Bryan Fischer
The more you believe in the power of prayer, the worse Duke's decision looks
By Bryan Fischer
Follow me on Twitter: @BryanJFischer, on Facebook at "Focal Point"
If you believe in the power of prayer, Duke University is about to make a tragic mistake.
Beginning tomorrow, the bell tower on Duke's campus will be ceded each Friday to an arm of the Muslim Brotherhood to chant a campus-wide and very public Muslim call to prayer. The three-minute chant will even be amplified so that no student can miss it.
The organization that will be issuing the call to prayer is the Muslim Students Association. MSAs are found on hundreds of campuses in North America, and they are not benign.
MSAs are little more than potential recruiting and indoctrination cells for jihad. MSAs are the creation of the Muslim Brotherhood, whose stated goal is "eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and 'sabotaging' its miserable house by their hands ... so that ... God's religion [Islam] is made victorious over all other religions."
The Muslim Brotherhood is so toxic that even the Muslim nation of Egypt has banned it. As much as the left would like to take a "nothing to see here, move along" attitude, Americans ought to be deeply concerned.
These MSAs are like little Petri dishes containing the Ebola virus. The virus is being released onto one college campus after another, where in time it hopes to bleed out its host. And their Friday prayers will be prayers inviting Allah to come to Duke and help Muslims destroy Western civilization.
This capitulation on the part of Duke to potentially lethal political correctness shows how far this esteemed university has strayed from its moorings. It was founded by Methodists and Quakers in 1883, with nary a thought in their heads that one day it would be used to summon its students to worship what the New Testament would call a demon god.
The motto of Duke in Latin is "Eruditio et Religio," which being translated means exactly what it sounds like: "Erudition and Religion." Trust me when I tell you the religion the founders of Duke had in mind is not the religion whose god teaches its followers to "slay the idolaters wherever you find them."
Franklin Graham has already gone public with his opposition to this suicidal concession to political correctness. On his Facebook page he wrote these words:
"As Christianity is being excluded from the public square and followers of Islam are raping, butchering, and beheading Christians, Jews, and anyone who doesn't submit to their Sharia Islamic law, Duke is promoting this in the name of religious pluralism. I call on the donors and alumni to withhold their support from Duke until this policy is reversed."
If we believe in the power of prayer, what Duke has done is even more dangerous than it first appears. The Apostle Paul makes it clear in 1 Corinthians 10 that idolatry – the worship of any god other than the one revealed in Scripture – is to dabble in the worship of demons.
The spiritual forces behind Islam, as everyone in Paris and the world knows full well by now, are not benign. From a biblical standpoint, prayers offered to Allah are prayers which quite literally summon demons from the abyss. Prayers offered in the name of Jesus invite the presence of God himself onto a college campus. Prayers offered in the name of a counterfeit god will summon something else.
The Scriptures are clear, in places like Ephesians 6, that not every spirit that inhabits the unseen world is friendly. Our battle, as Paul says, is against "the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places."
Here's hoping – and praying – that wiser heads at Duke will take Rev. Graham's advice. Duke should heed the time-honored maxim about being careful about what you ask for. And from whom.
Bottom line: the more we believe in the power of prayer, the worse Duke's decision to allow the Muslim call to prayer looks.
(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)
© Bryan Fischer
January 16, 2015
Follow me on Twitter: @BryanJFischer, on Facebook at "Focal Point"
If you believe in the power of prayer, Duke University is about to make a tragic mistake.
Beginning tomorrow, the bell tower on Duke's campus will be ceded each Friday to an arm of the Muslim Brotherhood to chant a campus-wide and very public Muslim call to prayer. The three-minute chant will even be amplified so that no student can miss it.
The organization that will be issuing the call to prayer is the Muslim Students Association. MSAs are found on hundreds of campuses in North America, and they are not benign.
MSAs are little more than potential recruiting and indoctrination cells for jihad. MSAs are the creation of the Muslim Brotherhood, whose stated goal is "eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and 'sabotaging' its miserable house by their hands ... so that ... God's religion [Islam] is made victorious over all other religions."
The Muslim Brotherhood is so toxic that even the Muslim nation of Egypt has banned it. As much as the left would like to take a "nothing to see here, move along" attitude, Americans ought to be deeply concerned.
These MSAs are like little Petri dishes containing the Ebola virus. The virus is being released onto one college campus after another, where in time it hopes to bleed out its host. And their Friday prayers will be prayers inviting Allah to come to Duke and help Muslims destroy Western civilization.
This capitulation on the part of Duke to potentially lethal political correctness shows how far this esteemed university has strayed from its moorings. It was founded by Methodists and Quakers in 1883, with nary a thought in their heads that one day it would be used to summon its students to worship what the New Testament would call a demon god.
The motto of Duke in Latin is "Eruditio et Religio," which being translated means exactly what it sounds like: "Erudition and Religion." Trust me when I tell you the religion the founders of Duke had in mind is not the religion whose god teaches its followers to "slay the idolaters wherever you find them."
Franklin Graham has already gone public with his opposition to this suicidal concession to political correctness. On his Facebook page he wrote these words:
"As Christianity is being excluded from the public square and followers of Islam are raping, butchering, and beheading Christians, Jews, and anyone who doesn't submit to their Sharia Islamic law, Duke is promoting this in the name of religious pluralism. I call on the donors and alumni to withhold their support from Duke until this policy is reversed."
If we believe in the power of prayer, what Duke has done is even more dangerous than it first appears. The Apostle Paul makes it clear in 1 Corinthians 10 that idolatry – the worship of any god other than the one revealed in Scripture – is to dabble in the worship of demons.
The spiritual forces behind Islam, as everyone in Paris and the world knows full well by now, are not benign. From a biblical standpoint, prayers offered to Allah are prayers which quite literally summon demons from the abyss. Prayers offered in the name of Jesus invite the presence of God himself onto a college campus. Prayers offered in the name of a counterfeit god will summon something else.
The Scriptures are clear, in places like Ephesians 6, that not every spirit that inhabits the unseen world is friendly. Our battle, as Paul says, is against "the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places."
Here's hoping – and praying – that wiser heads at Duke will take Rev. Graham's advice. Duke should heed the time-honored maxim about being careful about what you ask for. And from whom.
Bottom line: the more we believe in the power of prayer, the worse Duke's decision to allow the Muslim call to prayer looks.
(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)
© Bryan Fischer
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
