MUSLIM WARNING
A. Ralph Johnson
CLIX 1/10/03
It has been an eventful day.
I Got a strange call this morning by a man asking if he could meet with me. He gave no indication of the reason, which is unusual. We agreed on 2 PM. Something did not seem right so I told my wife to get the license and type of car when he came.
About 2:20 my wife saw a cab go slowly by. Instead of pulling into the parking lot he parked around the corner. Shortly thereafter a black or middle-eastern man appeared at my house. I decided it would be best to take him across the parking lot to the church.
When we got in the office and sat down he started talking very slowly and low, so low I had to repeatedly ask him to talk louder. He told me he had a message to deliver. Allah is the only God and Muhammad is his prophet. If I believe in Allah my sins will be forgiven and I will receive great rewards. Unless I become a Muslim and bring my congregation into the Muslim faith, terrible things will soon happen to me.
At first I just quietly listened. After a while I asked who had sent him. He said he came from Allah. I asked if he had been given a revelation by Allah. He said he was acting on the revelation Allah had given from the foundation of the world which all Muslims must deliver. He said that I had confessed Allah in the beginning of the world and should repent and turn back to him. (I know my memory is bad but for the life of me, I really could not remember it!)
I asked him if the Koran did not teach about Jesus and permit me to follow him. I told him that as a Christian, I was bound by the "Book" (the name they call the Bible) and there are serious conflicts between it and the Koran. He told me the Bible has been corrupted.
He asked if it made any sense that a man who was sent from God should be worshipped? I pointed out that John the first chapter says the "Word was God" and became flesh. I pointed out that Jesus was not just a man, but the only begotten son of God.
I asked what evidence was there that Muhammad was a prophet? There were no prophecies or miraculous signs to prove it. On the other hand, Jesus was prophesied of in detail throughout the Old Testament and was proclaimed by signs and even the voice of God from heaven.
I pointed out that Moses and the Prophets and Jesus all were in conflict with the Koran over the crucifixion of Jesus. He affirmed that Jesus only apparently died. I pointed to the Old Testament prophets who prophesied his death. Jesus foretold his death. His mother and disciples witnessed his death. The Jews and Romans confirmed his death. How could they all be wrong? Of course, he affirmed that the Koran said he was not crucified. I pointed out that after his death he appeared and showed the hole in his side and nail prints in his hands and feet. How could that have been another man? Indeed, I pointed out that in the Koran, Jesus himself said he was going to die and be raised. It makes no sense that God would deceive the followers of Jesus into believing he had been raised, and the Koran even quotes Jesus as a child saying that he was going to die and be raised again.
Each time he gave no real answer but repeated his warnings, telling me that in the day of judgment I would find out. I responded that unless the evidence was given now, it is impossible for me to accept his claim. All sorts of "prophets" tell us they have a message from God but without evidence, no reasonable person can just accept it.
I told him that I had studied the Koran and questioned whether he had read the gospels. I urged that he should investigate Christianity. He should read the Gospels and see what they really say. I said I have several Korans and have read a lot of it and asked if he had read the Bible.
All the time he kept going back to warnings that something dire was going to happen to me if I did not accept Islam. Finally, I pointed out that this kind of attempt to get me to convert would not work. I told him that it sounded threatening and if that was so, I had no fear. I said I am an old man and ready to die for my Lord. I told him he could not threaten me with heaven. I pointed out that accepting something just for fear is not faith and would be of no real value to God.
I talked about how such threats would work against people accepting Islam. Islam is having a problem with people feeling they are a violent people with all of the terrorism around the world. This grows right out of the violence in the Koran and manifested in Muhammad and his successors who, within a hundred years had by violence created an empire from Spain to India. He should show why Islam is from God rather than making threats.
We had no hot angry words. He spoke very slowly quietly pressing that something terrible was going to happen to me and I kept reasoning with him that there was no sound basis for his claim that Ala had given any such message.
At one point he went back to this thing that I had abandoned my original faith in Islam. I asked him to explain that. When was it? He said that in the beginning we had all been created as souls, committed to Alah and at birth we were given bodies. I asked him to show that to me in the Koran. He asked for a Koran so I went across the parking lot to my house to get one. I told my wife to have the police drop by. His threats were pretty ominous and I decided that if anything happened the police should be able to identify him.
I took the Koran back and he found a passage (7:172) that spoke about the children of Adam coming from their loins. I pointed out that it really teaches nothing about our souls being created in the beginning. About this time two big cops showed up and took over. They searched him and asked for identification. It turns out that he was the cab driver.
I wonder how he came to target me. Was it pure chance? If so, maybe there is a lot of this going on. Was it my article on Dave Redick's website? Was it because I spoke on Islam at the Northwest Bible Conference? Very curious. In any case, I wonder if preachers in this country may not be in for some of the same sort of intimidation that has taken place around the world. Whatever, I am ready for it. I can't think of a better way to go.
Ralph Johnson
Read my article on Islam:
http://preacherstudy.com/free.htm