bestcurrentnews 2024 Ramadan Prayer

Christian Persecution

Each year, we typically write at least one article during Ramadan to address Christian persecution worldwide. Why address Christian persecution during Ramadan? This is because approximately 84% of the absolute worst persecution of Christians takes place in the name of Islam.

Open Doors maintains a World Watch List ranking the top 50 countries where Christians face the most extreme persecution. More than 365 million Christians around the world suffer high levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith, 295,120 Christians were forced to leave their homes, and 14,766 churches and Christian properties were attacked.

Worldwide, one in seven Christians (14%) is persecuted. On the continent of Africa, that number rises to one in five (20%), and in Asia, two in five or 40% of Christians are persecuted. 

Nine of the top ten nations where Christians face severe persecution are Muslim nations where believers in Christ are a small minority. Christians are falsely accused of blasphemy, young Christian girls are often abducted and forced to convert to Islam, and displaying their faith could cost them their lives. 

The top Islamic nations for Christian persecution are Afghanistan, Iran, Sudan, Pakistan, and Nigeria (where more Christians are killed for their faith than all the other countries combined). The remaining countries include Yemen, Eritrea, Libya, and Somalia. 

The number one nation for Christian persecution that is not Muslim is North Korea. It is a secular country where the punishment of Christians is severe and where having a Bible will send you to a prison work camp, or you will be killed.

PRAYER

All of us who live in nations where we practice our faith freely are truly blessed! Thank God!

Muslim persecution is done by those who have believed the lie about Christians, and they think they are doing their god’s will. 

  • Pray for the Christians who are daily faced with fear and persecution, asking God to send forth His angels to strengthen, protect, and deliver them.
  • Pray for the persecutors (individual Muslims, Islamic leaders, and nations) who are deceived, and just as our Lord did with Saul, who became the Apostle Paul, bring them a dramatic encounter with the living Christ, resulting in their salvation.
bestcurrentnews 2023 Ramadan Prayer

Contradictory Accounts

The Bible and the Qur’an offer contradictory accounts of Jesus, beginning with the narrative of Jesus’ birth. 

The birth of Jesus is a story that most Christians are quite familiar with – Caesar Augustus had issued a decree that a census should be taken, so Joseph and Mary traveled to Bethlehem to be counted. While in Bethlehem, Mary gave birth to Jesus. She placed him in a manger because there were no rooms available. Shepherds in the fields nearby were visited by an angel who announced that a Savior, who is Christ the Lord, had been born. The angel told the shepherds they would find the baby in a manger. Then a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel praising God. After the angels left, the shepherds went to Bethlehem and found the baby, just as the angel said (Luke 2:1-18). 

The Qur’an offers quite a different story about Jesus’ birth. In the Qur’an, Mary gives birth to Jesus under a palm tree. While in labor, she grabs the palm tree wishing she could die. However, Allah provides a stream of water under her feet where she can get a drink, and she is told to shake the palm tree’s trunk so she will have ripe fresh dates. (Sura 19:23-25). 

After she gives birth, she carries the baby back to her people, who question her about the child. She has been commanded to take a vow of silence, so rather than answering, she points at the child. Then the infant Jesus says, “Lo! I am the slave of Allah. He hath given me the Scripture and hath appointed me a Prophet…And lo! Allah is my Lord and your Lord. So serve Him. That is the right path” (Sura 19:30; 36).

Jesus in the Qur’an identifies himself as Allah’s servant, which contradicts the Biblical account of God sending His Son. The most likely source for the Qur’an’s version is from apocryphal writings. The New Testament Apocrypha is a collection of writings that are, for the most part, either about or pseudonymously attributed to New Testament figures. These writings have never been viewed as canonical by any of the major branches of Christianity, nor is there any reason t believe that the traditions they record have any historical validity. The story about the palm tree is quite similar to an account in the Gospel of Pseudo Matthew. 

For a Muslim, Jesus is merely a prophet of Islam, pointing to their final prophet, Muhammad. To believe that Jesus Christ is God is “shirk;”it is blasphemy. The Bible says in 1 John 2:22-23, “Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.”

PRAYER POINT

The Lord Jesus said in Scripture in John 6:44-45, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all taught by God.’ Therefore everyone who had heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.”

As we enter “Holy Week,” and as Muslims seek their god during Ramadan, pray that Father God will draw Muslims, convict them of sin, and receive the revelation of His truth of receiving salvation through Jesus Christ. 

bestcurrentnews 2023 Ramadan Prayer

The Basis of Faith

Both Christianity and Islam have foundational texts. For Christians, it is the Bible; for Muslims, it is primarily the Qur’an. 

Christians believe that God gave the Bible through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to more than forty authors. These authors wrote over an almost 1600-year period from three continents in three languages. Despite being written by different authors, the Bible does not contradict itself, and external texts are not necessary to practice Christianity.

The words of the Bible have been well preserved. Israel’s religious leaders created a system to ensure the accuracy of copies of the Old Testament through meticulous proofreading techniques. The Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered between the years of 1947 and 1956, are in substantial agreement with the Old Testament throughout the generations proving that the text has been preserved and kept the same. The accuracy of the New Testament is proven through dated copies and writings of the Church fathers. In fact, these writings contain over 38,000 quotations from the New Testament, making it possible to reconstruct the entire New Testament minus 11 verses.

In Islam, the Qur’an is considered to be the actual words of Allah dictated to Muhammad through the angel Gabriel over a 23-year period. Muhammad recited these words to his followers and instructed them to write them down on various materials such as palm leaves, bones, and stones. The words were assembled into the Qur’an after Muhammad’s death. This resulted in different versions of the Qur’an. The differences sometimes slightly affected the meaning but did not change the basic ideas of the Qur’an. Almost twenty years after Muhammad’s death, Caliph Uthman established a committee to produce an official version of the Qur’an.

The Qur’an’s chapters (or suras) are not in chronological order but are organized by length, starting with the longest, except for the opening chapter. It consists of 114 suras which read like an Arabic poem. Although the Qur’an has been translated into many languages, Muslims are encouraged to read and recite the Qur’an in Arabic, its original language. The Qur’an is also divided into thirty equal parts so that Muslims can read a portion each day during Ramadan.

The Qur’an states around ninety times that Muhammad is the perfect Muslim, so in order to properly practice Islam, a Muslim must worship Allah as Muhammad worshipped him, which is why external texts (the hadith and sira) are a vital part of Islam. The hadith are reports of Muhammad’s teachings, deeds, and sayings compiled generations after his death. As the Islamic website “whyislam” explains that without the hadith, the Qur’an does not make sense. The sıra is the biography of Muhammad. Together the hadith and sira make up the sunna (Muhammad’s way of life and legal precedent). If all a Muslim possessed was a Qur’an, he could not practice his religion.

PRAYER POINT:

  • By reading the Bible, we read words that bring God’s life into our hearts and understanding, bringing joy and peace. For Muslims, reading the Quran, which is more of a “duty,” does not bring hope and joy to their lives. Pray that during Ramadan, Muslims will be curious to see what is in the Bible, the true Word of God, and be drawn to read its life-changing message.