Defeating ISIS Isn't Enough

With the November 8th U.S. Presidential election results, there’s renewed hope that the incoming administration of Donald Trump will take down ISIS once and for all. Our hope is that President Trump will launch an effective attack that will annihilate ISIS for good.

However, things are not that simple – even when ISIS is defeated.

You see, the problem isn’t just ISIS. ISIS is, if anything, a symptom of something much bigger – and much worse.

In his now well-known 2014 Rosh Hashanah sermon, Atlanta Rabbi Shalom Lewis said:

‘There are one billion Muslims in the world and authorities agree that 5% are committed Islamists who embrace terror and wish to see, by any means possible, the Muslim flag over every capital, on every continent. I was relieved when I heard only 5%. Thank God it’s only 5%. Now I could sleep soundly. But wait…5% of a billion is 50 million Koran-waving, Allah Akbar-howling Muslim murderers out there planning to slit our throats, blow us up or forcibly convert us.’

Fifty million radical Muslims ready to kill you is a big problem, but the problem doesn't end there. The remaining Muslims also want a Muslim world - gradually dominating every corner of the earth. The problem is, as you can see, much bigger than just ISIS. And it can only be solved with one possible solution. 

But before we go into solutions space, let’s remember why these radical Muslims hate us so much.

Their hate isn’t something new – and quite frankly, its origins have nothing to do with America, as the Left would have you believe.

Their hate started with Abraham and his two sons – Ishmael and Isaac in Genesis 16,21. According to the Bible God had promised Abraham to make him the father of great nations (Genesis 12:1-3). Abraham had no children at the time and since it was taking too long for him and his wife Sarah to conceive, Abraham, influenced by his wife, decided to take the problem into his own hands – something that is usually not advisable to do. Abraham and Sarah decided that their servant, Hagar, would bear Abraham’s son – Ishmael.

But Ishmael wasn’t the son God had promised. So what happened? This is very important, so please pay attention: An angel told Hagar that Ishmael ‘shall be a wild man; his hand shall be against every man, and every man’s hand against him’ (Genesis 16:12). Keep this in mind.

When Ishmael was 14, Sarah finally gave birth to the son God had promised – Isaac.

Things didn’t go all that well in the family and one day Ishmael was making fun of Isaac - Isaac was still a boy but Ishmael was a teenager. In a rage, Sarah kicked their servant and her son Ishmael out of the house. Ishmael, being the wild man he was growing up to be, never forgave Sarah or Isaac for this.

As time went by Ishmael and Isaac had children of their own. Almost all Arabs, including the founder of Islam Muhammad, look to Ishmael as their father and all Jewish people look to Jacob (or Israel, Isaac’s son) as their father.

You see, it all started almost 4000 years ago with the conflict between Isaac and Ishmael. From a racial perspective, this conflict is ongoing today.

But race isn’t the only problem – a new religious conflict started with the establishment of Islam in the AD 600s.

ISIS is against everybody whose religion differs from Islam and their hatred can be traced back to the founding of Islam.

How do we expect to finish ISIS off if this racial and religious conflict has been going on for thousands and thousands of years? You take out 50 million of Muslim terrorists, then what?

Defeating ISIS isn’t enough – we have to do something else.

ISIS’s mission is to take Muslims back to the Koran to restore the ‘purity’ of their religion as taught by Muhammad. These extremists have gone back in time to the seventh century. These are fanatics…fifty million of them. Most modern Muslims de-emphasize the teachings mandating jihad against infidels, the subjugation of women and the hatred of Jews and Christians - though they too want an Islamic world. But radical Muslims are ready to kill for Allah, as we all know.

Islam is far from being a religion of peace. Former Muslim Nabeel Qureshi, now a Christian scholar, has said this about Islam’s history of warfare:

‘Within two centuries of the advent of Islam, Muslim conquests expanded Islamic territory from the shores of the Atlantic well into the valleys of India. At the end of that era, the most influential hadith collectors gathered whole books documenting Muhammad’s conduct and commands during times of warfare. Shortly after them, the great Islamic jurists systematically codified “sharia”, Islamic law, devoting whole branches of jurisprudence to the proper practice of warfare.
For these reasons, no one can claim that “Islam is a religion of peace” in the sense that the religion has been historically devoid of violence, neither in its origins nor in the history of the global Muslim community. Apart from the first thirteen years of Islamic history, when there were not enough Muslims to fight, Islam has always had an elaborate practice or doctrine of war’.

Defeating ISIS isn’t enough. Violence and warfare is in Islam’s DNA. So what can we do?

First, we must remember who is in control – God. Ultimately we know God wins the battle between good and evil, so we must rest assured that those of us, Christians, will be just fine no matter what happens.

And second, we must witness – we must preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Reach out to your friends and expanded network. Jesus Christ had to come because there just was too much sin on this earth. There still is, but all of us who have accepted Him as our Lord and Savior are now saved from sin and death. To the extent that Christians get closer to Jesus and behave more like Jesus, we’ll be showing those who follow false religions what it is like to be a Christian. This is not on President Trump alone – this is a mandate to all of us. Muslims honor Jesus as a great prophet – we have a golden opportunity to witness that Jesus is, in fact, our Savior.

John 13:34: A new commandment I give you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.