What’s the Message?

It’s said that this is a Christian nation, a country with a Judeo-Christian heritage. While that’s true, how strong a Christian nation do we have?

In the 1950s, most people went to church. Now, most people DON’T go to church. The USA is the fourth-largest mission field in the world (after India, China, and Malaysia).

The first American Baptist missionaries, Adoniram and Ann Judson, went to Burma in 1812. Now, Baptists in Burma are sending missionaries to the US!

Christians have a life-changing message, but they seem to be afraid to proclaim it.

The Islamic approach is slightly different.

In 691-692, Muslims built a mosque (the Dome of the Rock) on the Temple Mount, the ruins of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.

The cathedral of Constantinople (built in 360) was converted into a mosque in 1453, when Constantinople (now Istanbul) was conquered by the Ottoman Turks.

Muslims conquered Spain in 784, and refashioned a church in Cordoba (built in 600) into a mosque. The Christians re-conquered Cordoba in 1236 and they turned the mosque back into a cathedral (which is what it still is today). Even though it’s now a church and not a mosque, Newt Gingrich points out that, “every Islamist in the world recognizes Cordoba as a symbol of Muslim conquest” because it represents the original Islamic dominance of Europe (the West).

In 2001, Muslim terrorists flew planes into the World Trade Center in New York City, destroying those buildings. Now a group of Muslims wants to build a mosque near the ruins. They plan to call the place “Cordoba House.” They’re sending message.

The Cordoba Initiative website says, “The name Cordoba was chosen carefully to reflect a period of time during which Islam played a monumental role in the enrichment of human civilization and knowledge. A thousand years ago Muslims, Jews, and Christians coexisted and created a prosperous center of intellectual, spiritual, cultural and commercial life in Cordoba, Spain.”

That, however, fails to point out that the three Great Religions really didn’t coexist peacefully back then; it was a time of conquest, not harmony.

J.E Dyer, at hotair.com, writes, “‘Cordoba,’ in Islamic symbolic terms, means Islamic rule in the West. …There was a great deal to admire in the accomplishments of the Muslim Cordobans, but they did, in fact, invade and conquer Spain, sell its inhabitants into slavery, provide a base for slavery raids into other parts of Europe, and rule by the sword in much of the caliphate.”

Do the Muslims in New York City truly want to create an interfaith community center or do they have something else in mind?

Meanwhile, what message are we sending?

Many Christian leaders support the building of the mosque at Ground Zero in the name of tolerance. “Freedom of religion,” they claim.

But those same Christian leaders who are OK with the mosque aren’t supporting the effort to rebuild St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, which was destroyed on 9/11/01 by one of the falling World Trade Center towers.

Why aren’t those leaders defending Christianity? Looks like they’d rather roll over and be conquered.

In case you couldn’t figure it out, this is a spiritual battle. And guess who’s gonna win.

In 1529, Martin Luther wrote the hymn, “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.” Verse two says:

Did we in our own strength confide,

Our striving would be losing;

Were not the right Man on our side,

The Man of God’s own choosing.

Dost ask who that may be?

Christ Jesus, it is He;

Lord Sabaoth, His Name,

From age to age the same,

And He must win the battle.

Want to be on the side of the winner?

As Christians, we believe that eventually everyone will worship Jesus:

“Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11, NIV).

I’m not interested in other religions. I’m interested in proclaiming Christ.

If you’re selling a product, you have to believe in that product. You tell people that your brand is better than the competitor’s.

What am I selling? The superiority of God through Christ. Tolerance is nice. We should all be respectful and understanding of each others’ religious beliefs. But that doesn’t mean we need to embrace other religions and subjugate our own faith.

John 14:6 (NIV) says, “Jesus answered, ‘I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’”

If Christ is the way to God the Father, why would I select any other path?