This transcript is taken from a Stand in the Gap Today program originally aired on Jan. 31, 2023. To listen to the program, please click HERE.
Gary Dull:
Well, greetings to each and every one of you. In the precious name of our wonderful Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, I’m Gary Dull, and I want to thank you so very, very much for the pleasure of your company as we get together on this edition of Stand in the Gap today.
We have a great topic that we’re going to be dealing with today. It’s entitled: Understanding Islam, Its History and Its Vision. And we have two great authorities who will be with us throughout the course of the entire program. And so I would encourage you to stay tuned. In fact, I would encourage you to call somebody else and let them know that we are on the air at this particular point in time.
But before we get into the program, I just want to mention to you that our dear friend Dan Kistler, who has been with us a number of times on the program, needs your prayer. Most of you probably know that his brother, his twin Brother Dave, is one of the co-hosts on Stand In the Gap. And Dave, of course was planning on being with us today, but he’s unable to be with us.
But a little over a week ago, Dan had a heart attack and then just several days ago he had another heart attack and he’s really been through it as it relates to his heart. They’re still working on him. He is still sedated, and I think he’s been sedated ever since this past Friday, I believe it is. And he’s in the hospital. They’re working with him. He’s doing well. He’s stable but critical. And we would ask you to be praying for Dan Kistler that he might have a speedy recovery from this. It looks like things will go forward positively, but certainly he needs our prayer. And as a matter of fact, even as we are doing this program, he will be going through a procedure. So we would ask you to pray for Dan Kistler and his wife Kathy, and the rest of the family during this very serious time.
Well, according to Wikipedia, religion is defined as the following: a social cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics or organizations that generally relates humanity to supernatural, transcendental and spiritual elements, although there is no scholarly consensus over what precisely constitute a religion. Now, I don’t know about you, but that sounds like a lot of mumbo jumbo. But nevertheless, that’s how Wikipedia defines religion.
Again, according to them who say they are experts on religion, I should say, the five major religious movements in the world today include Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Now the Pew Research Center recently released a report that said, and I quote, “Islam will grow more than twice as fast as the overall world population between 2015 and 2060 in the second half of the century and will likely surpass Christians as the world’s largest religion.”
Now that report went on to say, and once again I quote, “While the world’s population is projected to grow 32% in the coming decades, the number of Muslims is expected to increase by 70%.” In 2015 Muslims made up about 21.4% of the global population. Well, 45 years later, they are expected to make up more than three in 10 of the world’s population or 31.1%. And ladies and gentlemen, that’s a serious figure to take into consideration.
Now again, according to the Pew Report, the main reason for Islam’s growth is that it has more children than most other religious groups. For instance, Muslim women have an average of 2.9 children, and that’s significantly above the next highest group, which is Christianity, where women have on the average of 2.2 children.
Now, in addition to that statistic, the growth of the Muslim population is helped by the fact that Muslims have the youngest median age, which is 24, and that is seven years younger than the median age of non-Muslims, which is the age 32.
So whatever the statistics say, there is no doubt that the Muslim religion is growing and that should be a great cause of concern for those of us who are Bible believing Christians. So today on the Stand in the Gap program, we’re going to be having a discussion with two experts on Islam. One of our guests, Nehemiah Paul, comes to us with Muslim background and the other guest, Tom Wallace, comes to us with experience of seeing the growth of Islam in one of the world’s greatest nations. Both of them, if you recall, have been on the radio broadcast with us before and we are delighted to have them back with us.
So Nehemiah, welcome.
Nehemiah Paul:
Thank you Pastor Gary for giving me this opportunity.
Gary Dull:
Yes sir. And Tom, welcome back my friend.
Tom Wallace:
Well, thank you. It’s always a joy to be with you and your listeners at Stand in the Gap.
Gary Dull:
Amen. It’s a delight to have you. Now, with just a few moments that we have in this particular segment, I’d like for each of you to share your personal background in Islam and why a program like we’re conducting today is significant to us here in America. And we’ll start with you Nehemiah, if you would please.
Nehemiah Paul:
Yes, Pastor Gary. I was born in a Muslim background believer’s house. And my father, he had a ministry among Muslims. And since he become Christian after his living his life being a Muslim scholar in an Islamic university, he’s following Jesus Christ and his ministry was among Muslims.
I was born in a safe house where Muslims, they used to come and stay with us, new seekers, they’d come and stay with us. And I had been to many safe houses and I had been a fly on the wall always, listening all the conversations my father used to have these Muslim background believer, brothers and sisters and family members and new seekers.
And while I go to college, I was already, had enough knowledge about Islam, even though I was Christian. But I had enough knowledge about Islam before I started learning about Islam. I had a good knowledge of Islam, and I used to engage conversations with Muslim with my friends. And while I was in college in Pakistan, when we say college, it means 11th grade or 12th grade. We don’t have high school in Pakistan. So while I was in 11th grade, I used to challenge my friends, my class fellows that I’ll become Muslim if you give me the answer. And my challenge was that if you tell me the concept of salvation in Islam, I’ll become Muslim. And they had no answer. This is one of my questions I used to ask always my friends and class fellows.
So I had a few memories of my journey with Christian faith being, living in countries like Pakistan. And it’s not about why we need such programs here in US, Pastor Gary, let me say that please. I see living in America that in politics I, and I don’t want to go in politics, but we see that while we are having problems in America, we talk about Ukraine, sending money to Ukraine, we talk about sending money to Saudi Arabia, to Pakistan, I mean these countries. We have problem here in America and we need such programs in America. I am done talking about other world, but for America, this is a need of the day.
Gary Dull:
Well, it is the need of the day. And Tom, if you don’t mind, we’re out of time toward this segment. When we come back after this break, we’ll give you the opportunity to share some of your background. But folks, you can see that this is a very significant subject for us to study. So we’re going to take this break and when we come back we’ll continue to talk. We’ll invite Tom to give his background, then we’ll go into detail on the history and vision of Islam. So don’t go away, we’ll be back right after these messages.
Gary Dull:
Well, welcome back ladies and gentlemen to Stand in the Gap radio. And today we are talking about a very fast-growing religion in the world. It’s the religion of Islam. We’re going to be dealing with what Islam is, what its vision is, what its history is. And we’re looking forward to that.
But I just want to say before we go any further that during the break I received a text from my congressman, Dr. John Joyce, who actually texted me from the floor of the House of Representatives in Washington DC, and he said this. He said, “Pastor Gary, today we opened our first meeting in Energy and Commerce and each member, both Democrat and Republican, were presented with a Bible.” And the verse that was highlighted was Psalm 119 verse 105, which says, “Thy word is a lamp under my feet and a light under my path.” And I wrote back and I said, “Well, that’s great to hear.” And so to all of you across the nation, let’s pray that all of those Democrats and Republicans and Independents there in Washington DC will take heed to the word of God.
Well Tom, we did not get the opportunity for you to share a little bit about your background in Islam in the last segment. So if you don’t mind doing so here at the beginning of this segment, I’d appreciate it very much. It’s certainly a delight to have you back with us. So share with us a little bit about your experience in Islam, if you would please.
Tom Wallace:
Well, thank you Brother Gary, and I’m glad to be on the program with you and Brother Nehemiah. My background was, I was a missionary in England. My folks were missionaries there. And so I grew up there. I had a British accent as a little boy. Most of my schooling there was in the English schools. And I grew up with Muslim friends from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, and mainly Asian, Central Asian Muslims. And I got acquainted with it back in my childhood a little bit.
But when I went back as a missionary, I had to learn how to engage Muslims with the gospel ’cause they were in our community. And I found myself in a very strong large Muslim community in the central part of the country. I had heard for decades Sharia law’s coming, Sharia law’s coming from my Muslim friends and I dismissed it as dreamy thinking. But on September 14th, 2008, it actually, that dream came true for Muslims. Seven Sharia courts were open, and it listed even my own town as one of the towns that was going to be hosting a Sharia court but was also the headquarters of all the Sharia courts in the country. Now they’re over a hundred of these Sharia courts just in London alone. And they were practicing Sharia in their mosque, but now these courts have government backing.
And so the mandates that these Muslims were handing down were enforced by the British government. And that’s a very slippery slope to be on to say, “Well, all our laws apply to everybody in our nation, except these people. They now have an exception to our laws and can live under their own laws, their religious laws.” That’s a very dangerous footing for any country.
This is Britain. This is the United Kingdom where our national laws come from Britain, but they bent to the will of these immigrants that came into their country that they let in and they bent to their demands. And it wasn’t the terrorists that brought it. It was the moderate Muslims that brought it to their country.
I started studying more of the agenda at that time. And after 9/11, of course for two decades I’ve been studying Islam, not from what non-Muslims were saying. I wanted to go to the horse’s mouth and study it from Muhammad’s teachings, the Hadith and the Quran, and to go from the orthodoxy side of Islam.
So that’s been my background now for about 20 years dealing with this subject. And we mainly deal with resisting of Islam, the refuting of it, as well as the rescuing of Muslims. I’m also the founder of Missions to Muslims Network. So it’s a joy to be on your program with you to discuss this topic as it is important, it is affecting not only our world but our country, and hope we can help our listeners understand a bit better.
Gary Dull:
Well I do as well. Hope we can help our listeners to understand it better. And that’s why we have you and Nehemiah on. So Tom, thank you for sharing that.
Nehemiah, one of the things I have found out in the last number of years, I would say maybe the last 15 or 20 years to a greater degree, is that there are many people in the United States and even a lot of Christians who have no idea what the history of Islam is and even how it differs with Christianity.
I remember a number of years ago being in meetings with some folks from Morocco and they were telling us that we love Jesus and we recognize him and we honor him. And they were sort of trying to get us to think that they put Jesus on the same level that we as Christians do. But there’s a big difference in the understanding of who Jesus is between Christians and Muslims. And many of us really don’t understand the history of Islam, but we should.
Why don’t you share some of that with us if you would please?
Nehemiah Paul:
Pastor Gary, the major concern I have that you just talk about Morocco or someone from Morocco, but pastors here in US, they usually say, “We worship the same God as Muslims worship.” This is a false teaching. I mean, I don’t know where it come from, but-
Gary Dull:
This is many times.
Nehemiah Paul:
Yeah, this is exactly the false teaching. I don’t know how people, and especially the pastors, they teach this. But Islam is one of the world’s major and the largest monotheistic religions in the world, and it became in the early seventh century. Islam comes from the world al-islam or alislam, which means peace or surrender to god, which is with a small letter g in Islam is referred to as Allah. Muslims they say Allah, but it’s also for God and Bible. So we have to make a difference that Muslim, when they say god or Allah, that is with the small letter g, not with the capital. But when we say God or Allah in Arabic or in Urdu, this is for the Christians’ God I’m referring to, which means the God, a person who is believe. God in Islam is referred as Allah which is Arabic name as I said god, and the Muslim who is practicing this religion that’s called Muslim.
The founder of Islam is Muhammad. And this region was based in Saudi Arabia, Arabia. Saudi is the new name after the name of Al Saud family. So this is a very unique that the Saudi Arabia name is after a family’s name, Al Saud. And you talk about what is the difference between Christianity and Islam? What is … I don’t want to go in detail because if we talk about what is difference, we need thousand and thousand books to write, what’s the difference? But-
Gary Dull:
A lot of time.
Nehemiah Paul:
Yeah. But just I wanted to focus about the Jesus and with the difference between Jesus or God or Allah, I’ll give you few, just a couple of quick differences. As Christians, we believe Jesus came to earth as the Son of God. In Islam, Jesus is just a messenger. He’s not divine. But we believe that Jesus is a divine. And in Islam, he’s just a person. He has highly respect in Islam, but just a person, not divine. Christians believe salvation achieved only through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Only Jesus’ sacrificial death on a cross means God’s perfect, [inaudible 00:16:02] and holiness of love, grace and justice, God guarantees salvation to anyone who submit his or her life to and accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. You either reject God’s free gift of salvation in Jesus or accept it through him and there is no way for humans to gain salvation without Jesus.
But in Islam, Allah chooses to forgive whom he chooses to forgive. Muslims work hard to please Allah, hoping he will choose to forgive them on judgment day. These are the major things. And Muslims believe that their god, Allah stays behind the veil. But our God, he’s keep coming. He stays with us. He lives in us. But there’s always a gap between Muslim Allah and Muslims that he doesn’t come to them and he just lives behind the veil. They are the major differences.
Gary Dull:
There are major differences. And I think that’s one of the reasons why we as Christians need to understand Islam and learn more about it. And Tom, you saw Islam growing there in England, and that concerned you about those of us here who are in the United States of America. And I’m wondering if you can build upon what Nehemiah just said and what you think we in the United States of America need to be warned about as it relates to the growth of Islam.
Tom Wallace:
Well, I think the important thing is we need to be aware of their agenda, their goal, their mission. And this is the utmost danger to our society and our freedoms and our faith. Islam now has 1400 years of history. We can trace the history and it’s a history of bloodshed, of the sword, of conquest, of in any nation that did not resist it, did not fight against it, lost their freedoms, lost their religion, lost their faith, and they became subjects to their god, Allah, and the law of their god, Sharia. And so it has a very defined mission. It’s well spelled out for us in the Quran. It’s taught to us by the prophet Muhammad. And they use, there’s two basic tools that they use to do what they do. One is fear.
If you remove the fear, Islam does not operate. Fear is central to the religion. It’s used on those that are inside it. The Muslims live in fear. If they don’t obey, they don’t yield, if they don’t submit. And it’s important you understand what Islam means. The word Islam does not mean peace, although that’s the other … The other tool is deception. Fear and deception are the two grandest tools. And part of the deception is that Islam means peace. No, Islam means submit, surrender. And those who are in it live under subjugation and it wishes to subjugate the world into its teachings and to make them their followers.
So in a nutshell, that would be how I’d put it. There’s so much we could discuss on those topics there, but I’ll let you lead where you think we need to go on that.
Gary Dull:
Well, right now, we’re going to take a break, Tom, but we appreciate you giving us that insight. And folks, when we come back after this break, we’re going to continue to talk about Islam, mainly looking at the vision that Islam has for the world. So you want to stay tuned. We’ll be back right after these messages.
Gary Dull:
Well, welcome back ladies and gentlemen. And we thank you so very much for staying there by your radio or by whatever device upon which you’re listening to the program. I’m Gary Dull, and today we are talking about the history and vision of Islam with Tom Wallace and Nehemiah Paul.
But before we do that, I’m going to defer to our producer, Mr. Tim Schneider. Tim, why don’t you share with our listeners some exciting new things about Stand in the Gap today?
Tim Schneider:
Yes, Gary, I will share some exciting things about Stand in the Gap today. Thank you very much for everybody listening and good afternoon to you. We have some great websites. If you’ve never visited them, I highly encourage you to do that, americanpastorsnetwork.net and standinthegapmedia.org.
While you’re over at americanpastorsnetwork.net, you can sign up for our e-newsletters. We won’t inundate your inbox with spam, but we’ll send you some useful information. Like once a week we’ll go ahead and send you a recap of the previous week’s radio programs with a transcript of one of the programs and some clips that you can listen to. And then if you want to go back and listen to those on the entire show, you can go ahead and find them in our archives at standinthegapmedia.org. That’s a great resource that we have.
Also, once every couple of months, if you sign up at our e-newsletter, you also receive an e-newsletter that’ll help you, encourage you to pray for this ministry. We encourage your prayers and we thank you for your prayers. And you can go ahead and sign up for those e-newsletters at americanpastorsnetwork.net.
Also, you’ve been hearing us talk about it, and I’m sure we’ll be talking about it throughout the year of 2023, but Return to God. We have letter to America from God, 23 minute video on letterfromgod.org. Also, there on that website letterfromgod.org, you can find some other great resources, books, bible studies, a lot of different things. So go ahead and check that out, letterfromgod.org.
Also, as I was saying before, we highly encourage you to pray for our ministry. Nothing happens without prayer is the catalyst for things that happen and we highly covet your prayers and ask that you would pray for this ministry.
And also, if the Lord has blessed you through what you hear and you want to give financially, we would encourage you also to give financially. No amount too big, no amount too small is too much. If the Lord would put it on your heart, whatever you would put upon. Just please consider giving and blessing us so that we can continue to do the things that we’ve been doing. So those are some exciting things behind the scenes here, Gary, and I will go ahead and send it on back to you.
Gary Dull:
Well, thank you Tim. I appreciate that very much and thank you for very clearly presenting those matters.
Folks, we want to continue to talk about the vision of Islam in the program today. And like I said, we have Nehemiah Paul and Tom Wallace with us. And Nehemiah is one who’s grown up with the Muslim background, you certainly obviously have a great understanding of what they believe and what their goal and vision might be for the world.
I’m wondering if you would take some time to clearly and directly share with our audience the real vision of Islam for the globe. We often talk about this word caliphate. What does that mean and how does that tie into what they want to do in the world as we know it today?
Nehemiah Paul:
Pastor Gary, Islam is an unguided missile. They have no agenda, they have no vision, but only one. And that is to impose Sharia law across the world. This is their only vision and mission and goal to do so. And how they want to achieve that? They want to achieve that through Sharia law. When we see what happened in Syria through ISIS, people were saying, “What’s going on?” I mean, I was like, “This is Islam. This is what they’re trying to impose there.” This is what we are experiencing and seeing what happened in Afghanistan. These Talibans, they want to impose and they have imposed Sharia law in Afghanistan. This is the real face of Islam and this is what they’re trying to do it.
And I just want to quote a couple of verses from Quran to give the better idea. We are not talking about what I say, what Pastor Gary says. We are talking about what Quran says about the imposed Sharia law, how to do it, how to achieve to impose Sharia law. Chapter 9, verse 29 says from Quran, and this is a English translation, “Fight against those who do not believe in Allah or in the last day and who do not consider unlawful with Allah and his messenger, have made unlawful and who do not adopt the religion of truth like Islam. From those who were given the scripture fight until they give the jizyah willingly while they are humbled.”
Jizyah is a tax by the Muslim rulers on non-Muslim residents of the territory and the return of their protection. This is a protection money they have to give to Muslim rulers. And Quran says kill them, if they don’t accept Islam, just kill them. If they don’t embrace Islam, kill them.
And surah 9:5 says, chapter 9 verse 5 says, “Then kill the polytheists wherever you find them and capture them and besiege them and sit and wait for them and at every place of ambush. But if they should repent, establish prayer and give zakah, let them go on their way indeed. Allah is forgiving and merciful.” Just imagine what kind of Allah is this who is saying kill them if they don’t accept, if they don’t embrace Islam. And Muhammad, himself says in sunnah Bukhari 6:9:22, he says, “Whoever change his Islamic region, then kill him.” And Jesus when he’s on the cross, the people who are next to him, left, right he says, “Father, forgive them. They don’t know.”
Gary Dull:
“What they do.” Yeah.
Nehemiah Paul:
Yeah, man. And Jesus says, “Come on to me, I’ll give you rest.” And Muhammad says, “Go and kill them.”
Gary Dull:
Yeah. Well, there’s a big difference there. And I think it’s good that you brought that out because there are those who will tell us and they’ll tell us, some of them, Muslims will tell us that Islam is a religion of peace, but it is a religion of terror. It’s only, I guess a religion of peace as long as you submit to them. That’s really what the word means to submit. And I’m concerned about that. And yet people are deceived in understanding what Islam is all about.
And Tom, you spent nearly 30 years over there in England and you saw how the Muslim religion grew, how it developed, how it spread, and you’ve been back here in the United States now for a good period of time. And so my question to you as it relates to the vision of Islam, what did you see take place in England that really concerns you about what’s taking place in the United States of America today? And do you think that we are going down the same road as they did in England in having a greater acceptance of Islam and even Sharia law? What can you tell our audience along those lines?
Tom Wallace:
Gary, I think that’s a great important question there. And I’ll try to answer that there. But can I just kind of follow up on what Brother Nehemiah has said. And what he said is absolutely true. And it’s one thing for us to quote the Quran, but they’re going to come back and say, “Oh, you’re taking that out of context. You’re doing this, that and the other.” And we’re not. But if you go and quote the Sharia, the Sharia quotes, the very same verses that he quoted for why you should be involved in Jihad, and they quote the prophet and so on there.
So we have a clear understanding of what their mission is. And I think it’s important though that we also realize there’s a bit of confusion because not every Muslim is violent, not every Muslim is calling for the death of the Jews and calling for the death of the infidel, the kafir and all that stuff there. They act like they’re following a peaceful religion and they quote the passages that sound peaceful. And those were the portions that Muhammad quoted from our Bible and borrowed and put into his text.
But let me say this. There are two Islams. I didn’t see this in the beginning, but I’ve come to … There’s two Islams. There’s the real and the false. And there’s a great host of Muslims that are following a false Islam. It was kind of popularized during the Ottoman Empire. They started taking out the offensive passages and the militant passages and only teaching the peaceful passages. So there are a host of people who are following that. But all those peaceful passages have been abrogated by the militant passages that came later. And what stands is what was said later in Islam than what was said earlier. Muhammad gave two messages, a message in the early, it was a peaceful message, and then he gave a militant message. And that is the one that stands and that is the true face of Islam.
So those who are militant are following Muhammad’s real true directive. Those who are following the peaceful passages have been, I call them the reformed Muslims. They’re reforming their faith, trying to change it from its militant way to a peaceful way. And that is, again, deception.
As I said, there’s two major factors, fear and deception. And many Muslims have been deceived, and they can’t stand the arguments there with the real Muslims who have the scriptures on their side. And that’s why people are converting into militant Islam more and more. And that’s why we’re seeing more violence in our day because Muslims are getting educated to the real Islam. And as they do, and as you talked in the beginning of your show, how many of them are young men now, they’re becoming more militant and they want the reward of Allah, their 72 virgins, their celestial virgins and all that stuff. And this way it’s becoming more and more dangerous in our day.
Gary Dull:
I appreciate that, Tom. A number of years ago at the church I pastored, Faith Baptist Church of Altoona, Pennsylvania, we had a conference on Islam with Dave and Dan Kistler, and we invited folks to come in and people came in from the whole area. We had a pastor of a Baptist church actually show up. I think he attended most of the sessions. But at the end of the session, he came up to one of our men and he said, “I will never go back into my pulpit and speak against Islam because I believe it’s a valid religion.” Now that is a Baptist pastor here in the United States of America. How would you respond to that in speaking to that pastor or any other pastor that takes that particular persuasion?
Tom Wallace:
Well, sometimes some pastors have to say what hill they’re going to die on. And some pastors just feel the issue of Islam is too divisive, too offensive or whatever, and they’re not wanting to offend and so they don’t touch this issue. Some of it’s out of ignorance. They don’t feel they’ve got the command of the issue. But Islam is coming to our country. Muslims are moving into your community. And if we don’t have an answer, we’re supposed to give an answer for the faith that’s within us. And I think it’s foolish of any pastor to not address this topic. It needs to be handled correctly, truth needs to be spoken with love. Some people don’t do that.
Gary Dull:
That’s right.
Tom Wallace:
But it’s a topic that needs to be addressed.
Gary Dull:
All right. We’ll be right back after this, ladies and gentlemen, and continue to talk about reaching Muslims with the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Gary Dull:
Well, ladies and gentlemen, so far in our program, we’ve discussed the history and vision of Islam, and I trust that you’ve been able to pick it up and you’ve grasped it. And later on today, the podcast of this particular program will be released and I would encourage you to go back and listen to it. Perhaps it might be advantageous to you.
But now as we come into the concluding segment of the program, we want to talk about the concept of understanding and reaching Muslims with the truth of the gospel.
And Tom, I’m going to try to bring together, if I can, two questions for you as we continue to wrap this up. And then a final question to Brother Nehemiah, and that is this. I would appreciate it if you would share with our listeners, Tom, why it’s significant to understand Islam. Because I think that there are many people out there who say, “Why should we be concerned about it? Let’s just let them alone and mind our own business.” And that’s one aspect of the question that I have for you. And then in addition to that, do you see Islam being laid out in biblical prophecy in any way, shape or form?
Tom Wallace:
Oh boy. And we got just a few minutes to talk about this. Okay.
Gary Dull:
Yes, sir.
Tom Wallace:
Let’s just say this. Islam is the most neglected, or rather, Muslims. Muslims are the people. Islam is the religion. Muslims are the most neglected mission field on the globe. They are growing so fast there, but many of them, we can’t get the gospel into their countries because of their apostacy laws with the Sharia and everything else. But they’re leaving. 5 million left here just recently. They came to the West. They’re in Europe, coming into Canada and the United States, and we have now a grander opportunity to reach them for Christ than ever.
We need to realize that they’re lost because of the false teaching that they’ve been put under and so on there. Now, is Islam got anything to do with Bible prophecy? Absolutely. When you put the lens of Islam, their doctrines on your eyes, and then you read your Bible and you are, “Oh my goodness, I see things that I’ve never seen before.” I call Islam and I say it with a biblical authority, Islam is the anti-Christ religion. And I’ve taught on this now for about a decade, and people I share it with, they’re scholars and stuff, their eyes are like, “Wow. Wow. You’re right here.”
So there’s so much there that’s involved there with Islam, their Bible teaching of what’s coming, the events that are happening. It’s just, it’s amazing. And so yes, it’s a topic that has to be addressed and needs to be better understood.
Gary Dull:
So for many years there are those who thought that Catholicism might be the religion of the anti-Christ, but you see Islam as that. Do you see a coming together of Islam and Catholicism?
Tom Wallace:
Well, I do see a blending of the apostacy through Catholicism. We see this Pope uniting himself with Islam and Muslims in ways there. So there is going to be some things that are together, but there’s a lot of things that don’t fit together between Catholicism and Islam. Islam denies the deity of Jesus Christ. They also deny the Father. And of course, Catholicism accepts God and Father God, son God, the Holy Spirit. So there’s some contradictions here. But we see them uniting in efforts and they’ll probably be together in the world to come after the rapture. But I see that what the Bible tells us of the false prophet and the anti-Christ and the two beasts there in Revelation chapter 13, and many of the things that we can see in the Book of Revelation fits Islam more than it fits the Catholic Church.
Gary Dull:
Very interesting. Now, you’ve written a book on Islam, have you not?
Tom Wallace:
Yeah, a few books there. Refuting Islam is my most popular book, and that deals with the Sharia, the arguments there to take down and expose the false teachings of Islam by using the Sharia and because the Sharia stands on the authority of the Quran and the Hadith. And so it’s something, a tool that Christians can better use and have authority in their arguments that they’re not misquoting the Quran or misquoting the prophet. The greatest highest scholars of Islam are quoting them, and these are their conclusions that they have. And then you get the real taste of Islam.
Gary Dull:
And is that the book that at the bank you’ve got quite a glossary of Islamic terms?
Tom Wallace:
Yeah. Boy, I would’ve given a thousand dollars or my hind teeth for that in the early days.
Gary Dull:
Yeah, sure. So if somebody wants that book, how can they get it, Tom?
Tom Wallace:
You can get it on Amazon.
Gary Dull:
Amazon, okay. And so it’s simply entitled Refuting Islam. Okay. And folks, I would encourage you to get it. It’s a very well written book.
Nehemiah, from your perspective as one with Islamic background, share with our listeners how they can effectively reach their Muslim friends with the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and then even give a clear message to pastors about how they should have concern for Islam and the way that it’s growing in the United States of America, if you would please.
Nehemiah Paul:
Yes, Pastor Gary, I totally agree with Tom when he said it’s anti-Christ religion. And I just want to quote from Ephesians chapter 6, and I want to read few verses because I think when we try to talk to Muslims, we are not even prepared our hearts to talk to them, and we are not fully aware of our Christian faith.
So I just want to quote that, “Finally my brethren be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of devil.” This is anti-Christ religion, brother. And in verses 19 says, “And for me, that utterance may be given to me that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am ambassador in chains that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.”
So we have to speak boldly. And I’m not saying that we have to fight Muslims. They’re friends. I mean, they are like other sinners who do not know Christ. We have to plight with them. We have to be Fifth Gospel in ourselves and we have to … And then usually I say, this is what I say usually that don’t worry about winning arguments. We must want Jesus to win our friends’ heart more than we want to win an argument with them. So it’s not about winning argument, but it’s winning hearts. So we have to be polite with them. We understand that they dress differently, they talk differently, they worship their Allah differently. So we understand that. But in the same time, we have to be very, very firm with our faith and we need to know more about Quran.
I know one sister from Altoona, and she came to me years ago and she wanted to talk about Islam, and she has a heart to serve Islam. I ask her, “Do you know about Christian faith?” She had nothing. And she started going to Altoona Islamic Center. And last year I came to know that she’s following Islam now, a sister who wanted to help Muslims, now she become Muslim because she had no idea about Christian faith.
So you ask about pastors, how I encourage pastors or further educate their congregation? Let me say, Pastor Gary, this is a very direct message to all the pastors who are listening. A pastor cannot be an ostrich with its head in the sand.
Gary Dull:
Amen.
Nehemiah Paul:
We have to be loud and proud and teach our congregation arranging, organizing seminars about Islam, teaching them how to confront Islam, how to confront Muslims when they talk about, and then when they have questions. And it’s very, very important for the youth, especially from grade 7 to 12, to teach them about Christian faith and Islam before they go to universities. Because all the universities are not in Blair County and they have to go to Florida, maybe some other states. We have to teach them about Islam before they get deceived by the Muslims.
Gary Dull:
And that’s a good challenge. It’s a great challenge. And certainly we need to understand, first of all, we need to know the tenets of the Christian faith as Christians, and then we need to take a look at the Quran and see what it says and compare it with the word of God.
Folks, I want to mention that coming up in April, we will be having a conference here in Altoona, Pennsylvania, with both Nehemiah Paul and Tom Wallace. So if you want to learn more about that, well contact us here through Stand In the Gap, and we’ll be able to share that information with you.
Well, Tom and Nehemiah, thank you very much for being with us today. And on behalf of Tom and Tim Schneider and Sam Rohr and all of us here at Stand In the Gap today, I’m Gary Dull saying stand for truth where you are, keep looking up, and remember, the best is yet to come where Jesus could return again today.
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