ANALYSIS ON THE YOUTUBE VIDEO, “MUSLIM DEMOGRAPHICS"
*The following is a powerpoint outline for a talk I (Scott) gave at First Baptist Church of Cadillac last Sunday, August 23. I welcome your comments and questions, whether they are positive or negative. In particular, you may feel that there is a lack of scripture and other references in this outline to support the argument, which I admit is true because it is still in development. So I welcome your suggestions for any that you believe support these ideas.
*First watch the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-3X5hIFXYU
1. For Christians it is God, as His values are revealed in Scripture, who defines for us what is truly virtuous about a culture and what is not.
2. Contrary to modern thinking, all cultures are not equally virtuous. The extent to which a culture reflects God’s values the more or less virtuous it is.
3. As Christians, we must affirm that there is nothing inherently virtuous about Western or American culture. Whatever is virtuous about it is the outgrowth of the Christian worldview.
4. Western culture is not synonymous to Christian culture, but it has been profoundly shaped by biblical principles and mores, and so has our way of life.
5. Western/American culture has been steadily abandoning its biblical underpinnings, and will continue to do so unless there is a renewal.
6. Therefore, to the extent that this is happening Christians must be willing to judge and stand against western culture insofar that it no longer reflects God’s values.
7. Islam is a threat to Western culture because a) its core values are contrary to God’s values as revealed in Scripture; b) it has the will to dominate, and c) it is gaining the strength to do so.
8. However, Islam is not the only ideology that we need to be concerned with. There are others that are equally or more dangerous, i.e. secularization and its many social ills.
9. Islam can only gain a foothold in a culture that is already in moral and spiritual decay, such as America and the nations of Europe are.
10. Thus, if the “imminent” Islamization of the West does occur (starting with Europe), we as Christians should first mourn the spiritual decay of our culture that precipitated it.
11. Example: Abortion. To me, more than anything else, this video points to the cultural sin of abortion and its consequences.
- But more broadly and deeply it points to the Western devaluing of the biblical family and the devaluing of children, born and unborn.
- Even more poignantly, it points to the cultural decay that stems from the devaluing of God. Many people in the West do not have a genuine Christian faith or worldview.
- This is becoming increasingly true in America as well. Here, even church-going evangelical Christians are abandoning God’s values as found in Scripture.
12. God rules the nations and assesses their cultural integrity. He will judge and chastise nations based on their allegiance to His values, as we see in Amos, Jeremiah and other prophets.
13. Further, God will use even a less righteous nation to chastise one that reaches a certain point of spiritual/cultural depravity, including conquest.
14. Moreover, every once-great culture eventually declines and falls. It is the nature of humanity, and it is inevitable.
15. But what is the main point of this video, really? It is a "call to action". What kind of action is not stated. Certainly something like this should alarm us to some extent. But shouldn’t we be alarmed already with the rising tide of secular humanism and decadence that has infected our culture?
16. What can be done? First and foremost we must have national repentance and cultural renewal?
17. Other Considerations:
- The American culture of freedom and casual faith is very intoxicating, and many Muslims who come here, if they were not completely nominal already, become so. (Though others become more serious about their faith.) Therefore, it is possible that Muslim faith and culture will become as secularized and pluralistic as Christianity is becoming. If that is what happens, perhaps Islam will be relativized and marginalized along with Christianity.
- The specter of the Islamization of the West is certainly related to their relative population, but not exclusively so. As noted above, a larger percentage of Muslims in America—even a majority—will not necessarily lead to Islamization. In any case, we will have the luxury of watching what happens in Europe.
18. Conclusion: In the years ahead, the Church of Jesus Christ must have a "wartime mentality" and engage many enemies on many fronts. We must contend for the true faith in a cultural milieu of much opposition, but there are forces that are more powerful than we are. Thankfully, the war is not ours alone but God’s, and He alone can bring about a victory for His Kingdom. But God’s ways are full of paradox and irony, and what ultimately will produce victory may well seem like defeat first. For the present, let us see the rise in the Muslim population in America as an opportunity for informed and intentional evangelism to them. Very few places in the Muslim world offer us the freedom to proclaim the gospel among them as we have here. Through the spoken and printed word we can present to them the transforming person of God in Christ. If we do not we will have failed, and if this freedom is curtailed it will not be by Islamic law but by our own laws of pluralism.
