[b]
Questions on the street[/b]
I was evangelising with some of my colleagues when we ended up speaking to a Muslim who seemed a bit confident. I asked him if he follows the teachings of Moses and he said yes, so I then asked him why he did not then keep the Sabbath? He became a bit confused then and said that I could meet with him the next day to speak to another Muslim who knows a bit more about Islam. The strange thing about this meeting was that I did not have the slightest feeling of fear or trepidation about meeting the next person and I was actually feeling a bit eager for the time of the meeting to arrive. The main thing that seems to have made me want to question them is the fact that Muslims keep on saying that they are followers of the teachings of Abraham and Moses, but yet they do not keep the Sabbath which is one of the 10 Commandments. The thing about the Sabbath commandment, that seems to emphasise how serious it is, is that God went to all the trouble of describing it in detail even though the space on the stone was limited. He was prepared to even cut down on the description of the next four commandments so that he could fit in the full Sabbath description, so for someone to come along and say that their prophet has removed the Sabbath I would expect that they would have a very good explanation for why it was removed.
Questions in the mosque
The next day arrived and the Muslim that we spoke to arranged for us to meet with his friend in the local mosque. I managed to get two of my other church brothers to come along and we arrived at the mosque and waited. For whatever reason I was not feeling the slightest bit of fear and was eager to get stuck in. My other two colleagues were also in a relaxed mood and I could tell that they were ready for whoever we would see. The first Muslim came to speak to us and I asked him about Moses and the commandments, but it seemed as if he was called away and we were then taken to another room and were faced with two other Muslims who seemed to be more senior than the first one. They asked us what we wanted to know and I asked the same question again. The answer that I received was lacking in detail and it seemed as if they were not expecting to be asked this question by a Christian.
The discussion went on for almost two hours and during that time it felt as if we were the ones who were doing most of the attacking even though we were the visitors. We did learn some interesting things about Islam, compared to Christianity, that convinced me even more that the Bible was the book to follow. It seems as if Muslims rely completely on the accuracy of the Quran for their faith, they do not have a spirit that Allah gives them that can teach them more things about him. With Christianity we have the Holy Spirit who can come to us and confirm the validity of God's word in the Bible. The next thing is that Muslims say that they follow all of the words of Moses and Jesus, but they throw away any words that are inconvenient, a true Christian, though, has to follow fully the words of Moses and Jesus and they cannot come up with any lame excuses for why they do not want to do this or that commandment. The final thing I found out is that the Quran does not seem to have any instructions for specific things that you can do to see if Allah will come through for you. There are various parts where we are given instructions for things that we can do and a response from God is promised if we follow what we are told to do with faith.
Questions not answered?
When the discussion had ended I was still feeling good and it seemed to me as if they were they ones who still had a lot more answers to give than we did. Throughout the whole discussion we were not phased in the slightest and it seemed as if our minds were being sharpened by something so that we could jump on any questionable statements that were made by the Muslims. In the end they said that we should trust in prophet Muhammad because of how he smelled and because of how other people trusted in him, but this answer was very unsatisfactory and I have this feeling that they were a bit shell shocked because of the questions that we were asking. While we were having the discussion, some other Muslims came to listen and they were all silent while the discussion was happening. I have seen on You-tube where Christians will have more than one Muslim speaking to them at the same time, but on this occasion they were quiet and when the discussion had finished they were still quiet which seemed to indicate that they were thinking about what had been discussed. The other interesting thing is that none of the other Muslims attempted to convert us so it looks as if we were speaking to the two main teachers in the mosque.
Here is another question that I have thought of recently, if I have a 14 year old sister, who does not want to get married, but has decided to devote her life to serving God and she gets killed while evangelising, what would happen to her in paradise if she was a Muslim? If she was a Christian then we can be sure that she will be fine because of Matthew 22:23-33 where it says "The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him, Saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. Now there were with us seven brethren: and the first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and, having no issue, left his wife unto his brother: Likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh. And last of all the woman died also. Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her. Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at his doctrine." and we see here that she will become like the angels so will not have to worry about her destiny. The Quran, on the other hand, does not give her any assurance of being able to have a good time, like the men, so I would have to advise her that Christianity is the safest bet for her if she wants enjoy her life with God.
Can the Sabbath really be avoided?
The main conclusion that I have drawn from this meeting of minds is that we Christians are in a bad way. If we three low level Christians could go into a mosque and give them so much trouble, then why are people even bothering to convert from Christianity to Islam. One of our church sisters even said that she was unhappy about the fact that we went into a mosque, I suppose she would even have stopped Paul from going to Rome because she would prefer him to be singing and dancing in the local church rather than going off to do God's work. If Islam was strong then they should have been able to convert us, but at the end I had the feeling that they were glad that we were gone, so that the pressure could be eased. The main issue that I seem to have with the teachings of Islam is the implication that they follow the teachings of Moses, but if the teachings of Moses are to be followed then the Sabbath has to be kept. If the Sabbath is not kept then whoever breaks it is not a follower of Moses' teachings, which are the words of the one true God, and if someone claims to follow those teachings then they are also claiming to be an adopted Israelite which means that the Sabbath would then automatically apply to them as well. If you think that is not the case then lets see what God has to say in Isaiah 56:1-7 where it says "Thus saith the LORD, Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed. Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil. Neither let the son of the stranger, that hath joined himself to the LORD, speak, saying, The LORD hath utterly separated me from his people: neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree. For thus saith the LORD unto the eunuchs that keep my sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant; Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off. Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the LORD, to serve him, and to love the name of the LORD, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant; Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people." and notice that God says his house of prayer is for all people, but they have to take a hold of His covenant first. Jesus came with a new covenant, but He said that He has "not come to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfil them" which means that the 10 Commandments are still in force and anyone who wants to have a chance of making it to God's kingdom had better keep them.
Christianity and Islam both in trouble?
My Muslim friends, there is one more thing that I want to say to you as I conclude this message, beware of false teachers. From looking at the way that Islam is functioning at the moment, it looks to me as if it has pretty much the same problem as Christianity. When you look at the various Islamic groups you find some that are peaceful and some that seem to like using violence, if you read the Quran then you should be able to come to a single conclusion and this would mean that one of the groups must have false teachers in it. Christianity has a similar problem, when you go to different churches you will find some that are quiet, some that are loud, some with nice people in them and some with not so nice people in them. This shows that Christianity and Islam both suffer from a proliferation of false teachers and this means that you have to know how to spot them if you want to have any chance of making it to God's kingdom or Paradise. If you are concerned about your salvation then I would urge you to question your teachers and get them to give you some solid teachings on how to tell if someone is a false teacher. This is one area that Christianity does have an advantage over Islam because when someone repents and is baptised, the God of the Bible sends a spirit to inhabit the believer and this spirit can teach them directly how to find out if a false doctrine is being taught. You might then wonder why so many Christians have gone astray, if this is the case, well it seems to be that the majority of Christians are unwilling to give up the joys of this life and it looks as if the spirit will not activate properly if too many of the things of this life are getting in the way. You also have to remember that you have no way to validate any holy book unless you are in touch with the Creator of heaven and earth. Another prophet could come along who smells even nicer than Muhammad and they could have with them a holy book written in an even better way and you would not have any way of knowing who the false prophet is. Following Jesus Christ and the God of the Bible is the only way that you can get any verification for whether you have a chance to make it into paradise or not, all other, so called, religions require you to follow an earthly figure, without any verification from above, and the best that they can do is to convince you about the accuracy of their writings. Remember though that God isn't going to care much about how well you memorised your holy book at the judgement day, he is going to care more about how well you have kept His commandments and how much effort you have put into doing His will. If the Quran does not mention this important fact to you then you have a good reason to find another way of saving your soul.
If you are interested, I seem to have found out what the requirements are for the spirit to be activated properly, be warned though that the requirements are high so if enjoying life is a priority for you then I will not be able to help you. I am even having a hard time getting some of my Christian brethren to let go of this life, but I have to keep on trying because of the amazing reward that is in store for anyone whos mind is open enough to accept the challenge that God has laid down before us so that we can be worthy citizens of His kingdom.
Questions on the street[/b]
I was evangelising with some of my colleagues when we ended up speaking to a Muslim who seemed a bit confident. I asked him if he follows the teachings of Moses and he said yes, so I then asked him why he did not then keep the Sabbath? He became a bit confused then and said that I could meet with him the next day to speak to another Muslim who knows a bit more about Islam. The strange thing about this meeting was that I did not have the slightest feeling of fear or trepidation about meeting the next person and I was actually feeling a bit eager for the time of the meeting to arrive. The main thing that seems to have made me want to question them is the fact that Muslims keep on saying that they are followers of the teachings of Abraham and Moses, but yet they do not keep the Sabbath which is one of the 10 Commandments. The thing about the Sabbath commandment, that seems to emphasise how serious it is, is that God went to all the trouble of describing it in detail even though the space on the stone was limited. He was prepared to even cut down on the description of the next four commandments so that he could fit in the full Sabbath description, so for someone to come along and say that their prophet has removed the Sabbath I would expect that they would have a very good explanation for why it was removed.
Questions in the mosque
The next day arrived and the Muslim that we spoke to arranged for us to meet with his friend in the local mosque. I managed to get two of my other church brothers to come along and we arrived at the mosque and waited. For whatever reason I was not feeling the slightest bit of fear and was eager to get stuck in. My other two colleagues were also in a relaxed mood and I could tell that they were ready for whoever we would see. The first Muslim came to speak to us and I asked him about Moses and the commandments, but it seemed as if he was called away and we were then taken to another room and were faced with two other Muslims who seemed to be more senior than the first one. They asked us what we wanted to know and I asked the same question again. The answer that I received was lacking in detail and it seemed as if they were not expecting to be asked this question by a Christian.
The discussion went on for almost two hours and during that time it felt as if we were the ones who were doing most of the attacking even though we were the visitors. We did learn some interesting things about Islam, compared to Christianity, that convinced me even more that the Bible was the book to follow. It seems as if Muslims rely completely on the accuracy of the Quran for their faith, they do not have a spirit that Allah gives them that can teach them more things about him. With Christianity we have the Holy Spirit who can come to us and confirm the validity of God's word in the Bible. The next thing is that Muslims say that they follow all of the words of Moses and Jesus, but they throw away any words that are inconvenient, a true Christian, though, has to follow fully the words of Moses and Jesus and they cannot come up with any lame excuses for why they do not want to do this or that commandment. The final thing I found out is that the Quran does not seem to have any instructions for specific things that you can do to see if Allah will come through for you. There are various parts where we are given instructions for things that we can do and a response from God is promised if we follow what we are told to do with faith.
Questions not answered?
When the discussion had ended I was still feeling good and it seemed to me as if they were they ones who still had a lot more answers to give than we did. Throughout the whole discussion we were not phased in the slightest and it seemed as if our minds were being sharpened by something so that we could jump on any questionable statements that were made by the Muslims. In the end they said that we should trust in prophet Muhammad because of how he smelled and because of how other people trusted in him, but this answer was very unsatisfactory and I have this feeling that they were a bit shell shocked because of the questions that we were asking. While we were having the discussion, some other Muslims came to listen and they were all silent while the discussion was happening. I have seen on You-tube where Christians will have more than one Muslim speaking to them at the same time, but on this occasion they were quiet and when the discussion had finished they were still quiet which seemed to indicate that they were thinking about what had been discussed. The other interesting thing is that none of the other Muslims attempted to convert us so it looks as if we were speaking to the two main teachers in the mosque.
Here is another question that I have thought of recently, if I have a 14 year old sister, who does not want to get married, but has decided to devote her life to serving God and she gets killed while evangelising, what would happen to her in paradise if she was a Muslim? If she was a Christian then we can be sure that she will be fine because of Matthew 22:23-33 where it says "The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him, Saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. Now there were with us seven brethren: and the first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and, having no issue, left his wife unto his brother: Likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh. And last of all the woman died also. Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her. Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at his doctrine." and we see here that she will become like the angels so will not have to worry about her destiny. The Quran, on the other hand, does not give her any assurance of being able to have a good time, like the men, so I would have to advise her that Christianity is the safest bet for her if she wants enjoy her life with God.
Can the Sabbath really be avoided?
The main conclusion that I have drawn from this meeting of minds is that we Christians are in a bad way. If we three low level Christians could go into a mosque and give them so much trouble, then why are people even bothering to convert from Christianity to Islam. One of our church sisters even said that she was unhappy about the fact that we went into a mosque, I suppose she would even have stopped Paul from going to Rome because she would prefer him to be singing and dancing in the local church rather than going off to do God's work. If Islam was strong then they should have been able to convert us, but at the end I had the feeling that they were glad that we were gone, so that the pressure could be eased. The main issue that I seem to have with the teachings of Islam is the implication that they follow the teachings of Moses, but if the teachings of Moses are to be followed then the Sabbath has to be kept. If the Sabbath is not kept then whoever breaks it is not a follower of Moses' teachings, which are the words of the one true God, and if someone claims to follow those teachings then they are also claiming to be an adopted Israelite which means that the Sabbath would then automatically apply to them as well. If you think that is not the case then lets see what God has to say in Isaiah 56:1-7 where it says "Thus saith the LORD, Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed. Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil. Neither let the son of the stranger, that hath joined himself to the LORD, speak, saying, The LORD hath utterly separated me from his people: neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree. For thus saith the LORD unto the eunuchs that keep my sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant; Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off. Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the LORD, to serve him, and to love the name of the LORD, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant; Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people." and notice that God says his house of prayer is for all people, but they have to take a hold of His covenant first. Jesus came with a new covenant, but He said that He has "not come to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfil them" which means that the 10 Commandments are still in force and anyone who wants to have a chance of making it to God's kingdom had better keep them.
Christianity and Islam both in trouble?
My Muslim friends, there is one more thing that I want to say to you as I conclude this message, beware of false teachers. From looking at the way that Islam is functioning at the moment, it looks to me as if it has pretty much the same problem as Christianity. When you look at the various Islamic groups you find some that are peaceful and some that seem to like using violence, if you read the Quran then you should be able to come to a single conclusion and this would mean that one of the groups must have false teachers in it. Christianity has a similar problem, when you go to different churches you will find some that are quiet, some that are loud, some with nice people in them and some with not so nice people in them. This shows that Christianity and Islam both suffer from a proliferation of false teachers and this means that you have to know how to spot them if you want to have any chance of making it to God's kingdom or Paradise. If you are concerned about your salvation then I would urge you to question your teachers and get them to give you some solid teachings on how to tell if someone is a false teacher. This is one area that Christianity does have an advantage over Islam because when someone repents and is baptised, the God of the Bible sends a spirit to inhabit the believer and this spirit can teach them directly how to find out if a false doctrine is being taught. You might then wonder why so many Christians have gone astray, if this is the case, well it seems to be that the majority of Christians are unwilling to give up the joys of this life and it looks as if the spirit will not activate properly if too many of the things of this life are getting in the way. You also have to remember that you have no way to validate any holy book unless you are in touch with the Creator of heaven and earth. Another prophet could come along who smells even nicer than Muhammad and they could have with them a holy book written in an even better way and you would not have any way of knowing who the false prophet is. Following Jesus Christ and the God of the Bible is the only way that you can get any verification for whether you have a chance to make it into paradise or not, all other, so called, religions require you to follow an earthly figure, without any verification from above, and the best that they can do is to convince you about the accuracy of their writings. Remember though that God isn't going to care much about how well you memorised your holy book at the judgement day, he is going to care more about how well you have kept His commandments and how much effort you have put into doing His will. If the Quran does not mention this important fact to you then you have a good reason to find another way of saving your soul.
If you are interested, I seem to have found out what the requirements are for the spirit to be activated properly, be warned though that the requirements are high so if enjoying life is a priority for you then I will not be able to help you. I am even having a hard time getting some of my Christian brethren to let go of this life, but I have to keep on trying because of the amazing reward that is in store for anyone whos mind is open enough to accept the challenge that God has laid down before us so that we can be worthy citizens of His kingdom.
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