In Australia this last week a New Zealand National who is also a pastor of a Independent Bible Baptist Church in Brisbane Australia was put in detention and has had his visa canceled for religious vilification.
The overly zealous pastor allegedly entered a Mosque and harassed the people gathered there.
When the activists were denied access into the mosque, a heated argument broke out between Mr Robertson and Ali Kadri from the Islamic Council of Queensland.
Mr Kadri asked: “I’m trying to talk to you in a nice manner, why are you responding in such an aggressive manner?”
Mr Robertson replied: “Because I hate the religion of Islam. I don’t hate Muslims, I hate the religion.”
Police intervened and forced the group to leave the property.
This caught my attention because I have first hand experience with the thinking that this Pastor exhibits. A senior member of a similar Bible Baptist Church church stood in my yard and told me that God hates Muslims. His church to this day advertise themselves as KJV only, non charismatic, pre millenial, pre dispensational.
We had been talking about the troubles in the Middle East and I said that God wants to save all people. This old brother whose son was the pastor of the Bible Baptist Church in my town said to me
I don’t think He wants to save them. They are all going to Hell. When I protested that Jesus death paid for their sins as well as ours….. he said to me that “God hates them”.
Needless to say I do not attend that church and have not done so for 10 years.
But the thinking that God hates those of other faiths is there in these so called Fundamentalist churches because of the writings of John Calvin and his skewed ideas about predestination and election.
Basically Calvin taught that God has already made up his mind who will “go to heaven” and who will “go to Hell” and it seems that the Muslim peoples are slated for destruction….at least according to some people.
The pastor in the current news story allegedly said that he hates the religion of Islam but loves the Muslims. This thinking comes once again from a skewed understanding of God and His love.
Many Christians also use the phrase hate the sin and love the sinner.
These ideas sound noble to Christians but they are not from a New Covenant understanding but an Old Testament one.
Contrary to what many think, God is not focused upon sin. God has already RECONCILED SINNERS TO HIMSELF through the sacrifice of Jesus His Son.
Jesus died for our sins and not for ours only but also for the whole world!
God is focused upon His Son Jesus and sees all people FORGIVEN through the blood sacrifice He made for all of us.
It is true that God hates sin. His focus however is not on sin or how to stop people from engaging in it. He HAS ALREADY solved that one. Through Jesus death and resurrection all sin was defeated and nailed to the Cross in the dead body of Jesus. When He was raised up by the glory of the Father sin lost its power.
It is not for us to even notice the sins of others. It is our privilege to see all people as God sees them–FORGIVEN, LOVED AND RECONCILED TO HIM.
