Muslim Refugees?

Q. I had a brief discussion with a Christian lady. She thinks we Christians have to help Muslims as they need our help. I told her about the European countries which received and helped them, and were repaid with violence and welfare abuse by the Muslims. They want to take over the countries which let them in, and do not assimilate. They want to convert people to Islam, change the place into an Islamic state, and impose Sharia law. They resort to violence, riots, and terrorism. They abuse the welfare system, and drain the countries’ resources. I quoted Deut 7:2-5 and Mt 10:16 to her. Why did God want all Canaanites killed? If I apply Deut 7:2-5, would God want us to embrace these Muslims to love them, because God is love? I feel if I apply Mt 10:16 to refugees, we are to have love but also wisdom.

A. First, I think we need to make a distinction between real refugees forced to leave their country to escape war, natural disaster or persecution, and those coming under a pretense to perpetrate terrorism, create havoc, and cause disruption to overthrow and destroy. I don’t have statistics to prove it, but I expect the former to be in the majority, and the latter to be in the minority. Unfortunately, it’s the minority extremists that cause most of the problems and give a bad name to the whole. You’ve probably met people who claim all Christians are bigots and cause all the problems in the world, such as the crusades, the Inquisition, inciting hatred against LGBTQ etc. That’s not true, but the label that Christians are self-righteous snobs sticks, and you wished people knew better.

Like you, I deplore the fake refugees’ abuses of the system which showed them kindness. But I would not apply Deut 7:2-5 to Muslim refugees, because that’s misapplying Scripture. First, let’s examine the text:

• Deut 7:1-5 “When the LORD your God brings you into the land where you are entering to possess it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and stronger than you,
• 2 and when the LORD your God delivers them before you and you defeat them, then you shall utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them and show no favor to them.
• 3 Furthermore, you shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters for your sons.
• 4 For they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods; then the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you and He will quickly destroy you.
• 5 But thus you shall do to them: you shall tear down their altars, and smash their sacred pillars, and hew down their Asherim, and burn their graven images with fire.

From what you wrote, you are equating:
• Present day Muslim refugees = the seven nations living in the Promised land in OT times, and
• Current “Christian” nations= the ancient Israelites who utterly destroyed the nations to take over the land.

While there are similarities e.g. they will turn your sons (i.e. radicalizing youths) away from following Me (Yahweh) to serve other gods (Allah), there are also differences e.g. they are migrants, NOT nations greater and stronger than you (i.e. the European countries to which they escaped). In fact, the radical refugees see the analogy as:
• Present day Muslim refugees = the ancient Israelites in the minority, and
• Current “Christian” nations = the nations whom they are to utterly destroy to take over the land.
They would be wrong of course, but you can see how by misapplying Scripture you can twist it to justify any wrong action.

What we need, as you rightly pointed out, is both love and wisdom:
• Mt 10:16 Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves. (NASB)
We need to be as wise as serpents, and as harmless as doves, with no self-serving agenda (AMP). Our love need to abound more and more in real knowledge and all discernment (Php 1:9). Only then can we discern who are the real refugees that need our help, and screen out the extremists that need to be blocked from harming our people.

Dealing with Idols

Q. Many years ago my uncle gave me an ivory-head statue. I was told it had been prayed over in a Buddhist ceremony (開光). It is more than 50 years old, about 1 ft. x 10 in. diameter. Since it is very difficult to destroy ivory, it has been kept in my closet. Is it proper for me to donate it to the museum, or should I just bury it in my back yard? I have other carvings too which I have taken as art pieces. This particular one gives me a creepy feeling. It is just a piece of very dead ivory. Am I being superstitious? Some have suggested that even colored candles, a sword with a dragon head, Chinese dragon statues are satanic doorways.

A. Your problem has bothered many people who came out of an idol-worship background. First, let me give you the biblical teaching on the subject:

• Acts 15:20 but that we write to them that they abstain from things contaminated by idols and from fornication and from what is strangled and from blood. (Also 15:29)
• Acts 21:25 But concerning the Gentiles who have believed, we wrote, having decided that they should abstain from meat sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from fornication.
• 1 Co 8:4, 7 Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that there is no such thing as an idol in the world, and that there is no God but one. … However not all men have this knowledge; but some, being accustomed to the idol until now, eat food as if it were sacrificed to an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled.
• 1 Co 10:19-20 What do I mean then? That a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God; and I do not want you to become sharers in demons.

At first it seemed Paul was contradicting himself in 1 Co 8 and 10, but he did not. There is only one God (1 Co 8:6; Eph 4:6; 1 Tim 2:5). All idols are only “so-called gods” (1 Co 8:5); they are not really lesser gods at all. However, not all people have this knowledge (1 Co 8:7), and demons take advantage of man’s ignorance and superstition by impersonating as gods behind the idols to deceive people. So what is sacrificed or dedicated to idols are in fact directed to demons (1 Co 10:20), not gods as the pagan worshippers thought.

That’s the knowledge part of the teaching. The other part has to do with love. Paul knew that idols are nothing. He knew that we are neither the worse if we do not eat [food sacrificed to idols], nor the better if we do eat. (1 Co 8:8) But he cautioned us to take care that this liberty does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. (1 Co 8:9) His bottom-line is “if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble.” (1 Co 8:13) His love for his weaker brother overrides his freedom to eat meat sacrificed to idols, though he has perfect right to do so. This is consistent with the teaching in Acts 15 and 21.

How does that apply to your case? As you yourself pointed out, the statue is just a piece of dead ivory. Monks have prayed over it and devoted it to Buddha, and demons may or may not have associated themselves to it. We just don’t know for sure. Since your conscience bothers you, for your conscience’s sake I urge you to get rid of the statue. Do not give it away to friends or relatives, even if they are unbelievers, as it would become a stumbling block to them. I don’t think donating it to a museum to be admired is a good idea either.

In the OT idols are uniformly cut down, smashed and broken e.g. Ezk 6:6; Micah 1:7. Since ivory is difficult to destroy, you can do what Dr. Sun Yat-Sen did when he was young – he broke off the arm of an idol to demonstrate that it can’t even protect itself. First pray for God’s protection from any harm to you or your family for doing the right thing. Then break any weak part of the statue as a symbol of God’s power over evil. Lastly bury the broken pieces on land or in a lake where others can’t use it again. If you don’t feel comfortable doing this, ask your pastor to help you. Most Chinese pastors have experience removing and destroying idols from home, though mostly porcelain and not ivory ones. Hope this helps.