Christian Civilization Under Attack

Hebraic Christianity is the religion of a people in covenant with the God of the Bible, the Sovereign of the Universe. The greatness of Hebraic Christianity is in the fact that out of it sprang universal Christianity, which extended that covenant to the rest of mankind through the divine intervention of Jesus Christ. That this was good for the human race is easily seen by the humane civilization that has been built on Judeo-Christian values.

A Beacon of Hope
The United States , founded by Calvinists and Puritans, has become the best fruit of the Biblical seed. No civilization in history has provided so much freedom, so much abundance, so much happiness to so many human beings. No civilization in history has provided such freedom of invention, science, and intellectual endeavor. In short, the United States became and still remains the beacon of hope for millions of human beings who come to our shores in pursuit of all that America offers: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Christianity gave Europe its science and cathedrals, its art and music, its literature, its universities, its spiritual strength. But despite all of that, Europe succumbed to the false, malevolent philosophies of Nazism and Communism, largely based on hatred of the God of the Bible. So fanatical was this hatred among the Nazis, that the Jews became the object of extermination. By destroying the Jews, the Nazis hoped to destroy Biblical prophecy and Biblical truth. As for the Communists, their hatred of the bourgeoisie was so fanatical that they killed millions of Jews in labor camps and before firing squads.

It was the United States that came to the rescue of Europe when it seemed that its Judeo-Christian civilization would be permanently crushed under the heels of pagan or atheist totalitarianism. Europe, restored physically, politically, and economically, with the generous help of the American Marshall Plan, now lives with a ghostly Christianity, the cultural strength of which still radiates faintly from its ancient cathedrals and churches and in the arts and music of its past. It still celebrates the Christian holy days: Christmas and Easter, even though socialist secular humanism dominates European culture.

The Islamic Advance
But because of the massive influx of Muslims into Europe, Christianity or what's left of it in European culture and institutions is once more under attack. The Muslims were expelled from Spain in the 16th century, and they were largely expelled from the Balkans in the 18th century. But now they are back throughout Europe.

Much of this is the result of French President Charles de Gaulle's retreat from North Africa in 1962, the retreat of Christianity from what had become a vibrant European civilization in North Africa. What de Gaulle didn't realize was that the Muslims had no intention of simply destroying a vibrant, productive Christian civilization in North Africa. They planned, in time, to reclaim what they once held on the continent of Europe.

And so the Islamic takeover of Europe is proceeding very efficiently as they use all of the social protections given them by the European Union. They will win over the Europeans in the same way that the Turks won over Bosnia. In Bosnia Christians converted to Islam because they were given the choice of living as first class Muslims or persecuted Christians. The Serbs resisted and died by the thousands. But the Bosnians surrendered.

Will the Christians of Western Europe surrender to Islam? They seem to be in no mood to resist. One French professor recently told journalist Mark Steyn that in Western Europe there are no values worth dying for.

A Culture of Death
Islam has created a very different civilization from ours. It has created one of poverty, hatred, and unceasing suffering. Its people, for the most part, live under tyrants who use the religion to subject them to lives of crippling superstition and intellectual degeneracy. Without the wealth derived from oil, the Islamic world would be even more backward than it is today.

Its greatest obsession is with the existence of Israel, the only state in the Middle East based on Western democratic values. Even though Israel occupies a tiny space in the vast Islamic empire, it has engendered such murderous hatred among Muslims that their children are taught that it is virtuous to commit suicide by killing Jews.

To many Christians in America, the return of the Jews to the ancient land of Israel is a fulfillment of Biblical prophecy. That is why so many Christians focus their attention and concern on the fate of the Jews in that part of the Islamic world. That part of the world is the dangerous fault line where civilizations confront one another: Judeo-Christian versus Islamic.

The murderous attack on America by Islamic fanatics is a permanent and grim fact of history. It is true that most Muslims in America are embarrassed and frightened by what Islamic terrorists have done to this country. But it cannot be denied that most Islamic organizations in America promote hatred of Israel. Many of these organizations support Palestinian terror and the Arab economic boycott against Israel. And it is that hatred of Israel that has created a wide and very uncomfortable cultural gap between Muslims and Christians in America. Hatred can never become the basis of trust. If Muslims are ever to become truly integrated in American culture, they must first divest themselves of hatred of Israel.

The Third World War
The war between the West and Islam has become the Third World War. On September 11, 2001, Islam launched its Pearl Harbor by destroying the twin towers of the World Trade Center , bombing the Pentagon, and killing over 3,000 innocent people. Nothing like this had ever happened to New York City and Washington D.C., let alone the United States. Our government has tried to convince us that this is not a religious war, that it is merely a war against international terrorism. But we must acknowledge that this terrorism is driven by Islamic religious fanaticism that views America as the Great Satan. America has no desire to destroy the Islamic religion. We simply don't want Islamic fundamentalists to destroy us.

We do not know how this war will be fought, how much suffering it will cause American families or our adversaries. What we do know is that it must be won. Throughout its tumultuous history, tiny Israel has faced Muslim armies and terrorists and has beaten them. And despite this permanent threat to its existence, Israel has thrived, creating the most democratic and economically advanced nation in the Middle East. We can learn some lessons from them.

The first lesson is to go directly after the terrorists, where they live, where they operate. And that is why we have invaded Afghanistan and Iraq. Saddam Hussein was in a position to shelter terrorists and supply them with weapons of mass destruction. He and his government had to be removed. After a great military victory, we have bunkered down in the task of fighting the resisters and establishing a friendly, democratic government in Iraq . We are at war, even though support of the war may be waning. But to retreat would give the fanatic Islamists the hope that they could cripple the United States .

We had thought in our naiveté that the new millennium would bring us permanent peace, prosperity, and well-being. Instead, we have another world war in which it is expected that the Islamic terrorists will try to use germ warfare or dirty bombs to decimate the American people. The sad truth is that the benevolent world Americans have grown used to no longer exists. And only by defeating Islamic fanaticism can it be restored.