The Christ in Prophecy Journal

Chrislam Dialogue

Barger on Chrislam


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What does the Yale Divinity School dialogue have to do with Chrislam?

Dr. Reagan and I on our ministry’s television show Christ in Prophecy had the pleasure of asking this question of Eric Barger of Take a Stand! Ministries. Eric is an authority on the cults, the New Age, and rock music today. From his past as a former drug addict and rock n’ roll musician who was deeply involved in the New Age movement, Eric has emerged since he gave his life to Jesus Christ to become a great defender of Christianity in America. He joined us to talk about the Church’s newest apostasy of adopting Chrislam.

Dr. Reagan: In my research on Chrislam I discovered that there was a major Muslim-Christian dialogue that was held in 2008 and sponsored by the Yale Divinity School. It produced a document that many major Christian leaders have signed, including evangelical leaders. It basically talks about the fact that there are many points that are common between Islam and Christianity and that we ought to focus on those and not on the differences. The two main points they single out and really focused on are the love of God and the love of neighbor. The dialogue said these two are characteristic of both Christianity and Islam.

Eric Barger: First of all, we need to keep going back to the point that each religion has a different God. I know it sounds like we’re being sticks in the mud and isolationists and so on, but I don’t see any reason why I should give any credence towards or try to be friendly to a religion which has done this one thing to every person who has ever followed it, and that is people lose their soul by following Islam. Why should I be kind to it? And yet, the Yale Divinity School and some of the usual suspects that we see from the “squishy evangelicals” and also those in liberal circles gloss right over this important fact.

Dr. Reagan: I like the term “squishy evangelicals.”

Eric Barger: That’s really what they are. They are people who really just kind of go along and don’t know what they believe. They just want everybody to like them. They want everyone to be one big happy family and all be friends. They talk about the love of God and the love of neighbor, but forget that in Islam they tell you that unless you convert to Islam you’re still a member of the house of war. You’re either a member of the house of peace in that you’ve become a Muslim, or you’re a member of the house of war which is the infidels. That’s everyone non-Muslim. There is no “live and let live” in Islam. And this is a Christian’s idea that we can somehow join hands with Muslims? They do so based on the idea that they worship the same God that we do, and that’s just simply not the case.

Dr. Reagan: When I see these Christian-Islam dialogues going on, knowing what I know about Islam, I’ve got to believe that the Muslim leaders must laugh all the way home after it’s over with.

Eric Barger: I’ve said exactly the same thing.

Can I tell you the other dirty little secret? The people who are signing documents like the Yale Divinity School document, the dirty little secret is that these folks are pushing for a Palestinian State and they are anti-Israel. That is the thing. It’s Replacement Theology. It’s Dominionism. When you begin to trace down the roots, it comes back to what they believe about eschatology and Israel as a state.

Dr. Reagan: What gets me is how people talk about Islam as a religion of peace and tolerance and yet there is not a mosque that’s going to allow a Christian to speak in their mosque. There’s not a mosque that is going to have one of these dialogues held at a mosque. There is not an Islamic country in the world where there is any freedom of religion. You’re either a Muslim or you’re going to be dead, only one of the two. And yet, they talk about Islam as a religion of peace.

Eric Barger: Yes, the Saudi Arabian government put out a book that was for high school and junior high school students aimed at United States students. That book said that all across the Muslim world that other houses of worship have flourished and they welcomed them, but that’s simply not true. Our soldiers can’t even bring a New Testament with them when they go over to try to help one of those countries to overthrow a dictator.

Islam’s Historical Treatment of Christianity

Nathan Jones: If Islam started around 600 AD, and so it’s been around some 1400 years, does history show that Islam flourishes with Christianity? How did it treat Christianity throughout the centuries?

Eric Barger: Certainly all the saints who have been martyred along the way because they rejected Islam can testify. Mohammed when he went to Medina forced the Jews and Christians to either accept Islam or die. And, they died. They were martyred.

Dr. Reagan: Along that line several years ago, we held an interview with Mark Gabriel and produced an album called The Mark Gabriel Story. Mark Gabriel is a remarkable man. He grew up in Cairo and he had the whole Qu’ran memorized by the age of 12. That’s remarkable because when it comes to the Qu’ran the imams won’t allow it to be translated into modern Arabic. Mark didn’t even know what he was saying. He just had the sounds. Then he became the number two in his class of almost 3,000 at the Al-Azhar University there in Cairo. He then became the Professor of Islamic History at the university there, as well as an imam in Gaza.

Mark said that looking back on Islamic history, he could sum it up in one sentence: “The history of Islam is a river of blood.” Every place it has advanced it has advanced with the sword, not through conversions, but through the sword. It keeps people under control with the sword.

Eric Barger: I think the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in what is called the Arab Spring. The Arab Spring is really bad news for those Muslims who are trying to hide how Islam advances.

Heart’s Desire

Christians must remember that this is not a hate campaign about Muslims. This is about trying to teach them about who the real God is and about who the real Jesus is. If that’s what the Yale Divinity School was doing, and all of these as I call them squishy evangelicals who were signing these documents, I would be all for them. But, this is not where they’re going with this though. This is not the goal of Chrislam. My goal here is to define the stark differences between Islam and Christianity and show how they can’t be brought together. But, my heart’s desire is to see Muslims get saved.

Dr. Reagan: Incidentally, this sort of blending of religions is going on in other areas. We recently had a Christian-Mormon dialogue in Salt Lake City where some major evangelicals went out there and they hugged on each other and even got up and apologized for the past persecution of Mormonism. They never point out any doctrinal differences. They never point out that they’re going to Hell without Jesus being the one and only Savior.

Eric Barger: Yes, the Christian-Mormon dialogue happened in 2004, and may I say the guy who organized that at the Salt Lake City Temple also signed the Yale Divinity School document saying the Muslims and Christians are on the same path with the same God.

In the fifth and final segment of this series with Eric Barger on Chrislam, we will briefly look into the puzzle of why Europe is abandoning their historical Christianity and adopting Islam.

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Dr. Nathan E. Jones

As the Internet Evangelist at Lamb & Lion Ministries, Nathan reaches out to the over 4.5 billion people accessible over the Internet with the Good News of Jesus Christ. He also co-hosts the ministry's television program Christ in Prophecy and podcast The Truth Will Set You Free.

2 CommentsLeave a Comment

  • I love the movie Ben-Hur. But it has one of the wise men say to Ben-Hur "there are many paths to God" or "ways to God", can't remember exactly.

    But as much as I love the movie, that line irked me soooooo much that I got rid of the DVD copy I had and haven't seen it since. It made me wonder what other nonsense is in the movie I may have missed.

    My point is this is another example of "squishy evangelism" that you often find in so-called Christian churches, books and movies so you have to really be on guard against it.

  • Thank you for sharing this; I wonder if any who signed this document changed their minds on this, interesting indeed. Any listing of who signed.

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