WHAT IS HAPPENING TO EUROPE?

​Europe is in danger of falling to Islam. The catastrophic decline of Christianity in Europe and the sharp decline in the birth rate, along with massive Islamic immigration, has made Europe vulnerable to an Islamic takeover.

​Secular Humanism and Hedonism have gutted Europe, morally, spiritually and ethically. Most Europeans have replaced the pleasure of worship with the worship of pleasure. Materialism and Occultism have, in too many areas, filled the spiritual vacuum. Abortion, pornography and perversion have devastated the morals of Europe.
 
History is repeating itself. Europe today is facing a similar Renaissance of paganism and aggressive Islamic expansionism, which threatened faith and freedom back in the 15th and 16th Centuries. There is an urgent need for a new Reformation. Secular Humanism and Hedonism are no match for Islamic Jihad. Only a vibrant Biblical Christianity can enable Europe to resist, and defeat, radical Islam.

​Disastrous Decline
From the time of the Reformation in the 1500s, through to the beginning of the Second World War, Europe was the world's dominant trading and industrial region. However, Marxist economies and dictatorships in Eastern Europe crippled development, eroded national infrastructures, undermined the ecology and devastated the work ethic, retarding economic development. In Western Europe, the ruinous World Wars and costly welfare state with its restrictive practices in trade and industry slowed down innovative development. By the second half of the 20th Century, the North American and East Asian economies surged ahead of those of Europe.
 
The Threat of Islamic Invasion
After the Muslim invasions of the 7th and 8th Centuries, Christianity was almost wiped out in its heartlands of North Africa and the Middle East. For nearly 1,000 years the countries of Western Europe became the last major refuge for Christianity. The aggressively expanding and encircling Muslim forces occupied Spain, overwhelmed the Byzantine Empire, and threatened the very heartland of Europe, even seizing Budapest in 1527 and besieging Vienna as late as the 17th Century. Hemmed in by Islam, Europe was effectively prevented from having any meaningful missionary outreach to Africa or Asia.
 
Retreat from Victory
It was not until the Reformation in the 16th Century that the church was revitalised to eventually become a force for world evangelisation. The last 400 years have seen tremendous worldwide advance for the Gospel, but recently it has witnessed a distressing decline in Europe itself.
 
The Reformation of Europe
The energies that were released by the Protestant Reformation and its rediscovery of the Bible in the common tongue, led to the most extraordinary spiritual Revival in history. The Reformation freed the Christians of Northern Europe from the decadence of Renaissance paganism and lead to the greatest birth of freedom and scientific discoveries in history. The Reformation in Europe championed the principles of religious freedom, liberty of conscience, the rule of law, separation of powers and constitutionally limited republics. The Reformation forwarded the explosion of scientific enquiry, the industrial revolution, and the campaign to eradicate the slave trade worldwide.
 
Revolution
However, from the time of the French Revolution in 1789, hostile, anti-Christian ideologies began to compete with Christianity for worldwide dominance. Secular Humanism, Evolutionism, Socialism and Marxism have led to terrible wars, oppression and destruction.
 
Eastern Occultism and Secular Humanism
With the rise of Secular Humanism a practical atheism, or fuzzy new age spirituality, have become the predominant beliefs of most Europeans. Many Europeans have moved away from the rock certainties of their Biblical Christian heritage to the sands of situation ethics, relativism, reincarnation, the new age and the occult. The popularity of the occultic Harry Potter books and films are a symptom of this new fascination with witchcraft.
 
Anti-Christian Heathenism
Secular societies in Europe now regard Christian absolutes with intolerance and Bible believing Christians are frequently ridiculed, marginalised and even legislated against, with secular governments no longer satisfied with the deviant being declared normal, but demanding that the normal be declared deviant. The popularity of fraudulent and fictional anti-Christian books, such as The Da Vinci Code and The Gospel of Judas, are symptomatic of the rise of anti-Christian heathenism in Europe.
 
Theological Termites
Much of the blame for the defeat and retreat of Christianity in Europe must be laid at the door of liberal theology which rose to dominate theological institutions all over Western Europe by the beginning of the 20th Century. Most mainline denominations were spiritually crippled by the deliberate erosion of confidence in the Scriptures and in the power of the Gospel. Among the primary results of these liberal termites has been a massive exodus away from attending liberal denominations. Large areas of Europe today are post-Christian with small committed Christian remnants, with little impact on the broader society. Most of Europe needs to be evangelised again. Many areas of Europe have not had meaningful exposure to Biblical Christianity for several generations.
 
Prophetic Warning
William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, over a century ago, warned that a time may come when Europe would have: "A religion without the Holy Spirit, Christianity without Christ, Forgiveness without Repentance, Salvation without Regeneration, politics without God, a Heaven without a hell and a Saviour without a cross." That describes many churches today and underlines the urgent need for a new Reformation.
 
"We Forgot God!"
As Alexander Solzhenitsyn declared of Russia in 1917: "We forgot God!" Those who forget the lessons of the past are doomed to repeat its failures. We need to rediscover our history if we are to survive the present threats.
 
Islamic Jihad
At the time of the Reformation, Europe was facing relentless onslaughts of invasion by the Muslim Turks. In 1453, the greatest city in the world at that time, Constantinople, fell to the invading Muslim Turks who put the entire population to the sword. Christians throughout Constantinople were massacred, even in the Hagia Sophia, the greatest church in the world at that time.
 
Reconquista
In 1492, after eight centuries of Islamic occupation and oppression, Spain was finally freed with the fall of the last Muslim fortress, in Grenada. That freed up Spain to send out Christopher Columbus who discovered the Americas.
 
The Turkish Threat
However, while South Western Europe was celebrating its freedom, South Eastern Europe was facing a new wave of attacks by the Muslims. By the mid 16th Century, the Turkish Empire stretched from Egypt to Persia, from North Africa to the Caspian Sea, from the Ukraine to Hungary. In 1526 a Muslim army of 300,000 Turks conquered the capital of Hungary, Buda (what is today Budapest). Buda was looted and 200,000 Hungarian Christians were driven off into Islamic slavery in Turkey. Even Vienna, in the heartland of Europe, endured sieges by the Muslim Turks in the 16th and 17th Centuries.
 
The Barbary Pirates
Turkish warships and the Muslim Barbary pirates, operating from their bases all along North Africa, attacked Christian shipping and pillaged and looted villages along the coasts of Europe, capturing Christians as slaves as far afield as England and Ireland.
 
The Fall of Cyprus
In 1571, Cyprus fell to the Turks. 5,000 Greek and Italian Christians killed 30,000 Turkish attackers in fierce resistance. Only after all supplies were exhausted and guarantees of safe conduct were offered, did the garrison finally surrender. The Turks treacherously had all the Venetian prisoners executed, and the rest of the Christians shipped to Constantinople as slaves. The courageous Christian General Bragadino had his nose and ears cut off, his teeth broken and was whipped daily until 17 August, when he was burned alive in the city square. The Turks laid waste to the island of Corfu and massed their fleets to attack Europe.
 
The Battle of Lepanto
The Battle of Lepanto (off the coast of Greece near Corinth) on 7 October 1571 was one of the most critical naval battles in history. The European forces were led by Don John of Austria. The Christian fleet was manned by almost 13,000 sailors, 43,000 rowers and 28,000 soldiers - mainly Spanish and German infantry. The Christian forces, with 206 galleys and 6 galleasses, were outnumbered by the larger Turkish fleet of 230 galleys and 60 galliots. During the battle, which lasted for 5 hours, the Christian forces closed in for the fight in hand-to-hand combat with the enemy.
 
Decisive Victory
Spanish and German infantry flowed onto the Turkish vessels and, in ferocious hand-to-hand combat, overwhelmed the Turks. Over 240 of the Turkish ships were sunk or captured in battle. The Turkish losses were estimated at over 30,000 dead and wounded and 15,000 prisoners. Among the Turkish dead were Ali Pasha, the Ottoman commander. On their side, the Christians had lost 12 galleys and 9,000 men killed or wounded. However, they freed twice as many Christian prisoners who had been galley slaves for the Muslims.
 
A Turning Point
Lepanto was a crushing defeat for the Turks. Following the Turkish defeat at the Great Siege of Malta in 1565, the Christian victory at Lepanto brought the threat of Muslim dominance at sea and restricted Turkish expansionism in the Mediterranean. Lepanto was one of the great turning points in history. It ended the fear of the Turks that had threatened to overwhelm all of Europe. It stopped the Turkish advance. Church bells tolled throughout Europe as many prayers of thanksgiving were offered by many grateful Europeans.
 
The Destroyer
The Reformers taught that Muhammad is: "Apollyon" (which is Greek for the Hebrew word: "Abaddon" which means destroyer) and that the army of locusts and scorpions in Rev. 9:1-11 were the Arab and Saracen armies which waged Jihad in Muhammad's name.
 
Devastation
In expounding Daniel 9, Martin Luther noted that this prophecy referred to the Muslim Turks who at that time were invading Europe: 
"In the latter part of their reign, when rebels have become completely wicked, a stern faced king, a master of intrigue will arise. He will become very strong, but not by his own power. He will cause astounding devastation… he will cause deceit to prosper and he will consider himself superior. When they feel secure, he will destroy many and take a stand against the Prince of princes. Yet, he will be destroyed, but not by human power." Daniel 9:23-25
 
Commenting on 2 Thessalonians 2:3-12, Calvin wrote that: "…the sect of Muhammad was like a raging overthrow, which in its violence tore away about half of the church."
 
Anti-Christ
Luther wrote that the "two regimes, that of the pope and that of the Turk, are… anti-Christ."
 
John Calvin in a sermon on Deuteronomy 18:15 maintained that Muhammad was one of the "two horns of anti-Christ."
 
In his commentaries on Daniel (7:7-18), Calvin put forward the theory that the Muslim Turks were the little horn that sprang up from the beast. As the Turks had conquered much of the old Roman Empire, much of the prophecies concerning Rome could apply to the Muslim world. Islam was one of the two legs of the later Roman Empire described in Daniel 2.
 
False Religion
Luther noted that Christ warned about false prophets coming from the desert (Matthew 24:24-26) and this certainly included Muhammad.
The 1637, Calvinist Dordt Bible in Dutch, commented on Revelations 16:12 that the Muslim nations of the East would still unite with one another in a pan-Islamic Jihad against the West.
 
A Spiritual World War
The 1643, Westminster Assemblies "Larger Catechism" calls on Christians to … "pray, that the kingdom of sin and satan may be destroyed, that the Gospel be propagated throughout the world…" Its "Directory for the Public Worship of God" instructs congregations to "pray for the propagation of the Gospel and the Kingdom of Christ to all nations, for the conversion of the Jews, the fullness of the Gentiles, the fall of anti-Christ, and the deliverance of the distressed churches abroad from the tyranny of the anti-Christian faction, from the cruel oppressions and blasphemies of the Turk."
 
Today, Europe faces a similar threat from Islam, yet there are few voices warning of the disastrous consequences of present trends.
 
The Battle of Tours By 732 AD, just 100 years after the death of Muhammad, Muslim armies had conquered the whole of North Africa, and Spain and had advanced across France to the south of Paris. Then, Charles Martel, King of the Franks, ordered every man able to bear arms to repulse the Muslim invaders. The Christian army met the Arab cavalry on the plains of Tours. They stood firm and broke the fierce charges of the Muslims. The next day the Muslim invaders fled from France to back behind the Pyrenees.
 
A New Threat
Today France is facing a new Islamic invasion. A recent intelligence report has some startling statistics: In 1945, there were barely 100,000 Muslim in all of France. Since then there has been a 60-fold increase, Muslims in France now number 6 million (or 10% of the total population). However, although Muslims are 10% of France's population, they make up 70% of the total of 60,775 prisoners in France. Many of the urban suburbs are dominated by Muslim gangs. Of the 1,000 Muslim neighbourhoods in France, 700 are listed as "violent". According to one report, in France: 95% of convicted rapists are Muslims, 85% of convicted murderers are Muslim, and 58% of theft and looting of cars are committed by Muslims. Paris has the largest Arab community outside of the Middle East. Reportedly there are 1,000 mosques operating in France.
 
Paris Riots
Patrick Buchanan in "Paris Burning: How Empires End" reported on the French riots: "The rioters are of Arab and African decent, and Muslim. While almost all are French citizens, they are not part of the French people. For never have they been assimilated into French culture or society."
 
Scandinavia at Risk
In Denmark, the 200,000 Muslim immigrants are trying to dictate their anti-Israel, anti-American and anti-western agenda upon 5 million Danes. Even though Muslims represent only 4% of the population, Muslims consume over 40% of welfare spending. They also account for up to 75% of the country's convicted rapists. Demographers have predicted that if present trends continue in just 40 years, one out of every 3 Danes will be Muslim.
 
Muslim immigration to Sweden is exploding. One out of every 22 Swedes are now Muslim. And with 400,000 Muslims in Sweden, Islam is now the nation's second largest religion. There has been a drastic increase in anti-Semitic acts against Sweden's 18,000 Jews.
 
The Low Countries
In Holland, Muslims now number 15% of the population. In Belgium, Muslims make up 10% of the total population. While Belgium and Holland are two of Europe's most liberal regions, they are also the main breeding grounds for some of the most radical Muslim fundamentalist terrorist groups in Europe.
 
Londinistan
In 30 years the Muslim population of Great Britain has increased from 82,000 to 2 million. There are reportedly over half a million Muslim in London alone. Over 1,000 mosques have been established across Great Britain. Counter-terrorism officials in Britain estimate that up to 25,000 Muslim living Britain are supporters of the Al Qaeda terrorist network.
 
Eurabia In Italy, with 1 million Muslims, reportedly 95% of all rapists are Muslim, while 85% of convicted murderers are Muslim.
 
Germany now has 2 million Muslim residents, Spain 200,000.
 
In the USA, in 1970 there were an estimated 100,000 Muslims. Today, there are 6 to 9 million Muslims in America.
 
In Canada, in 1871 there were just 13 Muslim residents. In 1981 there were 98,165 Muslims. Today there are over 500,000 Muslims in Canada. Muslims now outnumber Jews in Canada.
 
In Europe, Europeans have children at a rate of 1.5 per family. Muslims are reproducing at 6 to 8 children per family. Half of all babies born in Belgium are now Muslims. With the rapidly declining European birth rate and massive Muslim immigration, demographers are predicting, that if present trends continue, within 50 years Europe will be an Islamic continent, Eurabia.
 
Demographic Time Bomb
In France and Germany more people are dying each year than are being born. By failing to have enough children to replace the people who die each year, Europe is slowly dying. For any population to remain stable it must maintain a birth rate of 2.1 births per woman. When the birth rate falls below that number, a population goes into decline.
 
The Death of Europe
Patrick Buchanan in "The Death of the West" notes that according to UN figures and projections, Europe’s population of 728 million (in 2000) should drop to 207 million by the end of this century - if present trends continue.
 
Continental Suicide
Europe's abandonment of its Christian heritage is the root cause of its population problems. As Chuck Carlson observed: "The great party of Western hedonism will not last much longer. There is an iron law in history: The future belongs to the fertile. Just as the clan-centred, child-rich Barbarian tribes of the Germans swept away the sensuous and sterile Western Roman Empire, so shall new Barbarians arise."
 
Sexual Suicide
June Veith blames Europe's population decline on the collapse of family values: "Thanks to contraceptive technology, sex has become separated from child bearing. With women pursuing careers of their own and men getting sex without the responsibility of marriage, why bother with children? For many women and men, pregnancy has become an unpleasant side effect, something to prevent with contraceptives or easily treated with a trip to the abortion clinic… Europe is aborting its future generations." The pursuit of personal pleasure and personal wealth is sowing seeds of ultimate economic ruin.
 
Economic Suicide
"Citizens are not just consumers but producers. Having fewer people can wreck havoc on an economy, creating both a labour shortage and a shortage of buyers. A government with a shrinking population faces a smaller military and fewer tax-payers. Dwindling populations have always signalled cultural decline, with less creativity, energy and vitality on every level of society."
 
Cultural Suicide
As a result, the European culture that has demanded unlimited personal freedom is heading towards repression under Islamic Sharia law. By rejecting its Christian heritage, embracing secular Humanism and welcoming massive Islamic immigration, Europe is committing cultural and economic suicide.
 
Rejecting Christianity Yet Embracing Islamic Domination
The French persecution of the Protestant Huguenots, the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of 1572, and the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV forced the Protestant Huguenots to flee France. The resultant spiritual impoverishment of France led directly to the bloodbath of the French Revolution with 30,000 decapitated on the guillotine, 300,000 executed by firing squads, and millions killed throughout Europe in the resultant Napoleonic wars. Today, France faces an Islamic revolution. By chasing away some of its most productive and hard working citizens - the Protestant Huguenots, France weakened its economy and the ethical foundation of the nation. It is ironic that having rejected Christianity, the French are now embracing Islam. By rejecting God's Law, France could soon be under Shari'a law.
 
Holland at Risk
Under Prince William of Orange, the Dutch courageously, and at tremendous sacrifice, fought for freedom from Spain. Tens of thousands of Dutch Protestants were executed by the Spanish Inquisition, whole towns were massacred by the cruel Duke of Alva. To chase out the Spanish occupiers, William the Silent ordered the dykes broken and the land flooded. From 1568 to 1648, the Dutch Protestants had to fight for independence from Spain. Now, having forgotten about all that was sacrificed to achieve its independence from foreign occupation in the 16th and 17 Centuries, Holland is allowing some of the most radical Muslim extremists to flood their small nation today.
 
Chose This Day Europe faces a stark choice:
God's Law or Shari'a law?
Christianity or Islam?
Reformation or Islamisation?
 
The Urgent Need for Reformation
Secular Humanism is no match for Islamic Jihad. Only Christianity can defeat Islam. There is an urgent need for a new Reformation today. We need the faith and courage of Martin Luther, the doctrine and devotion of Ulrich Zwingli, the heart aflame and the mind renewed of John Calvin, the courage and conviction of William Tyndale, the evangelistic zeal of William Farel. We need to have people who can say in the words of Martin Luther: "My conscience is captive to the Word of God."
 
The Need for Personal Revival
We need to be more courageous, more faithful and more effective in fulfilling the Great Commission. We need to get back to the Bible, to love God wholeheartedly and to fear God alone.
 
A Modern Plague
Perhaps the AIDS plague of today will serve as the Bubonic plague of the 14th and 15th Centuries to wake up an immoral and careless generation to the seriousness of sin and the ominous truth that we reap what we sow.
 
Utilising Technology for the Kingdom of God
Just as Martin Luther utilised Gutenberg's Printing Press to advance the cause of Reformation throughout Europe, we need to make full use of all the technology available to advance of the cause of Reformation today: radio, CDs, DVDs, MP3s, DTP, E-mail and the Internet, PowerPoints and well-illustrated books.
 
The Great Commission Must Be Our Supreme Ambition
Just as Wycliffe sent out his itinerant evangelists, the Lollards, as field workers for the Reformation, singing and reading the Scriptures in the common tongue, we need to mobilise evangelism in the market places of today.
 
Back to the Bible for Reformation and Revival
Just as the great Reformers invested in Bible translations, leadership training and literature distribution, these need to be our priorities today. There has never been a greater and more urgent need for Biblical Reformation and spiritual Revival.
 
"See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His Commandments, His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and that the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess… I call Heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore CHOOSE LIFE, that both you and your descendants may live; that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice…" Deuteronomy 30:15-20
 
Dr. Peter Hammond

Frontline Fellowship
PO Box 74 Newlands 7725
Cape Town South Africa
E-mail: [email protected]