From Jihad to Christ (cont)
My mother was influenced by an American Missionary couple, who she asked secretly to baptize her, and when she refused to be baptized in a pond full of green algae the missionary priest had to plead to the YMCA in Jerusalem to clear the pool from men, and my mother was baptized. No one knew from our family.
Many times my mother would take me on trips to several museums in Israel, and I fell in love with archeology, and was fascinated with it. In many arguments with her I would bluntly tell her that the Jews and Christians corrupted the Bible. She responded by taking me to the scroll museum in Jerusalem and showing me the scroll of Isaiah, still intact, but there was no one taking pictures of any Bible errors to prove of any corruption and I could not respond to my mother.
I remember when I still tormented my mother by calling her an "infidel" and a "damned American Imperialist" who claimed that Jesus is the Son of God. I'd show her the pictures in the newspaper of all the teenagers supposedly martyred as a result of violence, demanding her for answers. I hated her and always asked my father to divorce her and re-marry a good Muslim woman.
I would even pose with a grim and sad face for the school picture as if I knew that my turn to be in the paper as a martyr would be next, as many times I risked being killed during youth protests and clashes with the Israeli Army.
I lived in Israel during the Six Day War, the P.L.O. resistance, the Jordanian black September civil war, the bloody wars in Lebanon, and the war of Yom Kippur, with no hope to destroy Israel. All these losses and we still hoped for that one victory since that is all it would take to destroy them.
My parents worried a lot about me as I got thrown in prison by the Israeli Army. My mother went to the American Council in Jerusalem to try to get me out. She was so stressed her hair started to fall out. In jail I learned more about the art of terrorism and when I got out I was more fanatic than before.
When I graduated from high school they sent me to the United States to seek a higher education and, of course, I got involved with many anti-Israeli social and political events. I still remember my favorite sick joke I used to like to tell my friends. That I hated Hitler very much because he never got the job done, that is: he never finished the Jewish problem "once and for all."
With Hitler being my idol, and Mohammed my prophet, I went on with my life with little regard for Jews, Christians, or anyone who was not a Muslim. I believed that one day the whole World would submit to Islam, and that the whole world owed the Palestinians for their losses in all the battles with Israel. I also believed that Jews were prophet-killers and that they corrupted the Scriptures to serve their evil desires. This is what Muslims teach, they also teach that Mohammed is our only redeemer and God's favored prophet.
As I lived in America I could not forget the hundreds of thousands of Muslims who died just in the last 20 years in Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Afghanistan, and in every single Muslim nation. I had to get revenge for them, and someone had to pay the price, and of course there was no question in my mind that the Jews had to pay the penalty. Somehow we always managed to twist things together and make it their fault.
One day I fought with a man and struck his eye blind. I was so happy to learn that the man was a Jew.
I was fascinated with Islamic history as I learned that the Islamic prophet Mohammed extradited a Jewish tribe from Saudi Arabia and ordered the be-heading of all the men. From another tribe, the women were taken as concubines. I used to believe as Islam taught, only a Caliph (Islamic ruler) can rule the world. Islam is not a religion for one's personal and moral life, but a system of law and government to the whole world. If not achieved through peaceful means, war would have to be waged against all who do not submit to Islam, and with one billion Muslims living today I believed that it could happen.
I'll be honest; All my life I was terrified every time I read the Koran, after every other verse is always the threats of hell fire for this sin and that, when all I wanted was to reach out to my maker to say I am sorry, forgive me, give me another chance. But I failed to keep count of all my sins and my good deeds, and I was sure that at the end my sins would outweigh my good deeds. So I lived my sinful life depending on the love and mercy of my maker. I always wondered about my destiny, lost in my fears and doubts. I really hated the idea of killing for my salvation, and in reality I never had the heart to kill a rat! How then can I kill a Jew!!!
Sometime in 1992 I was fascinated when I read a book titled "Armageddon, Appointment With Destiny", by Grant Jeffrey. Some of the things explained in this book had many detailed prophecies about Jesus: his birth, life, death and resurrection; and the re-creation of the state of Israel. Many of these prophecies came to pass just as God put them down in the Bible! What also amazed me, was to find out that the chances for a man to predict hundreds of historic events written hundreds and thousands of years before their occurrences are one in zillions... what is more fascinating is that the margin of error had to be zero, especially when the fulfillment of many of these prophecies are happening in my generation. This kind of evidence had to come from a divine origin, that origin had to be God Almighty.
The struggle began, I was puzzled, how could the Bible be a fake and corrupted by the Jews if the land I grew up in spoke and cried out, as thousands of pieces of archeological evidence surfaced from the land of Israel, confirming the Bible, and the book of Isaiah was discovered in the Qumran caves by a Muslim in the next town from Bethlehem by the name of (Muhammad Deib) while he was looking for a lost sheep. From that discovery they found the rest of the Old Testament which confirmed the Old Testament Bible in our hands today with hundreds of verses predicting the coming of Jesus Christ.
I had to read the Bible to know who Jesus really was to find out for myself, and God finally led me to get to the bottom line, I started reading what Jesus said: "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, who was and is to come, the Almighty." Rev. 1:8
Christ also said to the Jews: "Truly, truly I say to you; before Abraham was born I AM" (John 8:58)
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It amazed me to find similar claims between Jesus and Mohammed. These claims were
serious, as Mohammed said:
"I am the beginning of all creation and the last prophet."
He also said:
"I was a prophet of Allah while Adam was still being molded in clay."
And moreover he claimed to be the intercessor for Muslims in the day of judgement, by all of these claiming to be the World's last and final prophet and savior.
These things always puzzled me. If Mohammed claimed all that he claimed, then who was Jesus, who claimed to be our Redeemer and Savior? That question troubled me a great deal. One of the two claims had to be a lie. If there were two redeemers this would be association with God since God is the only redeemer.
Christ, or Mohammed, had to be the redeemer and intercessor for mankind. The Bible or the Koran had to be correct. One of them is pure gold and the other had to be a fake, but which one...?
Vowing to make a decision for "The Truth", I stayed up late many nights comparing many details between the Koran and the Bible. At some point during my study I prayed saying "GOD, you are the Creator of heaven and earth, the God of Abraham, Moses, and Jacob, You are the beginning and the end, You are 'The Truth', 'the only Truth', the maker of the true scripture, the one and only Word of God. I suffer to find Your truth, I want to do Your will in my life, I long for Your love and in the name of 'The Truth' I ask. AMEN!!!"
I wanted real gold and would not settle for an imitation. I had to scratch very hard to look beyond the surface of the worlds plastic religions.
I believed in the Koran as the word of God because it had modern scientific laws, and only a book with a divine origin can have scientific facts written a thousand years before their discovery. I spent a month using a computer program searching for scientific clues in the Bible. Every verse in the Koran that was a scientific miracle, that had led me and millions of Muslims to believe in the Koran was already in the Bible. Many stories in the Koran had serious errors and with my knowledge of history and archeology I knew that the Koran had serious faults.
With many of these discoveries my claim that the Koran was a miracle was in question. As the Bible had all of its miracles hundreds and thousands of years before, my foundation shook and I felt the sinking sand under me. Even the nations mentioned by the prophet Ezekiel in chapter 38 whom God will destroy, most of them are Muslim nations growing towards Islamic Fundamentalism today.
What also helped me is that God led me to discover, through my study of the Bible, hundreds of detailed and unique verses concerning prophecies fulfilled to the letter. No man has ever presented such detailed predictions of future events without having more errors than truth. God is the only one that holds the key to future events, and only the Bible has the key, not the Koran which lacks that most important element, "Salvation and Redemption." I knew at that moment I would have to be a fool, knowing all of this, to continue worshiping a different God than the God of the Bible. I really thought with my prayer that God would lead me to the Koran, but that was not the case with me. In fact it was the other way around, I had to give up my pride and be open minded to truth.
God said in the Bible:
"For I am God, and there is no other; I am God and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying my counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure.
-Isaiah 46:9,10
God did not only foretell future events, but declared them and brought them to pass, unlike the Koran which simply used terror tactics to conform Muslims to believe. Since I did not believe that the Bible was corrupted, I spent many days searching the Bible for Mohammed as he claimed to be in it, but never found him. And, if the Bible has been corrupted, it had to have happened after the prophet Mohammed, since the Koran always addressed the Bible that was 'between his hands' at his time. From that time until now Muslims failed to provide one single Bible from the face of the Earth to prove the corruption, and not one historical or archeological evidence has been discovered to disprove the Bible.
Even the death of that Muslim prophet was different than the death of Jesus, as Mohammed died on his favorite wife's lap, "Aisha" while Jesus died on the cross in order to redeem man's sins.
I felt sad that hundreds of millions of Muslims today live without ever hearing or being challenged with this kind of evidence.
It was astonishing to me to find that Muslims and the rest of the World recognizes three main religions that worship God, even though God said that He is One and his Word is One.
I was blind, but with the Bible I began to see, I mean really SEE!!! With so much Biblical prophecy fulfilled, showing the return of Israel from the grave, the attitudes of Muslims and the world towards Jews that the end is near.
Man has never changed, he still kills his brother as Cain killed his brother Abel, the only difference is that we don't behead and stab each other in battles as much as we used to, we simply wage chemical warfare to exterminate each other like bugs, as human life is becoming less and less valuable. I began to see that sin is the source of all man's problems, and that the Devil is man's worst enemy, not the Jews, of whom Hitler exterminated 6 million less than 50 years ago. What is ironic today is that tons of literature is being sold denying the incident even existed. I wondered what would happen if a Hitler or a Mehdi or an Islamic Khalifa (Caliph) comes up to power and has what we have today: All these nuclear bombs capable of destroying Earth seven times over. God led me to look at the world that I live in and ask myself if the world today so foolishly denies the Jewish Holocaust despite all the evidence we have, why should I still wonder why most of the world today denies the messianic claim of Christ and the accuracy of the Bible, especially when the evidence is all around.
God opened my heart and mind and led me to see how people today deny all the proofs He provided for us in his word, and adapt themselves to false forms of worship.
The Lord began to show me the satanic influences which affected my way of thinking regardless of my Islamic background which I used to think were from God.
I was led to view the World and the meaning of life and saw the need for salvation. We all can see today man's goal for a world government waiting for the Devil to be the King! (Cont Page 10)
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Overheard after Sunday School
"Is it true that shepherds have dirty socks?
"What do you mean?
"I heard that the shepherds washed their socks by night."
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HEAVEN'S ENTRANCE
by Paul Garcia
(inmate)
Somewhere in this world of ours,
Rested a God who knew everything and just who we are.
God created all living things on this earth,
All God wants His children to do is learn.
Some of us are good, most of us are bad,
Then of course, there's your politicians.
God's children set out in life to achieve,
Most of us deceive.
God never intended this to happen.
We could die to Satan's madness!
Satan has ruined many lives, destroyed many nations.
How do we end our frustration?
I will not fall to Satan or his evil plan.
Who wants to be like man?
When I die I'm going to Heaven;
I'm not a Politician or Republican".
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AMERICAN FREEDOM
By Nathan Spencer
(inmate)
When we begin to contemplate the chain of events that happened here in America, the world trade destruction and the other suicide terrorist acts that followed here in the "land of the free", one would begin to wonder what brought about such devastating actions. We first must ask ourselves, is this truly the land of the free when our own children aren't even allowed to pray in public schools? Would a God-fearing country attempt to stop children from praying? I appreciate some of the freedoms here in America, but I have to be honest when I say America is a greedy, wicked country from long ago. America is a very deceitful country. Although they provide aid to other countries, there is always an underhanded motive to get something in return. America may have some freedoms that other countries don't have, but there is a price to pay and one may have a vicious ultimatum in regards to achieving certain freedoms that may result in crossing over that fine line between what's Holy and un-Holy. For example: You have a job in which there are promotions coming up for you. You are male or female and your supervisor is the opposite sex. You qualify skillfully, but the supervisor (in a lot of cases) without even speaking the ultimatum out aloud, will not give you the promotion unless you sleep with them. That's evil.
Here in the state of California, a pastor told me they are attempting to pass a law, nation wide, against the pastors preaching against some forms of evil because other people in the land say their religion is being talked down upon and the pastor is violating their freedom of religion. The pastor preaching thus will be punished by jail time as he has committed a criminal offense.
We have so much proof each day that America is a wicked country and now this. But be of good cheer my Christian brothers and sisters because the Bible tells us what's to come. Stay faithful till the end and we will inherit an everlasting crown of life. The Bible tells us in II Timothy 3 that in the last days men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy. Without natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good. Traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God.
And know this, that evil men and seducers shall wax worse, deceiving while being deceived.
We Christians, knowing that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places (Ephesians chapter 6), we, take the shield of faith, where with 'ye shall be able to quench the fiery darts of the wicked.' Be not dismayed by anything you see or hear that is contrary to the Christian faith because, by the Holy power of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, we are unmoved by any circumstances or any situation that this old world will experience in the coming years. We are saved by the blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ. Be of good cheer because Jesus has overcome the world.
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"If absence makes the heart grow fonder," said a minister, "a lot of folks must love our church."
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Sign in a church:
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO OUR CHRISTIAN FRIENDS; HAPPY
HANUKKAH TO OUR JEWISH FRIENDS; TO OUR ATHEIST FRIENDS.... GOOD LUCK
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From Jihad to Christ (cont'd)
"Babylon" is being revived from the grave to unite the world one more time, we only changed it's name to "The New World Order", when it should be called "The New Babylon". I started reading the Bible and began to wonder why Zechariah prophesied:
"For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem, the city shall be rifled, and the women ravished". -Zechariah 14:2
In Islam I was taught that the second coming of the Messiah was in Islamic prophecy. He was portrayed as the one to break the cross and kill the pig, another setup for Muslims to follow the "false" messiah, the Mehdi, the coming Antiochos Epiphanias.
Contrary to Mohammed's prophecy, the Bible prepares its readers that the outcome of the siege in the time of Jacobs trouble will not be the total annihilation of the Jews, but that Christ himself will descend on the Mount of Olives for judgement as he fights the enemies of Israel. Unfortunately, it will be to late for repentance and redemption for non-believers.
The saddest part is that hatred towards Jews is not an old outmoded idea from the far past. Millions of Muslims today have the same sick idea that one day they will do the same to all Jews in the Holy Land as Mohammed did to the Jews in Saudi Arabia.
In fact the permission to kill Jews and Christians, and take their wives as concubines was engraved in the Islamic "Holy Koran", and is the main cause for the hatred of Jews by Muslims to this very day.
The word "Truth" was stuck in my heart day and night, pounding on my soul as I continued to compare the two books, to finally conclude that the Bible can be proven beyond any shadow of a doubt to be true gold, not only by hundreds of ancient prophecies that came to pass, but by one ancient word created by God from the time of Jacob until our generation, for all who doubt, and that word was and still is 'Israel'.
Israel's existence today, and the re-gathering of the Jews from ALL parts of the world, is an irrefutable proof, that the Holy Bible is the true Word of God, as God scattered them throughout the whole world, and re-gathered them again from ALL Nations back to their original land in fulfillment of His promises in the far past, until our present, for he said:
"I will gather you from All the nations, and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you to the place from which I caused you to be carried away captive". -Jeremiah 29:14
The true God never changed, he is still the same. I also learned that my enemy, the Jews, were chosen by God to write God's Word, and God's plan for salvation through Jesus the Messiah, the only Messiah and Redeemer for man. I also learned that Jesus, the man from my hometown, was a Jew, and even my hometown was Jewish 'Beth-Lechem', which means 'Home of the Bread', as He said:
"I am the Bread of Life, he who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst"-John 6:35.
Beth-Lechem was given it's name before Jesus came to this world, and He was from the people of my enemy, the Jews. He died for my sin. I never heard of an enemy who dies for another enemy and loves him so much that he allowed himself to be beaten, spat on, mocked and finally crucified. Can your enemy die for you? Yet he said:
"Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you" - Matthew 5:44
The Truth was in front of my very eyes, knocking constantly on my heart, and wanting to come in. I called on The Truth and He answered. I was blind and sought the truth, and now I see. He knocked on my door and I opened, and now he has set me free! Christ said:
"I am The Way, The Truth and The Life, no one comes to the Father except through Me." - John 14:6 .
My way of thinking, my feelings, and my goals in life began to change, I began to feel for the Jewish people. All the hatred left me. The desire to see them hurt is no more a thing in my life. Now I hurt for them and pray peace for Jerusalem continually. And instead of laughing at images of the holocaust on T.V., I would weep for them, I am even ready to give my own life for them, as did my Lord. I say it despite the outcome of the hate that could come from my own fellow Arabs and Muslims.
Yes I say to the whole world, I love Jews, I love them because of their Messiah, I love them because they brought light to the world, and through them came the light and the truth. For that I love Jews. I no more despise them and I know from the Bible that the Jews are God's chosen people to give light to Arabs and to the whole world, if we only allow them. For God made them a blessing to the World. We need to love and support them. As God said to Abraham:
"I will bless those who bless you and I will curse him who curses you, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed" - Genesis 12:2
Knowing the truth transferred my way of thinking from believing in Hitler to believing in Christ, from believing lies to knowing the truth, from being spiritually sick to being healed, from living in darkness to seeing the light, from being damned to being saved, from doubt to faith, from hate to love, and from evil works to God's grace through Christ. This transformation taught me that without the (True) word of God things could look good on the surface but in the core lays deception. I accepted Jesus the Messiah, as my Lord and Savior, who died for all of our sins; to Him I submit.
Jesus said: "Come to me all you who labor, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." - Matthew 11:28
Thank you Lord Jesus for fulfilling your promise!
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Ad in newspaper:
ARMAGEDDON - THE EARTH'S LAST WAR.... HOW AND WHERE IT WILL BE
FOUGHT
At the First Baptist Church.
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Sign on board outside of a church:
THIS CHURCH IS PRAYER-CONDITIONED
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Sign in a Bible bookstore:
DAVID AND BATHSHEBA . . . YOU'VE SEEN THE MOVIE, NOW READ THE BOOK
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