I had the privilege along with our pastors to visit our state capitol in Harrisburg on Monday May 21. Capitol Ministries and its state director Carl Dingus hosted a wonderful day of prayer, learning, and understanding its ministry to our legislators. The special guest of the day was Pastor Erwin Lutzer, Moody Church, Chicago. He spoke on "The Christian Perspective on Politics" and "Islam and Hate Speech." Both were riveting messages. Two compelling moments. First, he looked back in ancient history when Augustine wrote about the Christian influence in government. The fact is "things were bad when we were in charge." Economy was bad; war was bad; weather, crops, etc...all bad. The fact is secularists back then blamed Christians and their God for how bad things were. Ultimately Christians died from outrage that things were not going well. He tried to help us see that our only hope to influence the world is the cross. Suffering WILL come -- but the cross and its power will sustain us! It was a fantastic sermon, especially in light of having a believing President who is not doing very well!
The second talk was more of a lecture looking at how Islam has gained such power. Lutzer showed how it has always been a rising force. In recent days, it has taken a much more sinister and cloaked approach to taking over the world -- but that desire has been there for generations. One incredible fact.... Lutzer said that tied into all of what Islam wants to do is aided by the moral decay in our country. For example, Islam sees abortion as a great and awful sin. No devoted muslim would consider abortion. There families are large and when they occupy a place (like they have in most major european cities -- where abortion is like going to McDonald's), they will soon overtake it with shear numbers. With this in mind, it is estimated that within 15-20 years, Muslim's in Germany will have no problem to put in office a Muslim President and Parliment in Germany. Most of Europe will fall in the next fifty years by population decline. The women's movement; homosexuality, same-sex marriage -- all play a role in wearing down long held foundations whereby we could withstand the coming Islamic wave.
As part of that talk, he noted that recent "hate speech" legislative is not targeted to curtail crimes against people from prejudice or even terroristic threats like Islamic militants -- but simply to shut down the voice of gospel preaching/conservation pulpits. He gave evidence that there were ammendments attempted to be attached where preachers of the Bible would be protected from prosecution. Let's say someone in my church kills a person and the victim is a homosexual. A tape of a message I did in my Jude series is presented in court where I decry homosexuality as a sin and an adbonmination unto the Lord. If the present legislation becomes law -- I would be charged with "hate speech" and could be tied to the murder. Islam loves the idea of "hate speech" bills -- they will use it to stop people from speaking against them. However, because we do not know what they are saying or we are not fully aware of what Mohhammend said in the Koran -- we can not use it against them. By the way, three cases in the world presently, where people who read directly from the Koran were prosecuted for hate speech. When they presented the facts that the founder of Islam was the one who said it -- the courts would not believe them. Still pending - pray!!
Lutzer is brilliant and the whole day served as a reminder of our need to "pray for kings and governors" so that we can live a "peaceful life." Pray for Carl Dingus and get your church to be involved with supporting Capitol Ministries in your state.