Crosstalk: February 20, 2019

If you’ve ever wondered how to answer someone who claims that Christianity is no different than Islam when it comes to violence, this program has your answer.

Providing that answer was Usama Dakdok, the founder of the Straight Way of Grace Ministry. Usama travels and speaks in order to equip Christians to be effective witnesses of Jesus Christ to their Muslim neighbors as well as ministering to Muslims directly. He’s the speaker on the daily radio broadcast, ‘Revealing the Truth About Islam.’ He has conducted a word for word translation of the Qur’an from Arabic into English called, ‘The Generous Qur’an’ and has also authored the two-volume set, ‘Exposing the Truth about the Qur’an.’ He has just released a new book, ‘Exposing the Truth About Jihad’ and its first Volume, ‘Holy War in the Bible.’

Usama began by defining the term, ‘jihad’. Is the killing and death we see in the Bible the same as the killing (jihad) in the Qur’an? No. Killing in the Old Testament is a judgment for sin. Killing in Islam or the Qur’an is literally killing Christians for believing and trusting in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. That is savage, ungodly killing.

For Usama, this topic centers around sin. From the beginning God told Adam not to sin. If you sin, you must die. So when you move to Genesis 6:5-8 (the worldwide flood), you have what Usama refers to as the first recorded jihad by God in the Bible. This was jihad by water. People had no repentance and for 120 years they ignored Noah, so eventually God brought judgment to every individual except the family of Noah. Usama noted that this was justifiable that God would punish the sin of the world by death.

His book then talks about a jihad by fire. As men began to fill the earth after the flood and you move to the days of Abraham, we know of Abraham’s nephew Lot who lived in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Because their sin was so severe, there weren’t even 5 righteous people therefore God executed jihad by fire and only 3 people escaped with their lives.

As this program moved along, Usama answered the following:

–Does Genesis 14 teach that we should engage in war?

–Do the killings in the Bible always go back to sin?

–What does Joshua and the battle of Jericho show us?

–What place does the biblical sacrifices have in relation to this subject?

–How is the death, burial and resurrection of Christ linked to this issue?

–What about those who claim that Christianity was spread by the sword?

–Are Christians biblically allowed to engage in self-defense?