Jesus versus Mohammed
Lesson Overview
Lessons from the Seven Churches of Revelation with Dr. Erwin Lutzer
This standalone message is given by Dr. Erwin Lutzer, longtime pastor of the Moody Church in Chicago. (Note: your file was labeled “Jesus versus Muhammad,” which is the title of Lutzer’s talks elsewhere that weekend; on this recording he says he changed his topic, and the message here is his study of the seven churches of Revelation applied to the American church.) Reflecting on a visit to the ruins of the seven churches of Revelation, all in what is now Muslim-majority Turkey, Lutzer draws a series of lessons for believers today. Use this overview to review the key points after watching the full video. The talk uses the history of Christianity’s decline under Islam as its backdrop; see the note for students on how to weigh that material.
The Setting and the Burden
Lutzer opens by asking listeners to imagine their own church building becoming a mosque, as happened to many historic churches across the Middle East and Asia Minor. Having toured the sites of the seven churches of Revelation (Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea), to whom Jesus dictated letters in Revelation 2 and 3, he was struck that these churches no longer visibly exist. From that he asks: what do the seven churches say to the American church?
Before beginning, Lutzer sets a clear tone that frames the whole message: “the Muslims are not our enemies.” He speaks with compassion of Muslims caught in a system they fear to leave, says “our hearts have to go out to the Muslim community,” and notes that Muslims around the world are coming to faith in Christ in large numbers. His stated burden is evangelistic and pastoral, not hostile. This framing should be kept in mind throughout.
Lesson One: The Church Cannot Be Taken for Granted
Lutzer recounts the history of the Church of Holy Wisdom (Hagia Sophia) in Istanbul, dedicated in 535 and for nearly 900 years the largest church in Christendom, which inspired the architecture of his own Moody Church. After Constantinople fell in 1453, it became a mosque, and since 1923 a museum. He notes that lands once at least nominally Christian, across Turkey, the Middle East, and North Africa, are now overwhelmingly Muslim, and thousands of former churches now serve as mosques. His lesson: the existence of any church, or group of churches, cannot be taken for granted. He points to Europe’s empty and repurposed cathedrals and to the hundreds of American churches that close each year, arguing that a church closing should grieve us.
Lesson Two: Compromising Churches Are Weak Churches
Drawing on the letters to the seven churches, Lutzer identifies three kinds of compromise. Moral compromise, which Jesus repeatedly rebukes in the letters. Political compromise, which he traces to Constantine and the fusion of church and state (“Constantinianism”), where the church is seduced by and dependent on the state; he argues this dependence contributed to the church’s death in Europe and warns the American church about its own reliance on state support and favor. And doctrinal compromise, the loss of the gospel through syncretism and superstition. His example is Sardis, the church with “a name that you are alive, but you are dead.” He cites a Chinese church leader’s observation that persecution “wiped out theological liberalism,” because a merely human Jesus is not worth dying for.
Lesson Three: The Church Must Accept Persecution as a Way of Life
Lutzer argues that historically, when Islam expanded into Christian lands, Christians faced conversion, death, or life as second-class citizens under terms he describes (restrictions on building, on sharing their faith, and the payment of a special tax). He presents this from a Christian and Western-historical standpoint; the history of Christian communities under Muslim rule is real but is described here in its harshest terms, and historians and Muslims would frame it with more nuance. His pastoral point is durable: the global church has often lived under persecution, many believers endure it today, and the American church should be spiritually prepared rather than assuming comfort will last. He illustrates the subtle pressure of compromise with a story from communist East Germany, where believers were threatened with lost jobs and schooling for their children.
Lesson Four: Even in the Devil’s Hands, the Church Is in God’s Hands
From the letter to Smyrna (Revelation 2:8-11), where Jesus says “the devil will put some of you in prison… for ten days,” Lutzer draws the sovereignty of God in persecution: if Jesus says ten days, all the power of hell cannot make it eleven. Even when the church is handed over to suffering, it remains in God’s hands. He connects this to the deepest example, the crucifixion: wicked hands crucified Jesus, yet it was under God’s ultimate control (“this hour of darkness is yours,” yet God reigned). Quoting Luther that “even the devil is God’s devil,” he argues the true church, even its martyrs, is never outside God’s purposes. He recounts the destruction of Smyrna in 1922 as a sobering historical example (the casualty figures he cites are high-end and are debated by historians), asking “where was God?” and answering that God never forsakes His people.
Lesson Five: The Point of Controversy Is the Cross
Lutzer argues the deepest point of conflict between Christianity and Islam is the cross. He offers two reasons. First, the Crusades were fought under the banner of the cross, which he says should never have happened; he grants the Crusades did evil things (while noting wrongs on both sides). Second, and more fundamentally, the Quran (Surah 4:157) denies that Jesus was crucified, holding that God would not have allowed His prophet to die that way. For Christianity, the cross is the center, where God’s holiness and love meet and salvation is accomplished, so a denial of the crucifixion strikes at the heart of the faith. He laments reports of crosses being removed in some Western settings to avoid giving offense, asking whether the church has become too timid to display it.
Lesson Six: Every Church Has Those Who “Get It” and Those Who Don’t
Each letter ends, “he who has an ear, let him hear.” Lutzer notes that in every congregation some grasp the truth and some do not, and applies this to what he calls a “willing blindness” about Islam’s history and teaching. This is his pointed opinion and part of his apologetic argument. He balances it by returning to hope: Muslims are coming to Christ in large numbers, often at great personal risk, and the believer’s calling is to bring the good news to a community he describes as weary under oppression. He quotes Churchill that the desire to believe something can be stronger than logical argument.
Lesson Seven: Things Are Not What They Appear to Be
Lutzer recounts Luther’s response as the Ottoman armies besieged Vienna: it might appear that Christians “believed in the wrong God,” since they could not boast of conquests, but the Christian believes God’s bare word and knows that in the end Jesus will be revealed as King of kings, and every tongue will confess Him. He illustrates with a story from the Boxer Rebellion in China, where students were told to trample a cross to live or honor it and die; a young girl chose to honor it and was killed, and the others followed her example. Were they winners or losers? Lutzer argues Christians do not judge by appearances, because “we’ve read the last chapter” and know how it ends.
Lesson Eight: The Future and the Next Generation
Lutzer closes by facing the future soberly. He recounts a former Muslim’s chilling lecture on what life under strict sharia law would look like, and his own conclusion, pressed on him by that speaker, that the task before the church is to “train the next generation to be willing to be martyrs.” He admits this was not in his job description, and that those present may never face such a test, but asks whether we are raising children and grandchildren to believe that some things are more important than life itself. He ends with the Huguenots singing on the way to the stake, and a call to believe that Jesus is Lord and to face the future without fear.
Key Terms
The seven churches of Revelation: the congregations of Revelation 2 and 3, located in what is now Turkey, whose sites Lutzer visited.
Constantinianism: the fusion of church and state dating to Constantine, which Lutzer says weakened the church.
Syncretism: the blending of Christian faith with other religions or superstitions, a form of doctrinal compromise.
The overcomer: the faithful believer to whom Jesus promises great reward in the letters to the churches.
“Even the devil is God’s devil”: Luther’s phrase for God’s sovereignty even over evil.
Surah 4:157: the Quranic passage that denies Jesus was crucified, which Lutzer calls the deepest point of controversy.
Verses to Know
Revelation 2 and 3, the letters to the seven churches. Revelation 2:8-11, the letter to Smyrna and the promise to the faithful unto death. Revelation 3:1, Sardis, a name that you are alive, but you are dead. Matthew 10:16, sheep in the midst of wolves. Philippians 2:10-11, every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. Revelation 3:21, to the one who overcomes, a place with Christ on His throne.
Takeaway
Lutzer argues that the vanished churches of Revelation warn the American church not to take its existence for granted, not to compromise with the surrounding culture or lean on the state, but to accept that persecution may come, to trust that even in the devil’s hands the church remains in God’s hands, to hold fast to the cross, and to raise a generation willing to be faithful to Christ whatever the cost, because in the end Jesus is the victor and things are not what they appear to be.