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My God and My Neighbor is a “Bible talk show” that looks at religious issues, Christian living and world events in light of the Word of God to give hope. This podcast is a ministry of Tennessee Bible College. TBC offers a bachelor's in Bible studies, a master of theology, and a doctorate of theology in apologetics and Christian evidences. TBC also provides Christian books, audio recordings on the Bible, and free Bible courses in English and Spanish. Tune in to My God and My Neighbor to experience the educational content that TBC has been delivering for nearly five decades!
Kerry Duke: Hi, I'm Kerry Duke, host of My God and My Neighbor podcast from Tennessee Bible College, where we see the Bible as not just another book, but the Book. Join us in a study of the inspired Word to strengthen your faith and to share what you've learned with others.
Communism, Islam, Babylon. What do these three things possibly have in common?
In the Old Testament book of Daniel, we find a link. In Daniel chapter five, there's a very interesting illustration, and it should serve as a remarkable and sobering warning for our time. You see, Daniel was there in Babylon. He witnessed firsthand the great wealth and the great power, the magnificence of all the buildings in the city of Babylon.
And what we find also in Daniel chapter 5 is that he lived to see the fall of Babylon. How could that happen? How did that take place? You see, the Babylonians had conquered other nations. They had a formidable army, and the great and famous walls of Babylon seemed to be impenetrable. So how did the enemy get inside? How did the enemy defeat the Babylonians?
In Daniel chapter 5, we begin to read about what happened that night when Babylon fell. Belshazzar was the king. Belshazzar wanted to throw a party. And when I say a party, I mean a drinking, carousing party. And as they were drinking wine, the Bible says that the king commanded that the vessels that were stolen from the temple of God in Jerusalem—the pots and the cups and the bowls that they'd taken from the temple of God in Jerusalem—be brought out.
So the servants went and got those vessels and the king and his lords began to drink wine out of those vessels that were taken from the house of God. And not only did they insult God in that way, but they blasphemed also because as they were drinking out of those vessels, they began to praise the Babylonian gods. They began to praise their deities.
And this is the great story where the king of Babylon literally shook because he looked over at a wall and he saw a hand and that hand began to write on the wall. And that king was terrified. So eventually Daniel was brought in and Daniel gave the bad news. Daniel said that the kingdom of Babylon was going to fall, that there was going to be doom for this great king, Belshazzar. The Bible tells us in Daniel chapter 5, verse 30, “In that night Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans was slain, and Darius the Median took the kingdom, being about 62 years old.”
Now, how did Darius do that? There are two ancient historians that tell us what happened that night. You see, the Euphrates River ran under the wall of the city of Babylon and through the city. And what this man did was to dam up that river upstream and channel that water into another direction. And so what happened? That river dried up, and then what he did was to command his soldiers to go underneath the wall because the waters had dried up, so they went in.
But not only that, these two ancient historians tell us that the gates of the city were left wide open. Why? Because, for the most part, everybody was drunk. They were so drunk and dulled in their senses that the enemy just marched right in and killed the king. Now there was some resistance, there was some fighting, but it was too little, and it was too late.
And what I want to do is to use this as an illustration of what is happening right now before our eyes in our country and what has been happening for many years in our land. Let's go back to the year 1958. In that year, an FBI agent by the name of Cleon Skousen wrote a book called The Naked Communist.
In that book, he exposed the Communist agenda and he summarized 45 specific goals of the Communist party. These were entered into the Congressional Record on January the 10th, 1963. And you can look that up on the internet and see all 45 of these goals. I'm going to read just a few. And as I read these, remember that these were as early as 1958.
And I want to ask you how successful these people have been in implementing these particular goals. I'm going to skip down to number 13: “Do away with all loyalty oaths.” This was an agenda of the Communist Party as early as 1958. Do away with any kind of oath of loyalty. Number 15: “Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.”
Again, how successful have they been? Number 16: “Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.” Number 17: “Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers associations. Put the party line in textbooks.”
“Gain control of all student newspapers.” Number 19: “Use student rights to foment public protest against programs or organizations which are under communist attack.” Number 20: “Infiltrate the press. Get control of book review assignments, editorial writing, policy making positions.”
“Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.” Now again, these are goals of the Communist Party as early as 1958. Number 22: “Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression.” Number 24: “Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them censorship and a violation of free speech and free press.”
Number 25—listen to this very carefully: “Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.” And of course the internet had not been invented then, but that would certainly be included today. Listen to number 26: “Present homosexuality, degeneracy, and promiscuity as normal, natural, and healthy.”
I ask you, have they been successful? Has their mission been accomplished? Listen to number 27: “Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with social religion.” That is exactly what has happened, friends. In a lot of churches, it's not about religion at all. It's not about the Bible at all. It's about entertainment. It's about fun. It's about a social program of some kind, but it has little to do with heaven or hell. It has little to do with God himself.
Number 27 goes on to say: “Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a religious crutch.” This is exactly what has taken place in so many seminaries and Bible colleges around the world and in our land.
Do you realize that there are many Bible colleges and seminaries today who discredit the Bible, who say that the Bible is not really the inspired word of God. Who say that Moses didn't really write the Pentateuch, that Isaiah didn't really write the book of Isaiah, that you really can't trust these old records because they've been copied and miscopied, translated and mistranslated?
And so who really knows who wrote these things and what they actually said in the beginning? Where did that come from? We're looking back in 1958 that this was the goal of the Communist Party at that time. But let's keep reading. Number 28 goal says: “Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of separation of church and state.”
And we would have to say that number 28 goal has been mission accomplished. Number 29: “Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.” Number 30: “Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the common man.” That was number 30.
Now let me skip down to number 40. Now again, these are goals of the Communist Party as early as 1958. Number 40: “Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.” Number 41: “Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks, and retarding of children to the suppressive influence of parents.” In other words, divide the children from the parents. Get the children to rebel against their parents. Take away the authority. And that's going to help you to take over the nation. In other words, these communists knew that if they were going to take this nation, they had to destroy the homes of the nation.
Families are the building blocks of any society. If a society, if a culture is going to be stable, then the homes have to be stable. There's an old saying that says, “As the home goes, so goes the nation.” And these communists were wickedly shrewd about that. They knew that if they were going to overtake this nation, the best way to do it is from the inside, to corrupt the nation from the inside instead of attacking militarily from the outside, which is what most people were looking for.
They began to focus on destroying this nation from within. And as Khrushchev once famously said, “We will take you without firing the first shot.” And a lot of people in America have been extremely naive about this. They've said, “Well, the communists didn't take us. We didn't have a nuclear war. The Cold War is over. Communism is dead.” It's not anything that's a real threat in the world today because they don't see armies marching against America, because they don't see atomic bombs going off, because they don't see the red flag in America being displayed in public. They think that the battle is over and they don't realize that the battle has already been won by these people inside our land because these objectives have long since been fulfilled.
Now, how could this take place in a land as educated, as wealthy, and powerful as the United States? This is where we learn a lesson from the ancient nation of Babylon. Remember what happened that night? They were drunk. They were too busy partying to pay attention. And that is exactly what is happening in our land.
People are partying, people are drunk, people are on drugs, literally on drugs, literally drunk, literally partying so much that they don't care what's going to happen to this nation, and they don't care about the future. But also, There are many people in this land that are not drunk with alcohol, but they're drunk in their mind as far as their thinking is concerned because they are not thinking clearly. They are not thinking soberly in a spiritual and moral sense. Their thoughts are not clear because they're concerned about getting all the money that they can, enjoying all the pleasures of this life that they can. And they're so wrapped up and going to a ballgame, watching a movie, shopping, eating out and enjoying all the pleasures that our society affords that they're not thinking about the dangers that are within our very walls.
And so what we find in the story of the fall of Babylon is taking place before our very eyes here in this country.
But now let's talk about another dangerous ideology, a stealth movement, a Trojan horse that is threatening this civilization.
I'm talking about the religion and the political movement known as Islam. Let me take you back to the year 2004. In the state of Maryland, a police officer was observing a suspicious vehicle. In that car, a woman who had on traditional Islamic head covering was videotaping the support structures of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.
So he stopped the vehicle. And he found out that the driver of the vehicle was wanted on an outstanding material witness warrant issued in Chicago, Illinois in connection with fundraising for the terrorist group known as Hamas. So the FBI got a search warrant and went to his place in Virginia. And they searched the main floor, they searched the basement, and then they found underneath the basement that there was a compartment that concealed several archives of the Muslim Brotherhood in North America.
They found 80 boxes of documents. And one of those documents is known as the “Explanatory Memorandum of the Muslim Brotherhood in America.” And I want to read to you a few sections of this. I want you to think about the similarities between what we saw in the Communist agenda in 1958 in Skousen's book with what you're going to hear and what you're going to consider now from this Muslim Brotherhood plan that was discovered back in 2004.
I'm reading directly now from this Muslim source. Number one: “The general strategic goal of the group in America”—now these are Muslims in America—“is the enablement of Islam in North America, meaning establishing an effective and stable Islamic movement led by the Muslim brotherhood, which adopts Muslim causes domestically and globally, and which works to expand the observant Muslim base aims at unifying and directing Muslim's efforts and presents Islam as a civilization alternative and supports the global Islamic state wherever it is.”
Then it goes on and talks about the settlement of Islam in this country. “That means that Islam and its movement become a part of the homeland it lives in. That Islam turns into firmly rooted organizations on whose basis civilization, structure, and testimony are built. That Islam is stable in the land on which its people move. That Islam is enabled within the souls, minds and lives of the people of the country in which it moves,. That Islam is resident and not a passing thing or rooted, entrenched in the soil of the spot where it moves and not a strange plant to it.”
In other words, they're here to stay. They're here to conquer. Remember that the word Islam means “submission,” and although that word is not used in this explanatory memorandum, the idea is on every page. Let me continue to read. “The movement must plan and struggle to obtain the keys and the tools of this process. In carrying out this grand mission as a civilization-jihadist responsibility, which lies on the shoulders of Muslims and on top of them, the Muslim Brotherhood in this country.”
This document goes on to say that “the process”—now listen very carefully, this is the goal. This is the plan of Islam; Remember what we read just a few minutes ago about the Communist agenda, the Communist plan for taking over this country from within, from the inside? Now listen very carefully to this Muslim Brotherhood document—it says “the process of settlement is a civilization-jihadist process with all the word means.”
And then it explains that Muslims “must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying western civilization from within and sabotaging its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all other religions.”
Now, let me repeat that. The goal, the grand plan is “to eliminate and destroy Western civilization from within.” Not from the outside, but from the inside. That's why a lot of people don't understand when they hear the word jihad, that that includes a lot of things that work from within.
It means immigration jihad. It means legal jihad. It means educational jihad. It means financial jihad. It means all kinds of movements and attempts to overthrow that civilization again by eliminating and destroying that civilization from the inside and sabotaging its miserable house. That's the way that they look at our civilization, our way of life, and especially our religion as Christians.
“By their hands.” In other words, using the laws and the customs and especially the freedom of this country against us and the hands of the believers, that is, Muslims, so that it is eliminated. That is, Western civilization is eliminated. That is the idea of Islam: to conquer, to eliminate the way of life of a given culture and so that God's religion, that is, the Islamic religion, is made victorious over all other religions.
Let me continue to read. “Without this level of understanding, we, that is Muslims, are not up to this challenge and have not prepared ourselves for jihad yet. It is a Muslim's destiny to perform jihad and work wherever he is and wherever he lands until the final hour comes. And there is no escape from that destiny, except for those who choose to slack.”
In other words, if you're going to be a faithful Muslim, then you're going to perform this kind of civilization jihad. And let me at this point interject some statements from authoritative Islamic sources so that no one can get the idea that what I'm reading from just represents some kind of radical wing of this movement, but that this is the very essence.
This is the heart and core of what this political ideology that oftentimes people think is just a religion is really all about. Let me go back, first of all, to the highest source of authority in Islam, which is the Quran. I'm reading from Surah 9, verse 29. Listen very carefully to what it says, because we've talked about how that Islam itself means submission.
We've been reading from this explanatory memorandum of the Muslim Brotherhood, which seeks to eliminate and destroy Western civilization. And so now listen to the Quran. Surah 9, verse 29 itself. It says, “Fight those who believe not in Allah.” Let me repeat that again. Fight those who believe not in Allah.
If you don't believe in Allah, then this religion declares war against you. “Fight those who believe not in Allah, nor the last day, nor hold that forbidden, which has been forbidden by Allah and His messenger,”—that is, Muhammad—“nor acknowledge the religion of truth from among the people of the Book, that is, Jews and Christians, until they pay the jizya, that is, a tax, with willing submission and feel themselves subdued.”
That is the goal of this movement. And then we find in one of the hadiths, which refers to the traditions about what Muhammad said and what he did. It says this, “Allah's messenger”—that is Muhammad—“said, I have been ordered to fight the people till they say, None has the right to be worshipped but Allah.”
John Quincy Adams said it this way. He said, “While the merciless and dissolute dogmas of the false prophet”—he’s talking about Muhammad”—“shall furnish motives to human action, there can never be peace on earth and goodwill towards men. The hand of Ishmael will be against every man and every man's hand against him. The precept of the Quran is perpetual war against all who deny that Muhammad is the prophet of God.” Again, that's John Quincy Adams.
Now let me continue reading from the Explanatory Memorandum. It says that Muslims must learn the art of dealing with others as people are different and people in many colors. We need to adopt the principle which says take from people the best they have, their best specializations, experiences, arts, energies, and abilities. By people here we mean those within or without the ranks of individuals and organizations. The policy of taking should be what achieves the strategic goal and the settlement process.”
It goes on to talk about the importance of a mosque. It says that the nature and the role of the work of the Islamic center”—now that's a mosque—“in every city, with what achieves the goal of the process of settlement is most important.” It says, “The center we seek is the one which constitutes the axis of our movement, the perimeter of the circle of our work, our balance center, the base for our rise, to educate us, prepare us, and supply our battalions, in addition to being the niche of our prayers.”
What is it? This is an order for the Islamic center to “turn in action, not in words, into a seed for a small Islamic society, which is a reflection and mirror to our central organizations. The center ought to turn into a beehive, which produces sweet honey. Thus, the Islamic center would turn into a place for study, family, and worship.”
“Battalion, course, seminar, visit, sport, school, social club, women’s gathering, kindergarten for male and female youngsters, the Office of Domestic Political Resolution, and the Center for Distributing our newspapers, magazines, books, and our audio and visual tapes. Meaning that the center's role should be the same as the mosque's role during the time of God's prophet. God's prayers and peace be upon him when he marched to settle the Dawah in its first generation in Medina.”
This Muslim Brotherhood Memorandum goes on to say, “In order for the process of settlement to be completed, we must plan and work from now to equip and prepare ourselves, our brothers, our apparatuses, our sections, and our committees, in order to turn into comprehensive organizations in a gradual and balanced way that is suitable with the need and the reality.”
In other words, they aim to conquer. They aim to take over. And so later in this explanatory memorandum, they give a step by step process of infiltrating every aspect of American culture. Number one: the educational aspect. This document says they want a television station, a special magazine, a radio station, a higher Islamic council for callers and educators, a higher council for mosques and Islamic centers.
And then, number two, aspect number two, they have a political aspect to their aims, and especially a political aspect. They look to establish a central political party, local political offices, political symbols, relationships and alliances, and the American Organization for Islamic Political Action.
Number three, their plan includes a media aspect to take over the culture. They aim to have a daily newspaper, weekly, monthly, and seasonal magazines, radio stations, television programs, audio and visual centers, a magazine for the Muslim child, a magazine for the Muslim woman, a production office, and so forth. Number four, they have an economical, that is a financial aspect to their plan, which includes the plan to have an Islamic central bank here in this country, Islamic endowments, investment projects, and an organization for interest free loans.
Number five, they have a scientific aspect to their plan—scientific research centers, technical organizations, an Islamic university, Islamic schools, centers to train teachers, scientific societies in schools, a body for authorship and Islamic curricula.
This is all in their plan, and what they didn't plan on was for this information to be found. They wanted it kept secret. They wanted this to remain hidden so that they could work out their subversive plan, so that they could slowly penetrate American culture and overcome and overtake this civilization. And thanks to this alert police officer, these documents were found out. Aspect number six that they plan on in this civilization jihad is cultural and and intellectual jihad—a center for studies and research, an organization for Islamic thought and culture, a publication, translation and distribution house for Islamic books and a special project to translate what they call the Noble Quran.
Aspect number seven is the social charitable organization, Social Clubs for the Youth, Local Societies for Social Welfare, the Islamic Organization to Combat the Social Ills of the United States Society, Islamic Housing Projects, Matrimony and Family Case Offices. Aspect number eight in this plan is youth.
Aspect number nine is women. Aspect number 10 is organizational and administrative and aspect number 11 is security. Yes. Clubs for training and learning self defense techniques and a center which is concerned with security issues. These are Muslims talking about this. These are Muslims saying this is what we want to establish for us. And according to our understanding and our values, this is what we want to establish in the United States of America in every community.
And number 12 [and this is most frightening], this is the legal aspect of this civilization overthrow plan. The legal aspect includes their goals to have a central jurisprudence council, a central Islamic court here in the United States, Muslim attorney societies, and the Islamic foundation for defense of Muslims rights.
You add all that up and they want a complete takeover of this society, which is known as sharia. Yep. Do you see the similarities between these two movements, between Communism and Islam? Both have a militaristic side. Both believe in creating conflict to promote their cause. Communists and Muslims alike have used force and violence in the past, and they do not hesitate to do so when it serves their purpose.
The spread of these ideologies leads to war, not peace. However, it is a mistake to assume that physical aggression is the only or even the primary tool of either one of these movements. As we have seen, Communism and Islam aim to conquer nations by getting inside and changing the way that the people think.
The real battle is a war of words, not weapons. A battle for the minds of the citizens first and for their land second. The Cold War may or may not be over, but the moral and spiritual battle has never ceased. Sadly, this is where we have lost ground, in spite of nuclear arms treaties. Mark it down. These two movements are dangerous.
Communism teaches that there is no God. Islam teaches the wrong God, the wrong scripture, and the wrong prophet. These groups are deceptive, shrewd, and subversive. They want to conquer, not coexist. They want to change everything, not blend in. They talk about tolerance and freedom, but their teaching and practice is extremely intolerant and oppressive.
These two movements are working to change the laws, the customs, the morals, and especially the religion in this country. Their unrelenting design is complete domination of how you talk, where you go, what you do, and how you worship. And to a frightening degree, they have been successful. But let me raise another question.
Are the people in our land today like the people of Babylon? I would have to say yes. They're too drunk to care. They're intoxicated with greed and pleasure. And they're too naive to notice and too lazy to learn. And like the Babylonians, they won't know what hit them until it's too late.
But I have another question. And that is, what can we do? First of all, pray for rulers. The Bible says in 1 Timothy chapter 2 verse 1, “I exhort therefore that first of all supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men; for kings, for those that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in godliness and honesty.”
Number two, trust in the hand of God. The Bible says, “The Most High rules in the kingdom of men and gives it to whomsoever He will” [Daniel 4, verse 17]. Third, be alert. The Bible says the devil is like a “roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.” so be sober and alert and be vigilant [First Peter chapter five verse eight.] Take time to look at what your children and your grandchildren are reading in their school textbooks.
Number four, remember that there is only one thing that truly matters in the end. And that is your soul [Matthew 10 verse 28]. And number five, acknowledge that there is only one way to be saved. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except through me” [John 14, verse 6]. And in John chapter 3, verse 5, Jesus said, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, He cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” Someday, the Bible says in First Timothy six, verse 15, that God will show “who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.”
Are you on his side?
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