Europe's only hope is Christian revival

By Jerry Newcombe

Europe is on the eve of changing forever. Hundreds of thousands of refugees have been leaving the tumult of the Middle East and Northern Africa to stream into Europe. One report estimates that three million more refugees are yet to come. This could mean the Islamization of Europe.

Many demographers have noted the increase in the Islamic population in a number of European nations, and mass-Muslim immigration comes with the importation of rigid Islamic customs and, often, Sharia law. Some are predicting that, if the present trends continue, Europe will be Islamic in about one or two generations. Now, it seems to be coming at an accelerating pace.

What the forces of Islam could not accomplish at Tours, France in 732 or Granada, Spain in 1492 or in Vienna in 1683, they may be able to accomplish without firing a shot.

Geert Wilders, a controversial statesman from Holland, once told me in 2009: "Libyan leader, Moammar Ghadafi, said...we have 50 million Muslims in Europe. We don't need one gun; we don't need one bullet; we will rule this continent in 10, 20, 30 years' time, by the Al-Hijra [Arabic for the notion of conquest via immigration]. Europe will be ours, in the near future."

Wilders has been sounding the alarm for years about the Islamization of Europe and the loss of freedom that will result. For his efforts, he has been charged with hate crimes.

Wilders is frustrated with many fellow European leaders: "We are, unfortunately, led by appeasers. We have no Churchills anymore in Europe, just a lot of Chamberlains, politicians who are looking in the other direction, singing Kumbaya, all year long."

Already some Germans are frustrated about the rapid changes they see happening. Breitbart.com (10/27/15) transcribed many German comments about the new immigrants: "None of us want this. We're all scared." "What is this? How will it be in 100 years?" "Look at the women. They're all veiled!" "This is our future."

But is Europe reaping what it has sown? Europe is post-Christian for the most part, and nature abhors a vacuum. For years now, it would seem that there have been more worshipers in the mosque on Friday than in the cathedral on Sunday.

My friend Bill Federer, a best-selling author and speaker, said that the Islamic takeover in Europe has been in the works for a while.

In a 2011 interview, Bill told our viewers, "Europe has gone from Judeo-Christian to the secular. The theme song for secular Europe is John Lennon's 'Imagine:' 'Imagine there's no heaven, it's easy if we try...nothing to kill and die for and no religion too.' So, once you get rid of religion, nobody's going to kill and die to defend Europe. I mean, who is going to die for diversity? 'Here's a gun, give your life for pluralism.'"

The result of this jettisoning of Judeo-Christian beliefs then "emasculates them," he says. Bill continues: "And so, into Europe comes Sharia Law Islam, and it's taking over entire cities and communities. And they're blocking the streets and the Europeans are thinking, 'How did we get here?' Easy, you go from drive into neutral before you go into reverse. You had to go from Judeo-Christian to secular before you became Islamic."

Is it possible that modern Europe has essentially rejected the love of Jesus and could suffer the sword of Mohammad as punishment?

This may seem far-fetched. But in Isaiah 10, the Hebrew prophet, writing more than 700 years before Christ, proclaimed that the Assyrians were the rod of God's anger because Israel would not repent. My wife pointed this out to her Bible group recently.

"It is possible," she adds, "that God is using the same basic people group to again punish His unrepentant people?"

But is there any hope? Yes, true Christian revival in Europe. Let's be frank. The Muslim asylum-seekers are not fleeing the glories of Christendom; they are fleeing the brutalities of Islam.

Bishop Michael Nazi-Ali in the Church of England says of the asylum-seeking crisis: "The first and immediate thing is to say is that we must not fail in compassion.... Having said that, we must also ask about the causes of the crisis and what can be done to address them."

Hope for Europe is the same as hope for the rest of the world. True repentance and turning to Jesus.

As one convert to Christianity from Islam, Faisal Malik, once put it: "The only answer to Islam and what's happening around the world is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There's no other solution, absolutely no other solution."

And he added, "The more Muslims come to Christ, there's less Muslims left for the terrorists to recruit in the midst of dissolution in our world to create more problems around the world."

© Jerry Newcombe