Dear Orin,

I hope you'll take the time to read this letter because I need help! I've been a Christian for about 2 years, and I used to be convinced of everything that Christians believe. I believed that we are saved by faith and that Jesus was God. But lately I've been doubting a lot and I'm confused about so many things. What's gotten in my way is the Muslim faith. They say they accept the Scriptures and what is written about Jesus as true, but they completely deny that he is God and that we are saved by faith alone. I started researching the whole topic about Jesus being God, and I found that the Muslims were able to explain all the passages in the bible that seem to say Jesus is God in a way that seemed so reasonable it got me terribly confused about what I believe. Like, if Jesus was God, why did He pray? And why did He never really say, "I am God."? What does the Son of God really mean? Could it be that it simply meant he was a son of God because he never sinned, since in other bible passages people who repent are also called sons of the living God?

You probably know the story Muslims tell of Muhammad, that he was called by God in a cave in the mountains and that he later met Moses, Abraham and Jesus on a hill. Now I keep asking myself, why would someone like Muhammad who believed in God and feared him make the whole thing up and preach it to hundreds of people? Is there a possibility that the Koran is actually true? I really wish it wasn't true, but how can I know? There is a verse in the Old Testament (I don't remember where) that reads something like this: "I will send my servant and put my words into his mouth, and anyone who does not listen to him shall be condemned." If this is talking about Jesus, why is he called "servant" if Jesus is indeed God himself? Could it be that it is a prophecy to Muhammad's coming? I'm very sorry that I keep asking so many questions but I'm really confused and I don't know what to believe any more. Muslims say that those who worship Jesus will go to hell. Christians say those who don't believe in Jesus will go to hell. HELP! I hope you will reply, because I've never felt worse. Thank you.

A.K.

Dear Candy Gurl:

I am working on your questions even now. Don't lose faith in Jesus. The Muslims are wrong. I only wish I checked my e-mail sooner. My wife just got done with cancer and Jesus spared her life. That is why I didn't have my e-mail icon on my front-page for 14 months. Meanwhile, if you read lessons on my site, your faith will be built up. As far as I know, Mohammed claimed to have had an angel appear to him and dictate the Koran, much like Joseph Smith had an angel appear to him and leave golden tablets of the book of Mormon. To me the one is as abominable as the other. Muhammad didn't go to heaven leaving scratches on the rock the dome is built on. Secular historical records bear witness that he died of a disease in June of 632. Here, meanwhile, is a brief history quoted from the book, "Is Fanatic Islam A Global Threat?" by Victor Mordecai, to order call: 1-800-540-0828:

"The descendants of Ishmael and Esau, today known as the Arabs, though mentioned scantily in the Bible as well as in Greek and Roman historical texts, played a minor role in world history until the prophet Mohammed and the Koran galvanized the Arab peoples into a fighting and conquering force.

"The origins of Islam, the third great monotheistic religion in the world, stem from Judeo-Christianity, but the Koran and Allah have very little to do with the Bible and the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. "At the outset, the prophet Mohammed had two major groups to convert to his cause: The Judeo-Christians on the one hand and the pagans of Mecca and Medina on the other. When the Judeo-Christians rejected Mohammed and his teachings, all the emphasis was then placed on the pagans of Mecca and Medina as well as the whole Arabian peninsula. The Judeo-Christian origins of Mohammed's belief's were then put on the back burner, and the pagan Arabian origins of Islam were emphasized.

"According to world-renowned scholar and theologian Dr. Robert Morey, Mohammed decided to build his new religion, Islam, on the foundations of Arabian paganism in order for it to be more palatable to the pagans who were his target audience. According to Arabian paganism, there were 360 pagan gods, one for each day of the lunar year. The greatest of these gods was Allah, originally known as al-Ilahi, the Moon god. This pagan Allah, the greatest in the pagan pantheon, was the war god, just as Zeus was the war god for the ancient Greeks and Romans.

"In order to build his new religion, Islam, on a monotheistic basis, Mohammad abolished the other 359 lesser gods, leaving Allah as the only god. But allah still remains a war god, and bears no resemblance to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, which is the God of love, as I explained in chapter I. Allah, the moon god, the war god, is a god of the bow, the arrow, the spear and the sword. Islam is a war religion, a warrior religion and merciless religion in which beheading, crucifixion and severing of arms and limbs is common practice even today and a religion in which no "Protestant reformation" can ever be countenanced which would allow modernization as happened in the Jewish and Christian religions. This is why the 7th century is so glorified in Islam and is the direction in which the pan-global Islamic conquest is headed. It is locked into and fossilized in a mindset totally contrary to the 21st century which we are rapidly approaching. It opposes the progress and development of the renaissance and enlightenment following the dark medieval ages of Europe and dreams of the distant past.

"Dr, Morey also disagrees with the Islamic claims of descendancy from Ishmael and Esau. He claims, possibly correctly that the original Moslems genealogically had no relation to the descendants of Abraham, but were strictly desert tribes of the Arabian peninsula whereas the Ishmaelites were more to the north in Syria and perhaps Jordan of today.

"But in my opinion, it matters little whether there was a direct genealogical link to Ishmael or Esau. What matters is the spiritual inheritance of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob which is love, fo all those who embrace Judeo-Christianity, while the spiritual inheritance of Ishmael and Esau is the arrow, the sword, and perpetual warfare. genealogy here matters little. What matters is the spirit.

"As for who wrote the Koran, there are theories that it was written up to five hundred years after the death of Mohammed, but the accepted notion is that a few decades after his death the verbally handed down Koran was committed to writing. there is also a theory which I have heard in Israel from a rabbi of Iranian (Persian) extraction and corroborated by many rabbis of middle eastern extraction (of Jewish communities under the yoke of Islamic rule) that the early followers of Mohammed were illiterate desert nomad warriors and therefore needed a "black-belt" in holy scripture writing, so with the conquest of Babylonia by the Arab armies, a leading rabbi was kidnapped from the seat of the Talmudic learning and sequestered until he wrote the "holy" book of the Moslems."

I hope all of the above by Victor Mordecai is of some help to you, the idea being that, if you can destroy the credibility of their faith, by exposing its crooked beginnings and underhanded dealings, then anything they may say to you thereafter can be dismissed as so much "piffle".

Now, Islam is neither a logical outcome, nor a natural progression of either Judaism or Christianity. Take the Jewish feasts, for example: The Feast of Booths depicts the clothing of God with flesh in the person of the ONLY begotten Son of God, Jesus, the Christ, or Messiah. He alone is the fulfillment of Old Testament Bible prophecy, and the Apex to which all of it points to. It does not look to the coming of a further prophet after him, other than the false prophet who stands beside the Antichrist. In Deuteronomy chapter 18:15-22, it says: "The Lord thy God shall raise up a prophet (not servant) from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall listen;" "From the midst of thee, of thy brethren," tells me that he was to be, humanly speaking, of Jewish lineage - in other words, Jesus Christ - not an Arab, or one of the Arabic peoples. The original Islamic hordes were, at best, descendants of Ishmael, and even if we allow Esau to be considered, giving them lineage from Abraham, this Old Testament passage was directed only at those Jews descended from Jacob, who went into, and were delivered out of Egypt 400 years later.

The New Testament, which predates the Koran considerably, says, "Philip findeth Nathaniel and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the Law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." John 1:45.

And again, "And he shall sent Jesus Christ, which was previously proclaimed unto you: Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God hath promised by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began (Genesis 3:15). For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord thy God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him ye shall hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people. Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days." Acts 3:20-24. This happened in 70 A.D. when Jerusalem was razed and the people killed and scattered among the nations for rejecting Jesus, the Christ, or Messiah.

After looking at these passages of scripture from both New and Old testaments, which both pre-date the Koran, the prophecy is both given, fulfilled, and interpreted, that Jesus is the One the Jews were to look for, and that there was none other to come after him.

This is also evidenced in two other places in the New Testament: Hebrews 1:1-3; and Matthew 21:33-44:

In Matthew chapter 21:33-44, Jesus gives the parable of the householder (God), which planted a vineyard (Israel), digged a wine press (to process its fruit), and leased it out to husbandmen (Jews), as he was going to a far country. At harvest time he sent servants (prophets) to receive of its fruits, who are beaten and shamefully treated by the husbandmen, and finally sends his son (Jesus), who is the heir of the vineyard, and whom they kill so that they can seize his inheritance. There was none other sent after him. He was the last.

Hebrews 1:1-3: "God, who at different times and in various ways spake in times past unto the fathers (Jews) by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son (Jesus), whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom he also made the worlds; Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of Majesty on high (God)."

God refers to his Son speaking to us in "these last days." If these were and are the last days, or the final age, if you will, then what are the days of Mohammad? The finality of God sending his only Son to speak in these last days indicates that he is the last prophet and spokesman for God. There will be no subsequent others coming after him. Mohammad is therefore not validated as a prophet. He is a false prophet. Christ is also appointed heir of all things. This then, precludes Mohammad from inheriting anything. God made the worlds by Jesus. Did he make anything of Mohammad other than another headache to contend with? Christ is the glorious light of God and the express image of God's person, in other words, God incarnate - God clothed with flesh - as depicted in the Jewish feast of Booths. Jesus is both Lord and Christ and God manifested in the flesh. Mohammad is just another self-proclaimed false prophet. All things are sustained by the power of Christ, even the air that Mohammad breathed. Who, then, is superior, in that case? Christ purged us of our sins in his vicarious sacrifice and resurrection. He satisfied the justice of God on our behalf - God in Christ doing for man what man could not do for God or himself. Mohammad, just adds more burdensome dead religious works of his own making to the shoulders of man who is already overburdened with works to supposedly appease God. Jesus Christ sits at the right hand of God as our high priest after the order of Melchizedek who is a priest forever. This indicates finality. No other man or prophet can fill this position. Mohammad cannot even come close to touching the hem of Christs Garment, so what would make you believe that he is Christ's successor?

Jesus said, "He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold (Christ's church), but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber." "Truly, truly I say unto you, I am the Door of the sheep." John 10:1,7. He also said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father (God), but by me." John 14:6. Our God of love is not Allah, the moon god of war, and, since Jesus is the only way to God, Mohammed is precluded, because he is climbing up by some other way (works) than the Door, which is Jesus Christ, and him alone.

Even with the Koran claiming roots in Old Testament theology, there is in no way any justification for the hatred of Jews and Christians, section five. Just because the Koran has some Old Testament stories and characters scattered about in it, does not mean that it is a valid source for information on true godliness. Jesus said, that the time is coming, and now is that the true worshippers of God will worship him in spirit and truth - not in the keeping of further ordinances which are the meritorious efforts of man designed to gain the approbation and approval of God for one's salvation.

The Jehovah's witnesses and the Mormons both accept our scriptures and what is written about Jesus as true, but not everything, and that is why they are classed as cults. Islam is just one more cult. Jesus Christ is indeed God. Titus 2:11-14: "For the Grace of God that bringeth salvation (Jesus) hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly passions, we should live responsibly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ." The Granville-Sharp rule of Greek grammar applies here to the two nouns, "God" and "Savior" which are connected by the word "kai", where the two objects of the verb are nouns connected by the word "and" and both refer to the same thing. In Matthew chapter 8 verse 58, (cf. Exodus 3:14) Jesus said, "Truly, truly, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I AM." The Jews understood perfectly what Jesus said, for they took up stones to stone him. Confusion and doubt are the tools cults utilize to swell their ranks with the gullible and the ignorant. We are to be diligent in grounding ourselves in the tenets of our faith, and what the truth is. Bankers train their tellers to spot counterfeit money, not by showing it to them, but by intensive examination of the real thing. That way they know what it is supposed to look like, and can spot a fake right away. Apply the same principle to Christianity. Ephesians chapter 4 verses 11 to 14 states, in essence that we are to reach spiritual maturity through diligent study and application in order that we "be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the cunning craftiness of men." The analogy is that of a storm, and you, from first-hand experience, now know what that is like.

We are saved by faith alone. If you divide the new testament into its several component parts, you will see that the ministry of Jesus was under the Old Testament Law (The four Gospels), and should be viewed in that context, and that the Acts was transitional to the church age. The epistles not of Paul were for Jewish believers of the diaspora. Paul, being designated the apostle to the Gentiles, is from where we are to glean our doctrine for living in this age of Grace (unmerited favor). Even the word "Grace" precludes (shuts out) works for salvation. The Jewish apostles, the Gospels, even Peter in the Acts preach the "kingdom of heaven." That was promised to the Jews. But for the church, it is "believe and receive" - works are the result of your faith and salvation - not the cause of it. Faith Jesus Christ for salvation alone is our ticket. That is why he is the Narrow Gate, and few there be that find it. The broad easy gate which leads to destruction is works, and the whole world is entering in that way. The sinful nature of man wants to do some part or have a hand in his own salvation. The Faith that is in Christ says that in and of ourselves there is no good thing or way to merit salvation from God. By believing in the finished work of Christ on our behalf, we appropriate (take to ourselves) the righteousness which is in Christ, and which alone is acceptable to God. Sinful as we may be, God sees us through his righteous Son in whom we are if we believe.

The godhood of Christ Jesus is understood in the doctrine of the trinity. A lot of cults like to hammer away at this one because so few are grounded in it, and it is easy to engender doubt and confusion because of it. God in three persons is looked at in this way: God the Father, creator of heaven and earth, manifested himself as God the Son on earth in order that man may empirically examine him (I Jn. 1:1-3; Isaiah 9:6), and that he may be related to and understood on a level that human-kind would be able to grasp, and so that he could accomplish our salvation in the offering of himself as a sinless innocent sacrifice that would one for all, once for all time, past, present, and future, effect our redemption, the just for the unjust, in order that sinful man would have a way to be saved from his deserved judgement. In resurrecting Christ from the dead, God declared this sacrifice accepted, and the Jewish form of worship was supplanted by grace through faith. Therefore, Christianity is the object and outcome of the preparation of Judaism. In the absence of the resurrected Christ, we have the Indwelling Holy Spirit, which is imparted to and which indwells each and every believer who places his trust in Jesus Christ for salvation, while Christ serves as the head of his body, the Church, and as our High Priest in heaven on our behalf before God the Father. The Holy Spirit is the third part of the godhead and serves as the sealer and comforter, leader and guider, counsellor and empowerment for the believer - the down payment, God in you, and Christ in you - the confident expectation of future glory. He will give you the click in your spirit when you are being exposed to error, however, you need to give him something to work with on the inside so that he can inform your consciousness intelligently - learning and studying of the scriptures - so that your understanding may be able to benefit, and as a result, monitor your behavior and responses in life.

Now Jesus prayed to the Father because, as the Son of God, God manifested in the flesh (Colossians 1:15), subordinate to the Father, and obedient to his will in order to effect our reconciliation with God, he set as an example, himself for our good. He subordinated himself to God's will, even as we are to do also. If we are too good to do the same, then we are none of his, but if we submit ourselves to the will of the Father, then we are his brethren, and heirs together with him of the promise by faith. Just as he humbled himself and washed Peter's feet, so also must we be likewise willing to humble ourselves in service to one another. God was in Christ teaching us about ourselves and what God is like. Jesus did say, "If you have seen me, you have seen the Father." John 14:9. Jesus Christ also did miracles which no man had ever done, which were the credentials that gave veracity to his message of repentance, faith, and redemption. John 14:11. Truthfully, Mohammad never did any. Who would you rather believe? If Jesus were but a man, he would be every bit in need of redemption as the best of us. He had no sin because he was virgin-born (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:18-25), was God in the flesh (Isaiah 9:6), and by virtue of that, the only begotten Son of God. We are referred to as sons of God in that we are become born again by his Spirit by faith, and therefore his offspring by birth. The fact we call God "Father" implies a birth relationship, and also his responsibility to care for us, his children.

The story that Mohammed was called in a cave, and met Moses, Abraham, and Jesus, is a fabrication. Mohammed didn't believe in God and revere him at all - not our God, but a god of his own choosing - Allah. He exploited people's fear of the gods to ply his legacy of power. He was rejected by the Jews and Christians, so he adopted the moon god of the pagans for his purposes, and made the Jews and Christians his enemies. Every man wants to be remembered through the ages for some kind of achievement. This was his way of doing it. Holy War. The ones with the best credentials will not go to hell - that's us! All Muslims will go to hell, not because they are all bad people, but because they reject the salvation of God which is in Jesus Christ alone, and are taught to do so; and they need to repent of their sin like everybody else does. I hope this has answered your perplexities. I love you in Christ Jesus, my sister, and that is why I take the time to give you the truth.

Orin :-) send e-mail to: redacter@aol.com