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

Core Message

The Bible states, “By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:2-4). 

The sacrificial death, burial and resurrection of Jesus is the core message of Christianity. In Islam, however, Muslims do not believe Jesus was crucified. The Qur’an says, “And [for] their saying, ‘Indeed, we have killed the Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary, the messenger of Allah.’ And they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him; but [another] was made to resemble him to them. And indeed, those who differ over it are in doubt about it. They have no knowledge of it except the following of assumption. And they did not kill him, for certain” (Sura 4:157).

There are several explanations of the crucifixion of Christ in Islam. These include:

  1. People saw an illusion of Jesus being crucified, but the event never happened.
  2. Someone else was substituted for Jesus. Islam teaches that Jesus was a prophet, but that Jesus did not die on the cross, because Muslims do not believe a prophet of Islam can be killed in such a terrible way as crucifixion. Many Muslims believe Judas or Simon of Cyrene actually died on the cross, not Jesus.
  3. Jesus was crucified, but did not die, he fainted. 

The Biblical account of Jesus’ death is clear. Jesus said that he would be killed (Matthew 16:21; 20:17-19, 20:28). Each of the gospels describe the crucifixion (Matthew 27:34-35; Mark 15:22-24; Luke 23:32-33; John 16:19-20). In addition, the crucifixion and death of Jesus are spoken of throughout the New Testament (Acts 2:23-24; Romans 5:6; 1 Corinthians 1:23; Hebrews 2:9; 1 John 2:2; 4:10). 

Since Islam denies the crucifixion of Christ, they also deny the resurrection of Christ. 

PRAYER POINT

We enter this holy week by recognizing the death and burial of Jesus Christ and His resurrection from the dead on Sunday morning. As Christians, we celebrate all our Lord Jesus has done for us. Pray for the Muslim community; that they will desire to see and understand what His death on the cross truly means. Ask God to bring people across their path to share the gospel of Christ or have them tune in to a video, a story, or something that will give them the actual truth of what has happened because of the cross of Christ, opening their eyes and hearts to the One who is Truth.

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

God: Triunity or Tritheism

Both Islam and Christianity are monotheistic – meaning that they both believe that there is only one God. However, Muslims have difficulty understanding the Christian concept of the Trinity, and their concept of our Triune god is erroneous.

The Trinity is foundational to the Christian faith. This doctrine of the Trinity states that God is a single being who exists simultaneously and eternally as three distinct persons, the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit. In other words, the Trinity is a belief that the Godhead is not three different people but rather three different conditions of the same person. 

Islam dismisses the Christian belief in the Trinity as tritheism or a belief in three distinct gods. Muslims believe Christians worship Jesus, the Messiah, his mother Mary, and Allah (Arabic for god). The Qur’an states,” They are unbelievers who say ‘God is the Third of Three’. No god is there but the One God” (sura 5:73, Arberry). 

This passage goes on to explain that because Jesus and Mary both ate food to sustain themselves, they cannot possibly be gods like Allah. “The Messiah, son of Mary, was only a Messenger; Messengers before him passed away; his mother was a just woman; they both ate food. Behold, how We make clear the signs to them; then behold, how they perverted are!” (sura 5:75, Arberry).

The idea that Mary was considered divine by Christians and part of the Holy Trinity may result from the excessive veneration given to her by an early Christian heretical sect in Arabia known as the Collyridians, who considered Mary a goddess and offered cakes to worship her. Regardless of the source, Muhammad’s limited and defective knowledge of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity led him to mistakenly believe in a tritheism of Jesus, Mary, and Allah. Because of this mistake, the Christian belief in the Trinity is considered blasphemy in Islam. 

The Triune God of Christianity is demonstrated throughout the Bible, for instance, in the activity of redemption. The Father planned it; the Son obtained it (Ephesians 1:4-9); and the Spirit applies it. (2 Thessalonians 2:13).

PRAYER POINT:

For a Muslim, Jesus is a prophet of Islam, pointing to their final prophet, Muhammad. To believe that Jesus Christ is God is “shirk;”it is blasphemy. Because of this, ask the Lord to draw them to Himself and help them overcome this fear of believing in Him and receive the revelation that Jesus is Lord and is the Son of God.