Tropical Storm Henri made landfall Sunday afternoon in Rhode Island. More than 135,000 customers from Maine to New Jersey are without power this morning; storm surges threaten eastern Long Island and southern New England. A state of emergency was declared in New York and Connecticut due to the storm, with five hundred National Guard troops activated for deployment to Long Island and the Hudson Valley.

In other weather news, severe flooding in Middle Tennessee has left at least twenty-two people dead as of this morning and dozens of people missing. The dead reportedly include twin toddlers who were swept from their father’s arms.

President Biden spoke yesterday afternoon on the tropical storm and the ongoing crisis in Afghanistan. He announced that his administration had activated the Civil Reserve Air Fleet, ordering US commercial airlines to provide flights for the Afghanistan evacuation efforts. The flights would not go to Afghanistan but would be used to transport those already flown out of the country.

The conflict in Afghanistan continues to dominate headlines and hearts today. Germany’s armed forces reported a firefight at Kabul airport this morning between unidentified gunmen, Western security forces, and Afghan guards. One Afghan guard was killed and three were wounded at the airport’s north gate. All gates were closed in response.

An American mom trapped in the Taliban-controlled country pleaded for help in evacuating. Reports indicate that the Taliban set a woman on fire for “bad cooking” as other women are reportedly being forced into sex slavery. Many are concerned that the Taliban now possess tens of billions of dollars of military equipment and supplies formerly under control of the Afghan security forces, some of which they could transfer or sell to transnational terror groups such as al-Qaeda or ISIS.

And we continue to hear reports of the Taliban searching for Christians. The leader of an underground church in Afghanistan said, “The Taliban has a hit list of known Christians they are targeting to pursue and kill. The US Embassy is defunct and there is no longer a safe place for believers to take refuge.” An Afghan church leader said the Taliban will “eliminate the Christian population” in the country.

In a world racked with natural and man-made disasters, what is the way forward for the gospel?

“The Unconquerable Islamic World”

Robert Nicholson’s article in the Wall Street Journal caught my eye. Titled “The Unconquerable Islamic World,” it declares that “Afghanistan shows the folly of mistaking Christian ideals for ‘universal’ ones.”

Discussing the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban, he writes: “We Westerners failed not for lack of effort, but because military and economic power alone cannot change the Islamic world in a lasting way.” He claims, “It never occurred to us that America was what it was because of Christianity, and Afghanistan was what it was because of Islam.”

He identifies the “pillars” on which Islam stands: “The Qur’an is Allah’s final revelation, binding on all humanity; faith is a matter of private devotion as well as public law, best lived out in a state that blends religion and politics; and Muslims should, where possible, hold power over non-Muslims to ensure that Allah’s law is rightly enforced.”

Nicholson claims, “It is doctrines like these that cause the Taliban, al-Qaeda, and Hamas to fight the ‘Jews and Crusaders’ who tread on land that historically belonged to Islam. But their commitments are far from radical; most Muslims see them as normative even if they fail to act on them.”

As a result, he declares, “The West cannot change the Islamic world.” He believes that “the best strategy will move from rollback to containment and prioritize the defense of American interests and allies over the promotion of values and institutions.” He adds, “This does not mean we will stand by when their choices cross American red lines, but the US must affirm their right to make them.”

I am seeing similar arguments across the political spectrum as analysts begin dissecting what went wrong in Afghanistan and suggesting better paths forward. The consensus is that the West cannot change Islam. Unless we are forced to defend ourselves from Islamic extremists, we should learn to live and let live.

“The man in a white robe”

This argument is attractive and compelling for Americans, not just for our engagement with Muslims but for Christians’ engagement with the secular culture in which we live. As more and more Americans reject organized religion and embrace unbiblical morality, evangelicals are told that tolerance is our society’s highest value and that we should live and let live.

Secularists ask us: What business is it of ours if others choose abortion or euthanasia? What right do we have to tell people what gender they can love and marry? Isn’t everyone’s sexual orientation and gender identity their business? The “culture wars,” by which evangelicals have sought to declare and defend biblical truth and morality, are being lost—or so we’re told.

As with Muslims in Afghanistan, our critics claim that it would be best for us to recognize that we cannot change others and stop promoting “values and institutions” that are countercultural.

But Nicholson overlooks a crucial factor: the spiritual awakening now occurring in the Muslim world. As missionary Tom Doyle and many others have documented, Muslims in recent years have been coming to Christ in unprecedented numbers. Some are hearing the gospel through media ministries, while many are seeing visions and dreams of Jesus.

Tom Doyle told author Lee Strobel of ministries placing ads in Egyptian newspapers that say, “Have you seen the man in a white robe in your dreams? He has a message for you. Call this number.” Doyle added, “So many Muslims were having these dreams that Christian ministries started placing ads to reach them.”

What the Holy Spirit is doing in the Muslim world is the key to the transformation we need in our culture as well.

“Religion has become more important than God”

Why are we not seeing such a spiritual awakening in the West? The fault is not with God. He never changes (Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8). Anything the Spirit has ever done he can still do.

The fault is with us.

In his most recent newsletter, former Christianity Today editor-in-chief Mark Galli highlighted a sermon by German pastor Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt (1842–1919). At one point, Blumhardt observed: “Our civilization simply doesn’t need God anymore. What good is God when you are on the train? The man at the controls, it is his job to get me to Stuttgart. The conductor can groan, the fireman can break his back, the engineer can worry, but isn’t it all the same to me? I just sit there on the train.

“That is why we can be so crude and ruthless about enjoying everything these modern times offer us; we do not need God. Science and technology do not need God. They are succeeding quite well without him!”

He added: “God is of no real importance, even for people with religion, because religion has become more important than God. Though people get into tremendous arguments about religious questions, all the time God is dead. And it is perfectly all right with them if he is dead, because they can do what they like. That is another trait of our times, people want to be able to do whatever pops into their heads or feels good at the moment.”

Blumhardt responds: “God in Christ is not dead; he still is the Alpha and the Omega. And everything in between is chaos, not just a spiritual alienation in which people don’t know where life is going, but real chaos. Men and women are meant to share in the work for the end, for God’s kingdom on earth, but they won’t share. And so the madness goes on.”

For his part, Blumhardt testifies: “I don’t want a minute of easy happiness until this earth knows that God is alive! We must bow down under the living God and weep aloud for having killed him up to now. We are born for trouble, born for battle. Shame on us Christians who are always wanting to have it nice and soft, with a bit of God in our lives! We’ve got to fight until we’re dead, or we aren’t worth Christ’s name. God calls out to us, ‘Share in my business!’ and we are fooling ourselves until we do this.”

He concludes: “Let each one of us be earnest with himself and get off his soft bed. Even if it costs you your life, go right in, into the thick of the fight! Jesus is alive, and Jesus is victor, and he has given us our part to carry out.”

“We must obey God rather than men”

Before Pentecost, when Peter was asked whether he was a follower of Jesus, “he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, ‘I do not know this man of whom you speak’” (Mark 15:71). After Pentecost, when the same Sanhedrin that arranged Jesus’ execution demanded that he cease preaching the gospel, Peter replied, “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29) and proceeded to declare God’s word to them (vv. 30–32).

Before Pentecost, when John and his brother James encountered Samaritans who “did not receive” Jesus, they said, “Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” (Luke 9:53–54). After Pentecost, when John and Peter encountered a crippled man beside the temple gate, they stopped for him, shared Christ with him, and helped him experience Jesus’ healing transformation (Acts 3:1–10).

Before Pentecost, the disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane “left Jesus and fled” (Matthew 26:56) and met together behind locked doors “for fear of the Jews” (John 20:19). After Pentecost, they were so bold in their faith that the religious authorities were “astonished” (Acts 4:13).

The difference was simple: at Pentecost, “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:4).

“The greatest imperative in the Christian life”

To be “filled” with the Spirit is to be controlled and empowered by him. God commands every Christian every day to “be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18). To experience this “filling,” we must take these steps:

1. Get alone with the Lord.
2. Ask the Spirit to bring to mind anything in our lives that displeases God and is blocking the Spirit’s power in our lives (we will say more of this later in the week).
3. Confess all that comes to our thoughts, claiming God’s forgiving grace (1 John 1:9).
4. Ask the Spirit to take control of our feelings, attitudes, thoughts, words, and actions. Submit our plans for the day specifically to him.
5. Believe that he has answered our prayer.
6. Stay in surrendered communion with the Spirit throughout the day. When we face challenges and temptations, pray for his help. If we fall to temptation, pray for him to forgive us, cleanse us, and restore us. When we face opportunities and decisions, pray for him to lead us. Stay “connected” with him all day long.

When I lead study tours to Israel, we always go to the “Upper Room,” a Crusader-era structure located near the place where Pentecost occurred. I always teach the Acts 2 Pentecost miracle to the group and the steps I just outlined.

Then I say to them what I say to you today: “The greatest imperative in the Christian life is to be filled with the Spirit. The greatest enemy of the Christian life is self-sufficiency that resists such empowerment. Self-reliance is spiritual suicide. Spirit dependence is spiritual victory.”

Whether we are facing natural disasters, man-made crises, or the daily challenges of living in a fallen world, you and I were designed by God to depend daily on the power of his Spirit.

“In Afghanistan, the real church is going on”

An Afghan pastor and evangelist named David Paiman was recently interviewed by Christianity Today. His father was a Muslim imam; Paiman went to Mecca six times before coming to faith in Jesus. He first heard the gospel from a former Muslim who had a vision of Christ during a pilgrimage to Mecca. Paiman came to Christ after Christians prayed for a friend with epilepsy who was healed.

His explanation of the crisis in Afghanistan is different from what we are seeing in the secular media. When asked what life was like for Christians after the American invasion in 2001, he replied: “That’s what I call false hope. I will never forget in 2001 when the American army came and took over, everyone was celebrating, everyone got freedom and people were praising and thankful for America. Exactly twenty years later, we see what’s happening now.”

The interviewer asked, “With the hope that you experienced, what did you think might happen?”

In words that echo Pastor Blumhardt’s indictment of Western religion, Paiman replied, “The real hope is Jesus Christ. Afghanistan has been trying many ways to get hope, to get peace inside Afghanistan, but they did not try Jesus Christ. They did not try God. They did not try his love and his mercy. My prayer and zeal are to share Christ with them.

“They can receive Christ and they can get the real hope, the living hope that never ends.”

Then the pastor noted: “In Afghanistan, people know they are the church, and they understand that. But here, in most of America, they say the building is a church. There is a building with a cross on it. That’s what they call church but, in Afghanistan, the real church is going on.”

Would the Holy Spirit say “the real church is going on” in your life today?

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As Christians, we cherish our religious freedom. But this constitutional right is a little harder to accept when it involves another religion—if, for example, a mosque is built in our community. 

Liberty for All: Defending Everyone’s Religious Freedom in a Pluralistic Age explains the all-encompassing benefits of religious freedom. The book is a  challenging yet rewarding read for the layperson. 

What is religious liberty?

Author Andrew T. Walker, an associate professor of Christian ethics and apologetics at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, offers this definition: “Religious liberty is the principle of social practice wherein every individual, regardless of their religious confession, is equally free to believe, or not to believe, and to live out their understanding of the conscience’s duty, individually and communally, that is owed to God in all areas of life without threat of government penalty or social harassment. It is nothing short of grasping truth and ordering one’s life in response to it.” 

That includes people of every religious belief, or none at all. Religious liberty, in Walker’s view, “helps us manage social and religious differences” in a pluralistic culture. 

More importantly, there can be no decisions for Christ without freedom of choice. 

The gospel and religious freedom

“We Christians should extend religious liberty to everyone, because everyone is pursuing truth, even if incorrectly,” Walker wrote. “In a secular and increasingly pluralistic age, we need to allow falsehood a space to be wrong in hopes that individuals will ‘come to the knowledge of the truth’ (1 Tim. 2:4). 

“This does not mean we refrain from naming moral wrongs or fall captive to empty-headed relativism. It means we do not seek to criminalize, persecute, or marginalize people whose beliefs are sincere and are animating them toward lives of purpose, meaning, and goodwill (and there are checks and balances to consider when convictions pose risks and harms to civil society).” 

Only Christ can judge religious convictions. The just state’s job is to guarantee freedom of choice. But even in an unjust society where Christians are persecuted, the gospel has shown throughout history an ability to thrive. “The government may possess the authority to kill the body, but it cannot damn the soul,” Walker wrote. “The martyrs of the early church went to their deaths knowing that from death came life.” 

A day of judgment is coming. Until then, governments should allow religious freedom. 

“If the gospel is true, the gospel does not need government preference,” Walker wrote. “Why? Because in the scope of history, truth wins.” 

And that’s good news.

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At this writing, as many as fifteen thousand Americans remain in Afghanistan after the Taliban’s takeover of the country. They have been urged to go to Hamid Karzai International Airport for evacuation out of the country, but the US is reportedly unable to provide transportation or guarantee them safe passage.

A Taliban spokesman promised that “nobody will be harmed in Afghanistan,” including Americans. However, their actions so far speak a very different message.

They faced their first street protests yesterday against their takeover of the country. When a crowd gathered in the northeastern city of Jalalabad, Taliban soldiers fired into them and beat protesters and journalists. At least two people were killed and a dozen injured.

Taliban fighters recently executed twenty-two Afghan commandos as they tried to surrender. Earlier this month, they assassinated a presidential spokesman who was head of the government’s media and information center. A letter circulating recently listed activities forbidden by the Taliban, including girls banned from school, women confined to their homes and forced to wear a full hijab, boys forced to learn rote recitation of the Qur’an, and women banned from leaving their houses without a male relative.

With regard to Americans still trapped in Afghanistan, Walter Russell Mead writes in the Wall Street Journal that “Mr. Biden should worry about a repeat of Tehran in 1979.” He adds that “even if national Taliban authorities want to avoid a confrontation, with thousands of unprotected US and other foreign citizens scattered around a chaotic country, authorities in the capital may not be able to control radical factions or ransom-hungry groups of local fighters and criminal gangs.”

The history of al-Qaeda and the Taliban

While Americans are understandably deeply concerned about our citizens remaining in Afghanistan under the Taliban, we should also be concerned about ourselves at home.

American troops were sent to Afghanistan twenty years ago in response to the 9/11 attacks and the Taliban’s provision of safe harbor for Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. Our forces toppled the Taliban from power not because we were concerned that they wanted to launch attacks on our homeland, but because we wanted to prevent further such attacks from al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups they were protecting.

From their beginning, the Taliban were foundationally linked with al-Qaeda. Their shared Islamic ideology and fight against Soviet forces in Afghanistan brought them together.

Al-Qaeda was an experienced militant group with an established global brand when the Taliban were in their infancy. The early training, fundraising, and supplies provided by al-Qaeda were critical to the Taliban’s growth. In turn, before the Taliban were toppled by US forces, al-Qaeda reportedly paid them up to $20 million a year for its safe haven in Afghanistan.

What of their relationship today?

The United Nations reported in June 2021, “A significant part of the leadership of al-Qaeda resides in the Afghanistan and Pakistan border region. . . . Large numbers of al-Qaeda fighters and other foreign extremist elements aligned with the Taliban are located in various parts of Afghanistan.”

While the Taliban committed to the US government in February 2020 that it would restrain jihadist groups, including al-Qaeda, from organizing and launching terrorism from the country, the UN states that “it is impossible to assess with confidence that the Taliban will live up to its commitment.” It adds that “al-Qaeda and likeminded militants continue to celebrate developments in Afghanistan as a victory for the Taliban’s cause and thus for global radicalism.”

“The best news al-Qaeda has had in decades”

According to the Council on Foreign Relations, “the Taliban continues to provide al-Qaeda with protection in exchange for resources and training.” US authorities reportedly believe that al-Qaeda’s chief, Ayman al-Zawahiri, is in Afghanistan as well.

The Morning Dispatch reports that “many top al-Qaeda leaders have sworn blood oaths to the successive heads of the Taliban, and others including Sirajuddin Haqqani, who has a $10 million price on his head from the US government, serve as leaders of both groups.”

It quotes Nathan Sales, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, who wrote in an expert briefing: “The Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan is the best news al-Qaeda has had in decades. With the Taliban back in charge of the country, it is virtually certain that al-Qaeda will reestablish a safe haven in Afghanistan and use it to plot attacks on the United States.”

Sales added: “The terrorist group responsible for 9/11 will soon find itself flush with cash looted from Afghanistan’s central bank, with weapons seized from the defeated Afghan army, and with fighters freed from prison.”

Britain’s defense minister agreed, warning that al-Qaeda will likely have a resurgence as Afghanistan fell to the Taliban. And Robert M. Gates, secretary of defense for Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama from 2006 to 2011, wrote in the New York Times that the Taliban “still maintain ties with al-Qaeda.”

He asked, “Why should we assume they will no longer harbor al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups that seek to target those—above all, the United States—that ousted them from power and have been fighting them for twenty years?” He concluded in his June 2021 article that “the consequences of another Taliban takeover in Kabul would not be limited to the people of Afghanistan.” Now that takeover has been accomplished.

Will 9/11 be a “catalyst for acts of targeted violence”?

As I noted in my 2011 book, Radical Islam: What You Need to Know, al-Qaeda and similar jihadists are convinced that America has been attacking the Muslim world since the Crusades. They consider the creation of the modern state of Israel in 1948 to be a theft of land from its rightful Muslim owners and see our support for Israel as complicity in this attack. Since Americans are citizens of a democracy, they view us as part of this “assault” on Islam.

Since the Qur’an requires Muslims to defend Islam (cf. Surah 2:190), al-Qaeda’s followers believe they are required to attack Americans in our homeland. As a result, they do not see 9/11 as an attack on innocent Americans but as a defense of Islam striking back at “Crusader” aggression.

Now that the Taliban are in control of Afghanistan, such attacks may be more likely. The head of an Afghan news and media company told New York Times columnist Bret Stephens, “The relationship between the Taliban and al-Qaeda will get stronger. Why should the Taliban fear the Americans anymore? What’s the worst that could happen? Another invasion?”

He added: “These guys are going to be the most belligerent, arrogant Islamist movement on the planet. They are going to be the Mecca for any young radical of Islamic heritage or convert. It’s going to inspire people. It’s a godsend for any radical, violent group.”

Author Peter Bergen believes the Taliban takeover will inspire extremists around the globe. He notes, “When ISIS ran a lot of Iraq and Syria, there were a lot of Westerners who volunteered to go and fight. Here we have the Taliban doing something not dissimilar in Afghanistan. I anticipate a lot of problems for Western states.”

The Department of Homeland Security added in a recent security alert that the twentieth anniversary of 9/11 and upcoming religious holidays “could serve as a catalyst for acts of targeted violence.” It noted that al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula recently released the first English-language version of its Inspire magazine in four years, apparently intended to mark the upcoming anniversary of 9/11.

Three practical responses

What can you and I do about the threat of a resurgent al-Qaeda?

One: Pray for members of al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and other jihadist groups to come to Christ. Jesus urged us to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). As I have noted frequently, more Muslims are coming to faith in Jesus today than at any time in Islamic history, many through visions and dreams of our Savior. If you doubt whether such conversions are possible, remember Saul on the road to Damascus (Acts 9).

Two: Pray for Christians in Afghanistan and across the Muslim world to be protected, emboldened, and empowered as they share Christ with their neighbors. We are to “keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints” (Ephesians 6:18). I plan to say more about this in tomorrow’s Daily Article, but please join me in praying for our sisters and brothers today.

Three: Pray for ministries and missionaries to Afghanistan and the Muslim world to be effective and courageous. Jesus called his followers to “pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (Matthew 9:38). Then Jesus called his apostles to answer their prayer by taking his message to their culture (Matthew 10).

The choice of the hour

I was interviewed yesterday by Chris Brooks, a brilliant pastor and radio host. At one point, he mentioned a member of his church in Michigan who has been called to go to Afghanistan as a missionary. Ask God to raise up many more, then pray for them and support them however you can. And ask God to use your life and witness to reach Muslims and others in your circle of influence.

Chris also quoted the maxim that, in regard to missions, we can “go, give, or live in sin.”

Which will you choose today?

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