Warfare

 

We rode the bus into the center of town to support a street evangelist and his presentation right at the base of the Spire on O’Connell Street.  The very first presentation caught the attention of some Muslims that, I soon found out, were very studied on both the Qu’ran and the Bible.  A debate sparked itself into a bonfire when the presentation ended and God’s purpose for my visit to Dublin that day revealed itself. 

 

I’m not going to try and transcribe the entire conversation but I’d like to share a few things I learned.

 

First, by not even mentioning extremism, I was able to have a very real conversation with the men surrounding me.  They listened to me; and I to them.  I found that I had more than enough Truth to give them to counter their beliefs without bringing up Muslim extremists.  I remembered that everything has an extreme and militant side, even Christianity, and didn’t want to take the conversation there.

 

Second, the men I was speaking to were very condescending to me when I  couldn’t quote the entire Bible from memory.  They told me that even if all the Qu’rans in the world were destroyed, the religion would remain in tact because it is “protected” by the memory of all those who believe the prophet, Muhammed’s teachings.  They also used the fact that the Bible has so many different variations (and a lack of the original documents) to discredit the Truth.  I don’t know for sure if the Bible is protected by memory but I asked them why Satan has allowed a worldly security over the Qu’ran while He has inspired so many different versions of the Bible to be distributed.  Satan’s agenda in this world is to distract us from the Truth and the only distraction He has supplied has been from the message of the Bible.  He may, in fact, be the one supplying the security the Qu’ran uses as a selling point in the first place. 

 

Third, the Muslims I spoke to acklowledged Jesus and Mohammed as prophets.  They claimed to follow the Old and New Covenants, and also added “the latest covenant,” which was delivered by Mohammed.  What they missed, though, is that in the New Covenant (which Jesus delivered), God lives in our hearts.  This was prophesized by Jeremiah in the Old Testiment (31:31-34).  So, with God living in our hearts, we are all prophets and have the power to listen to and follow God’s direction.  What allowed Mohammed to be morally acceptable was the Holy Spirit inside of him, which Jesus died to give. 

 

This brought me to an interesting realization.  Mohammed was full of the Holy Spirit and was highly respected for both his character and trustworthiness in his community.  That was when he was visited by an angel who gave him this “latest covenant” to read and teach.  Being illiterate, though (like Joseph Smith… just saying), the angel put his hands around Mohammed’s neck and choked him three times, each almost to the point of death, until he could read the words given to him.  My question/realization is why would an angel of God (who claimed to be Gabriel) choke a man until he could read?  What’s interesting is that what Mohammed was given was virtually everything the New Covenant offered except with one omission: Jesus as the Sacrifice for all sin.  Pretty crucial point, there, wouldn’t you say?  It sounds more likely to me that this angel was actually Lucifer/Satan.  Satan is the author of confusion and has been introducing beliefs that either take Jesus out of the message or add something to it, both of which cannot be done, ever since being kicked out of Heaven. 

 

I was given intellectual points intended to discredit the Bible for over an hour yesterday by some very well-read and polite Muslims.  My heart was not convinced, though, because that’s where God’s spirit lives in me.  Jesus taught that what is in your heart is far more important than what comes out of your mouth or is in your head.  I’ve learned that there are some things that just don’t make sense…but that’s OK with me.  We are the creation and have no right to understand or to have everything explained to us in a way that makes it easy to believe.  There are enough reasons out there to NOT believe the Truth but also plenty of reasons to believe in it.  Anything that claims to have the explanation to all the answers, I immediately rebuke for that exact reason because I would think the God who created me has a higher level of understanding than I will ever have. 

 

Another interesting thought is that Mohammed was told to call his teachings “Islam” and even told his followers to call themselves “Muslims.”  Jesus, however, called his teachings “the Truth” and did not have a name for his followers to call themselves because you cannot give truth a name.

 

Yesterday gave me one of the toughest conversations I’ve ever been in.  I was surrounded by distractions, including a very aggressive and angry athiest who wanted only to spread fear and hopelessness  to anyone I talked to and also a beligerantly drunk Christian man whom Satan was using to discredit everything we were all saying simply because he believed what I believed.  Such pinpointed attacks, though, let me know I must have been doing something right.   

 

Sorry for the length but thank you so much for reading! Here’s a great picture of Dublin at dusk for a reward…