| People
everywhere are waking up to the fact that militant Islam is one of the most
powerful forces in the world today. Conflict between the West
and Islam was prophesied in Daniel
11. Many people in the West are now afraid. Christians
should not join in this fear and hatred of Islam. Islam has
grown because we have failed the task of evangelism. People
are turning to Islam because they do not see Christianity as a
relevant alternative. We should demonstrate love and
compassion to the Moslem people in obedience to Christ to draw
them to him.
Daniel 11 describes a series of battles
between the King of the North and the King of the South. These are
not real kings, but they are spiritual powers, who work through
coalitions of nations.
The King of the South represents the
Islamic nations that are to the south of Israel, which was
Daniel's home. (Negeb, the Hebrew word for South comes from a root
meaning parched). Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia have dominated the
South in the last two decades. These nations are all parched.
The King of the North is called Greece in
Dan 11:2. This means that the common idea that the King of the
North is Russia is wrong. The King of the North is clearly linked
with Greece. However it is not the nation of Greece, but the
civilisation that came out of Greece. Modern historians and
philosophers consider that Western Civilisation emerged out of
ancient Greece. Therefore, the King of the North symbolises
Western Civilisation (the Hebrew word for North comes from a root
meaning darkness).
Originally, Western Civilisation was
centred on Europe, but the United States now dominates Europe in
terms of military power and cultural influence. Since the Second
World War, Europe has been dependent on the United States. The
Marshall Plan kick-started the European economies. Many European
businesses are controlled by United States companies. European
defence has been the responsibility of NATO and is guaranteed by
the United States. American troops are still based in Germany. The
United States has developed an enormous arsenal of weapons
(including nuclear weapons), and it now uses them to exert its
influence in the world. Since the end of the Cold War, it has
become the dominant force in the world. America by default has
become the world's policeman.
We are living in a time when the King of
the North is in ascendancy, but is being challenged by the King of
the South (remember that these are spiritual powers). The struggle
between the King of the North and the King of the South is a
picture of a clash between Western Civilisation (initially the
United States) and the Islamic nations. This clash is now coming
to a head. This struggle will dominate the next few decades, in
the same way as the Cold War dominated the post-war decades.
Over the last few decades, the United
States, acting as the King of the North and accompanied by other
European nations that are also part of the Kingdom of North, has
been gradually invading the Middle East. This invasion really
began with the CIA organising a coup in Iran in 1953 and in Iraq
in 1958. The first major step was the Gulf War, when the United
States attacked Iraq to defend Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. US forces
have remained in Saudi Arabia since then. The invasion of
Afghanistan to destroy the Taliban gave it a further foothold.
During this war the United States also established bases in the
Central Asian Republics. The next step was a full-scale
invasion of Iraq.
The
struggle is not primarily between Islam and Christianity, but
between Islam and Western decadence. Moslems
see the Western World as corrupted by materialism and self
indulgence. Their real enemy is western materialism
and secularism. In
a sense we have the same enemy. It is ironic that, while
Moslems have seen the impact of materialism and self indulgence,
the western church has been blinded by them.
Christianity is struggling against the same forces, but we have
been slowly corrupted and weakened by them. Moslems believe
that the Western world will eventually have to surrender to
the spiritual purity of a resurgent Islam. If Christianity
is not revived and purified, they may prove to be right. Christianity
and Islam both have a goal of taking over the world. The difference
is that Islam is often willing to do it by force, whereas
Christianity seeks to do it by persuading people to respond to the
love of God (when we get it right). The other difference is
that Moslems are serious about this task, whereas Christians are mostly
happy to hide in their churches and sing about winning the
world.
Samuel Huntingdon
explains the reasons ,
Moslems fear
and resent Western power and the threat it poses to their
society and beliefs. They see Western culture as
materialistic, corrupt, decadent and immoral. They also
see it as seductive, and hence, stress all the more the need to
resist its impact on their way of life. Increasingly,
Moslems attack the West, not for adhering to an imperfect,
erroneous religion, which nonetheless a religion of the book,
but for not adhering to any religion at all. In Moslem
eyes, Western secularism, irreligiosity, and hence,
immorality are worse evils than the western Christianity that
produced them. Moslems see their opponent as the godless
West...a people that have forsaken God. (Clash of
Civilisations)
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