Do Christians and Muslims Worship the Same God?

Let us pray Blessed Lord, you have caused all holy scriptures to be written for our learning grant that we may so hear your word read mark inwardly

Digested that by patience and the comfort of your holy word We may embrace and ever hold fast to the blessed hope of everlasting life through Jesus Christ our

Lord. Amen Warning today's Sunday school lesson is going to be controversial

It shouldn't be it shouldn't be but it's going to be kind of it's going to be very controversial and The reason for this is actually quite simple it's due to the fact that what

I am about to say in this church is what God's Word says and We've come to the point in our society where what

God's Word says in this regard literally has Become completely out of sync with what the cultural agenda is out there

We're going to ask a question We're going to ask a question in light of Exodus 20 verse 3.

You shall have no other gods before me. That's the commandment Here's the question.

Are you ready? Do Christians and Muslims worship the same God? Okay they don't

I Agree, but I think we're going to have to flesh out what scripture teaches

Regarding this now in order to help us. I'm going to tell you a five -year -old story five years ago on February 26 2012

Five years ago. I think I was making my first trip to Kongsvinger at this time of the year and this story broke in The Orange County Register the

Orange County Register is the main Newspaper in Southern California in the

Orange County region outside of Los Angeles County and Here's what the story said

February 26 2012 headline Rick Warren builds bridge to Muslims the

Reverend Rick Warren pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest and one of America's most influential

Christian leaders has embarked on an effort to heal divisions between Evangelical Christians and Muslims by partnering with Southern California mosques and proposing a set of theological principles that includes

Acknowledging that Christians and Muslims worship the same God The effort informally dubbed

Kings way caps years of outreach between Warren and Muslims Warren has broken

Ramadan fasts at a Mission Viejo Mosque Met Muslim leaders abroad and addressed 8 ,000

Muslims at a national convention in Washington DC Saddleback worshippers have invited

Muslims to Christmas dinner and Played interfaith soccer at a picnic in Irvine attended by more than 300 people

The game pitted pastors and imams against teens from both faiths the teens one

Does anyone see a problem?

So pastors need to play soccer better that pastors need to improve their soccer skills, right?

Now when this story broke it went viral

It went viral The same day that it broke I emailed Rick Warren and I heard back from him the same day asked him if it was true he in the private email that he sent me said that the that he was a victim of Liberal mainstream media bad reporting.

Okay. That's what he said now We're just kind of this is chapter one. We're gonna just kind of I'm putting this out here

The reason why this is not a theoretical question This is not a theoretical question.

The Predominant view in our society is a view called pluralism pluralism, it's this idea that all

Religions Ultimately lead to God. It doesn't matter Which God you worship what the important thing is is that you have a

God that you worship? This is the view of pluralism This is also being taught in many liberal churches and one of the driving theologians behind this view is of theologian by the name of Jurgen Moltmann and his interpreter is a gal by the name of Danielle Schroyer and The best way

I can describe this theology is it goes something like this is that back?

back back in the ancient misty fog of sandy Middle -eastern history there was a very very small group of people who were in the circle of God's love and that as Revelation continued and ultimately culminated in the death resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ God's circle of love

Expanded and it continues to expand today So much so that there will be a time in the future when there is nobody

Outside of the expansive concentric circles of God's love Doesn't that sound wonderful?

Uh -huh makes me want to go and hug somebody but Here's the issue

Did I just give you a theology that's taught in Scripture? No, I didn't. Oh It's taught in Scripture Yeah, it's taught negatively in Scripture.

Yeah, I didn't give you a theology that's taught in Scripture I gave you a theology taught by a human being and Embraced by a lot of people who call themselves

Christians and that's the problem When it comes to this question of you will have no other gods before me

I don't get to give you my opinion I Don't need I don't have the freedom as a pastor to concoct a theology that well goes with the flow of the general culture and the general belief in the culture is that the differences between Muslims and Christians need to be underplayed and Their common ground needs to be really brought to the forefront in order for there to be peace in society

The idea here is we want all of these religions working for the common good and in order for that to happen

We need Christians to shut up about the differences That's kind of the problem so the general agenda in the society as a whole right now as it relates to Christianity and Islam is we need to figure out how to get them all to the campfire and sing kumbaya together

But the problem is this Who do you fear the most and ask the question?

Do you fear men or do you fear God? In order to rightly understand this and I'm going to come back to this story because the story doesn't end here.

I Actually spent quite a bit of time speaking with the gentleman who wrote this article for the

Orange County register and I believe he made one fundamental error, but Rick Warren and the gang

They did something kind of nefarious and I'll explain that in a minute All right, they they went into spin control mode and cover their assets mode

So that's we'll talk about that in a minute. So you kind of have like that So this is a this is something that's relevant.

This is something that's here It's right now. And so the question before us when we look at scripture You will have no other gods before me.

Is there any precedent in Scripture given? That would lead us to believe that God somehow considers worship of a false god an idol as proxy worship of him

Now already I can think of some stories in the Old Testament That would definitely work against that the issue is that many people they do not know how to connect the

Old Testament and the New Testament and there's this weird View and the weird weird view goes like this

God in the Old Testament is kind of grumpy kind of really He has a bad mood

Okay, and he's like yeah hadn't has coffee yet And so, you know, it's like I'm gonna wipe this people out and kill these people over here and so but now that Jesus has come, you know, he's in a better mood and And so they somehow kind of really weirdly

Portrayed the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament is to completely deities or as one deity who has clearly

Bipolar personality disorder something's wrong here. This is not a right reading of Scripture So we're gonna start in a weird place

We're gonna start in the book of Acts in the New Testament and we're going to note the preaching of the Apostle Peter So open up to Acts chapter 3.

We're then going to go back into the Old Testament I could kind of go two ways on this.

I'm you know by way of demonstration and then we're going to go exclusively back into the

New Testament and note a few things and I need to warn you that there is one passage in particular in first Corinthians 10

That is gonna hang it out there It's not politically correct but we need to understand the truth of where these other religions come from so we are in Acts chapter 3 and This is a wonderful passage of Scripture and I don't know what the heading in your

Bible says but it should say no good deed goes unpunished. That's the name of the heading that should be here

But let me read out the story and I want to give it to you in its context Peter and John We're going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, you know

This is immediately after the day of Pentecost The Holy Spirit has fallen people are being baptized for the forgiveness of sins at this point

The church is growing so they're going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, which is the ninth hour That's three in the afternoon and a man lame from birth was being carried whom they laid daily

At the gate of the temple that is called the beautiful gate to ask alms of those entering the temple

Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple He asked to receive alms Peter directed his gaze at him as did

John and said look at us He fixed his attention on them expecting to receive something from them

But Peter said I have no silver and gold But what I do have I give you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk and he took him by the right hand raised him up and Immediately his feet and ankles were made strong and leaping up He stood and began to walk and entered the temple with them walking and leaping praising

God and all the people saw him walking and praising God and recognized him as the one who sat at the beautiful gate of the temple asking for alms and they were filled with Wonder and amazement at what had happened to him

So there's your context of what sparks what's coming next now from there

Peter gives a wonderful sermon where he preaches Christ and him crucified and raised from the grave and He gives all the glory for the healing to Christ and he calls the people to repentance

We're gonna fast forward though. We're not we're gonna skip his sermon and I want you to see the next part of it chapter 4 so Peter's out there preaching

Jesus and Here's what it says as they were speaking to the people the priests the captain of the temple and the

Sadducees Came upon them. That's important information for our studies today Who are these fellows that came are they church leaders?

Yeah, I know in a way you can say that's the right way of describing them. These are religious people So Peter is going to be speaking certain words to people who already have a religion

So these people the chief priests the captain of the temple guard the

Sadducees they were greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and Proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead

So they arrested them put them in custody until the next day for it was already evening But many of those who had heard the word believed in the number of men came to about five thousand on The next day their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem with Annas the high priest

Caiaphas and John and Alexander and all who were of the high priestly family Religious people yes or no?

Yes, and when they had set them in the midst they inquired by what power or by what name?

Did you do this? Peter Filled with the Holy Spirit said to them rulers of the people and elders if we're being examined today concerning a good deed

Done to a crippled man by what means this man has been healed Well, let it be known to all of you and to all of the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth Whom you crucified whom

God raised from the dead by him. This man is standing before you well

This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you the builders which has become the cornerstone and there is salvation

In no one else for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved is

Peter speaking in a way That would say you guys just keep doing what you're doing

Worshiping the way you're worshiping denying Jesus the way you're denying him It's no big deal all roads lead to Jesus.

You're within his concentric circles of his love Or is he saying you need to repent and you need to believe in Jesus and there is salvation apart from there is no salvation

Apart from him. It's the second one, isn't it? So you'll notice that the preaching of the cross the preaching of Christ is an exclusive proposition

Does any pastor in Christ's Church then have? The freedom to say other than this no,

I Have no freedom whatsoever Might I'm just a herald

I get to tell you something that's given to me to tell you I have not been given the message to tell you about these ever expanding concentric circles and that we need to sing kumbaya with the

Muslims I Am supposed to tell you that there is salvation in no one else

There is no other name given among men by which we must be saved and this is a

New Testament concept not an old But this New Testament concept is utterly consistent with the

Old Testament Now when we go into the Old Testament The you shall have no other gods before me we see in the historical narratives over and over and over again the collision between Those who refuse to bend the knee to a false

God and those who worship idols Even if one of the gods they worship is

Yahweh Let me give you an example fun story. It's been a while since I've actually

Taught this one. So let's go over to Daniel chapter 3 But it's important to note.

I have a lot of stories to pick from here. I Could pick the story of Elijah on Mount Carmel and the prophets of all

I Could pick the story of Gideon and how he was told to destroy

The Assyria poles and the false gods of his father By God himself.

There's many stories that I can go to This one's a particularly fun one because it shows

Gentlemen who are believers in the one true God Who are commanded by the state?

Commanded by the state to bend the knee to a false God Now if you know the story from Daniel chapter 2

I think it gives us the context for this in Daniel chapter 2 King Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon The king who was raised up to punish

Israel for their idolatry who destroyed 90 % literally killed 90 % of the inhabitants of Judea 10 % of them were then taken in captivity back to Babylon and they're living in captivity there and we learn about Daniel Shadrach Meshach and Abednego.

These were princely men Well educated and they become part of the kind of the ruling class there in Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar and Nebuchadnezzar has a dream and Remember a few weeks back when we talked about the

Magi, you know They Nebuchadnezzar had a dream and he asked his Magi to tell him the dream and its interpretation and they said nobody can do that and Nebuchadnezzar who was prone to having

Let's just say temper tantrums We're gonna see him have a temper tantrum here in a minute

He basically ordered that all of the wise men of Babylon be executed and Daniel asked for time had his he and his buddies pray to God for mercy and God showed him what the dream was and its interpretation and if you remember the dream was about a large image a large statue gold and silver and bronze and iron and clay

Mixed with iron each of the different parts Well that kind of gives us the context here because in the interpretation

Daniel gives Daniel tells King Nebuchadnezzar that he and his kingdom is the gold in that image

Yeah, he's the king of kings and that there'll be a kingdoms after him that come but this the interpretation doesn't end there

It ends with this rock that is not hewn by human hands coming and smashing this

This statue and then growing into a great mountain and filling the whole earth But Nebuchadnezzar liked the part about him being the gold and the you know part of the image

So he comes up with this wonderful idea He's gonna take that image that he saw in his dream and turn it into an idol

Daniel chapter 3 King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold whose height was 60 cubits its breadth 6 cubits

He set it up in the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon Then King Nebuchadnezzar sent to gather the satraps the prefects the governors the counselors the treasurers the justices the magistrates and All the officials of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up then the satraps the prefects the governors the counselors the treasurers and the justices and the magistrates and all the officials of the

Provinces gathered for the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up and they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up and the herald

Proclaimed now a herald again. Remember somebody who's been given a message and when I would read this to my kids

I would always like to use a funny voice for this fellow. Okay, you have to see everybody's there.

And so this guy stands up You are commanded Oh people's nations and languages

That when you hear the sound of the horn the pipe the lyre the trigon the heart the bagpipe and every kind of music

You are to fall down and worship the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up Now I like to imagine that at that point

He gives a little bit of a pause kind of a pregnant pause and then says and of course

Whoever does not fall down and worship Does this right shall he be that we cast into a burning fiery furnace and on cue

There's no coercion going on here is there right none whatsoever now

I Always like to tell the story that when faith yes It's hard to believe that she was actually four or five when she was a little girl what we used to do

We would after dinner when dinner was finished before we took the dishes off the table

I'd open up the family Bible and read and so there we were and Oh, it's still in my mind there.

We were and I was reading the story out and she was just gripped by the story and When I talked about the fiery furnace, you're gonna be thrown in the fire first vehicles.

Oh, oh No You know, so she's gripped so therefore as soon as all the people heard the sound of the horn the

Pipe the lyre the trigon the harp the bagpipe in every kind of music all the peoples the nations the languages fell down and Worship the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

Yeah, that's what we call free will worship right there, right? Yeah So therefore at that time certain

Chaldeans came forward and they maliciously accused the Jews They declared to King Nebuchadnezzar Oh King.

May you live forever? You Oh King have made a decree and every man who hears the sound of the horn the pipe the lyre the trigon the harp the bagpipe and Every kind of music shall fall down and worship the golden image and whoever does not fall down Well, there's that fiery furnace out there

Well, there are certain Jews whom you've appointed over the affairs of the province of Babylon Shadrach Meshach and Abednego, you know these guys these men

Oh King they pay no attention to you They do not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up And here's the fun part then

Nebuchadnezzar in a furious rage Just see his top The volcano erupts and I'm sure that when he's speaking at this point, there's spit flying out of his mouth, right?

Yeah He commanded Immediately So they brought these men before the king and you can see himself

He's probably pulled himself back just a little bit, you know, so he's at a seething kind of boil at this point, right?

Is it true? Shadrach Meshach and Abednego that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden image that I have set up Now I'm a reasonable fellow

I'm a little upset right now, but I'm reasonable if you're ready when you hear the sound of the horn the pipe the lyre the trigon the harp the bagpipe and Every kind of music to fall down and worship the image that I have made well well and good

You get to leave here alive, right? but if you do not worship you will immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace and Who is the

God who will deliver you out of my hands? So here we've got this problem

Shadrach Meshach and Abednego They believe and trust in Yahweh Yahweh has said you will have no other gods before me

They have just seen 90 % of their whole nation killed by God in judgment for their refusal to repent of their idolatry and Now they are in a situation where you will either

Engage in idolatry and worship a false God or die What do you do?

Who do you fear? Now here's the irony of all of this They were told they had to do the wrong thing in order to avoid the fiery furnace they had to despise

God and his word and Avoid the fiery furnace, but the reality of this situation is to despise

God and worship a false God Makes you in danger of the real fiery furnace Which is hell so your choice at this point is

Be burned alive and live or live and Be burnt in the fires of hell for eternity.

That's kind of what's at stake here, right? That's your real option, but you only know this from Revelation from the book of Scripture So who will deliver you?

Who will deliver you out of my hands which God will? Shadrach Meshach and Abednego answered and said to the king.

Oh Nebuchadnezzar we have no need to answer you in this matter If this be so our

God whom we serve he is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace Now notice he has not promised to do that They know he is able but that doesn't mean they assume that he will

He is able to save us and he will deliver us out of your hand. Oh King If not be it known to you

Oh king that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up Do you think it matters to Shadrach Meshach and Abednego?

Who they worship? Yeah. Yeah, that matters a lot Do they see worshiping this golden image as proxy worship of God?

none, no, not at all and Here's the best part about this is we know by what happens next that God vindicates them

He vindicates them so Nebuchadnezzar was filled with fury The expression on his face was changed against Shadrach Meshach and Abednego He ordered the furnace heated seven times more than it was usually heated

He ordered some of the mighty men of his army to bind Shadrach Meshach and Abednego and cast them into the burning fiery furnace

These men were bound in their cloaks their tunics their hats and their other garments and they were thrown into the burning fiery furnace

And as I was reading in this out one faith was a little girl. Oh Daddy they're gonna die

Do you want me to keep reading? Okay Because the king's order was urgent and the furnace was overheated

The flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach Meshach and Abednego These three men

Shadrach Meshach and Abednego fell bound into the fiery furnace Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and he rose up in haste

And he declared to his counselors did we not cast three men bound into the fire

They answered instead to the king true. Oh king. He answered and said but I see four men unbound walking in the midst of the fire and they are not hurt and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods and As soon as I read that out faith jumped up from her seat

Jesus came to save them and he did He did

King Nebuchadnezzar came so close Son of the gods. No, it was the

Son of God who came to save them Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door of the burning fiery furnace

He declared Shadrach Meshach and Abednego servants of the Most High God come out come here

Then Shadrach Meshach and Abednego came out from the fire And the state traps and the prefects and the governors and the king's counselors gathered together and saw that the fire had not

Had any power over their bodies or those men the hair of their heads was not singed their cloaks were not harmed

No smell of fire had come upon them Nebuchadnezzar answered them and said blessed be the God of Shadrach Meshach and Abednego who has sent his angel and Delivered his servants who trusted in him and set aside the king's command and Yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any

God except for their own God therefore I make a decree any people nation or language that speaks anything against the

God of Shadrach Meshach and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb and their houses laid in ruins for there is no other

God who's able to Rescue in this way, and then the king promoted Shadrach Meshach and Abednego in the province of Babylon Vindication that's what that is who was right who was wrong

Nebuchadnezzar was wrong and He's beginning to see the light. He's not quite there yet, but it's starting to come into focus

And so here we see That Christ himself shows up and he vindicates his servants as an example to us

To say to us you may face this same quandary do

I live or Do I suffer loss for speaking the truth and refusing to bend the knee to a false

God or to acknowledge that that false? God is true You see in our day, we're not to the point where they're saying worship this

God or die, which is what Islam says submit or die

That's not the law of our land Cultural Sharia right now says keep your head down mouth shut.

We're gonna tell everybody you worship the same God So that we can keep you guys from bickering and fighting because we want peace and stability in our society and don't you dare let the cat out of the bag and If you do you're gonna lose your job, we're gonna sue you

We're gonna do all kinds of things to you and tarnish your name and make your life miserable for daring to undo our agenda

That's what the day we live in. Let's go back to our internet story So there was the story

February 26 2012 Rick Warren blamed that he was somehow a victim of the liberal media and they ended up coming up with their own kind of explanation and Saddleback responded to false allegations or accusations dear

Saddleback family They wrote a week ago reporter published an article in the Orange County Register about Saddleback Church that contained many errors and false assumptions

It erroneously stated that we have a partnership with a local Muslim mosque. That's false It erroneously reported that we had agreed to not evangelize with Muslims.

That is false It erroneously reported that we believe Saddleback and Muslims worship the same God that is false It erroneously used a picture of our

Peace Center as the example of a program of cooperation with Muslims That is false and it erroneously reported that our church had agreed to a theological document with Muslims That is false who was to blame bloggers

Mm -hmm. Yeah, usually we try to ignore these false statements made by the media, especially irresponsible bloggers

Because one reacting to every false report would take up most of our time

It is almost impossible to undo errors damage once it's been on the internet and God knows the truth And he's the one that we must please so he was a victim of bloggers and He was a victim of well bad reporting on the part of the media have all these false statements

But here's the problem This thing that they put out Was filled with falsehoods

See when the story broke I had contacted Rick Warren and I knew what he said immediately following its publication

I reached out to the Islamic Center of Los Angeles and I spoke with the gentleman there by the name of jihad

Turk He was the Muslim. He was one of the Muslim leaders that were working with Saddleback he pointed me to their website and On their website before it was taken down He wanted me to see this thing on their website the

Islamic Center of Southern, California the Islamic Center of California co -authors historic interfaith document this was published in December of 2011 and Saddleback after the story broke

Demanded that they take this off their website. I took screenshots to make sure it wouldn't get lost

Last Sunday a historic event took place at Saddleback Church in Orange County, California Saddleback is known for its famous pastor

Rick Warren who delivered the prayer at President Obama's inauguration ceremony The church hosted a number of Muslim communities based in Southern, California for its second annual

Celebration of Jesus this event is significant because Saddleback is a large

Evangelical church with over 22 ,000 members, although only a select number of individuals were invited to this dinner

It demonstrates the new theological position of Saddleback at the celebration a document one year in the making was presented which encourages

Christians and Muslims to appreciate the similarities of our faiths that was published by the

Muslims Now I want you to note here. This is a photograph taken at the event This is

Abraham Muhlenberg who is now a former pastor at Saddleback this gentleman is the gentleman

I spoke with on the phone Jihad Turk and You'll notice it's Christmas This is in one of the buildings in Saddleback and here's a

PowerPoint slide. Let me read this slide to you Kings way Kings way describes a path to end the 1 ,400 years of misunderstanding between Muslims and Christians By consulting the texts we each call sacred in order to form a basis that allows us the privilege to serve the needs in our communities together

You see the reason why Getting along with the

Muslims is because of misunderstandings Uh -huh.

So here we've got a problem Saddleback in their official communication to their members of their church

Said it is erroneously reported that our church had agreed to a theological document with Muslims Jihad Turk and the

Islamic Center of Southern, California Actually talk about this historic document that doesn't exist

That it was one year in the making it was unveiled at this historic second annual thing in December of 2011

Well, it turns out that through some snooping and somebody doing their homework the the journalist for the

Orange County Register was able to surreptitiously get a copy of this document that doesn't exist and Here are excerpts that which were published on the

Orange County Register's website This document the Kingsway document was put together an attempt to improve our values of loving neighbor and Cooperation we acknowledge that we may not agree on everything and some words might have different meanings

However, there are sufficient similarities to come to a common word on common ground in order to serve the common good together so Big point number one who

We as we believe in one God Point under it

God is one Mark 12 29 Muhammad 47 19

God is the Creator Genesis 1 Al Shura 42 11 You see what they're doing there they're taking all of these things that supposedly are the same and saying that we

Collectively believe these things together and both of our holy books say these things therefore we can put an end to the 1400 years of misunderstanding between Christianity and Islam Sneaky isn't it?

Well, here's the issue the Quran explicitly states that Allah does not have a son it explicitly says that and they

Islam believes Jesus is a prophet, but he's a prophet of Allah and And they believe that Jesus prophesied

Muhammad Now this is real simple Do Christians and Muslims worship the same

God? No, you want to prove it you want to get right down to it, it's real simple ask a

Muslim this say I Worship this God the God I worship was is the

Son of God He was born of the Virgin Mary Suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified for our sins was buried and rose again on the third day

That's the God I worship. Is that the God you worship? No We don't worship the same

God they would never agree to that Ever so we don't worship the same

God. You shall have no other gods before me Allah is not a true

God and Issa, which is their name for Jesus is not the biblical

Jesus. It's a totally different Jesus All right, so you kind of see the idea here we dealing we're dealing with this on a big scale because Saddleback is a

Major mover and shaker and thought leader within the evangelical movement well, they when this got blown up on the

Internet Abraham Muhlenberg disappeared and all this talk of this common word between Them and the

Muslims all went under by the wayside and they started to tow the line But Rick Warren to this day still gets accused of teaching what is called

Chris long, you know Christianity Islam squished together. He can't seem to shake it.

I The document was put together in order to find the common ground between Muslims and Christians in order for the

Common good of society, you know to stop bickering and things like that I think that's the right way of understanding the document

The problem is the way the document is written the average person reading it would come to the conclusion All on their own that this document is saying that Christians and Muslims worship the same

God when they don't Here's the super controversial part, please open your

Bibles to 1st Corinthians chapter 10 what I am about to read is Politically incorrect

But it is biblically correct What is the proper way of?

Understanding theologically the origin of every religion on planet

Earth with the exception of Christianity Well say it's workspace, but let's talk about its origin

This text tells us here's what it says 1st Corinthians 10 14 therefore my beloved

Paul's writing to Christians flee idolatry Run away from it flee it

I Speak as to sensible people judge for yourselves What I say the cup of blessing that we bless is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?

And we say of course, yes, it is. This is my blood The bread that we break is this not a participation in the body of Christ indeed

It is this is my body broken for you for the forgiveness of your sins Because there is one bread we who are many are one body for we all partake of the one bread

Consider the people of Israel are not those who eat the sacrifices percent participants in the altar

What do I imply then that food offered to an idol is anything or that an idol is anything?

No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God I Do not want you to be to be participants with demons

You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons You cannot partake of the table of the

Lord and the table of demons Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?

What is the origin of all of the other religions on the planet the demonic that includes

Islam and If you know the history of Islam this is a religion that begins with Muhammad claiming that he was visited by an angel and Angel revealed to him the doctrines of Islam.

We know from this text That was not any old angel

That was a fallen angel That's why Paul says even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a

Gospel other than the one you received let him be damned Now it's important to note this

Scriptures also very clear. Our battle is not against flesh and blood it isn't

So there isn't a single Muslim on this planet. Who is your enemy? They may think you're their enemy, but there isn't a single

Muslim on this planet. Who is your enemy? We love them for Christ's sake and we speak the truth to them for their sake in Other words, they are many people in Islam well -meaning

Sincere believers that they're following God They do not see behind the facade to who's really pulling the levers

These are not people who are openly worshiping the devil They are worshiping the devil disguised as an angel of light

Now, here's the question I have for you We saw the story of Shadrach Meshach and Abednego here.

We just read that Paul says to flee idolatry You will have no other guys before me if we were to look at the preaching of the

Apostle Paul When he went on his missionary journeys, what was his attitude towards idolatry?

How did he treat? those who worshipped false gods Did he treat them as brothers in Christ?

or as people who need to be spoken the truth to and Did he suffer a price for preaching the truth?

Yeah, let's take a look at Acts 14 This falls again under the category of no good deed will go unpunished

This seems to happen a lot to Christians So if it's happening to you, you should not be thinking something strange is occurring to you

Acts 14 8 now at Lystra. There was a man sitting who could not use his feet He was crippled from birth had never walked

He listened to Paul speaking and Paul looking intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be made

Well said in a loud voice stand up right on your feet and he sprang up and he began walking

Hmm sounds a lot like what we just read in Acts 3, right? similar thing and When the crowd saw what

Paul had done they lifted up their voices saying in the Laconian language The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men

Barnabas they called Zeus Paul Hermes because he he talked a lot. All right.

Here's the question I have for you Atheists or very religious people. These are religious people they believe in the

Pantheon of the Greco -Roman gods Zeus and Hermes and Aphrodite and Venus So the gods have come down to us

Barnabas they called Zeus Paul Hermes because he was the chief speaker and The priest of Zeus whose temple was at the entrance to the city brought oxen and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer

Sacrifice with the crowds, but when the Apostles Paul and Barnabas heard it They tore their garments rushed out into the crowd saying men.

Why are you doing these things? We also are men of like nature with you

We bring you good news that you should turn from these vain things to a living

God Who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them in the past generations?

He allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways yet He did not leave himself without a witness for he did good by giving you rains from heaven fruit and fruitful seasons

Satisfying your hearts with food and gladness even with these words. They were they scarcely restrained the people from offering sacrifice to them

So notice what's the preaching turn from these vain things to the living

God Paul doesn't sit there and say keep it up all roads lead to God Right, by the way, all roads do lead to God.

They all lead to his judgment seat After that, there's a separation Shall we say now watch what happened?

So the Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and having persuaded the crowds they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city

Supposing that he was dead Well that ended well They healed a guy they were gonna offer

Sacrifices to them and they decided against it and they tried to kill him instead hmm one more passage acts 17

We're going to begin at 16 the Apostle Paul just so you know in the context went to Thessalonica and The Jews there really took issue with him and kind of he had to slink out of town

And he went to Berea preached the gospel to the Bereans They tested everything that he preached to them according to the written

Word of God and they believed but the some Jews from the synagogue in Thessalonica showed up and Gave them misery and so Paul slinks out of town again

And they sent him off to Athens to kind of get things back under control And here's what it says while Paul is in the city of Athens while Paul was waiting for them at Athens His spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols

So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons in the marketplace every day and with those who happen to be

There now some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also Conversed with him and some said what does this babbler wish to say others said well?

He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection

So they took him and brought him to the Areopagus thing May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting for you bring some strange things to our ears

We wish to know therefore what these things mean Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who live there would spend their time and nothing except for telling or hearing something new

So Paul standing in the midst of the Areopagus said men of Athens. I Perceive that in every way you are very religious again religious people

For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship. I found an altar with this inscription

To the unknown God now notice Paul doesn't pick Zeus and say God's a lot like Zeus He doesn't pick any of the known deities

He picks the one that they don't know because you know what did what did these guys do they were idolaters?

They decided that we better hedge our bets in case we missed a deity So we'll set up an altar to the one we missed we don't know his name or her name

But hey to the unknown God So I found an altar with this inscription to the unknown God what therefore you worship is unknown this

I now proclaim to you the God who made the world and everything in it

Being the Lord of heaven and earth does not live in temples made by man Nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything since he himself

Gives to all of mankind life and breath and everything He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all of the face of the earth

Having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place that they should seek

God and perhaps Feel their way toward him and find him yet. He's actually not far from each of us

For in him we live and move and have our being and even as one of your own poets have said we are indeed his offspring

So being then God's offspring we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone an

Image formed by the art and the imagination of man the times of ignorance

God Overlooked but now he commands all people everywhere to repent

Because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world and righteousness by a man whom he appointed

And of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead So here we are in the

New Testament era Christ has bled and died for our sins risen from the grave bodily on the third day and he's ascended to heaven and Paul says

God now commands all people everywhere to repent

Does that include your Muslim neighbors? Does it includes your Buddhist neighbors it includes everybody who worships a false

God That's the position of Christianity towards other religions Stephen I Was waiting for a little more enthusiasm on his part.

Oh, yeah, I could start jumping up and down. Um 1730 That that's a very interesting

Sentence times of ignorance. Yeah times of ignorance God overlooked. Mm -hmm. But now he commands all people.

Does that mean what does that mean? What's the implications of that? Because there has to be an implication about that,

I mean does that mean people that weren't Israelites and What does that mean?

I mean because I don't know if I'm drawing the wrong conclusion but it seems like it's tough to kind of tease it all out because First first you're gonna need cross references

So this is clearly referring to the time. We'll just say from Noah until Christ's ascension

We'll call that the time of ignorance. Does that sound like it brackets it properly? Okay, what was

God doing during that time the whole Old Testament is happening at that so at that time God has separated a

People for himself he's brought them out of slavery brought them into the promised land and The Messiah is with them following that scarlet thread of the genealogy of Christ and it's all culminating in this now

Is there salvation for those who are worshiping false gods at this time?

No But it's the time of ignorance and God is overlooking in that in a sense Basically saying this is the way things were going up to this point

But now and see here's the but now what's the thing that's changed? Christ has not only ascended

He's now seated at the right hand of the Father all authority in heaven on earth has been given to him and the king has spoken the king of the universe to whom all authority has been given and the king says

Everybody everywhere repent you went your own way in the past no longer

You see this is where kingdom theology starts to come into play Christ is king. He's king of kings

Like the Romans passage Yeah, they become a law for themselves become a law for themselves and I'm saying of course, but now he commands all people every to repent

I think there might be some evidence about the times of ignorance got overlooked I mean,

I don't know. It's very difficult because God Christ died for the sins of the whole world Why don't you do some homework?

I like like a five six page paper on this single space Yeah, yeah, yeah and use the

Turabian system for you know, I know I think this would be this I think it'd be fun for you to you know, sit down and kind of just see if you can tease this out a little

What's the font size? 12 12 times 12 That's that Yeah Yeah, I think that I think in Understanding this you have to pull some of the king the kingdom theology into play here

Because pulse is speaking as an emissary and an apostle of Christ and He's speaking really in an official capacity for him and he's delivering a message

God now is commanding you to repent in the past. You were not called to do this Now you are because of the one who is because of Christ the man

He's appointed who's going to judge the living and the dead and so the message has gone out of repentance

And so let me ask you this is this real quick Has anything changed as far as the message that God wants preached that Christ wants preached between today and The time that Paul delivered this to the

Areopagus No, nothing so let me say this I Understand that when it comes to disturbances within society

It is not a good idea to provoke your neighbor To burn down your churches and have riots and things like that Or for you to constantly be at war with your neighbor

For the sake of peace in society these things are frowned upon and we're not all called as Christians to wage jihad anyway we're called as Christians to deliver a message and Understand this that through the preaching of the gospel that God Literally regenerates people brings them to penance and faith in Christ Some people are gonna hear it and say

I want to kill you Yeah, that happens to the Apostles.

It happens to us to other people hearing the gospel are gonna say oh my goodness I'm a sinner

I believe And we thank God for that, right? We don't change the message the

Apostle Paul didn't sit there after he was Stoned in Lystra, and I'm not taught he wasn't taking pot.

I mean, you know, he got he actually got rocks thrown at him, right? You have to you have to make these distinctions nowadays, right?

But he didn't sit there and go, you know, I got to rework the message here because you know, I almost died there

You know that he doesn't do that at all. He keeps preaching the same message and So understand this you will have no other gods before me.

This has Huge implications regarding our posture and What we need to do even in the face of opposition

Who are you going to fear? Christ or these people? Paul didn't fear those people he feared

Christ and so he preached the truth and called people to repent even if it meant that he would have to lay down his life and He nearly laid it down several times ultimately

Nero took his head off But he never changed the message So this has real implications because we are now living in a day when we are told as a church to shut up Stop talking like this

There are prominent leaders who are trying to build bridges with Islam during the whole emergent church thing

Brian McLaren Oh my goodness Brian McLaren wrote a book called a generous orthodoxy and he talked about people who were followers of Jesus in the way of Allah and There's all this talk now of people being

Christians, but staying Muslim that doesn't make any sense and Brian McLaren along with Rick Warren or both of them have gone on record and actually celebrated

Ramadan fasts with Muslims and Broke the fast with him at the same time.

Does that make any sense at all? Yeah, they've they're off in the weeds, but the problem is because they're popular

Published and people listen to them and they listen and they think that they have a lot of sway people are then in churches like ours feel like Maybe we shouldn't say anything

Maybe we should just keep our head down and our mouth shut and stop talking about Jesus as if he's the only way

Yeah This is this is a problem. It's one thing It's one thing for the church in mercy to meet the physical and bodily needs of those in need

It's that's one thing to say I as a Christian see you as my neighbor and I see that you are in need

But the idea is is that Jesus is very clear in the Sermon on the Mount that we do our good works

So that they would praise our God and so and Understand this you ultimately are not really doing

Kingdom work If all you're doing is giving somebody a sandwich or a coat. I Mean, that's nice.

I mean the government does that all the time It's called welfare and they're not building the kingdom the kingdom is not built until people are brought to penitent faith in Christ for the forgiveness of their sins and They abandon their false gods and their idols and we all have to abandon them because we all have them

Yeah, yeah, this is it well I would say it adds to the entanglement because the government is all fine and dandy about Christians helping out as long as Christians stay quiet about who their

Jesus is and don't tell anybody about it and That's a problem You know, that is a huge problem

Which is why you know I I like some of the bigger denominational social services groups that don't make those

Distinctions and permit Christians to actually share their faith with those whom they are helping Yeah, when did the mission field leave this area

I'd you know last time I checked with the churches aren't sitting there going Oh my goodness. We only have two pagans left.

I want that when you can have the other one, you know They're not doing that, right? Yeah, the mission field begins the second you walk out the door

You see this is an embassy where we're in Kingdom Territory right now as soon as you walk out the door you're back in Minnesota and heading back to North Dakota The mission fields there.

You're in the mission fields. Just the person next door to you. It's your co -worker It's the grocery store clerk

We have a little work to do I Think we have a little work to do Let's see now you kind of get this what you know, what's at stake

Christ has commanded that all people everywhere repent to believe in the

Living God the one who is bled and died for them and He's coming again with glory to judge the living and the dead times running out

Times running out. I don't I don't know if you notice The day is far spent far spent

When you feel the pressure to shut up And to not speak the truth to your neighbors whether they're

Buddhist or Muslim Jewish or just atheist and agnostic or don't care

Don't listen to those voices Jesus has commanded all people everywhere to repent and to believe and trust in the

Living God the one who is You belong to him. This is the message.

We're to give and will you suffer for it? Yeah, you might Chances are getting better by the day you will

And when you do that's not nothing weird is happening to you. That's what we were told would happen

What would your Information be to pastors who say well, we can't disciple people until we get them in the door.

So let's make church fun entertaining and don't condemn anything because You gotta give in the door first to the cycle.

So let's not scare him away Yeah You'll notice that the Apostle Paul planted churches all over the place and he never once set up a secret friendly service

Never once how did I mean how did he do it? and so here's the idea that it works from a false assumption and The end this is the idea is that the people who talk this way believe that the way somebody becomes a

Christian is by making a freewill decision to become a follower of Jesus That's not true

If the goal then is to get people to make freewill decisions then marketing and having a confetti can and all this kind of stuff

Well that that would be the important thing to do. The important thing is to preach the gospel See the the reason why the pagans don't come to church and why they worship at st.

Mattress is because is because They are at war with God and they hate him

The it's the reason that I guarantee you there are no pagans right now who are not at Kongsvinger today

Because we sing hymns The pastor preaches the word, you know,

I wear a claret None of them care about any of that stuff The reason why they're not here is because they hate

God and they love their sin. It's just the bottom line So, how do we get them to come here?

Oh, this is real simple the the mission field begins as soon as you walk out that door and When you come across those pagans who are worshiping at st.

Mattress Tell them about Jesus Tell them tell them about Christ and then when some of them are brought to faith in Christ bring them here.

We'll disciple That's the idea Yeah Now just I want

Do a little internal talk here. We have people here right now who were worshiping at st.

Mattress a year ago And you know Yeah, you know what brought them here a simple invitation

And you know, what's keeping him here the Word of God sometimes it's just as simple as I See you're struggling.

Why don't you come to church with me? I think God might have something to help you with The biggest thing is like I've even talked to people in our culture and you talk to them and you're like You know, you're a sinner

And you know, you're gonna go to hell if you don't repent, you know Believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior and then there are people that call themselves

Christians that have the audacity to tell me Oh, I never I wasn't I didn't become a Christian because of people who talk like you

You know and it's just like yeah culture is so backwards now You're dealing with a different topic and we're gonna end here because we've gone a little long

Let let I've run into those similar situations as you know There are people out there within the church who are saying it's people like you when you talk about sin and that crucified dead guy and and people needing to repent

It's people like you who are keeping people out of the church and where are they standing when there's when they're talking to you like that inside the church

Here's the problem. You sit there and go You sound nothing like a Christian.

What do you think Christianity is again? What what do you think the gospel is thing you got to push back on that person because here's the thing

That's a person who has come in believing that somehow Christianity is all about finding their dream destiny or some nonsense like that or going and having an experience

Where I get to sway in the winds of the spirit and you whatever, okay

Yeah, you know, I was having a flashback there anyway, but um

Yeah, the issue there is you have a very if you have a Christian there at all He's poorly catechized and there's a good chance

You're dealing with somebody who's never even actually heard the gospel In other words, the reason why they say they're a

Christian and they're at church has nothing to do with Jesus Dying rising again for their sins.