What ISIS and Advent have in common
The humanitarian plight of Syrian refugees and the terrorist threat of ISIS seem likely to dominate the cable news channels for weeks to come. But it’s unclear whether Christian preachers will continue to discuss these issues now that the season of Advent has arrived.
On the surface there is little connection between ISIS’s campaign of terror and a season that invites us to prepare for the return of Christ. But dig a little deeper, and one finds that both the ISIS phenomenon and the Christian season of Advent deal with the same fundamental problem—one that is the central conundrum of all monotheist faiths.
To see this more clearly, rewind a few weeks to Reign of Christ Sunday. At the church I attended, we sang a hymn about marching out into the fields of conquest behind our eternal king—just minutes after hearing a sermon condemning ISIS.
