position, to weaken it, and embrace the other.
