Islam's Legacy of Death and Western Blindness?

Tom:Thanks, Gary. You’re listening to Search the Scriptures Daily, a program in which we encourage everyone who desires to know God’s truth to look to God’s Word for all that is essential for salvation and living one’s life in a way that is pleasing to Him. 

Last week we were discussing, as we have been for a number of weeks, Dave Hunt’s latest book Judgment Day! Islam, Israel, and the Nations. And, Dave, we were in chapter 10. I thought we’d get through it, but we left a few items out that I think are worth going back to. You have a heading titled “Islam’s Legacy of Death and Western Blindness.” Now, also last week, we gave some quotes—for some of our listeners, just to remind them, we quoted from former President Jimmy Carter, trying to find a verse in the Qur’an that had to do with peace. And he found one, but it really had nothing to do with peace, it had to do with the spoils of war. 

And, Dave, I want to quote some verses. People say, “Well, the Qur’an is a holy book and it’s all about peace,” and yet there’s verse after verse after verse how a god, Allah, could inspire his prophet, or have the angel Gabriel give these teachings to Mohammed. It’s just beyond me. Let me quote a couple: “I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them.” And that’s Surah 8:12. “This is because they acted adversely to Allah and his messenger, and whoever acts adversely to Allah and his messenger, then surely Allah is severe in requiting. This taste it, and know that for the unbelievers is the punishment of fire. Oh, you who believe, when you meet those who disbelieve marching for war, then turn not your backs to them. And whoever shall turn his back to them on that day, unless he turn aside for the sake of fighting or withdraws to accompany, then he indeed becomes deserving of Allah’s wrath, and his abode is hell and an evil destination shall it be. So you did not slay them, but it was Allah who slew them, and you did not smite when you smote the enemy, but it was Allah who smote, and that he might confer upon the believers a good gift from himself.” That’s Surah 8:12-17. 

“And fight with them until there is no more persecution and religion should only be for Allah,” Surah 8:39. 

Dave, I could go on and on. There are probably more than a hundred verses that deal with what you’d have to call the antithesis of peace, of a loving God.

Dave: Yeah. Now, of course the Muslim says, “Well, what about those Jews? What about the God of the Bible? He sent them into the land of Canaan to slaughter the people there.” But we’ve been over that in the past, Tom. There’s a big difference. It was specifically because of the wickedness of these people that God said, in His righteousness, He had to kill them. He didn’t want to. In fact, He waited 400 years—Genesis 15 tell us that. In Genesis 15, God says to Abraham, “The iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.” They were not wicked enough to kill then, but in 400 years they would be, and God in His righteousness would be forced to wipe them off the earth like He did Sodom and Gomorrah, and He would use the Jews to do that and give that land to them. Furthermore, they didn’t threaten people with death in order to convert them.

Tom: Or to conquer the world through this process.

Dave: That’s right. They were not supposed to take over the entire world. Islam must take over the world. Israel was given a defined land; the boundaries are laid out. They were only to take that land, nothing else. Islam must take the world. Israel never threatened people. “You either believe in Jehovah, in Yahweh, or we will kill you.” No. But Islam threatens people with death everywhere. You must confess that “there’s no god but Allah, Mohammed is his prophet, or we kill you.” So there’s a big difference.

Tom: Dave, as you know, we believe the Bible to be the only Word of God, the true Word of God. But there are other so-called sacred books out there. But in all those other sacred books, can you think of any that identify a group with the hatred that the Qur’an does to the Jews?

Dave: Well, it’s not in any other book, Tom, in any other religion. This is the god of Islam, Allah: he takes joy in terrorists killing innocent women and children. He rewards them with paradise for murder, for slaughter. There is no religion that even comes close to this. It’s Islam alone. 

Now, you referred to Carter. He wanted, being a Christian—at least he was a professing Christian—he wanted to quote a verse from the Bible and a verse from the Qur’an (we dealt with that last week) about peace. And he could only find one verse in the Qur’an. They had to search really hard, his speech writers. And we read that last week. Surah 8 is titled the “Spoils of War.” It’s all about fighting and killing in order to take over the world. 

And then verse 61 said, “But if the enemy surrenders, then give him peace.” Okay? 

Now, Carter, enthusiastically—you know, he’s promoting peace, he brought Begin and Sadat together, and now this is going to be peace between Egypt and Israel, and it’s going to set the pattern for the whole Arab world, and so forth. Now, listen to what he said: “In the Qur’an we read,” and then we have that verse quoted: “But if the enemy incline towards peace,” in other words, if they surrender, “do thou also incline towards peace.” 

“So let us now lay aside war. We pray God that these dreams will come true.” But the Muslim’s dream was not what he thought. It was not what Israel thought. The Muslim’s dream was to destroy. 

In fact, let me give you some quotations, Tom, if we can take time for that right now. For Carter to imagine that there would be peace possible, he’s just ignoring everything. Let me quote you from 1967. My wife, Ruth, and our four young children, we were over there. I’ll go back a little bit before then: July 26, 1959, Egypt’s president, Gamal Abd al-Nasser, who would found the PLO five years later in Cairo, he boasted during a speech in Alexandria, “I announce from here, on behalf of the United Arab Republic people, that this time we will exterminate Israel.” March 26, 1964, Nasser declared that the problem was not borders but “the very existence of Israel.”

See, Tom, we mentioned it last week, I guess, when the President of Iran just said, “We’ve got to wipe Israel off the map,” and then people get to acting like, “Oh, that’s terrible.” They’ve been saying this from the very beginning. In 1948, even before, he boasted the— March 8, 1965, he said, “We shall enter Palestine with its soil saturated in blood. We aim at the eradication of Israel.” 

On May 16, 1967, Nasser ordered the UN peace-keeping forces to leave the Sinai. By May 18th, Egyptian troops were massed in the Sinai on Israel’s border, and Syrian troops had done the same on the Golan. The Voice of Arabs radio program announced, “The sole method we shall apply against Israel is total war, which will result in the extermination of Zionist existence.” 

On May 20th, the Syrian Defense Minister boasted, “Our forces are now entirely ready to explode the Zionist presence in the Arab homeland to enter into a battle of annihilation.” 

On May 22, Egypt closed the Straits of Tiran to all Israeli shipping, cutting off a major life line. It was an act of war. 

On May 27 Nasser threatened, “Our basic objective will be the destruction of Israel. We will not accept any coexistence with Israel.” Now, how often do they have to say this before the world understands this is what they mean? There’s no Arab map that even shows the existence of Israel. 

May 30th, Nasser boasted (we were over there at this time): “The armies of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon are poised on the borders of Israel, while standing behind us are the armies of Iraq, Algeria, Kuwait, Sudan and the whole Arab nation. The critical hour has arrived.” 

Iraq’s president thundered, “The existence of Israel is an error which must be rectified. This is our opportunity to wipe out the ignominy which has been with us since 1948. Our goal is clear: to wipe Israel off the map.” This is their intention. It was their intention in ’48, it has been their intention ever since, and it is their intention today. Then Carter imagines, “Oh, we’re going to get peace between these parties.” You could only have peace if all the Muslims in the world acknowledge Allah is not God, Mohammed is a false prophet, the Qur’an is not the word of the true God, because this is the teaching of Islam. It is the foundational teaching: Every Jew on the face of the earth must be killed before any Muslim can be resurrected. And Israel must be exterminated, because Allah said he gave that land to the Arabs. This is foundational, and yet the world ignores this, and then they keep pretending that we’re going to make peace.

Tom: Dave, that brings us up to President Bush today, yet going back to the murderous active terrorism on 9/11 (September 11th), the speech at the Islamic Center in Washington D.C., President Bush declared, “The face of terror is not the true face of Islam. Islam is peace.”

Dave: Well, he goes on and he says, “Terrorists practice a fringe form of Islamic extremism that has been rejected by Muslim clerics and perverts the peaceful teachings of Islam. Its teachings are good and peaceful.”

Tom: And Tony Blair really said pretty much the same thing. Now, Dave, you…

Dave: As did Colin Powell. Colin Powell said, “Leave Islam out of this. Islam is a peaceful religion.”

Tom: Right. Now, you do have an interesting quote. We’re not denying that there are those with a more moderate view, but as you’ve been saying over and over again, this isn’t true Islam. These are guys who are trying to massage Islam around to make it more acceptable—maybe in their own minds, as much as we know there are those who are fostering the lies out there that it is moderate, that it is peaceful, and so on. 

You have a quote from Amir Taheri, who’s a practicing Iranian Muslim and editor of the Paris-based Politique Internationale.

Dave: You notice he doesn’t live in Iran anymore. He couldn’t say what he says from Iran.

Tom: Well, if he warned that continuing to deny the undeniable responsibility of Islam itself for the September 11, 2001 attacks in order not to offend Muslims (I’m quoting now) “amounts to a whitewash.” He added that such denials are “not only disingenuous, but also a disservice to Muslims. It is both dishonest and dangerous for Muslims to remain in a state of denial.”

Dave: In other words, they’ve got to face up to what their religion really is. This is what it teaches; this is what Mohammed practiced. How could this be a fringe form of Islam if it was practiced—it was modeled by the very founder of Islam? It’s ridiculous to make such statements. But, Tom, the seriousness of it is if we continue in this denial, we are not going to solve the problem.

Tom: Let’s push on to chapter 11, Dave, which you title “Rebellion and Judgment.” And if you would, this chapter focuses on prophecy, and particularly prophecy related to what the Bible calls the “last days,” or the “end times.” Can you give us a definition of Biblical prophecy and what the Bible means by the last days, or the end times?

Dave: Mm-hmm. Well, it’s an expression that you find often in the Bible. The first time you see it is way back in Genesis:49:1And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days.
See All.... Jacob was a prophet, and Jacob calls his sons together and he says, “I want to tell you what will happen to you,” that would be their descendants of course, “in the last days.” And he goes on and he prophesies some of the things that will happen. Now, that tells us that Israel would be around in the last days, whenever those last days are; it tells us that they would still be under God’s protection, but also under His judgment.

Tom: Let me quote that verse—this is Genesis:49:1And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days.
See All...: “Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days.” So here we have an example of that phrase.

Dave: Yeah. The Bible uses the last days in reference to the present human existence, present form of civilization—it is drawing to a close. The last days will see the Rapture of the church. In Matthew 24, the disciples, when Jesus said, “There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that will not be thrown down” that is, of the temple. Jerusalem and the temple would be destroyed.

Tom: That took place in 70 AD.

Dave: Right. The disciples say, “Well, tell us, when will these things be?” Well, that was that. “What will be the sign of Your coming and of the end of the world?” They thought it was all one. The last days are also called “the end of the world”—that is, not the end of the existence of the world, but the end of the world as we know it. When the church is raptured out of here, the Antichrist takes over; that’s very clear. He sets up a one world government, a world religion, and God’s judgment begins to be poured out upon this earth. Ultimately, at the end of the Great Tribulation, Satan—it’s his man Antichrist—leads the armies, all the armies of the world against Israel for the final solution to the “Jewish problem,” as Hitler called it. We get that over and over. We got that in Joel:3:2I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.
See All.... You asked for a synopsis last time of the book, which, by the way, we are only dealing with in this first section. So I don’t want anyone to get discouraged out there, think we take a whole hour, but we deal with it in the first section. And we mentioned Joel:3:2I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.
See All... where God said in the last days, He’s going to bring all nations of this world against Israel to punish them for chasing His people all over the world, and for dividing His land. Okay? So, all nations—that must include the United States. In Zechariah:14:1Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.
See All..., God says He’s going to bring all nations against Jerusalem. We get that statement over and over. 

So how is this…why do we call these the “last days,” and how is it going to end? It will end in Armageddon, and God will have to stop the destruction. Jesus said if He didn’t stop it, no flesh would survive, because Israel is not going to go down to defeat without using the ultimate weapon. They can launch multi-warhead nuclear missiles from submarines. They have the Arrow Defense System, the Arrow 2, actually, the only viable defense against missiles. However, the Arabs have got thousands—probably 15 thousand missiles right there on the border in Syria and Lebanon that Israel doesn’t have anything that is going to be effective against them, and they are going to reach out heavily and quickly. And God says—Jesus said He’s going to have to intervene to stop the destruction. 

Furthermore, He’s not going to let His people be destroyed, because of His promises. But the nations of this world will be destroyed, and the Messiah returns to set up His throne in Jerusalem. He will rule from the throne of His father David. Okay? That’s the end of this world’s system as we know it. A thousand years Jesus will rule this world. Satan is locked up. Nobody can do anything wrong; they are punished immediately. Death is deferred, and so forth. And finally, at the end of that time, proving that it’s not the good conditions in which people live, because it’s perfect, it’s like paradise. When Satan is loosed, he gathers people like the sand of the sea…

Tom: During the Millennium.

Dave: …at the end of the Millennium, and these are people who have lived during the Millennium. They have seen Christ in His resurrected, glorified body; they have seen us in our resurrected bodies ruling with Him, and still their hearts are not changed. And they come against Jerusalem, against Christ to destroy Him, and that is the final war on this planet, and they are destroyed, and this whole world is destroyed, as Peter tells us, and then there will be a new heavens and a new earth, and the only people who will live in the new heavens and the new earth are the ones who have been made new creatures in Christ Jesus, have been born again through faith in Christ. That species of transformed human beings through the new birth, through faith in Christ, through his reconciliation to God by paying the penalty for our sins, that will be the universe from that time on. So the last days, they are just about upon us.

Tom: Dave, this tells us how critically important prophecy is. You’re right, God’s integrity is tied to it. If one prophecy doesn’t take place as it’s stated, then forget it, right? We throw the Bible out, we throw [out] our view of God—He’s not the perfect God that He truly is. So a failed prophecy, what would that tell us about God?

Dave: Well, Tom, it would tell us that either He didn’t write the Bible, or He doesn’t know what He’s talking about. In either case…look, you can’t just take part of the Bible and say, “Well, that’s inspired,” and, “Oh, that part is not inspired.” Then you become the judge. Either the Bible is true in every word that it says, or we can’t rely upon it at all. And if it is not—and again, that’s the challenge we lay out in the beginning of this book—if these prophecies concerning Israel are not true, if they have not come to pass in the past, and if they are not going to come to pass in the future, then shut down every synagogue and every Christian church and just admit that the whole thing is a hoax. But if they are true, and we document in the book that they are true, then the world had better pay attention to what God has said, otherwise they’re heading for judgment, and I’m afraid that this is where we’re going. I don’t think that anyone could doubt that.

Tom: Mm-hmm. Some people, when they think of prophecy—“Well, God is causing all these things to take place. He’s using this or using that. He raised up the Muslims to persecute the Jews,” and so on.

Dave: God does not cause people to be evil. He didn’t cause the Muslims to hate the Jews. That was the false prophecy through, supposedly, the angel Gabriel. It was certainly not the angel Gabriel from this false god Allah.

Tom: Right. To Mohammed when Mohammed received his so-called revelations.

Dave: To Mohammed. That’s where this came from. God knows what will happen. He knows the future, and He can intervene to whatever extent He wants, but He doesn’t cause—for example, the crucifixion of Christ was foretold by the prophets. That doesn’t mean God caused these people to want to crucify Christ. But God allowed it to happen as He had foretold.

Tom: From knowing their hearts.

Dave: He knows the future, but that doesn’t cause the future to happen, because God is not part of this universe. He lives outside of time. So from outside of time what appears to us to be past, present, and future is just one continuum to God. He knows everything that is going to happen before it happens, but He is not causing it to happen. We have to get that straight, otherwise we have an evil God who is causing all the war and rape and murder and crime and evil thoughts. That’s what Calvinism teaches, but that is not the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible loves us, and He is not willing that anyone should perish, and He’s given Christ to pay the penalty for our sins, so that through faith in Him we accept that payment—we are forgiven and we have eternal life.