Pied Piper Patriarchalist Pushes Poisonous Propaganda
In this article from The Christian Post, the infamous John Piper of patriarchy fame has decided that Christians need to “understand Islam” as the saying goes, to the point that we are to equate the outrage they feel when their Koran is burned to what Christians feel concerning the crucifixion of Christ.
Outrage, Mr. Piper, is what we should feel against those who would equate the two.
Oh I know the comparison is between reactions, but your message is very clear: Christians should kowtow to Islam and not offend them because... well, because they will react badly and you don’t think Christians should ever defend themselves or express outrage. But before we examine that claim, let us first of all put this Muslim outrage in perspective. Take a look at The Religion of Peace site and note the current featured photo and caption:
Of course I don’t condone everything in that list as compatible with Christianity, but the point they are making is that Islam tolerates nothing and no one, and will react to anything we Christians say or do simply because we live and breathe. To blame us for how Muslims react, especially compared to how most other religions in the world react, is a myopic and naive attitude that only serves to handcuff Christians and lead us off into slavery. We are already made slaves of the world by virtue of the poisonous teachings of many “Christian leaders” today, but we will be made literal slaves of Islam once it takes over our country. Just look at how Christian communities are being treated wherever Islam has power. And don’t ask any dhimis in the West about it, but there are many reports of atrocities against Christians in many parts of the world. There are “honor” killings happening in the US right now, and Islam is quickly cementing its goal of being the one protected religion here. (Another excellent source is Jihad Watch, whose authors have received numerous death threats from “misunderstanders of Islam”.)
If we should respect the Quran because not doing so causes Muslims to get angry and kill, then here are the other things we should stop doing: Educating women. Selling alcohol. Pre-marital sex. Sharing a non-Muslim religious faith. Democracy. Disaster relief. Sporting events. Allowing women to dress as they please. Being gay. Being Hindu. Being Christian. Being Jewish. Being Buddhist. Being Sikh. Being Ahmadi. Being Sufi. Going to the wrong mosque…
It should be obvious that appeasement never works, whether the bully is on a playground or commands a nation or religion. Piper of course believes the opposite, advising battered women to appease their abusive men by submitting better— a term well familiar to Muslims, for Islam means “submission”. He will claim it works but the overwhelming evidence to the contrary exposes his claim as quite false. So in spite of all evidence to the contrary concerning Islam, he naturally believes the best response is to bow and scrape because this will cause the Muslims to drop their blood-stained swords and become Christians. Yet anyone with minimal understanding of the teachings of Islam knows that such appeasement is a sign of weakness and an open invitation to be conquered. That is, Piper’s advice is for Christians to commit figurative (and later literal) suicide.
What kind of shepherd lays down the staff designed to both help fallen sheep and beat off wolves, and invites the wolves into the sheep pen for a nice steak dinner? This is exactly what appeasement is to Islam. This is NOT “witnessing” but cowardice and failure to guard, and in fact is treason against the Body of Christ. Would Piper and his ilk actually react to armed robbers in his home by bowing low before them even as they go through the house killing and destroying and stealing? Such a man is “worse than an unbeliever” (1 Tim. 5:8)!
Now to the issue of provocation, which is how many view the burning of copies of the Quran. They will say that it is only permissible to burn such things if they were once ours, once our religion, and we are showing that we have renounced it (Acts 19:19). Yet not only is this incident not repeated everywhere Christianity spread, it is never discussed in the Letters, which are “the teachings of the apostles” (Acts 2:42). So if we don’t get our teachings from Acts, then we can’t lean on this incident as normative, and this alleged rule is only a matter of personal preference, not decree. Otherwise we must also, as some have done in the past, take everything else they did in Acts as normative and divinely mandated.
But if we are to use that incident in Acts as a rule, then let us turn to the examples of the apostles in many other instances, and of course to the examples of Jesus, to get a complete picture. Jesus called Herod “that fox” (Luke 13:32); Peter defied national authorities and convicted them publicly (Acts 4, and remember these authorities were not Christians); John the Baptist and Jesus both called the Pharisees names (Luke 3:7, Mt. 23; Jesus continually vexed and provoked them); Paul played the Sadducees and Pharisees against each other (Acts 23:6) and forced Roman officials to publicly escort him out of a city (Acts 16:37); Paul expected God’s revenge on an unbeliever who had done him harm and told Timothy to be on his guard against him (2 Tim. 4:14-15); everywhere the gospel was spread there was upheaval (Acts 17:5), so the mere spreading of the gospel should be defined as provocation according to Piper et al!
Now consider this on another level: do we not think it’s right for Christians to speak out against harmful laws, against crime, against violence? Remember that Islam takes even the mildest disagreement as provocation, so we are continually provoking them just by not being Muslims. There is no real difference between figuratively and literally “burning” the words of Mohammad, so if we are not to burn Qurans with literal fire then we must, to be consistent, stop ever criticizing it or even saying it isn’t what we believe. Do we not provoke the lost in general just by being who we are, but especially by protesting abortion, campaigning against porn, advocating ratings on entertainment to protect our children, etc.? Where is the line drawn, and is it consistent?
To stand for our faith is to provoke; there is no avoiding this. Our existence as Christians is offensive, the Cross is offensive (Gal. 5:11), the Bible is offensive. So those like Piper who would say we can never offend the lost must explain how it is even possible to be Christians then. An unoffensive Christianity is very offensive to Jesus! (Rev. 3:16)
The burning of other religion’s books is not the real issue here. The real issue is whether we have crossed the line from loving the lost to committing treason against our Savior, showing that we are ashamed of Him (Mark 8:38, 2 Tim. 1:8). If Piper wanted to express concern he should have gone to that pastor privately and explained why he thought it to be in poor taste or dangerous to Christians. But instead he did just what the other dhimmis in the world do: renounce his own people in public and show by word and deed that Islam is to be respected and followed. This is not a catholic/protestant thing or a Baptist/Lutheran thing, but a Christ/Antichrist thing. Our outrage should be that we so willingly tolerate “leaders” and “pastors” and “teachers” like Piper who would surrender to “Rome” and sell us all into slavery out of a twisted passivity that does more to insult Jesus than to honor Him.
We MUST learn the difference between seekers and destroyers, between peace and appeasement, between reaching out and collaboration (ref. High Treason). Peace as defined by Islam is the “peace” of death, but the peace of Christ is the peace of safety and unity of spirit; the two cannot be farther apart. To appease Satan is to offend Jesus, and it’s time for Christians to choose where their allegiance lies. The best reaction to those among us who burn Qurans is to contrast the reaction to offenses between Christians and Muslims. This, not cannibalizing our own people, would be a strong and clear witness to the gospel. Whether the pastor who burned it acted unwisely or not is between himself and God, but for the likes of Piper to point fingers at anyone else is the height of hypocrisy, for he continually provokes and consigns to abuse half the Body of Christ (he’d qualify that with “for a season”, as if that makes it better).
If we are NOT provoking Islam every day just by being the “salt and light” Jesus commanded us to be, then we are worthless witnesses. Let the Quran-burning pastor answer to God if he has done something wrong, but look in the mirror and ask yourself how much you have offended others, and whether you really are ashamed of the Gospel of Christ.