Grace and peace.

I haven’t said anything about the purported beheading of Peter Kassig, a former Army Ranger and aid worker in Lebanon, by ISIS.  But when I learned he had converted to Islam, changing his hame to Abdul Rahman, I was somewhat saddened, because I know that, unless Kassig accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior, he died in his sins.  And that is a shame.  I was, therefore, moved to write this.

Kassig’s parents are comforted by the fact their son died caring for the Syrian people he had grown to know and love.  But I am not comforted at all knowing that he, in all likelihood, died a Muslim, not knowing the Lord Jesus and accepting the great sacrifice our Savior made for him on the Cross at Calvary.  Instead, he died at the hands of one of his fellow Muslims.  What a tragedy!

Islam is growing in leaps and bounds in the United States, for those of you who didn’t know.  Just this past March, as a matter of fact, while visiting my oldest child in North Saint Louis, I noticed that there was a large mosque on the corner of her street.  I should have taken a picture of it, but I had left my camera at home.

I just found out that, according to Wikipedia, St. Louis “has one of the largest numbers of Mosques in a city in the Americas.”

I never thought I would see a mosque in the neighborhood where my daughter lives.  It looked very strange, indeed.

Friends, Muslims are quick to say they worship the same God Christians worship, the only difference being that they call him Allah, while we call him God.  But this is not the truth.  The Christian God is named Jesus the Christ, and this same God has been demoted in the Islamic faith to the status of a mere human prophet.  Moreover, God the Father of the Christian faith sent His only begotten Son, Jesus, into the world to die and shed His blood for our sins.  Yet, the Allah of Islam is said by Muslims to have no son.

So, on the one hand, Muslims say (to Christians) they worship the same God we do, but on the other hand, they say that “Allah had no son.”  Therefore, the Muslim who says he worships the same God as Christians is either:

1. confused as to who our God really is

2. confused as to who his God really is

3: lying.  

Regardless of which scenario is the case, would you trust your eternal soul to the god of Islam, if its devotees fall into either of the above groups?  I hope your answer is no, because the god of Islam did not die for our sins.  He therefore, cannot offer you salvation from your sins.

If you have a friend or relative who is a Muslim, you should be concerned for their eternal soul, because, make no mistake about it: there will be no Muslims in Heaven, and we should all want our friends and relatives to go there.

Peter Kassig died doing what he believed in.  He no doubt knew and accepted the risks involved with his choice, and I respect that about the man.  But, if Kassig died a Muslim, then he is not resting in peace, even though he paid the uttermost farthing.  And that should trouble you as much as it troubles me.  

Be encouraged and look up, for your redemption draweth nigh.

The Still Man