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Over 1 billion Muslims around the world are now observing Ramadan, a month of fasting and reflection. While most adherents to Islam are spending their holiday on personal discipline and dedication, more extreme factions are using the time of year to call for violence against Christians.
Ruth Kramer of Mission Network News reports:
“During Ramadan, the jihadists are calling for holy war. They’re calling it kind of an obligatory act of worship. What you typically see during Ramadan is a real spike in the violence. On the day that Ramadan began, jihadists attacked a bus that was filled with Coptic Christians in Egypt and killed 29 of them; about half of those were children as young as two years old.”
In the face of such violence, as we’re bombarded by stories of increasing barbarism, how should the body of Christ respond?
“One of the biggest tools we have in our tool chest is prayer, and we just don’t know how to pray for Muslims, how to love Muslims, to come alongside them and say there is another way.”
“If we knew how to pray for Muslims, and we joined together in prayer, imagine what God could do through that.”
To help us learn to pray for our Muslim neighbors, Prayercast, a branch of OneWay Ministries, is hosting theRamadan Prayer Challenge.
The campaign sends daily prayer notes directly to your smartphone, focusing on specific regions and concerns of Muslim people. They’re inviting Christians across the world to unite in prayer for the next month, to ask “with one voice that God would shatter the deception of Islam with the presence and truth of Jesus Christ.”
How to Evangelize a Muslim
- The testimony of the Gospels provides the most reliable witness to Christ. Preach the Gospel as it is! Do not soft-pedal around biblical terminology to please Muslim hearers. Be clear about what you believe and why you believe it. Know the Scriptures well, and know the confessions and what exactly you believe (catechisms). The more you know about your faith, the easier it is to talk with Muslims.
- There is no gospel in Islam. The Qur’an clearly contradicts the essence of biblical Christianity and rejects the triune nature of God, disfigures the biblical doctrines of the person of Christ and denies justification through faith on account of the work of Christ on the cross. While claiming to be the perpetual religion of nature and history, following in the footsteps of Christianity, it attempts to justify its claims by asserting that the Word of God, revealed in the New and Old Testament, is corrupted. Our apologetic discussion with Muslims should be to defend the Scriptures and prove that the Scriptures aren’t corrupt as Muslims claim. Our goal is to open up their minds a bit so that they can start reading the Gospels for an eyewitness or a companion of an eyewitness to the real Jesus.
- Always ask them the classic evangelistic questions. ‘What about your salvation?’ ‘Can you be certain of this?’ ‘If you were to die, can you be certain you’d enter heaven at some point?’ Their response is always, “No, I couldn’t be certain, nor do I care.”
- Most western missionaries are result oriented; instead you should be concerned about preaching the Gospel correctly (as it is). The essence of Muslim evangelism is accurate communication about sin and grace: simply and clearly. Talk about the law and the gospel, not about infralapsarianism and divine simplicity! Don’t compare the Bible with the Quran. That comes later!
- Always remember that you are talking to Muslims. Avoid the use of Christian jargon. Speak about real sin, real guilt, real shed blood! Do not be ashamed to use Jesus’ direct and indirect titles clearly such as ‘Son of God’ ‘Lamb of God’ ‘New Adam’ ‘I AM – YAHWEH’ ‘Savior’ ‘Almighty God’.
- Use tact and be charitable! Don’t talk about reprobation with a Muslim or a new convert who has just lost an unbelieving family member. Be kind and courteous! Many Muslims act and speak out of ignorance, not malice.
- Be sensitive to their past – if they’ve had a bad experience with Christians, missionaries or churches, struggled with a particular sin etc., be understanding and compassionate! Muslims hate self-righteousness, and rightly so! Do not soft-pedal the law and the guilt of sin, but make sure they understand that you are a justified sinner, not a self-righteous “know it all” who is here to correct them!
- Muslims will ask you many questions about your faith. Don’t feel like you have to answer all of their questions in one day. However, make sure they hear your answers to one or two questions clearly. Stick with the subject – don’t get sidetracked. When the conversation wanders, pull it back to center stage – the law and the gospel.
- Muslims will ask you to comment on their faith. Don’t go there; they will not benefit from your criticism (or feigned approval) of other religions. Your job isn’t to debunk Islam but to give a clear witness to the truth of the Gospel. Instead of letting them drag you into the topic, turn the tables and ask them questions. Let them articulate their own understandings of the religious themes you are discussing; let what you communicate be the plain truth of Christian doctrines without enumerating how Islam is wrong.
- The message of the Gospel offends Muslims. It is okay! Don’t worry! God will take care of the hearer. It is His message. Muslims will not convert to Christ if they are not offended by the message of the Gospel. Offend them by being very clear about the teachings of Christ!
- Do not use any ‘Muslim friendly’ bible translations. ‘Muslims friendly’ bible translations are very deceptive! They are not true to the original Scriptures. Muslims see it as a form of deception by missionaries!
- Muslim evangelism is not about winning an argument, but leading Muslims to Christ with the Gospel. Discussions may get heated and intense at times – that’s okay. But the purpose of Muslim evangelism is not to show why you are right and Islam is wrong. It is to communicate the truth of the gospel! The message is to be the offence! Not you!
- When Muslims are apathetic about sin – use the law. When Muslims have doubts or are skeptical – use basic apologetic arguments. When Muslims express guilt for sin – present the Gospel.
- Evangelism is about leading Muslims to Christ. Convincing non-Christians or Evangelicals that Reformed theology is true, falls under the heading of polemics. Don’t confuse the two.
- When talking to Muslims stick with what all Christians hold in common wherever possible. Leave the internecine fighting among Christians aside when talking to Muslims. A Muslim will not care so much about differences between the Catholics and the Protestants or Lutherans and Baptists. Issues such as the exact meaning of the Lord’s Supper or methods of baptism should be addressed later, during discipleship!
- Wherever possible, when talking to Muslims speak about Christianity as factually true – “Jesus did this,” “Jesus said this,” “people heard and saw him,” etc. Keep away from the subjective line of approach– “it works for me,” “this is how I feel about it,” this is my testimony.”
- Before meeting with your Muslim friends pray for wisdom.
- Muslims will respect the text you quote, but not your personal opinion. Trust in the power of God the Holy Spirit working through the word! Cite texts directly from the Scriptures with attribution. Jesus says, Paul says…. It will not help Muslims to hear your personal opinion on biblical issues. So, don’t say “I think,” or “it seems to me” or “I feel like…” Muslims interpret your thoughts, your take on things or your feelings as part of the corruption of the Bible.
- Don’t rush things with Muslims. Just because a Muslim is not ready to trust in Christ after one encounter does not mean that effective evangelism has not taken place. Pre-evangelism is equally vital. You may plant, but someone else may have to water! Always remember that it is not us who convert the Muslims to Christ but God Himself (in His time)!
- Remember that evangelism isn’t complete after you first present the Gospel message to a Muslim. Evangelism has to continue even after they repent and give their lives to Christ. They have to sit under the ministry of the Word. Evangelism of a Muslim is complete only after they are baptized, brought to the Lord’s Supper and sat under the preaching of the Word at church. In other words, evangelism never ends. Discipleship is evangelism.
- Treat Muslims as objects of concern, not notches in your belt! Establish relationships and friendships with Muslims whenever and wherever possible.
- Don’t forget that a prophet is without honor in his own home. The chances of Muslim converts leading their own unbelieving family members (or someone close to them) to Christ by themselves is remote. Encourage them as they give witness to what they have learned, but also pray for God to bring other people into the picture to help evangelize their families.
- Don’t force things. If your Muslim friends balk, ridicule and otherwise are not interested, back off. Find another time and place. If after repeated attempts to communicate the gospel, and someone still shows an unwillingness to hear what you have to say, “shake the dust off your feet and move on to a new town!”
- Be willing to get your Muslim friends the resources they need: be willing to provide them with a Bible (not just a New Testament), the right book to read, and certainly an invitation to your home and later an invitation to attend your church or to a Bible study, etc. Never ever use a Muslim friendly bible translation. These translations are a product of some western mission agencies without any support from the national churches who know their context best.
- Pray for opportunities to evangelize Muslims. Make sure to let your Muslim friends know that you regularly attend a church. Do not disconnect your evangelism effort from the church. Pray for your church – that God would bless the preaching of his word, that he would bring Muslims into our midst, and that he would bless the church with growth.
- You don’t have to become a practical Arminian to be a faithful evangelist! A Christian approach to Muslim evangelism simply means telling Muslims the truth in love without changing it. Trust that God the Holy Spirit will penetrate hearts and minds of Muslims with “the Gospel”
- Muslims love to sing Islamic hymns that tell the stories of the Quran. Islamic hymn singing is singing the words of the Quran. Show your Muslim friends some samples of Christian biblical songs with verses directly taken from Scriptures. In other words, sing the Bible to them! The role of music in human culture is to join people together. Biblically we are commanded to sing the praises of Christ. There are 694 references to singing or music making in Holy Scriptures. Participatory singing is a very significant matter biblically. There will be no singing in Hell, but the saints in Heaven will sing everlastingly. That is really amazing and remarkable! Let us show Muslims what we will be doing in Heaven.
- “Fear God and give Him Glory, because the hour of His judgment has come, and Worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.” (Rev. 14:7)
Varnel Watson
WELL it HAS started Isara Mo Neil Steven Lawrence Ray E Horton did any of yall have a write up on RAMADAN?
ISLAM is only ONE of WORLD’S THREE APOCALYPTIC RELIGIONS The antichrist will most likely come from the area of the old Assyrian Empire and the Muslims will accept him as their Mahdi. He will be accompanied by someone claiming to be Jesus, who acts as the false prophet and denies the gospel. It appears that events will eventually turn the world against him leading to Armageddon.
Because the coalition is Islamic. There is a possibility that they could be drawn into the conflict, espevially if they go the route that the Islamic world seems to be moving, i.e. towards a more militant and fundamentalist form of Islam. Meshech, Tubal, Togarmah and Gomer are all found in Modern day Turkey which is presently trending away from secularism and towards fundamentalism. Persia (present Iran), Lybia, Ethiopia (modern Somalia and vicinity) are also Muslim.
For all Putin’s bluster, he is apparently having a difficult time subduing the Ukraine and is presently stalemated. Not exactly a conquering powerhouse.
A mainstream Sunni Muslim website has decreed that the Islamic messiah, called the Mahdi, will appear in 2016 and that the Muslim Jesus will return in 2022 to conquer the world for Islam
Tala’l Badr (here arises the moon) is the most significant chant in Islam. Watch Erdogan sucking in the rays of being moon-Mahdi while looking like the ancient Sultans of the Ottomans:
Iran to proclaim Bashar Assad as the 12th Inman Mahdi.not alike what Ricky Grimsley has been claiming about Erdogan http://www.pentecostaltheology.com/all-you-need-to-know-about-the-demonic-roots-of-global-terrorism-and-how-the-christian-church-can-respond/
Neil Steven Lawrence
The word “mad“ is embedded in both the word Ramadan and Muhammad!
Varnel Watson
paste us your studies Neil Steven Lawrence
Neil Steven Lawrence
Islam’s Obsession with the Kafir (that’s you): Dr. Bill Warner analyzes that 51% of islamic writing is devoted to concerns about the Kafir.
Quran (64%),
Hadith (37%),
Sira (81%).
Since more than half of Islamic doctrine is a doctrine concerning the kafir (unbeliever in Allah & Islam), what are the implications for the rest of the world cultures and civilizations toward Islam?
A majority (51%) of the Trilogy text concerns the kafir (unbeliever). The Quran, Hadith, and Sira are not primarily about being a Muslim, but about the Kafir. Most Quran translations use the word “unbeliever” instead of Kafir, but Kafir is the actual Arabic word.
This term is so important and so unknown that the meaning of Kafir must be defined. The original meaning of the word is:
“one who covers or
conceals the known truth.”
The implication, according to the Muslim psyche, is the Kafir knows that the Quran is true, but denies it.
The Quran says that the Kafir may be deceived, plotted against, hated, enslaved, mocked, tortured and slaughtered mercilessly. The word is usually translated as “unbeliever” but this translation is wrong. The word “unbeliever” is logically and emotionally neutral, whereas, the term Kafir should be understood to be the most abusive, prejudiced and hateful word in any language.
There are many religious names for Kafirs:
polytheists,
idolaters,
People of the Book (Christians and Jews),
atheists,
agnostics,
and pagans.
Kafir covers them all, because no matter what the religious name is, they can all be treated the same. What Muhammad said and did to polytheists (and the 800 Jewish males in Medina – chopping their heads off and making their wives and daughters sex slaves), can be done to any other category of Kafir.
Islam devotes a great amount of energy to the Kafir. Not only is the majority (64%) of the Quran devoted to the Kafir, but also nearly all of the Sira (81%) deals with Muhammad’s struggle with them. The Hadith (stories) devotes 32% of the text to Kafirs. Stunningly, Islam is not really interested in promoting “the truth” inside its tenets but is instead consumed by rejection it feels from the Kafir and possessed by hatred to eliminate all Kafirs. In fact, it is the main goal of Islam: to force the whole world to submit to Allah, Muhammad, and Sharia Law. The Kafir is what stands in the way of their goal.
YOU ARE IN THEIR WAY AND MUST BE CONVERTED OR ELIMINATED ! (Stop projecting your Christian ideas of mercy upon Islam and Muslims. If they are following Islam the way you are supposed to follow Christ, you will find no mercy from them!!!!! This is an historical fact.) -NSL
Ray E Horton
Neil Steven Lawrence Thank you! That is the strongest exposé of Islam that I have yet seen. So, all those nice Muslim families that many of us know are either deceiving us or are apostate.
Neil Steven Lawrence
Ray E Horton Because there is an evil spirit behind Islam when the chips are down for the non-believers and the Muslims have dominance they will definitely change their face. That doesn’t mean they don’t have any sympathy for people they have gotten to know who are unbelievers it just means once Islam is dominant that spirit will take over.
Of course the power of the Holy Spirit and the love of Christ which exists in us does provide a strong draw toward Muslims that you get to know. But the bondage they are in is very deep the more they study Islam and commit to it. Another term for this is: radicalization!
Neil Steven Lawrence
Ray E Horton
Taqqiya- official lying permitted by the Quran and Sharia Law, to overcome your enemy.
Tawriya – white lie
Xavier Willow
I have a friend who converted from Islam to christianity and he did it because he was seeking after more truth from God. It was interesting because that’s a big step to do that.
Varnel Watson
Ray E Horton William DeArteaga Islam: Inbreeding & Insanity:
Half of the worldʼs Muslims are inbred due to generations of incest. Maybe an additional explanation for Islamic terrorism not normally considered is:
Insanity and Stupidity
A major unspoken problem with Muslims is their inbreeding as a result of their long and deeply-ingrained practice of marrying first cousins — a practice that has been prohibited in the Judeo-Christian tradition since the days of Moses.
Even before 2008, the UKʼs environment minister Phil Woolas had sounded the alarm about this “very sensitive” issue that is “rarely debated”. Referring to the culture of arranged marriages between cousins in the Muslim immigrant community, Woolas said: “If you have a child with your cousin the likelihood is thereʼll be a genetic problem.”
Woolas, whose views are supported by medical experts, said most cases in the UK occur in immigrant families from rural Pakistan, where up to half of all marriages involve first cousins. Woolas said: “If you talk to any primary care worker they will tell you that levels of disability among the Pakistani population are higher than the general population. And everybody knows itʼs caused by first cousin marriage.”
The problem is made worse by generational inbreeding. As Woolas put it, “Many of the parents and public spokespeople are themselves products of first cousin marriages.” That would explain why research for BBC2ʼs Newsnight in November 2005 showed that British Pakistanis accounted for 3.4% of all births but 30% of all British children with recessive genetic disorders.
Searching Wikipedia confirms that “Cousin marriages in Muslim majority countries are often preferred and even encouraged,” and points to the fact that prophet Muhammad himself actually married cousins. But the problem is not exclusive to Pakistani Muslims, but is PANDEMIC among Muslims across the world.
According to Nicolai Sennels, a Danish psychologist who has done extensive research of Muslim inbreeding, almost half of all Muslims in the world are inbred:
70% of Pakistanis are inbred.
67% of Saudi Arabians are inbred.
64% of those living in Jordan & Kuwait are inbred
63% of Sudanese are inbred.
60% of Iraqis are inbred.
54% of Muslims in the UAE and Qatar are inbred.
25-30% of those in Turkey are inbred.
55% of Pakistani immigrants in England are married to their first cousins.
40% of Pakistani immigrants in Denmark are estimated to be inbred.
Sennels points out: cousin marriage was sanctioned by Muhammad and has been going on for 50 generations (1,400 years) in the Muslim world. This practice of inbreeding will never go away in the Muslim world since Muhammad is the ultimate example (Sunna) and authority on all matters, including marriage. Sennels warns that massive inbreeding in Muslim culture may well have done virtually IRREVERSIBLE DAMAGE to the Muslim gene pool, including extensive damage to Muslimsʼ intelligence, sanity, and health.
(Similar effects were seen in the Pharaonic dynasties in ancient Egypt and in the British royal family, where inbreeding was the norm for a significant period of time.)
Below are the consequences of inbreeding:
1. Birth and birth defects:
100% increase in the risk of stillbirths.
50% increase in risk the child dies during labor.
The risk of autosomal recessive genetic disorders such as cystic fibrosis and spinal muscular atrophy is 18 times higher.
The risk of death due to malformations is 10 times higher.
2. Physical / mental retardation & illnesses:
The closer the blood relative, the higher the risk of mental and physical retardation and schizophrenic illness.
The closer the blood relative, the higher the risk of schizophrenic illness, i.e., insanity.
Social abilities develop much slower in inbred babies. An academic paper published in the Indian National Science Academy found “the onset of various social profiles like visual fixation, social smile, sound seizures, oral expression and hand-grasping are significantly delayed among the new-born inbred babies.”
Research shows if oneʼs parents are cousins, intelligence goes down 10-16 IQ points. The risk of having an IQ lower than 70, the official demarcation for being classified as “retarded,” increases by 400% among children of cousin marriages.
This Explains the following phenomena among Muslims:
(Source: Nicolai Sennels):
1 out of every 3 Somalis are mentally ill.
More than 40% of the patients in Denmark‘s biggest ward for clinically insane criminals have an immigrant (i.e., Muslim) background.
One-third of all handicapped people in Copenhagen have a “foreign” (i.e., Muslim) background.
In Denmark, psychologist Sennelsʼ native country, “non-Western” immigrants (who are mainly Muslim) are more than 300% more likely to fail the intelligence test required for entrance into the Danish army.
In Denmark, Muslim children are grossly overrepresented among children with special needs. One-third of the budget for Danish schools is consumed by special education.
64% of school children with Arabic parents in Denmark are still illiterate after 10 years in the Danish school system. The immigrant drop-out rate in Danish high schools is twice that of the native-born.
The U.S. is not immune. According to Sennels, “One study based on 300,000 Americans shows that the majority of Muslims in the USA have a lower income, are less educated, and have worse jobs than the population as a whole.”
Muslimsʼ average lower IQ means a lowered ability to enjoy and produce knowledge and abstract thinking, which would explain why:
The Arab world translates just 330 books every year, about 20% of what Greece alone does. In the last 1,200 years of Islam, just 100,000 books have been translated into Arabic, about what Spain does in a single year.
7 out of 10 Turks have never even read a book.
Only 9 Muslims have ever won the Nobel Prize, and 5 of those 9 were for the “Peace Prize.”
According to Nature magazine, Muslim countries produce only 10% of the world’s scientific research
(an average measured
by the articles per million inhabitants).
Facing Facts of a Destructive Islamic Custom:
Admiring the immoral and unwise behavior of Muhammad by the Muslim umma (community) has far-reaching negative effects for the entire world. The long history of Islamic inbreeding may have contributed to the tremendous levels of world-wide murder and mayhem which Islamic jihad has wrought. Many of the social ills the Wests is encountering through Muslim immigration (invasion), can definitely be attributed to inbreeding.
Often the PC culture of the Post-Modern world accuses any one who dares point to the pathology of inbreeding in the Muslim community, of being “Islamophobe” and a “racist.” against Muslim people.
These accusations are disingenuous, because a fight against inbreeding anywhere is to defend humanity and to defend innocent babies from birth defects. It is the Muslims themselves who are the first and biggest victims of Islam and the inbreeding cultural practice. – NSL
Ray E Horton
Wow! That’s all new to me. It may indeed explain a lot.
Varnel Watson
Ray E Horton from the book of Neil Steven Lawrence
Varnel Watson
Neil Steven Lawrence has even more good stuff on this if FB dont ban him for religious un tolerance or something
Varnel Watson
Muhammad was the biggest cult leader in history; if he even existed. Islam is the biggest Murder Machine in human history – 270 million slaughter to protect Allah and their sense of rejection. Allah is really a rebirth of Baal. The real Kaaba shrine was not in Mecca but in Petra. That shrine, and the black stone were dedicated to Hubal (Baal).
Anonymous
https://www.pentecostaltheology.com/sharia-and-islam-in-nigerian-pentecostal-rhetoric-1970-2003/