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Got about one hour left together and still have a lot of material to cover and let me start off by apologizing for the brain seizure I had. Before we took our break. The reason I didn't give you the name of that very popular Islamic speaker is I couldn't remember what it was.
It was just one of those. What's my wife's name again? Moments, you know and. They are happening more and more as the as the calendar keeps flipping those pages. And I get older and older it happens, but the man's name is ah was Ahmed D dot Ah MED D E E D a t if you want to look up some of his material on YouTube I do believe that he is the most viewed Islamic speaker in the world in fact.
I'll tell you a quick story. It'll have to be quick because I've still got a lot to cover in the last hour but I Was I did a debate? I've done a couple debates in in New York with Muslims and and I? Saw this group sort of sitting together.
And they came up to me afterwards very nice folks, and they're ah MED D Muslims and the ah MED D Muslims. They believe in the Quran they believe in in the five pillars of Islam. They pray the prayers the whole nine yards, but Muslims view them like we view Jehovah's Witnesses.
Because they believe that there has been a prophet since Muhammad. They don't have other books of scripture. They only have the Quran, but they believe that there was a man sent from God back in the late 1800s and because of that Muslims say they are not Muslims and as a result they're killed by both Sunni and Shia Muslims throughout the world in Pakistan Afghanistan place like that.
They're peaceful folks actually and so they came up to me afterwards, and they were talking with me and and Had found the debate to be very interesting and things like that and they said to me. They said um Are you speaking anywhere else here in New York while you're here?
I said well. Yeah actually Wednesday night I'm speaking at this Baptist Church located I'm gonna be talking about the reliability of the text of the New Testament. And they said that's the same night.
We have our meetings. We'll cancel our meeting come to yours and. So they canceled their meeting and so that Wednesday night I'm at the church and and about half an hour early all sudden all and they wear these fez type things all these Muslims with fez's start coming into the and it was about 60 -40 about 60 Christian 40 Muslim that night and of course I had really beefed up my presentation for some strange reason that evening and and so There's a point to all this.
Afterwards they they we open it up for questions and they hadn't a lot of standard questions that Muslims have about the text of New Testament and When I was talking with some after the presentation. One of them mentioned that some of the information that he had been asking questions based upon the fact that he had watched Ahmad Didat Talking on these specific subjects.
Here's someone who's not even in an orthodox Muslim group and yet What have they watched they've watched Ahmad Didat debating Jimmy Swagger. That is how widely distributed amongst Muslims throughout the world.
That kind of stuff really is now. What was interesting is in the conversations afterwards the imam of the mosque the Akhundi mosque said you know the next time you're in New York, please let us know we'd like to have you speak.
So it's like okay. I haven't been in New York since then but next time I'm there. We will definitely will definitely try to arrange that would be quite interesting to do now. Got to jump back into this because we still have a lot to cover and I'm you'll be able to tell that I'll be talking Very very fast to try to get all done.
We've been looking at the concept of sonship all this leading up to what I think is the key text in this subject on this in the subject of the Quran and its representation of What the Bible says it's surah surah al-maida is the name of the surah surah 5 ayah 116 and Beware the day when Allah will say oh Jesus son of Mary did you say to the people take me and my mother as deities besides Allah.
He will say exalted are you it was not for me to say that to which I have no right. If I had said it You would have known it. You know what is within myself, and I do not know what is within yourself indeed.
It is you who is knower of the unseen and so here is the Quran saying That on the Day of Judgment Allah is going to say to Jesus the son of Mary. Did you say to the people and here's the words of the Quran?
This is an accurate translation. Take me and my mother as deities besides or in derogation of Allah. Now Remember before when we had talked about the fig tree arguments, and it said Jesus ate food. But it actually used the plural it says he and his mother Ate food and it says see how Allah makes his signs clear and yet how they are diluted.
This is the only text in all of the Quran. I remember surah 5. We've already had the do not say three. It'll be better for you three what? Who is the three? Some of you might say well is the is the Holy Spirit ever mentioned in in in the Quran.
Well, there is a Holy Spirit in the Quran. You know who the Holy Spirit is in Islam the angel Jibreel. The angel Jibreel. There is never any reference to father son and Holy Spirit anywhere in the Quran coming 600 years after the time of Christ 300 years after the Council of Nicaea.
No mention of father son and Holy Spirit. Instead you have the one place in all the Quran where you have three mentioned it's in the same context to surah 5 and Here you have three mentioned. You have a law.
You have Jesus and you have Mary hmm. Allah Takes a wife and has a son. Allah is married to Mary. They have a kid named Jesus. Now, where could that have come from? Well think with me for just a moment what if you're a young Muhammad and you are going on caravan up into Syria and You visit a village it has a small Christian Church in it and you're a teenager.
What do teenagers do? Well, we know the teenagers here run out of my presentation five or seven minutes. Five or seven minutes prior to when I'm done. That's what that's how teenagers that's what teenagers do, you know, you're right in the middle of a sentence and where they go.
Yeah, and so I'm sure at some point in time, you know Muhammad gets done taking care of the camels and it's time to go exploring and. So you go find the Christian Church and you you know. Maybe nobody's around or something like that and you know.
Maybe you stick your head inside and you look around and what are you gonna see in a Christian Church around? 5 85 ad in southern Syria. Well by then you're gonna see statues you have representations of God maybe is the Creator.
You're gonna see crucifixes. You're gonna see Jesus on a cross. What aren't you going to see that's gonna immediately strike you as being a representation of deity. How would the Holy Spirit be seen? What would the holy how the Holy Spirit probably represented in art or sculpture as a dove?
Probably wouldn't even recommend to a young person. This is a picture of deity. But what else you're gonna see? You're gonna see a woman. You're gonna see a woman holding a baby. Because Mariola tree was already in full swing by that time.
Not to the point that Rome has developed it today but there is very exalted language of Mary by the third century and so you're gonna see God. You can see Jesus and you can see Mary. I Think that's where it came from.
Did you say the people take me and my mother as deities besides Allah and That's why some Muslims I can sit there and explain to them. I can give them entire books. I've written entire book on the Trinity.
It's used as a textbook in a lot of schools the Forgotten Trinity. Here it is. Here's we believe one God three person. Here's the evidence that you know monotheism the existence of three persons the equality and co-equality and co-eternality the first it's all right there.
Here's why we believe we believe they'll read it smart people and they still struggle to actually believe that. That's what we really believe. Why. Because that's their ultimate authority that's their ultimate authority and That's why you really need the Spirit of God to be able to to reach those folks now.
Sometimes it seems like Islam is the religion of perpetual outrage. Because they're always outraged. Remember Jalal al-Barood, I'm angry this evening. You've ascribed a son to Allah and I'm angry if you've offended us and there's all this constant.
We're offended. We're offended and and to be honest with you. Sometimes I'm offended and no one really seems to care about that. You're a Christian. You're supposed to be offended, you know, just take it.
But I'm offended by this. I'm offended by Putting into the words the mouth of Jesus. You know what is within myself and I do not know what is within yourself. Clearly the author of that text had never read these words all things have been handed over to me by my father and No one knows the son except the father nor does anyone know the father except the son and anyone to whom the son wills to reveal Him.
People have said that there was Christian influence in Muhammad's life that He had Christian relatives. But evidently no matter how else you put it Muhammad simply did not know the gospel. He did not know what the New Testament contained.
Even to to any even real surface level at all. He knew much more about what the Old Testament contained in the new that's for certain and he didn't know what was found here. So what's the first great barrier that you're gonna have to get over in?
Dealing with a Muslim and introducing them to Jesus Christ proclaiming to them the Lordship of Jesus Christ. It's the concept of shirk. Shirk is an unforgivable sin. So they actually believe most of the many ways that you are inviting them to commit the one sin that if they die.
That's the one sin a lot cannot forgive them of they can be a mass murderer. I told you this story. Well, I'll tell you the story tonight about mass murderer he was forgiven by a law and All sorts of other sins can be forgiven by God.
On what basis is an issue we'll get to here in a moment, but any other sin can be forgiven by God. But remember Abu Talib does anyone remember Abu Talib? What's Abu Talib wearing somebody? Thank you very much.
There was someone listening. Yes. Whoo-hoo, if I had something to give to you, I'd give to you, but I don't have anything to give to you. Abu Talib Muhammad's uncle remember he was the one person that Muhammad can intercede for who was a mushrik.
He had committed having he had died having committed the sin of shirk and Muhammad intercedes for him. So he's got the he's got the garden spot in hell, which means he's wearing sandals. They're so hot his brains boil.
That's the one sin and what they understand what the vast majority of Muslims think you are inviting them to do Is to commit the one sin that Allah will never forgive. So that's the first that's the first barrier to the gospel.
You wonder why missions work real missions work amongst the Muslim people is so difficult. There's a good example of it. But the second barrier the second barrier is found in these words. If you're gonna write down two verses if there's just two ayah of the Quran to understand I would say they'd be surah 5 116 and surah 4 157.
I'd also throw surah 112 surah Dalai Klass in there for for good measure, but that's another issue. Surah 4 157 have any of you seen? I Wish I you don't have internet me right? Wireless or anything in here.
Yes, no, I've got I've got yeses and no's we have a division in the church. I'm sorry we do not okay. Maybe you're picking up on somebody else's. Maybe you're sponging off somebody else's, but if if we did actually I have it oh I wish I wish I wish we had we had plugged in the I actually could hold my my microphone down to do this if I really needed to.
Have any of you seen the music video that we produced with with a fellow by name of Ivy Connerly called 40 Arabic words. Have you seen that drew you have seen it, okay? Maybe I'll have time to play it for you or something, but.
Here are the 40 Arabic words. Only 40 Arabic words. This is the only ayah the only verse in all the Quran That denies the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, and it says and for their saying that is the Jews.
Indeed we have killed the Messiah Jesus the son of Mary the messenger of Allah, and they did not kill him nor they crucify him. But it was made to appear to them and indeed those who differ over it are in doubt about it.
They have no knowledge of it except the following of assumption, and they did not kill him for certain. So You have 40 Arabic words written 600 years after the events 765 miles away by someone has no knowledge of the events themselves and.
Yet for this reason Muslims all across the world do not believe that Jesus Christ died upon the cross of Calvary. Now if the Muslim comes from a Muslim country There is a very great chance. They believe in what's called the substitution theory not substitutionary atonement the substitution theory.
Because they look at this phrase right here, but it was made to appear to them should be halahum. Should be halahum in Arabic is really not a very clear Understandable phrase it could mean a lot of different things.
Most Muslims in the world believe that someone else was made to look like Jesus and He was the one crucified on the cross and guess who the primary Suspect is Judas. So most Muslims in the world think Judas was supernaturally made to look like Jesus.
And he was the one nailed to the cross while Jesus the next verse says surah 4 158 rather Allah raised him up Rafa who to himself and ever is Allah mighty exalted in might and wise. So Jesus is taken up to heaven and Judas is made to look like Jesus and Judas is the one that's killed on the cross of Calvary.
Now I had one Muslim send me a long paper once proving absolutely that it was Simon of Cyrene. Who was the one that was nailed to the cross? But that's the substitution concept and the vast majority of Muslims in the world believe that in The West not so much.
Why. Because Western Muslims realize because they get challenged more often than non-mess Western Muslims. That this sort of leads to a little bit of problem because if you believe the substitution theory then Allah sort of started Christianity by mistake.
Because he did such a good job in fooling people. That even Jesus's disciples were fooled and they went out and started proclaiming the crucifixion resurrection and now you've got Christianity. And so Allah started Christianity by mistake by doing such a good job with the substitution concept.
And so a lot of Western Muslims when you ask them specifically If they believe that they'll say Well, we don't believe Jesus was crucified. But what really happened whenever a Muslim doesn't have an answer.
They'll say Allah who Adam God knows God knows and to sort of move on from there you'll see this in some of the some of the presentations here, so The Orthodox this is a this is a quotation from Yusuf Ali his particular version of the Quran has sort of study notes.
It's sort of you know, the the wry study Bible version of the Quran, you know, it's got the footnotes down the bottom nothing against. I Still have a great a great Schofield new Schofield man from Oxford and the leather on that thing is so awesome.
Even after all these years, it still moves quietly at night. It's just a It's great it's great Bible. The Orthodox Christian churches make it a cardinal point of their doctrine that his life was taken on the cross that he died was buried.
And on the third day he rose in the body with his in the body with his wounds intact and walked about and conversed. And ate with his disciples and was afterward taken up bodily to heaven. This is necessary for the theological doctrine of blood sacrifice and vicarious atonement for sins, which is rejected by Islam.
The Quranic teaching is that Christ was not crucified nor killed by the Jews. Notwithstanding certain apparent circumstances which produced that illusion in the minds of some of his enemies. Well, not just the minds of some of his enemies the minds of his friends, too.
In fact for a hundred years anybody who commented on this at all. Outside of the New Testament historical sources everything Jesus died under Pontius Pilate on a Roman cross. It wasn't till the Gnostics came along that anyone denied that Jesus died on the cross and they denied Jesus died on a cross because they Denied Jesus had a physical body ever tried to crucify a spirit.
Not very not very easy to do you can you can do all the nailing you want. It doesn't do anything to a spirit. So that's why they denied the the reality of of the cross and. So you'll have other Muslims like Muhammad Assad.
He has a huge commentary on the Quran published by care. You all have heard of care. I'd imagine the Council on American Islamic relations. They're in the news all the time compare surah 355 Where God says to Jesus verily I shall cause thee to die and shalt exalt thee unto me.
The verb Rafa who literally he raised him or elevated him as always whenever the act of Roth Elevating of a human being is attributed to God the meaning of honoring or exalting. Nowhere in the Quran is there any warrant for the popular belief that God has taken up Jesus bodily in his lifetime into a heaven.
So Assad represents the more Western view. That is not the most popular view at all amongst most Muslims and you can sort of tell by the person you're talking to. You know when I I mentioned that I had an opportunity of talking to a Muslim who is my cab driver he was taking me to the airport and We started talking and I could just tell he was from Morocco.
He was born and raised in Morocco. And so it was it was almost a given he accepted the substitution theory he understood surah 4 1 2 7 as Meaning somebody else was made was was put in Jesus's place and so on and so forth.
But if it's someone who may be a second generation a little bit more educated or something like that. Possibility is they're gonna be not quite as quick to affirm this idea. Now obviously if Jesus is not crucified on the cross and there is no resurrection.
There is no concept of atonement and most Muslims will of course say to you I just don't understand why you don't believe that God can just forgive sins. I mean if someone sins against you you can forgive them.
You don't have to have a sacrifice or you don't have to go, you know Kill a puppy dog or something just simply to forgive someone who asks you for forgiveness. Why do you need to have sacrifice a law can simply he's merciful.
He can just simply forgive sins. That is the Muslim concept and they do not understand do not accept even though there's sacrifice in Islam. It is not seen as being pointing forward to some kind of fulfillment in the person of Jesus Christ and So you have very very clearly here then.
This this second major hurdle. I had a friend. In fact somebody here Mentioned to me I think yesterday or day before it all blends together after a while. It was pre-Yamama, I know that so we can that's sort of the dividing line.
It was a pre-Yamama or post-Yamama. It's it's a that sort of helps me to understand where I was in the in the course of the of the conference I've never really had that happen quite to that level before but I Think it's the conjunction of that and the football shirts that just sort of it comes together.
And it just makes it a special experience for me one to be very very memorable. Anyway, what was I saying? We're at the Battle of Yamama and Someone came up to me and said that who's here has done some of the work in Uganda.
Did anyone mention it? Okay. All right. Was it was it you really? Oh He's going. I don't know if it was me. But I've been there and then somebody had been talking about some missions work in Uganda and I had a friend that was in Uganda and You know in a small village rural village.
I mean just very very primitive. No electricity or running water or anything like that and Just walking down the streets and and and talking to people through a translator and and the Muslims there would come up and you start talking and We're talking people that are on subsistence living here.
And the first objections they would raise was we just don't understand. Why you Christians? believe That Allah would allow one of his most Blessed messengers to die in such a horrible way and It's and it's an honest objection from their perspective.
They just understand from their perspective to die upon a cross is a Allah would never allow that because Jesus was a good man that that's not the Prophets don't die that way. And so what does that mean to us?
That means that whenever you present this whenever you present The crucifixion to a Muslim you have to emphasize the Self-sacrificial nature of what Jesus does no one takes my life from me. I give it of my own accord.
It is necessary that I go to Jerusalem it is necessary the Son of Man be betrayed in the hands of men as he be scourged and beaten and and Crucified rising and you've got to he humbled himself. He became obedient to the point of death even to death on the cross.
Philippians chapter 2. You have to emphasize the fact that this is something Jesus does and he does so willingly. The Father Son and Spirit together chose to do this. Because from their perspective That's just not that's just not possible.
It's not possible the law would ever allow something like this to happen to such a wonderful wonderful servant of God and so. Did you all see the some of did some okay? Well, he could have seen on the iPad too, but did you all see the the video why I love Jesus but hate religion.
One person two people. Okay. All right a couple of you did had millions and millions of hitters. It went viral on YouTube and it was a Christian guy. Well every other group on the planet started to do a response to it and a young Muslim guy down in Australia did a response to it why we love Jesus why I love Jesus and therefore love Islam and Millions of people saw that too.
So we did a response to that for some reason. I do not know why. Look at me and you'll find this to be as funny as I do. But I happen to be very popular amongst black Christian rappers. But seriously a couple years ago I was I looked on Twitter and here's Lecrae anybody ever heard of Lecrae probably one of the biggest names and in that and Lecrae says Was saying we've got a day off on our tour.
We're chilling to the bus watching James White videos and there's a click and it's a picture and there's the band and up on the TV and the bus is me doing a debate with somebody I'm like really seriously, you know, so Shailene Lecrae all these guys I they like they like watching debates and stuff, you know and so I've gotten to know some of these guys and one of the guys I've gotten to know is a guy named Ivy Connerly and I contacted Ivy and I said, you know I think it'd be really really good to respond to this Muslim this young Muslim guy because I mean his his thing is filled with Misunderstandings of Christianity and so I wrote it and then Ivy put it into it's called spoken word.
It's not specifically Necessarily rhyming rap, but it's spoken word type stuff and and look I'm a Bach Beethoven type guy and and if I'm if I'm if I'm doing something a little more modern, I'm a Keith Green I mean type any any Keith Green folks.
Oh, yeah, I mentioned that to drew and he's going who's that? And I'm like I mean my parents thought that I was I was a liberal Modernist nutcase for listening to Keith Green and as it's now like who's Keith Green?
Anyway, so, you know, it's not like this stuff is is native to me. Okay, you know, but It really went well, it was real they know they shot it real well they did it in in in a church and and and the graphics are real good and stuff, so we started doing some work together and I wrote a I wrote a something on eyes on surah 4 157 and he converted it and I Just realized that I can't play it for you because it's on a separate drive I Feel terrible.
Anyways, what you want to do is you want to go to either YouTube or to my or to my blog and Put in 40 Arabic words and tonight get a chance to listen to that because I moved all my stuff. My iTunes library is so huge.
It takes up, you know over half of my got a 750 gig drive. And I think it takes up half of it. So I moved it to an external drive and left it sitting in my hotel room, which I hope is still there. Actually because if it disappeared that I'd be in real real big trouble.
But it might be hiding somewhere in the recesses of this someplace. It's it's possible it is but I'd have to stop and look for it and maybe when we're done I'll take a quick look for it and we can listen to it toward the end, but we'll we'll see.
Okay. So you have a massive problem here. We have a massive hurdle in the way and this leads us to the issue of salvation and there. If you think that there are differences of viewpoints amongst Christians on the nature of the gospel and the arguments between Calvinists and Arminians and Pelagians and Augustinians and and Molinists and all the rest of the stuff that you can come up with.
There's exactly the same as just as wide a variety of viewpoints amongst Muslims as there are amongst Christians at this point. There really are. What you do have though is a fundamental rejection of the idea of a need for Substitutionary atonement that God can simply forgive his law can simply be from our perspective.
Trampled underfoot and one of the illustrations is the one I've mentioned a couple times just sort of starts here. But I'm going to tell you the story myself because there's a number of different versions of it in the Hadith but Here's just one example of it.
Muhammad told the story and and by the way, I had I had used this as an illustration for a couple of years before I did a debate with Imam Shamsi Ali in New York and We did a radio program before we did the debate together and to illustrate the the forgiving nature of Allah Shamsi Ali told the same story that I had used as an illustration for years.
So this is not something that you know, I've just stumbled upon this story and no Muslim has ever told it or anything like that. It's it's a very well-known story and it's it's used by well Shamsi Ali is the Imam of the largest mosque in in New York City, so fairly well-known individual.
And so here's the story is you have a man Who is well, he's a mass murderer he has killed 99 people and He goes to a monk and he asks the monk. Will God accept my repentance and The monk rather unwisely Says no, and so he kills the monk.
And so now he's killed a hundred people. Was that one up there? Yeah, the part where he gets killed isn't on that particular screen, I'll just leave it there. So he kills he kills the monk and now he goes to a scholar and evidently the scholar is smarter than the monk.
Maybe heard about the monk. I don't know but he goes to a scholar and he says can my repentance be accepted by Allah and The scholar says go to such-and-such a city that is filled with righteous people, I guess he figured he can't kill all them and They will tell you how your repentance can be accepted by Allah and So the man starts going and as I've mentioned to you in Islamic theology the 40 days into the gestation period a Angel comes and writes upon a tablet.
What every person's life is going to be like what you're gonna look like. Where you're gonna live how successful you're gonna be how smart you're gonna be. Everything and the exact day of your death and there is nothing you can do about that zip zero nada.
That's why a lot of Muslims and a lot of Muslim lands are really are fatalists. You know, it's inshallah many of those nations really struggled to motivate people to do work and things like that because inshallah if Allah wills and so the time of his death comes and As he is going toward this city and It I guess it's a little bit like if any of you saw the movie in time I saw it on a flight once I found it rather fascinating actually it had a lot of interesting spiritual overtones to it but you had this clock embedded in your arm and once it times out you just you're gone and That's sort of what happens this guy.
It's his time comes. He's gone. And so there he is you know probably face down the dirt in the road and When you die an angel from paradise comes an angel from hell comes to claim your soul and they argue and The angel from you would think the angel from hell's got the fairly easy argument here.
This man's a mass murderer. He's killed a hundred people. He's never done anything good he goes to hell, but the angel from paradise says ah, but He was going to find out about repentance. So Allah decrees That if the man is one cubit closer to the city he was going to than the city he was coming from he'll go to paradise and then He causes the earth to shrink Between the man and the city, so he's one cubit closer where he's going so the man goes to paradise now.
Imam Shamsi Ali told this story on the radio and you sort of think well All right, if that's the case Then any Muslim who says their prayers and goes on Hajj and fasts during Ramadan I mean if you could earn heaven I would say living in Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia not drinking all day during the day in July is enough to get you into heaven.
I mean that that should be enough to do it. I really think Any faithful Muslim should have it easy there shouldn't be any problem in them getting into heaven, right and Yet, we know that that's not how Muslims understand it.
There's another there's another Hadith where a man is brought before God before a lot judgment and 99 scrolls seem to be a number for for Muhammad 99 scrolls of his evil deeds are brought forth and The angel reads all of them and the man just stands there and Allah asks him Have we been unrighteous to you as these your deeds?
Yes. I did all those things. Do you have any good deeds? Man says I have nothing he's resigned to his fate and Allah says but you're wrong. But one remember 99 scrolls of bad deeds stacked up one scrap of paper is brought forth by an angel and The 99 scrolls are put into the scales.
The Quran specifically uses the language of scales. It says those whose scales are are light on the day of judgment will be the losers those whose scales are heavy On the day of in other words good works versus bad works Will be the successors they'll be successful and The 99 scrolls are put in one side of scale in this one little piece of paper.
It's put in the other side and who it outweighs the 99 scrolls. What was written on the one piece of paper? You probably could guess La ilaha illallah. He had made the confession of faith. He was going to paradise.
Now other hadith would indicate he'd be spending some time in hell in the process not to purge him of sin. The time spent there is not it's not a purification thing. It more has to do with the the intercession of Muhammad and stuff, but still he's he's gonna end up in paradise.
There's another hadith that very clearly states that It's written for you on that 40th day whether you're going to paradise or to fire and so there are going to be people who will do the deeds of the fire all their life until they're one hand's breath away from entering the fire and Then what is written about them will overcome them and they will go to paradise.
Because that was what was written for them and there are other people Who will do the deeds of paradise they will be righteous they will do good deeds their entire life until they're one hand's breath away from entering the paradise and Then what is written of them will overcome them and they will go into the fire.
So in other words, you can't tell by looking at somebody. It's part of the hadith and then you have this. Click there it is. I Was shown the hellfire and that the majority of its dwellers are women that always wakes the ladies up.
At this point, maybe they're getting a little tired, you know, and the coffee's wearing off and then you you throw that one up there. Now would any of you like to know maybe why this is? Because actually some of the ladies some of the Muslim ladies asked Muhammad O prophet of God Rasool Allah why is this and His response was well, it's it's obvious.
First of all your testimony in the court of law is worth less than that of a man and Secondly At least once a month. You're not able to do the prayers. Now think about both of those rules if I were a Muslim woman, I would have gone.
Excuse me, but you made those rules but they didn't say that because they were wiser than that and wanted to continue living so. But that's why the majority of the dwellers in hellfire are women because they they can't be as Religiously observant as as a man which strikes us as very odd.
And as I said, there are There are hadith about some of the companions of Muhammad the companions are considered to be the greatest generation has ever lived. No generation can come close to companions the people who actually walked and talked with Muhammad.
They are the greatest religious authorities in the world. They are the greatest generation. It's ever lived and yet there were Companions who cried when they thought of their death because they had not been told by Muhammad that they would come out of the hellfire.
They have been told they'd go in but not they would come out and So you have a lot of conflicting stuff. I mean in the in the in Muslim theologists at the Day of Judgment the thing called the Sirat is set up it's a it's a bridge it goes over hell and and Some people will run across it quickly, even though it's it's it's a razor edge.
And if you have a lot of Iman faith, then you have much light to see but then he told stories about some Muslims who will have only a small amount of Iman sort of the faith of a mustard seed a small amount of Iman and it's sort of like their toe will glow for a second then it stops and They will be crawling across this bridge on their hands and knees and they have to stop waiting for the light to come back On I mean, there's just so many different pictures and and trying to come up with a coherent Way of understanding them.
It's why there are so many different perspectives found amongst the Muslims. What all this leads us to is A recognition of why all of what we've been doing this weekend is important you see I Have this saying that I I probably didn't make it up, but I don't I didn't consciously borrow it from anybody else.
But I say theology matters in other words what you believe will have a tremendous impact upon how you live. How you how the church worships how the church views itself what its mission is? All these things theology matters and here is a great illustration of it.
You have a religion that talks about a holy God you have a religion that talks about Sharia the law of God and So you have sin you don't have the same Real concept that I see in Isaiah 6 and and we're even Isaiah who is a holy man Sees his own sinfulness before God.
I don't really see that kind of an understanding, but there is a great fear of hell. There is a great fear of Not being right with with Allah because as I've said it seems to me that Allah looks a lot like Muhammad and If you know anything about the history of Muhammad, you know that sometimes a Defeated foe would be brought before him and Muhammad would be gracious to him and restore him to his lands and his property and his wives.
And so on and so forth and then the next guy comes up. He's just like the last guy and he beheads him. There is an arbitrariness to Allah just as there was an arbitrariness to Muhammad and The Result is a Muslim Who becomes truly concerned?
About his relationship to Allah has to look to the Quran and the only thing The Quran can give him by way of assurance is there is one way to know when you die. That you're going into the presence of Allah and you'll have peace with him and you'll go to paradise and that is if you die in jihad.
If you die fighting for the Muslim people Muhammad himself wished that he could die a thousand times in jihad. Die and be resurrected then die again in battle and be resurrected and die again in battle to resurrect over and over and over again.
He didn't get to do that. But he said that was his desire. It should be all Muslims desires. Because that's the one if you die as a mujahid. There is no question of the judgment there is no question of the arbitrariness of Allah straight into the presence of Allah straight into paradise itself and that explains This look familiar.
June 30th 2007 Glasgow Airport, Scotland. There is a dark green jeep That has been driven into the airport doorway two men inside have pressed a button and Gas bombs have gone off. Thankfully just like Christmas Day over Detroit a couple years ago.
Making bombs is not as easy as the internet may look at make make it look to be. And the only two people who died Were the two people in the vehicle and they died slowly over time with their burns, which is a really Not a good way to go, but there you see the fires you saw the gates there just a few moments ago.
One of the reasons that this one really struck me Was because I have a lot of friends in Glasgow and starting in 2005 I started preaching pretty much every other year there at the Reformed Baptist Church of Annie's land with Jim Handyside and his wife Chrissy and I've walked through that very door before this happened and since I was there last year.
I think no late 2010. Anyways, no early 2011. That's right I Know this airport. I know where the Starbucks is. I've bought my daughter some things there. I've stood at those gates and checked in my luggage and they clearly want that bomb to go off and you just Blast burning gas in all over those people.
That's what they wanted and They purposely drove it there and they ran in that door and they reached down and I'm sure they screamed Allahu Akbar and pressed the button now. What kind of men were these?
Most of the media sort of tries to tell us that these are down-and-outers, you know that in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Some of the governments will actually send money To people's families who blow themselves up in Israel and you know as long as you kill an Israeli or two you you get money for being a martyr or you die as a mujahid and Things like that and they're presented as down-and-outers.
They got nothing else to do it's a good way to get money for your family and and so on and so forth, but That's not what these guys were. They were both National Health Service doctors. Not nurses they were full-fledged physicians and They were the ones who died in this attack.
They are the ones who planned it. They are the ones who built the bomb and you go. What causes somebody to do that? What what causes somebody what's it? Like what was the drive there like? You know we think about that about 9-eleven.
What was it like in the cockpit is that building got bigger and bigger? I was in the twin towers a years a year before they went down. I was in this airport a year before that bad, and they're following me around.
It's just it's just a strange and odd thing. Hope that doesn't continue. Thanks drew. What was it like? At that time what was it like as those buildings came closer and closer because men knew what they were doing.
Why? They don't know the people in those buildings. They don't know the people in those planes, they didn't know the people in the airport how can they have such animosity toward these people and Such a lack of concern for their own life.
Every one of them was absolutely convinced that. By dying in this way they were assuring to themselves Paradise itself. Yeah, 70 virgins all the carnal pleasures that go along with that. But fundamentally.
Since Islam has no mediator there can never be any assurance of peace with Allah except this because there's no mediator and why is there no mediator because Muhammad didn't understand the concept and Because he denied the crucifixion because he denied That the Son of God had taken on human flesh that there was a son of God.
You could say he was ignorant if all you want he was there's no question that he was ignorant. But the results have been absolutely positively amazingly tragic. Down through the centuries and even to this day and so as you think about well the young people Led us in singing.
It's a beautiful song Before the throne of God above I Have a strong and perfect plea. And it talks about our my name is written on his hands. And those are beautiful songs to sing, but do we really think about what that means do we really believe it?
You know I watch those kids, and I think back to over 30 years ago 1981 the Christian music festival in Estes Park, Colorado. It's a big I mean Amy Grant was there the Imperials were there. I know you don't know any of these people.
It's okay. You know all the big names were there, and they had a small group competition like this about the same number of people. Small group competition, and we were from a very large Baptist Church, North Phoenix Baptist Church in Phoenix.
I sang bass and We won we won the we won the national competition that year, and I just remember how we are our Signature song was called cornerstone. I've still got it on my well again on the external drive I don't have with me right now.
But I have it and it was all and I'll still sing along can't do it as well as I used to the range isn't quite as well quite as good as it used to be when I was 18, but It just meant a lot to me. It meant a lot to me to sing that song.
But I sometimes think back at some of the songs I sang as a young person. I I go you know I didn't really Give quite enough thought to what I was saying back then the older I get the more I think about lyrics and what it means.
And maybe it's because I do a lot more preaching now. I've been preaching through Hebrews for for almost three four years now. Not every Sunday, but I don't go that slow. Though Reformed Baptists do tend to go that slow.
I my fellow elder preached through Matthew, and I think in seven years but Yeah. What's that What's that we got one of those okay? There yes, I That's good, that's good that I got no got no problem with that that whatsoever, but I've been preaching through Hebrews and It has really made that song mean so much more to me to think about The sacrifice of Christ the nature of the one.
You know I I've defended the deity of Christ against Jehovah's Witnesses and people like that for years, but Honestly the more I do it and and especially recently Because of my work in Islam. I it has really struck me more and more how vitally important that is.
I Mean the cross is the very centerpiece of human history. It is the very centerpiece of what God has done. And if Jesus wasn't the God man, then he would not be fit to be the one where all of the attributes of God are illustrated in one event his holiness his justice his wrath and His love his mercy his grace meet in one place at one time in one unique Individual in the cross of Christ and when we think about I when I think about my name is written on his hands.
Why why is it that you as a believer woke up this morning if you're a believer? Why is it that you woke up this morning and the first thought across your mind was not the wrath of God against your sin?
Because you know your sin. You know even as a believer how many times your mind wandered? How many times you left things undone? How many times you indulged your sinful flesh? So why did you wake up not fearing the wrath of God partly because we don't think much about the wrath of God.
But if you're a believer the reason you wake up with confidence is because Romans 5 once is therefore having been justified by faith we have Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Why why can I have peace with God?
It's not because of anything I've done. It's because of what Christ has done in my place. And that's the very thing that has been denied. To the Muslim people they've got the holiness of God. They've got heaven.
They've got hell, but they don't have a mediator that can provide them with that peace. And if there's anything That should motivate you It should be. Well remember the story from the Old Testament you know the armies have besieged Jerusalem and Then they're gone and who discovers at first some beggars some people have nothing and We are like beggars.
Starving and we have found eternal life. Are we just gonna keep it to ourselves? Oh, this is great. No, you want to go and tell everybody else that you know is likewise like you starving and When we really understand what God has done for us, then we should we should be the first ones.
To be proclaiming that message to those who've in this case been given a false Hope in fact has specifically been put in a position that results in doctors sitting in Jeeps burning. Because they think this is the way They can have peace with God.
It's an amazing thing and so I've thrown a lot of material out at you. I've we've talked about Abdullah Ibn Masud and Ubaid Ibn Ka 'b and and and and Akhmed Didat and even got Jimmy Swaggart in there for the fun of it and We've talked about a lot of stuff.
But all of it really comes together to try to say. These people need knowledgeable bold loving Compassionate Christians who will get over the fear that we have and Tell them not about a Jesus. You know the only Jesus it seems Christians want to tell Muslims about is the you know I hate that picture of the long-haired Jesus where he's got the little lamb in his arms.
You go well, you don't want to tell Jesus is loving. Yes. He's loving but that's not all he is and The picture of Jesus in the book of Revelation. How does Jesus appear to John. Is he is he got. Yeah.
He does appear as a lamb later on the book of Revelation. Lamb standing as a slain before the and he's the object of the worship of every created thing. But when he appears to John the Isle of Patmos, what does he look like?
He's powerful. He has a sword a sword comes forth about he rules the nations with a rod of iron and what really strikes the Muslims I've found is When you give the full orb view of Jesus He is king of kings and Lord of lords.
Every breath of your mouth comes from his hand every beat of your heart comes from his hand. You cannot treat him as a mere prophet. You can't be neutral about him. And then when you present him in his glory as the one who's created all things.
Then what's really amazing is he's shown his love and Proven his love in the cross of Christ and the resurrection and They respect that and That's what they need to hear from us. So if I have been able to encourage you toward that end Encourage you toward Being bold as a witness and maybe getting over that initial fear.
We haven't covered everything there is to know but I'm going to guarantee you one thing if you took in Any major portion of what I've said sadly amongst evangelicals in the United States, you're some of the best educated on Islam now.
Use that information. May God be honored and glorified in it. Thank you. Dr. White. We want to pray for.