"[Pastor Jim] Melnyk said he has personally worshiped Allah with Muslims during interfaith gatherings in Raleigh... "
I look at this travesty as a 'teachable moment', and have provided commentary throughout the article.
Related:
'Breaking of the Crosses' in North Carolina: Christian leaders welcome conversion of church into mosque
Worshipping with Muslims? — "Our ultimate goal and divine mandate is not co-existence with Muslims but their conversion—as it is for all the children of men." —Fr. Lawrence Farley
Christian pastor in Bible Belt admits personally worshiping Allah
Muslim deity takes over church as leaders claim to honor 'same god'
by Leo Hohmann, WND, May 15, 2017
A former church has been taken over and converted to a mosque in a rural North Carolina county, and a group of Christian pastors took part in the conversion ceremony in an effort to show mutual respect for their Muslim neighbors.
Crosses have been removed from the former church’s facade and steeple, and mosque leader Ali Muhammad turned them over to the group of pastors.
“What they were attempting to do is honor our tradition and so they wanted to turn the crosses over to us,” said the Rev. Jim Melnyk, pastor of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Smithfield, a small town in Johnston County about 45 minutes south of Raleigh. “They were reaching out to us, and we were reaching out to them.”
No, Rev. Melnyk.
They were symbolically "breaking the crosses", an eschatological sign of their belief in the ultimate triumph of Islam over Christianity, and then they duped you into thanking them for doing it.
Melnyk said he was joined by pastors from the United Methodist Church, United Church of Christ and three different Baptist congregations at Saturday’s ceremony, which marked the official conversion of a former Pentecostal church into a mosque. One lay person from the local Presbyterian Church was also present for the “celebration.”
Melnyk told WND the mosque had reached out to the local churches through an interfaith group in Raleigh and was hoping to strike a welcoming and respectful tone for the two faiths.
Melnyk said Christianity and Islam “share common origins and scriptures” and that he felt it was the right thing to do to participate in the mosque opening as a show of respect for Islam, a fellow monotheistic faith.
“Christians, Jews and Muslims are all people of the book, and we all claim what the Hebrew Scriptures call the Abrahamic faith,” Melnyk told WND. “We call it the Old Testament, and Muslims also claim the Bible.”
No, Rev. Melnyk.
This naive and false theology and history expressed by Rev. Melnyk is the perfect summation of why the Same God position is so dangerous. Islam does not "share common origins and scriptures" with Christianity. To say so is to assert that Islam and Christianity are spiritually and ontologically linked, stemming from the same source, with the equally false implication that they are spiritually equivalent, leading their followers to the same destination.
Rather, Muhammad sought to appropriate Christianity and Judaism, retelling in the Koran, as Allah's mouthpiece, various events in the Old and New Testaments, yet in narratives with significant, irreconcilable differences from the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, and always with the same purpose, the assertion that Islam was always the true religion, that Abraham, Moses, and even Jesus, were true Muslims, but that the Jews and Christians distorted their scriptures to conceal the true Islamic teaching.
Significantly, the Koran and Muhammad asserted that Muhammad was prophesied about in the Old and New Testaments. When this claim was rejected by the Jews and Christians of his day, the results were not as rosy as Rev. Melnyk's pan-ecumenist dream world.
Relatively peaceful verses from early in Muhammad's movement (the Meccan period) are abrogated by over one hundred later verses which explicitly call for warfare (jihad) against Christians, Jews, and other non-Muslims, which should only be stopped if they convert to Islam, or submit to its rule:
"Fight against those who believe not in Allah, nor in the Last Day, nor forbid that which has been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger and those who acknowledge not the religion of truth [i.e. Islam] among the people of the Book [Jews and Christians], until they pay the jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued." (Sura 9:29)
Importantly, Christians should never think of or refer to themselves as "People of the Book", an Islamic title which in itself is a denial of Jesus Christ and of the Church he established. As Fr. Stephen Freeman has written about that expression, "Muslims meant that Christians and Jews were people of an inferior book, but were somehow better than pagans."
We do not follow a book, but a Person, Jesus Christ, who died for us and rose again. We do not worship a book, but the True God who has revealed Himself to us and raised us to a radically new life.
Leo Hohmann presents some excellent corrective remarks of his own in his article:
Islam teaches the Bible was corrupted by Jews and Christians and that the Quran was the final, perfected revelation of Allah as given by the Angel Gabriel to the prophet Muhammad. Melnyk said he is aware of these teachings.
“All of us humans are imperfect. We all struggle and we all look to the divine for inspiration, and we don’t always get it right,” he said.
But, he said despite being “imperfect,” the Islamic faith worships the “same god” as Christianity and Judaism.
Try saying that in the Middle East, North Africa, Indonesia, or Pakistan, Rev. Melnyk. You might soon be given the opportunity to fully embrace Islam, or have your head severed from your body.
Islam does not consider itself imperfect, and in numerous Muslim-majority states (at least thirteen, to be exact), to suggest as much is considered to be apostasy or blasphemy, which is punishable by death. So it has been since the days of Muhammad, who said, "Whoever changes his [Islamic] religion, kill him" (Bukhari 9.84.57).
Melnyk said he has personally worshiped Allah with Muslims during interfaith gatherings in Raleigh.
Proof that Allah is the same as God the Father in Christianity is that Coptic and Palestinian Christians use the Arabic word “Allah” for God, he said.
No, Rev. Melnyk, that is no proof at all.
Rather it is proof of the pervasive and harrowing effect of Islam's jihad, conquest and domination of Christian Palestine, North Africa and Central Asia in the years immediately following Muhammad's death, and in the thirteen long centuries thereafter. For a thorough study of the effects of Muslim conquest and the imposition of dhimmi (subjugated) status upon Christians everywhere Islam has spread in its 1300+ years, read Mark Durie's book, The Third Choice - Islam, Dhimmitude and Freedom.
In my book, Facing Islam, I discuss various theories as to the origins of the name of the Islamic god:
There exist strong reasons to consider that Allah was but one of the many pagan deities worshipped by the Arab polytheists before Muhammad elevated him to preeminent status. The frequency of the crescent moon in archeological digs from the pre-Islamic pagan epoch, the Sabean lunar calendar so prevalent in the Arabian peninsula, and the apparent correspondence to the Babylonian deity Baal are indicators, as is Allah’s most used title in the Koran, Ar-Rahman (the Merciful), who was known in South Arabia as a moon deity... Significantly, Muhammad’s own Quraysh tribe... had come to be known even before Muhammad’s rise as the “People of Allah.”
It is a relatively recent notion that the name of Islam’s god, Allah, derives from the general term for god in Arabic: ilah. Literally, “the” (al), “God” (`ilah), can be seen to be similar to the personal name of God—Allah—in the Koran... and there actually exists a strong similarity with the Aramaic languages (as in the Syriac Christian term for God, Alaha).
The only real demonstrable continuity for the name of Allah is through the Arabian pagan deity of the same name, with a colloquial similarity to the Syriac/Aramaic word for God. It does indeed seem that Allah is actually the last Arab pagan deity left standing, and the selection of his name a deliberate attempt at a form of syncretic legitimacy, by adoption of a name familiar to the pagan Arabs as well as similar sounding to Arab Christians with Syriac roots. Mere phonetic familiarity makes for a poor argument, and we would be wise to reject it as some sort of evidence of Muslims worshipping the same God as Orthodox Christians. (Facing Islam, pp 52-54)
Arab and other Christians who use the term "Allah" for the True God are not referring to the same entity. Indeed, Antiochian Christians have for centuries kept the tradition of ending their benedictions "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, One God, Amen," precisely to avoid Muslim charges of polytheism.
In an unexpected Muslim repudiation of Rev. Melnyk's assertion that the name of Allah being shared by many Christians proves we worship the same god, Malaysian Muslims for over a decade have been violently persecuting Christians who refer to God as Allah, imposing severe laws against them and even bombing their churches.
Rev. Melnyk's semantic "proof" is rather sobering evidence of centuries of Christian dhimmitude as a subjugated, conquered people under the Conditions of Omar, not of any kindred spirituality, common origins, or shared devotion to the brutal "god" of Islam. The adoption of the name of "Allah" was woven into the Levantine Christians' way of survival under their harsh Muslim overlords.
Leo Hohmann's article continues:
The Quran teaches that Jesus was not the Son of God and did not die on a cross to save humanity from sin. In fact, the Quran teaches Jesus faked his death on the cross, when one of his followers died in his place.
Here are some of the Koranic passages Hohmann is referring to:
"The similitude of Isa before God is as that of Adam; He created him from dust, then said to him: 'Be': And he was." (Sura 3:59)
"Say not 'Trinity': desist: It will be better for you: For God is One God: Glory be to Him: (Far Exalted is He) above having a son. . ." (Sura 4:173)
"In blasphemy indeed are those that say that God is Christ the Son of Mary." (Sura 5:19)
"They do blaspheme who say: 'God is Christ the son of Mary . . .' They do blaspheme who say: God is one of three in a Trinity: for there is no god except One God. If they desist not from their word (of blasphemy), verily a grievous penalty will befall the blasphemers among them." (Sura 5:75,78)
"Christ the son of Mary was no more than an Apostle; many were the apostles that passed away before him. His mother was a woman of truth. They had both to eat their (daily) food. See how God doth make His Signs clear to them; yet see in what ways they are deluded away from the truth!" (Sura 5:78)
"The Jews call 'Uzair a son of God, and the Christians call Christ the Son of God. That is a saying from their mouth; (in this) they but imitate what the Unbelievers of old used to say. God's curse be on them: how they are deluded away from the Truth!" (Sura 9:30)
"They never killed him, they never crucified him — they were made to think that they did. All factions who are disputing in this matter are full of doubt concerning this issue. They possess no knowledge; they only conjecture. For certain, they never killed him." (Sura 4:157)
The Koran's statement denying the Crucifixion of Jesus is a classic example of Islam's psychological projection onto others of its own flaws and failings.
Keep in mind that the Koran is thought to be the literal words of Allah, transmitted perfectly to Muhammad and delivered by him to his followers. Allah denies Jesus was crucified, clearly because he also must deny the resurrection, which sets Christianity above Islam. This is why Islam hates the Cross.
Yet the crucifixion of Jesus Christ is attested by Jewish and Roman historians of the first and second centuries AD, which has led Muslim clerics into all sorts of speculation as to what that verse in the Koran could possibly mean. The Koran is obviously certifiably mistaken and confused on this point, and indeed on all of its condemnations and misrepresentations of Christianity (and there are many).
So, when Allah says, "All factions who are disputing in this matter are full of doubt concerning this issue. They possess no knowledge; they only conjecture," he is not speaking of Christians, nor of Jews nor Romans, all of whom acknowledged that Jesus Christ was crucified, and that his tomb was found empty on the morning of the third day after his death and burial. It is only Muslims who are "full of doubt" because they have been kept from knowing the true Jesus.
Sadly, Pastor Jim Melnyk seems to show no evangelical desire to present the true Jesus to Muslims, but is content to affirm them in their false beliefs and even to honor their false religion by worshipping Allah with them. In doing so, he is affirming Islam and denying Christ.
This is where the "Same God" heresy leads, to the delusional idea that Christianity is about "being nice", not about confessing the Truth which is in Christ Jesus, and calling all to come to the Light.
Leo Hohmann next cites a central teaching in Islamic eschatology, little known to Christians:
In the mainstream of Islamic doctrine, Jesus will return in the last days to “break the crosses” and convert the world’s Christians to Islam, by force if necessary.
This bizarre, anti-Christian fantasy is found in this (and other) Islamic hadiths presenting Muhammad's prophecy about the return of Jesus in the end times:
"He will fight people in the cause (for the sake) of Islam, will break the Cross and kill the swine (pig) and abolish Jizya (tax on Christians and Jews); and Allah will put an end to all religion except Islam during his (Jesus') time." (Sunan Abu Dawud, Book of Battles, 37:4310)
But Melnyk said he would not be deterred by any of these doctrinal differences.
“We run a danger when we paint any faith tradition with a broad brush,” he said. “I don’t know that faking his death on a cross is a belief held by everyone in Islam. I do know they see Jesus very differently than we do; they see him as a prophet, not the Son of God. And like other monotheistic faiths, they are challenged by the doctrine of the Trinity. I would challenge any Christian theologian to define the mystery of what we call the Trinity. It’s just a doctrine that is in many ways incomprehensible. We all struggle with it.
“Obviously I’m a Christian, and I would not live comfortably within the full teachings of Islam, but I can recognize where we share teachings, and recognize the call to treat one another mercifully, and as the one God treats us mercifully, and that translates equally into Christianity as well as it does Islam.”
Rev. Melnyk presents no citations here, nor can he, to back up his claim that Islam calls its followers to treat others mercifully. The Koran does teach Muslims to treat other Muslims mercifully, but not non-Muslims, as other verses from the Koran makes clear:
"Fight those of the unbelievers who are near to you and let them find in you hardness…” (Sura 9:123)
“They wish that you should disbelieve as they disbelieve, and then you would be equal; therefore do not take friends from among them, until they emigrate in the way of Allah; then, if they turn their backs, seize them and kill them wherever you find them; do not take for yourselves any one of them as friend or helper” (Sura 4:89)...
...unless the goal is to deceive the infidel non-Muslims. After all, Muhammad did say, "War is deceit" (Hadith from Sahih Muslim 32:6303).
Some readers will be familiar with the Islamic doctrine of taqiyya, deception, which is permitted for Muslims to employ depending on circumstances. We do not know if Ali Muhammad has been employing taqiyya, but we might suppose he is familiar with the doctrine. We do not know if Rev. Melnyk is familiar with it, or if he stopped to consider it might be employed on him to gain him as a spokesman for Islam, which he certainly is.
Lest anyone pooh-pooh my mention of taqiyya as a ruse or distraction, I would strongly urge you to read this report by Raymond Ibrahim, Taqiyya about Taqiyya. To reference Tim Furnish (who is quoted in full below), Rev. Melnyk has the "innocent as doves"part down, but he seems to be "forgetting the 'wise as serpents' part of Christ’s instructions in Matthew 10:16.” Becoming familiar with Islam's practice of taqiyya is essential for anyone even dipping their toe in these murky waters.
Taqiyya for the gullible American public.
Some more verses from the book of the Religion of Peace, which Ali Mohammed does not wish you to know:
2:191-193: “And kill them wherever you come upon them, and drive them out from where they drove you out; persecution is worse than slaughter. But fight them not by the Holy Mosque until they should fight you there; then, if they fight you, kill them — such is the recompense of unbelievers, but if they give over, surely Allah is all-forgiving, all-compassionate. Fight them until there is no persecution and the religion is Allah’s; then if they give over, there shall be no enmity save for evildoers.”
5:33: “This is the recompense of those who fight against Allah and His Messenger, and hasten about the earth to do corruption there: they shall be killed, or crucified, or their hands and feet shall be struck off on opposite sides; or they shall be exiled from the land. That is a degradation for them in this world; and in the world to come awaits them a mighty chastisement.”
8:12: “When your Lord was revealing to the angels, ‘I am with you; so confirm the believers. I shall cast terror into the hearts of the unbelievers; so strike the necks, and strike every finger of them!”
8:39: “Fight them, till there is no persecution and religion is all for Allah; then if they give over, surely Allah sees the things they do.”
8:60: “Make ready for them whatever force and strings of horses you can, to strike terror into the enemy of Allah and your enemy, and others besides them that you know not; Allah knows them. An whatever you spend in the way of Allah shall be repaid you in full; you will not be wronged.”
9:5: “Then, when the sacred months are over, kill the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them, and confine them, and lie in wait for them at every place of ambush. But if they repent, and perform the prayer, and pay the alms, then let them go their way; Allah is All-forgiving, All- compassionate.”
9:29: “Fight those who believe not in Allah and the Last Day and do not forbid what Allah and His Messenger have forbidden, and do not practice the religion of truth, even if they are of the People of the Book — until they pay the jizya with willing submission and feel themselves subdued.”
9:111: “Allah has bought from the believers their selves and their possessions against the gift of Paradise; they fight in the way of Allah; they kill, and are killed; that is a promise binding upon Allah in the Torah, and the Gospel, and the Koran; and who fulfills his covenant truer than Allah? So rejoice in the bargain you have made with Him; that is the mighty triumph.”
9:123: “O believers, fight the unbelievers who are near to you; and let them find in you a harshness; and know that Allah is with the godfearing.”
47:4: “When you meet the unbelievers, strike their necks, then, when you have made wide slaughter among them, tie fast the bonds; then set them free, either by grace or ransom, till the war lays down its loads. So it shall be; and if Allah had willed, He would have avenged Himself upon them; but that He may try some of you by means of others. And those who are slain in the way of Allah, He will not send their works astray.”
Tim Furnish, whom I count as a dear friend, is absolutely correct here. And in no way do I wish my theological rigor and zeal for the True Faith to take away from that Gospel command from Christ to love, forgive, and do good to all (including our enemies). Regular readers of this blog know that I emphasize this myself, such as in this recent Easter message.
My conviction is that Muslims are living in spiritual deception, and that Christians must not be afraid to share with them the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the real Jesus, not the Islamic Isa. It is an act of cowardice to not denounce Islam as a false religion, and those Christians who merely wish to "be nice" to Muslims and affirm them in their spiritual deception are hindering their salvation by failing to bear Christ to their Muslim friends and neighbors.
What do we say to Muslims, then? Perhaps something along the lines of, "You have a good conscience, you are good to your family and neighbors, why are you Muslim? You really should become a Christian!"
We must stand for Truth, and so react against Islam, which is a lie, and was exposed as a destructive heresy from its very inception by great church writers like Sophronius of Jerusalem, John of Damascus, Gregory Palamas, Ignatius Brianchaninov, and in our own time by such figures as Bishop Mark of Berlin and the New Martyr Fr Daniil Sysoev of Moscow.
This is expressed perfectly by Fr George Maximov, close friend and co-struggler with New Martyr Fr Daniil Sysoev of Moscow, who was killed by Muslims in 2009 for criticizing Islam and evangelizing Muslims, converting some eighty to the Orthodox Christian Faith:
"Among those who call themselves Orthodox, I have met such strange people who say that Fr. Daniel should not preach to Muslims, that one must respect their religion, and that there is no benefit from his preaching. But Fr. Daniel thought, as did the Lord, the Apostles, and all the saints, that one must respect mistaken people but not their mistakes. Truth is one, that which contradicts and negates truth is a lie, and respect for a lie is contempt for the truth." (Source)
As I write in my book, Facing Islam, we react against Islam, defending our Faith in Jesus Christ and denouncing Islam as a false religion, with its bloodthirsty, false god and false prophet, but we approach with love our Muslim neighbors, sharing with them the Gospel of Life, and inviting them to join us in this new Way which Christ has opened for all.
Hohmann's article continues:
A horrible decision by the Catholic bishops. See here and here.
Hohmann's article concludes:
Some readers will be familiar with the Islamic doctrine of taqiyya, deception, which is permitted for Muslims to employ depending on circumstances. We do not know if Ali Muhammad has been employing taqiyya, but we might suppose he is familiar with the doctrine. We do not know if Rev. Melnyk is familiar with it, or if he stopped to consider it might be employed on him to gain him as a spokesman for Islam, which he certainly is.
Lest anyone pooh-pooh my mention of taqiyya as a ruse or distraction, I would strongly urge you to read this report by Raymond Ibrahim, Taqiyya about Taqiyya. To reference Tim Furnish (who is quoted in full below), Rev. Melnyk has the "innocent as doves"part down, but he seems to be "forgetting the 'wise as serpents' part of Christ’s instructions in Matthew 10:16.” Becoming familiar with Islam's practice of taqiyya is essential for anyone even dipping their toe in these murky waters.
The mosque purchased the former church building on four acres for $230,000.
Not all Christians are buying the interfaith sentiments expressed by Melnyk and the other pastors who participated in the mosque conversion ceremony.
“Similar origins?” asks an incredulous Ralph Sidway, author of the book “Facing Islam” and a blog by the same name. “Common origins and scriptures? Dhimmitude and ignorance have kissed each other.”
“This pathetic, deceived ‘pastor’ should be severely reprimanded by his bishop, if not defrocked and excommunicated for deceiving his flock and denying Christ in such a blatant manner,” Sidway, who is Orthodox Christian, writes in his blog. “Read my book ‘Facing Islam’ for a clear explanation of why the ‘Same God Heresy’ (which this pastor Jim Melnyk undoubtedly follows) presents a ‘different gospel,’ a ‘different Jesus’ and a ‘different Spirit’ (cf. Galatians 1:6-8 and 2 Corinthians 11:3-4).”
A growing Muslim community in rural eastern North Carolina
Ali Mohammed, born in Venezuela to Palestinian parents, told the News & Observer he arrived in Smithfield 20 years ago and is now president of the local Islamic organization that is opening the new mosque. At that time, the local Muslim community consisted of three or four families. It has grown steadily since, and he expects the mosque membership to be around 60.
“Part of it is destiny; it’s the will of God that we’re here and we’ve done well,” Mohammad told the N&O.
“We’re Americans,” Mohammad added. “This is my land, this is my right as an American. If a Christian or a Jew or any other culture has the right to have some kind of community center, why not us? … My faith is peaceful. It teaches us to love our neighbor and be friendly with everyone. That’s what religion teaches us.”
Taqiyya for the gullible American public.
Some more verses from the book of the Religion of Peace, which Ali Mohammed does not wish you to know:
2:191-193: “And kill them wherever you come upon them, and drive them out from where they drove you out; persecution is worse than slaughter. But fight them not by the Holy Mosque until they should fight you there; then, if they fight you, kill them — such is the recompense of unbelievers, but if they give over, surely Allah is all-forgiving, all-compassionate. Fight them until there is no persecution and the religion is Allah’s; then if they give over, there shall be no enmity save for evildoers.”
5:33: “This is the recompense of those who fight against Allah and His Messenger, and hasten about the earth to do corruption there: they shall be killed, or crucified, or their hands and feet shall be struck off on opposite sides; or they shall be exiled from the land. That is a degradation for them in this world; and in the world to come awaits them a mighty chastisement.”
8:12: “When your Lord was revealing to the angels, ‘I am with you; so confirm the believers. I shall cast terror into the hearts of the unbelievers; so strike the necks, and strike every finger of them!”
8:39: “Fight them, till there is no persecution and religion is all for Allah; then if they give over, surely Allah sees the things they do.”
8:60: “Make ready for them whatever force and strings of horses you can, to strike terror into the enemy of Allah and your enemy, and others besides them that you know not; Allah knows them. An whatever you spend in the way of Allah shall be repaid you in full; you will not be wronged.”
9:5: “Then, when the sacred months are over, kill the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them, and confine them, and lie in wait for them at every place of ambush. But if they repent, and perform the prayer, and pay the alms, then let them go their way; Allah is All-forgiving, All- compassionate.”
9:29: “Fight those who believe not in Allah and the Last Day and do not forbid what Allah and His Messenger have forbidden, and do not practice the religion of truth, even if they are of the People of the Book — until they pay the jizya with willing submission and feel themselves subdued.”
9:111: “Allah has bought from the believers their selves and their possessions against the gift of Paradise; they fight in the way of Allah; they kill, and are killed; that is a promise binding upon Allah in the Torah, and the Gospel, and the Koran; and who fulfills his covenant truer than Allah? So rejoice in the bargain you have made with Him; that is the mighty triumph.”
9:123: “O believers, fight the unbelievers who are near to you; and let them find in you a harshness; and know that Allah is with the godfearing.”
47:4: “When you meet the unbelievers, strike their necks, then, when you have made wide slaughter among them, tie fast the bonds; then set them free, either by grace or ransom, till the war lays down its loads. So it shall be; and if Allah had willed, He would have avenged Himself upon them; but that He may try some of you by means of others. And those who are slain in the way of Allah, He will not send their works astray.”
As a historian of Islam and a Christian, Timothy Furnish told WND he can see two sides to this touchy issue, even though the Raleigh newspaper only covered the one side that is politically correct.
“Christians are to be welcoming to strangers in a strange land and we are called on to love all, equally. However, these pastors, especially the Episcopal priest – unsurprisingly, knowing the ECUSA’s obsession with ‘open-mindedness’ and ecumenism – are being kind as doves but forgetting the wise as serpents part of Christ’s instructions in Matthew 10:16,” Furnish told WND.
Tim Furnish, whom I count as a dear friend, is absolutely correct here. And in no way do I wish my theological rigor and zeal for the True Faith to take away from that Gospel command from Christ to love, forgive, and do good to all (including our enemies). Regular readers of this blog know that I emphasize this myself, such as in this recent Easter message.
My conviction is that Muslims are living in spiritual deception, and that Christians must not be afraid to share with them the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the real Jesus, not the Islamic Isa. It is an act of cowardice to not denounce Islam as a false religion, and those Christians who merely wish to "be nice" to Muslims and affirm them in their spiritual deception are hindering their salvation by failing to bear Christ to their Muslim friends and neighbors.
What do we say to Muslims, then? Perhaps something along the lines of, "You have a good conscience, you are good to your family and neighbors, why are you Muslim? You really should become a Christian!"
We must stand for Truth, and so react against Islam, which is a lie, and was exposed as a destructive heresy from its very inception by great church writers like Sophronius of Jerusalem, John of Damascus, Gregory Palamas, Ignatius Brianchaninov, and in our own time by such figures as Bishop Mark of Berlin and the New Martyr Fr Daniil Sysoev of Moscow.
This is expressed perfectly by Fr George Maximov, close friend and co-struggler with New Martyr Fr Daniil Sysoev of Moscow, who was killed by Muslims in 2009 for criticizing Islam and evangelizing Muslims, converting some eighty to the Orthodox Christian Faith:
"Among those who call themselves Orthodox, I have met such strange people who say that Fr. Daniel should not preach to Muslims, that one must respect their religion, and that there is no benefit from his preaching. But Fr. Daniel thought, as did the Lord, the Apostles, and all the saints, that one must respect mistaken people but not their mistakes. Truth is one, that which contradicts and negates truth is a lie, and respect for a lie is contempt for the truth." (Source)
As I write in my book, Facing Islam, we react against Islam, defending our Faith in Jesus Christ and denouncing Islam as a false religion, with its bloodthirsty, false god and false prophet, but we approach with love our Muslim neighbors, sharing with them the Gospel of Life, and inviting them to join us in this new Way which Christ has opened for all.
Hohmann's article continues:
Sam Rohrer, president and founder of the American Pastors Network, said there are many lessons to be drawn from the North Carolina mosque conversion.
“The logical question should be this: What would the Bible say about this? What does the Bible say about bidding God-speed to those who oppose the Bible and even more so to those who teach the submission or death to all those who refuse to bow the knee to Allah and Muhammad?” Rohrer told WND. “The Bible is clear.”
A sign of submission?
Turning over a former church to be made into a mosque is, historically and theologically, seen by Muslims as proof that their religion is superior to Christianity and, in fact, as part of their destiny as adherents of Islam, Furnish said.
The Middle East is full of churches and synagogues turned into Islamic sites, such as the Umayyad in Damascus, the Ibn Tulun in Cairo and the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. In Hebron and on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, Muslim conquerors built their sites atop the Jewish ones.
Likewise, in post-Christian Europe, hundreds of churches and synagogues have been converted to mosques in recent years. But the phenomenon is only just beginning in the U.S.
In 2010, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Syracuse Landmark Preservation Board agreed to a plan to convert the landmark Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Syracuse, New York, into a mosque.
A horrible decision by the Catholic bishops. See here and here.
Hohmann's article concludes:
Mohammad, the mosque leader in Smithfield, said Saturday’s service would feature readings from the Quran and the Bible and remarks from members of both faiths.
“This imam may mouth soothing words about all just getting along, but the symbolism of Islam triumphant is just being reinforced,” Furnish said. “Most disturbing is a joint Christian-Muslim ‘service,’ which includes readings from the Bible and Quran. Any Christian priest or pastor who participates in such is deluded.”
Furnish said he doubts the joint “service” included any of the passages of the Quran such as Sura IV:171, which denies and condemns the Trinity. Or Sura IV:157, which denies that Christ died on the cross.
“We Christians in America can be welcoming to Muslims without going overboard and pretending that our faith and Islam are virtually the same – or that both are equally valid paths to salvation,” he said.
But Melnyk said he is not concerned about any backlash from the joint service or his accommodating remarks about Islam as equally valid with Christianity.
“Christianity is meant to be hard, to challenge you to go into the tough places. I see this as a very positive thing, and if anyone is hurt or offended by it I challenge them to read the gospels a little more closely.
“My job is not to judge whether another faith tradition is right or wrong but to live as well as I can within the faith tradition I belong, and for that I’m a Christian,” he added. “The reality is, I can only judge by the folks I have come to know in Johnston County and in Raleigh, where we have come together in union and we have not proselytized one another and, in fact, we have had meaningful worship together.”
No, Rev. Melnyk, you are greatly mistaken.
One of the most important duties of your job as a Christian pastor is to guard your flock against false and deceptive teachings about Jesus, and this means judging other "faith traditions", especially when they make false claims about who Jesus Christ is.
Your pan-ecumenist overtures to the Islamic community are an open denial of Jesus Christ, and your actions scandalize right-believing Christians.
Just as bad, by affirming Islam you bar the way to Muslims of good conscience who might be seeking Christ. You deny them an opportunity to hear the Gospel, and you impede their path to salvation from the false religion of Muhammad, communicating to them instead that they should remain in delusion and darkness. You reveal a lack of true love for Muslims, covered with a showy false love that affirms the lie of Islam.
Rev. Melnyk refuses to say Islam is wrong, and believes it a virtue to speak about a fiercely anti-Christian "faith tradition" as if it was a legitimate alternate path to salvation and life in God. He has forgotten that "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).
This is the 'Same God' heresy in action, and is yet another ominous 'Sign of the Times', of the rampant spread of apostasy and worldliness throughout the West, and of the spirit of this age. As the Lord warned us about the times just before His Return:
Flee from false pastors such as Jim Melnyk. They are wolves in sheep's clothing.
One of the most important duties of your job as a Christian pastor is to guard your flock against false and deceptive teachings about Jesus, and this means judging other "faith traditions", especially when they make false claims about who Jesus Christ is.
Your pan-ecumenist overtures to the Islamic community are an open denial of Jesus Christ, and your actions scandalize right-believing Christians.
Just as bad, by affirming Islam you bar the way to Muslims of good conscience who might be seeking Christ. You deny them an opportunity to hear the Gospel, and you impede their path to salvation from the false religion of Muhammad, communicating to them instead that they should remain in delusion and darkness. You reveal a lack of true love for Muslims, covered with a showy false love that affirms the lie of Islam.
Rev. Melnyk refuses to say Islam is wrong, and believes it a virtue to speak about a fiercely anti-Christian "faith tradition" as if it was a legitimate alternate path to salvation and life in God. He has forgotten that "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).
This is the 'Same God' heresy in action, and is yet another ominous 'Sign of the Times', of the rampant spread of apostasy and worldliness throughout the West, and of the spirit of this age. As the Lord warned us about the times just before His Return:
"When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:8)
Flee from false pastors such as Jim Melnyk. They are wolves in sheep's clothing.