Sid: I have a former Muslim on the telephone. I’m speaking to him at his office in Amsterdam, Holland. His name is Samuel Lee and the Islam faith, Muslims are in the news. Many Christians are confused on what does a Muslim really believe? Samuel we were talking earlier before we went on the air. Just very briefly tell me what a Muslim believes.
Samuel: Well actually what a Muslim believes basically they believe in:
- Allah that is the creator of heaven and earth
- Prophet Muhammad that God or Allah sent to this world to bring the people to Allah bring people closer to Allah.
That is basically what they believe. Also the rules and regulations they call it Sharia that is the law concerning the Islam that they keep it. That is basically what Islam is.
Sid: Okay, now let’s turn to the Middle East, let’s turn to the fundamental Muslims that have people like suicide bombers that believe when they die as a martyr they go to heaven. The average Muslim in America that is a practicing Muslim does he think the same way about dying as a martyr?
Samuel: Well I don’t think so. I don’t believe like that because I believe that this type of Muslims they are brainwashed because I’ve never seen people think in that way unless they are brainwashed. That’s like in my own school when I was growing up in the Middle East some people they get brainwashed so much in Islam that they really did stupid things. But that is not exactly what normal society, normal Islamic society, is proclaiming to the people.
Sid: Are many Muslims having experiences with Jesus?
Samuel: A lot of Muslims they are having experiences with Jesus these days, especially these days.
Sid: Now why do you that God is doing this right now because that’s what my friends from the Middle East tell me that many Muslims are coming to faith? Why is this happening right now, do you have any ideas?
Samuel: Well I believe that we are approaching the end times. Also I believe the time is right now ready for Muslims to really know who Jesus Christ, or what they say Isa al-Mesih, that means Jesus the Messiah. Who He really is, He is going to reveal Himself to the Muslim people. First we have the communist movement, we have this communistic country that you know the war was closing them to the gospel. This is broken and now we have different strongholds is going to be broken. Many people are going to know who really Jesus is because in Muslim belief they believe Jesus Christ is a prophet, only a prophet just like the other prophets. But when Jesus Christ reveals Himself to the people they will realize that Jesus Christ is not only a prophet but He is God representing Himself here on earth, Immanuel with us. I believe that this is the right time for all humanity this is the right time. It is time that God is going to also reveal Himself to the people of Islam. It doesn’t matter when but I’m telling you I have experienced it with people that have who have met Christ in their dreams, or in visions, or in reality and their lives are changed.
Sid: Let’s take you back to age 6. You were born in a Middle Eastern country, we won’t mention the name for security reasons. You just happened to see a picture of Jesus tell me about that.
Samuel: Yes, well while my father was driving in a very busy market street, and you know in the Middle East they sell everything in the market. Fruits, t-shirts, and everything that you can imagine…
Sid: I love those markets.
Samuel: Yeah so there was this man selling posters because of the traffic my father was driving very slowly. I saw this picture of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. I can remember it was a bit blue coloring, something like that the main color was like blue color. I was seeing this man hanging from the cross at the age of 6. I was thinking “Why is this man hanging on the cross?” and I asked my father, “Father why? Who is this man?” My father said “He is Jesus He is the prophet from God and the people were mean to Him so therefore they crucified.” That was my very first experience with Jesus Christ that really captured my whole life. Even when as tourists, my parents you know they travelled to Europe and we went to these churches like Michael Angelo and these things. I was always letting them make pictures from the crucifixion of Jesus because it did something to me as a little boy.
Sid: Now a year later your parents enrolled you in Christian school, why was that?
Samuel: Well before the trouble came in our country and the war and the Sinai war also, our country somehow the Christians and Christianity was somehow a little bit open. So we had private schools and we had most of the private schools were Christian, Orthodox Christian, or how can I say Catholic Christian, Armenian Christian we had a lot of you know Christian schools, private schools. Those people who were a little bit highly privileged with money and income they sent their children to these Christian schools. Therefore my parents sent me to this Christian school that I remembered even the name of the school means light.
Sid: So you had a Christian friend and your friend was you telling you a little bit more about Jesus, what did he tell you?
Samuel: Yes I had this Christian friend I call him Benjamin. This friend he was explaining… because in the schoolyard there was this church, very old fashioned church like Orthodox Church. Once I was really curious and I went to look through the windows and I saw again this man hanging on the cross. So it really touched my mind and I asked this friend “Who is this man? Did you see that one that is inside that building that one that is hanging there? It’s a picture what is that?” Then he told me, Benjamin is his name, then he told that this man is Jesus Christ and he believe he says he, that means his family and his father they all believe in Jesus Christ. Then he told me that Jesus Christ that I see he is dead He is not dead according to his father what his father told him, He is not dead He is alive again and one day He will come back to the world and you know finish this work. That is what he explained to me as a little boy of 7 years.
Sid: But things changed Samuel and there was a revolution in your country, and the Christian schools were put out and you found yourself in an Islamic high school. One day your teacher said something to you that just totally devastated you. At that time you were an ardent Muslim correct?
Samuel: Yes I wanted to do my best even I was bragging to my family I was singing from the Quran and my grandmother she didn’t understand what I was saying but she just loved it. What happened was until that time I thought that Jesus Christ is you know He is alive and He is coming back. But the first thing that really damaged me was when I heard from my religion teacher that Jesus Christ didn’t die at all that Judas Iscariot actually died in His place. Because he looked like Him people thought Jesus was crucified. Afterwards when they saw Jesus they thought He was risen. That was one His theologies that He was teaching. There were many different theologies they were teaching us at school that really damaged my life and I thought that my friend lied to me.
Sid: So you faith was stolen your faith in Jesus Christ.
Samuel: Yes it was stolen from me as a boy.
Sid: What about your faith in Islam what was it like?
Samuel: Then I started to you know read the stories about the prophets but in a funny version of that like Jacob, you know all these prophets Abraham?
Sid: Yes and their version is very different than the Christian version or the Jewish version.
Samuel: Very different really especially about Ishmael and all these things, it’s a little bit changed. Anyway I don’t go deep on that one, but what I wanted to say is that the teacher one day we had this reading Quran. I really did my best, I tried my best to read it very good and chant it. You know you have 2 ways of reading:
- Reading normal
- Chanting
Sid: Sure I come from a Jewish background and we chant the Hebraic prayers.
Samuel: Yes so I tried to chant and this man he socked me and he said “You are not chanting Quran you singing a pop music!” and he socked me. Then he…
Sid: Did he really hurt you when he socked you?
Samuel: He hurt me, really he hurt me. He hurt me, he hurt my feelings because I was singing from my heart I was singing it from the bottom of my heart. This man says “You are not singing, you are not chanting the Quran you are singing pop music!” He broke my heart and socked my grade and he said “You are not passed!”
Sid: Well then you got into… I guess your faith in Islam was stolen too, and now you’re not really heavy into either. You get into communism but your parents were very worried about you and they decided to relocate to the west. Did they relocate just because of you?
Samuel: Yes. They actually sold everything they had at that time.
Sid: What were they afraid of?
Samuel: They were afraid of because I was the kind of naughty boy especially concerning the politics. I start to hate any religion especially what is going on in my country in the name of Allah what they are doing. So what happened was I was involved in this communism thing, I was even reading “Das Kapital” but I didn’t understand what Karl Marx is speaking about. I just reading it because that is the age that age of people they reading these kind of things. Then I got involved even… I didn’t even write in my book I got involved in youth political groups that were really terrible.
Sid: So in effect you parents were trying to save your life and they just sold everything, they moved to the west. We’re out of time we’ll pick up here tomorrow Mishpochah.
Tags: It's Supernatural, Sid Roth