In the wake of the collapse of Communism, the free world faces a new threat – Islam.

The world, once divided between the Free World, the Communist World and the Third World, now reassesses its geopolitical landscape. Europe has now been at peace longer than any other time in its history. The United States is shifting its strong military spending toward economic competition with Japan and Europe. The Soviet Union seems unlikely to pursue its past course of expansionism in favor of saving its fast failing economy.

While the rest of the world seems less likely to resolve its differences through military force, the focus of regional conflicts now shifts to the Islamic countries of the Middle East.

When Iraq recently invaded the Persian Gulf sheikdom of Kuwait, previously unthought of questions were posed. A trans-national Islamic movement has emerged which, if continued unconstrained, may perplex our State Department during the rest of the 1990s.

Already, the news media has labeled Sadam Hussein a “strongman.” Ironically, Hussein’s rule may indeed parallel that of another strongman – King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon – whose empire was vanquished by the forces of God long ago.

Middle Eastern nations are now repeating a similar course of history as taken by many nations of the world before their culture was inundated by the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Arab world is currently arising from a feudal state reminiscent of Europe during the Middle Ages.

Significantly, an event which paralleled this emergence from feudalism was the spread of biblical Christianity throughout Europe during the Reformation. Nationalistic wars mirror a spiritual struggle hidden beneath the tumultuous history of the political world.

In the next ten years, the world may see a spiritual assault against Islam in the form of a spreading Christian influence in Arabic nations. A spiritual awakening among Arabic people may be the only solution to the crisis in the Middle East.