“It is Impossible to Defeat an Enemy you are Unwilling to Identify.”
On Sunday morning following the radical Islamic attacks on innocent civilians in Paris, Dr. Robert Jeffress Pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, dispensed with political correctness and provided a special message to his congregation. Dr. Jeffress and Pastor Donnie Swaggart have demonstrated boldness and courage that most pastors and elected officials have not yet exhibited.
The message now on U-tube lasts only 6 minutes and will be quoted as near verbatim as possible.
I feel like I need to address the tragedy we all witnessed this weekend in Paris. What should be our response to that tragedy? Certainly, as Christians, we should be praying for the victims and the victims families. Psalms 34 says, The Lord is close to those who are broken hearted.
But I believe as Christians, we need to do more than simply pray. I believe it is time for us to lay aside political correctness and identify the belief system that is responsible for these horrific acts, and that is the evil, evil religion of Radical Islam. That is the belief system that inspired this tragedy. And make no mistake about it. Islam is just not another way to approach God. Islam is a false religion and it is inspired by Satan himself, whom Jesus said came to steal, kill and destroy. And this weekend we saw the fruit of Satan’s destruction in the acts of these terrorists.
It is impossible to separate what these eight suicide bombers did from their faith, their religion that inspires them to do this.
These terrorists were not acting in opposition to the teaching of Islam, they were acting according to the teaching of Islam. And let me illustrate that for you.
Compare Islam to Christianity. As Christians we follow the Bible. We follow the New Testament specifically. You can not find a verse anywhere in the New Testament that commands us to kill unbelievers. But the Qur’an, the book of Muslims is laced with verse after verse that says “kill the infidels.” That is people like you and me. Over and over again, 35 different verses in the Qur’an commanding violence.
Jesus is the founder of our faith. He is known as the Prince of Peace. He didn’t kill anyone. Mohammad, the founder of Islam was a prince of war. He slaughtered thousands. At one time alone, he beheaded 600 Jews who wouldn’t follow him into battle.
Jesus, the founder of our faith said: “love your enemies.” Mohammad, the founder of Islam, said: “kill your enemies. Amputate their limbs.”
The reason I am bringing this up is ladies and gentlemen,it is absolutely impossible to defeat an enemy you are unwilling to identify.
So what is to be our response as Christians to this massacre in Paris? There is a lot of confusion among Christians on this topic, because many Christians confuse their individual responsibilities as Christians with government’s responsibilities as government.
As individual Christians, we are called upon to love, to forgive, to pray, to share the Gospel. That is our individual responsibility. But government has a different God-given responsibility. Government is never called upon to forgive. Government is never called upon to turn the other cheek. The responsibility of government, according to the Word of God, is to protect its citizens. And one way that government protects its citizens is by securing the borders. It is government’s responsibility to secure the borders. And let’s just go ahead and say this and make it clear. Having secure borders is not anti-Christian, as some people would lead you to believe. Did you know that borders are God’s idea. God doesn’t mean for us to live always as one people, and one nation all under the same auspice without any borders around the world. That is not God’s plan. Acts 17-26 says: It is God himself who established the boundaries, the borders in which people should live. That was God’s idea. And it is government’s responsibility to secure our borders in order to protect us. Not only that, it is government’s responsibility to punish evil doers.
Romans 13 says God has empowered the government, the military to bring wrath against those who practice evil.
You may not agree with everything that Donald Trump says, but Donald Trump was absolutely correct Thursday night when he said: It is time to start bombing the “you know what” out of ISIS. That is a Biblical response.
I want to say this! Ladies and gentlemen, if we do not confront and defeat the evil of Radical Islam, the evil of Radical Islam is going to confront and defeat us. It is time for our government to step up and do whatever is necessary militarily to rid this world of the cancer called Radical Islam. It is time for us to act.