I grew up in France in the 60s and 70s when it was at least 80% Catholic. Almost every town and village had a church and a priest. The church bells would regularly punctuate our days, calling the faithful parishioners to services. This was the normal sound of everyday life even for a Jewish person.
It is hard to believe that almost 500 years ago, a Catholic priest nailed a list of reasons on a church door in Wittenberg, Germany, explaining why he had to split from the hegemony of the Roman Catholic Church. in October of 1517, Martin Luther’s 95 Theses were made public and the Reformation was born. Protestant Christians, Huguenots and other Bible believing individuals grew and shared the gospel on a continent that had been controlled by popes and bishops, not always with the most impeccable integrity. The results were felt and God’s kingdom greatly affected for the better.
But “the times they are-a-changin!”
Over the last several decades, Europe’s Christian community has been decreasing steadily while the Muslim influx has increased exponentially, bringing people from Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco and Turkey. Muslim integration into the European communities has been greatly unsuccessful at best. Mostly for the fact that Islam calls its followers to a strict ideology including religion, political life, judicial system, social fabric and dietary laws, keeping them from meshing with the locals even partially.
Europe isn’t just postmodern, it is frighteningly post-Christian and for many reasons, this post-Christian inoculation of tolerance and secularism isn’t working. Europe’s immune system went down when Christianity began to decrease, putting her further at risk.
While I am not certain that this is a symptom of the death of European Christianity or a result of Islam’s growth or a bit of both, the recent surge in the purchase of Christian churches by various Muslim organizations is very troubling.
I have been worried for a while about the emigration of natives from several Western European countries where they no longer felt safe in neighborhoods where they once were the majority. Islamic influence in these neighborhoods is so intense that it forced the cultural tides to turn, and the natives to flee. But now we are starting to see unattended Catholic churches sold and transformed into mosques and this only adds to the growing problem at hand:
1. The death of Christianity: the beginning of the end for Europe
In and of itself, the rapidly growing decrease of Christianity in Europe creates a fertile field for other religions to grow, and this is where Islam comes into the picture. With Christianity came biblical values and ethics. Even though it was always an upstream battle on such a humanistic continent, Evangelicalism brought a renewed sense of hope and purpose that attracted some. With the advent of postmodernism, secular humanism and tolerance became the measuring stick by which to calculate worth, outside of personal wealth of course. The more tolerant you are, the more respected you become, and this regardless of what your tolerance is aimed at. It appears that compromise and tolerance are the two new virtues of the 21st century. Biblical truth is irrelevant, or is it?
With the death of Christianity, nobody will be willing or even available to spread the Gospel to the lost–including the growing Muslim community–and the master of lies [Satan] will easily plant more deception in a ground that has been fertilized by postmodern relativism.
2. The growth of Islam: Europe’s demise rapidly approaching
The decline of Christianity in Europe seems to have coincided with the rise of Islam, at least for the last 60 years. With the now obvious demographic imbalance between Muslims and Christians in most European countries, it is obvious that the population shift will only increase in favor of Islam, to eventually tip the scale and transform Europe into an irreversible Muslim continent, as author Bat Ye’or posits in her seminal work Eurabia. We might not be too far from that happening, as some predict the tipping of the demographic scale to occur between 2040 and 2050.
3. Christian Churches becoming mosques: The planting of Muslim strongholds across Europe
While the mainstream media chooses to overlook it or under-report it at best, there is a growing phenomenon taking place in Europe that shouldn’t be ignored even if it cannot be avoided. It is the selling of abandoned or sporadically attended Christian churches to Islamic organizations to transform them into mosques. The latest one can be found in Hamburg, Germany where a Lutheran church is about to undergo the transformation not without the concern of local Germans. It was sold in December 2012 to the Al-Nour Islamic Center.
I find it interesting that the Islamic center that purchased the church bears the same name as the newly formed “ultra conservative” Egyptian “Al-Nour” Party. The implementation of sharia being the party’s unashamed goal, one is to wonder what the Al-Nour Islamic Center will aim to accomplish, once they are firmly planted! The Al-Nour Party is the largest Salafist group in Egypt and they are much more narrow-minded than the Muslim Brotherhood.
This event is not the first of its kind as it is already happening in other countries of Europe such as France and the United Kingdom to name just a few. The French community of Vierzon is going through the same dilemma with the upcoming sale of the Church of St. Eloi.
England has also being affected by the “church-to-mosque” transformation when they allowed a church in Clitheroe, England to become a mosque in 2007.
It is unlikely that this trend will vanish or even slow down. All seems to indicate that the apathy of European Christians, who for the most part are nominal at best, will continue to make room for more mosques to be built and churches to be purchased and remodeled into Islamic centers.
The spiraling down of Post-Christian Europe is well on its way. It seems that even if the proverbial frog in the water pot might not be boiling up quite yet, the water is already warm enough to numb it from jumping out.
If nothing is done, next time you visit Europe you might be driving by Westminster Mosque in England or Notre-Mosque of Paris!
Yet, it is never too late to share the Gospel of Messiah Yeshua (Jesus) with the lost, including the first victims of Islam, the Muslims themselves.
Yet, it is never too late to share the Gospel of Messiah Yeshua (Jesus) with the lost, including the first victims of Islam, the Muslims themselves.
I am reminded of Yeshua’s attitude towards the Twelve at His last Passover Seder in the Upper Room. As they were getting ready to wash His hands as per the ceremony of the Urchatz (washing of the hands), He chose to wash their feet instead in a perfect display of humility and servanthood, setting the bar for us on how we should serve and love those who do not know Him, while sharing the Gospel with them. Anything less is failing Him!
Now before the Feast of the Passover, Yeshua knowing that His hour had come that He should depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. And during supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him, Yeshua, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God, and was going back to God, rose from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself about. Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. John 13:1-5
DENYING THE WORDS OF GOD THE FATHER!
When men deny the truth found in the Scriptures; they are denying the words of God the Father. When men deny the truth spoken by Jesus; they are denying the words of God the Father. When men deny the doctrine of the apostles; they are denying the words of God the Father.
All Scripture is the word of God the Father.
2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,(NKJV)
All that Jesus spoke was from God the Father.
John 12:49-50 “For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. 50 “And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak.”(NKJV)
All of the apostles doctrine was from God the Father. Why was that? Because Jesus taught the apostles and all of the words of Jesus were from God the Father.
John 14:26 “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.(NKJV)
John 16:13-14 “However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. 14 “He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.
All the teaching from the Holy Spirit came from Jesus and all the words of Jesus came from God the Father.
There are no Scriptures that declare that church creed books, (catechisms) or any other extra-Biblical writings are that of God the Father. Remember; all Scripture is inspired by God. Creed books are not Scripture. No extra-Biblical writing is Scripture.
HOW DO MEN DENY THE WORDS OF GOD THE FATHER?
1. When men claim there is more than one God; they are denying the words of God the Father.
Ephesians 4:6 one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.(NKJV)
2. When men declare that Jesus did not say water baptism precedes salvation; they are denying the words of God the Father.
Mark 16:16 “He who believes and is baptized will be saved…(NKJV)
3. When men say that Christians cannot fall from grace; they denying the words of God the Father.
Galatians 5:4 You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.(NKJV)
All Scripture is inspired by God the Father.
YOU ARE INVITED TO FOLLOW MY CHRISTIAN BLOG: You can can find it by a google search, steve finnell a christian view.