BUSH, ISLAM, AND HOW WOULD JESUS VOTE?

 

 

 

Nicholas Jackson
October 26, 2007
NewsWithViews.com

While driving home 9 hours from a banquet on Christian education in Columbia, SC, I had plenty of time to reflect on President Bush�s statement which he made to a reporter from an Islamic News service:

�Well first of all, I believe in an Almighty God, and I believe that all the world whether they be Muslim, Christian, or any other religion, prays to the same God. That�s what I believe that Islam is a great religion that preaches peace.� (WND Oct. 7, 2007)

What if Bush is right?

Let�s first look at his assertion that we pray to the same God as Muslims. Let�s reduce it to its logical absurdity. If the president is right, how might the Bible change to fit his more accommodating and pluralistic belief. Here are some new scriptures that would make room at the Inn for everyone.

�Jesus saith unto him, Allah and myself are the way the truth and the life. Anyone can come through either of us because it makes no difference.�

�Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, is two (Jesus or Allah, you pick). And you shall love them, whichever you prefer, with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength, as long as you are sincere.�

�I can do all things through Christ or Allah who strengthens me.�

Or how about John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son Jesus, but you don�t have to believe him to have eternal life, you can believe in Allah too.�

Most Christians would be outraged if this were taught in churches and most Muslims would too.

Perhaps, the President�s trumpet sound is uncertain because he does not understand that we are in a war of worldviews. Consider this quote from a Jewish man who gets it.

�America will never admit that it is involved in a war of cultures, in fact in a religious war� America will never admit it, and consequently will be unable to fight back. Just like the Israelis. They fail to identify the enemy. They seek the terrorists just as Sharon is pursuing individual terrorists. They are pursuing the wasps instead of destroying the nest. They are afraid of a real confrontation between their values and those of Islam.� --Moshe Feiglin (Why America Has already Lost the War, Sept. 28, 2001)

Religion of Peace?

Bush�s assertion that Islam is a religion of peace has a dramatic influence on our national security, foreign policy and interaction towards Muslims. He has become more of an apologist for Islam than CAIR.

Is he right?

Here is a mild sampling of some of the �peaceful� scriptures from Islam: which means �Submit to Allah� not peace.

�Believers, take neither Jews nor Christians for your friends. They are friends with one another. Whoever of you seeks their friendship will become one of their number. (Sura 5:51)

�Prophet, make war on the unbelievers and the hypocrites and deal rigorously with them. Hell shall be there home an evil fate.� (Sura 9:73)

�When the sacred months are over slay the idolaters wherever you find them. Arrest them, besiege them, and lie in ambush everywhere for them (Sura 9:5)

The key thing to remember is that there are peaceful Muslims. These would be called nominal Muslims or Muslims in name only, just like we have cultural Christians in America. This is simplified, but a person following the historical, grammatical, and most literal (natural) meaning of the Bible will become more like Christ and will love and pray for his enemies. A person following the historical, grammatical, and most literal (natural) meaning of the Qur�an will hate Christians and Jews.

�Islam based on the life of its founder, fourteen hundred years of history, the laws and governments it produces, and its holy writings, is not a religion of peace.� (A Christian�s response to Islam, Garlow, James p.94)

You shall know them by their fruits.

What can we learn from Bush�s comments? We must look at anyone who claims to be a Christian and test their beliefs with the Word of God. Did the early Christians think that all religions prayed to the same God? No. They believed there was one King and that King was Jesus. For that reason they became martyrs.

�Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.� (1 John 4:1)

When we are electing a president we are not looking for a �theologian in chief� or seeking to reform our nation from the top down by electing a �messiah in chief.� This does not mean politics are dirty for Christians, and we should not vote. Most likely reform will come from the bottom up through solid self-government, family government, and church government then extending to the civil government all under God.

How would Jesus Vote?

Before the 2004 election, I wrote a column in a local paper, comparing the values of President Bush, and John Kerry. The column was titled, �How Would Jesus Vote?�

An editor for the LA times was reading the paper in his trek through Ohio, a key state. He called me to get my views on the election. I made the statement, �Someone�s values will be legislated whether it is someone�s immorality or someone�s morality. The winner�s worldview would win out.� Ironically, though my column made the case for Bush, I had a last minute change of heart. George Bush had just come on Good Morning America that week supporting civil unions (de facto gay marriage).

I chose to vote for a third party candidate who was a Christian and Constitutionalist. �Fool me twice shame on me.�

In 2008, Hillary will continue to speak about abortion being a sad, tragic choice, and wanting to save America through universal healthcare, Barack Obamanation will be speaking in mega-churches, about audacious hope, but no hope for the pre-born, Mitt Romney, who believes in a false (different) Jesus, will be claiming that he shares the same values as Christians, and Rudy will be saying he will put in the �right� Supreme Court Justices (originalists), though he personally believes it is okay to let women murder their pre-born babies.

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What can we do? What should we do?

�Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.� --John Jay, First Chief Justice of the U.S

We can start by being in prayer for repentance for President Bush, our nation, and our own lives, and start asking the question:

How would Jesus vote?

� 2007 Nicholas Jackson - All Rights Reserved