“Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” Acts 2:40b (ESV)
The West, that is, Europe, Australia, Canada, and the United States (and allies) are indeed in a war against Islam. Not in a war against ISIS, ISIL, or Al-Qaeda, but the ideology of Islam.
This would be true if Islam were perfectly peaceful. This article is not about violence, terrorism, or the right military response.
This is a war of ideas, and the West is now governed by the notion that its own historically Christian foundations are of little importance, and may be traded away under the guise of multiculturalism. The West is rudderless in a stormy sea.
Philosophical multiculturalism is inherently a weak system, that cannot stand against any other ideology that privileges its own culture. Islam is one such culture. Islam is not founded upon a view of the validity of all cultures, but understands that all values must be based upon its teachings. Even a nominal Christendom was a good defence against Islam; with this removed, only a humanistic centre remains that does not have the moral fibre to defend itself ideologically, let alone militarily.
Islam would not need to be violent in order to win against the West. It only has to remain true to its own ideology, increase its population, and wait. As Mark Steyn pointed out, “The future belongs to those who show up.” The multicultural West has abandoned reproduction and family life in favour of personal happiness, wealth, and fulfilment.
The West has also replaced a cherished multiculturalism for a philosophical multiculturalism. In the former, many aspects of a different culture are appreciated and even adopted, but are not seen as competing as an ultimate value. Philosophical multiculturalism denies that ultimate values exist.
The culture that possesses the idea of an ultimate, immovable value system will always defeat the one that believes that no such ultimate system exists.
Christians, if they be Christian at all (and many do not think consistently as Christians), must reject multiculturalism, as it is a denial of the final truth as revealed in Scripture.
But many Christians live in a society that is philosophically multicultural. Thus, the short Bible verse at the beginning of the post. The only Christian option right now is to trust wholly in the God who does not change, the God who has revealed Himself in His Son, Jesus Christ. Unless the hearts and minds of the people of the West, and therefore their leaders, are captured by the Gospel, Western Christians will live under the dominion of Islam.
The West has projected its multicultural wishes upon an ideology (Islam) that violently rejects it. By definition, philosophical multiculturalism cannot judge other cultures as false, and are left ideologically defenceless against Islam; and when a nation, or group of nations is ideologically bankrupt, the will to fight militarily is diminished below a winnable strength.
God is greater than Islam, and will always save His people, even if through fire and sword. Islam, if it is to be defeated at all, must be defeated by the Gospel.