R.C. Sproul: It is a big subject, and it has to do with our understanding of the role that,
under God, government has to play.
And we as individuals do not have the right to seek vengeance, but God has not only ordained
a church, but He also ordains government to protect from the evil-doer and from unrighteousness,
and has given the power of the sword to them, not to us.
But He has given the power of the sword to them.
And it is the duty, I believe — even a non-Christian government I said it certainly has the responsibility
to maintain, protect the sanctity of life, which our government certainly doesn’t do.
We know that.
But it still doesn’t excuse them from their responsibility under God.
As long as we sanction abortion on demand, we’re not operating under God.
We’re operating in outward defiance of God, and for the very purpose for which any government
is established.
And we need to understand that.
Albert Mohler: Can I come back to the first part of that, because I do think it’s really
important that we come back and say, look, when you see someone who may be dressed or
otherwise presenting as a Muslim, our first thought shouldn’t be “potential terrorist.”
We should be thankful that the vast majority of Muslims in the world are not engaged in
an active jihad against us or against the West.
But, as I mentioned in The Briefing just recently, you know, this massive study came out saying
we should be thankful that 90 to 95 percent of Muslims around the world, country by country,
say they don’t support ISIS.
But that does leave ten to five percent, which means tens, and tens, and tens of millions
of people who are are given to this.
The other thing we have to recognize is that theology matters.
We just come back to that again and again.
And there is no form of Qu’ranic Islam, and by the way there’s no other form of
Islam — we shouldn’t take — like biblical Christianity.
But in the Qu’ran, holy war is built in as a central animating purpose; geographical
conquest and the bringing of conquest to — the world is separated between the world of Islam
and the world of war.
And, and that’s why we have to understand that we should be thankful.
Most are not actively involved in terrorism, though we can understand, given that theology,
how many would be; even their eschatology.
But we do have to recognize that the distinction between Muhammad, who was revealed in the
Qu’ran and bragged about in Muslim tradition as “a warrior with a sword bloodied by many”
is in direct contradiction to Jesus as the Prince of peace who told Peter to put away
his sword.
And it is an opportunity for the preaching of the gospel in an age in which the thesis
and the antithesis have perhaps never more dramatically been separated and made distinguished
in the headlines of every day.
Robert Godfrey: We have had, at our seminary in the past, a student from Turkey.
And he told us the story of a missionary couple who had been working in Turkey, which has
historically been regarded as one of the safer, slightly more secular, more tolerant Muslim
societies.
And the man was out witnessing for Christ, and someone jumped out of the crowd and cut
his throat and killed him publically.
And the television carried this story, and interviewed his widow shortly after this had
happened, and asked her what she would like to say to the nation.
And she said, “I would like to say, in the name of Christ, I forgive my husband’s killer.”
And the Turkish student said, “That one sentence did more to communicate the essential
nature of Christianity to the Turkish world than any number of books and missionary activities
might have done.”
Because Turkish culture is a revenge culture, and to have this testimony to forgiveness
was arresting, perhaps baffling.
And that’s why our Savior said to us that we’re to turn the other cheek, that we’re
to love our enemies, however difficult that is personally.
Whatever cost that might lead to, that’s what we’re called to do and to be.
It’s not what the American government is called to do and to be.
They are to promote justice.
They are to maintain order.
They’re to protect citizens.
But we, as Christians, have to bear a different testimony.
So however fearful we are, however angry we are, we have to try to let the words of our
Savior live in our hearts, that we’re to love the enemy and turn the other cheek.
And we have to labor for that because that will be the path to see conversions among
Muslims.
It’ll be the Word of Christ’s grace that converts them, not, probably, a Christian
version of the sword.
In fact, their sense that, in the Crusades, Christians were just as bloody as Muslims
were is one of the great impediments, to this day, to the conversion, or to even hearing
the gospel on the part of Muslims.