Gregory, Missions, and Islam
Renewing Your Mind
Ligonier Ministries
4.8 • 5.3K Ratings
🗓️ 23 January 2026
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Within 20 years of Muhammad's death, Islam dominated a region as large as the Roman Empire. Today, W. Robert Godfrey presents the rise of Islam and its relationship to the medieval Christian West.
For your donation of any amount, get W. Robert Godfrey's monumental study series, A Survey of Church History, on DVD. You'll also receive lifetime digital access to all 73 video messages and 6 study guides spanning 2,000 years of church history: https://gift.renewingyourmind.org/4573/offer
Live outside the U.S. and Canada? Request digital access to every message and the study guides with your donation: https://www.renewingyourmind.org/global
Go back in time every Wednesday with Stephen Nichols on the 5 Minutes in Church History podcast: https://5minutesinchurchhistory.com/
Meet Today's Teacher:
W. Robert Godfrey is a Ligonier Ministries teaching fellow and chairman of Ligonier Ministries. He is president emeritus and professor emeritus of church history at Westminster Seminary California.
Meet the Host:
Nathan W. Bingham is vice president of media for Ligonier Ministries, executive producer and host of Renewing Your Mind, and host of the Ask Ligonier podcast.
Renewing Your Mind is a donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Explore all of our podcasts: https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | In the Middle Ages, Islam's rapid growth presented a challenge to Christianity. |
| 0:05.0 | So the threat of Islam to the West was a serious and ongoing one through the Middle Ages. |
| 0:13.0 | And that's why in the 16th century for the reformers, it was often difficult to be sure who the Antichrist really was. Was it the Pope or was it Muhammad? |
| 0:23.5 | It was a close call for a number of the reformers. |
| 0:32.2 | Welcome to the Friday edition of Renewing Your Mind. I'm Nathan W. Bingham. |
| 0:37.3 | Today we conclude our time considering the Middle Ages with our featured teacher |
| 0:41.7 | W. Robert Godfrey. |
| 0:43.9 | The messages this week are from the second installment to his six-part overview of church |
| 0:48.9 | history, and we'll send you all six. |
| 0:51.9 | That's 73 messages on DVD when you donate before midnight |
| 0:56.5 | tonight at Renewing Your Mind.org. Or when you call us at 800-435-4343. Don't miss this opportunity |
| 1:05.4 | to add this popular resource to your library. Dr. Godfrey is our chairman here at |
| 1:10.8 | Liggeny Ministries. He's one of our teaching |
| 1:12.9 | fellows, and he's a gifted church historian. Here he is to continue helping us understand |
| 1:18.5 | the Middle Ages, and today the rise of Islam. |
| 1:25.6 | We were looking at the end of the last lecture at Pope Gregory, Gregory the Great, right around the year 600, |
| 1:32.3 | who began to lay the foundations of an increasingly independent papacy in the West as a key force in the society of the West. |
| 1:43.3 | And we talked about various elements of Gregory's theology. |
| 1:47.3 | I want to read what one historical theologian said of Gregory. Almost everything in Gregory |
| 1:53.8 | has its roots in the teaching of Augustine, and yet scarcely anything is really Augustinian. |
| 2:00.4 | The fundamental spirit of Augustine is vanished, |
| 2:03.7 | and superstition gains supremacy. |
... |
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