(Audio and pdf available at this website)

One and one half billion Muslims live on our planet. The number grows daily. Islam is the fastest growing religion in the West. Word has it that there are as many Muslims as there are Jews or Presbyterians in America. How can this be?

The normal way of Islamic reproduction has been birth, indoctrination, subjugation, and forced retention. That is, don't dare to leave the Muslim faith once you've been born into it. Results can be and have been disastrous for those who did not believe this.

But to say that all of Islamic growth is due to this repressive seventh century mentality would miss the mark of truth. In fact, many are now being approached by the Crescent on intellectual terms, and finding Islam acceptable.

I began to rack my brains for reasons why an American who knows of 911 and other jihad activities throughout the world, would willingly jump into the Islamic camp. Are they convinced that Muhammad is a real prophet? Do they believe the statements of the Koran are all true? Have they read the Koran? Do they like the moral code, compared to the cesspool of our own society, much of which claims to be "Christian"? Are they merely lonely people looking for friends and a purpose? Do they in fact enjoy the political possibilities of a downfall of America?

I decided to widen my knowledge by a Google search. I found there that converts to Islam are searching for discipline that the Christian church no longer offers in many locations. Clear sets of values and rules, clear order in a church service as opposed to the rock-music-inspirational -talk regime that has taken over in many quarters of the church. Islam certainly seems good for a person seeking rules!

I found also that my hunch about "lonely people" is correct. Islam is community based. The church is often meeting-based, with sometimes no community to follow. Much of what we see of our brethren is the back of their heads on a Sunday morning. After that it is every man for himself.

Another factor I had overlooked is marriage. As in strict Catholicism, so in Islam, if you want to marry him, you better convert real quick. That's the law. To ask him to leave his faith could mean his life. And the odds are he doesn't want to, anyway! The odds are that he was sent here to "evangelize" through romance. Oh so many "converts" marry into the faith. And marriage produces children. And eventually the population grows... a Muslim population.

Related to the above, but more for the female, is the idea of family life. Christians have the same stats as unbelievers when it comes to divorce . Add to that the growing homosexual threat to marriage, unfaithfulness, disrespect for women, disrespect for marriage, disrespect for the traditional roles of men and women, and you build yet another case for Islam's rise. Woe to those among us who have given Christ a bad name by following the world's ways in regards to the place of women and the definition of marriage!

I mentioned purpose in my guessing above. Right on again, but perhaps sadly so. The Islamic purpose is worldwide control by Sharia law. When you think you are on the winning team, it is fun to see that team score victory after victory. You see the good that Islam produces and you begin to desire such peace and morality throughout the planet. You begin to justify even the criminal activities of the terrorists. At least we win a moral world, though some must die. The Communists think like this too.

But Sharia is a two-edged sword. Literally. That which cuts against homosexuals and crime also cuts against Jesus Christ and His revealed word. To worship Christ, to leave Islam, to promote the true church with its true Word, all these are offenses punishable by hanging or the sword in Islamic nations.

Another reason for conversions today is in the area of discrimination. Blacks in particular have been discriminated against by fellow Christians but are welcomed as equals in Islam. Understandable, but can truth be sold so lightly? Are my feelings or the mistakes of my brothers more to be valued than clear statements of the Word of God which are openly violated on every page of the Koran?

Yet another idea posed is that of salvation. No need to concern oneself with the whole sin/salvation issue. Just say you agree with the Koran, and do your best to be a good moral person, and you've got as good a shot as anyone at going to Heaven. Which may not be that good a shot, by the way. This latter reason exposes Islam to be exactly like every other religion known to man. Salvation by works. Dependence on me. No need for Jesus.

So that's why people come to Muhammad. Aren't you glad you've heard of and come to Christ? Do you now see the difference?

I served above a warning to those who cause us to look bad to the Muslims. It is not my personal warning. David was chastised because his awful sin had caused the enemies of Israel to laugh not only at Israel, but at Israel's God. One thousand years later Jesus told His followers that those who teach even the smallest untruth about the Kingdom, and thus the Kingdom's King, will have to pay for such a mistake. It is a serious matter to misrepresent by word or action the One Who makes the rules.

One can opine that Christians who are not born again are going to leave us anyway. Let them go.

There's a bit of Calvin in such thinking, but more seriously, once more the words of Jesus have been forgotten. Yes, said Jesus, offences will come. But woe to that man by whom they do come. Yes, the day of Christ will not come, said Paul, until there is a great apostasy from the true faith. It's inevitable. But if a future Muslim can look back at our missteps today and say that it was one of us that sent them packing to Mecca, how joyful a thought will that be to retain into eternity?

Let's be obedient to our wonderful Lord and His wonderful Word. Muslims are not objecting to the perfect lifestyle portrayed in our Bible. They do not know that lifestyle, because all they see is us. May God bring His Western church to repent of all that is not of Him, that those looking at us will see what they are supposed to see, and have no excuses on that day.