Great Britain, Swept & Garnished for Islam
6 Apr 2007
In Luke 11:24-26, Jesus said: “When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out. And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first.” The only safe way to expel unclean spirits is with the filling of the Holy Spirit; otherwise, an unclean spirit will soon return, finding not only adequate accommodations for himself, but for seven other spirits more wicked than he is. In the end, a delivered unbeliever who refuses to be indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God will windup more demonized than ever before.
Our world erroneously believes that the solution to evil is its simple expulsion. However, Jesus taught that once evil is expelled from us, we must thereafter be reserved for and indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Only when we are filled by the Holy Spirit will unclean spirits no longer find vacancies and accommodations in our lives.
Evil always returns. It is, in this sin-cursed, Satan-controlled world, relentless and resolute. Following Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness, the Scripture says that “the devil…departed from him for a season” (Luke 4:11). Notice, it was only “for a season.” Like Arnold Schwarzenegger, the devil always pledges, “I’ll be back.” It is therefore imperative that we not only drive the enemy from our land (lives), but that we also guard the fords of the river and refuse him reentrance (Judges 3:27-30). As the Apostle Paul put it, “Neither give place to the devil” (Ephesians 4:27).
Although evil was once expelled from Great Britain by that which the Bible calls pure religion (James 1:27), the British have long since “swept and garnished” the United Kingdom of the Christian faith. No longer serving the world as a spiritual beacon, today’s England more closely resembles a secularist utopia, where only a minuscule amount of the nation’s nominal Christian population still attends church. Consequently, the country is awash with all manner of immorality; everything from skyrocketing out-of-wedlock births to an extremely high rate of alcohol consumption. While Brits may be glad to have ridden themselves of moral restraints by sweeping away their Christian heritage, they have failed to realize that by sweeping away the Christian faith they have created within their nation a vacancy for unspeakable evil.
Quickly filling that vacancy is Islam, a militant religion that believes the whole world must be forced to its knees before the Muslim god. In Luke 9:51-56, Jesus rebukes James and John for wanting to destroy a village of Samaritans for rejecting Him. According to Jesus, these two sons of Zebedee had no idea of the spirit that had seized them. In light of the fact that Christ did not come “to destroy men’s lives, but to save them,” the spirit that inspired James and John to kill Samaritans for rejecting the Savior was obviously not of God. Instead, it must have been from Satan, who as “a murderer from the beginning” always comes “to kill and destroy” (John 8:44; 10:10). Likewise, the spirit that inspires today’s Muslims to subjugate or kill all who refuse to bow to their god is not the Holy Spirit, but the most unholy of spirits.
Forty years ago, the stone Methodist church of Clitheroe, England was turned into a scarf factory. The fact that the old church’s congregation had dwindled away to nothing was of little concern to the residents of this pristine town in northern Lancashire County. Today, however, the good folks of Clitheroe are up in arms over the recent vote of municipal authorities to turn this former Christian church and scarf factory into a Muslim mosque.
Today, many Brits are becoming increasingly wary of their country’s ever-growing Muslim population, especially in the wake of last year’s suicide bombings in London. When one adds to last year’s bombings the alarming number of terrorist cells being discovered and the increasing influence of radical Wahhabism over England’s Muslim population, it’s easily to see why so many Brits are biting their nails. Still, the nail biting should have begun a long time ago; way back when Britain created vacant churches for Islam to fill.
Wherever Christianity is not found—having either been turned from or never turned to—evil will find a “swept and garnished” house to occupy. When churches are vacated, something far more sinister than a scarf factory will ultimately fill them. According to Christian Research, a group that documents the status of Christianity in Britain, Britain’s mosques are far better attended than its churches and Britain’s practicing Muslims now outnumber its church-attending Christians. Still, the British have no one to blame but themselves; having vacated their churches they’ve made it possible for the British countryside to be dotted with Muslim mosques.
According to Sheraz Arshad, a Pakistani descendant serving as the leader of Clitheroe’s Muslim community, Clitheroe’s new mosque will make only one change to the exterior of the old stone church. What is it? The cross on the top will have to come down. Unbeknownst to Mr. Arshad, that’s a decision the British made a long time ago. If they hadn’t, there would be no place for a mosque in Clitheroe today.
Don Walton
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