Gary :
You’re listening to a special edition of Search the Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call. Still ahead in this revisit to our 2000 series “Religion in the News,” plus answers to your questions in “Contending for the Faith,” and in “Understanding the Scriptures,” Dave and Tom will continue their discussion of God’s salvation. In addition to this radio program, we publish a monthly newsletter which we make available free of charge. We also produce and distribute a wide variety of teaching materials including books in print, e book and audio book formats, CD’s, DVD’s and other items to encourage the serious study of God’s Word. For a complete list of materials, or to get a copy of today’s broadcast, write to us at POB 7019, Bend , Oregon 97708 , call our toll free order number 800-937-6638, that’s 800-937-6638, or visit our website at www.thebereancall.org . If you would like a copy of this broadcast on compact disk, ask for Program #3909, and be sure to mention the call letters of this station. We’ll repeat this information at the end of the program. Now back to our special revisit to the year 2000:
RELIGION IN THE NEWS
A report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media. This week’s item is from the Open Doors News Brief Magazine , November 2000. “I wasn’t a Christian then, I was born into a Muslim family, and I didn’t know much about Christianity at all. I had seen churches from the outside, but never set foot in them. I knew about Eesa, that is, Jesus, from the Qur’an. We all do, but now I actually saw him! Whether it was in a kind of dream or vision I don’t know. I grabbed my chuddar, ran out of the door and started crying. He called to me, ‘I am Jesus, I am here, come to me.’ Then he took my hand and walked with me to the church down the road. We went into the courtyard; he pointed to the church building and said, ‘This is the place where I live, then he left.’” As Sarah was speaking, an intense joy spread over her face. She took her Bible and hugged it to her heart. After a while she continued quoting: “Jesus is so lovely, I never knew that, I’ve come to love him more and more. Since the day I saw him I have gone to church, I started to read the Bible, and my life is totally changed, the Lord is so real to me. My life hasn’t become any easier, I’ve been a widow for 5 years, and I’m only 38. I still have to take care of all of my children on my own, but I have found the source of joy. He is the light and love of my life, and I never want to go back to my old life style again.” All over the Muslim world God is doing remarkable things. Time and time again we are hearing stories like Sarah’s of Muslims who have been converted through dreams and visions; often they had little or no contact with Christians. Jesus appears directly to them and as a result they commit their lives to Him.
Tom:
Dave, one of the reasons I picked this for us to look at, on the one hand, you really want to get excited about it. This is from Open Doors from Brother Andrew from his magazine, but there have been others out there—
Dave:
November 2000.
Tom:
There have been others out there who have reported the same thing.
Dave:
Campus Crusade has reported similar things.
Tom:
Right. Now, someone sent me this article, and their concern was, Is this legit, is this what—they were concerned that maybe this wasn’t Jesus, maybe this was a little too, kind of experiential, a little too subjective, even to the point of wondering whether this is truly going on or if this is of the Lord, actually.
Dave:
Yeah, a number of things really troubled me as that was being read, Tom. Jesus does not live in a church, I don’t care what church. Paul said it very clearly on Mars Hill Acts 17: “He dwelleth not in temples made with hands.” He dwells in our hearts now, the Son of God has come to live in our hearts, and God has come to live in our hearts. So, God does not live in a church, number one. Number two, I don’t know what church this was, there seemed to be a physical presence here: “he took her by the hand,” I mean, it is almost too much, led her to this church, she said she met him personally. Now, there’s not a word in there about the gospel, and the Bible says the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes. She’s had an emotional experience with someone called Jesus, that she thought was Jesus—Eesa.
Tom:
Now this is an apparition.
Dave:
Yeah, yeah, right.
Tom:
And she saw his face, he is so lovely, she says.
Dave:
It’s not the Jesus that John the Revelator saw in Revelation 1; glorified at the Father’s right hand. I don’t think that you become a Christian; in fact I know you do not become a Christian through meeting an apparition that calls itself Jesus. Now, if she had said—she says she started reading her Bible, she has great joy.
Tom:
That’s good.
Dave:
Yeah, but there are many people who read their Bible and don’t understand it and don’t believe it. So, I don’t find any basis for believing that this woman is a true Christian. She may be, maybe that isn’t told in the story, but I find no comprehension of who Jesus is. He’s a wonderful, lovely person, came to her and visited her, and so forth. Did he die on the cross for her sins? Is he God, really God himself? And then she said we’ve read of this Eesa in the Qur’an. Well, the Eesa in the Qur’an, the Jesus in the Qur’an is not the Jesus of scripture. The Jesus in the Qur’an for example, did not die on the cross, someone died in his place. In fact, the Qur’an says that God put a likeness of Jesus upon one of his disciples, and the tradition, the hadith says it was Judas who died in Jesus’ place. So now, she doesn’t seem to have been delivered from the Qur’an, and she’s had an emotional experience with some apparition that called itself Jesus. I’m troubled by that.
Tom:
Well, the number one problem here is that this is incredibly subjective. How would someone listening to, or reading this testimony, how would they relate to it? Would they say, oh Jesus is appearing all around, and He’s meeting people out there or over here or there. Does this then establish a doctrine of how Jesus moves and how He worked among people? You would have real trouble, as you have been indicating, lining this up with scripture, so that’s a problem. On the other hand, could Jesus just sovereignly move into somebody’s life? I mean we’ve talked about people, we’ve written about people who met Jesus on a drug trip intervening in their lives, saving them from death and turning them around. That’s very subjective as well.
Dave:
That is, and they didn’t become believers, but something happened on this drug trip, whatever it was, that caused them to rethink their lives and they were then led to Christ through the gospel. But Paul writes of those who love His appearing, and John writes, 1 John 3, “When we see Him we will be like him, we will see him as he is. It doesn’t appear what we shall be but we know when He appears.” But now, what is this talking about? It seems that the Bible teaches an appearing of Christ in the future to all believers at once. We’re having appearances of Jesus all over the world to individuals. I don’t believe it’s biblical. Now if this is a dream then I could accept that, something happens in a dream, it’s not literally Jesus there, and He’s speaking to them, I believe He can speak to them in a dream. But they’re going to have to know the gospel; it will have to lead them to the gospel. Even Peter, when he had this sheet let down from heaven in Acts 10, he didn’t know what it meant. God had to speak to him with a voice and to tell him, but there again, this is not the gospel. So, I would have great caution and concern about this event.
