Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

I just now received an email from Pinnacle Forum America centered here in Scottsdale, Arizona, and of which I am a member. It quotes a missionary friend in Syria who relates what the Islamic terrorist group ISIS is doing. Here are some excerpts: “He said ISIS is systematically going house to house to all the Christians and asking the children to denounce Jesus. He said so far not one child has. And so far all have consequently been killed. But not the parents. The UN has withdrawn and the missionaries are on their own…. These brave parents instilled such a fervent faith in their children that they chose martyrdom.”

If people calling themselves “Christian” were demanding that people renounce Allah or be killed, I would be among the first to volunteer to go stop them. So would a whole lot of other Christians around the world. It wouldn’t matter to us if they were Catholic, Protestant, or whatever, comparing it to Sunni or Shite. And we wouldn’t wait for our nations we lived in to decide to do something about it. We would be so enraged about people bearing our Savior Jesus Christ’s name in such a brutal, barbarian, and evil way.

Why haven’t other Muslims been doing exactly that? And this is happening in their region of the world, near the heartland of Islam, where most Muslims live. That’s way on the other side of the globe from the United State of America. Yet, who is it that is the first to step up to the plate (baseball term) to do something about stopping ISIS–the United State of America. At least some Middle East nations have now agreed to join this effort. But why does it have to take a national effort for that to happen? Why don’t individual Muslims join together to stop them? Forget nations! ISIS is not a nation, even though they endeavor to be one. I guess a lot of moderate Muslims are scared of these radical terrorists who are willing to forfeit their lives as martyrs for “the cause of God.”

Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are the three monotheistic religions in the world. What is the main theological difference between Christianity and Islam. It is not the name of God, as some Christians may answer, saying Muslims worship Allah, a different God from the one Christians and Jews worship. Wrong! Allah is the Arabic word for “God/god.” And forget the nonsensical argument about Allah being the moon god. The main theological difference between Christians and Muslims is that almost all Christians believe in the church doctrine of the Trinity–that God is three co-equal persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit–and the Qur’an denounces this repeatedly, saying God is numerically one person, not three persons. If you read my blog, you know that I totally agree with the Qur’an on this. I was a Trinitarian Christian for 22 years. Then I read myself out of that from the Bible and wrote a 600-page book about it entitled The Restitution of Jesus Christ (2008). Post-apostolic church fathers got that wrong. The Bible does not teach that God is three persons. This is the main thing that has divided Muslims and Christians, and it is a very sad state of affairs. It is the main reason for the UNHOLY Crusades.

However, I have a complaint about the Qur’an. Why does the U.S. media complain about moderate Muslims being rather tepid to publicly denounce such violence and religious intolerance by these radical people calling themselves Muslims, yet our media doesn’t say hardly anything about where it comes from? READ THE QUR’AN. Most people do not understand the importance of the religious texts of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. All three are built squarely on a religious text: Judaism on the Jewish Bible (Old Testament), Christianity on the Christian Bible (Old Testament and New Testament), and Islam on the Qur’an. Conservative people in these three religions criticize their moderate fellows for not adhering enough to their religious texts.

Some Muslims claim the romantic view that it is only legitimate to read the Qur’an in Arabic. But my English edition of it is considered quite credible by the academic world. It was translated by N. J. Dawood (born in Bagdad), first published here in the U.S. by Penguin Books in 1956, and it is the fifth edition. The U.S. media needs to do more in challenging the Muslim community about some appalling statements in the Qur’an. Why? Many Muslims in the West claim that these Islamic terrorists are not true Muslims and thus not Muslims at all. But ISIS, al-Qaeda, and many other Islamic terrorist groups claim that they are the ones that are faithful to the Qur’an, and moderate Muslims–which includes the royal family of Saudi Arabia that is supposedly protecting Muslim heritage–are not. Who is right? You decide from the following disturbing excerpts from my copy of the Qur’an:

• “the most implacable of men in their enmity to the faithful [Muslims] are the Jews and the pagans, and that the nearest in affection to them are those who say, ‘We are Christians'” (5:82).
• “we will put terror into the hearts of the unbelievers” (3:148).
• “Never think that those who were slain in the cause of God are dead. They are alive, and well provided for by their Lord” (3:170).
• “Let those who would exchange the life of this world for the hereafter, fight for the cause of God; whoever fights for the cause of God, whether he dies or triumphs, on him We [angels] shall bestow a rich recompense” (4:74).
• “The true believers fight for the cause of God, but the infidels fight for the devil. Fight then against the friends of Satan” (4:76).
• “When you meet the unbelievers in the battlefield strike off their heads” (47:2).
• “the hypocrites,… Do not befriend them … If they desert you, seize them and put them to death wherever you find them” (4:89).
• “God will not let the unbelievers triumph over the faithful” (4:142).
• “Believers, take neither the Jews nor the Christians for your friends. They are friends with one another. Whoever of you seeks their friendship shall become one of their number” (5:51).
• “Believers, do not seek the friendship of the infidels and those who were given the Book [Bible]” (5:56).
• “People of the Book,… Those whom God has cursed and with whom He has been angry, transforming them into apes and swine” (5:60).
• “God revealed … “I shall cast terror into the hearts of the infidels. Strike off their heads, strike off the very tips of their fingers” (8:12).
• “Believers, when you encounter the infidels on the march,… If anyone on that day turns his back to them,… he shall incur the wrath of God and Hell shall be his home” (8:15).
• “the faithful … will fight for the cause of God, they will slay and be slain. Such is the true promise He [God] has made them in the Torah, the Gospel, and the Koran” (9:111).
• “Believers, make war on the infidels who dwell around you” (9:123).