The Centanni lesson

It’s fairly well known by now that Fox News staffers Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig purchased their release from captivity in Gaza with their conversion to Islam. Or, we might say, with their souls.

Not that it has raised that many eyebrows. “Yeah, tell the terrorists anything they want to hear,” seems to be the common reaction. “You don’t have to mean it.”

Oh, but there are a multitude of problems with that. Starting with the fact that whether you mean it or not isn’t the real issue. The real issue is what Islam thinks—and they think you’re now theirs.

We raise this because we believe more and more of us are going to experience this same trial as time goes on. Many millions over the centuries have. Radical Islam is on the march, and forced conversion has been one of its mainstays.

Those of us who are Bible-believing Christians need to think ahead as to how we will respond if and when. Is the Centanni strategy acceptable? This Christian doesn’t think so.

Will I go to hell if I mouth the confession of no god but Allah? That’s like asking if it’s possible to lose your salvation. For those of us who believe in eternal security, the answer is no. But renouncing Christ is unthinkable treachery, considering what He has done for us. I pray that if I stand in Steve Centanni’s place some day, I will have the presence of mind to stand firm and receive the dying grace that I believe God gives to His martyrs.

Revelation chapter 20, as we’ve mentioned before, describes multitudes before the throne in heaven who were martyred by beheading. This, we believe, is a picture of all of Islam’s victims. In the end, God will exact a terrible punishment upon these demonic perpetrators, Scripture tells us.

But even for a non-believer, the stakes are too high. Henceforth, Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig, whether they know it or not, are marked men. They would be ill advised ever to set foot in the Middle East again. They had better live now as Muslims or know that they will be regarded as apostates—which is a capital offense in the eyes of Islam.

Infidels are somewhat tolerated, because they still are potential converts. Apostates—those who convert but then turn away—are dead men walking. He who has ears to hear, let him hear...