More and more Americans find themselves worshiping and serving Allah, the god of Islam. Mosques (a Muslim place of worship) are found in more and more American cities. As the cross symbolizes Christianity and the star of David, Judaism, so the crescent moon symbolizes the Islam religion. More and more elected officials are openly Muslim. A number of them put their hand on the Koran rather than the Bible when they take their oath of office to defend the American constitution from within and without. They do this while still claiming to be a people of the Bible --when trying to win friends and influence people.
The Jihad is often defined as a spiritual struggle to do the right thing in the eyes of Allah (the god of Islam). However, it also has the common connotation of "kill the infidel" (unbeliever) and is applied to those that do not believe Mohammad is a true prophet of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob which includes orthodox Christians and Jews. Speaking of prophets, Muslims have a different take on the word prophet. Christians and Jews accept the fact that Abraham, Moses, and David were and are prophets of God or Yahweh. However, the Muslims hold that Moses, replaced Abraham, and Christ replaced Moses (which in a way, he did, Deuteronomy 18), AND that Muhammad REPLACED Christ! Thus, Sharia Law (the Koran) replaces the Gospel of Christ.
There are a couple of other idiosyncrasies of which Bible believers are often ignorant. Muslims hold that Trinitarians are polytheists or believe in multiple gods, and thus Christ is not deity. Not many Bible believers are aware that Allah was originally a moon-god (note their crescent moon symbol) in northern Arabia.
Last, but not least, our founding fathers refused to accept the constitution without passing the first ten amendments known as the Bill of Rights. The First Amendment begins as follows; "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or exercising the free exercise thereof..." Context is everything in communication. The religion in this context is Christianity not any and every religion. History demonstrates this fact. When the slaves were imported from Africa, Americans Christianized them. When the Indian tribes were conquered, Americans Christianized them. When the Mormons embraced polygamy (having more than one wife), congress sent the army west to correct the Christian standard as Jesus pointed out, "Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let no man put asunder (Matthew 19:4-6).
Dale I. Royal, Elk City, OK
