Internal Polemics – Confronting the Qur’an & Muhammad

0:00 Today, this morning, we're going to start with the internal polemics. You all know what a polemics is. Show of hands who doesn't. Oh, you don't all know what polemics is. All right. Well, polemics is the opposite of apologetics. Two big words, don't worry, they're just there to impress you. Apologetics is defense, polemics is offense, like your football team. And so when you have your football team, you need to defend against those who are confronting you. And of course, there's a lot of confrontations coming up against Christianity. And we teach apologetics very well. We have a whole master's degree of a Master of Arts in Apologetics and Polemics to Islam at Veritas International University. And four of our five professors have been here this week at the conference. In fact, they'll be here this afternoon as well. And we help people to engage with the questions that are coming at you.

0:54 God bless the Muslims. They ask the best questions. And they always ask questions dealing with really two subjects. One to do with Jesus Christ and the other to do with Scripture. Well, what two subjects do you want to talk about but those two? Aren't they the greatest people in the world? They always want to hammer us on Jesus and they always want to take us down with our Scriptures. And you can go for six hours with them. And what I always tell people to do, go up to any Muslim and say two things. I believe Jesus is God. I believe the Bible is the Word of God. Do you have an opinion? See what happens. they will have six hours of opinion on just those two subjects. But you will not know how to answer them, so we're going to help you, and that's what we're training people up to do. And Veritas International University is your university. It is your seminary. It belongs to Calvary Chapel. And we're headquartered in Albuquerque, but I've never been there because we teach you every Monday night.

1:52 We come to you, so you don't have to come to us. So that's what apologetics is. But you know the best defense, which apologetics is, is a good offense, isn't it? Vince Lombardi said that. So you need to go the other direction to confront the other. And in this case, Islam. So if you're going to go on the offense, that's called polemics. And polemics, the word itself, just means war with words. So you're going to war with words. And it comes straight out of Paul's own example. When Paul was there in Ephesus or Laodicea or Cappadocia, Berea, wherever he went, he went right into the synagogue and he confronted the Pharisees who were in the synagogue. He had no friendship evangelism. He didn't even know who he was going to confront. He just confronted them and that's called polemics. They threw him into jail.

2:44 They beat him up. He almost got killed twice being stoned outside the city walls. He caused a riot in Ephesus and they finally killed him in Rome. that's what happens when you use polemics. So I'm just warning you if you're going to do polemical there is a price to pay but that is exactly as you're going to see later on this talk that's exactly what Christ asks us to do. So apologetics and polemics is what I do. I'm an apologist I'm also a polemicist. There are very few people who are polemicists to Islam because you don't live very long. I'm the oldest. I'm still here. I've got gray hair. And the reason I'm still living is because the Lord has not asked, he will not let me go home until it's my time. Isn't that great? What a Lord we have. And I have two angels that follow me. I kid you not. I've never seen them, but the Muslims have. They're always in a tree above me when I'm at speaker's corner, looking down at me, smiling, wearing white. I don't know why they like white.

3:42 I call them Harry and Larry Harry and Larry go with me everywhere I go I've never seen them but others have seen them and then when I get beat up on the ground I have a guy, a big black angel that comes and puts his arms around me and he actually walks me out when I'm getting beat up and I turn around and he's disappeared I call him Barry Harry, Larry and Barry you can have your own Harry's and Larry's and Barry's I'll let you even use mine if you want but that's the beauty of polemics You can use polemics. God's going to give you the words, and he's also going to protect you. He's also going to protect you. And so I don't worry about engaging with Muslims face-to-face. I don't worry about what's going to happen to me, because it's not going to happen to me if it's not God's will. And so that's why I want to get into this and help you to see why we need to start introducing this into our own lives. So let's start with the introductions. Now, The missiological methodologies.

4:43 We have pretty much been at war with Islam for the last 1,400 years. We meaning Christianity. More so than any other religion. And the reason is because where Islam was birthed. Now we've also been at war with them, not just physically, but we've been at war with them theologically as well, as evidenced in the many debates that happened from the 9th, 10th, 11th, right up until the 19th century when debates then were stopped. because we colonialized 95% of the Muslim world, and it became unpleasant and also considered to be incorrect. There have been also physical wars that we've had with them, and you can see that just by looking at your history books. But here is the primary problem. The reason we're at a loggerhead with Islam is because of our doctrines.

5:29 Dr. Daniel says that there are irreducible differences between non-negotiable doctrines. the Christian creeds and the Quran are simply incompatible. And there is no possibility of reconciling the content of the two faiths, each of which is exclusive, as long as they retain their identities. So, what are the Muslims doing today to bring the religion to our countries here in the West? Well, this is what they call dahwa. Dahwa means to invite. It would be the equivalent to what we would call missiology. Dahwa, I'm going to use the UK example, because that's where I spent 25 years, engaging with Muslims. That's why I was there, to confront them but also engage with them and take on their attacks against me. And the group that is probably the most dominant is called IERA, Islamic Education Research Academy, headquartered in London. They have a bank account of over $2 to $3 million that's sent to them from the Middle East, oil money, just to send a dais, they call them dais, all over the Muslim world.

6:32 but they start and they do all their training in London and they all come down to Speaker's Corner where I am every year. I was there every Sunday when I was free from 1992 to 2017. 25 years I was there engaging with Muslims, sometimes hundreds at a time on a little kitchen ladder. These little kitchen ladders that just put me above them so I had a little bit more authority and I could control the narrative as best I could. And if they're going to bop me, they're going to have to come up to where my head is. I did get bopped a few times, and Harry and Larry sometimes we're looking the other way. But the great thing about this group is that they are engaging using many of our own tactics. They're taking our methodologies, book tables, look at the t-shirts they're wearing, looking at who do you love. There's a name Muhammad in there. I love that one because I go over there and I just say, really, you should have Jesus there, not Muhammad. He's much better. Let me tell you why. And then at that time they usually try to walk away because they don't want to do a comparison. The man that's in charge of this guy here, Abdul Rahim Green, who has been a real thorn in our side. He used to be a Christian and then he went to Egypt and was converted to Islam, came back to Britain, married two different Muslim women, and now he is now in charge of this organization, one of their best speakers. Hamza Chorchis is another convert that they have been using, and he recruits thousands of volunteers, targeting public places, big events, training schools across Europe. They do street dhwah, and that's where we engage with them. They produce slick, modern Islamic material, and they're training polemics, always polemics. They have no problem with polemics. It seems only we have problems with polemics. They do not. One of their best trainers is this man here, Adnan Rashid.

8:20 I've engaged him. We've had about 10 public debates many, many private debates He is from Pakistan and boy is he a bull in the China shop. He can really shut people down just by his sheer personality But I love this guy These are the guys I love the most Why? Well, because I'm just very much like them. We are very much similar And we need more of the Rashids to bring them home Because you imagine if we brought him home to Christianity, what a great debater he would be for us. It would be great to have men like him, and we are going to get them. We're going to bring them home. Others like Abdullah Andalusi from the Middle East, Paul Williams, who used to be an evangelical Christian, and now he is debating for Islam. Sami Zatari, who is from Dubai. Now, what has been our response to this? Well, unfortunately, we haven't had much of a response to it because it's not part of our missiology. The government has tried to eradicate it using the barrel of the gun, using weapons of this world, and the governments have done pretty good with ISIS and Al-Qaeda. There is no ISIS anymore in the Middle East except for vestiges remains. Most of it's moved down to Africa. They just move away to another country. So there is certainly that type of response. Others have tried to ban it. You can't really ban it because the more you ban it, the more popular it gets.

9:46 And so that's why, unfortunately, they've been banning sometimes the wrong people. They've been banning Gerrit Wilders from showing a small 15-minute film called Fitna, which just looks at the atrocities that are happening around Europe and puts scripture verses that support every one of them. Why is that Islamophobic? You're just supporting it in scripture. They try to redefine it, and this is the real struggle that they're having right now. People like Ed Hussein, Masjid Nawaz. In fact, he just did a debate just last week with one of my colleagues where he spent all the time trying to take these terrible verses that are in the crown, these violent verses, and trying to sanitize them for the UK. How can you sanitize verses that say, slay the unbeliever wherever you find them, besiege them, lay in way for them with every kind of ambush? That's chapter 9, verse 5. Make war on the people of the book.

10:38 That's us. That's chapter 9, verse 29. Cut off the heads of the unbeliever. That's chapter 47, verse 4. How do you sanitize those verses? It's not talking about if they do this first, then do this. It doesn't say if you're in the context of the war, then do this. This says you slay the unbeliever wherever ye find them. And the word unbeliever is mushrikun, which means anybody that commits shirk, anybody that elevates another person alongside God, which they believe we've done with Jesus Christ. We are the mushrikun folks. And they've tried to do that. You can see the dilemma they're in. And thank God I'm not in their shoes. I wouldn't know how to sanitize that. Others try to just ignore them. Missiologists, many of my co-workers do not want me to do what I'm doing. Saying you're wasting your time. These people are irrelevant. They're just a small minority. They're going to just basically fade away. They haven't faded away, have they? You still see them popping up all over the world.

11:34 And then there are some that want to join it, like the insider movement. That's really an American invention. If you can't fight them, join them. so they've created a Chrislam it's not Christian, it's not Islamic they believe that we share the same God they believe that we share the same prophetic line folks don't ever get fallen into that trap and then there's a few of us who like to confront it and that's the area that I like the most so the church's response interestingly has really been two, there have been two different categories one is what we call the ironical approach and the ironical approach starts from the premise that you don't confront it. You just come alongside them. Muslims don't want to be confronted, which is true. And then you make friendships with them. And this is basically friendship evangelism. And you love them into the kingdom. Please do that. Don't stop that. You need to love them into the kingdom. The problem is at some point you're going to have to talk about Jesus. And there's the difficulty. You can spend your whole life loving people into the kingdom and there will be some people that love to be loved. And you'll be bringing lots of people that come who are what I call social misfits. And many of our converts are social misfits because they're waiting for someone to love them. Continue to do that. But at some point, we need to find ourselves who become Pauls. We need to find the intellects. We need to find the academics. We need to find the opinion leaders. We need to find those who bring thousands and millions of Muslims with them. And that's what I'm looking for, those kind of men and women.

13:06 like Adan Rashid. These are the kind of men who do, not just like Saul was chosen to do that. These are the ones who can create much more havoc on Islam than you or I can because we're the wrong color, we don't speak the same language, we don't have the relationships with others in their own culture. So that's the irentical method, and I'm going to talk a little bit more about that and unpack a bit, But the other method is what we call the confrontational method, which is just the opposite. Rather than define it right now, let's get right into it and look at these two methods. Our response, I've just gone backwards, haven't I? Let's go forwards.

13:48 The Irenical traditional method starts from the premise that you use interfaith dialogue. You create friendships with the people. Islamic violence is simply an aberration, they believe, practiced by a few due to geopolitical problems, such as Israel or Iraq or what's happened more recently in Afghanistan and now even more recently in Gaza. Therefore, we must earn the right to preach the gospel, they say. And there are many different methods that use that, the grace method coming out of the UK or the insider movement here in the US. And the solution to solve these problems like Israel and Iraq and Afghanistan and Gaza, these are geopolitical problems. Therefore, it's not really our responsibility since the church, we separate church and state. The state's responsibility is to solve these problems. not ours. So why just don't engage with them? And our responsibility is to listen to the Muslims' grievances, address them with a repentant spirit, give them a voice through the vehicle of interfaith dialogue using peace and reconciliation, and refrain from any form of public confrontation.

14:47 That's the irentical approach. The other approach, the premise behind the confrontational approach is that Islamic violence that we're seeing around the world, especially since 9-11, is not an aberration, nor is it just recent. It didn't begin with the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, nor due to 19th century colonialism or American imperialism or even to recent geopolitical flare-ups, Islam has always used violence, legitimized by passages in this book right here and exemplified by the man behind this book, Muhammad himself. Therefore, the solution is to confront the ideology at its root. You've got to confront this book. You've got to confront this book. And then you've got to confront the man behind it, Muhammad. Which is what missionaries do not like to do. Therefore, our responsibility as a church, we are the only ones that can do this.

15:40 I'm saying that others can do it, but I don't want others to do it because they have nothing to bring these Muslims home to. We're the only ones that can bring them home. To a better book. A bigger book. I always keep it bigger for that reason. You can see why. The better, the bigger book. and the better and the bigger man. What a man we have in this book. And he's all through this book. That's right. Give him an applause. So we're the only ones that have an alternative. And that's why really this is our job. This is our responsibility. This is our ministry. So how should we do it? Some of us need to eradicate the foundation. Some of us need to go on the offense. Some of us need to actually confront them. Some of us need to be polemical and confront these radical groups. Others of us need to use a model of tough love, well-suited for that time. Now, all of us, and I'm saying including all of you, can do apologetics.

16:37 Every one of you can defend this book, and please do, and also defend the man behind the book. You can all do that. But a few of us, a few of us need to go on the offense. Remember, there's only one Paul. God chose 12 disciples, and then he had to choose number 13. Why did he choose number 13? Because he needed an academic. He needed somebody who could go toe-to-toe with the Pharisees, somebody who understood the Scriptures. And more than that, he could engage with the Epicureans and the Stoics there in Athens. Who could do that but Paul, who was Saul? So we do need some Sauls to become Pauls, and I'm looking at some right now. And the conference we've just been doing here the last two days, and we'll continue it today, right here at Calvary Chapel, That's where we're training up people to be Saul's, to become Paul's. We've had almost 500 people show up in the last two days.

17:32 Jay, hasn't it been great to have all of them here? And so it's been terrific to be able to engage at that level. So we do want to take a few of you and really train you up. Now, we don't use weapons of this world, 2 Corinthians 10. Paul says that. We don't use, well, in the day of Paul, he was talking about knives and swords and stones. We don't use that today. Today would be bombs, bullets, and cruise missiles. Instead, verse 5, people don't like to go to verse 5, we use arguments and take captive every thought and make it obedient to Jesus Christ, employing the one's use of our mouth, our mind, and our volition. That's the sword that we use now. Here it is right here. It's in my hand. And you've all got it. Maybe it's on your phones, but you still got it. So here's the question. What are the methodologies we're using? Well, we're training up really in 10 different methodologies that we're using around at Veritas. One is the tent making.

18:26 To get into countries, you need to go with a skill. Others are using programs, which means getting the message out there any way possibly, usually through proclamation. But the problem with those methods is it's always going one direction. It's coming to them, but how can they respond to it? And so there's the ironic friendship. You need to be amongst them. You need to go where they are. You need to make that relationship. You have to make that relationship. you need to go do that and sometimes you can then introduce them by starting with what they're familiar with and so we like to do what we call the chronological method by looking at the Quran finding all these prophets that are in the Quran Dawada, Ibrahim Moise, Yahya and then of course Issa start with the prophets and just start saying listen you don't have any story that's complete you have no idea the background to these stories what are you supposed to do when you can't find a question about these What are you supposed to do according to the Quran?

19:21 In chapter 10, verse 94, in chapter 21, verse 7, it says, go to the people of the book because they have been given the Taurat and the Injil. You're to come to us. We're going to tell you about these guys. And we do. And we start with Adam. And the great thing is we always say, look at every one of these great men of God. Notice they were always waiting for someone. They're always pointing to the Al-Masihu. In Arabic, Al-Masihu. Muslims know that. It's found 11 times in the Quran. Who is this al-Masihou? The Messiah. After about six months, they're aching. We want to know who is this Masihou? Oh, it's so great. By the time we get about six months down the line, and you open it up, and they see it's Jesus Christ. Once they see it's Jesus, they're already prepared. The chronological method, we use it all over Africa. My wife and I were in Senegal for five years, and we did it there in French, and we also did it in Wolof.

20:14 Folks, this is one of the greatest methods that we have found to use, especially in rural Africa. in rural Islamic parts of the world. Then the camel method, where you then take and look at the Quran, verse after verse after verse. You're not going to find the gospel in this book. Don't even look for it. It's not there. But you can use bridges from this book. And so when they start to come and they start to oppose you, and they say, listen, we know that your Bible has been corrupted. Say, show me one verse where it's been corrupted. Use the Quran, the camel method, and just show. There's verse after verse that says just the opposite. Chapter 10, 94, 21, 7. Chapter 4, 136. Chapter 5, verse 46 and 47. And especially verse 68. These are verses that tell Muslims to come to our scriptures. That they are not to confront it. That we Christians are to use our own Bible. Ooh, I love that. And that we're to measure everything we mean by it. There's not one verse in the Quran that says that the book has been corrupted.

21:10 The camel method is great to use. The contextual idea, that's where things start to get a little awkward. I won't get into this because it happened to be in Senegal, but when you start contextualizing, how far do you contextualize? I would say contextualize culturally, but not theologically. Do you see the difference? Walk like them, talk like them, eat like them. Yes, even do worship styles like them, but do not ever, ever contextualize theologically. Make sure Jesus remains Jesus as Son of God. Do not take Son of God out. Make sure that God the Father, the Father remains there. Do not take God the Father and replace it with Allah. Please don't do that. Stay away from them. And that's the problem that the next group has, and that's the insider movement. They've gone way too far. They've compromised theologically. Once you do that, you've lost the gospel. And we must not ever lose the gospel of Jesus Christ.

22:05 Dialogue is one of the methodologies that's great because that starts the ball going. But if you're just going to talk about your side and they're going to talk about their side, I don't know of any Muslim that sticks to talking about their side, they start attacking our side. Invariably, it's instinctive to them to start attacking. And if we're just still talking about our side and we know nothing about what's going on over here, we spend the whole time defending ourselves. So people coming to those meetings, after two hours, they think that we've got all the problems. And no one said anything against Islam. So that's why the last one is apologetics and plemics. You've got to go into dialogues. Prepare yourself for dialogues, but expect a debate. Expect a debate. All right. So, conclusion on this part. What methodology should we use? Listen, Jesus, Paul, and the disciples, they use all of them except for the insider movement. Every form of evangelism has been an example for the last 2,000 years. So, why don't we use the same?

23:00 Find a Muslim. Find out where the itch. Find out who the Muslim is in front of you. They're here in your community, folks. We have mosques all over Southern California. Shouldn't have any problem finding Muslims. here. And if you have any problem, ask George. George, who's at the book table, he knows where all the mosques are here. He has a whole team engaging with them on Fridays. They go there when they're going to their mosques. And as they come out, there they are waiting for them to just talk to them. Just talk to them and giving them tracts. Go and join George. He does it every Friday. Well, George nods every, but his team does every Friday. So find out where they itch, and then ask the right questions, because they're asking the right question, and then you find the answer. Now, you may not know the answer, so my favorite phrase is, give me a week. Give me a week. That gives you a week to go back and go back to Jay Devers and get all his stuff on all the historical material. Go up online. Go up on these PowerPoints that we're going to give you. Go to any one of these books that I'm holding up and just find the answer so that you learn your apologetics as you're going. You build up your apologetics, your defense, defense, and you'll become such better Christians. After a while, everything Jack says up here at the front, you'll already know before he even says it.

24:13 You're going to catch up with Jack because he has such an amazing mind and he has a retention. How does he retain everything that he knows? I have no idea. I understand he does most of his stuff without notes. Wow, I wish I could have that ability. So make sure that you use both the ironic approach. Remember that it will not always work for each individual. What is good for Ahmed may not be good for Abdul. Dialogue, debate, engage with him. it never should ever be either or it should be both and for any of these methodologies and remember leave the results to the Lord pray before you go pray as you're engaging with the Muslims always go in two so one's praying while the other one's talking and then flip side so the other person can talk and you then start praying make sure you're always engaged make sure it's always housed in prayer and then pray at the very end so that everything is couched in prayer now I want to ask some questions about the arenical methodology. And these are just to put out there.

25:14 The word itself comes from the Greek word irene, which is basically peace. And it's the idea of friendship evangelism and the question I ask is where are the examples of it in the New Testament? Well there are examples. Because the whole premise behind the arenical approach is to break down the barriers, but where is this idea that we have to earn the right to preach the gospel? Do you see that in Scripture? Did Paul do that every time he went into any one of those synagogues? Did he earn the right to get into those synagogues? No, he didn't. There's no idea that you have to earn the right. Just go up and preach the gospel. Take what they're saying and then throw it right back in their face. Answer the question and then ask the same question in return. We don't have to make friends first, but you do need to make a relationship at some point.

26:02 Well, are dialogues biblical? Actually, even interfaith dialogues, these three faiths forum or the Abrahamic faiths, listen, I have no problem with Judaism and Christianity as part of the Abrahamic religion, but I will not accept that Islam is Abrahamic. Islam is not Abrahamic. God said very clearly when Abraham even asked him the question, what about my son Ishmael? There in Genesis 17, he says, I will bless Ishmael. He will have 12 sons who will be 12 leaders, but my covenant is with Isaac. My covenant is with Isaac, not with Ishmael. What does Paul say in Galatians 4? Have nothing to do with the slave woman's son, Ishmael. We're to have nothing to do with Ishmael. So therefore, be careful in your dialogues that you don't get caught into that trap. And what about peace and reconciliation? I'm a Mennonite.

26:54 I'm brethren in Christ. So we are full of peace and reconciliation. And when I say this in my churches, it's hard for them not to kick me out the door. That's why I love coming to Calvary. Chapel because you guys don't kick me out the door. You actually understand that sometimes peace and reconciliation can go too far. The gospel is not peace and reconciliation. You will see that when we get into Matthew 10. It's anything but peace and reconciliation. Just look at these verses. Matthew 5, blessed are the people who insult, persecute, and lie about you. John 18, 15, the world will hate and persecute you. That's not very peaceful, folks. 1 Thessalonians 1, Be thankful for the severe suffering you will endure. 2 Timothy 3, expect persecution and deception for living for Christ. Hebrews 2, our salvation is made perfect through suffering. James 1 verse 2, we are to consider it a pure joy whenever we face trials of many kinds. 1 Peter 1, we are to greatly rejoice when we suffer grief in all kinds of trials.

27:54 Don't these verses suggest that we should not be looking for peace and reconciliation, but a lifestyle of suffering and persecution. I would think so when you look at the early church. That's exactly what they went through. Matthew 10 is the one I love the best because Matthew 10, Christ is commissioning the 12 disciples. He's sending them out and notice what he says. I'm sending you out as lamb before wolves. If you go in my name, you will be number one, you will be hated. How many of you have been hated for Jesus Christ? Number two, you will be persecuted. How many of you have been persecuted for Jesus Christ?

28:32 Number three, if you go in my name, you will be jailed. How many of you have been thrown into jail for Jesus Christ? If you go in my name, you will be scourged. How many of you have been beaten up for Jesus Christ? Okay, a few of you. Number five, if you go in my name, you will be killed. You wouldn't be here if that were the case. and yet every one of the disciples this is their commissioning every one of the disciples they were hated they were persecuted every one of them was thrown into jail they were all scourged and every one of the disciples except for John was killed that's their commissioning folks that should be our commissioning as well if it's good enough for Jesus and the disciples it's good enough for me and then what does he say in verse 34 for I have not come to bring peace I've come to bring sword to set father against son and mother against daughter.

29:29 The sword is not something we use. The sword is going to be used against us by our own family. I can't think of a better description of the Islamic world right now. Every Muslim that has come to Christ has been hated by their family. They've been persecuted. Some have been put in jail. Many have been beaten up. That's true. And lots of them have been killed. it's a capital offense if you leave Islam chapter 4 verse 89 it's in the Quran right there it's in all four schools of law so this is really a verse for all of us and then in verse 38 anyone who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me whoever finds his life will lose it and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it folks we have to take up our cross for Jesus Christ in order to be commissioned to service for him that's our commissioning That's not how we get commissioned today in the church.

30:22 We need to get back to that commissioning. So why is the irenic model the only one that's taught here in America? This is the only model that you'll see in Bible schools. This is the only model that you'll see in seminaries. This is the only model that any of you have heard about. It's only the irenic method. You may not know that word for it, but that's what it is, friendship evangelism. The reason why I think is because possibly because we're as Westerners, we're incapable of confronting the other. And the reason we can't confront the other is because we don't know who they are. We've never read this book. We don't even know who Muhammad is. Until you read this book and know who Muhammad is, you're not going to be able to go on the offense. That's why we don't want to do that. And so even many of our missionaries have not read that book. And if they haven't read that book, then exactly how do they know who they're confronting or who they're engaging with on the other side? There is a fear of being persecuted. I understand that.

31:14 There is a fear of having to suffer for Christ. I understand that. And then some people come up to me and say, Jay, I just don't know the answers. There are so many questions that they throw at you. I've never heard these questions before because we're not teaching it in our Bible schools. And we're not teaching in our seminaries how to defend Jesus and how to defend the Bible. Those should be simple.

31:35 And I know Jack's doing that and you people are privileged to have him as your pastor because he is so good at apologetics. So much easier to love people into the kingdom. because therefore, by doing that, we get loved. And most of us want to be loved. We don't want to be harassed. We don't want to be humiliated. And worse, still, we don't want to be killed. But yet, this is the authority in Scripture for just that. Now, let's ask this question. Is apologetics biblical? Well, that's a good one. But if you look up your Bible, you will see it's all through the New Testament. You will find that apologia against the accuser is mentioned five times in the New Testament. There they are on the screen, Acts 22, 1 Corinthians 9, 2 Corinthians 7, and 2 Timothy 4. Twice Christians are asked to defend the gospel in Philippians 1 and also 1 Peter 3. So certainly apologetics is well grounded in the New Testament.

32:30 Yes, absolutely. What's more, it's very easy to employ apologetics. Really, you only have to know two things. This book and the man, the book and the man, I call it, the book and the man. Just read the Bible. and then when you get people that throw questions against it not just Muslims, Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons, Atheists just use this book as your defense. This is your sword. This is your sword. This is your shield. And then talk about Jesus and he will win every talk. He will win every discussion and he will win every debate. Jesus is the easiest person to talk about it. apologetics fits our personalities and it's also very politically correct you're not going to be called an islamophobe or a hate preacher if all you're doing is defending the bible so you can see why apologetics is very popular the problem is polemics is it biblical and that's the question i get thrown with all the time here are the different definitions for um polemics collins dictionary the branch of theology dealing with the history of the con or conduct of ecclesiastical disputation and controversy.

33:36 Webster makes it much easier, an aggressive attack or a refutation of their opinions or principles of another. Oxford says the practice or skill of arguing strongly for or against something. Cambridge has a simple, Wikipedia is probably a contentious rhetoric intended to support a specific position by forthright claims and to undermine the opposing position. So it's both defense and offense simultaneously. And that's why I am a polemicist. I'm also apologist. And because of the fact that that's what I do, I've been doing it now for almost 45 years. Philip was a great polemicist. He was comfortable with confronting the Ethiopian in Acts 8. Stephen, listen, Stephen, why do you think he was stoned to death? Why? Because he was arguing with the Jews from Cyrene and Alexandria and Sicily and Asia. He argued them so great he was able to return their arguments that they could not do anything else but stand up against his wisdom so they executed him.

34:35 So don't be surprised if you get executed too. Boy, that's going to put a damper on everything I've just said. You do not get executed for merely agreeing to disagree in the context of dialogue. Jesus, was he a polemicist? He was both dead iretics. He certainly did that with Nicodemus. He did mild opposition with the rich young ruler and the Pharisee and Herodians in Mark 12. with the Pharisee host at a dinner party in Luke 7 and also with the Samaritan woman in John 4. But was he a polemicist? Yes, he was. Look at him in the temple when he was overturning the tables. That's called polemics. He overturned the tables, took a whip, and whipped the animals, and then he turned towards the money changer, and according to John 2, with the authority of his voice, he drove them out. He didn't touch them, folks. He did not use violence there. With the authority of his voice, he drove the money changers out.

35:27 And then look at Matthew 23, where he's there with the Pharisees. The whole chapter is full of polemics. You hypocrites, you den of vipers, you white supplicers, over and over and over again from verse 13 to 33. That's polemics. So Jesus could do both, depending on who was standing in front of him. And you do the same. But probably the best, of course, is Paul. As I said earlier, Paul is our best example of that. And that's why he had to be chosen. because he was a Jew, but not just any Jew. He was a Pharisee, but not just any Pharisee. He was able to argue with the best because he belonged to the Samoth school. You had the Hillel school over on this side that wanted to reform Judaism from within. You had the Samoth school on this side that wanted to take on everything without and bring back the Davidic kingdom. He was part of that school. And that's why he was right there holding the clothes of those who were stoning Stephen. He was on his way to Damascus when God met him in a dynamic way and made him from Saul to Paul.

36:26 Saul to Paul. What changed between Saul and Paul? Not much. He no longer used stones to stone people. He no longer used the sword. He put away his sword, and then this became his sword. But he still had the same volition, the same mind, and that's why he was able to argue with the Stoics and the Epicureans there in the Oropagus. He was able to go toe-to-toe with anybody else. That's why God needed someone like that, someone of that caliber, someone of that ability. someone with that kind of volition and that kind of passion. But look and see what happened to him. As I said earlier, everywhere he went, he got beat up, put into prison, stoned, and they finally killed him. And look what every place he went. He started a church. And then he went and started another church. And then started another church. And then he wrote letters to those churches, the letters to Ephesus, the letters to Corinth, the letters to Philippi, and especially the letters to Rome. Ooh, look at those letters. Folks, we cannot go and do our theology today without reading Paul. You've got to read Paul. All of our theological degrees are based on Paul's teaching.

37:32 We needed someone like Paul. Well, I want to look at some Pauls right here, or why not say Paulines? I want to see some Paulines and Pauls start using that kind of tenacity and that type of passion. We don't just need one or two. We need hundreds because we're up against a real formidable foe now who understands our scripture sometimes better than we do. And they're not attacking any other religion. They're only attacking us. We are their greatest threat. Islam knows that we are their greatest threat. That's why they're only attacking the Bible and Jesus. So let's have some Sauls who become Pauls, Saulines who become Paulines. Don't know if that works. let's just stick to Pauline's well so why was he polemical I think because he knew exactly he had already been in this let's take Acts chapter 19 Paul goes into the synagogue there in Acts chapter 19 and he tries to confront them with what they had done to Jesus Christ about three months he spends his time there and he finally gets fed up with them because they're not listening to him So he takes the sandals from his feet.

38:48 He brushes off the dust, basically saying, I'm having nothing more to do with you. So what did he do next? Did he leave the city? No. He went down to the lecture hall of Tyrannus. You can go and see it today in Ephesus. It's been uncovered, which is an amphitheater for debate. It was a debating chamber. And it says for two years he was in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. After two years, everybody in the land had heard the gospel. Ooh, I love my Paul. He gave up on the Jews and he went right down to the lecture of Tyrannus and debated in a secular chamber. That's why there's the beauty of the gospel. You can debate it anywhere. It will shut down every argument. And that's why we need to start using that type of model. He retained his qualities as Saul, his passion, his intellect, his experience, and his knowledge of the scripture, and he used it for the kingdom of God. Samuel Zemers says this of him. Paul disputed in the synagogue, Acts chapter 17, in the school of one Tyrannus, that's what I was just talking about, the electoral Tyrannus, daily on Acts chapter 19, verse 9. For two years he did that. In Jerusalem he disputed against the Grecians until they sought to slay him in Acts chapter 9. Second Corinthians, Galatians, Colossians could be classified as controversial literature of the first century. His military vocabulary is proof enough that he was no spiritual pacifist, but fought a good fight against the enemies of the cross of Christ and all those who preached another gospel. That's my Paul. I hope I'm looking at some Pauls and Paulines right now. We need some to come here from California. Now, we are using three polemical models to exemplify that, and I'm going to go through all three real quickly.

40:30 One is called the internal polemics, the other is called the cultural polemics, and the third one it's called external polemics that you see there over on the right. Internal polemics basically just take the Quran and opens up and reads what's in it. And then what we do is we confront what we read inside. That's why it's called internal polemics. You don't go outside of the Quran. You go to the Quran. You may go to the traditions, the sirah, the tafsir, the tahrik, and the hadith. But you really, really confront the Quran. And then you also confront the man behind the Quran. So you confront the book and then you confront Muhammad himself. That's called internal polemics. And people like David Wood and Hattun Tosh and Sam Shamoon, they are probably the best we have to do that. God Logic, if any of you see God Logic from Arizona, he is probably the best we have right now on the internet. And these guys and gals are amazing. They can go much faster than I was ever to go. They have much better retention in their head.

41:24 And boy, can they really run circles around the Muslims just by looking at their book and confronting their man. Cultural polemics is what I'm going to do in the second service, and that really just looks at what's happening around the Muslim world today and confronting it and saying, look at how that's irrelevant. Look how this is irrelevant. Just look and see how this looks hopeless. And why is it all you Muslims are not staying there? They're all coming over here to us. Why are you coming only to Christian countries? You're not going to Muslim countries when you want to immigrate. What is it about us? What is it about our countries that it's so attractive? Well, they'll say it's the money. Well, why do you think we're so wealthy, and why do you think things seem to work here and they don't work there? because of Islamic law. Islamic law always shuts down a country, financially, socially, and in every other category, which I'll talk about more in the next service. So culture polemics does that. External polemics is what I am working with, and that's the new one on the block, new kid on the block. And that's looking, we don't even open the Quran. What a waste of time if it never existed. Why talk about Muhammad if he never existed? We're going to talk about in the third service. And then hold on a minute. What about the place itself, Mecca?

42:31 So we confront those three things. So internal polemics, is Muhammad relevant? Is the Quran relevant? Is Islam relevant? Culture polemics, look and see what Muslims are trying to do politically, socially, financially, educationally, and morally, and just show they're failing on every point. In every category, they're failing because it's just not relevant for today. And then the external polemics. Can we even trust the sources? Do we even know who Muhammad, if there was a Muhammad, why is it we can't find him? If there was a Muhammad, prove to me that he existed. I don't have to prove it. You have to prove it. We've asked the same thing of Jesus Christ. Did he exist? That was done in the 1800s. Why is it we were able to find not only who he was, where he was born, where he grew up, but also where he died and rose again? We know the cities. They're there. You can go and look at all kinds of references for him from the first century. Why can't you find one for Muhammad in the 7th century. Ooh, I love it. Makes my job so easy.

43:27 So, advantages and disadvantages. For the internal polemics, great advantages because there's lots of people already doing it. And this is what I did for 30 years. Just go up on YouTube and just look at David Wood's material. Just look at Hatoon Tosh's. She's here, by the way. She'll be here this afternoon. And she's just amazing. Just a legend she's becoming. And then, not only is there so much good material, but when you do a comparison between Muhammad and Jesus, there's just no comparison. Even Issa and Yeshua, there's no comparison. The Bible versus the Quran, there's no comparison. It's so easy. We're winning every debate. So much so they won't debate us anymore. They're walking the other way. There are some disadvantages. It is seen as hate speech and Islamophobia. And that's why I'm very careful when I use it and when I go to places like Africa. I'll be there next month. and I have to be careful in places like Nigeria because there you will be killed for this.

44:22 It is too dangerous. You do not confront Muhammad in Nigeria openly. So there are certain parts of the world you just can't use internal polemics. That's why it works so well on the internet. It works brilliantly on the internet. But you have the freedom to do so here in California. You can do any part, any place you want. Cultural polemics then is something that I am engaged with and Hattun Tosh is probably our best cultural polemicist. I mean, she is absolutely audacious. If you see her this afternoon, she'll probably have a cartoon on her tunic that's mocking Muhammad. Full of mockery. Don't you do that. That's only for Hatoom to do, okay? She is more than willing to die for that. I don't know if you heard about three weeks ago, someone wrote up to her and says, we're going to split you from your sternum up to your nose and we're going to open you up and have your guts throughout and we're going to film everything.

45:19 So she said, okay, I'm going to be at this airport on July the 31st. I'm going to be here. This is my flight number. I'm going to land at this time. I'm going to go down to the baggage claim. I'm going to give you a half an hour to split me from sternum to nose. I will wait for you for one half hour. If you don't show up, I'm going to go. Who does that? Don't you do that. Let Hutton do that. She is so audacious. She was on the ladder with me for three years in 2013 to 2017 every Sunday, and I just could not shut her up. But folks, she's had her foot broken. She's had her ribs broken. They tried to hang her. She's been stabbed in the head. They tried to kill her four times. She's been in prison four times in London by the Metropolitan Police.

46:14 And every time, the courts have thrown the books against the police. And they've had to pay 10,000 pounds. Not to her. She won't keep it. She gives it to Christian concern. So be careful. There are very few unique people that can do that. But she's a new Sauline who's become a Pauline. She used to be a Muslim herself. Pray for her. Now there are disadvantages because then you'll get the kind of reaction that Hutton gets all the time, everywhere she goes. But she has no concern for her health or her safety. She's only 5'2 and she destroyed the Quran. I'm going to talk about that in the third service, what she did to the Quran back in 2016.

46:59 Then external polemics, and that's where this comes into play. And that's where Hutton and I have worked along together, and so has Daniel Janasic and also Dan Brubaker. They're all here this afternoon as well. Where we're confronting the book, the man, and the place, those three areas, there's great advantages because these are foundational to everything Muslims believe. And without them, you can see what's going to happen. They're just going to come crashing down, as you'll see later on this morning. The only disadvantage is that there's so much new material coming to light because we're the first to really uncover it. Well, the Germans have done it, but we're just taking the Germans and trying to put it into English that we're coming up with new ideas and basically new evidences that are coming out all the time. And so that's why it's hard to keep up with it. And some believe it's much too technical to communicate. Just look at those handouts that Jay has. All you need to do is show the Muslim. It's so visual. There are coins there. There are manuscripts there.

47:51 There are timelines there. And that shuts the argument down. You don't even have to memorize the material. So what are the best apologetical arguments? I only have four minutes left, and this could go on for hours. So let me just go through them real quickly. You have the PowerPoint. Yahweh versus Allah. I love this one because if you talked about Yahweh versus Allah, any time a Muslim brings that up, just shake their hands and just say, thank God that your God, Allah, is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Thank God that you have finally admitted that Allah will enter time and space and was walking and talking with Adam and Eve. And thank God that your God, Allah, died on the cross and rose again, and he has a son. How long did it take me to say that? Ten seconds. And you've shut down that argument with just those four claims. Those are four claims that you have made. That there is no way in the world that Allah ever came to enter time and space. There's no way that he could be the Trinity.

48:44 And there's no way that he died on the cross and rose again. But that is who our God is. And those four things are at the foundation of everything I believe about Jesus Christ. My God can enter time and space. My God can come to where I am. My God can see me face to face. my God can relate to me. Allah has never done so. Therefore, I want nothing to do with that God. Allah is so other, totally other. If he can't come to earth, if he cannot enter time and space, then what kind of God he is? He's too small a God. Get a bigger God. We've got him. His name is Jesus. Come on home. So don't let them get away with that, and don't you get confused by that. Where did Jesus say, I am God? Two references just go to Matthew chapter 26, verse 60, I think it's 64 to 66. And where Caiaphas asks him this question, are you the Messiah? Are you the Son of God? Basically what he was saying, are you God?

49:36 Because those are divine claims. And then he adds a third one, I am the Son of Man coming in the clouds, who will be from everlasting to everlasting. thing. That is a divine claim right there. Look at the reaction of Caiaphas. He tears his robe, turns toward the Sanhedrin, and said, what for the proof do we need? This man has blasphemed, and that's why he was crucified. Yes, just use those. He's claimed God three times. And then John 8, verse 58, he's there in front of the temple. He's speaking in Hebrew, and he's arguing about Abraham. And they said, how do you know Abraham? You're not even 50 years old, he said, before Abraham was Yahweh, I am. He was claiming God's holy name, personal name, eternal name, unique name. They had to pick up stones to stone him. Now, folks, can you see, I could go on. There's a whole pile of these. You can get them on the internet and on the QR code. Let's put the QR code up there again and get this PowerPoint. But let me just end with this. As we are engaging with Muslims, both apologetically and polemically, you're going to have to make a relationship to find them. Find your Muslims. But you live in California. You have all the freedoms to confront their book. You have all the freedoms to confront their man. Don't give it up.

50:51 I just want to show you two things that I want to, and Jack has talked about this. There is a action. It's called, I want to get the right one first, AB 2017, where they want to bring the Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha as official state holidays for California. We must stop this. This must not happen. You must make sure that you not only vote against this, because once you do this, as you can see in the next section, they then have their foot in the door. But the one that really concerns me is the other one, and that is AB 1803, which is going to train up everybody, even including this church, not to have hate speech. What that's saying, and this is what was brought to the United Kingdom, it's called the incitement to religious hatred law. They tried to bring it in in 2006, and we stood outside and refused to have that come through.

51:49 What it means is this, if you confront Muhammad or if you confront the Quran, that is considered hate speech for Muslims, not for you. If Muslims consider it to be hate speech, you will be penalize if this law goes through. Folks, that's all I do is confront Muhammad in the Quran. And you're going to start doing that as well. This must not go through because this curtails our freedom of speech. And folks, we need to speak loudly and clearly about Jesus Christ. when Jesus is spoken about in public he wins every debate we must not curtail what we're saying about Jesus Christ but Islam cannot survive with the freedom of speech this is as much an Islamic law as anything else because once they put this law here in this state other states are going to follow you they always follow California unfortunately because you are so big so don't let this go through because that means we will not be able to talk about Muhammad.

52:50 We will not be able to talk about the Quran. We will not be able to talk about Mecca. We will be shut up from doing that. And in some cases, we will not even be able to talk about Jesus Christ or the LGBT problem or abortion. All of these will be shut down. And I have to help. I have to save those little babies. And I'd love the homosexuals. But I need to also say what Scripture tells me about them. I need to be able to have that freedom of speech so do not let this go through and that means you're going to be just have to be just like Paul and the other disciples make sure that you defend the scripture defend Jesus Christ and confront the other let's pray our heavenly father we want to thank you what a God you are you didn't stay distant you didn't stay the other you came in you entered time and space 2,000 years ago you came to earth You had promised that you would do so all the way through In fact, you started that promise with Eve From your line, it had to be a woman's line It had to be a woman He, that means it had to be a male Would come and crush the head of Satan And Satan would bruise his heel That's the crucifixion right there That's the first prophecy we have of it And Lord, you sent up all these little tags All the way through the Old Testament Telling us who you would be That you would be called the Son of Man You would be called the Son of God you would be called the Messiah and that you would come to, yes, to not only confront that which had been done but to also give us a whole new vision, a whole new paradigm, a whole new testament.

54:30 And Lord, you've set up your disciples there and you brought Paul into that and you showed us what they did were to do, what you said were to say, how you did it were to do it and you gave us the model of how we're to act today. And we want to thank you for only what you did but also for dying for us. You're a God who comes our direction. You're a God who enters time and space. You are a God who is able to not only talk about that he was going to do that but took all our sins on your shoulders and for dying and rising again. You died on Friday but you resurrected on Sunday. That's why we're here today. May we never forget that. May we never ever walk away from that. Lord, may we never have a fear or a guilt for saying that in public. So help us so that everything we say