Were the Terrorist Attacks Really Punishment From God?

In this regular feature Dave and Tom respond to questions from listeners and readers of The Berean Call.Here is this week’s question:Dear Dave and T.A., I’d like to hear your comments on statements by Jerry Falwell on Pat Robertson’s 700 Club regarding the terrorist attacks.Falwell said, “I really believe the pagans, the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays, and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America, I point the finger in their face and say you helped this happen.”

Tom:

Dave, a couple of things about this.Jerry has issued an apology which I’ll look at, but what I want to address here is there is a tendency when things come along to apply them to prophecy, to give some prophetic insight.You wrote a whole book on Y2K which many jumped on and said this is God’s judgment on America; this is so on and so forth.

Dave:

And nothing was going to happen, I tried to tell them that, but very few people wanted to believe it.

Tom:

Yes but the problem is again, they think they are applying prophecy.

Dave:

Always trying to tie it in with something.Yes.Now God’s judgment is on America, I am sure.We have many sins.There’s the abortion, homosexuality, the lesbianism, the pornography, the crime, the corruption.Yes, God’s judgment is going to fall and it may fall in some instances, but—

Tom:

Well why just America?Pick and choose your country.

Dave:

Well that’s right, there are other countries that are even more wicked.However, you say why just America?Because America has more light probably than others.We claim to be—well, more Christians in America than in any other country—well, no, China probably has more now.Various African—Africa as a whole has more, but nevertheless, we can be held accountable.On the other hand, it’s not the fault of the Christians that there are abortions.We can’t stop them.These are laws, okay?So God’s judgment will come upon this country.It’s going to come upon the whole world, that’s what you’re referring to ultimately.

Tom:

Yes, and who decides what’s—do we just look at certain events and say this must be from God?

Dave:

See if I am going to say this is a judgment from God, then I have to say that when the stock market goes up—look at the prosperity in America.It’s the most prosperous country in the world—

Tom:

God’s blessing.

Dave:

Well that must be God’s blessing, you see, so I have to be careful and I am sure Jerry’s—well I can’t be sure of anything, but he was probably angry and he has been for sometime at the destruction of American youth and American culture.I sympathize with him for his reaction.On the other hand, I don’t think it helps the cause for Christ when we make these statements.Now the real issue is who were the attackers?We talked about that.We did a program about that.So these were Muslims, this is Islam.It is being excused that these were fanatics.They don’t represent Islam.Indeed they DO represent Islam and we give the documentation for that in our video, Israel, Islam and Armageddon and some of the books I’ve written.So I think we need to put the blame where it belongs.The blame is Islam is a religion of violence.It was spread by the sword.It gives honor to those who kill pagans and if you die in jihad like these men did you know what you get.You get Paradise and all these blessings and so forth.It’s pretty hard to overlook because it’s a great temptation not to do this because there is no way otherwise to know you will get to Paradise in Islam.

Tom:

Dave, but what about—and there are Muslims out there who are listening to this program and they are grieved on the one hand, and offended by what you’re saying because that’s not their perspective of Islam.They’ve never practiced that, they’ve never terrorized anybody.There was an article in the paper just recently Joachim Olajuwon, he was just beside himself with grief over what took place and just stating over and over again, that this is not the Islam that he knows, that he understands.

Dave:

Right, but this IS Islam, so I would only say to him, why do you follow a religion when you don’t know what it really believes?And any history book will tell you that Islam was spread with a sword.They killed thousands, tens of thousands of Arabs, imposing Islam on the Arabian Peninsula and that’s how they did it to the Iranians, Iraqis, and the Syrians, everywhere.This is Islam!Now if you follow a religion, why don’t you know the foundation of it?Why don’t you know that your Prophet Muhammad said—well this is the Qur’an, “Make no friendship with the Christian or Jew, pursue the infidels, and kill them wherever you find them.”Why don’t you know that your Prophet Muhammad said, “The last day will not come until the Muslims confront the Jews and the Muslims destroy them?”If you are a Muslim out there listening, don’t be offended.Please, go back, study your religion, and find out what it really is.And if it is not peace-loving and I mean, Muhammad was a slave owner! He had 20 wives.This is not a man you would want to follow.You wouldn’t want to follow his example.Then why don’t you know this about your religion?Why do you pretend—or why do you sincerely follow something that you don’t know what it is?That’s like following a leader you don’t know where he’s going to take you.Stop, think, study a little bit and find out what this really is.

Tom:

Dave we do the same thing about Christianity.

Dave:

Amen.

Tom:

We’ve been—well people have said, “Well what about the Crusades, what about this and that?”We would take the same approach with regard to the Crusades.Find a motivation for that and instruction for that within God’s Word.If it’s there, we’ve got problems, but if it’s not there, somebody has an erroneous idea about what Christianity is as well as somebody who doesn’t understand the Qur’an has an erroneous idea about what Islam is.

Dave:

What the Crusaders did was horrible.Waving a cross, they killed Jews, they killed Muslims, and they slaughtered them.That is not what Jesus Christ taught.What they did, they did in disobedience to Christ and the Bible.But what these men did as terrorists, they did in absolute obedience to the Qur’an, to the Hadith, to Muhammad himself.That’s the difference