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Saturday 16 July 2016

To Take A Peek Inside...

Mohamed Lahouaj Bouhlel, the terrorist trucker who deliberately slew many in Nice, hardly ever attended a mosque, so his cousin testified. He ate pork, a meat forbidden in Islam. He also drank wine - also forbidden in the Islamic faith. And oh yes, he took drugs as well, also forbidden. Yet as he used his truck as a weapon to plough into a cheerful crowd celebrating their Bastille national holiday, he cried out in Arabic: Allah is great!

Is he?

Allah must be one hell of a lousy entity if he has ordered such a massacre to be carried out in his name. And then, the hating trucker had hardly completed his divine assignment when the police approached and shot him dead. Maybe some of the more radical Muslims are now looking at this martyr and feeling envious of his entry into paradise populated with virgins for eternal enjoyment as a reward for his Jihad commitment. So the Muslims believe. On the contrary, if the whole Bible is a true and a reliable document, then this Allah is certainly not the God of the Bible, neither the God of Israel, nor the God of the Christian. Allah had never created the Heavens or the Earth, neither breathed life into any organic substance, whether it be animal, human or vegetation. Rather, Allah is more likely a demonic entity residing in the air, and the slavish master of deceit for every Muslim who has lived and died without ever knowing Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour. A shocking testimony! Furthermore, this would immediately bring up the question - how can I be so sure that I am in the right faith and they are not? Does this train of thinking make me equally bigoted as the Jihadist himself? More on that a little later.

 Victims of the terrorist attack, Nice.


But what was really on Bouhlel's mind? Simply this: Hatred of society. Hatred based on envy of the freedom enjoyed by us Westerners. No diet restrictions, no ban on alcohol, no compulsion for religious attendance, women don't have to cover their faces with a burka or veil. Education is free, and leading to advances in Science and technology. But most of all, we are free to enjoy some fun without the fear of breaching religious restrictions. For example, I do not perceive as sinful to have a glass of wine with my dinner, or to bite into a delicious pork fillet, or for a mate and I to enjoy a day out at the fairground, or to take my wife out to a dance hall or to a rock concert. And at church I can stand and clap my hands in joyful praise, even feeling free to remain seated while others are standing. No tight religious liturgy or order of service, as in a mosque. And no calls to compulsory prayer at fixed times. Instead, we are free to pray any time.

Tied in with this may well have been a feeling of inferior complex. Perhaps wishing for a higher level of education and a profession to go with it, bringing in a decent income. Decent by comparison with high income earners in France or any other Western country, and not by Arab standing. Envy gives way to hatred, and hatred into revenge, bloodthirsty killing of as many as possible. No consideration for young children or their mothers. Instead, man, woman and child suffers without any discrimination, without a sliver of pity.

His hatred of Western society with all its liberties was also tied with hatred of his own childhood religion. Islam is a religion of fear, based on works and punishment. Hell is real to Muslims as well as to Christians, but with the former, one has to work to earn his place in Paradise, although a direct entry is granted to anyone who dies in defence of his faith, or better still, to fight in order to spread it. What I find amazing is there has always been a parallelism existing between the history of Islam and the history of Roman Catholicism, where direct entry into Heaven is concerned. The Vatican grants a plenary indulgence for anyone who dies whilst defending or promoting the faith. That means the martyr enters Paradise from the moment of death through his own merit, and not on the merit of Jesus Christ.

But with the case of Bouhlel, I don't believe either Heaven or Hell mattered to him. He hated his own religion, and he hated the freedom within the constitution of Western society. And he took his revenge. It is certainly not new.

The first recorded case of hatred based on envy is about Cain and Abel. Abel offered a sacrifice based on faith which was acceptable to God and, in a sense, he was set free from the penalty of his sins. Cain's sacrifice based on self-effort was rejected by God, and we read that "his face fell". Consumed by envy, hate and anger, he did not hesitate to slay his own brother (Genesis 4:1-16). In the New Testament, a well detailed record of the first Christian martyr is readily available. After showing the real meaning of the Law to all the Sanhedrin members assembled, and demonstrating their inability to keep that Law, Stephen was led outside to be stoned to death (Acts 7). The real fury among the Sanhedrin was aroused when Stephen shared his vision of the risen Lord standing up beside his Father, ready to receive him. Again, expressing his own freedom from the Law led to his murder by the hands of those who maintained living under the Law.

Nice during better times - symbol of Western liberty.


Then to mention the countless believers who were martyred for their faith and freedom in Jesus Christ, first by the Jews who were still bound by the Law of Moses, then by the Romans, who for millennia had to sacrifice at the altars of their pagan deities. Indeed, the believer's freedom in Christ did not go down well among those under the Law, whether Jewish or Gentile. And so, over the first centuries began the rise of the Catholic Church, whose Catechism rejected salvation through faith in Christ alone. As a result, the Vatican instituted the Office for the Preservation of the Faith, still in operation to this day. This department of the Holy See was responsible for the torture and killing of "heretics" who found freedom in Jesus Christ alone.

As the aggressive stance of the Catholic faith subsided with the rise of Protestantism and the widespread reading of the Bible by the common people, another source of aggression began to rise - and that is within Islam, and at present poses the greatest threat to the West since the War. As I see it, the liberties we enjoy both as individuals and socially were initially laid by our Bible-believing Christian forefathers, particularly in Northern Europe, Britain, and North America. These freedoms now enjoyed represents the freedom bought by the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and are meant to allow us to live for God out of the purity of our regenerated hearts. Catholic-dominated Southern Europe, along with South America, learnt of such freedoms only after the Roman Catholic Church was forced to relax its church regulations under the eyes of the Protestant world.

What a great pity it is, when deserting the Bible has led to the rise in crime and the decline of personal morality. For example, a quiet social at the pub. There is nothing wrong in that in itself. From time to time I go out for a drink with my mates (although these days, being on medicine, I abstain from all alcoholic drinks.) But none of us has ever left the pub drunk. Unfortunately here in the UK, excess alcohol consumption is a problem among the younger people in major cities. Our reputation abroad, especially at the Mediterranean island of Ibiza, has become notorious through consumption of cheap alcohol. With the thought of taking my wife in a wheelchair to Paris in the Autumn, I am concerned about the high levels of pickpocketing and handbag-snatching. And that despite the presence of the famous Notre Dame Cathedral, the principal church of the whole of France.

Reading and understanding of the Bible, mixed with faith, liberates us to live for God from the purity of our hearts, enhanced by the presence of the Holy Spirit within. Paul himself writes that having faith in Christ liberates us from the obligation of the Law of Moses (eg: Galatians 3:1-25, 5:1-6 where circumcision is part of the Law) but gives us the enablement to live in Christ with the power of Christ in our hearts. Supposing much of society read, believe in, and take heed of the Bible. Would there be far less evil in the world? But amazingly enough, it is the academic world which must take a large proportion of blame for our present society's rejection of Holy Scripture. The theory of Evolution is constantly pushed through schools, colleges and the Media, mainly television. Darwinism is constantly being popularised in BBC documentaries presented by atheists such as Professor Brian Cox, along with naturalist David Attenborough.

Multitudes tune into, watch and soak in these Darwinian theories, maybe not realising that such propaganda destroys the credibility of the Bible. For if the record of Divine Creation is proved to be false, along with the existence of Adam and Eve, then how could the record of the Virgin Birth of Christ, his Crucifixion and Resurrection be reliable? Genesis holds the key of the entire Bible. If proven historically untrue, then the whole Bible falls, including the New Testament. And it is this unbelief which enslaves us to the moral law with the resulting increase in evil. There are many atheistic academics who knows the Bible very well, maybe even better than Christians do. But their head knowledge without faith provides a source for ridicule rather than believing, and the multitudes follow in their footsteps, simply because they are well learnt and therefore counted for reliability.

But I need to answer this question: If I, for example, declare that Jesus Christ and the Bible is right but Mohammed and the Koran is wrong, does that make me a bigot? One source of proof is Old Testament prophecies. No other book contains prophecies which as been fulfilled over thousands of years as the Bible has. Even in the dawn of human history, a prophecy was announced by God to the serpent, within both Adam and Eve's earshot. All three heard the prophecy of the coming Messiah (Genesis 3:15). Later, Melchizedek  brought a meal of bread and wine to Abraham, after freeing Lot and the people of Sodom from hostile armies (Genesis 14:18-20). The bread and wine can only symbolise the body and blood of Jesus Christ, some two thousand years before he was born.

The story of Moses' early years is also prophetic of Jesus Christ. When he was a boy, the young Hebrew was adopted by the daughter of Pharaoh King of Egypt. He grew up in the King's palace. When he was in his forties, he went out to see for himself the plight of his own Hebrew people. He saw one of his own brothers being beaten by an Egyptian guard. In his quest to deliver Israel, he killed the guard and buried his body. The next day, he saw two Hebrews fighting. Moses went over to them and asked why they were fighting each other, since they are brothers. But the one in the wrong replied, Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Will you kill me like you killed the Egyptian yesterday?

At this, Moses fled from Egypt to the desert of Midian, where he spent the next forty years tending sheep, and marrying a non-Hebrew wife Zipporah, before being called by God in a burning bush to return to Egypt (Exodus 2). Jesus came into the world to redeem Israel and rule over his Jewish kingdom. But instead he was crucified, buried, and on the third day rose physically from the dead - a phenomenon never experienced by Mohammed or by any other religious leader. He then ascended to his Father in Heaven, where he is now, waiting for the command to return to the Throne of his father David in Jerusalem.

Moses was rejected by the children of Israel, so was Jesus rejected by the same people. Moses went into exile, so did Jesus after his Resurrection. During his exile, Moses married Zipporah, a non-Jewish wife. The Bride of Christ is the Church, which is mainly Gentile, which he is at present gathering together during his "exile". Just as Moses returned to Egypt to rescue Israel from slavery to the Egyptians, so Christ will return to deliver us from our sins and all its effects, including death.



Other prophecies relate directly to the Jewish Messiah. Micah foretells of his birth in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2), and that a virgin shall first conceive (Isaiah 9:14) and the child will be called Immanuel, which means God with us. David's psalm foretells of his suffering on the cross, along with the accurate description of how his clothing will be distributed - a thousand years before the event taking place, and long before the Roman form of capital punishment by crucifixion ever existed (Psalm 22). Isaiah gives a full chapter over the future suffering of Jesus - some 700 years before it happens (Isaiah 52:13-53:12). Then Zechariah 9:9 foretells Jesus entering Jerusalem riding upon a donkey, a foal of a donkey, which was fulfilled at his Triumphal Entry. And in Zechariah 11:12-13, an accurate prophecy of the thirty pieces of silver was foretold, which was fulfilled in Judas Iscariot's betrayal in the Garden of Gethsemane. These are just a few of the many prophecies regarding Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

It has been mathematically proved that if all the prophecies foretelling the life of Jesus were not divinely inspired, then the probability of all these prophecies being fulfilled entirely by chance would be one out of a number consisting of one, followed by 181 zeroes!* On the contrary, the Koran does not contain any prophecies whatsoever, which makes the Bible unique among every other book ever written in human history.

The claims of Jesus himself. One of his titles is Immanuel - "With us is God." A series of sermons delivered at our church at the moment is about what Jesus says about himself. Statements such as: I am the Way the Truth and the Life, I am the True Bread from Heaven, I am the Door of the Sheep, I am the Resurrection and the Life, I am the Light of the world - has never been spoken by Mohammed or by any other religious founder. These statements must prove either:
That this Jesus of Nazareth is totally insane, or a deliberate liar, or -
What is says about himself is true, and therefore must be the Son of God, something Mohammed does not and cannot claim.

Thirdly, Jesus Christ of Nazareth is the only person in human history ever to rise physically from the dead. This itself is enough testimony that he is the unique Son of God.

My faith in Jesus Christ as the son of God is not based on bigotry, but of his testimony on who he is. And Mohammed, whose bones are still with us, buried in Medina, cannot even compare.

Too bad Mohamed Lahouaj Bouhlel never knew Jesus Christ as his Saviour. Had he, he would be alive and well now, along with 84 other people who have so far died at the promenade in Nice.

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* Henry M. Morris, The Bible and Modern Science, Moody Books, 1968. P. 120.

4 comments:

  1. Great post, Frank. Many think God and Allah are the same, but as you point out, they are not. Many people on social media meet a sexual predator, based solely on their idea of what he is like and knowing nothing about him. Similarly, people form false ideas about God, simply because they don't take trouble to know who he really is.

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  2. Dear Frank,
    As you point out so well, the odds of all the prophecies concerning the Messiah to be fulfilled in one person are astronomically small. Yet Jesus Christ fulfilled them all, proving beyond doubt not only His own claims of deity but the veracity and accuracy of the Bible. Even a journalist like Lee Strobel, setting out to deny the deity of Christ, came to the inescapable conclusion that all the evidence supported that He is the Son of God and God Himself. I don't mind when people call Christians narrow-minded; I just pray that they come to a saving knowledge of Him, for He is the only Way.
    God bless,
    Laurie

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  3. Hi Frank,
    What I heard about this man who killed so many people, was that he wanted to be remembered. Yet what is so wonderful is that our Lord Jesus Christ killed nobody and is the most remembered of all of mankind.
    God bless you and Alex

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  4. Most of them, far from even being Muslims, just seem to be messed up in some way, or even to have mental health issues. I have Muslim friends and they are as far from committing such violent atrocities as you or I am. All the same, we should talk openly about this because something crazy is happening, and political correctness won't solve it.

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