Trends in Europe often make their way to our side of the Atlantic. Therefore, we should pay attention to them, for some would like to see the same things happen here.

Europe is on the brink of changing forever. Hundreds of thousands of refugees are leaving the tumult of the Middle East and Northern Africa, streaming into Europe. One report estimates three million more are yet to come. This could mean the Islamization of Europe.

Many demographers have noted the increase in the Islamic population across Europe, and mass-Muslim immigration comes with the importation of rigid Islamic customs—often including Sharia law. Some are predicting that if the present trends continue, Europe will be Islamic in one or two generations. Now, it seems to be happening at an accelerated pace.

What the forces of Islam could not accomplish at Tours, France in 732 or Granada, Spain in 1492 or in Vienna in 1683, they may be able to accomplish without firing a shot.

Geert Wilders, a controversial statesman from Holland, told me in 2009: “Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi said . . . we have 50 million Muslims in Europe. We don’t need one gun; we don’t need one bullet; we will rule this continent in 10, 20, 30 years’ time, by the Al-Hijra [Arabic for the notion of conquest via immigration]. Europe will be ours in the near future.” Wilders has been sounding the alarm for years about the Islamization of Europe and the loss of freedom that will inevitably result. For his efforts, he has been charged with hate crimes.

Wilders is frustrated with many fellow European leaders: “We are, unfortunately, led by appeasers. We have no Churchills anymore in Europe, just a lot of Chamberlains—politicians who are looking in the other direction, singing Kumbaya all year long.”

Many Germans are frustrated about the rapid changes they see happening. Breitbart.com (10/27/15) published comments by Germans about the new immigrants: “None of us want this. We’re all scared.” “What is this? How will it be in 100 years?” “Look at the women. They’re all veiled!” “This is our future.”

Is Europe simply reaping what it has sown? Europe is post-Christian for the most part, and nature abhors a vacuum. For years now there have been more worshipers in the mosques on Friday than in the cathedrals on Sunday.

In the long run, religious views and values will prevail in Europe. The question is: Which ones will they be? Will Europe return to its former Christian beliefs or have Islamic ones imposed upon them?

Is it possible that modern Europe has now rejected the love of Jesus and could suffer the sword of Mohammad as punishment? When the ten northern tribes of Israel rejected Jehovah as their covenant God, He used the rod of the Assyrians to carry out His judgment on them.

Is there any hope? Yes—if true Christian revival comes to Europe. Let’s be frank. The Muslim asylum-seekers are not fleeing the glories of Christendom; they are fleeing the brutalities of Islam.

Bishop Michael Nazi-Ali of Oxford, who trains Christians for ministry in locales where the Church is suffering persecution, says of the current crisis of asylum seekers: “The first and immediate thing is to say is that we must not fail in compassion. . . . Having said that, we must also ask about the causes of the crisis and what can be done to address them.”

Hope for Europe is the same as hope for the rest of the world—true repentance and turning to Jesus.