Evening session. And just real quick by way of announcements, I am affiliated with not only Sugar Land Bible Church, but the College of Biblical Studies. I teach full time there, Bible and theology. And they have a display set up there on the right as you come in and out. So if you have an interest, in Bible, fully accredited Bible college, or know anybody that might be interested in it. That table is there for you to go by and take a look at. And this is our final evening session, and Sharam's going to be teaching on answering Islam. And this session will run probably about an hour. And then we're going to have a 10-minute break after that. And then we're going to come back and do a Q&A. So that's the direction we're headed in. So let's welcome Sharam one more time to our pulpit. All right. Well, good evening again. Everybody had a good meal, dinner? Yes? Good. Thank you for coming back. Not that we didn't expect anybody to come back, but it was nice to see people come back. Well, what we're going to cover tonight, and I just want to preface this before we get into the material, is between tonight and tomorrow, I'm going to focus a little bit more on the spiritual, spiritual nature of Islam, and then also looking at some of the apologetic and polemic aspects, meaning that, number one, Leave about not just their ideology, but what do Muslims believe about Christianity? what are they teaching about Christianity so that when you try to share with a Muslim and they Attack you or they criticize. I don't mean attack necessarily physically. I mean attack, you know criticize you and they'll say oh well your Bible is corrupted or or you know, you believe in three gods or whatever, then we at least understand what their arguments are, we understand maybe how to be able to refute some of those arguments. And I'm not here in any way, shape, or form like maybe other missionaries or other church leaders try to do in trying to replace the Word of God. The Word of God addresses the Word of God. The Word of God doesn't need defending by me. However, We will stand for the word of god. And so we're going to look at what the bible says Uh in addressing some of those things and then I want to focus on also on islam as a spiritual entity And this is maybe new for some who inherently would know that. Okay. Well, you know, this is an evil Demonic spirit as we've said all day, but what does it specifically the bible address? about a spirit that denies christ in such a fashion And tomorrow morning, when we do the Chrislam Exposed, it will also look at some of the counter things between Islam and Christianity and some of the ecumenical movement, this whole idea of merging and blending and not just Chrislam, the idea that both are one, but there's a lot of churches that would say, oh, we don't believe it's the same God, and yet their practices are not matching what they're saying. So, and then hopefully in the Q&A we'll address any other issues that are left out, but I want to just make sure that we're equipped a little bit to understand what Muslims believe. I want to start out by saying that in everything we're talking about today, the only answer, the real answer is the Gospel. Amen? There is no other answer Because you know we can talk about ad nauseum all of the so-called solutions for well How do we turn things around and we already talked about repentance and we talked about our responsibility? but the only thing that's going to change the heart of any individual including a Muslim as it did with me is the gospel and as I shared with you guys earlier briefly as The Bible says Paul says in Romans 933 behold. I lay it in Zion that stone of stone And he who believes in him will not be put to shame and I'm living testimony that indeed the gospel was offensive Because when the gospel message was shared with me through Both individual and the person gave me a tape to listen to from a church that had one side by the way Young people here you guys know what a tape is Sorry, I just had to make sure that I wasn't speaking like some foreign language Sometimes I say that and they're like what's that? It's a little thing that would go into it. Nevermind. How many of you still know a track? Yeah, a track. Now you got the iPods in the car and MP3 and anyway, uh, so they gave me a tape to listen to. And one side was about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and why the crucifixion was necessary. And the other side was on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And I'm talking about the gospel. Not water down, not make it palpable, make it non-offensive. I'm talking about the unadulterated gospel. And even though I was more culturally Muslim, I still knew what I was supposed to believe as a Muslim, and I knew to some extent what generally Christians believe. And so therefore, it offended me. But what I realize now is that what I thought was offense was really the piercing of my heart. Because that's what the Word of God does. It pierces. And it leaves us without excuse, right? It will not return back null and void. It will not allow us to have an excuse. We're now without excuse. And that's exactly the testimony. And so, the brief part of my testimony, this person gave me this tape to listen to, and I had determined in my mind that I wasn't going to listen to it. So I put it in my car, and I tried to ignore it. And for three days, I tried to ignore that thing. And I could not get that thing out of my mind. I mean, it was just like nonstop, because my curiosity level was going up through the roof, right? So finally, I put it in the car, and I'm listening to it. And it's just, it's like at the same time, it was breaking my heart. It was hard to listen to. And fast forward approximately two, three weeks later, I had met with this person who had given me the tape and I literally told this person this offended me and I remember the look it was it was a gal who was a student of mine the look in her face was like Oh my gosh, I've offended this Muslim But I praise God that she didn't stop You understand how many of us don't like oh, oh, I've offended the Muslim or I've offended anybody and so I'm not gonna do that again But she could see something in me and the desire, so she didn't stop. And so she pursued, and then she connected me with a gentleman who was a Christian, and we met. And one of the funniest things was that we met, and I had had some questions for him on the phone. And he said, these are great questions. You know, write them on a piece of paper, bring them with you. And so I go and I meet with him. And you guys are from Texas. You guys know Cracker Barrel, right? I tell that story up north, and people are like, Cracker what? I'm like, never mind, you don't know. You've never been there. So we met at a Cracker Barrel, and we had lunch. And I sat down, I shared some of my questions with him. And he goes, this is fantastic. He goes, let's do two things. Let's pray and ask the Holy Spirit to give us revelation. Well, first of all, as a Muslim, I don't believe in the Holy Spirit. And number two, let's open the Bible and see what the Word of God says to these questions. And I'm thinking, you mean that corrupt book? So he opens the Bible, we pray, opens the Bible, and this so-called corrupt book is answering my questions. So the Lord is just working through all that. But it was actually a few days later, I was in my car. I was still listening to that tape front and back, front and back. And and the Lord utterly broke my heart. And I actually started weeping while I was driving to the point where I thought I was in an accident. So I pull over to the side of the road on a gravel road. And this was in in Lawrenceville, Georgia. I was down in Georgia at the time. And I'm just sitting there in my car crying. And I'm thinking people are driving by thinking this guy's nuts. He's suicidal. I don't know what they thought. And right there, I just felt the compelling, compelling spirit of the Lord saying to me, Sharon, you now know one is true and one is a lie. Choose today whom you're going to serve. And right there in that car, I prayed. And I said, Lord Jesus, I believe who you are. The Bible says you're the son of the living God. You are God. You come in the flesh. And I just confessed openly all that I had heard on that tape. So the very thing that offended me saved me. And so I share this to say this passage is true. God's word is true. And we have to exercise through the power of the Holy Spirit, a spirit of boldness. And this isn't just with Muslims. This is with anybody in our society. This nation is broken. It is hurting. The world is hurting and broken. And the only answer is the gospel. Now, keep in mind that we don't just preach the gospel, right? That, as Paul says in one of my favorite passages in 2 Timothy 4, when he says that I solemnly charge you before God the Father and Christ Jesus, the judge of the living and the dead, what does he say? Preach the word in season and out of season. So we have to be ready to stand on the word of God, but we know that the gospel, the true gospel, has power. And you'll see tomorrow that one of the things that is happening now in many churches is they've adopted the social gospel. The idea that it's all about feelings and emotions. The last thing I'd want to do is offend somebody because if it's all about feelings and emotions, God forbid, if I offend them, I've failed. And what the gospel has become, or evangelism has become, is, well, I want to make friends with them. And I hear this all the time. Well, we just have different tactics in how we share the gospel with Muslims. Because what I want to do is, you know, we teach people, well, let's become friends for a while. And I go, well, where in the Bible does it say that you have to be a friend with someone for a month before you share the gospel? In fact, the gospel says the opposite, doesn't it? Today is a day of salvation. Do not put off tomorrow what you can do today. How do you know you're going to see them again? How do you know that tomorrow they're not going to get hit by a bus, or God forbid, or go back to their home country, or whatever it is? How do you know? So we have to be bold and courageous and risk offending. And in fact, the more in an evangelistic sense, the more you try to befriend the Muslim and simply be friends, the harder it's going to get. Because the deeper your friendship goes, the less you're going to risk offending them. And really, can I be honest? Can we be honest? That's not God's love. That's not agape love. That's the fleshly love. Because the agape love of God would care about their eternity, and not just about, are they happy right now, or let's have a nice meal together. And I'm telling you, I hear that from these missionaries and these churches and these pastors all the time. Well, we're not going to bring you into our church because your style is very harsh. And we really focus on relationship evangelism. And again, I ask you, where is that in the Bible, the idea that evangelism is tied to relationship? I get what they're saying, that we want to have some rapport and build some respect and trust. That's fine, but share the gospel. Now, as I share with you today, what I want to do, in all fairness to Islam, is I want to share with you the mentality of what Muslims think and how they try to be good Muslims. Because we talked about the overt aspects, the non-violent or the violent stuff, but there are five pillars of Islam, and some of you may know this, some of you may not, but I just want to make sure we cover it. The basic five pillars of Islam, which is what every devout Muslim is supposed to follow, Is number one they're supposed to pray this prayer called the shahada or the shahadaan Which is what you will hear people say, you know, there's no god but allah and his prophet muhammad again None of you better say that i'm going to be upset with you If any of you ever pray that if I find out any of you, you know, so we so that that's the prayer that they will pray now Here's what's interesting and I didn't get a chance to say this earlier in our last session In the public school textbooks. Remember I was referencing the public school textbooks and the bias We know for a fact that many of the textbook companies, including Houghton, Mifflin, and McPherson, and there's like three or four top textbook companies, which many of them are now partially Saudi-owned. What they've done is sections on when they teach cross-cultural studies or comparative religion, and they'll focus on Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam. They'll get maybe two or three pages on Christianity. Two of the pages are on the Crusades and how bad the Christians were during the Crusades. A lot of the books I look at barely have any teaching on Judaism, the oldest religion upon the planet, and no teaching on it. And when they get to Islam, the one book that we actually got pulled out of one of the school districts because a dad complained up in Washington State had seven chapters on Islam. And the very first chapter was the five pillars. They literally had listed the five pillars of Islam. Well, pillar number one is their prayer to become a Muslim. That'd be like having the sinner's prayer in a public school textbook. Of course, the ACLU had no problem with that. So this prayer is their prayer, but it's also what they use to evangelize or to do their dawah. Number two, they have to do fasting. And they have certain restrictions on fasting, including, of course, Ramadan, which is that month out of the year, 40 days where they fast from sunup to sundown. Then at sundown, they'll break their fast and have a big celebration. So if you have the... The joy or the not joy, depending on how you view it, of living next to a Muslim or maybe in your neighborhood there are Muslims there, and you wonder why at one o'clock in the morning five, six, ten cars will come to a Muslim house. The reason is because they're coming back from the mosque or the Islamic center where they've broken their fast during Ramadan, especially during the month of Ramadan, and they'll come in and keep going through the early hours of the morning. And I've had Muslim neighbors and they haven't had much of a sense of noise or time or anything like that. So they are supposed to fast they are supposed to do their daily prayers. Of course there they pray a minimum of five times a day There's a back story to Muhammad negotiating with Allah according to Islamic tradition About how many times they were supposed to pray and the back story is that Muhammad apparently was taken to Jerusalem this is according to him or according to tradition and where he negotiated with Allah, where they were supposed to pray 30 times a day, or more than 30 times a day, and he supposedly negotiated down to 5 times a day. But, you know, it's an Islamic tradition and it's not back. But they are supposed to pray 5 times a day, and when they pray, they do cyclical prayers. So for a Muslim, they don't get to talk to God. There isn't like where we would open the Bible or we would be able to communicate through the Holy Spirit. They're doing recited prayers that are memorized. And remember, I said earlier, they have to pray in Arabic. You go, well, what if they speak? You know, Chinese or Swahili or African doesn't matter. They have to learn to pray in Arabic and it has to be classical Arabic. They have to learn to pray correctly. And on my Chrislam exposed DVD, one of the testimonies that I have of my of another former Muslim is that he was actually in Mecca. He was from Iran. He was a devout Muslim. His father was training him to be an imam. And he was in Mecca. He had gone to Mecca for Number five here, I'll get to in a minute, which is called the Hajj or their pilgrimage. And in Mecca, he was praying, but apparently he was praying in the wrong accent. So the imam of the master taps him on the shoulder and says to him, Where are you from? It's not from Iran. Where's your wife? Well, my wife is back in Iran She's pregnant with our second child and she goes well says well Do you I have a recommendation from Allah for you and he goes wow, I guess all excited thinking I've come to Mecca and Allah's gonna speak to me and The Imam says well, I was listening to you pray and your prayer was incorrect. You were praying in the wrong accent and And so he turns, opens one of the Hadiths, and he says, according to the Hadith, according to the Prophet, if this happens, you must go and divorce your wife. This happened right in Mecca, right at the corner. There's a corner of that Kaaba building, and I'll cover this tomorrow. There's a corner there where they have a black stone that pre-Islam was a meteor that they worshipped, but then now apparently it's the rock that Abraham was going to sacrifice Ishmael on. That's what Islam teaches, by the way. It wasn't Isaac, it was Ishmael. It wasn't on Mount Moriah, it was in Mecca, apparently. So he's in that corner and this is what he gets. Go divorce your wife. And he says right there, he said, it just came out of me. So I don't know what it was. He goes, I know it wasn't for me. He said, I just shouted out to this to this cleric. Then Allah is not God. And he goes, I don't know what happened. How did they say that? Because he goes, they could have killed me. And it was because he realized in that moment if Allah was God, he said, one, he'd know where I was born and what language I speak and what my heart is in prayer. And two, he would know how long it took for me to marry my wife. And that was the other part of the story that you have to listen to, that he had coveted marrying his wife for many, many years. The number four pillar is Zakat, they're giving. And number five is the Hajj, the pilgrimage, the once in a lifetime pilgrimage that they have to go to Mecca. By the way, one of the crazy things that's been going on in Mecca for the last number of years is all these stampedes. And so it's been an under-reported story. Since 2000 and I think five, there's been something like over 700 or 800 people that have been killed in the yearly Hajj's in Mecca by stampede. They stampede each other. Can you imagine if, like, in Jerusalem, people had gone there to visit the Holy Land, and there was a story of, like, a hundred Christians stampede each other? Like, it would just be bizarre, right? So, these are the basic pillars. Now, remember, earlier I covered jihad. And jihad is the unofficial sixth pillar of Islam, because it is a pillar. Because remember, it is what they're commanded to wage, culturally, spiritually, and literally. But these are the official five pillars. And so there is a religious component for Muslims that they're trying to be good Muslims. But here's the sad part, that in Islam, there is no guarantee of salvation except one. Anybody want to guess what that is? Well, specifically, martyr them. The word there is called Shaheed, to become a Shaheed. And on the DVD that I have on the unveiling, we cover the verse there that actually talks about seven blessings that are given to the martyr, including blessing number six, which is the 72 virgins. But most people don't talk about blessing number seven, which actually teaches that Muslims, it teaches Muslims that the martyr can actually intercede by the shedding of his blood for 70 of his family. So when you see someone martyred, for example, in Palestine or around the world, you ever notice the family throws a party, a celebration? Have you ever wondered why they do that? And the same thing happened in Iran. I witnessed it growing up in Iran. I witnessed it when we left Iran, where families would celebrate children that were martyred or had killed themselves for the cause of Allah. And the reason is because they now believe that the whole family is going to heaven. It's collective salvation. And that's one of the things that most people don't understand about Islam, and even most Muslims don't understand about Islam. Because I will ask Muslims in one of the questions, I said, do you believe that a man can die for your sins? Absolutely not. I said, well, you're wrong. And I'll lead them to that Hadith and say, go look it up. The martyr can intercede according to Islam. I said, but here's the good news. The good news is, A man didn't die for your sins, but God became man and died for your sins. So I use it as an opportunity to then broach the subject that. God himself took upon what we could not do, and yet Islam. So think about that. So the Muslim believes that they have to die to go to heaven, meaning they have to kill themselves. So Allah will let them get to heaven. And the Bible teaches that God has died for us. So we can go to heaven and be with him and have eternity you tell me how those can be the same God Right. There's no commonality, but that's one of the things was it was very paramount for me now. I want to cover So by the way, if you're talking to a Muslim that is an appropriate question. I to say, do you know where you're going if you die? Do you have any guarantee of your salvation? Because if you were like me, and I didn't want to die as a martyr, I had no desire to die, I like life, then I knew I was not a good Muslim. And then beyond martyrdom, the only thing that Muslims can do is to try to follow the five pillars, follow the teachings of Islam and be a good Muslim. That's their only, and even then, it's a hope, it's a maybe. The only guarantee is martyrdom. So you have to understand that death is glorified in Islam because of this reason, and they don't have guarantee of salvation there. But these are their five pillars. Now, I want to cover a couple of things that I didn't quite cover earlier, but they're related to, again, one of the polemic kind of arguments that you have to refute with Islam. The number one I already covered with you, which is Islam is a religion of peace. Hopefully today you've been equipped to know that's absolutely a lie. There's no way that Islam, under any definition that we would have of peace, be a religion of peace or tolerance or nonviolence. However, one of the arguments that people will use is they'll say, look, Islam never forbids violence. I'm sorry, never accepts or condones violence. It doesn't it forbids it and they'll use this verse surah 532 from the Quran that whoever so killed a human being For other than manslaughter or corruption in the earth. It shall be as if he had killed all mankind So you look at that verse you go Wow so Islam says that if somebody kills somebody else other than in a situation of manslaughter Corruption then it's like you've killed all people. Well, clearly they denounced killing right? Here's the problem It's not true. That's a false statement because they've taken that context or that verse out of context. Here's the whole verse Surah 532 for that cause we decreed for the children of Israel and Whoever whoever so killed a human being for other than man's law or corruption in the earth shall be as if he killed all mankind So we decreed according to Allah to the Jews if you kill For any other reason but these it's like you've killed all humanity. So this is not for Muslims. This is for the Jews Isn't that convenient? So this is one of the ways that you have to understand these type of arguments, that Muslim apologists will oftentimes come and say, look, in fact, I know, in fact, I just was contacted by a gal who has a Muslim friend who's a lawyer, who is of a sect of Islam, I mentioned earlier, it's one of these heretical sects that are very minute, like 1% of Muslims. And this is one of the things that he was trying to pull on her. Oh, well, Islam never, never, never condones violence. It forbids it. And he used this verse. Well, it wasn't true. Here's another verse, Surah 533. The only reward of those who make war upon Allah and His Messenger and strive after corruption in the land will be that they will be killed or crucified. Again, just in case you're not quite sure about what killed or crucified means, that's literal, correct? Have their hands and feet on alternate sides cut off or will be expelled out of the land. So all three of those are permissible You go. Well, how do they pick which one they get to pick? All three are permissible. You can kick them out of the land if they flee you can cut off their hands and feet or you can kill them or crucify them and by the way Isis is doing all three They're following this passage Um, here is another argument. So that was one argument. And by the way, again, I hope that I've shown you the whole Islam is a religion of peace argument is bunk. But this is another. Here's another argument. Islam is prolistic, pluralistic. This is what I was referring to earlier, where you hear people, especially when Islam is in the early house, where they will say something like Islam. Look at the verse up there. What does it say? There is no compulsion in religion. They use surah 2. The right direction is henceforth distinct from error. And he who rejected false deities and believed in Allah had grasped a firm handhold which will never break. Allah is the hearer, knower, blah, blah, blah. There is no compulsion in religion. I have had this used against me ad nauseum by Muslim apologists to say, well, see, clearly Islam is pluralistic. They believe in religious freedom. They believe in coexisting. They're not intolerant in that way. And what is your answer? How would you answer this? But this verse has been abrogated. Very good. this verse is abrogated once you muslim get the upper hand or if it's uh... if they're using like what what time do you see with islamist like the muslim brotherhood is the work with interfaith groups right the so-called interfaith groups And I hope and I know Andy would support this in this church or in this church body here that we have to be very clear that and I'll cover this tomorrow morning if somebody says they're a Christian and they claim to be interfaith or That they're universalists. You need to lovingly say to them. You're not a Christian Can I share the gospel with you so you can get saved? agreed You guys weren't on board with that one You're like, that's not my style, I wouldn't be that bold with them. I would. Because they're an error. How can you say you're a Christ follower, and then believe in interfaith dialogue and interfaith path to God? There's only one way. Amen? So we got to be clear about that, but they'll use this verse. So the response back is this verse has been abrogated According to the Quran and according to the example of your prophet because when Islam gets the other hand You have to go to surah 9 remember we covered that earlier right which gives you the three choices convert Dimitud or fight so but this is the verse they use against I'm just trying to show you their arguments for claiming or refuting people like myself that will claim Islam is You know not moderate not peaceful so forth so on okay Within this I want to cover with you a couple of movements that are really Seen as as heretical movements within Islam within mainstream Islam one is those who believe that Islam can be reformed There are those like Ayaan Hirsi Ali. And I have deep respect for her as an individual. I know that many groups have invited her. There's a lot of conservative groups that invite her to come and speak. In fact, a group called Act for America had her at their national conference. And I respect her as an individual. She's very courageous. She's very outspoken about the ill treatment of women in Islam. And yet at the same time, she's very respectful not to criticize the prophet of Islam. And she's a Muslim who teaches that Islam can be reformed, like she claims Christianity was reformed. Well, there's a major problem to this. Anybody want to guess what the problem is? Well, let me ask you this way. Why can Islam not be reformed? Who would want to take a guess at why Islam cannot be reformed? Because Muhammad. Simple answer. that's it that's a simple answer it's a very simple argument because the mohammed what do you mean what mohammed is the one first of all who came along and abrogated islam from the early no compulsion the other one they use by the way that i didn't put on the slide is they'll say all in the early verses the koran it says that muslims can take jews and christians as friends that's true that's true but in the abrogated verses it says all muslim do not take the jew and christian as a friend or as an ally if you do you become one of them so the question is which one is it the answer is Both, because it depends on which house you're in. Make sense? And there's numerous examples that I can share with you of areas like, I have a friend from Nigeria who told me the story growing up there where he had Muslims as friends growing up. Until the Muslims got the upper hand, got control, Nigeria is now predominantly Muslim, it used to be predominantly Christian. And so his very friends used to play soccer together, used to hang out together, came into his neighborhood when they got the upper hand, and they said, listen, you need to convert. And when him and his family said no, they drove him out of their house and burned their house down. Same guy. You go, what happened? What happened was Islam abrogated. Does that make sense? And so it was nothing personal, folks. they have to follow their their their ideology so but that's absolutely right it's about mohammed because mohammed is one about abrogation mohammed is the one who is to be imitated and so You say which some of these reformers do if we can only go back to the early verses of the Quran We'd be good to go. I go. Okay, great. I'm willing to come out and do a press conference Let's do a press conference this week. We'll come out of the maybe the media show up and say hey We're here today to say that we're we're willing to accept that Islam is going to go back to the early verses of the Quran However, we're here today to denounce Muhammad as a true prophet. He's a false prophet. He's a liar. He's a deceiver He's a mass murderer and we're gonna dance And they look at me like, uh And I go what what are they? Where do they lose you? I'm willing to come out and say to you Islam can be reformed. The reality is Islam will never be reformed It is a pipe dream because you have to denounce Muhammad and if you denounce Muhammad what happens to Islam? there is no slum because nobody else got the revelation of islamic sense he's the only one who got the revelation so you do away with muhammad i'm all in favor of coming out and announcing muhammad as a false prophet i may get a couple more death threats on me but i'm all in favor of that But the problem is, no Islam. Does that make sense? So this is a, while I respect these people, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali and others, like Zuhdi Jassard is another guy that is always on Fox News, and talking about Islam, Islam, Islam being reformed. The reality is, they're either genuinely naive, Or they're deceived. Again, that gets back to the whole deceived deceiver thing. And I don't think that Ayaan Hirsi Ali and I don't think that Zuhdi Jasser are deceivers necessarily because they are being very courageous. However, I believe that they're utterly naive and it's a pipe dream because it is impossible for Islam to be reformed because Islam in the upper house is militant and fundamentalist. It's not radical. It's because the the goes back to what you said, ma'am. The simple answer is Mohammed did it? The moment you say Mohammed did it it is Islam and That's why they don't want you to have Mohammed. Does that make sense? Okay, I want to take a quick right turn here and now talk about What does the Bible say specifically about a spirit? That would look like Islam Andy, shared with you earlier, powerfully, that what the Bible says specifically about these Islamic nations, about the timing, the fact that they're surrounding Israel, we are seeing prophecy fulfilled before our eyes. However, the Bible specifically addresses an Antichrist spirit. Notice I'm saying an Antichrist spirit, right? Notice the an, not the the, an. Okay, what does the Bible say? Well, in the Bible, there are only four verses five references to the word Antichrist and it's all in first and second John so there's only time now we know there's many references to the figure like Andy talked about the figure of the Antichrist the lawless one the son of perdition you know those type of but I'm talking about to the actual word Antichrist as used in Scripture and so The Lord led me to this a while back to really look at this because what was frustrating me was particularly within the missional community was they're not treating Islam as a spiritual issue. They're dealing with it as a cultural issue. Well, it's just a cultural thing. No, it's not. You're dealing with a demonic entity. Because otherwise there's no explanation for the number of people that I've seen deceived by Islam that should have never been deceived by Islam. But it's a spiritual entity. Looked at the the the first and second John and the Bible gives us a definition It actually defines so let's read it together here says beloved do not believe every species out of the NASB believe beloved do not believe every spirit But test the spirits to see whether they're from God because many false prophets have gone out into the world by this You know the Spirit of God every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh It's from God. Well, that's pretty specific, isn't it? Every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God This is the spirit of the Antichrist of which you have heard that is coming and now it is already in the world Well, we know from the beginning of the gospel that there were many that denied right including the Jews themselves That would have denied that Jesus came in the flesh. The question is well, how does Islam fit this definition? Well Let's look at and I believe again This is leading towards that remember I talked about that kind of one world kind of false peace The whole idea of false peace the idea that we're you know, let's be at peace with each other But the Bible says no. No, you're supposed to test the spirits, right? Because the spirit remember what Paul says this what does light have to do with darkness? The you can't sit at the table of the Lord the table of demons at the same time What does the Spirit of God has to do with the spirit of Christ? The answer is nothing Right. But what do people want us to do? What are missionaries and churches and interfaith and what they want us to all merge? Right. And let's all just live in harmony and peace and get along. And this is what is happening. Let's look at now. First, John two, twenty two and twenty three. Who is the liar, but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the Antichrist the one who denies what the father and the son Whoever denies the son does not have the father the one who confesses the son has the father also so the the Bible gives us a very specific definition of the of an Antichrist spirit agreed that it is one who denies that Jesus is the Christ denies that Jesus has come in the flesh denies the father denies the son and So if you see an ideology, a belief system that does those things, wouldn't it logically give us conclusion that that is an antichrist spirit? OK, now let's look at what Islam denies. First of all, Islam clearly denies the Trinity. Here is a one of the strongest verses. There's many verses in the Quran I'll cover some more tomorrow where they deny the Trinity Oh followers of the book. Here's why this is so powerful because it specifically is talking to Jews and Christians Remember I said earlier that the people of the book who are the people of the book? Jews and Christians. So all people of the book do not, but of course they're specifically talking to Christians because Jews don't believe in what? Jesus is God. So do not exceed the limits in your religion and do not speak lies against Allah, but speak the truth and say not three. What do you think they're talking about? The Trinity, right? Desist, look at this, look how strong this is. Desist, it is better for you, Allah is only one God, far be it from his glory that he should have a son. sara four one seven one again as versus a minister to our morning along this line of house vehemently not only does this long and the koran denied jesus as god and that allah has a son but the fact that you'll see in a minute muslims actually pray it daily in their prayers okay so they deny the trinity right well we know that the bible supports the trinity correct not the word trinity but we know that this is a orthodox christian understanding god one god three persons father son holy spirit Okay, so that's pretty serious, isn't it? Okay How many of you know that islam in the quran actually denies jesus was crucified Now there's a huge problem with this in fact and the earlier dr. Wood actually cited josephus, right? Isn't there even secular history that acknowledges that a man named jesus of nazareth was crucified So they may not believe he was God, but you can't deny that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified. There are secular historians to validate Roman history, the Jewish history. So Islam comes along and says, that's all wrong. What did they say? Watch this. Surah 4, 1, 5, 7. That they said and boasts, this is talking about the Jews. We killed Christ Esau. They call him Esau. Notice they use the word Christ. But it does not mean to them what it means to us, or the Bible addresses Christ. What is Christ? The anointed one, the one, right? The son of Mary. This is one of the ways that they get Christians, because there's verses that talk about Mary being a virgin in the Quran. And Christians would go, see, there you go. See, this is all a common God. But you'll see tomorrow it's not. But, look at this, they killed him not, nor did they crucify him. You go, huh? But so it was made to appear to them, for of a surety they killed him not. So what Allah said through the Prophet, supposedly, and remember, this is by the testimony according to Muhammad of the angel Gabriel. The same angel Gabriel that shows up to Mary and says, you are with child, you are to call him Emmanuel, God with us, gets Alzheimer's, 600 years later shows up and says, now, you know, that stuff never happened. So you go, well, what happened? According to Islam, Allah made it appear, which means that Jesus was never crucified. He was taken up into heaven. This is what Muslims believe. And that there was somebody, you go, who was on the cross? There was somebody on the cross. They believe that the majority opinion is it was Judas. So Allah made it look like Jesus's face, but it was really Judas. It was to perpetrate now follow me on this the greatest hoax in human history Would that not be the greatest hoax in human history? To deny or to pull the hoax off. That's a hoax of the millennium That Jesus didn't really die. So how many billions of Christians since the inception of the cross and the resurrection have believed in Jesus as God and died on the cross and so apparently all of us are a bunch of dummies and Because according to Islam, it never happened. It never happened. And Allah pulled off the greatest hooks in human history. Maybe that's why, and I'll cover this tomorrow, one of his 99 names in the Quran is Allah Kairul Makreen. The word Al-Makr means deceiver, Kairul means the chief of. Allah is the chief of the deceivers. Maybe that's why Muslims are allowed to lie and obligated to lie. Okay, so deny the Trinity they deny the crucifixion. Well That's pretty that's kind of that's Christianity, isn't it? Well, if they deny the crucifixion is there any support in the Quran for the resurrection, of course not Even though the Bible says remember John 11 25 26 Jesus himself said himself by his own words to Mary and Martha remember I am the resurrection and the life he who believes in me will live even if he dies and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die he himself said that But according to Islam if there's no crucifixion, there's no resurrection So no Trinity no crucifixion no resurrection. Oh It gets worse They deny the father and the son you go. What look at this surah 112 verse or chapter 112 verse 4 In the Arabic it is long yaleed wallam. You lied what that translates to is he Allah begets not nor was he begotten? so Allah was never a father nor can he be a son and Muslims actually recite this remember how many times that I say they pray every day and How many times do they cycle the prayers and remember three? So that's a minimum of 15 times a day minimum that they will pray this verse They literally recite this verse Some of them may know what they're saying some of them don't because they have to memorize it But they recite this verse in their daily prayers while they're prostrating themselves up and down towards Mecca Allah does not begotten or he does not beget. He's not a father. No, he's a son and What did 1st John say chapter 2 he who denies Jesus is the Christ and denies the father and the son This is the spirit of Antichrist Are we getting pretty clear with the evidence? Okay, so denies the denies the Trinity denies the crucifixion denies the resurrection denies the father and the son Because there cannot be no father and son because Allah doesn't have children and it gets worse It's actually not only an Antichrist spirit it is anti-semitic Here's a verse that teaches about Esau returning. Remember I said he was taken up as a prophet? Islamic eschatology and all I'm here out tonight in this area is I want to share with you again First of all, so we understand we're dealing with the spiritual entity number one and number two how we can refute it because we have to be able to understand how to refute this because when the Muslim says to you Well, we don't believe in the crucifixion. Well, we have to be able to say to them is look I encourage you to look up actual history not just the Bible but look up other historians who validate that Jesus was crucified and But the Bible validates this in its original manuscripts. There's thousands of original manuscripts and The because remember the Muslim is taught that the Bible is corrupted I didn't cover this earlier. Let me stop here just real quick before we go on and cover this What Islam teaches is called progressive revelation So here's what what they believe Allah sent who? Abraham Abraham brought the message of Allah as a prophet of Allah and the people who followed him perverted it so then after Abraham we have Moses right then David and then ultimately they get to Jesus number six So Jesus brought revelation. He was a prophet of Allah. It was not God. He'd know wasn't crucified all that stuff and those pesky Christians perverted it and So now Allah has to send the final messenger to correct everything and that's who Muhammad is So they will say the Bible is corrupt. Well, one of the ways that we can refute this is by to look at original manuscripts Because what they've been taught is our Bibles are corrupted they believe that that we think that our Versions are without error And I said to them, no, no, no, we believe that the Bible is is uncorruptible in its original language. So if you go and look and there are some Muslims that think more this way in a more apologetic way, there are resources out there that you can go and send them to online that will look at the actual contextual evidence of the Bible, meaning the number of the thousands of numbers of original manuscripts, so forth and so on. But you have to get him to the fact that both the bible and the quran cannot be both be correct Does that make sense? now The aspect of jesus and we're going to cover this a little more tomorrow, but I want to show you this this verse This is a hadith. This is out of the bukhari and this is muhammad himself allah's apostle said Allah's apostle said the hour will not be established until the son of mary and descends among you as a just ruler So you go, well, look, Jesus is coming back. Look at how amazingly see this is the same. Oh, wait. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. He will break the cross. You go, huh? He will kill the pigs. By the way, those are not little swine animals they're talking about. And he will abolish the Jizya. This is according to Mohammed. So Mohammed claims that Jesus is returning. He's gonna lead an army and I'll show you this in a minute with further evidence You're gonna lead an army is gonna destroy Christianity. Why would he destroy Christianity and the cross? Because it never Happened right according to Islam. The cross was a hoax. It never happened. It was just something the Jews perpetrated It never happened. So therefore he's gonna break the cross and then he's gonna lead an army and kill the pigs and You go, what does he have with little pork? We're not talking about the pork animals. We're talking about Jews. Jesus, the Jewish Messiah that we know, according to Islam, is not a Jew nor the Messiah, is going to lead an army and kill all the Jews. Then he's gonna abolish the jizya and the jizya remember was that second tax that tax for the demitude status Well, that's not gonna be necessary anymore. Why because they're not gonna be any any non-muslims left They're all dealt with they've are all converted or all been killed This is out of the mouth of Muhammad himself Now they believe that Jesus is gonna come as a sidekick to their Messiah. That's the Mahdi and I'll share with you the difference between the Shiite Mahdi and the Sunni Mahdi in just a minute Here's another hadith, even worse, from Muhammad. Sahih Muslim, book 041. The Prophet said, the last hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews. Now, by the way, this is to corroborate what Andy said earlier about what the Bible says. Satan and the satanic manifestation of the Antichrist spirit hates God and hates God's people and hates the Jews so much that is going to move upon humanity to have this level of hatred for the Jews. Now you understand why the Jews worked really well with the Nazis? Okay, what's gonna happen? The last hour would not come unless the Muslim will fight against the Jews and The Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or a tree would say Muslim or the servant of Allah there is a Jew behind me come and kill him That's not anti-semitic, right It is anti-semitic at its core. So the more that the spirit of Islam is manifested, the more a Muslim goes down the road of following Islam, the more inherently they're going to become anti-semitic. That's why you see a lot of these churches that now are becoming more pro-Palestinian, pro, you know, the poor Palestinians over there. They will then become pro-Islam. They'll support, you know, all these refugees and all this stuff. And what will they do? They will start turning on Israel. I've seen it time and time and time again and the privacy. It's just it's a it's one goes with the other because why it's a spiritual Phenomenon we understand this is a spiritual entity that is deceiving them Come and kill them why because they're gonna be wiped out So what we are witnessing as Andy said is these are the signs of these last days both for the church and for Israel And here's another sign of the last days. According to Open Doors, this is 2014 numbers, 14 out of the top 15 countries persecuting and killing Christians are under the influence of Islam. The only country, you can't probably see on the screen there, the only, unless you have really, really good eyesight, anybody can read the first country? See, anybody has a good eyesight. North Korea, good job. North Korea is the only country on that list, number one, that is not a Muslim-controlled country. They just have that lunatic in, you know. But the other 14 countries are Islamic. And if you look at the top 30, I think it's something like 25 or 26 out of 30 are Islamic. Signs of the last days? Signs of what we're going to see? That's why we believe that there's this worldwide genocide another sick thing that I've covered before is one of the things we've seen coming out of Syria is that when when we saw a lot of the Christians martyred in Syria particularly last year that Literally there was a nun that came out of Syria that was helping the refugees there came out and said she had talked to these Jihadists who said that they would kill Christians. They would hang them upside down drain their blood forgive me This is graphic and they would vote they would put their blood in vials and they were selling them to Rich Muslim particularly in Saudi Arabia for up to a hundred thousand dollars And the Muslims were taking the blood and using it in their daily prayers And that this brought up and by the way, this is the link if you want to look it up worldnet daily covered this The nun that covered this story the blood of Christians being sold. This was as I said early last year So this is the verse that it made me think of in Revelation and I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the Saints and With the blood of the witnesses of Jesus when I saw her I wondered greatly I never really that verse never really spoke to me that verse were never really jumped out at me until I heard a story like this literally, they were using the blood of Christians in a sacrificial way in their prayers and So this is this is what we see when the manifestation that we're seeing of this Antichrist spirit Now, please hear my heart. I don't recommend you, if you do and are engaging in evangelism with a Muslim, I don't recommend you starting off the bat like, oh my gosh, you guys are drinking people's blood, or your prophet is a pedophile, or... Probably not a good tactical approach, right? You understand what I'm saying? Focus on the gospel. Amen? Focus on the gospel. Let it be truth and love. Focus on the gospel. This is more for you. This is more for us. So that we understand what we're dealing with. By the way, if you're going to share the gospel with a Muslim, and if there is a Muslim in your life or in your sphere of influence or at work or whatever, you need to begin to pray. And you need to begin to pray and ask the Holy Spirit, one, to subdue the spirit of Islam, and number two, to open your eyes and show you how to reach that individual Muslim, because the spirit knows how to reach that individual person. But we have to recognize what's happening. Just to wrap up this part of the presentation. I wanted to again not to mess with anybody's eschatology but I just wanted to teach you what Islam teaches about the end times and about their eschatology and whether it would be possible if the if Islam is not just in Antichrist spirit, but Potentially whether it could lead to the Antichrist spirit, but here's again I'm just wanting to share with you what they teach So number one, did you know that Islam has an antichrist figure? It's actually called Al Masih at the jaw. So it's the false Messiah. That's how it translates. So they believe that the Jesus of the Bible is the false Messiah, that if that Jesus ever came back or if someone came back claiming to be Jesus Christ in those last days, that they are to be deemed as the false Messiah. This is Sahih Muslim. I've given some references there in case you want to look it up. How many of you know that Islam, as I said, has a messianic figure, a world ruler, the Mahdi? Now, here's where the Sunnis and Shiites disagree. The Sunnis believe the Mahdi has not come, and he's going to come in the last days. Shiites believe that he came he was an imam in the 9th century. He was mysteriously taken up to heaven He's somewhere in a pit in the city of jam Quran in Iran People literally go there and write him notes and drop it down the well, how sad is that? This is the Shiite Muslims. Okay they believe he will come back now where they agree is that when he comes back he will usher in Islam upon the whole earth and Guess who is psychic is going to be? Jesus now how many of you know that in Islamic eschatology they actually teach that the Mahdi will establish a peace agreement with a specific Jew and with what they call Christians because they believe Romans were Christians and This is the part where it gets really interesting. They actually teaches that he will sign a seven-year agreement I'm not making this up here is Muhammad himself Sunan Abu Dawood is a hadith so Muhammad himself says the Mahdi will fill the earth with the equity and justice as it was filled with oppression and tyranny and he will rule for seven years Kind of interesting, right? They believe That the islamic isa is going to come back with him as a prophet to him I thought it was interesting because the bible talks about a false prophet But again, that's just I put there and there is maybe a possibility, but they believe that very clearly that Jesus is not God, that he's going to return just as he was taken up because he never died. Remember, according to them, and he's going to come back as a prophet. But when he comes back and this is one of the stories in the Sahih Muslim that accounts the story, it goes something like this. Jesus comes back. The Mahdi is there. The Mahdi says, Jesus, you go ahead. The Jesus. No, no, no, Mahdi, you go ahead. I'm going to take a secondary position. Boy, are they going to be wrong. Because, you know, Jesus is coming back, right? This is where it gets weird, and this goes back to that verse from Mohammed. Three things Jesus is going to do. Number one, the Islamic Jesus is going to destroy Christianity. He's going to go around the world and destroy Christianity, any vessel of Christianity, because according to him it never happened. Number two, he is going to establish Sharia upon the earth. And number three, he's going to lead that army to kill every last Jew on the planet Earth, according to Islam. Thank God that this is not true. Amen. This is lies and deception and garbage from the pit of hell. But this is what they believe if they even if because many Muslims don't even know their own eschatology. So I just want to point out what the differences are there. Does that make sense? So again, we have the commonality of the false messiah, the commonality of the Antichrist spirit. Now, here's my question. Would you agree that without doubt Islam fits the definition of an Antichrist spirit? Denies Jesus came in the flesh, never happened. Denied the Trinity, or we believe in the Trinity, they say not only stop it, but far be it from the glory of Allah that he would even have a son. Denies the crucifixion, denies the resurrection, denies the father, denies the son. You go, well, isn't that all of Christianity? So what's the goal of Islam? To absolutely wipe out Jews and Christians. That's the end-time goal of Islam That's what Islam would do and what and this is why I believe that it is definitely an Antichrist spirit because that level of hatred that level of demonic activity can only be explained from a spiritual phenomenon and As Andy said earlier it is it is Satan himself through the the spirit that would convince and put in the minds of men to hate the Jews and hate the Christians so much and Because it is not, it's not human. It is demonically inspired that hopefully, well, it doesn't make sense, but I'm just trying to see. So again, we're preparing for these end days and we're preparing for the tribulation period. That's why I told Andy, I said, these folks that are claiming that the whole preterist and the whole aspect of, of, well, we're not going to, you know, that's all been fulfilled. The reason it's so dangerous is because we're not then recognizing these signs of what is happening. And that we're drawing closer to the coming of the Lord Right, we're supposed to be warning and sounding the alarm and preparing ourselves, right? Occupying till he comes and and being about the kingdom and the business of of sharing that the gospel and fulfilling the Great Commission But if we believe that Islam is a religion of peace We're not gonna share the gospel with the Muslims. This is what they believe. This is the bondage that they're in and And so the only way that we can combat this, I get back to what I said at the beginning, is we have to share the gospel. We have to be able to be bold. We have to pray for the boldness of the Holy Spirit in sharing the gospel with every person in our sphere of influence. We have to be bold Christians once again. I think that in our culture, in our society, we've been browbeaten to political correctness, we've been browbeaten to listen. You can be a Christian, just go in your home, close your door, be private, stop talking to other people, I don't want to hear about your Christianity, blah blah blah. And we have to say, you know what? My responsibility is, as Paul said, I solemnly charge you. That's pretty serious, isn't it? Before God the Father and Jesus Christ, the judge of the living and the dead. By the way, that description of Jesus doesn't fit the social gospel worn fuzzy Jesus, does it? The Jesus that is being preached in most of these churches in America or in the Western society, the Jesus that just wants to hug babies and animals and sheep and goats and just wouldn't hurt a fly and wouldn't argue with anybody. The Jesus that wouldn't confront anything in anybody. He would just give everybody hugs. You know, same brother, what Jesus are we talking about? Come on. The Jesus of the Bible that is coming back. The description in Revelation. Paul says he's the judge of the living and the dead. Is that some power or is that some power? Come on, what Jesus are we worshiping? And what, what, and are we not supposed to have the resurrection power of God in us? So we've got to stop walking around like we're defeated, and that we've been browbeat. I don't care, I don't care. Listen, in Washington State, they just told a football coach he can't pray on the 50-yard line. And he said, you can arrest me, but you're not going to stop me from praying. That's the kind of courage we need. I said to people, I said, that's the book of Daniel coming to life. Remember when they told Daniel, you will not pray to your God? What does he do? He doesn't go hide. He opens the doors wide. And he prays openly and publicly. That's what we need to start doing. So we can once again reclaim the authority of the church and the power of the gospel that we have in us. Because capitulation and appeasement not only does not work with the atheists and the secular humanists It certainly doesn't work with Islam Because Islam is operating in an Antichrist spirit This is even if you don't believe it could be the Antichrist we know based on what Andy taught today those nations are a player in the last days and Whoever the world system is that is controlling in and wherever the Antichrist comes from is going to use Islam as part of its arsenal To do what? To come against Christians and to come against Israel. That's consistent with Islamic teaching. But we have to be recognized to know when you go out there and share, and I'll just end you with this. There's two things that you have that nobody can take away from you. One, you have your testimony, and two, you have the Word of God, the Gospel. You share those two things with a Muslim, and you pray the Holy Spirit over them, you see what God does. We've got to stop all this. Well, I just want to like them, and I don't want them to like me, and I don't want to... When did the Bible say that the world is going to like you? You can't, and I can't go through life wanting the world's approval if we want to be obedient and faithful to our God. Amen? I'm going to turn you guys over, and I want to thank you again for your patience tonight. Hey, I was closer. I only went over by two minutes. So I want to thank you guys again. We'll be back at the table after the Q&A. We'll be here for the Q&A. And then tomorrow morning, we look forward to seeing as many of you can come back. And if for some reason I don't see you and you're not coming back tomorrow, from myself and my wife, Michelle, and our ministry and our family, thank you for coming. And I pray the Lord would just mightily, mightily stir your spirit, your hearts here to lift up the name that is above every other name. It's the only hope we have. Thank you, guys, so much. Thank you, Andy. Lord bless. All right, we're going to take about a 10-minute break.