Con’t – Interfaith Dialogue: The great sham

By: American Decency Staff

If you haven’t read yesterday’s email, Click Here.
I promised we’d be taking a deeper looker at the Interfaith Dialogue presentation made at Calvin College’s “January Series”.

One person in West Michigan raised two questions from yesterday’s email alert.

Here are his questions and our response:

I WILL FOLLOW IT WITH A FEW COMMENTS FROM OTHERS.

Dear Bill:

For now I have 2 questions:
1) On what basis would Patel persecute you?
2) You think all Muslims are in agreement with what he said/is teaching?

Regards,

…. (name kept anonymous)

================================================

Dear (name protected):
 

Thank you for reading our email alert and thank you for your questions. 

In answer to your first question, I never hinted at the thought that Mr. Patel would personally persecute me.  My email never even mentioned persecution except for the Bible verse in 2 Timothy.  Believe me when I say, that kind of persecution can come from anywhere, fellow Christians, Muslims, Buddhists…anywhere. 

Secondly, I don’t believe that all Muslims are in agreement with what Mr. Patel teaches.  There are obviously those “extreme” Muslims who desire to persecute and kill those who do not agree with them.  Perhaps the bulk of Muslims around the world would agree and would desire cooperation; however, the 100 million Muslims who are in agreement with ISIS is a large number and pose a serious threat.  There is, I think you know, a strategy behind the Koran – Sharia, Taqiyya, civilization jihad, jihad.  Penetrate the unsuspecting culture …

As stated in my email, we do not fear nor hate the Muslim community; we have a love and compassion for them; with this we can agree with Mr. Patel.  However, his words are a dangerous blurring of the lines between the sacred doctrine of Biblical Scripture and the profane. We are called to proclaim the truth, the exclusivity of Jesus Christ; Jesus is the ONLY way, truth and life: NO ONE comes to the Father BUT BY HIM.

Have you listened to Mr. Patel’s speech given at Calvin?  Within this speech he gives us the way to eternal life, after telling the story of the Good Samaritan.  He points out that the good Samaritan had the wrong doctrine, worshipped a false god, and was of the wrong religion, but he did the right thing.  From this he teaches, “Sometimes the person with the wrong doctrine is illuminating the holiness of diversity; sometimes the person of the wrong doctrine is exhibiting superior ethics, sometimes the person with the wrong doctrine is somebody you have to build a sacred relationship with. How does this story end? Go and do likewise. How did the story begin? How do I attain eternal life?” Listen to this telling statement he makes shortly afterwards: “We attain eternal life by way of this story by occasionally following the better behavior of the person with the wrong doctrine.  We are awake to their holiness, to their sacredness, to their being made in the image of God, to them carrying out the work of mercy sometimes in ways that we wish we had ourselves.”

This is an abomination! Christians cannot accept Mr. Patel’s way of attaining eternal life; Jesus, the Son of the Living God, states his exclusivity: “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6)  Instead of following someone with the wrong doctrine who seems to have better ethics, we must follow the Bible and its doctrines correctly. We are called to follow Jesus, to focus on Him; there is none other with better ethics, doctrine or mercy. Instead of looking to the holiness of another man or another religion, look unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith; there is none as holy as He.

The teachings of Mr. Patel are an abomination as he blurs the lines of truth, as he brings his teachings to impressionable young minds and older Christians who have given up thinking seriously about the TRUTH of God’s truths, for the good message of peace among men. We are called to guard the sacred and precious treasure of the Word of God; we are to stand firm upon His Word.  These are dangerous times we live in and the exclusivity of Allah and the exclusivity of Christ are at GREAT odds with one another. They are like oil and water; they do not mix; although some would like to see them become a margarine type substance that can nicely and smoothly spread across all humanity.

We must beware; we must warn!  We must love and have compassion; but, we must not neglect the truth and exclusivity of the gospel message…or there is NO message.

Thank you for your time and your questions.

In Christian love with my eyes wide open,

Bill Johnson

Please understand.   The Bible makes very clear how easily people (the sheep) are deceived.  Patel's message should deeply concern anyone who is a Christian! 
ABOMINATION IS A STRONG WORD.  I don't use it often!  

A FEW COMMENTS FROM OTHERS.

Referencing our email alert about the Interfaith Dialogue email that I sent out put on by Calvin College

Hi Bill,

This is unbelievable, and an absolute abomination.

Becky

====================

I attended this presentation yesterday and felt very uncomfortable with the smooth flattering words this Muslim man spoke.  How do we know we can trust (him), I   kept  thinking.  He used Bible stories like the Good Samaritan to manipulate his audience to show compassion and acceptance for people of other religions.  He kept speaking about the "sanctity of interfaith dialogue and relationships."  It sounded to me like an idol.  Building these relationships is the way to accomplish peace and harmony among differing faiths.  But we know that apart from Jesus Christ, there can be no true and lasting peace. 

I felt very sad when at the end, he received a standing ovation.  The audience seemed so eager to swallow his bait -such a handsome and charismatic leader!

Please join me in praying that the eyes of those students and others would be opened to the way the enemy presents himself as an angel of light.  Pray for exposure and continued dialogue among students re what they heard.  That they would be discerning and not duped.

Mary

 

Thanks for exposing that! …

I am sure there are moments when you feel like the lone ranger out there, as more and more people give in to this subtle and not so subtle distortion of truth,  but we thank God for your voice and the work you do.

M…

================================

Good Morning,

We're steeped in this over on our side of Michigan. 

Recently I went to a city-wide prayer meeting at a very large church in Lansing.  After nearly 40 minutes of loud music, one was called up to pray by the pastor.  The prayer went something like "Lord, bring us all into unity as one in the city of Lansing".  This could be interpreted many different ways, but it "left a bad taste in my mouth" and I left soon afterward.  (Immediately after his prayer, they went back to singing again.  After 45 minutes that was the only public prayer, the rest was all music.) 

These folks are supposedly the "cream of the crop" in our city in terms of evangelical Christianity. …

There's another church … situated next to a mosque.  This is either in Lansing or East Lansing. The leader of the mosque and the pastor of the church are in league together and the mosque leader has spoken in the church.  

… One of the pastors/leaders of that church (close to MSU) also lives in our neighborhood.  They have one of the all inclusive religious bumper stickers on their car.   

The church we attend is the best one we could find.  However our pastor completely ignores all social issues.  We have a new couple attending our church who are not married, yet living together.  They partake of communion as a family.  (Her teenage children are living with them.)  I cringe when I see this in light of what the Bible says about taking communion unworthily. 

Well thanks for listening.  Once in a while I feel a need to "blow off steam" regarding the paganism I'm surrounded by.    
East Lansing 

In closing, I welcome your continued comments.

Bill

================================

 

Visit us at AmericanDecency.org

To support our efforts please click here or mail your gift to American Decency Association (ADA), PO Box 202, Fremont, MI 49412.  

American Decency Association is a member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability.

 

---