A response to a sermon by Dave Groenenboom on how Christians should respond to terrorist attacks. Dave’s sermon can be found here
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Yes. Jesus said that the world would know us through our love. Dave is very clear on that in his sermon. But Jesus also says that we must be ‘as innocent as doves and as shrewd as snakes’, because he is sending us out as sheep among wolves. We are to be known by our love, not by our naivety. We can and should recognise the difference between Muslims as people, people we should welcome into our homes and around our dinner tables, and Islam as a religio-political ideology that should be opposed at every turn.
So when we seek to oppose Daesh and the Islamist system we do not lump all Muslims together. Daesh is not just extremists using Islam for their own ends. They are using the commands of Muhammad in the Quran – and the Hadith, and the Sira – to impose a supremacist religio-political system on the world. They are not out of step with the Quran. They are only doing what it says.
We also need to distinguish between how we as Christians respond to Muslims, and how governments are to protect their citizens. They have specific task of making sure their citizens can live in peace and safety. That is also why governments, who are God’s servants, bear the sword.
It is not hate to declare war on evil. It is not repaying evil for evil. It is resisting the evil in society. There are many of us, including in my family, who have relatives who lost their lives resisting the evils of Hitler. Were they hating, and repaying evil for evil?
Dave says that everyone needs Jesus, and with this I am in wholehearted agreement. The churches in Australia have an unprecedented opportunity to bring the love of Jesus into the lives of refugees who have come to this country. I pray and work to bring this about here in this town of Geelong, and I pray that the Bible believing church as a whole in Australia will mobilise to bring the gospel to those who need it so desperately. And also that we will make them feel at home in our society.
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