Letter to my Moslem Brothers and Sisters

 

I admire your discipline of prayer, and if your prayers are to the God of Abraham, we, Muslims, Christians, and Jews are all praying to the same God. If that is so, why is there so much animosity between us? Why so much anger especially against Jews? You are the sons of Abraham through the seed of Ishmael. You are half-brothers with the Israelites. It is a sin to hurt and wish bad things to another human being, especially when it is you own brother!

 

There is only one Truth. But no one owns God’s Truth. However, everyone has the right and the obligation to seek it. If that is so, no one has the right to impose their own point of view on others. The truth of each side must be allowed to be expressed and, if one is wise, one should consider all God-inspired scriptures before making our own minds about what is “the” Truth for us. If there is an imposition of a truth or it cannot face questioning, it means that this truth cannot stand on its own and by definition it is not Truth. God’s Truth does not need to be forced upon anyone. God encourages questioning until logic points at the Truth, after which Truth must be accepted. God does not need our help to carry out His affairs. God wants us to prepare ourselves for eternity by negating the temptations of this physical and sinful world. This desire to spend eternity with God must come from us. If there is any forcing of ideology in our midst it is due to political ambitions. Have you ever met a holy politician? Beware of any “truth” that is forceful or that is not allowed to be questioned; it is not Godly.

 

That said, let us analyze certain important facts in chronological order. If you believe that Moses existed, it is well documented that he led the Jews out of Egypt and that he wrote the first five books of the Jewish Bible in about 1400 BC. Since then the Jews have been meticulous in documenting the thoughts and deeds of men inspired by God. If you read what the prophets said in the subsequent books of what the Christians call The Old Testament of the Bible, you will see that most of them transmit the discontent of God for the attitude and actions of His people. You would think that if these prophets were fakes or the Bible was later manipulated, they would simply praise what their political and religious leaders were doing. But they were not fakes and their words transcribed are true. The proof is that the prophets criticized the sins and the corruption of the Jewish kings and priests and, as a result, most of them sacrificed their lives, to relay the message God gave to them. They did it because their love and obedience to God was greater than their love of self or the things of this world.

 

You probably noted I used the term “His people”. That should not upset you because we are talking about the timeframe between 1400 and 500 BC. At that time, the only people that fellowshipped and documented their relationship with what we now recognize as our God were the Jews. All other civilizations, including yours, were polytheists and worshiped idols. For that recognition God, in turn, blessed the Jews as “His chosen people”.  That does not mean that we, the non-Jews, are somehow left out. Whoever recognizes God as his Lord and obeys his commandments is also recognized by His creator and becomes His people.

 

The Old Testament prophets not only manifested God’s discontent with the way Jews were leading their lives in the promised land, they also prophesized what was to come. Do you know there are about 300 prophesies about the coming of a man that would be born of a virgin, would be born in Bethlehem, would be anointed by the Holy Spirit, would preach the good news, would present Himself as King exactly 173,880 days from the decree to rebuild the temple and the city of Jerusalem (destroyed by the Babylonians), would perform miracles, would be rejected by the Jews, would be betrayed by a friend, would be mocked, beaten, spat upon, would be crucified among thieves, would pray for His prosecutors, would be buried in a rich man’s tomb, would rise from the dead, and would be seated at the right hand of God? Do you know there are about 200 other prophesies yet to be fulfilled? If 300 prophesies, written between 1400 to 500 years before these things happened were fulfilled, what are the chances that the other 200 will not be fulfilled? 

 

If you believe that Jesus existed, you must believe what was recorded to have done and said. Again, Jews have been meticulous in documenting the thoughts and deeds of men inspired by God. Jesus was a Jew and therefore, as He took over John the Baptist’s work, followers began to keep an account of His actions and words. Matthew, a tax collector by trade and accustomed to taking notes probably in shorthand, not only was an apostle of Jesus, but was the one that kept an account of the facts of his life and ministry. The evidence of this is the reference by Jesus himself of “the Gospel of the good news”, which means he knew that the Gospel was being written as he was teaching and healing people in and around Galilee. 

 

Jesus said through John 14:6 (another of His apostles): “I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one comes to the Father but by Me” Have you ever heard any prophet say such a thing? The first impression after reading this is shock. That is quite a statement. In fact, no one has ever made such a strong statement. No one ever had the authority to say it. But after you consider the evidence of the prophesies that were fulfilled and as you learn the prophesies that will come, it becomes clear that God wants our spirits to surround Him after we have shed our physical bodies. He wants us to commune with Him, but He knows we will never measure up to His standards. We may have good intentions, but our resolve is weak, and we often fall to sin. We can never measure up to God’s perfect standards on our own righteousness. If we, that are imperfect, want the best for our children, how much more does God love us, His creation made in His own image! God created us to have a relationship with Him. So, it is perfectly logical that He would do something as a way out of our deficiencies. He sent His own begotten son to teach us how God wants us to lead our lives. Even with all His power and might, He lived, as a man, although sinless, a seemingly uneventful life until He began His ministry three and a half years before His death. He taught how God wants us to lead our lives, He challenged the legalistic Jewish religious system that dominated and ripped-off the Jewish people at the time, He healed anyone that approached Him in faith, and He even raised the dead to life on several occasions. He performed incredible miracles not to wow the people, but to show the power of God if one would only believe. He continues to challenge us, even today, to believe in Him to gain eternal life. He suffered a painful torture on the cross as a payment for all our sins.

 

We can no longer say in our defense, God is unfair because He does not know how hard it is to be human. Jesus walked among us and was tempted by the enemy just like we are. Jesus showed us how to defeat the enemy and demonstrated that God sent Him to be the door through which we have access to Heaven. The only thing we must do for that door to open is to thank Him for suffering and dying for our sins, ask forgiveness for our weaknesses, promise to move away from sin, and invite Him to be our Lord in our lives.

 

After doing this you will feel liberated from all the baggage you have been carrying. The presence of the Spirit will be immediately evident in your life because you will not want to sin anymore, but when you do succumb, you will be very remorseful. This will make you evolve spiritually into a better human being. This process can take some time, but the assurance that your name has been written in the Book of Life after having replaced your self-righteousness with that of Jesus’ is comforting like nothing else. Pretty soon you will surprise yourself trying to convince others to forget all the things that distract and attach us to this temporary world and instead focus on everlasting life.

 

I pray that you will find the courage to investigate, probe, and test the scriptures and that the Holy Spirit will convict you to recognize the actual truth, the way, and the life. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.