[Time dragged on. Suspicion grew. Every day, there was screaming; every night, torture. Hamas was torturing its own people! As much as I wanted to, I simply could not find a way to justify that… For years I had struggled to know who my enemy was, and I had looked for enemies outside of Islam and Palestine. But I suddenly realized that the Israelis were not my enemies. Neither was Hamas nor my uncle Ibrahim nor the kid who beat me with the butt of his M16 nor the apelike guard in the detention center. I saw that enemies were not defined by nationality, religion, or color. I understood that we all share the same common enemies: greed, pride, and all the bad ideas and the darkness of the devil that live inside us… God used the Shin Bet to show me that Israel was not my enemy, and now he put the answers to the rest of my questions right in my hands in that little New Testament. But I had a long way to go in my understanding of the Bible. Muslims are taught to believe in all of God’s books, both the Torah and the Bible. But we are also taught that men have changed the Bible, making it unreliable. The Qur’an, Mohammad said, was God’s final and inerrant word to man. So I would first have to abandon my belief that the Bible had been altered. Then I would have to figure out how to make both books work in my life, to somehow put Islam and Christianity together. No small challenge – reconciling the irreconcilable… “Mosab,” he said, “I have a surprise for you.” He flipped the channel and said with a gleam in his eye, “Check out this TV program on Al-Hayat. It might interest you.” I found myself looking into the eyes of an old Coptic priest named Zakaria Botros. He looked kind and gentle and had a warm, compelling voice. I like him – until I realized what he was saying. He was systematically performing an autopsy on the Qur’an, opening it up and exposing every bone, muscle, sinew, and organ, and then putting them under the microscope of truth and showing the entire book to be cancerous. Factual and historical inaccuracies, contradictions – he revealed them precisely and respectfully but firmly and with conviction. My first instinct was to lash out and turn the television off. But that lasted only seconds before I recognized that this was God’s answer to my prayers. Father Zakaria was cutting away all the dead pieces of Allah that still linked me to Islam and blinded me to the truth that Jesus is indeed the Son of God. Until that happened, I could not move ahead in following him. But it was not an easy transition. Just try to imagine the pain of waking up one day to discover that your dad is not really your father. I cannot tell you the exact day and the hour that I “became a Christian” because it was a six-year process… I am the son of a people who have been enslaved by corrupt systems for many centuries… Manipulated by lies and driven by racism, hatred, and revenge, I was on my way to being one of those people. Then in 1999, I encountered the only true God. He is the Father whose love is beyond expression, yet shown in the sacrifice of his only Son on a cross to atone for the world’s sins. He is the God who, three days later, demonstrated his power and righteousness by raising Jesus from the dead. He is the God who not only commands me to love and forgive my enemies as he has loved and forgiven me but empowers me to do so. Truth and forgiveness are the only solution for the Middle East.] --Excerpt from Son of Hamas by Mosab Hassan Yousef While praying for one’s enemies and showing acts of kindness towards one’s enemies if the situation presents itself is a mitzvah/good deed (Exodus 23:4-5; Matthew 5:43-44), or if the Ruach HaKodesh, after extensive prayer (1Thess 5:17), inspires and leads one (Galatians 5:25) to bring God’s love to one’s enemies, this display of love will definitely be rewarded by our Father in heaven (Luke 6:35). At the same time, the perfect wisdom of God manifested within the Bible (Proverbs 2:6; Psalm 119:96; Luke 7:35; Romans 7:12) also validates the justifiable right for self-defense for a nation (Nehemiah 4:13-18) and provides righteous justification for warfare when attacked by enemies who seek to harm, destroy, or annihilate a nation (Exodus 17:8-13), such as Hamas who openly and blatantly seeks to destroy Israel, which the international community seems to tolerate by its deafening silence on this abhorrent matter, especially when Hamas has refused to make firm, lasting, and truthful peace with Israel over and over again (Luke 14:31-32), which is also the main reason Gazans suffer. Thus, when Hamas and other terrorist groups attack Israel and seek Israel’s destruction, Israel has righteous justification to defend herself, to attack, and to pummel Hamas and other terrorist groups. Also, on a side note, please pray for my brother in Yeshua (Romans 1:16-17), Mosab Hassan Yousef, in that God will continue to give him great comfort and continue to reward him with assurances, understanding, and wisdom in the LORD (Colossians 2:2-3). Unfortunately, sometimes in this broken and fallen world, family (Psalm 27:10, 2 Samuel 18:32-33; Micah 7:6; Matthew 10:35-39) and even friends (Job 16: 1-4; Job 42:7; Micah 7:5) can interfere with one’s obedience to God’s will in this life (Matthew 12:49-50; Matthew 7:21). In addition, please pray for the Egyptian Coptic Church in that God will continually increase their wisdom and understanding, and that God will create a heart within them to be a very tight-knit, loving, and caring community.
Posted on: Thu, 21 Aug 2014 07:48:57 +0000
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