When I read ignorant statements about Christians taking part in the mass genocide of the Jews in WWII, I seriously want to scream.

When people speak of the Vatican’s part in propping up Hitler during those dark years – what they do not understand is that Catholicism is NOT Christianity – not in any way, shape or form. I am convinced that Satan himself inspired the creation of the Catholic Church.

First of all, are we as born-again believers not under the Covenant of Grace? Of course we are! Although Martin Luther did not finish well in his ministry, we can thank him for having the courage and conviction to post his 95 theses on the door of the Catholic Church. It ultimately cost him his life.

Luther was attempting to show the leaders of that cult this Bible doctrine:

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

Catholicism has always been a works-based cult, and I pray that many will come out of that cult and be saved. There are people who still attend Catholic services but are born again. I don’t understand why they feel the need to stay.

The love of Jesus shone forth in the life of Corrie Ten Boom

From pbs.org

Corrie ten Boom has long been honored by evangelical Christians as an exemplar of Christian faith in action. Arrested by the Nazis along with the rest of her family for hiding Jews in their Haarlem home during the Holocaust, she was imprisoned and eventually sent to the Ravensbruck concentration camp along with her beloved sister, Betsie, who perished there just days before Corrie’s own release on December 31, 1944. Inspired by Betsie’s example of selfless love and forgiveness amid extreme cruelty and persecution, Corrie established a post-war home for other camp survivors trying to recover from the horrors they had escaped.

She went on to travel widely as a missionary, preaching God’s forgiveness and the need for reconciliation. Corrie’s devout moral principles were tested when, by chance, she came face to face with one of her former tormentors in 1947. The following description of that experience is excerpted from her 1971 autobiography, The Hiding Place, written with the help of John and Elizabeth Sherrill.

I’m Still Learning to Forgive

It was in a church in Munich that I saw him, a balding heavy-set man in a gray overcoat, a brown felt hat clutched between his hands. People were filing out of the basement room where I had just spoken. It was 1947, and I had come from Holland to defeated Germany with the message that God forgives. …

And that’s when I saw him, working his way forward against the others. One moment I saw the overcoat and the brown hat; the next, a blue uniform and a visored cap with its skull and crossbones. It came back with a rush: the huge room with its harsh overhead lights, the pathetic pile of dresses and shoes in the center of the floor, the shame of walking naked past this man. I could see my sister’s frail form ahead of me, ribs sharp beneath the parchment skin. Betsie, how thin you were!

Betsie and I had been arrested for concealing Jews in our home during the Nazi occupation of Holland; this man had been a guard at Ravensbruck concentration camp where we were sent. …

“You mentioned Ravensbruck in your talk,” he was saying. “I was a guard in there.” No, he did not remember me.

“I had to do it — I knew that. The message that God forgives has a prior condition: that we forgive those who have injured us.”

“But since that time,” he went on, “I have become a Christian. I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did there, but I would like to hear it from your lips as well. Fraulein, …” his hand came out, … “will you forgive me?”

And I stood there — I whose sins had every day to be forgiven — and could not. Betsie had died in that place — could he erase her slow terrible death simply for the asking?

It could not have been many seconds that he stood there, hand held out, but to me it seemed hours as I wrestled with the most difficult thing I had ever had to do.

For I had to do it — I knew that. The message that God forgives has a prior condition: that we forgive those who have injured us. “If you do not forgive men their trespasses,” Jesus says, “neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.”…

And still I stood there with the coldness clutching my heart. But forgiveness is not an emotion — I knew that too. Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart. “Jesus, help me!” I prayed silently. “I can lift my hand, I can do that much. You supply the feeling.”

And so woodenly, mechanically, I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me. And as I did, an incredible thing took place. The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes.

“I forgive you, brother!” I cried. “With all my heart!” For a long moment we grasped each other’s hands, the former guard and the former prisoner. I had never known God’s love so intensely as I did then. source

The story of Corrie Ten Boom has inspired countless numbers of people through the decades. She embodied our Faith – our Love – She embodied Grace.

After all, that is why God has His believers under the Covenant of Grace. It’s all about forgiveness. He forgives us for our sins. He expects us to forgive those who have sinned against us – no matter how egregious the sin.

This is not a suggestion from the Lord. He commanded that we forgive – and we must. Remember that forgiveness is not an emotion – it is an act of our will.

We may not feel it, but we do it for our Precious Lord!

How Can I Be Saved?

Shalom b’Yeshua

MARANATHA!

grandmageri422@gmail.com

Articles at grandmageri422.me

 

WHY do people insist on appeasing Muslims in such absurd ways? Do they think that this might keep them safe from terrorism? I have news for them. They are still infidels and will never be safe from Islamist terrorism unless they convert to Islam!

I’ve written quite a few articles about Islam. I want to post what I consider my most important piece on the difference between our Jesus from the Bible and “Isa” from the Qur’an. This article was written three years ago:

Chrislam is the Ultimate Deception: Jesus is NOT Isa from the Qur’an

Months ago, I had conversations with a pastor from a large Baptist church in Richmond, VA. He believes that Allah and our God are one and the same. He told me that Muslims see God through the lens of Muhammad, and that Christians see Him through the lens of Jesus Christ. This is heresy!

I am writing this piece so that you can be equipped to speak truth to those who are deceived. If a head pastor of a church of over 1,000 people believes this lie, then surely there are many others. I am so grieved over this — mostly for the people in the congregations of these wolves.

Because this pastor is not adhering to the Word of God, he is vulnerable to being deceived in most every area of Biblical teaching. He is close friends with Brian McLaren — the father of the Emerging Church movement. The Richmond pastor has meditation and centering and other New Age practices on his website. He also states that God may or may not be a female!

“For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

“And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth, to which He called you by our gospel, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

“Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle. Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and our God and Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope by grace, comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work” (2 Thessalonians 2:7-17).

I will be taking passages from the Qur’an about Jesus – whom they call “Isa,” and then I will post Scripture which will expose the passages from the Qur’an as counterfeit. Should it surprise us that Satan would establish this religion? Satan always takes a little bit of truth and then perverts it with his lies. He has been doing this since being cast from heaven by God.

Let’s begin at the beginning:

From the Qur’an about Abraham

“When his Lord tested Abraham with certain commands and he fulfilled them, He said, ‘I will make you a leader of men.’ Abraham asked, ‘And what of my descendants?’ He answered, ‘My covenant does not extend to the transgressors.’ And We made the House [the Ka’bah] a place of assembly and a sanctuary for mankind, [saying], ‘Make the place where Abraham stood a place of worship.’ We commanded Abraham and Ishmael, ‘Purify My House for those who walk round it, those who stay there for devotion, and those who bow down and prostrate themselves’” (Qur’an 2:124-125).

From the Bible about Abraham

“Then God said to Abraham, ‘As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. And I will bless her and also give you a son by her; then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall be from her.’ Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, ‘Shall a child be born to a man who is one hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?’ And Abraham said to God, ‘Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!’ Then God said: ‘No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him’” (Genesis 17:15-19).

Announcement to Mary from Qur’an:

A little truth mixed with lies = LIES

“He said: ‘Nay, I am only a messenger from thy Lord, (to announce) to thee the gift of a holy son. She said: ‘How shall I have a son, seeing that no man has touched me, and I am not unchaste?’ He said: ‘So (it will be): Thy Lord saith, ‘that is easy for Me: and (We wish) to appoint him as a Sign unto men and a Mercy from Us’: It is a matter (so) decreed’” (19:19-21, Yusif Ali).

“And (remember) her who guarded her chastity: We breathed into her of Our spirit, and We made her and her son a sign for all peoples” (21:91, Yusif Ali).

Announcement to Mary in the Bible:

“Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And having come in, the angel said to her, ‘Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!’” (Luke 1:26-28).

“He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1:32-33).

Jesus is a messenger (Prophet) in Qur’an:

“He said: ‘I am indeed a servant of Allah: He hath given me revelation and made me a prophet” (19:30, Yusif Ali).

“O People of the Book! Commit no excesses in your religion: Nor say of Allah aught but the truth. Christ Jesus the son of Mary was (no more than) a messenger of Allah, and His Word, which He bestowed on Mary, and a spirit proceeding from Him: so believe in Allah and His messengers. Say not ‘Trinity’: desist: it will be better for you: for Allah is one Allah: Glory be to Him: (far exalted is He) above having a son. To Him belong all things in the heavens and on earth. And enough is Allah as a Disposer of affairs” (4:171, Yusif Ali).

“Christ the son of Mary was no more than a messenger; many were the messengers that passed away before him. His mother was a woman of truth. They had both to eat their (daily) food. See how Allah doth make His signs clear to them; yet see in what ways they are deluded away from the truth!” (5:575, Yusif Ali).

Jesus is God in the Bible

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it” (John 1:1-5).

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).

The Crucifixion denied in the Qur’an:

“That they said (in boast), ‘We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah’;- but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them, and those who differ therein are full of doubts, with no (certain) knowledge, but only conjecture to follow, for of a surety they killed him not” (4:157,Yusif Ali).

The Crucifixion told in the Bible:

“And He, bearing His cross, went out to a place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha, where they crucified Him, and two others with Him, one on either side, and Jesus in the center. Now Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross. And the writing was: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. Then many of the Jews read this title, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin” (John 19:17-20)

“After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, ‘I thirst!’ Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there; and they filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and put it to His mouth. So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, ‘It is finished!’ And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit” (John 19:28-30).

You are cursed if you say Jesus is God’s Son in the Qur’an:

“The Jews call Uzair a son of Allah, and the Christians call Christ the son of Allah. That is a saying from their mouth; (in this) they but imitate what the unbelievers of old used to say. Allah’s curse be on them: how they are deluded away from the Truth!” (9:30, Yusif Ali).

“Such (was) Jesus the son of Mary: (it is) a statement of truth, about which they (vainly) dispute. It is not befitting to (the majesty of) Allah that He should beget a son. Glory be to Him! when He determines a matter, He only says to it, ‘Be’, and it is’” (19:34-35, Yusif Ali).

Jesus – Son of God in the Bible:

“Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live” (John 5:25).

“Do you say of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?” (John 10:36).

“When Jesus heard that, He said, ‘This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it’” (John 11:4).

“But He kept silent and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked Him, saying to Him, ‘Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?’ Jesus said, ‘I am. And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven’” (Mark 14:61-62).

The deity of Jesus Christ, and His Crucifixion are foundational to the Christian!

Read the rest of the article here.

Today I read that a new play is being performed in Chicago which mixes the true story of Christmas with Islam. This is supposedly to make the Muslims feel better about us. REALLY?

From faithwire.com

Church Hosts Christmas Play That Mixes Islam, Christianity as ‘Love Letter’ to Muslims

The Chicago theater company Silk Road Rising has debuted a brand new play called “Christmas Mubarak,” a story that blends the stories of Jesus from both Christianity and Islam.

Corey Pond, a member of Silk Road Rising who directed and adapted the holiday play, described the new show, which premiered last weekend, as “a love letter to the Muslims we know and who come.” The goal, he told Religion News Service, is to make them “feel like they’re incorporated in the Christmas holiday.”

The play weaves in different aspects of the two religious traditions.

It chronicles the angel Gabriel telling Mary she would miraculously conceive a child, similar to the story found in the Gospel of Luke. In Islam, Jesus’ virgin birth came as the result of a prophecy given to her father. She later hides during her pregnancy and reveals it to Joseph, who is her cousin, not her fiancé.

“It’s different enough that it feels like a wonderful way for both Muslims and Christians to refresh their understanding of the story and to find something new in the story in this moment that we live in,” Silk Road Rising executive director Malik Gillani said.

Muslims, it should be noted, do not believe Jesus was crucified or resurrected. They regard Jesus not as the savior, but as just a prophet.

The play itself was inspired by Gillani, a Shiite Muslim, and Jamil Khoury, a Syrian Orthodox Christian and the founder of Silk Road Rising, which was established after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

“Jesus being the central figure in Christianity and Jesus being an important figure in Islam — and also Mary being an important figure in Islam — it just seemed to me that this would be a very useful conversation starter and also a way to illuminate for Christian audiences many of the similarities,” Khoury said.

Christian blogger Julie Roys described the entire undertaking — which is playing at the First United Methodist Church at the Chicago Temple — as “insidious” and “nothing short of blasphemy.”

“It perverts the story of Jesus’ birth; it doesn’t refresh it. No prophet could save people from their sins. Only the incarnate Son of God could do that,” she wrote. “That any Christian church would participate in this play is disgraceful.” source

And this Christian blogger agrees with Julie Roys 100%. The loving thing for Christians to do is to share TRUTH from the Word of God so that Muslims can be saved!

How Can I Be Saved?

Shalom b’Yeshua

MARANATHA!

grandmageri422@gmail.com

Articles at grandmageri422.me