The Qur’an is from Satan.
Saying this raised a storm of controversy this Friday evening at Vespers at the Bangkok Chinese Seventh-day Adventist Church.
A church member is sponsoring a man from the Philippines to have an English language school at the church for missionary purposes. This man, R, was once a missionary to the Muslims in the southern Philippines on some Muslim-dominated island, perhaps Jolo. He was one of a group of 4 who helped establish a Seventh-day Adventist Muslim church there (no joke).
In his talk Friday evening in front of a group of around 20 people, including the pastor and one elder, he inserted into his talk about Ruth, about the man recently in Afghanistan who was scheduled to be sentenced to death because he converted to Christianity. Renato ended his talk about that subject with the words: “The problem with the Muslims is, that they don’t read the Qur’an”. I couldn’t allow that to pass, so piped up: “The Qur’an is from Satan”. Whew! Did that ever start a firestorm!!
“You can’t say that”.
“Yes i can, because it is from Satan. The Qur’an says that Allah has no son, and that Jesus did not die on the cross. This is central to Christianity, that Jesus is the Son of God, and that he died on the cross for us”.
“The Qur’an says that Jesus is the Messiah. How can you say that is from Satan”?
“The Qur’an also says that Jesus is ‘nothing but a slave’. Sure, there are many things, maybe 80% that agrees with the Bible, but there is a lot that is against the Bible too”.
Only one other person, a lady from the Philippines, joined the discussion. The others mostly kept quiet, except for the elder who was also translating, who made some comments that perhaps we can use the Qur’an to help lead Muslims to Christ. I agree that it is one of the ways that may be used, but even that way is fraught with danger, because after you have led them to Christ and the Bible, then you have to spend effort to get them to see that the Qur’an, and the whole Muslim system, is from Satan. So while it will undoubtedly lead to many fewer contacts, if you establish up front that the Bible is from God, and the Qur’an isn’t, it will be much, much easier to lead that person to Jesus Christ. I do not know which way is better. I cannot imagine tho, Jesus quoting from a book inspired by Satan to try and lead souls to himself. I could imagine him tenderly saying to them: “You don’t know what you worship, for salvation is from the Christians”.
The reason for this post, is so that other SDAs can know a little about what is going on, and what to expect from the “SDA Muslims”, so they can give a ready answer for the faith once delivered to the saints.
R’s main point, was that the Qur’an mentions Jesus is the Messiah. Yes it does. It also says that Jesus was “no other than a messenger, messengers (the like of whom) had passed away before him.” (sura 6:75), and that Jesus was “nothing but a slave on whom We bestowed favour” (Sura 43:59).
He mentioned that the Qur’an instructs to keep the Sabbath. This is stretching things quite a bit. There is one passage that talks about how Allah changed some people into pigs and apes because they did not keep the Sabbath.
He said that the Qur’an says not to eat pork. Very true, good! Like i said earlier, around 80% of the book conforms to the Bible. It’s the other 20%, especially the core of Christianity, the part contradicting the Bible that is the problem.
He tried to show some people that a supposed prophecy in the Bible, in Genesis 21 i think he said, refers to Mohammed driving out the idolaters out of some part of Arabia (Mecca?). I cannot find that in the Bible.
In showing the assembled group around the computer after the main meeting was over, the Qur’an Bible Comparison on www.timeoftrouble.com , Sura 2:34, the first one, came up showing: “And when We said unto the angels: Prostrate yourselves before Adam, they fell prostrate, all save Iblis. He demurred through pride, and so became a disbeliever.” I asked if Satan fell because of his problem with Jesus, or because of his problem with Adam. The response was unbelievable – “Don’t you know that Jesus is called ‘The Second Adam’ in the Bible”?! (1Cor 15:45). This is just too crazy – that in a book that makes no link between Christ and Adam, that in some place that talks about Satan’s (Iblis) fall, in a place that is clearly talking about the creation of Adam, that somehow this is a prophecy about Jesus becoming the 2nd Adam!!! How mixed up can our thinking get? To what lengths will those go who have rejected Christ for another leader?!!
The central point of Jesus’ life, his crucifixion on the cross, is denied in the Qur’an, Sura 4:157: “they slew him not nor crucified him, but it appeared so unto them”.
That their Allah has no son is one of the main points pounded home again and again in the Qur’an, like this summary near the end in sura 112:2-3: “Allah, the eternally Besought of all! He begets not nor was begotten.”
So it is no surprise that someone who did have the true Spirit of God, Ellen White, writes that “Mohammedanism has its converts in many lands, and its advocates deny the divinity of Christ”.
R said that if you come into a Muslim community on that island with a Bible, that they will shoot you, so the 4 SDA missionaries took their Qur’ans to the mosque, and worshipped with the Muslims there. No wonder their (his) thinking is very favorable to Islam – they/he received their spirit there. What is worse than just his apostasy from the truth, is the fact that he is a missionary, and is still employed in a missionary capacity, teaching those in Thailand to respect a book from Satan. We must pray that the SDA leaders who are pushing this type of evangelism (Jerald Whitehouse, head of Adventist/Muslim relations, says the Muslims and SDAs worship the same God!!) will see the error of their ways, and that all those who have fallen off the narrow path will return to the Son of God, Jesus Christ.
May we have courage to give the straight truth and test all the spirits, because even “missionaries” may be led by another spirit than that coming from God.
NOTE: Post written April 2, 2006