Posted March 03, 2026
The FBI is reporting that the mass shooting in Austin, Texas, last Sunday morning may be related to terrorism. A third victim has now died; more than a dozen others were injured, including some who remain in critical condition. Police shot and killed the suspect as well.
The attack came on the weekend that the US and Israel launched multiple strikes on Iran, killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The gunman in Austin was reportedly wearing a sweatshirt with the words “Property of Allah.” An FBI agent also said, “There were indicators on the subject and in his vehicle that indicate potential nexus to terrorism.” The bureau’s terror task force is now probing the mass shooting.
A very troubling aspect of this story is its possible connection to hardline Muslim clerics in the US who have been claiming that war between the US and Iran is part of a prophetic destiny tied to the return of the Mahdi, their messiah. One of them closed his Friday prayer before war broke out: “May Allah destroy all the nonbelievers.” He asked for this victory “before the arrival of Imam Mahdi.”
Add to that senior clerics in Iran who have now issued a fatwa (religious edict) against Americans, stating that vengeance is a “religious duty” for all Muslims. Some Muslims believe that for a Muslim to die while carrying out such a jihad is a guaranteed path to paradise.
All of this taken together could cause Americans to fear all Muslims in our midst and to hate radical Islamists who seem to hate us. But while we should obviously take necessary steps with regard to the security of Americans at home and abroad, this visceral reaction is not the way God wants believers to respond.
The opposite is actually the case.
My longtime friend and Middle East missionary, Tom Doyle, has been documenting for many years the spiritual awakening ongoing in the Muslim world. As he and others have been reporting, Muslims in remarkable numbers are seeing visions and dreams of Jesus and other spiritual messengers and turning to Christ as their Lord.
I’ll share just one example. I was privileged to speak in Bangladesh some years ago, where I met a woman who had recently come to faith in Christ. Her story reads as though it were in the book of Acts: Her father died, then appeared to her the next night in a dream. He showed her the face of an American she had never met and told her that this man was speaking in a nearby house and that he had a message she needed to hear.
She went to this house the next morning, and there before her was the American in her dream. He had come to Bangladesh with a ministry team to conduct Bible studies and equipping sessions.
She walked up to him and said, “What message do you have for me?” He had no idea what she meant. She explained her dream; he shared the gospel; she trusted in Christ, then ran home and brought her children to the man; he shared the gospel with them, and they trusted in Christ as well.
Miracles like this are happening across the Muslim world and especially in Iran, as our recent podcast on the subject demonstrates. Theirs is already the fastest-growing church in the world; if barriers to freedom are lowered as a result of the present conflict, the Christian movement in Iran could explode in growth.
However, as Tom stated at a conference we led together, Satan hates what God loves. Consequently, my friend believes that the rise of radicalized Islam, beginning with Iran’s Islamic Revolution in 1979, has been the enemy’s response to the spiritual awakening sweeping the Muslim world.
In short, Satan wants us to hate and fear Muslims, while God wants us to love and pray for them.
We can view the threat of terror attacks at home and abroad in this light. While our soldiers fight with the weapons of physical war, we are called to fight with the weapons of spiritual war (Ephesians 6:10–18). Jesus commissioned us to attack the “gates of hell,” secure in the knowledge that they will never withstand our assault (Matthew 16:18).
To this end, let us:
As we pray and share, we can know that we are joining God as he is working in truly miraculous ways. Some scholars believe that we are seeing what one calls “the greatest turning of Muslims to Christ in history.” We can know that our intercession and witness are being used by God’s Spirit “far more abundantly than all that we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20).
As I write this morning, a “blood moon” total lunar eclipse is occurring in the skies overhead as the Earth passes between the sun and the moon. However, our skies are so cloudy where I live that I cannot see the phenomenon.
By contrast, my editor lives in a different part of the country where the eclipse is visible and tells me that it is beautiful. I therefore know that it is happening because someone who knows what I do not has shared what she knows.
This is a rather mundane illustration of the privilege and urgency of evangelism. Now let’s consider a more dramatic example: Last Saturday, two people in East Texas became trapped when their hot air balloon hit a cell phone tower at an estimated 920 feet in the air. Images of the punctured balloon and its occupants dangling so high above ground are frightening.
Firefighters climbed the cell tower, braving high winds at elevation. Using multiple rope systems, they rescued both passengers.
The amazing story calls to mind Pastor David Platt’s observation:
“Disciple making is not a call for others to come to us to hear the gospel, but a command for us to go to others to share the gospel.”
How will you obey this command today?
“Every saved person this side of heaven owes the gospel to every lost person this side of hell.” —David Platt
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