Clash of Civilisations (7) - Real Struggle

In the main clash of civilisations, between religious civilisation and secular-humanist civilisation, the Islamic cultures are our allies. In this struggle, we actually share a common enemy. The secular materialist culture that is sweeping the world is as much a threat to Christianity as it is to Islam. At the moment, Islam seems to be more serious about this battle than we are, but they are using the wrong weapons. Christians have the best weapons for fighting this struggle, but we are not using them.

If we wake up and get serious about this struggle, we will not learn much from the Islamic nations, but we should at least avoid their mistakes. However, the most important thing is to wake up. The clash of civilisations is a clash between a world that acknowledges a God and one that does not. If we are to win this struggle, we must understand that the real enemy is currently within. Our real and toughest enemy is not Islam. The real enemy is the secular materialist civilisation that controls our culture and society and most of the world.

Clash of Civilisations (6) - Religious Clash

Many Christians see Islam as their greatest enemy. In one sense this is true, as both religions believe that they will expand throughout the entire world (actually Jesus believed this, but many of his followers just want to go to heaven).

To fulfil our commision, Christianity will have to win against Islam in the battlefield of ideas. If we cannot win that struggle we are pretty pathetic. We have a far better Saviour: Jesus is the Son of God. We have a far better gospel: our salvation includes healing of the sick. We have the Holy Sprit and millions of angels on our side. It should be a walk over.

We certainly do not need to use military power spread the Christian gospel. Attempts to do this in the past have done more harm than good.

The one area where Islam has an advantage is that it seen as a religion for the whole of life. A Moslem knows what is required of them in politics and business, and the rules are quite simple. In contrast, Christianity is seen as a private religion. Worse still it is usually seen as a private religion that supports and sustains a secular, humanist, materialist, militarist civilisation. This will have to change, if Christianity is to win the hearts and minds of the people of the world.

To be successful in the battlefield of ideas, Christianity will have to become a religion that shapes all aspects of life, with out falling back into using political power to coerce Christian faith. To cut the mustard, it will have to become a valid alternative to the secular, materialist civilisation.

Clash of Civilisations (5) - Religion and Politics

I do not like the current government in Iran. For a start, they have chosen the wrong religion and the wrong saviour. However, they have attempted to establish a system where religion has an influence on the whole of life, including law and politics. This attempt has failed, because they have fallen back on using force to establish the religious influence. The Iranians have not succeeded in their attempt to integrate religious ideals with their political life and culture, but at least they are having go. I have to respect the fact that they have not rolled over in front of the secular humanist steam roller, as we have in the west.

The most important issue faced by the modern world is the relationship between religion and politics, economics and culture. There is a lot of debate about this issue in the Islamic world but it is barely on the radar in the western world. Here the debate is about how Christians should participate in a secular materialist system. No one is thinking about what a more Christian system would look like.

Thirty years ago, I became a Christian while studing economic at university. I could not find any books on economics from a Christian perspective, but I did find several on Islamic economics. There are more books on Christian economics now, but they mostly expound secular humanist economics with a Christian veneer. This partly explains why we are losing the clash in the West.

Clash of Civilisations (4) - Shock Troops

Democratic governments are the shock troops of secular humanistic civilisation all over the world. Democracy is rule by the people. When the people rule, the tendency is always towards humanist secular government. Most Christians believe that democracy is a Christian institution, but this is not the case.

Democracy is the opposite of the Kingdom of God. In democracy, humans have all authority. In the Kingdom of God, his authority is honoured on earth as it is in heaven. Democracy works to advance human authority and undermines God authority. By exporting democracy, Christians are unwittingly destroying religious cultures and raising a barrier to Christian culture.

Clash of Civilisations (3) - Lost in the West

The great irony is that the clash between religious culture and secular materialist culture is almostly totally lost in the Western World. Christian civilisation no longer exists and Christian culture is dying in a ghetto.

Despite the strong influence of Christianity in the past, most western countries are now solidly secular. The United States has a very high percentage of Christians, but the culture it exports is anti-religions and strongly secular. George Bush is not attempting to establish a Christian culture in Iraq. He is attempting to establish a secular humanist culture.

Christianity now has very little influence on political issues in the west. It has been squeezed out of the public sphere into the private lives of its adherents. Most political leaders have not lost their grandparent’s faith and have placed their faith in human rights and secularism.

Clash of Civilisations (2) - Middle East

The stuggle between civilisations based on religious values and secular materialist culture is currently most intense in the Middle East.

• The 1978 revolution in Iran threw out a secular government and replaced it with a government that would be shaped by Islamic values. More recently the struggle with modernising forces has become more intense.
• A secular government in Egypt is facing intense pressure from the Muslim Brotherhood
• In Turkey, there is an ongoing struggle between secular political parties and Islamic parties.
• The struggle is suppressed in Saudi Arabia, because a largely secular monarchy holds everything religious under tight control.
• Despite what most Americans think, Osama bin Laden’s main enemy is the secular humanist regimes that control most of the Islamic world. He is angry with America for propping up these regimes.
• Sadaam Hussein was a Ba’athist. His was a secular, nationalist, socialist political movement. The war in Iraq has opened up the way for a much more religious government in Iraq.
• The Palestininian group Fatah is a secular, nationalist movement. It is in a conflict with Hamas that is driven by religious values.
• Ironically, the governments of Israel are on the secular, materialist, humanist side of this conflict.
• The secular forces in the Middle East are often backed by the military. This is the situation in Turkey, where the military have threatened a coup, if a religious party gains power.

Following the Second World War, secular nationalist politics began to dominate the Middle East. We are now seeing a strong shift towards a politics that is integrated with the religion of Islam. Secular civilisation is still being driven forward as modern technology and urban lifestyles destroy traditional culture. However, the battle is not over, because Islamic civilisation has re-emerged as a potent political force.

Clash of Civilisations (1)

Christians are getting stirred up about the clash of civilisations. They are becoming really concerned about a clash between Islamic civilisation and Christian civilisation, but unfortunately many are missing the point. The really important clash is between civilisations based on religious values and secular materialist culture.