0:00 Hello, And I'm Absuda. I'm I'm I'm really happy to be here. He asked me to speak in English, so I'll try my best. And, I can mix Arabiclish. Arabiclish.
0:31 So let's start. If you have questions, do we give mic or something? And the mic to anyone? So so. Yeah.
0:41 Questions? Yeah. Well, let's start with the questions. Just straightforward. Format, will, new set, new ideas, new topics, new guests.
1:36 Most probably, it's gonna be Marsh. Fisahar Marsh, Ma'al Karma, Facebook or social media comments. So we'll keep both. Design process. Thank you.
2:03 you tell us about the seven seals?
2:10 In in in the book of Revelation? I'm I'm not really, I never studied them in detail, so I'm I'm I cannot talk about them unless I study them. Thank you. So
2:30 So, I have a question. So, like, I'm evangelizing to, Muslims who doesn't really guide us the faith. It's very similar to a Christian that affects us, but but at least with this Christian, they believe in them.
3:16 Well, it's it's a complicated situation because you know that, if if they are well informed in Islam, it makes it easier for you in the discussion. But if they are not, sometimes you have to teach them Islam before you discuss with them. And and and that's what happens with me several times with people. But let me tell you this, not all people get, convinced of the truth of Christianity through ideas. God has doors to people and different personalities.
3:52 They have different, ways that we can reach them. Some people through our love, some people through our kindness to them, through our, showing Christ in our lives. So not everything through information. There are some people come through information, but others will not. My sister never came to the Lord through information.
4:18 She came through our revelation. And I came to the Lord through information. So God uses our brains, our hearts, our all our faculties to to bring us to to him. So don't focus always just on information. Sometimes you can use other just be be be flexible to be used by the Holy Spirit toward what whatever direction.
4:43 I know people, they don't know much about Islam and they became Christians. So that proves my point that it's not always and some people, they they don't even now, when they are Christians, they don't know much about Islam. See, just Christ did something in their lives and changed it, and they don't care now to know. So I hope that answers your question. Well, the same thing.
5:52 They wanted in Arabic or in English? English. English. Well, the same thing applies to to Christianity when it started. People who came to faith from a Jewish background, the same thing.
6:07 They were, like, almost, they they were taken from their environment, from their families, from their culture, and to to a new faith. I think it's possible. It happened with me. It's happening with thousands of people, everywhere. I know it's hard.
6:27 It's not an easy thing to do, but I think it's it's it's doable. We believe in a gospel that changes people and changes cultures and changes nations, not just people. So, I know it's hard for a Muslim to leave his family, his society, and everything, but I think if they understand the the the real gospel, they will not be, they will not be afraid to lose all of that. And, I'm not asking them to change their identity. So we are trying to teach them that Islam is not their identity.
7:05 Religion is just a small part in our identity. The identity is bigger than that. But Islam somehow convinced people that if you stop existing as a Muslim, you stop existing as a human being. And that's not true. So we need to teach them that that their identity is not dependent on religion.
7:26 They can be Jordanians. They can be Moroccans. They can be Algerians, and they can be Christians as well. And, there is a difference between Islam and our identity. And I'm trying to do that through several means.
7:58 Can can you, elaborate? So so the challenges or what changed in me? What changed in me? Of course, when we are ministering and doing any kind of ministry, not just media, we are changing in the process. Every life we touch, it touches us.
8:34 Every person we talk to, he affects us as well because we are human being. We are social beings, and we get affected as well. I think every human being I talk to, he left something in me and I left something in in them. And and, taking just my program as an example, I have been doing it for twelve years and 555 episodes. It's if you wanna watch it, probably you need three months without going to the bathroom or sleeping.
9:05 Just on on on like, without stopping. I think it was the best school in my life. I learned a lot. I cried with so many people. I suffered with so many people, and I reduced with so many people.
9:21 And Rashid, who started in 2007, is not Rashid of today. God expanded my, information, my brain, my knowledge, also expanded my heart and changed so many things in me. He he just molded me through the years, and I think what's coming is even better. Yeah. So
10:33 There there was a a problem with with the ideology itself. I came, I came to a conflict with Al Hayat on ideas. Usually, I'm very tolerant of any idea. I'm I'm very big on when it comes to differences between churches and different doctrines. I'm not really that stubborn.
11:00 I I accept many ideas within the faith. But when it comes to the frame, to the foundations, I'm very radical. When it touches the essence of Christianity, I cannot let it go. So Al Hayat, they started broadcasting brother Maher Faye's ideas. His idea basically is Sufism is the true religion of God.
11:29 And when he says Sufism, he doesn't mean he doesn't mean the branch of Islam. He means something spiritual that is shared between all religions. So he says sophism comes from Sophia. Sophia means wisdom. Wisdom exists in every religion.
11:47 It's like new age movement. Christ is the Sophia. He can be found in any religion. He can be found in Islam. He can be found in paganism.
11:58 He can be found everywhere. And people can go to God through Christ still, but they will go through him because he exists in all these. He says Christ is the first Sufi. And this holy spirit is the teacher of Sufi. He says Job was a Sufi, a Yub can Sufi, Abi Yathar can Sufi, Abi Malik can Sufi, so, Yohannab can Sufi.
12:27 I came from Morocco. Sufism is the religion of the country. So for me, the question, why should I leave Islam if there is a wisdom there? Why should I go through persecution and all this process to be what's so unique about Christianity then? So I told them, either you stop that or I'm gonna leave because I cannot preach in a in a channel.
13:01 Islam It doesn't it doesn't work. He's he's he's refusing to be called a singer. So I tell them, what are we doing? We're confusing people. So they got mad at me because I commented.
13:22 I told them I did it with my family, with my dad. Do you think I'm not gonna do it with you guys? You'll be wrong. I'm facing Islam is more dangerous than you guys. Do you think I'm not gonna face you?
13:39 You'll be wrong. I I I can't. When it comes to that, I can't. So I say to them, either you stop that or I'm out. They didn't stop it, so I left.
13:49 And I don't care. I, you can lose a show. You can lose a channel, but I don't wanna lose my identity. I I wanna stay true to what I believe in. So that's why I left.
14:02 Anyway, so I to answer this is an introduction to your question. You said liberalism. The the problem with liberalism is this, I'm a man of truth because God reached me through truth. So what I do every day is searching for truth. I always take an idea by true or false.
14:25 Is it either it is true or false. Any idea in Christianity or Islam. If you work with that perspective, you will not accept middle grounds. Liberalism, the the only the biggest problem with liberalism is there is no truth. Truth is relative.
14:46 So what is true for you is not true for me and vice versa. That's actually a, wasfar al harab, the recipe for disaster. We cannot live like that as human beings even. Truth is what we live for. If we don't believe there is something called truth and there is something called, false or not true or or false ideas, then we cannot live together.
15:22 Whatever we believe in you will be false for you, and what I believe, what you believe will be false for me. Let me let me explain it in details. For example, killing. Is killing something right or wrong? Wrong.
15:37 Wrong. Based on what? Tell me based on what? The 10? The the for the constitution?
15:51 Oh, 10 commandments. Yes. So you say there is a high revelation. It tells us what's what's wrong, what what is right. That's faith.
16:02 But if you are a liberal, you will say, well, 10 commandments, they are relative. They are true for certain people. They are not true for certain people. Then who are you to go to Saudi Arabia and say killing a person is wrong? You can't.
16:18 It's it's right for them to kill. So you can't go to them and tell them it's wrong. When they killed the that guy in the consulate, who are you to tell them that's wrong? They will say it's right for us because he betrayed us, we can kill him. What's wrong with you?
16:35 That's something right. So it we should have a higher authority. With liberalism, there is no higher authority. If you don't have any higher authority, you can't live. You cannot have a country.
16:50 You cannot have anything as a human being. So we should believe in truth and false right, and wrong, and otherwise we cannot exist. So I I'm with you against liberal I cannot believe in it as a human being. They should stick to the truth. You have nothing.
17:26 If you lose your reference, our being is related to higher authority. Higher authority. It mean There is no a man and a man that makes a family. Who said it is a man or woman?
17:59 Gender? What are you what do you feel? I'm feeling today I'm a woman. It's it's like who who says gender? So there is no reference.
18:10 No. Who who says that you are a human being? You could be anything. So if we don't define things, we lose we lose track.
18:24 I lost my voice. So when you were practicing Muslim, what was your biggest objection to believe that Jesus was God?
18:37 It was actually a teaching from Islam. I think did you hear the question? Yeah. I was he he said, when you were a Muslim, what was your objection against Jesus being God? The biggest objection.
18:52 Islam puts a fear in us that if any any other sin can be forgiven except, associating somebody with God. So the crime of association, shirk. So if you do that, that's the unforgivable sin. So that's the fear that becomes like an obstacle for you to believe in Christ because you are afraid. In our families, they accept us to do anything.
19:19 Like, you can go do drugs for example, and it will be like less less problematic than being a Christian. You can commit adultery and will be forgivable. You will be like just other kids in in in the neighborhood. You can do a lot of things and they will let it go, but you cannot leave the religion because you committed the the biggest sin ever. So you became a kafir, somebody who's associating somebody with God.
19:48 That's the biggest problem. So we need to teach Muslim believing in Christ is not associating somebody with God. Yeah.
20:00 Before Christ's return, there's gonna be two witnesses. Can you tell us something about that?
20:05 I I think you are insisting on the book of Revelation. It's not my specialty, by the way. I'm I'm I'm I'm not I am very careful in dealing with the book of Revelation, if you see what I mean.
20:20 The best part of the book of the Bible.
20:23 I you can't say the best part. All the Bible is the best part. It just it depends when you need there are things I'm just very careful. I never studied book of Revelation in detail, so I read it for my personal growth as a as a believer, but I never I don't have authority to speak with authority on that on that, book of the Bible. So thank you.
20:51 Yeah. Brother, we have achieved through your work. Now with what's ISIS did the biggest favor to Christianity than they think. And I just came, like, a week ago from recording testimonies with Kurds, and there are huge numbers among Kurds. Do do you remember Kobani?
21:45 Yeah. Yeah. Bissoria. Yeah. Kobani is one of the most radical cities that belongs to Kurds.
21:52 Like, well, Kurds, usually, they are not very radical, but Kobani was the most radical place in the Kurdish, population with the Kurdish population. ISIS surrounded that place. And just to give you an example, they surrounded that place for months, I think. It was on the news all the time, and they destroyed the whole city almost. And the the the Kurdish ladies, they were defending that that, that that place.
22:22 Now Kobani has a church in it, and it wouldn't happen even in our dreams without that thing happening there. And I have known families that came to the Lord from Kobeni. I just met a family of 14 people. They came to the Lord. All of them together from that city.
22:43 And when I asked the Kurds, I said, what made you change? They said, what ISIS did opened our eyes. So the when when they came to see Islam in action, because Islam in theory is different than Islam in action. When you see it I mean, it it is something when you read kill the infidels, it will be a sentence. But when you see it on the ground, and you see blood and applied before your eyes, you change your attitude.
23:16 So God changed the Kurds through that. And I know that happened with the Syrians, with with the Iraqis in different places. And so I think the Lord even if Saudi Arabia is changing, Iran is changing, United States is is changing, I think the Lord is still using all the circumstances to bring people to faith. And it's still growing like this. And I think it will never stall yeah.
23:43 It's still it's accelerating. Huge numbers. When when we started, the show, we had the first episode around 700, 800 phone calls, and we're using satellite. We we were not using social media back then. I stopped the satellite.
24:00 The last episode I did, we got a thousand phone calls just from Facebook. And people are are really, eager to hear the message. So it's changing. My biggest, the biggest fan country is Algeria that follows me on, Algerians are following me on on Facebook. The second is Morocco because I'm Moroccan.
24:27 And the third one is Egypt. The fourth is Iraq. So four countries, and if you take into consideration each country, Egypt is like almost 100,000,000. Algeria is 40. Morocco is, like, 34.
24:43 36. 36. So so you you take these countries are are the Arab world, actually. What we call the Arab world. So the the a huge population.
24:54 If Christians will not stand against heresies from within the church, they will have no church. Unfortunately, what I saw through this crisis, there are so many people are not willing to take a stand against whoever is saying them because it will put them into conflict with those people. And that's not right. Why would you wait for a Muslim background believer to stand against somebody who's teaching Sufism? Why?
25:35 Why they didn't speak? Why they speak in closed doors? Because they don't wanna face it, in front of people. They don't want people to tell them, you are facing. We should face those people because they lead so many people to different directions.
25:54 Paul did it on public. He did never hide it. So why we hide our faces? And I will we will be hypocrites if we don't face heresies within the church and we're facing Islam. What's the difference?
26:09 Why you want me to face Islam, put my life into risk and you're not willing to face your own heresies? So if Christians do not do that, I think they will lose something called a church. We will not have a church. I have a whole book about that. It's 500 pages.
26:40 I can't In Arabic. By the way, my book is coming out. It's already, done. I'm just, seeing with Amazon when they can put it online. It's called The Ideology Behind Islamic Tourism.
26:55 It's the same book Arabic, but it's translated differently. Ideology behind Islamic terrorism. ISIS is just some tidah, like an extension to Al Qaeda, if you put it that way. They grew out of Al Qaeda and they became an independent group, but they believe the same beliefs as Al Qaeda and even stronger. They believe in a caliphate, Khalifa.
27:23 They will they believe it they will govern the whole world and they will establish Sharia law all over the land, And they will be the ultimate or like the the state. They will govern the whole world. So that's their ideology summarizing it. How they grew to be like that because there was a vacuum in certain places and they grow, they had much land, and they were they were actually, funded by some people and some countries in The Middle East, specifically, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Area. That's basically, summarize.
28:03 Good question. So whatever happening in Middle East or whatever they're facing and how many people are getting killed, just to answer people with something simply, like, when they say, where is God? Where is Jesus? Was this happening? All these good people, innocent people dying every single day.
28:24 Can you please explain how to answer people in very, like, you know, unique way, very simple language that we can talk about it?
28:33 Well, there is something called, free will defense. If you wanna read more about it, you can search it on the Internet. You will find books about it. It's called free will defense. Why there is evil?
28:48 Christians have a strong argument called free will defense. If God intervenes in every case, then we will not be we will not have a free will. We will be forced to do things, not by choice, but by force. And that's not how God, operates or how God rules. He gave us free will.
29:14 With free will comes a free will to do evil or to do good. And that's why there is so much evil in the world because some people choose to do evil. And if God intervenes and changes, then we are not free beings. They are we we don't have a free will. So that's kinda, a summarized version of that argument, but it is very very well, very well put as a Christian defense.
29:42 Because that's the, like, you get weak. You become weak when, things like this happen. And with your, like, with iman, best like, a lot of people is like is like, where is Jesus? Why there is, why why why why do we believe in if there is no one protecting us or no one is protecting these innocent people dying every single day?
30:04 Well, you hold you hold Jesus accountable to what he said. You it's not what you expect from him. He said He never said you will have peace. But he asked us to do something because it's very hard. Like in tikku.
30:27 The victory at the end is mine. So you just trust. I mean, there are so many bad things because people choose to do evil. They choose to have a war. Hitler, he choose that way.
30:49 If they didn't choose So if let's say God stops you, stops me, stops so and so, stops everybody, then we are just robots. We're not human beings. That changes the whole concept of Christianity. You have a responsibility because you have a choice. If you don't have a choice, then you are not responsible, then there is no, judgment.
31:12 There is nothing. Islam. They they want something to give them authority. So they have to declare a version, a narrative that we are coming from Abraham because he has an authority. The but they are not.
32:13 I mean, you cannot prove it. Why, like, that particular tribe in that particular area, they are coming from Abraham? You cannot tell because people were mixed actually. But they are very limited in in, in the area there. We can't tell exactly what tribe they were the purely descendants of Ishmael.
32:45 You can't. It's hard to according to history and geography, it's hard to tell who was a descendant of Ishmael. It's very complicated. It's not, like, clear like this. Mohammad, they're coming from Yemen.
33:20 So that's at least what he declared. It it the the problem is very complicated. It's they cannot they just said it so they can have a narrative, a religious narrative that will claim that the yeah. Any more questions?
33:42 So here the pleasure of caretics and now we have to stand up. The Orthodox Church, that's one thing that I may respect about. They're not very strict on that, but I assume
34:23 That's a very, when I was talking about heresies, I was not talking about certain churches. I was talking about heresies within churches. But, the problem between Orthodox and Protestant and Catholic churches, that's a different different, we need to have a different approach. We need to have clear discussions and clear dialogue between those churches because they are very old historically and they have they had a long tradition. So it's not as black and white as you think.
35:01 There are believers inside every church. And and we cannot just go like that and approach it the same way we approach heretics. We should have a certain different approach and dialogue between the churches to reach certain conclusions.
35:19 So I'm not saying that the orthodox churches
35:22 Because if you demonize them, they will do the same thing to you, and it will be like a war.
35:27 I'm not saying that they're Americans. I'm saying that when they stick to their traditions, sometimes their traditions may they it may be, I'm not saying that the Americans I'm saying that when they stick to their traditions, sometimes their traditions may they it may be, their own doctrine their own, way of looking at the scriptures. And when you try to compare it and you go back and forth, they're heritage.
35:49 It it is it is possible. If if we don't for example, I'm accepted in so many churches, even Orthodox, Catholic. I go to different churches, And I'm invited to different churches. And I always speak the the the heart of the Bible, which is Jesus Christ. I don't go any other topics.
36:11 Because if we if we really focus on on the essence of the Bible is Jesus Christ. And we should we should avoid. So that what killed the church actually. It's it's our time to get back to the basics of faith and say, It's it's really embarrassing. And and if I bring Muslims from other faith, where where should I bring them?
36:48 Should I bring them to a church that fighting each other? Where should I tell him? Should I tell him, like, come to this church. They are Sunnah. Don't go to the other church.
36:58 They are Shia. It's it's it's really it's creating a problem for me. And and we need to focus. The message is Jesus Christ is our salvation. We put our differences aside.
37:13 That's why I said we need another approach that we should focus, I'll name things, not I'll our differences.
37:21 So is it okay to say that we can have that unity without being uniform?
37:26 That's that's exactly. Because even within the protestant churches, you cannot have the same doctrines. If you keep dividing it, sometimes you will divide with yourself. Just to create like a a break, a fossil. So so idea, if you keep dividing it, it will divide until, like, like, the minimum.
38:18 And it's not it's not in our good. It's not in our favor. Yeah. Alright. We have time for maybe two more questions.
38:24 Okay. Thank you. Two more questions. So two final questions whoever wants to ask. Okay.
39:13 Just be careful. Just be careful. But if if I agree with you on one thing. If the message is about Jesus, is if the focus is about Jesus, our salvation through Jesus, then so many things we can solve them. If we focus on our differences, then so many things we cannot solve
40:02 So when you go to these Catholic Orthodox churches, how do you preach on justification?
40:10 Well, I will tell you that my experiences, what I did. I was invited to, a Catholic church in Sydney, and we had, like, a huge gathering there. And I talked about Jesus as my savior, as a Muslim background believer, how I see Jesus. And let me tell you, like, one of the priests there, he came to me afterwards, and he said, what you said made me think to reread the Bible again. Sometimes the side doctrines on the side, they take the the glory of Jesus.
41:01 They take us away from him. When we start talking about Jesus, bringing everybody to Jesus, we see things in a different way. So that's why I speak about my testimony about Jesus Christ as our savior from different angles. That's how I present the truth. And I always bring people to the basics of faith.
41:23 That's what we need to do as Christians. If you focus on baptism, you will find different opinions. About speaking in tongues, you will find different opinions. About so many things, you will find different opinions. But you will find so many people amazed if you bring them back to Jesus.
41:41 And some differences we can tolerate them as I said, but when it comes to our doctrine, our foundation, we cannot. Like with Jehovah's witnesses, I cannot. But with others, we can bring back everybody around Jesus Christ. Amen to that? Amen.
42:01 Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Well, let us pray. Thank you, Lord, because you brought us from different nations, from different tongues, from different backgrounds.
42:17 Thank you because you united us in you. Thank you for this beautiful gathering. We are a a family, a Christian family in you. Thank you for the the time you gave us this morning, for the time of fellowship, time of, questions and answers, time of music, worship. Thank you, Lord, because you orchestrated all these things.
42:40 We ask you to bless each one of us in this room. Bless our families represented in each one of us. In Jesus' name, amen.
