Closet Koran-Burners

September 16, AD 2010

Closet Koran-Burners
Frank Allnutt

Last Saturday, on the ninth anniversary of the Islamic terrorists’ attacks on September 11, 2001, Pastor Terry Jones and his church, the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, planned a public burning of many copies of the Koran, the chief holy book of Islam. Then they cancelled the event only when faced with mounting political pressure and public opposition.

At first glance it might appear that the pastor and his church had a change of heart and that the issue has been put to rest. However, they gave no indication that they had a change of heart in the Biblical sense. And I wonder: Did they continue to burn the Koran—in their hearts?

And what about others who openly condemned the planned Koran-burning but secretly burned the Koran in their hearts? Those closet Koran-burners face a decision: let it burn or put it out.

The Morning After

Sunday, September 12: I wondered how many pastors would mention the cancelled Koran-burning, and what they would say about it. Though the story still made headlines in the news media, did it rise to the level of pulpit-worthiness? I suspect that those pastors who mentioned the incidence did so from one or two, maybe even three perspectives: the political, the cultural, and the biblical.

Let’s briefly take a look at those three perspectives.

The Political Fallout

President Obama and a handful of other high-level governmental officials made it very clear to Jones and the world that burning the Koran would be a Politically Incorrect and un-American act of the highest magnitude.

The Koran-burning plan emerged during controversy over plans to develop an Islamic Mosque near Ground Zero, where Islamic terrorists destroyed the two World Trade Center buildings and killed almost 3000 innocent people in and near them. And so the Koran-burning and Mosque-development merged into one dialogue. And much of what I saw and heard was ironic (read “hypocritical”). President Obama and almost everyone else in America rightly acknowledged that Muslims were perfectly within their Constitutional right to freedom of religion to develop the Mosque; however, Obama et al, for the most part, did not tout Pastor Jones and Dove church’s Constitutional right to exercise freedom of speech by burning Korans.

Let me be clear here: While I recognize the Constitutional rights of the Koran-burners and Mosque-developers, they were wrong in the way they planned to exercise those rights.

The Cultural Fallout

Politicians, military leaders—people from all walks of life—warned that the planned Koran-burning would cause extremist Koran-obedient Muslims to hate Christians—indeed, “Christian America”—all the more. Consequently, the fears of many were confirmed by news media reports of stepped-up and wide-spread protests and threats of Islamic retaliation against America from around the world.

The American “melting pot” of many races, creeds, and colors has traditionally been perceived and touted by many as successful in the development and enrichment of our “exceptional American culture.” While it worked with some success for a while, there has always been those with incongruous regard for certain groups distinguished by race, creed, color, and so forth. And today the division is widening over issues that stand between Islamists and Christians.

Pastor Jones and his followers at Dove church and their planned Koran-burning serve as a case in point. The event appeared to be rooted more in militant dominionism—fleshly cultural protectionism—than in the Biblical imperative to share the truth of God’s Word with love.

The Biblical Response

It was my prayer that Americans in churches across this land last Sunday might be urged by their pastors to consider the latest flare-ups over Islam and Christianity from a Biblical perspective. That is why, days before, I posted the article, “The Koran-Burners and a Letter from Jesus,” on my web site on Friday, September 8.

In my article I examined a Scriptural reference to the burning of occultic scrolls by magicians converted to Christianity in the ancient city of Ephesus (Acts 19:19) and a later letter from Jesus to a much changed church in Ephesus in Revelation 2:1-7. In the Acts account, the Ephesian Christians’ hearts were right with God—were at first motivated out of their loving obedience to Christ Jesus to engage in evangelism and discipling. But, by the time of Christ’s letter to the Ephesians, their hearts were not right with God—they had left their “first love” (Revelation 2:4).

Some Bible teachers define “first love” as the love the Ephesians had for Jesus at the time the book of Acts was written. Others believe their “first love” was a love of evangelism. Both are probably in view here. But the very words of Jesus indicate there is more to the story. He said: “Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first...” (Revelation 2:5). It seems that certain deeds of the latter-day Ephesians were performed outside the parameters of the Greatest Commandments and the Great Commission:

The Greatest Commandments
“‘And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these” (Jesus, from Mark 12:30, 31).

The Great Commission
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I command you...” (Jesus, from Matthew 28:19, 20).

A Change of Heart

In the beginning, the Ephesians performed their “deeds” out of whole-hearted, loving obedience. Later, their love waned, resulting in fleshly divided hearts out of which they performed their “deeds” half-heartedly.

Jesus, in correcting the Ephesians, in effect called them to a change of heart—not a political change of heart, not a cultural change of heart, but a spiritual change of heart: to repent of their unloving behavior, re-unite their hearts in love, and whole-heartedly share the truth of God’s Word with others.

Burning Korans and opposing the building of a Mosque will neither eradicate Islam nor deliver anyone out of Islam and into God’s kingdom. We Christians have been sent by Jesus into the world not as arsonists, adversaries, or reconstructionists, but as loving rescuers equipped with the truth and power of God’s Word to lead captives to salvation in Christ Jesus