“The Muslim Maze”, Pt. 1
Galatians 1:6-9
This study is not an attack on the Muslim, but a way to address the maze that a Muslim is put into once he or she submits to Muhammad’s so called revelations!
We will expose their system of belief and unravel the tangled web that makes up Islam!
To Begin This Study…
1. We Must Unravel The Sacred Verses From The Secular.
In our western view of religion, we see religion as not having power over all parts of life. Where the Muslim is taught that Islam does have complete control over all areas of thought and action. It’s power ranges from the pew to their politics, from the family to the job, from the diet to the dress.
Key: A good Muslim is controlled completely by Islam and the Quran! There is very little liberty when compared to Christianity!
Think of Islam as more cultural than it is religious. Think of Islam as 7th century Arab culture. For an American to step into an Arab culture is just as disturbing as an Arab stepping into the American culture! This is the fundamental problem with Iraq at this time!
Let me put it this way, Muslims are not Islamic unless they look and act 7th century! Mohammed took the Arab way of life that was all around him, with all its customs, and made it into a religion!
Whenever Islam is the dominant religion in a country, it changes the culture and gives it a 7th century Arab appearance.
For many reasons, Afghanistan has adjusted over the 2 years from the Taliban culture to a more democratic control. Why aren’t the terrorists working harder to stop democracy there? One word…OIL. (OPEC)
Democracy is purely an American invention! Realize, only two Arab nations are democratic. Democracy is considered a direct threat to Islam.
I do think it’s important to understand that every Muslim nation does not have to be a democracy as we see it! America has to respect that!
Anwar Sadat said a year before he was assassinated by Islamic fundamentalists, “No politics in Islam and no Islam in politics.”
To the top spiritual leader in Egypt at the time, Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, this statement was Islamic rebellion, he said, “The president was a renegade who should be killed.”
By the way this man is now in a U.S. prison for being the mastermind behind the World Trade Center bombing in 1993!
Islamic fundamentalists are actively working to take control of “secular” Muslim governments like…Turkey, Jordan, Malaysia, Egypt, Iraq and Libya.
What really is Islam? Islam means, “submission”.
Surah 5:44,47 “If any do fail to judge (govern) what Allah has revealed, they are unbelievers…If they fail to judge (govern) by what Allah has revealed, they are those who rebel.”
2. We Must Unveil Islam’s Growth Around The World.
Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world today. There are over 1.6 billion Muslims in the world. There are on average 11,000 converts to Islam each year in the United States. There are more Muslim in the U.S. than there are Episcopalians!
Dr. Robert Morey says in his book “Islamic Invasion”, “Islam is the driving force in over 50 nations and of those, over 40 nations are now 87% Muslims!”
Islam is the second largest religion in the world behind Christianity.
In England there are more Muslims than there are Methodist. In France and Germany the Muslims now number in the millions compared to just 10 years ago when it was hard to even find a Mosque.
Oil money has allowed Islam to buy abandoned churches and turn them into Mosques. If this continued growth keeps up by 2010 many experts believe that there will be more radical Muslims in England than Christians…it will be the first Muslim European country!
Radical Islam is the dominant religion in North Africa and Central Africa, Indonesia, the Middle East, and parts of Turkey.
Get this, “From 1981 through 2000, there have been more than 9,000 terrorists attack worldwide”. …Heritage Foundation
This is why this Pastor believes that fundamental Islam is a largest threat to the world! These card-carrying, bomb-carrying fundamentalists are gaining a tighter grip on Muslims around the world and this is why fighting terrorism is the highest responsibility that every nation has at this time!
On September 20, 2001 President Bush addressed Congress and the nation and in it he said…“Great harm has been done to us…I will not forget this wound to our country or those who inflicted it. I will not yield, I will not rest, I will not relent in waging this struggle for freedom and security for the American people…the course of this conflict is not known; yet its outcome is certain. Freedom and fear, justice and cruelty, have always been at war, and we know that God is not neutral between them…”
There are 2 kinds of Muslims in the world today:
· The Secular Muslim (Jihad is a spiritual battle).
· The Fundamental Muslim (Jihad is destroying infidels) and this group is at the point of dominating Islam today!
Islamic Law is destroying many of these nations!
The Quran is clear that one is not a true Muslim unless one submits! Surah 4:59 “O you who believe! Obey Allah and obey the Messenger and those who are in authority.”
3. We Must Uncover Islam’s Basis For Their Faith.
Muslim faith is summarized by 5 basic “pillars”: The declaration that Allah is the only God and Mohammed is his messenger; daily prayers five times a day, facing the city of Mecca; almsgiving to the poor (1/4th of one’s income), fasting during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, and making a pilgrimage at least once in one’s lifetime to the Muslim holy cities.
The Koran, the Muslim holy book, is said to supercede all previous writings. Its title means “recite”. It was given to Muhammad over a period of 23 years. Although Muslims regard the Old & New Testaments as historic documents, they consider them corrupted and unreliable.
Muslims see our Bible as being corrupted. Muslims also believe that the Torah of Moses (first five books of the Old Testament), the Psalms of David, and the Gospels given to Jesus are all holy books, that Christians and Jews have corrupted all of them to the point that they are not fully reliable. They do not believe that the New Testament contains the actual words of Jesus, but rather other people’s words about Jesus. Therefore they believe Jesus’ words have been corrupted.
Surah 3:71 “O followers of the Book! Why do you confound the truth with the falsehood and hide the truth while you know?”
There are several problems with this “corrupted” supposition:
· When asked where are the uncorrupted copies…they say, “They have disappeared.”
· When asked when did this corruption take place they respond, “well we are sure it was before Mohammed day.”
In length, the Qur’an is slightly shorter than the New Testament (four-fifths its length) and contains 114 chapters called Surahs. 86 chapters were revealed during the time Muhammad was in Mecca and 28 while he was in Medina.
The Surahs are not placed in any type of chronological or logical order. They are generally arranged according to their length with the exception of the first one, which functions more as a short introductory prayer. Muslims dare not touch this sacred book without first being washed and purified. Neither do they ever hold it below their waist.
Muslims are discouraged from asking questions about their faith.
Surah 5:101-102 “O ye who believe! Ask not questions about things which if made plain to you, may cause you trouble. Some people before you did ask such questions, and on that account lost their faith.”
Acts 17:11 “The people of Berea were more open-minded than the people of Thessalonica. They were very willing to receive God’s message, and every day they carefully examined the Scriptures to see if what Paul said was true.”
By the way…Baptist pastors are sometimes labeled as
“fire and brimstone” preachers. The OT mentions Hell 31 times, the NT 74 times…but the Koran warns of hell 783 times, and anyone who questions the divine inspiration of the Koran can expect to go there.
4. We Must Unmask Muhammad and The Origin of Islam.
Socrates once said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.”
Norman Geisler in “Answering Islam: The Crescent in the Light of the Cross” says, “The unexamined faith is not worth living.”
The man known as Mohammad was born in 570 A.D. He lived a pretty typical life through his childhood and young adult life. Like typical young adults he got married; and as he progressing in years he progressed in his devotion and prayer to God.
Around AD 610, at forty years of age and after a two-year retreat of prayer and devotion it is said that he received his prophetic calling from God.
According to Islamic tradition, one night the angel Gabriel took Mohammad from Mecca to Jerusalem. And it was here he was brought through what the Quran describes as the "Seven Heavens". It is in the seventh heaven where Mohammad says that he visited with God and all the previous prophets.
According to Dr. Norman Giesler, and Islamic tradition, Abraham was found in the Seventh Heaven; Moses was found in the Sixth Heaven, Other great prophets were found in the 5th, 4th and 3rd Heavens… And Jesus was found in the 2nd Heaven.
After traveling through these heavens, finally Muhammad was brought to the place were he received a specific procedure for the Islamic worship and daily prayer. It is at this time that he proclaimed himself a prophet of God.
Islam was born in the city of Mecca.
Moreover, Muhammad defines himself as the "last prophet" after Jesus. And that he was brought to the world to bring all mankind to Islam. He considered himself the "Seal of the Prophets” that came before him.
In the Hadith, (an inspired collection of Mohammed’s teaching recorded by others, including his wives) Mohammed says, “…I have been on a month’s long journey; I have been given permission to intercede; I have been sent to all mankind, and the prophets have been sealed with me.”
Muslims insist that he was beyond "major sin" and a perfect moral example for mankind. And for that reason the Angel Gabriel spoke the words of the Quran to Muhammad. The prophet Muhammad brought those words to the world to bring all mankind to Islam. So we have a man who told a people that he is a prophet from God and you are to follow his words.
Several Key Problems With Muhammad:
a. He was completely illiterate.
He could not read or write a complete sentence! He dictated what Gabriel told him and his followers wrote it down. Yet as most Muslims believe that this is a poetic and literary masterpiece!
Surah 7:157 says he was an “unlettered prophet”.
b. He was given special permission by Allah to have 13 wives.
He told his followers that they could only have 4 wives!
His last wife was six-years-old when she was betrothed to him, and the marriage was consummated when she was nine.
On June 11, 2002, Pastor Jerry Vines, pastor of First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, Florida and former a SBC president, in told a gathering of SBC pastors, “Islam was founded by Muhammad, a demon-possessed pedophile who had 12 wives, and his last one was a 9-year-old girl.”
c. He sanctioned stealing and murder.
Mohammed on 3 occasions himself, raided caravans and stole from them for financial gain.
On other occasions he sanctioned assignations. When a prominent Jew, named Ka’b, stirred up problems for Muhammad, he said, “Who will deliver me from Ka’b?” 4 of his men shortly returned with the Jew’s head in their hands.
Islamic scholar Ali Dashti and Western scholar Alfred Guillaume both document that Muhammad had anywhere from 700 to 1000 Jews killed in one day and the women and children were sold into slavery! This is mass murder!
On another documented incident, noted Islamic historian and biographer Husayn Haykal wrote in his book, “The Life of Muhammad”, “The Prophet ordered the execution of Uqbah ibn Abu Muayt. When Abu pleaded, “Who will take care of my children, O Muhammad?” Muhammad answered, “The fire.”
This and many other actions on Muhammad’s part cast a dark shadow over his life. Even with the documented evidence this same historian comments about defending Muhammad, “The great stand above the law.”
d. He was plagued with possible epilepsy.
Let me begin and set the stage. From reliable accounts and early Muslim tradition, he was experiencing regular vision and trances while he was a pagan young man.
On one such account Muhammad claimed that a heavenly being had split open his chest and stomach, stirred his insides around and then sewed him up. Muhammad later recounts this in the Quran in Surah 94:1 “Did we not open thy breast for thee?”
What does this mean? No one really knows, but it’s so well documented that it cannot be denied! Some Muslim scholars believe that this was some kind of mental breakdown or the beginnings of epilepsy!
His mother also claimed to have revelations as spirits or jinns visited her. In her case she was into the occult without doubt!
Early tradition states that as he would get a revelation from God he would fall down to the ground and his body would shake violently and his eye would roll back. Then he would rise and proclaim what he had just received!
The Shorter Encyclopedia of Islam says, “The half –abnormal ecstatic condition with which he was overcome…”
To build on this, according to Arab culture even today, believe that such seizures were a sign of demonic possession.
In a highly regarded religious encyclopedia, “McClintock and Strong” they state…
“Muhammad, as we gather from the oldest and most trustworthy narratives, was an epileptic and as such, was considered to be possessed of evil spirits.”
“At first, he believed the saying, but gradually he came to the conclusion, confirmed by his friends, that demons had no power over so pure and pious a man as he was, and he conceived the idea that he was not controlled by such spirits.”
There’s much more I researched on this subject but for the sake of time, I challenge everyone to do there own research…May I say, just as Muslims are free to interrupt them as divine visitation, non-Muslims are free to interpret otherwise!
