I apologize for the graphic photo. I lifted it from a disturbing video of a kindergarten graduation ceremony in the Middle East. In the video, parents cheer as their Muslim children onstage perform a mock execution of Jews. Running in choreographed fashion with their simulated weapons in hand, the children chant: “We are not afraid!” Then, toward the end of the routine, the lead teacher exclaims, “Hurry up, my child – die as a martyr!”
I’m going to call this what it is: child abuse.
We who uphold the authority of the Scriptures must recognize that that the hatred of God’s image-bearers – the hatred of any people group – is an assault on God Himself. Particularly, antisemitism is rooted in hatred of God. Such hatred isn’t new, but in fact stretches all the way back to Genesis 3:15. Before time began, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit entered into a covenant to bring salvation to the world. That gracious plan was to pay the penalty for our sin and crush its power. In human history, because of our fallen nature, God’s eternal promise brought indescribable hostility between God’s light and Satan’s darkness.
God’s seed line included Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all who would follow in their footsteps – including Gentiles who’d be brought into the covenant and the family tree – by faith – wondrously and marvelously.
“The cosmic powers over this present darkness” (Ephesians 6:12) have always hated God’s plan, and done anything and everything in a ceaseless attempt to stop it. That’s why you and I are not simply engaged in a battle of ideologies. We’re in the midst of a spiritual war.
We’re up against demonically inspired hatred, and “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood.”
I suggest that the most significant distinction between the Qur’an and the Bible is Christ’s death for us. “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10). Islam’s “Allah” is widely claimed to be “all-forgiving, most merciful” (Surah 24:22). On the surface it sounds loving, but it’s a phony and unreachable forgiveness – because it’s a “forgiveness” with no atoning sacrifice. If God is holy and just – as indeed He is – then the only way of forgiveness is by a perfectly righteous substitute. When Jesus died, signifying the potency and permanence of His all-sufficient sacrifice on our behalf, “the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom” (Matthew 27:51).
Imagine a hardened murderer being brought before a judge who renders this verdict: “You’re forgiven because I’m merciful.” That wouldn’t be a righteous judge, but an immoral judge – to release the wicked apart from justice. There’s no real love without real justice! Friends, it is the Cross of Christ which most magnifies the love of God! It’s good news for the whole world: Grace enables a perfect God to love a wicked rebel – like me – with a love of the greatest magnitude!
It is this very love with which you and I are called to love a lost and dying world that’s shrouded in spiritual darkness.
The Welshman Reese Howells (1879 – 1950) learned to pray passionately against the prevailing spiritual darkness of his day. He wrote: “The cost of true intercession is a broken heart.” As God broke the heart of Mr. Howells to pray urgently for the ongoing work of the Great Commission, He used his prayers to advance the gospel in a broken world. Reese learned that no believer’s prayer can by snuffed out as we’re abiding in Christ, and that we’re called – for God’s glory – to pray dangerous prayers!
Friends, when you and I pray as Christ taught us, “Your kingdom come” (Matthew 6:10), we’re calling down God’s perfect will and power to penetrate a world in conflict. No situation we face is too insignificant. Howell’s context included the evils of Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini – and a world swept into war – but in that very crucible of darkness he learned to trust the Lord to do what only He can. That’s what I want for you and me. Nothing less.
As bad news of the Third Reich’s advance came to them each day, Reese and his band of prayer warriors pressed into prayer for God’s highest purposes to prevail. More bad news: When the Battle of Britain broke out, the Royal Air Force pilots were outnumbered four to one. It should have been a resounding loss. But, God’s people. When the Nazi advance was mysteriously turned away, Winston Churchill said of the pilots who so strangely succeeded: “Never has so much been owed by so many to so few.”
I believe that prayer won.
And I believe that even the immense hatred of our day – yes, of our day – is no match for our God.
You see, you and I aren’t fighting hate with hate. We’re fighting hate with love. God’s love. The love that’s come so freely to us in our Lord Jesus Christ. A love so divinely radical that it loves enemies. A love that’s always shared with people who don’t deserve it – people like us. Evil begets evil, but grace changes everything! Hatred comes across as ferociously powerful, but in the end it’s hollow and impotent. When it comes to the love of Jesus, hatred must stand down.
Real love – God’s love – can topple the hardest human heart. Sooner or later, gospel grace will crush every false religion. Redeeming love will conquer, fully and finally! “And He shall reign forever and ever” (Revelation 11:15). To that glorious end, we pray – and we stand!
In Christ, you and I face evil – personally and globally – with a strength that isn’t naturally ours. That’s why we must never give up the fight. Never, ever. “For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds” (2 Corinthians 10:3-4).
I believe that prayer still wins.
May Christ transform the heart of every child in the tragic video. And every teacher. And every mom and dad. And every Muslim. And every Jew. And every one of us.
Pastor Charles
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