Sunday, November 25, 2007
Sunday: A Former Sunni Muslim Looks at His Journey From Allah to Christ
Amazing testimony of a journey from Allah to Jehovah.
Before Christ, he lived and died in constant fear of the scales. Muslims have to be 51% righteous to tip the scales towards paradise, and even then there's no assurance. Dying as a martyr is the only assurance. They must earn even the possibility of salvation through their works. He explains 9/11 and the desperation inherent in Islam that all Muslims feel.
No matter how churlish he was, the anonymous people, the sole boy in the tiny little church loved him unconditionally, all the way to the Cross.
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Many people are not aware of the breath and magnitude of Muslims conversion to Evangelical Christianity. In 1979 in Iran, there were onlh about 500 known Iranian Christian converts. Today, there are over 1,000,000 Iranian Muslim converts to Chritianity. Likewise, in Sudan, there are approximately 1,000,000 new converts to Christianity from Islam in the midst of genocide in both western Darfur, and southern Sudan. These are rather staggering numbers.
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21 comments:
This may be the answer we're all looking for! Please gather all your friends, and convert the muslim world...then Israel and the rest of the world can finally live in peace!!! Nice clip!
These videos are very, very powerful. Thank you.
The Persian God Mithra predates Jesus by over 1000 years, as do several other 'messiahs' that follow the standard mythology that forms the basic story of christianity.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeZB2EsPqGE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmzailhVl-U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6UdQxt7b24
Yes, Ellen, you are certainly entitled to believe as you wish and to piece together whatever case you choose debunking the historical Jesus. I was once there too.
But I suggest as you do, run down Highway 7 in Tysons Corner near you, and listen to Lon Solomon at McLean Bible Church one morning. You might find it interesting and heaven forbid, compelling.
Web, what is your source for claiming that 1,000,000 Iranians have converted to Christianity? I googled this phrase "1,000,000 Iranian converts to Christianity" and have so far only uncovered far right evangelical sites making that claim, with no documentation, save for "sources tell me" and the like. That claim is made over and over again dozens of times, with each new site using the first site as proof that Muslims are deserting Islam by the thousands or millions in places like Iran, and Egypt (that is just not happening in Egypt, no matter how much you want to believe it).
I'm sure there are Muslim converts to Christianity, just as there are converts like Tony Blair to Catholicism. I'm just wondering where the numbers are coming from.
You are correct, Vienna, this information did not come from either the State Department nor the New York Times. It is indeed from evangelical feeds.
We may never know for sure at this time, but we do know the number of conversions is substantial.
And remember, those who convert to Islam in Iran face imprisonment and death, and so they're not exactly going to be out there.
There is a book you might enjoy, Vienna, called....can't find it, must have loaned it out....but will try to find it and post it here later.
OK, the book is by Mina Nevisa and called Miracle of Miracles.
I'm still not convinced the conversions out there are substantial. I'm sure there are people who are converting on both sides. It just seems like one person said "millions are converting" with no proof that's actually happening, and then people are using that quote as proof that conversions are happening daily.
But I'm probably wrong, and I'm sure once we start bombing Iran back to the stone ages, the Christians will come out in force to help us defeat the Iranian government. Hopefully they'll greet us as liberators.
I looked up that book on Amazon. The reviews make it seem like it's a powerful example of one person's conversion. If she's happy, then I'm happy for her.
It is a powerful conversion story for sure, and amazing. But the reason I mentioned it is because of the story of what happened to her after she was discovered to have converted to Christianity in a Muslim family in Tehran.You see she was a closet Christian.
It is truly astounding what she and her cousin went through.
I was never much into 'group think' or following the flock. It goes against my critical thinking skills.
Standard myths are pervasive in human society, as is the need to believe.
I'm sure whatever she went through was unpleasant to say the least. I'm not saying that Christians aren't mistreated; my only questions is whether millions are converting, which I'm not sure I buy.
I know how Christians were treated - or mistreated - in Egypt. The government had just started to acknowledge Coptic holidays when we were there (the first year might have been 2005, right after we spent our first Christmas in Egypt - their Christmas falls more in line with Epiphany).
Egypt and the Holy Family have an amazing history together, as I'm sure you know. We got to draw water our of a well that was supposedly used by Mary to gather water for her family while they were in Cairo (I believe it, my husband is more of a skeptic). We also visited the spot where the Holy Family departed Maadi and crossed the Nile.
You should google "Mokkatam" and see what you come up with. That was TRULY amazing, and something I'd bet you'd love to see.
Here are some pics I found online:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/40766703@N00/273928938/in/set-72157594365500758/
I was in your shoes once Web, as a catholic and Biblical scholar before i realized the whole story had been told many times before.
For example inscribed about 3500 years BC, on the walls of the Temple of Luxor in Egypt are images of the enunciation, the immaculate conception, the birth, and the adoration of the god Horus. The images begin with Thaw announcing to the virgin Isis that she will conceive Horus, then Nef the holy ghost impregnating the virgin, and then the virgin birth and the adoration. Sound familiar? In fact, the literary similarities between Jesus and the Egyption religion are staggering. There literally hundreds of parallels. This is just one example, there are dozens of 'messiahs' that follow a similar story. Attis, of Phyrigia, born of the virgin Nana ... Krishna, of India, born of the virgin Devaki, Dionysus of Greece, born of a virgin ... Mithra, of Persia, born of a virgin, Prometheus of Caucasus ... and the list goes on.
And the plagiarism is continuous. The story of Noah and Noah's Ark is taken directly from standard myth. The concept of a Great Flood is ubiquitous throughout the ancient world, with over 200 different cited claims in different periods and times. However, one need look no further for a pre-Christian source than the Epic of Gilgamesh, written in 2600 b.c. This story talks of a Great Flood commanded by God, an Ark with saved animals upon it, and even the release and return of a dove, all held in common with the biblical story, among many other similarities.
And then there is the plagiarized story of Moses. Upon Moses' birth, it is said that he was placed in a reed basket and set adrift in a river in order to avoid infanticide. This baby in a basket story was lifted directly from the myth of Sargon of Akkad of around 2250 b.c.
The reality is, Jesus was the Solar Deity of the Gnostic Christian sect, and like all other Pagan gods, he was a mythical figure. It was the political establishment that sought to historize the Jesus figure for social control. By 325 a.d. in Rome, emperor Constantine convened the Council of Nicea. It was during this meeting that the politically motivated Christian Doctrines were established and thus began a long history of Christian bloodshed and spiritual fraud. And for the next 1600 years, the Vatican maintained a political stranglehold on all of Europe, leading to the Dark Ages, along with the Crusades, and the Inquisition.
Christianity, along with all other theistic belief systems, is the fraud of the age. It served to detach the species from the natural world, and likewise, each other. It supports blind submission to authority.
This blind submission to authority is an absolute requirement in the psychological makeup of believers. They call it 'faith'.
Many years ago, Ellen, I studied myth with the master of myths himself Joseph Campbell. We even exchanged a few letters in between visits for several years at Esalen.
I remember studying many of the age old myths that you talk about here in classes with Joe and several of his book like Hero With a Thousand Faces. These myths seem to be inherent in all cultures and the "collective unconscious."
So, I do hear you talking. All I learned with Joe, until his death,and even in decades of dead Christian religiousity made the discovery of the living Christ---emphasis on living---all the more compelling to me, when it finally arrived.
However, the relationship with Christ that I touch on, often only tangentially here, is so vastly different than anything that one can come up with in their rational thought processes, that it's silly trying to discuss it.
Rather than being a flock/group think experience, a genuine Salvation experience is uniquely personal and supernatural at the same time. Once this happens to a person their lives are never the same again....as all myths and former gods and idols pale completely in comparison. The Bible comes alive in the most profound way.
Egyptian photos are lovely...thanks for the link, vienna.
One of the things I find most interesting about the dismissal by non-believing skeptics of those who have embraced Christianity (or more aptly have been embraced by Christ)is the statement "well, if she's happy, then I'm happy for her..." This is the height of silliness.
The great myth perpetuated by skeptics and non-believers is that people embrace the Cross of Christ to be happy.....and that afterwards people pile onto some blind authority-like a flesh pile as happy, mindless lemmings.
Nothing could be futher from the Truth. Most frequently, one's life begins to become radically individuated and actually much more difficult. All but one of the twelve Apostles were martyred---brutually murdered----for the so-called happiness they found in following Christ.
Following Christ in a real and personal way is often a narrow, difficult path wrought with much heartache, rejection and tribulation. But ultimately there's an inexplicable joy there.
Mina Nevisa's book is an example of life after conversion in extremis. Only the power of the Holy Spirit can lead someone to endure the kinds of hardships she did. It is simply not possible to do on our own steam.
True conversion---and I'll be the first to say there are many, many false conversions and social/political Christians---is from another, unseen dimension and has nothing to do with Happy Faces or Living Happily Everafter....
As to the million conversions in Iran, there is no way such numbers can be verified for certain, so I will be satisfied that there are substantial numbers of them living beneath the surface ready and willing to endure whatever hardships that may come their way.
Wanting someone else to be happy is the height of silliness? Really??? All I meant by it is this: if she's happy where she is in her life, then I'm happy for her, as I'm happy for anyone who has found the thing, idea, belief that makes them a better person. I thought I was just being polite and respectful of her beliefs. I know how much trouble I tend to get in while trying to respect other people's religious beliefs.
You seem to be making the argument that people who believe in Jesus Christ are miserable, hopeless beings who must endure countless struggles with despair and only occassionally find happiness. That's not been my experience. Most people I know who are believers of all denominations get a great deal of comfort from their belief in God and Jesus Christ. It brings solace through difficult times and peace through times when life is going well.
I don't know why you dismiss me as a non-believing skeptic. I'm a churchgoer, too, and I'm not a mindless, happy lemming. I'm comfortable where I am with my beliefs. I just choose not to wear my beliefs on my sleeve - and that makes me happy.
Well then, I'm happy that you're happy...
and of course I don't mean that all followers of Christ are miserable. But true belief is not embraced for happiness sake so much as a profound and deep awareness that we are sinners in need of a Savior, and that Savior is Christ Jesus. That's when lives begin the take on true Life in the Spirit.
There are numerous historians who lived in and around the Mediterranean either during or soon after the assumed life of Jesus. How many of these historians document this figure? Not one. However, to be fair, that doesn't mean defenders of the Historical Jesus haven't claimed the contrary. Four historians are typically referenced to justify Jesus's existence. Pliny the younger, Suetonius, Tacitus and the first three. Each one of their entries consists of only a few sentences at best and only refer to the Christus or the Christ, which in fact is not name but a title. It means the "Anointed one," which could have been anybody. The fourth source is Josephus and this source has been proven to be a forgery for hundreds of years. Sadly, it is still sited as truth.
You would think that a guy who rose from the dead and ascended into Heaven for all eyes to see and performed the wealth of miracles acclaimed to him would have made it into the historical record. He didn't because once the evidence is weighed, there are very high odds that the figure known as Jesus, did not even exist.
yes, and many of the Apostles, and even the Apostle Paul all died for wishful thinking and believing a myth.....I don't think so, Ellen.
Interestingly, the more that's dug out of the ground in the Holy Land the more that's collaborated in the Bible.
We each make our own decisions, and you certainly have a right to reason as you wish. But from my perspective, the more dazzling reality is found in the Salvation History found in both the Old and New Testaments.
For the unnamed commenter, let me say that the Crusades were initiated by the Holy Roman Empire/the Catholic Church in 1091 A.D. against Arab Muslims who had taken over the Holy Lands of Palestine in the 7th century A.D.(Sound familiar?)
The Crusades were indeed brutal---as all wars are. This happened centuries before the Protestant Reformation.
Ergan Caner has an amazing story to tell. And tell it he does - he is a mesmerizing speaker. A few years ago, I was lucky enough to hear him for DAYS in a row at a music conference in NC. We didn't know who the speaker was to be - he does not publish his travel itineraries due to constant death threats directed against him and his family. What was usually a ho-hum annual trip I had to take with my spouse suddenly turned into a mountain-top experience. Immediately, perhaps even divinely, I felt the hunger to know more. His insights those few days lead me to start questioning and researching what we are up against. And to the birth of my little blog, Obi's Sister. My hope is that along with the voices of many others, we can help stem the tide of Islam. I've been studying now for several years and what I have learned barely scratches the surface. Islam itself is hard to pin down - its so slippery - much like the serpent we are all called to battle.
What a wonderful story and I agree that Ergan Caner has a truly stunning story to tell. Isn't it interesting how he says in the first video that he is here, in effect, to be an evangelist to our country? And we need it.
Only recently have I started coming to your blog and look forward to reading and getting to know you. Thank you for stopping by and commenting.
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