Christianity and Islam are both Abrahamic faiths and they both claim many followers around the globe. In some ways, these two religions are similar, but in several key areas they are very different. Today, we ask Kamran Karimi who was born in Iran, to tell us the differences between the followers of Mohammad and the followers of Christ.
Website: http://www.thevof.org/
Book: In Allah They Trust: https://amzn.to/2RVwjBC
Recently a prominent Muslim activist was quoted saying that it is their goal is to someday see the Islamic flag flown over the White House. What role are Christians and the Church to play in stemming the tide of Islam in America?
Show Notes:
One of the big differences between Islam and Christianity is the basis of their religion.
In the Koran, the holy book of the Muslim religion, there are stories about Jesus.
Six Facts Muslims know about Jesus.
- Jesus was born of a virgin.
- Jesus was a prophet.
- Jesus performed miracles.
- Jesus lived a sinless life.
- Jesus is coming again.
- Jesus will judge every person.
According to the Koran:
Jesus was virgin born (Surah 3:47).
Jesus is the Messiah (Surah 3:45).
Jesus is nearest to God (Surah 3:45).
Jesus was strengthened by the Holy Spirit (Surah 2:253).
Jesus heals the blind, lepers, raises the dead (Shrah 3:49).
God did raise Jesus up to Himself (Surah 4:158).
Jesus was God’s word (Surah 4:171).
Jesus is identified with God’s Spirit and proceeds from God (Surah 4:171).
Jesus confirmed the Torah (Surah 5:49).
The Gospel contains guidance and light (Surah 5:49).
Jesus prophesied his death and resurrection (Surah 19:15, 33).
Jesus is called a “holy son” (Surah 19:19).
Jesus called his disciples (apostles) (Surah 61:14).
The Lord’s return is prophesied (Surah 43:61, 89:22).
The idea of “ransom” for another’s sins is in the Quran (Surah 37:107).
Mary’s son was a “sign” for all people (Surah 21:91).
But, there are some truths Muslims do not acknowledge.
Five Facts Muslims DO NOT Believe About Jesus
- Jesus is the Son of God.
- Jesus died on the cross.
- Jesus rose from the dead.
- Jesus is the Savior of the World.
- Jesus is alive today and will forgive sins.
Listen to Daniel King, the Evangelism Coach, on The Evangelism Podcast
Transcription
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:00):
Christianity and Islam are both Abrahamic faiths, and they both claim many followers around the globe. In some ways, these two religions are similar, but in several key areas, they’re very different. Today. We ask Cameron Karimi who was born in Iran to explain to us the differences between the followers of Muhammad and the followers of Jesus Christ.
Evangelism Podcast Host (00:25):
Jesus said, go into all the world and preach the gospel. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be welcome to the evangelism podcast with dr. Daniel King, where Daniel interviews, full-time evangelists, pastors, missionaries, and normal everyday Christians to discover how they share their faith, their powerful testimonies and amazing stories that will inspire you to reach people with the good news. And now here’s your host missionary, innovative analyst, Daniel King. Alright, I’m here
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:06):
With Cameron, Kara, me, and he was born a Muslim, but now he is serving Jesus Christ. And so on this episode, we’re going to talk about the differences between Islam and Christianity. And so both Christianity and Islam are from Abraham, their Abrahamic faiths. They both claim many followers around the globe. And in some ways the two religions are very similar. People in both religions are very devout, but in several key areas, they’re very different. And so brother, what do you think are some of the differences between the followers of Jesus and the followers of Muhammad?
Kamran Karimi (01:48):
Well, it’s very easy. The followers of Jesus follow love and the followers of Mohammed, they follow hate. You know, now they’re not going to come and say that we follow hate, but their behavior and their their approach is fear and control really it’s by force. I like to say it this way. It’s law 2.0, if you will, you know, share your law, we’re talking about it is forcing down people’s throat. A God, instead of given a choice, because I really believe this. When I say in Christianity, the foundation of our faith is love. As far as that goes, assist, because love gives you a choice. I always like to say this way, the essence of love is choice. Okay? So in Christianity or in true relationship with God, the true living God has given humanity, the freedom of choice you can choose. I say this man, you can choose to send yourself to hell. If you want it, and God will back you now, he doesn’t want you to go there, but he’s not going to and override your choice. You’re your wheel. If you will. He’s given us freedom of will freedom of choice. So that’s the major difference where in Islam it’s forced. Whereas in Christianity, it is a choice that’s given to us to, are we willing to follow Jesus and his word? Or are we still going to follow our own way?
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:22):
And so you’re able to say that because you were actually born a Muslim, your, your father was a devout Muslim. And so you were raised in that religion. So, so you have insight to how they think, and you actually wrote a book called in Allah. They trust in, in this book, you say that recently prominent Muslim activists was quoted saying that their goal is someday to see the Islamic flag fly over the white house here in the United States of America. And then you ask the question, what role are Christians in the church to play in stemming the tide, the tide of Islam here in America. Right? So, so tell me some about this book and, and well
Kamran Karimi (04:05):
Book is really about informing and empowering and equipping the body of Christ, the church, to know how to confront the force of Islam. And I’ll just say it this way. We have to most important that if you want to reach Muslims for Christ, if we’re going to see the church, do what we are called to do, you have to separate between the Muslims, the people and what are called the spirit of Islam. Okay? The principality Islam is a principality as the Bible talks about. We fight not against flesh and blood, but against principalities.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:43):
And so I love Muslims and Muslims love me. When I go to Muslim nations, I love preaching to Muslims. I find that they are very excited to hear about God, hear about Jesus. And then, and so I have great love for Muslims, me too. But I agree with you, the, the, the principality behind Islam has enslaved many people.
Kamran Karimi (05:07):
Yeah. And you know, most, most Muslims. I like to say this by majority would say 80%. That’s a safe number to say, 80% of Muslims are nominal Muslims. They are not fully practicing as long as it threatened in their book. As far as that goes, okay, the other 20% are more fundamentalists. And even some militant, as far as that goes. So the coat you made out of my book, that’s more referring to those. Now, when Muslims say we serve the same God Muslim. So yeah, we all serve the same guy. We don’t, that’s a very clear cut distinction. There’s a clear-cut distinction. Now. They mean, what they’re saying is there is one God, and that is true. There is one God, there is one God, there’s only one. God. And the God that they’re serving is not the God that we’re serving because God is not schizophrenia.
Kamran Karimi (05:59):
He’s not going to come in. Crushed in the Bible, represent himself as love as Jesus came in and fulfilled the law in the new Testament I’m talking about. And then, you know, 1600 years later, or so actually 600 years later started not 6,900, 600 years later show up and represent himself as his tyrannical. God, that is, you know, going to kill you. If you don’t follow it’s decrees and call you infidel, as far as that goes. So we’re talking about two different gods. Now, when the people say we serve the same, God, they believe that they are serving the same God and they want to serve our God. That’s why the responsibility comes to us of knowing how to actually bridge the gap and actually touched her heart with the power of the Holy spirit, with the love of God and give them enough. I should say, draw them enough into the, in a way that they want to receive Christ and see Jesus as who he really is because in Islam, they believe he’s a prophet. They don’t believe Jesus is the son of God. They don’t believe that he was raised from the dead. And those are all the basic foundations of our Christian
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:12):
Faith. So let’s, let’s talk about that a little bit. So I read through the Quran, the Holy book of Islam, and I found there were actually lots of stories of Jesus. Jesus has mentioned many times. And so there, there are several things that Muslims do know about Jesus. First. They know that Jesus was born of a Virgin. They know that he is a prophet. And so they respect him as a prophet. They know that Jesus performed miracles, that Jesus lived a sinless life, correct. That Jesus is coming again. And that Jesus will judge every person when he comes back in. So all those things are absolutely true. And it’s actually wonderful that Muslims know that I know some churches here in America that have gone so far liberal, that they don’t even believe in the Virgin birth anymore, or believe in miracles. And so foundation of our faith, that’s the foundation of our faith.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:06):
So it’s wonderful that they, they believe those things, but some of the things that Muslims do not believe about Jesus, they do not believe that Jesus is the son of God. And so actually the, you get very upset. If you say, Jesus is the son of Gus and they do not believe that Jesus died on the cross, correct? They do not believe that Jesus Rose from the dead. Yes, they do not believe that Jesus is the savior of the world. Correct. And they do not believe that he’s alive today and that he can forgive sins. Right? And so that is one of the big differences between Islam and Christianity is that we believe that Jesus is God, that he is the son of God that he came from heaven, correct down to earth, was born to the Virgin Mary. It was, it was not something that happened through sexual intercourse, but it was a divine miracle where the Holy spirit impregnated Mary. Correct. And Jesus came here as God to show us how to get,
Kamran Karimi (09:10):
Yeah. I always say this to Muslim specifically when we say Jesus is a son of God that he is Lord, we’re not saying, man became God. We’re saying God became man. There’s a huge difference into two. Okay. So when you get the right perspective on this situation, then you have,uyou know, you’re, you got to openness. If you will, there’s an, there’s a crack, therefore for the truth to actually enter your heart. I really emphasize that. And also one thing else I want to emphasize on some of these Mohammad himself in the Koran said concerning Jesus, that he is a savior. Okay. That he was sinless. Okay. And I need it. Well, Hamad says, I need a savior. That’s another sewer in there. Okay. So Muhammad knew that he was a sinner and he knew that he needed a savior. Okay. Now he doesn’t come and say in the Bible or in the Koran, it doesn’t say that Jesus was the savior of the world, but he said, I need a savior. So, you know, another thing I always like to say about the Koran and you know, where we have to have someone
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:20):
Because all of us need a savior. All of us have sinned. And it’s really interesting. Even the Koran says that Jesus, the prophet never sinned, but every single one of us, the rest of us, we’ve all sinned. And we need a savior.
Kamran Karimi (10:37):
We need someone to, to, to pay the price for us to remit us from that from the send that’s in our heart. And the only person that can do that in our life is someone that has never said, that’s why Jesus was the redemption of mankind. He was the price that got paid for our freedom from sin and healing and other things, as far as that goes. But you know, that’s the major thing. So the key is this, as far as as far as, you know, communicating this, I really believe that. Do you know date? The, I like to say this, when people ask me, how do you, how do you preach the gospel to the Muslims? I always say you better be able to manifest the miracles of Jesus because Muslims do believe in miracles of Jesus.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (11:25):
Yeah. And, and actually when we go to Muslim nations, we invite people to come and we pray in the name of Jesus and Jesus performs great miracles, even among the Muslims in the crowd. Correct. Sometimes we see more miracles among the Muslims than we do even among the Christian population, because they’re, they’re looking to Jesus and they put their faith in him and Jesus does these Muslims. And so Muslims will come up on the platform and, and say, Jesus healed me.
Kamran Karimi (11:56):
You know, what that is is because Muslims believe Jesus is a healer. He’s a miracle worker, not only a great prophet, but they do believe that Jesus was a miracle worker. He did miracles. Okay. They do believe that therefore, whatever you believe you’ll invite into your life, you know, you invite the miracles into your life when you are basically when you, you know, when you’re believing that Jesus is the heater, that’s why you see miracles and supernatural event and things take place in the meetings that and I see it in my, you know, in my meetings that I do when I go overseas and having past two years because of the COVID and all that stuff. But the bottom line to it is this, that,uas I had done all these meetings and everything like that, they are so open and receptive to the gospel, to the miracle working power. And I like to say this, like, can I take in used to say that miracles are the dinner, dinner belt for the centers. So once they see a miracle, now they’re open to hear the gospel, the good news that Jesus Christ, not only they can do miracle in their life, but they can hear, can also forgive them of their sense.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (13:07):
That’s wonderful. So on your, your television program, which is called the voice of freedom, you are preaching every day to 60 to Farsi speaking Muslims all over the world, but especially in the nation of Iran. And you’ve been here.
Kamran Karimi (13:25):
I understand. And Tajikistan, those are the most populated. I mean, they, they
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (13:29):
Farsi speaking. Yeah. That’s wonderful. And so tell me about some of the testimonies that you’ve heard of Muslims encountering Jesus,
Kamran Karimi (13:38):
The, the most consistent statement you hear from Muslims specifically in Iran is they they’re asking each other. This is amazing. They’re asking each other, have you seen a man in a white robe in your dreams lately? They asked that Jesus is appearing to, to Muslims around the world, particularly in the middle East, I’m talking about and revealing himself as who he really is. You know, I recall one particular testimony that this is actually a really interesting that a M w I got this email, a letter from,uthe crew, an email to, to me that this man was in charge of confiscating Bibles or any material that had to do with Christianity and Judaism in Iran. This is actually a city of Meshack. Okay. Which is North, Northeast, Northwest who’s me. And,uso what happened was, and he walks into this storage place that they’re confiscating everything.
Kamran Karimi (14:39):
They gather everything, and then they ship everything to tear on the capital city. He’s he’s emailed told me, he says, I walked into this place with few of our people. And he says there was one particular book that just keep highlighting me with just jumping off. Almost like it was like, there was a light on this book he says, and I went and grabbed it and stuffed it in my pocket. Johnny, hide it from his friends around him. Okay. He says, and when I got home, it was a little pocket Bible, new Testament. This is when I opened it. And I read my, I fell on the scripture that peace came all over me. One sentence, one, one verse that he read the peace of God just flooded his life. He says, I knew something was happening inside of me. He says, then what happens is that same night I’m sitting there wondering what’s happened to me. I turned the TV on and your programs. That’s why he’s emailing me. He says, your program came on and you recording the exact same scripture. Talk about how
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:44):
Amazing God was orchestrating straightening.
Kamran Karimi (15:46):
And these orchestrations are called a supernatural illustrations of God are happening consistently. How do you do that? I mean, we pro we record our programs two months ahead, and then how God strategizes and puts that in there.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:59):
So he reads in the new Testament and then watches you quoting that same scripture
Kamran Karimi (16:04):
Gives his heart to the Lord that night. And then as a result of that begins, I mean, just change, receive such, I mean, such a radical change in his life to the point that he begins to tell his other two brothers that were also done. These guys are part of the Iranian intelligence in Iranian intelligence for gap. Like I said, they were, their job was to gather materials that had to do anything against Islam. That’s we’re not against as long, we’re just sharing gospel. Okay. So material books, anything okay. That they would confiscate it. So he says that the next thing you know, I began to share that and his brothers were in a higher rank in the intelligence and in the military of Iranian regime, as far as that goes, he began to share that with his brothers and the brothers turned on him and throw him in prison. Wow. Okay. He says, I was good at this. I was in the prison for 52 days in solitary confinement. This is an ease in his email. Okay. And he says, and Jesus would come into my solitary confinement and comfort me
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (17:11):
When you have Jesus. You’re not alone.
Kamran Karimi (17:14):
No, exactly. Jesus would come. And he says, the first storm, this bright light entered into his cell and began to talk to him. And he says, I am Jesus. And I’m, you know, and I will get you outta here on the 52nd, the day before he gets out, Jesus shows up. He says, you’re getting out. And the Lord got him out supernaturally. He shares that. And then he says, just keep your mouth shut. I’ll get you out of here. And then he’s obviously sending me email recently. I got another email from him. He says, I don’t know if you remember me, but I say recently in the past, he says, I don’t know if you remember me. I am such and such. I knew exactly the moment. He told me in Canada, his story, I knew exactly who he’s talking about. So God has done amazing things in his life. He says, I’m still in Iran. And I’m sharing my faith, Shane with Jesus that done. I’m still following Jesus. I’m still walking with Jesus. I am under surveillance, but I’m still sharing my faith with people that I come in contact with. It’s awesome. And God is doing something that’s one example. And I could tell you is encounter after encounter of these supernatural things that are happening in people’s lives.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (18:24):
How many people over the years have sent you emails or called you and said that they’ve been impacted by Jesus? Like I said, in the last episode that we did,
Kamran Karimi (18:36):
Did you know, I was getting an average, a thousand phone calls and emails all combined on average about when we first started broadcasting. Okay. When the government got wind of this, they began to monitor and just really began to increase persecution in Iran, which actually backfired on them. And now the church is growing persecution is the, you know, it’s the precursor to revival an increase as far as that goes in the Bible. So, so I would say, you know what I mean, on average, I mean, we’ve seen thousands upon thousands gives, give their life to the Lord. It’s really hard to monetize a monitor because you really, it’s not like in America where you can actually, when you broadcast, it can actually tell how many people are watching, but it’s in the thousands and thousands. You know, I really believe, you know, based on, you know, I give you an example when in 2016, two different networks will TBN, which,umy programs on that right now, it’s six days a week as well, a CBN, which has got a network there.
Kamran Karimi (19:35):
And I used to be on that as well. And I just felt like, you know, just bringing all the focus on one network, as far as that goes, but CBN had done some extensive research in the beginning stage of the launch. You know, both networks came on the scene within three months, I’ll be chart each other in 2006. And I was on them daily on both of them. Okay. What happened was CBN reported that in 18 months, 864,000 Iranians had given their hearts to Christ. Wow. In from, from September in 18 months, 2006 to 2008, 864. Now these are reported, you know, testimonies, you know, people that contact our ministry, that we would report to them and other ministries that are also we’re working on that network, these networks. So they were reporting the salvation, the miracles and the context that 867, 64,000 souls coming to Christ in 18 months time. I really believe because of what they, they, the, the oppression because of the government’s involvement is trying to crush the church as much as it’s tried. Lot of people are not necessarily coming public with their faith necessarily, but they are born again. They say there’s anywhere from one, one to one and a half million Iranians that have given their heart to the Lord since the beginning of the revolution. Wow. I really believe it is far more than that. I believe it’s between 10 to 12 million. Wow. I really believe that.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:07):
Well, I believe that there will come a time where the walls of Islam will fall in. Iran will open up. And so when that happens, I want to go and do gospel festivals in Iran. Let’s go do it together because because the day will come and then many people will, will come to Jesus. I know you do crusades. And what have you, Islam, Islamic countries, we call them festivals because it’s the most, you say, maybe it has a little bit of a negative context, but, but festivals. Yeah.
Kamran Karimi (21:38):
Yeah. But I actually have seen this, you know, in the first couple years when I came to Christ, Daniel, I kept seeing having these dreams. And I just would say, my son, that’s crazy. How can I, how could that even happen? I could not even see envisioned the Lord was showing me things down the road, but I could not just see haka has that going to happen in Iran as far as that. But I began to see these crusades in major cities, in Iran.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (22:05):
Amen. That’s a vision that comes from God.
Kamran Karimi (22:08):
It is a vision from God. I’ve got a vision board that I carry around with me, my phone and everything like that. And there is a stadium in Iran, which is the largest stadium soccer stadium in Iran. It’s called the freedom station, freedom, freedom stadium, you know, and I’ve seen the stadium packed out with a hundred thousand plus people. Wow. Worshiping God worshiping Jesus. And we’re going to do that.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (22:34):
Let’s do it together. I will. You know what together?
Kamran Karimi (22:37):
Yeah. It’s on my heart. I’ve seen it. And I’ve been, I’ve been keep confessing it. I’m saying the day’s coming. And I believe we are upon it. I really believe that within the next year or two, we could be right upon it. And we’re going to see when the regime falls in on all that. In fact, you know, I like to say this way, but 12 years ago, when that green movement was taking place in Iran, the green movement was when they, they rigged the election of Amadine Asia to put him back in
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (23:06):
And there were protests. And then the protest was put down.
Kamran Karimi (23:09):
I went to the Lord about that protest and asked the Lord, Lord, is this the time that this government will fall? And I was shocked as the, at the Lord’s response to me, I would never thought that kind of a response he said to me, no, because the church in Iran is not ready. And I thought, what does the church in Iran being ready? I’ve been to new with the government falling and all of that. So I kept pondering on that. And then a couple of weeks later, the Lord continue to speak to me about that. He says under 40th year, I’ll begin to deal with them as well. 40Th year was a year and a half. And what’s amazing is I began to prophetically speak in my programs about dare, that they’d been cut to the, their, their route has been cut. You know?
Kamran Karimi (23:55):
And I give this illustration that if you have a green tree and you go break off a branch of that tree, the branch is still green, but it’s dead. It has no life in it. And before long it’ll dry up and it’ll basically wither, okay. That’s exactly what’s happened since the 40th year. And they’re gasping for their last breath right now. This regime in Iran. And I believe there’s one I’m going to say within a year or two, we’re going to, I see myself in Iran, boots on the ground. We have boots on the ground by me going into Iran, preaching the gospel of grace.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (24:29):
There are protection and guardian angels surrounding. Exactly.
Kamran Karimi (24:33):
And I believe I can, I can believe it. Now, if you will, where it was really difficult for me to believe in those early days when I kept seeing those in the dream three nights in a row at the same dream, you know, back in the 1993, 92, 93 is three nights in a row at the same dream, seeing myself standing on a platform, any Iran preaching the gospel to masses
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (24:56):
Of Iranians, and
Kamran Karimi (24:58):
It will come to pass and I believe we were upon it. So we are going to go together.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (25:02):
Hey man, well, let’s finish with a prayer for the people of Iran that they wouldn’t meet. Jesus, go ahead, brother.
Kamran Karimi (25:09):
Father, in the name of Jesus, I lift up every Farsi speaking Muslim Lord, before you right now in the name of Jesus. And I thank you, Lord, that you are putting out your spirit of wisdom and revelation of who you really are, who Jesus really is. I thank you that they are seeing you and they are receiving you as their Lord and savior that they’re coming into contact with their divine purpose and destiny Lord through Jesus Christ. I thank you, father God, that our outpouring of your spirit for you said Lord, in the latter days, you pour out your spirit upon all flesh. And I thank you that you’re pouring out your spirit upon the Muslim world upon the far sweet speaking Muslims in Iran, in Afghanistan and Tajikistan and father. I thank you that you’re turning on the light. You’re switching on the light, inside their hearts, that they would see clearly who Jesus is truly, and that he is their Lord and that the he’s their savior.
Kamran Karimi (26:08):
And I thank you that you drawing them into the kingdom. As you have ordained at the Jesus name, Lord, I thank you right now for the salvation of this hundred and 10 million Farsi speaking miles jumps around the world. I thank you, father God for the honor and the privilege that you have given me and others that are preaching the gospel into the Farsi speaking world. And I pray father God, that not one word will return to you void, but it will prosper and accomplish and bring the harvest of salvation that your word produces in Jesus. And we give you praise. I plead the blood of Jesus over every soul that hears the message of the gospel. And I thank you, father God, that Satan’s grip and Islams grip is broken off their hearts and souls and minds in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Thank you for being on the podcast. My brother love you, man.
Evangelism Podcast Host (27:05):
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