Pastor's Blog

Racial and Religious Wars

Pastor Steve Nash

Ferguson to Fallujah, Houston to Haifa; war in every direction we turn.  Ferguson, Missouri is on the verge of an all out race riot. In Fallujah, Iraq, captured by ISIS, we have an evil army, slaughtering people of their own religion.  Houston pastors are attacked by their own mayor and Haifa and other cities of Israel once again exist under the highest threat level because of Palestinians terrorists.  Does it ever end?  I take no stock in the philosophies of John Lennon, but I do understand his longing to, “Give Peace a Chance.”

Have you ever stopped to analyze WHY certain groups of people seem to always be at war with other groups of people?  Racial wars erupt because of “who” we happen to be.  One person is back, the other white; another person is brown, the other another race and color.  The color and culture we happen to be born into is what we call the “unchangeables.”  Being born black or white or brown is a matter that no one on earth has control over; that is God’s design.  What have we often done?  We all gravitate to those of our own kind and fail to take interest and build relationships with those who are different than us. 

God is a god of variety.  Consider the difference in flowers, trees, landscapes, animals, insects and even snowflakes.  They are all different, yet each has it beauty and place in God’s garden.  I marvel when gazing at a mountainside of varied fall trees as they together display their own special colors during the peak of autumn.  That exhibit wouldn’t be nearing as beautiful if they were all the same color.  It appears that God enjoys gathering His bouquet of flowers for all to behold every October in many of our states and around the world.  Can we not learn from creation?

Then we have those who war because of “what” they are.  I happen to be Christian.  I have a friend who is a conservative Jew.  Can we not love one another?  A few years ago, I noticed sitting in a pew of a church I pastored, an Israeli sitting next to a Palestinian worshiping Jesus Christ in one accord.  On another occasion as I was preaching to an Indian congregation in Queens, NY, ten Pakistanis’ entered the sanctuary to take part in the worship service.  Jesus Christ is the only world religious leader I know of who insisted that we tear down the walls that separate us! 

As much as I want to, I cannot understand why Muslims seem not to want to strive together with another religious group in order to experience peace.  In fact, today, Muslims are killing each other in Iraq, Syria and other parts of the Middle East.  It appears that the Muslim extremist feels they have a corner on truth, faith, heaven, hell, etc.  A friend recently reminded me that the Muslim extremist is the “orthodox” believer who feels they are following the literal teachings of the Koran and other, more moderate Muslims are merely white-washed, compromising people of Islam who are the backslidden Muslims. 

The Apostle Paul reminds us that “we wrestle not against each other, but against powers of evil in high places.”  If I were the devil, I would instigate strife and then rejoice when people, who happen to be different, are at war with one another.  I would dispatch my demons to stir up strife all over the world so that I will be more able to divide and conquer.  Then I would make an appointment to visit the God of heaven and earth and laugh in His face because His creation is an absolute failure; you know, the one created in His own image!  Yes, that’s what I would do, and I would enjoy every minute of that encounter.  

We war with one another because of the fact that we happen to be different in color, culture, race and religion.  It is quite amazing when we stop to think about it.  Jesus prophesied, that in the last days this world will become so divided that it will fall apart at the seams and eventually end at the Battle of Armageddon.  It will take the re-appearing of our Great God and Savior to intervene in order to establish world peace.  He will utterly destroy any one or any thing that gets in His way!  I do not what to be on the wrong side of that confrontation!

Pastor's Blog

Christophobia

Pastor Steve Nash

Writing for First Thoughts, Mark Movsesian sounded some notes of caution against the use of “Christophobia”: 

“The hostility to Christianity one encounters in the West is mostly ideological. What we have is a struggle between competing worldviews, one of which seeks to win by excluding the other, which it sees as irrational, from public debate. This strategy is illiberal, ill-informed, and childish, but it is not really “phobic” in the way we normally use that term. It reflects not so much a visceral antipathy to Christians as people as a desire for Christians to keep quiet and stop retarding social progress.

Now, things may be changing. When critics denounce Christians as “bigots” — for maintaining the traditional understanding of marriage, for example — that does imply a personal judgment. Bigots are bad people; you wouldn’t want them living next door to you or building a gathering place in your neighborhood. You wouldn’t want your children to associate with them. Maybe the ideological struggle in the West is becoming a personal one, in which Christians are seen as comparable to racists. I don’t think we’re there, yet, but I concede there’s evidence we may be heading that way.”

The above writer seems to be contradicting himself in the same paragraph.  “Things are changing!”  May I suggest that “Christophobia” is more than a label that describes someone who opposes a Christian world view or ideology?  I believe this growing fear is much deeper, residing in the innermost being of a person’s soul or spirit.  It is not merely ideological; it is spiritual.  One could compare this unwarranted hatred to that of “anti-Semitism.”  Have you ever noticed how some people hate others and don’t even know why? 

I also believe the use of the word “phobia” is correct.  When one “fears” another they often respond with hatred and aggression.  As John puts it in his epistle, “perfect love casts out fear because fear has torment.”  This deep-rooted kind of fear or “phobia” is the opposite of love.  The question is why would some hate Christianity to the point where they want to kill those who embrace this faith?  In countries like Egypt, Mali, Pakistan, Nigeria, and Syria, Christians are being murdered and forced to leave their homes in large numbers.  Churches are being destroyed and Christian villages emptied.  “Phobia” accurately describes this phenomenon.  If anything, “phobia” is too mild a term: what we are seeing in these places is the widespread persecution of Christians. 

In the countries listed above, we see a common denominator: radical Islam.  Wherever radical Islam is allowed to flourish, Christians and Jews are severely persecuted and exterminated.  These haters of light have no tolerance for opposing faiths, a truth that cannot be denied!  But it is not only the radical Islamist; it is anyone who embraces a world view that is antithetical to Christianity or a biblical world view.

To offer a graphic illustration, let me offer the one I often use in sermons.  Have you ever gotten up in the middle of the night, turned on the kitchen light and noticed the cockroaches or mice scatter?  Hopefully we don’t live is conditions like that but some of us have at one time or another.  The cockroaches scatter because of the “light.”  Light opposes and exposes darkness; they are contrary to one another.  Jesus said He was the “Light of the world” and that we are called, “children of light.”  When we actively practice our faith in a very dark world, the forces of darkness will not only become disturbed; they will fight to extinguish the light that exposes their sorry souls.  As time moves on, we will see an increase in “Christophobia” all over the world.  This hatred of Christianity will not only come from the Islamist; it will come from anyone who opposes the message of the Gospel and the morality that Christianity proclaims as being God’s standard for the human race.

Easter is all about “light.”  As dark as the scene came to be during and immediately following the Resurrection, Sunday morning brought great light and hope to those who sit in darkness.  The demons do scatter when the “light of Christ” is manifested.  We ought to embrace the “light,” not run from it!

What are we to do?  How are we to respond to the “Christophobic?”  I embrace the words of Paul from Ephesians 5: “Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them…for all things are exposed by light…therefore, awake you, who sleep, arise from the dead and Christ shall give you light!  See then that you walk carefully, not as fools, but as wise.”

Unlike our enemies, we are to love those who oppose us.  We are to love them because we do not fear them.  We are to look beyond their fault and see their need.  We are not to be “afraid” of anyone or anything.  After all, most all of us were at one time possessed by the same fear that our Christophobic friends now embrace.