——- WITNESSING TO A JORDANIAN SUNNI MUSLIM ——-
— “Are you from Jordan?” I asked this 60-something-year-old man who came up to my booth at an outdoor market.
“Yes!” he excitedly replied.
— I continued: “Do you speak Arabic?”
“That’s my first language,” he assured me. Then he launched right in: “Have you ever read the Qur’an?”
— “Yes. I have read the Qur’an and Hadiths.”
“Well,” he quickly asked with a big smile on his face, “What do you think?”
— “I know and believe in Jesus. I don’t agree with the Qur’an.”
He motioned me right over to the side of my booth and began to ask me a series of questions. He wanted to disprove the Trinity. His arguments were based more on misunderstandings and ignorance than anything else.
I explained the Trinity in very simple terms, because I believe it is simple if you let God’s simple truth in your heart. We are made in God’s image. I am a body, a mind, and a spirit – three distinct parts – yet I am one person. God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – yet He is ONE God. Doesn’t that make perfect sense, since we are made in His image?!
This Sunni Muslim rejected the simple facts. So I emphasized the most important missing element in his life: he has no Savior; he has no forgiveness for his sins.
— “I am a sinner,” I told him, “who needed (and definitely needs) a Savior. Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness (remission) of sins.”
“That’s not true,” he argued. “We don’t need blood to forgive sins. It is easy to forgive. Look, I step on your foot … what does it take to forgive me?”
— “If you said sorry, I would forgive you.”
“Right!” he exclaimed.
— “But that is not God’s standard. The Bible says that there must be shedding of blood to forgive sin (Hebrews 9:22-28). Also, what about Abraham? You believe in Abraham. He offered blood sacrifices, and so did Moses, and all the prophets. Why did they offer blood sacrifices if they were not needed?”
He avoided that statement. He tried to change the subject.
— “And why did Muhammad pray 70 times a day, as it says he did in the Hadith? He didn’t seem to feel forgiven at all!”
He avoided this, too.
[An interjection here: If it was so easy to forgive, why don’t Muslims forgive Jews, Christians, and pagans for not believing in their prophet? Many “infidels” have died – by the Muslims’ unforgiving hands!]
— “You really seem like a sincere man,” I said, “and you really should pray to Jesus. Jesus has changed my life, and I know Him.”
“You cannot know God!” he retorted sharply. “This whole world is like a little speck of sand, and we are nothing in God’s eyes. You cannot know God!”
I agree. We are nothing. Besides the fact that we are mere sinners without God. And that is why it is so amazing what Jesus did for us: Jesus died while we were yet sinners, yet nothing. Can you fathom the love and forgiveness of Jesus?
What this Muslim man said is actually sad if you think about it. Islam basically teaches that you can’t actually know God. Allah, to them, is distant.
He continued to disagree with the Truths we Christians know (by experience and the Bible). I had one more important point to tell him:
— “If you pray to Jesus, He WILL answer you! If you pray to Allah, no one will answer.”
“How about this,” he angrily cut in: “You pray to your God, I pray to Allah, and we pray that whoever has the true God, the other person’s family will be DESTROYED.”
— I told him as he was leaving, “I pray that you will know Jesus, because you seem sincere. You need to pray to Jesus.”
“But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you” (Matthew 5:44, KJV).
“If you love those who love you, what credit is [that] to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is [that] to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is [that] to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same [amount.] But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil [men.] Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:32-36, NASB95).
— First Sgt. Amos