"Testimony of Adel Mohammed El Naggar"

"Testimony of Adel Mohammed El Naggar"

"As a former Muslim, I have often been asked the following questions:

'Why have you changed your religion from Islam to Christianity?' To which I often reply, While Islam is a religion Christianity is not. Christianity is a relationship of the highest order, for it is a relationship with our eternal and glorious creator. For as Jesus Christ declared; "Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." (John 17:3). This word 'know' in the original language denotes a personal, or experiential knowledge. Therefore, in the context of the passage just referred to, Jesus is clearly stating that the eternal life, that he gives, (John 4:14, 5:21, 6:27), is nothing less than a personal, experiential relationship, between individuals, who have placed their faith in Jesus the Messiah, and God the Father and God the Son.

'What has Christianity got to offer that Islam does not?'. To which I reply, What has Islam got to offer that Christ does not? For Jesus promised, to all those who come to him, the forgiveness of sins through the shedding of his own precious blood, the divine power to overcome sin and temptation, a new nature, which now seeks to glorify God and to live in conformity to his will, the eternal security of those who place their faith and trust in him as the only way to reconciliation - between sinful humans and an infinitely holy God - His real abiding presence with the believer as they seek to love, follow and serve him and finally receive them into the glorious presence of the Triune God.

'Do I not feel shame for leaving Islam and becoming a Christian?' To which I unhesitantly answer No! Why? Because what I was before was, according to God's judgement, an enemy of God. This is due to my sinful thoughts, words and deeds, which are all fruits of my sinful nature. God, who is infinitely holy and upright and whose eyes cannot look upon evil, nor can He leave this evil completely undealt with, has declared himself to be a God of justice and the One who must punish those who do sin, and that we all are by nature the children of wrath under His just judgement and eternal damnation.

However, God has also revealed himself to be a 'gracious and compassionate God, One who is slow to anger and abounds in steadfast love and faithfulness' (Ex. 34:6) and who does not delight in the death of the wicked, (Ezek 18:23). Therefore, He has, on His own initiative, instigated a plan of redemption, whereby His justice may be fully honoured, vindicated and satisfied and his mercy clearly and publicly demonstrated. This plan is commonly referred to as the Gospel of God, (Rom 1:3), or the 'Good News' and has as been accomplished through the righteous life, the atoning death, the miraculous resurrection and the glorious ascension of the 'only mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men,' (1 Timothy 2:5-6).

But now I have received God's mercy and am no longer an enemy of God, but a child of God. I have come to believe upon him who is the core and the sum total of the Gospel, Jesus the Messiah. Therefore, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation to all who believe." (Romans 1:16-17)

Finally, 'What would it take for you to come back to Islam?' To which I reply, Why would I want to go back to Islam? For, Jesus boldly says, "Truly Truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in him who sent me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgement, but has passed out of death into life." (John 5:24) We see in these words a precious promise from Jesus. If we not only hear his words, and by implication believe them, but also believe in the one who sent Him, referring to his father, then we shall no longer come in to judgement. The judgement being the eternal wrath of God poured out on those who have sinned against God, and who have refused to believe or accept God's plan of redemption, namely Christ and him crucified, (John 3). This judgement is often spoken in the Bible in terms of 'death,' (Revelation 20:14, 21:8), and Jesus is saying that whoever places their trust in him and his Father have crossed over from death to life. They have escaped the judgement of the fires of hell and are eternally secure in the new life that God has given them.

Therefore, for me to return to Islam would be like the man who was trapped in a burning building*, and unable to help himself. But having been rescued by someone who was able to help him, promptly re-enters in to the fiery flames. I feel this to be an adequate image and therefore cannot imagine to return to Islam." -Adel Mohammed El Naggar (to be continued)

http://www.answering-islam.org/Testimonies/adel.html

Note: JS357, Great King Rat, twhitehead, SwissGambit, Penguin, wolfgang59, CalJust, et al, "the man who was trapped in a burning building*..." is no longer a metaphorical fiction. His name is Adel Mohammed El Naggar; he's alive and well. -gb

"Testimony of Adel Mohammed El Naggar" (2 of 4)

"So, what caused this drastic departure from the faith of my fathers, to faith in Him who loved me and willingly gave himself for me? Well, the first cause is none other than God Himself. For Jesus the Messiah has declared "No one comes to me unless the Father who sent me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day." (John 6:44) He, and he alone, drew me to faith in His precious Son, so that I may receive the eternal salvation, that he had purposed to give me, before the very foundations of the earth were ever created, (Ephesians 1:3-7).

But how did this drawing take place? How did the eternal, holy God draw this wretched sinful man to faith in him who alone is The Way, The Truth and The Life? Well, it happened like this:

I was born in Alexandria, Egypt, to Muslim parents. In 1963, at the age of three my father died. Due to the stigma that quickly attaches itself to widows in many Muslim countries, my mother remarried an English electrical engineer, based in Cairo, who incidentally converted to Islam. After a lengthy legal battle, with the Egyptian Home Office, my mother and stepfather were able to take me to England, were my stepfather had been reposted.

In the ensuing years, I was raised in the Islamic faith and considered myself to be a Muslim. I was taught the fundamental beliefs of Islam and encouraged to practice the duties of the Muslim. Coupled with this, I was taught not to believe in the Christian Faith, as it was corrupt and was led to believe that it was basically 'the white man's religion' anyway. Therefore, I sought to maintain my identity, within the Islamic Faith, and kept Christianity at arms length.

However, in my teenage years I formulated a habit of stealing, not to mention engaging in illicit sexual relationships with English women, which carried on in to my early twenties. I always new that this was wrong, yet did not really appreciate the full gravity of these actions, before a holy and just God, nor did I have the power to transform myself and to live the life which I new was right. It was as if I believed in the existence of God, yet lived as if there wasn't a God.

In 1984, I moved to Southern California, America with my English girlfriend, with the express intention of starting a new life and seeking a better future. We chose America because my girlfriend had been previously working there for several years and had been promised another job. Several months after arriving in America our relationship began to disintegrate. I started to experimented with drugs and, once our relationship went into decline and eventually collapsed, I started to depend more and more on them, to hide my feeling of emptiness and loneliness. For once in my life, I began to feel lost and all alone. Here was I in a country with over 250 million people, yet the sense of being lost and alone was very overwhelming!

About this time, I began to run into people who called themselves 'Born Again Christians.' I would meet them at work, on the beaches or at the homes of work colleagues. I often found them unexplainably strange and different, but never really paid much attention to them or what they would have to say. To be quite frank, I thought they were 'religious' cranks and didn't want anything to do with them or what they appeared to be peddling..." (to be continued)

http://www.answering-islam.org/Testimonies/adel.html

Originally posted by Grampy Bobby
[b]"Testimony of Adel Mohammed El Naggar" (2 of 4)

"So, what caused this drastic departure from the faith of my fathers, to faith in Him who loved me and willingly gave himself for me? Well, the first cause is none other than God Himself. For Jesus the Messiah has declared "No one comes to me unless the Father who sent me draws him; and I ...[text shortened]... red to be peddling..." (to be continued)

http://www.answering-islam.org/Testimonies/adel.html[/b]

Originally posted by RJHinds
Some would say Islam is an ideology composed of a combination of religious, political, cultural, legal, and military components to control people.

Originally posted by Grampy Bobby
[i]'Why have you changed your religion from Islam to Christianity?' To which I often reply, While Islam is a religion Christianity is not.

Originally posted by sonhouse
Somewhat like Christianity then. A bit more bloody though.

Originally posted by twhitehead
So basically, he dodges the question as is typical of Grampy too.

[b]'What has Christianity got to offer that Islam does not?'.
It has always amazed me how many people talk about what a religion 'has to offer'. Its almost as if its a sales pitch. Surely all that matters is whether or not a religion is the truth? What it 'has to offer' is a false ...[text shortened]... So, can anyone here explain to me why they would ever bring up what thier religion has to offer?[/b]

Originally posted by RJHinds
Actually, Christianity is the exact site. Christianity attempts to do away with legalism by replacing it with love and freedom. Christianity attempts to seperate government politics from religion, as Jesus said to give unto Ceasar what belongs to him and give unto God what belongs to God. Christianity teaches to ignore cultural differences in that there is ...[text shortened]... eology is completely opposite from Islam. Islam is for forced submission by any means possible.

Originally posted by sonhouse
It took 1500 years for Christianity to achieve anything like world civility. It was only a few hundred years ago people were being executed for heresy.

It is not because of your god that Christianity tended to mellow out. It was because of the lack of audience and they had to do something to maintain what congregation level they had which was slowly dete ...[text shortened]... st 2000 years and nobody ever will either.

A few have come close but the whole world? Never.

YouTube

"El Naggar"

Wow. A muslim named after my ex.

Similarities Between Islam and Communism

Communism is governance usurping the House of Religion; Islam is religion usurping the Halls of Governance. Instead of the superiority of the State, the Laws of the State, and the Party Leaders being the final authority in Communism, Islam replaces the State with Allah, the State Laws with the Koran and the Hadith, and the Party Leaders with the Imams.

In Communist States the Party Leaders are considered infallible and their rule is absolute. In Islam the Imams are considered to speak for Allah as his representatives on Earth and as such are infallible.

Misrepresenting and outright falsehoods would be used by Communist countries, especially in negotiations with non-Communist nations and would break treaties whenever it served their purposes. In Islam, all these same attributes are referred to as Taqiyya. In simple English one would define Taqiyya as lying.

Communists defined peace as the lack of opposition thus peace could only be attained once everyone had surrendered and fallen under the control of the World-Wide Communist State. In Islam peace is defined as the point at which the entire population of the world follows Islam and fully surrenders to Allah and Islam.

http://beyondthecusp.wordpress.com/2011/02/25/similarities-between-islam-and-communism/

Originally posted by Grampy Bobby
"(2 of 4)... (to be continued)" Please be patient, twhitehead, and keep your cursory judgment in check until you've read and pondered all that Mr. Adel Mohammed El Naggar has to offer. He too was quite angry and defensive until light dawned.

Originally posted by twhitehead
Sorry to tell you that I will not be reading any more of it. He is clearly quite confused about what religion is, and is just as dishonest about it as you. And since neither he nor you are available to discuss it, I simply won't bother reading further. I would however be interested in any other posters who wish to discuss my question:
Why bring up the issue of 'what does my religion offer'?

Originally posted by Grampy Bobby
twhitehead, Adel Mohammed El Naggar brought up "the issue of 'what does my religion offer'?" as a contrast to Christianity.

Edit Note: ... 'religion' has absolutely nothing to offer anyone other than an emotional or fraternal or ceremonial high.

Originally posted by twhitehead
This is why I suggested other posters be involved. You never get the point.

Christianity [b]is his religion. And he clearly brought it up as a contrast to Islam. The question was why he brought up the contrast. Did he think that by contrasting the two in terms of what they offer, it would demonstrate that one was closer to the truth than the other? Or is he playing some form of Pascals Wager?[/b]