I Tried Burning 50 Bibles to Prove Islam Was Superior Then Jesus Stopped Me
Testimony: My name is Rashid. I am 28 years old and I was born in Jakarta, Indonesia. in one of the most devout Muslim neighbourhoods in Southeast Asia. In March 2021, I organized the most blasphemous act I could imagine against Christianity. But that's when Jesus Christ intervened in my life in a way that shattered everything I thought I knew about God.
Let me tell you how the son of God rescued me from spiritual darkness through a miracle I never saw coming. I need to take you back to understand who I was before Jesus found me.
My full name is Rashid bin Ahmed Hidayat and I was born into a family of respected Islamic scholars and community leaders. My grandfather had been an imam at the largest mosque in our district for 40 years and my father continued that legacy by teaching Islamic jurisprudence at the Islamic University of Jakarta. Our family home was a center of Islamic learning and devotion.
We lived in a traditional compound that housed three generations of our family with prayer rooms in every section and Islamic calligraphy covering the walls. From my earliest memories, my life revolved around the mosque, religious study, and defending Islam against what my family called the corrupting influence of Western Christianity.
I was awakened every morning at 4:15 by my father for Fajr prayer. Before l even wash my face, I was reciting verses from the Qur'an that I had memorized since l could speak. My education was split between regular schooling and intensive Islamic instruction from the most conservative teachers my family could find. By age 14, I had memorized significant portions of the Qur'an and could recite hadith collections with the precision that impressed even the strictest scholars.
Ask yourself this question. Have you ever been so convinced of your beliefs that you couldn't imagine questioning them?
That was me. I lived and breathed Islam with a militant devotion that went beyond simple faith into active hostility toward anyone who challenged Islamic supremacy. Every aspect of my day revolved around Islamic practice and defending the faith against perceived enemies. I prayed five times daily with genuine fervor. Fasted during Ramadan with pride in my endurance and gave zakat charity while secretly judging those I considered less devout.
When other young men my age were playing soccer or pursuing normal hobbies, I was attending Islamic debate forums and studying apologetics designed to refute Christian claims about Jesus. My reputation as a fierce defender of Islam spread throughout our community and online.
At age 19, I started a YouTube channel dedicated to exposing what I called Christian lies and distortions. My videos attacked the Trinity, the crucifixion, the reliability of the Bible, and the divinity of Christ with arguments I had learned it from anti Christian Islamic scholars. The channel grew rapidly, attracting thousands of subscribers who praised my passion for defending Islam and and humiliating Christian missionaries who tried to engage with Muslims. I believed every argument I made. I thought I was doing Allah's work by preventing Muslims from being deceived by Christian evangelism and by showing the world that Islam was the only true faith. The online Islamic community celebrated me as a young warrior for the faith. Established Islamic apologists, shared my videos, and invited me to collaborate on projects designed to counter Christian influence in Indonesia.I received messages daily from Muslims around the world thanking me for defending Islam and encouraging me to continue my aggressive approach to religious debate. My ego grew with every view and every comment, praising my knowledge and dedication. I felt chosen by Allah to be a champion of Islam in the modern age. Someone who could use technology and media to spread Islamic truth and expose Christian falsehood to millions of people. But looking back now I can see the spiritual darkness that was consuming my soul.
Despite all my religious activity and the praise I received from the Islamic community, I felt an emptiness inside that I refused to acknowledge. After particularly intense debates with Christians. online, instead of feeling victorious, l often felt angry and unsettled in ways I couldn't explain. The Islamic teachings about Allah's absolute sovereignty and predestination created anxiety and predestination created anxiety in my heart about whether I was truly among the chosen or destined for hell.
I witnessed hypocrisy among the Islamic leaders l admired most. The scholars who taught me to defend Islamic purity were often involved in corrupt business dealings, treated women with disrespect, and showed none of the spiritual fruits they claimed Islam produced. These were the same men who had taught me that Islam was morally superior to Christianity in every way. Seeing their double lives planted seeds of doubt that I desperately tried to suppress through even more aggressive religious activity.
The poverty and suffering I saw in my own Muslim majority community also troubled me deeply. Despite all our Islamic devotion and the claims about Islam devotion and the claims about Islam creating the perfect society, I saw corruption, injustice, and the spiritual emptiness.
Everywhere I looked, families struggled while religious leaders lived in luxury. Young people were leaving the faith or practicing Islam only superficially.
The Islam I promoted online seemed disconnected from the reality I witnessed daily.
When I questioned respected imams about these contradictions, they gave me complex theological explanations about Allah's will and the corrupting influence of Western culture that never really addressed my concerns. Everything felt hollow, like we were performing religion without experiencing genuine spiritual transformation.
As l entered my mid20s, my anti-Christian activism intensified.
I joined a group of young Muslim activists who organized public demonstrations against Christian evangelism in Indonesia. We protested outside churches, disrupted Christian events and created online campaigns to pressure the government to restrict Christian missionary activity.
The anger I felt toward Christians grew more personal and hateful. I convinced myself that they were enemies of Islam who deserved to be opposed and humiliated at every opportunity.
The religious justification for my hostility came easily from Islamic texts about fighting those who opposed Allah's message.
I thought I was the most devoted Muslim in my generation. But deep inside something was profoundly wrong. Every religious achievement, every debate victory, every new subscriber to my channel only seemed to highlight the growing void in my soul. I performed all the external requirements of Islam perfectly. But I felt spiritually dead inside. The Allah I was supposed to love felt distant, unpredictable, and impossible to please.
No matter how hard I tried, something was missing. But I buried those doubts deep, convincing myself that more activism, more study, more religious performance would eventually fill the emptiness. I had no idea that Jesus Christ was already preparing to confront me with truth that would destroy my Islamic worldview and rescue me from the spiritual prison I had built around my heart.
The plan began forming in my mind in February 2021. Our activist group had been discussing increasingly aggressive tactics to counter what we saw as a dangerous rise in Christian conversions among young Indonesian Muslims.
Some members suggested protests, others wanted legal action, but I proposed something that would send a message that couldn't be ignored. I suggested we organize a public burning of Christian Bibles to demonstrate Islamic supremacy and show our contempt for what we considered a corrupted scripture. The idea was met with enthusiasm from some members and hesitation from others who worried about legal consequences and international backlash. But my reputation as a fearless defender of Islam gave me influence over the group.
l argued that bold action was necessary to wake up Muslims who had become too tolerant of Christian evangelism. I quoted verses from Islamic textes about destroying false scriptures and reminded everyone of Islamic history where books contradicting Islam had been burned.
Over the following weeks, I took charge of planning the event with obsessive dedication. We identified a location in a public park where we could gather without immediate police interference. I used my social media following to promote the event, framing it as a demonstration of Islamic strength and a warning to Christians who dared to challenge Islamic truth. The response from my online community was overwhelmingly supportive. Thousands of comments praised my courage and commitment to defending Islam. Some urged caution, but most encouraged me to proceed with the Bible burning as a necessary statement against Christian aggression.
I personally collected the Bibles we would burn. Purchasing them from Christian bookstores while disguising my intentions. Each time l handled those books, I felt a mixture of contempt and strange unease that I couldn't quite explain. Something about destroying religious texts felt fundamentally wrong. But I suppressed those feelings by reminding myself that these were corrupted books leading people away from Islamic truth.
My preparation included researching Islamic precedents for burning non-Islamic religious materials. I found historical accounts and fatwas from various scholars that seemed to justify what I was planning. I crafted speeches I would deliver during the burning, explaining why Christians deserve this humiliation and why Muslims needed to take stronger stands against Christian evangelism.
The event was scheduled for March 20th, 2021. l announced it publicly on my YouTube channel and social media accounts, challenging Christians to try to stop us and warning Muslims that failing to support our action meant they were weak in their faith. The video went viral in Indonesian Islamic communities, generating controversy and attention exactly as I had hoped. Christian groups condemned the planned burning and appealed to authorities to prevent it. Some moderate Muslims also expressed concern, arguing that burning religious texts violated Indonesian values of religious tolerance. But their opposition only fueled my determination to proceed, convincing me that we were threatening the right people and defending Islam against those who wanted Muslims to compromise their faith. Local police contacted me with warnings about potential legal consequences, but the laws in our area were ambiguous about such demonstrations. I consulted with Islamic legal experts who assured me that freedom of religious expression should protect our right to protest in this way. The uncertainty about whether authorities would actually stop us added excitement and a sense of righteous risk to the entire plan.
My family's response was mixed. My father expressed concern about the public attention and potential backlash, but he didn't explicitly forbid me from participating. My grandfather, the retired Imam, gave me a lengthy speech about the importance of defending Islamic honor and not allowing Christians to spread their corrupting message unchallenged. My mother begged me to reconsider, saying she had a bad feeling about the whole thing. But I dismissed her concerns as female emotionalism that shouldn't influence important religious decisions.
The final week before the event was filled with intense preparation. I gathered 50 Bibles that would be burned during the demonstration. I rehearsed my speeches about Islamic supremacy and Christian deception. I coordinated with other activists about security, media coverage, and responses to potential police intervention. Sleep became difficult as March 20th approached. I lay awake at night imagining the event, picturing the flames consuming those Bibles and anticipating the statements we would make about Islamic strength.
The excitement was mixed with an anxiety I couldn't quite identify. A nagging sense that I was crossing a line that couldn't be uncrossed. But I pushed forward, convinced that my discomfort was just fear of taking the bold action that defending Islam required.
March 20th, 2021 arrived with clear skies and warm weather that seemed perfect for our planned demonstration. I woke early for faj prayer, asking Allah to grant us success in defending his religion and humiliating those who opposed Islamic truth. My hands shook slightly as I performed ablution, but l attributed it to excitement rather than the deep spiritual warning that I now understand was trying to stop me from making a terrible mistake.
We gathered at the public park around 2 in the afternoon. About 40 Muslim activists had committed to participating along with several hundred supporters who came to watch and show solidarity. I arrived with a truck containing the 50 Bibles we had collected along with lighter fluid and the materials needed to create a controlled fire. The atmosphere was electric with religious fervor and aggressive certainty. My supporters chanted Islamic phrases and held signs condemning Christianity and Christian missionaries. Some carried Indonesian flags claiming our demonstration represented true national values against foreign religious invasion. Police had established a perimeter around our gathering, but seemed uncertain about whether to intervene. The legal ambiguity I had identified worked in our favor, creating a space for us to proceed with our plans.
I began the event with a speech that summarized all my anti-Christian arguments. I denounced the Trinity as a sherk, rejected the crucifixion as a lie, attacked the Bible as corrupted, and proclaimed Muhammad as the final prophet who had superseded and corrected all previous revelations, including the claims of Jesus. The crowd responded with enthusiastic affirmations and Islamic declarations.
As I spoke, I felt a strange coldness spreading through my chest despite the warm afternoon sun. Something felt wrong in a way I couldn't articulate. But the momentum of the event carried me forward past any internal warnings my conscience was trying to send. Look inside your own heart right now and imagine the spiritual darkness required to publicly destroy holy texts while claiming to serve God. That was exactly where I found myself on March 20th, 2021.
Surrounded by supporters but spiritually isolated, religiously educated but morally lost and completely convinced that I was doing righteous work even as I prepared to commit an act that violated the divine love and truth I didn't yet understand.
I opened the first Bible and held it up for the crowd to see. I read passages about Jesus being the son of God and mocked them as Christian lies that contradicted Islamic truth. I quoted Quranic verses that seemed to refute Christian claims and received roars of approval from my supporters. The pile of Bibles sat in the center of our gathering space ready to be burned. I had arranged them carefully to ensure they would burn completely leaving no doubt about our intentions. My assistant handed me the lighter fluid and I began dowsing the books while continuing to speak about Islamic supremacy and the need to oppose Christian evangelism.
Then I picked up the lighter. My heart was pounding, but I told myself it was righteous excitement about defending Islam. I clicked the lighter once, twice, preparing to ignite the fluid soaked a pile of Bibles. The crowd grew silent with anticipation, waiting for the moment when flames would consume those Christian scriptures. I clicked the lighter the third time. But before I could lower it to the pile, something extraordinary happened that changed everything. The sky, which had been perfectly clear moments before, suddenly darkened with clouds that appeared from nowhere. A wind began blowing with such force that it scattered the Bibles across the park, separating them from the lighter fluid I had poured. The lighter was ripped from my hand by a gust so powerful that it felt like invisible force had physically taken it from me. I stood there stunned, unable to process what was happening as the weather shifted from calm to tempestuous in seconds.
Then the most terrifying and wonderful thing I had ever experienced occurred. A brilliant light appeared in the sky above our gathering, brighter than the sun, but somehow gentle enough that I could look directly at it without pain. The light descended toward our group while the wind continued scattering the Bibles and preventing any possibility of burning them. In the center of that light, I saw a figure approaching. I knew immediately, without any doubt or confusion, that I was seeing Jesus Christ himself. His presence radiated perfect love and absolute authority that made every Islamic teaching I had ever received about his nature seem like lies designed to keep me from truth.
The crowd around me reacted with panic and confusion. Some ran from the park screaming. Others fell to their knees, unable to stand in the presence of what they were witnessing. My closest associates stood frozen in terror. Their earlier enthusiasm completely replaced by fear.
Jesus spoke and his voice seemed to bypass my ears and speak directly to my heart with clarity that no human language could achieve. His words came in Indonesian, perfectly clear and unmistakable. "Rashid, why are you persecuting me? You burn my words while claiming to seek truth. You hate my followers while claiming to serve God. I am the way, the truth, and the life. Stop fighting against the love that has been pursuing you since you were born." I collapsed to my knees, unable to stand under the weight of conviction and truth that flooded my soul. Every argument I had made against Christianity crumbled instantly as I stood in the presence of the One I had spent years denying and attacking. The spiritual emptiness I had felt throughout my Islamic life suddenly made complete sense. I had been rejecting the very source of spiritual life while claiming to seek God. Tears poured down my face as Jesus continued speaking truth directly into my heart. He showed me that my hatred of Christians had actually been hatred of His love. He revealed that my defense of Islam had been rebellion against divine truth. He demonstrated that all my religious performance had been building barriers between my soul and the relationship he had always wanted to have with me. The vision lasted only moments in physical time. But it contained a spiritual revelation that rewrote everything I thought I knew about God, truth, and salvation. As the light faded and Jesus withdrew from visible sight, I remained on my knees sobbing uncontrollably while the crowd dispersed in confusion and fear. My assistant tried to help me stand, asking what had happened and whether we should try to continue the event. But I couldn't speak coherently. Something fundamental had shattered in my worldview and I knew with absolute certainty that I could never go back to Islam or to the hatred that had consumed me.
The police arrived and shut down what remained of our demonstration. The Bibles that had been scattered by the supernatural wind were collected by Christian volunteers who had been praying nearby, protected from any harm by the very miracle that had stopped me from burning them. News of the failed Bible burning spread rapidly through social media, but no one could explain what had actually happened except those of us who had witnessed Jesus appearing.
My online following reacted with confusion and anger as word spread that I had collapsed during the event and abandoned the demonstration without explanation. The immediate aftermath was chaos, I returned home in complete spiritual disarray. Unable to eat or sleep as I processed what I had experienced, my family demanded explanations. But how could I tell them that Jesus Christ had appeared to me and exposed Islam as false?
I locked myself in my room and began searching online for information about Jesus. Reading the Bible for the first time with genuine openness rather than hostile critique. Every page confirmed what Jesus had shown me during my vision about His true identity and mission. Over the next three days, I barely slept or ate as I consumed the Gospels and Acts. Reading about Jesus's ministry, death, and resurrection with new eyes. The Islamic arguments I had used for years against these truths now seemed absurd in light of what I had personally experienced. I had seen Jesus. I had felt His love. I had heard His voice. No Islamic apologetic could explain away that direct encounter.
My prayer life transformed completely. Instead of performing ritual prayers toward Месса, I found myself talking to Jesus like I would talk to someone I knew personally and intimately. I confessed my hatred, my blasphemy, my years of fighting against His followers and His truth. I begged for forgiveness and for strength to face what I knew would come when I publicly declared my conversion. The peace that filled my heart during those prayers was unlike anything I had ever experienced during years of Islamic devotion. Jesus wasn't distant or angry despite everything I had done against Him. He was present, loving, and ready to forgive and restore me to relationship with the true God I had been rejecting my entire life.
On the fourth day after the failed Bible burning, I knew I had to make a public declaration. I created a video for my YouTube channel where I had spent years attacking Christianity. My hands shook as I set up the camera, knowing that what I was about to say would cost me everything I had built in the Islamic community.
The video began simply, "My name is Rashid bin Ahmed Hayat and I am no longer a Muslim. Four days ago, I attempted to burn Bibles to demonstrate Islamic supremacy. But Jesus Christ appeared to me during that event and revealed that everything I believed about Him was a lie. I have spent my entire life serving a false religion and fighting against the true God. Today, I publicly declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, that he is the son of God, and that salvation comes only through faith in him." I continued for 20 minutes describing the supernatural events in detail, confessing my hatred and blasphemy and explaining how encountering Jesus had completely transformed my understanding of God's nature and character. I acknowledged that I would likely face severe consequences for this declaration, but that knowing the truth was worth any cost. The response was immediate and devastating.
Within hours, my family had expelled me from our home and declared me dead to them. My father's final words to me were that I had brought unspeakable shame to our family and that I was no longer his son. My grandfather publicly cursed me and declared that my apostasy proved I had never truly understood Islam. My YouTube channel was flooded with comments from former supporters, calling me a traitor, a kafir, and threatening violence against me for abandoning Islam. Islamic websites published articles denouncing me and warning others about my corruption. Some called for my death according to Islamic law regarding apostasy. But the joy in my heart made every sacrifice worth it. The peace that Jesus had given me during my vision sustained me through every moment of grief and loss as I processed the reality that I would never see my family again or returned to the only community I had ever known. Christian churches in Jakarta that I had previously attacked now welcomed me with open arms. They provided temporary housing, food, and protection as I navigated the dangerous early days after my public conversion. The same people I had spent years trying to humiliate showed me unconditional love and support that proved everything Jesus had revealed about his true nature.
Look at your own life right now and ask yourself, what would you risk to know the truth? The material comfort, family connection, and social status that had defined my identity for 28 years disappeared overnight. But the spiritual riches I gained through my relationship with Christ were infinitely more valuable than anything I had lost.
A Christian pastor named Peter became my mentor and guide during those early weeks. He had actually been one of the people praying near the park on the day I attempted the Bible burning, interceding for my soul even as I tried to destroy Christian scriptures. His forgiveness and patience with my questions about Christianity amazed me daily. Peter explained the gospel with clarity that contrasted sharply with the complex works based Islamic theology I had studied. Salvation wasn't about performing enough prayers or good deeds to earn Allah's uncertain favor. It was about accepting the free gift of forgiveness and eternal life that Jesus purchased through his sacrifice on the cross. My baptism took place on April 18th, 2021, exactly one month after Jesus had appeared to me during the attempted Bible burning. As I stepped into those waters, I felt like I was being born again in the most literal sense possible. The old Rashid who had lived in hatred and spiritual darkness was being buried forever. The new Rashid who belonged to Jesus Christ was emerging with joy and freedom I never knew existed. The church where I was baptized had about 200 members, many of whom had been targets of my previous anti-Christian activism. They celebrated my conversion with genuine happiness, showing me that Christian love was real and transformative in ways Islamic community had never been.
For the first time in my life, I experienced unconditional acceptance based on faith in Christ rather than religious performance or family status. Daily Bible study replaced the Islamic prayers that had structured my schedule for 28 years. But the difference in spiritual nourishment was remarkable. Beyond description where Quranic recitation had felt like religious duty performed to earn Allah's favor, reading scripture felt like intimate conversation with a loving Father who wanted me to understand his heart and character.
Every chapter revealed new aspects of God's love that contradicted everything I had been taught about divine nature through Islamic theology. The God I serve now loves me unconditionally without the fear, manipulation, and performance-based acceptance that characterized my entire Islamic experience. Jesus never demands that I earn his love through religious rituals or threatens me with eternal punishment for imperfect devotion. His grace covers every failure and mistake, offering forgiveness and restoration rather than condemnation and rejection. The contrast between Islamic law and Christian grace transformed not only my understanding of God, but my entire approach to daily living and relationships. Learning to live without family support and community. Respect required significant practical adjustments. I found work at a Christian bookstore, the same type of store where I had previously purchased Bibles to burn. The irony wasn't lost on me as I helped it customers find resources to deepen their faith in the same Jesus I had once attacked. My former online following continued sending death threats and messages of hatred. Islamic websites published my photo with warnings about my apostasy.
Some family members attempted to contact me, not with love, but with demands that I recount my conversion and return to Islam to restore family honor. But the joy in my heart made every sacrifice worthwhile because I finally understood what genuine spiritual fulfillment meant.
The emptiness that had haunted me throughout my years of Islamic devotion was completely filled by my relationship with Jesus Christ. The anxiety and fear that had characterized my prayers to Allah were replaced by peace and confidence in God's love.
Theological training became my new passion as I pursued understanding of the faith that had saved my life and soul. Peter helped me enroll in a Bible college program where I studied systematic theology, church history, and biblical interpretation. The depth and richness of Christian doctrine amazed me as I discovered philosophical and theological sophistication that far exceeded anything I had encountered in Islamic scholarship. Every theological concept I studied reinforced the scholarship. Every theological concept I studied reinforced the truth of what Jesus had revealed to me during my vision. The doctrine of the trinity which I had spent years mocking as illogical sherk revealed beautiful complexity about God's nature that satisfied both my mind and my heart. The atonement which I had rejected as unnecessary demonstrated the extent of divine love in ways that Islamic teachings about Allah's mercy could never match.
My ministry to other Muslims began carefully knowing the dangers of evangelizing in Indonesian Islamic communities. But I felt compelled to share my testimony with those who were questioning Islam or searching for truth beyond the religious system we had been raised in.
I created a new YouTube channel dedicated to sharing my conversion story and explaining why I could no longer accept Islamic claims about God, Jesus, and salvation. The response was mixed. Some Muslims sent threats while others contacted me privately with their own doubts and questions. I met with secret seekers in coffee shops and private homes, sharing my testimony and answering their questions about Christianity. Many were immigrants or young people who had encountered Christian love and found themselves drawn to Jesus despite their Islamic upbringing. Watching the same spiritual hunger in their eyes that I had experienced it during my own crisis of faith became one of my greatest joys.
The danger remained constant. Islamic extremists in Jakarta had long memories about those who publicly converted to Christianity. I received credible threats that required me to change your residences multiple times and maintain careful security protocols. But these threats only confirmed that I had made the right decision in following Jesus Christ.
The spiritual forces that had held me in bondage through Islam were fighting desperately to silence my testimony because they knew the power it carried to set other captives free.
Every threat reminded me that I was no longer serving the false deity of Islamic religion, but the true God who had demonstrated his love by rescuing me from the most impossible spiritual darkness imaginable.
Peter helped me connect with an underground network of Muslim background believers throughout Indonesia and Southeast Asia. We met secretly to encourage one another, share testimonies, and pray for wisdom and protection. These gatherings showed me that I wasn't alone. Thousands of former Muslims had encountered Jesus and chosen to follow him despite enormous personal cost.
Their stories amazed me. A former imam who had seen Jesus ina dream. A woman who had worn hijab for 40 years but removed it after experiencing Christian love. A man who had been planning a terrorist attack before Jesus appeared to him in a vision similar to mine. Each testimony confirmed that God was moving powerfully throughout the Islamic world calling people out of spiritual darkness into his marvelous light.
One year after my conversion, I was invited to speak at a Christian conference about ministry to Muslims. Standing before that audience of believers, I shared the full story of how Jesus had stopped me from burning Bibles and transformed me from a hateful Islamic activist into his grateful follower. The response was overwhelming.
People wept as I described Jesus appearing in the sky above the park. They praised God for his mercy towards someone who had spent years attacking his people and his truth. Many approached me afterward asking how they could pray more effectively for Muslim friends and family members who seemed completely closed to the gospel. I told them what I had learned from my own experience. No one is beyond the reach of Jesus Christ. No amount of religious devotion to a false system can protect someone from encountering divine truth when God decides to reveal himself. No hatred or blasphemy is too great for his forgiveness when someone genuinely repents and seeks his face.
The speaking opportunities multiplied as words spread about my testimony. I traveled throughout Indonesia and eventually to other countries, sharing my story at churches, conferences, and Christian gatherings. Each time l spoke, I emphasized that my conversion wasn't ultimately about my choice, but about Jesus pursuing me with relentless love despite my rebellion and hatred.
I developed friendship with Christian apologists and former Muslims who helped me refine my understanding of Islamic theology and Christian responses. These conversations deepened my appreciation for how comprehensively Christianity answered the questions and filled the spiritual voids that Islam had left in my soul. The intellectual satisfaction of Christian truth combined with the experiential reality of relationship with Jesus created a foundation for faith that could withstand any challenge or persecution.
My family eventually made one final attempt to bring me back to Islam. My father sent a delegation of respected Islamic scholars to meet with me, hoping they could convince me that I had been deceived by Christian lies. The meeting was arranged at a neutral location with mutual guarantees of safety. I agreed to meet them not because I had any doubt about my faith in Christ, but because I hoped to share the gospel with these men who had once taught me Islamic apologetics. The conversation was intense and emotional.
They presented every Islamic argument against Christianity that I had once believed and in taught. They questioned my experience, suggesting I had been mentally unstable or had hallucinated the vision of Jesus. They reminded me of my family obligations and the shame my apostasy had brought upon respected Islamic scholars.
I listened respectfully and then responded with my testimony. I described the supernatural events in detail, explained how encountering Jesus had exposed the spiritual emptiness of Islam, and shared how Christian doctrine satisfied both my mind and my heart in ways Islamic theology never had. I told them about the peace, joy, and genuine relationship with God that I had found in Christ, things I had never experienced during years of Islamic devotion. Their reaction was telling. They had no response to my personal experience of Jesus appearing in the sky. They couldn't explain away the supernatural wind that had scattered the Bibles or the light that had descended on our gathering. They fell back on assertions about Islamic authority and warnings about Allah's punishment. But their arguments sounded hollow compared to the living reality of knowing Jesus Christ personally. That meeting ended with them declaring me hopelessly deceived and warning me about the consequences I would face on judgment day. But I left that conversation with even greater confidence in my faith because their best arguments couldn't shake my testimony about what Jesus had done for me. So I'm asking you just as someone who has been rescued would, what is Jesus calling you to be freed from today?
My story proves that no amount of religious devotion to false systems can satisfy the human soul's hunger for genuine relationship with God. Whether you're trapped in Islam, another religion, atheism, or simply spiritual emptiness that seems impossible to fill, Jesus Christ has the power to set you completely free if you will cry out to him with genuine desperation and faith. If Jesus can save a hateful Islamic activist who tried to burn Bibles, he can save you from whatever darkness is holding your soul captive. The same supernatural power that intervened in my impossible situation is available to anyone who calls upon his name with sincere faith. He's not a distant, unpredictable deity demanding perfect performance, but a loving savior who gave his life to rescue people like you and me from every form of spiritual bondage and eternal death.
The emptiness I felt during 28 years of Islamic devotion was completely filled when I encountered the real Jesus, not the diminished prophet of Islamic teaching, but the son of God who died and rose again to reconcile humanity to the father. Everything I had searched for through religious performance, I found freely given through relationship with Christ. The fear that had dominated my spiritual life under Islam was replaced by confidence in God's unconditional love. The works based anxiety about earning Allah's uncertain favor was replaced by rest in the finished work of Jesus on the cross.
The spiritual death l experienced despite outward religious success was replaced by abundant life that flows from genuine connection with abundant life that flows from genuine connection with the source of all life. Jesus Christ is Lord and he's waiting to rescue you too.
Will you let him transform your life the way he transformed mine? Will you risk everything to know the truth that sets captives free?
The choice is yours. But I pray you will make the same decision I did when Jesus confronted me with his love and truth. Nothing you've done is too terrible for his forgiveness. No religious background is too strong for his power to break through. No situation is too dark for his light to penetrate and transform.
Call out to Jesus today with the same desperation I felt when he stopped me from burning those Bibles.
He hears every sincere prayer and responds with love that will change your eternal destiny.
Don't wait until you've destroyed something precious or hurt people you can never make amends to.
Reach out to him now and let him show you the real God who has been pursuing you with relentless love since the day you were born.
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