Writing in his blog, R.C. Sproul tells the story of a conversation he had with the late Francis Schaeffer in a taxicab some thirty years ago in which he asked Schaeffer the following question: “Dr. Schaeffer, what is your biggest concern for the future of the church in America?” “Without hesitation,” Sproul writes, Schaeffer turned to him and said one word: “Statism.” Sproul continued: “Schaeffer’s biggest concern at that point in his life was that the citizens of the United States were beginning to invest their country with supreme authority, such that the free nation of America would become one that would be dominated by a philosophy of the supremacy of the state.”
I have no doubt that Schaeffer was right in his concern about statism. And as we watch our country, and much of the rest of the Western world, embrace statism and at the same time jettison what is left of the effects Christianity has had on the culture, Schaeffer seems prescient indeed. I wonder, however, if Schaeffer was living today if he might see something else as well.
It seems to me that if we drift further away from Christianity, if we continue to believe that all religions are the same, if we continue to believe truth can’t be known, if we continue to look to the state to solve our problems, there will be an enormous void to fill. And Islam will be quite happy to fill it. In short, I believe Islam represents a great threat to the church, our country, and the entirety of the West.
I’m not speaking simply of militant Islam like ISIS, for example, 
although they are clearly a threat that needs to be addressed in some way. Nor am I necessarily speaking of Al-Qaeda committing acts of terrorism in Western countries. I’m talking about Islam simply over-running Western culture if there is no vibrant Christian culture to stop it. Islam never comes to a country to assimilate. It comes with the intention to dominate.
There have been some recently who have said that the First Amendment offers no protection to Islam. I think a historical case may be made for that contention, but that’s a subject for another post. I would say this for now: If we know what’s good for us we will not be foolish enough to do what some European nations did in attempting to embrace Muslims. Consider Sweden, for example, where as of last April criticism of Islam has been criminalized. There are now some fifty “no-go” zones in Sweden where the government has ceded control to the Muslims. According to a recent IBD article, “They are de facto Muslim micro-states under Shariah law that reject Western values, society and legal systems. In these districts non-Muslims are expected to conform to the dictates of fundamentalist Islam or face violent consequences.” 
My guess is that Dr. Schaeffer, perceptive as he was, would today see this as something rather more ominous than mere statism. I think he would recognize Islam as a threat of the first order to both the church and the nation.
