Chrislam: What Is It and Is It a Good Idea?
ROBERT GREER
6 September 2011
Question: What is Chrislam and is it good idea?
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Answer:
Chrislam is a newly coined term that reflects an ecumenical melding of Christianity and Islam. More to the point, various Christian churches are renting out some of their facilities to Muslim groups where Islamic worship takes place. Some churches are removing statutes from their facilities to accommodate these Muslims since Muslims maintain that statutes are a form of idolatry and must be condemned. They are also placing Qur’ans in their pew racks alongside Bibles and hymns.
Islamic Perspective
Provided that Christians open up their facilities to Muslims and not the other way around (that is, mosques opening up their facilities to Christians), the Qur’an has no problem whatsoever with this practice. This is because it falls within the overall strategy of islamification. The Qur’an maintains that Allah is the only God and that He is sovereign over the entire earth. Hence, He is sovereign over churches and their facilities. It therefore only makes sense that the worship of Allah, as taught in the Qur’an, would slowly extend into these facilities. The end-game, of course, is that churches would transform their doctrines and theologies to that which conforms to Islam. Doctrines that would have to be set aside would include:
(a) the doctrine of the Trinity
(b) the doctrine of the hypostatic union of Christ—where Jesus is fully God and fully Man, two natures in one person, and
(c) the doctrine of salvation by faith—that entrance into Heaven is based upon grace and not by personal merit.
Chrislam corresponds to the strategy of the Muslim Brotherhood. A senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood, for example, has written: “The ikhwan [Brotherhood] must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.”1 Hence, this broadly defined strategy sees multi-culturalism and religious pluralism as merely a means to an ends. The end is the triumph of Islam over all other religions.
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Christian Perspective
Provided that Christians understand all doctrine as negotiable and/or an inconvenience the effective Christian living, opening up their facilities Muslims also makes good
sense. This attitude, known as theological liberalism, entered the Church in the eighteenth century during the Age of the Enlightenment. In the twentieth century it incorporated the philosophies of existentialism (founder: Friedrich Nietzsche) and postmodernism (founders: Ludwig Wittgenstein, Jacque Derrida, Michel Foucault, Richard Rorty, et al.) into its understanding of Christianity. Accordingly, its mantra has become unity with diversity. All that truly matters is lifestyle: love, peace, harmony, non-judgmentalism, and the like.
In recent years, they have embraced homosexuality as a legitimate lifestyle choice. They are also typically pro-choice—that is, they affirm the practice of abortion for women and wish to keep it legal. It only stands to reason that they would now open their churches to Islam. Yet, many churches maintain that doctrine is important. It is neither negotiable nor inconvenient. It is that which defines the Christian faith. Historically, this has been the posture of the church since its inception. Jesus Christ declared: “I am theway, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (Jn 14:6). The Apostle Peter added: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
In the early church, Christians were thrown to the lions because they refused to let go of fundamental Christian dogma. Others were crucified. In medieval Europe, Christians were burned at the stake due to their refusal to recant. It is, as the writer to the Hebrews explained: “All these people were still living by faith when they died…they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them” (Heb 11:13, 16). Accordingly, for the church–rightly understood–the notion of Chrislam is a spiritual atrocity of the first order. Christians are called upon to love all people, including their enemies. But they are also called upon to love God. And loving God requires that He be worshipped aright. Opening up church facilities to Muslims so that they can worship Allah in a way that reflects Islamic teachings is to disgrace Jesus Christ. It must not be done.
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1 On the General Strategic Goal for the Group in North America, Government Exhibit 003-0085; 3:04-CR-240-G; United States of America v. Holy Land Foundation, et al., 2007.
Dr. Robert Greer has developed an annotated Qur’an for Christians looking to understand more about Islam and it’s holy text. Qur’an Revealed: A Christian Critique features an English Translation of the Qur’an in chronological order of when each Surah was written. Enhancing the text are many notes and essays from Dr. Greer’s extensive research. Pick up your copy today at the Advantage Book Store or Amazon.com.