Posted on 09/19/2017 5:20:38 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
How does a man facing his own premature death exude an uplifting combination of grace, love, and truth? My friend Nabeel Qureshi, who has done that for more than a year, died at age 34 on Saturday. In case you don’t know, Nabeel was a former devout Muslim who became a powerful defender of Christianity after a seven-year process of evaluating the evidence for Christianity with his friend David Wood. His first book, Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus is an international bestseller.
Since being diagnosed with stage four stomach cancer last year, Nabeel has shared his thoughts, concerns, and prayers through 43 video blogs on his YouTube channel. His last video, recorded from his hospital bed just seven days before his death, is a request for us to use his work and example to love others to the truth.
As you will see in his videos, Nabeel exhibited the love of Christ to the end. He never wavered in his confidence that God could heal him, but recognized that He might not. Nabeel understood that we live in a fallen world and that God doesn’t promise any of us a long, trouble-free life. In fact, Jesus promised more of the opposite. He said that we “will have trouble in this world, but take heart, I’ve overcome the world.”
Nevertheless, while it seems insensitive to ask this while we grieve, people are wondering why didn’t God heal Nabeel. After all, he was a brilliant and charismatic young man taken away from his wife Michelle and daughter Ayah, and the rest of us, far too early. Nabeel had so much more to give to his family and the Kingdom of God that his death seems completely senseless.
So why didn’t God heal Nabeel?
Is it because an evil, such as a premature death, proves that there is no God? No, because evil wouldn’t exist unless Good existed, and Good wouldn’t exist unless God existed. Evil doesn’t exist on its own. It only exists as a lack in a Good thing. Cancer can’t exist on its own. It can only exist as a lack in a good body. So when we complain about evil, we are actually presupposing Good. But an objective standard of Good is a standard that is beyond mere human opinion. That can only be God’s nature. So evil may prove there’s a devil out there, but it can’t disprove God. Instead, evil boomerangs back to show that God actually does exist.
Is it because Allah is the true God, and He punished Nabeel for leaving Him? No, there’s excellent evidence the Christian God, not Allah, is the true God (see Nabeel’s book No God but One). Moreover, Muslims who suggest this should be asked, “Why did Allah wait until Nabeel had written three best-selling books, made hundreds of hours of videos, and helped bring hundreds of Muslims to Christ? Is Allah’s timing off?” Not only that, Nabeel’s work will continue to bring people to Christ, probably in an accelerated manner after his passing.
Some might suggest that people like Nabeel who experience tragedy must be worse sinners than others. Jesus refuted that kind of shallow speculation directly in Luke 13, when he said, “I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.” Indeed, we are all sinners who will perish, and we need to repent before it’s too late.
Is it because Nabeel didn’t have enough “faith”? People who claim such nonsense don’t know Nabeel or correct theology. Nabeel’s trust in Christ was deep and unwavering. But the larger point is that faith doesn’t guarantee good health and wealth as “Word of Faith” preachers assert. In fact, their self-serving theology can be refuted by one simple observation: Jesus and the apostles weren’t healthy and wealthy. In fact, they suffered and died for their beliefs. Don’t tell me they didn’t have enough faith!
So why didn’t God heal Nabeel? What purpose could God have for allowing Nabeel to die? In answering that question, we need to admit that there can be no ultimate purpose to Nabeel’s death (or any event) if there is no purpose to life. But since God does exist, and the purpose of life is to be reconciled with Him through His son, Jesus, then even tragedies can help achieve that purpose. Perhaps more people will come to know Christ because of Nabeel’s death. It’s impossible for us to know the extent of that right now, but it’s not impossible for God.
We can’t see it completely because every event, good and bad, ripples forward into the future to impact innumerable other events and people. I call this the ripple effect. But it’s also known as the butterfly effect because it recognizes that a butterfly flapping its wings in South Africa, for example, can start a ripple effect that ultimately brings rain to a drought-stricken portion of the United States. We don’t have the capacity to trace all of those ripples, but an all-powerful Being who is outside of time can. In fact, there have been billions of events in history, both good and bad, that helped make you who you are and helped put you where you are.
So we don’t know why God didn’t heal Nabeel, but we know why we don’t know why. We’re finite, and God is infinite. The good news is God’s character and power guarantees that He will bring good from evil “to those that love Him and are called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28). That may happen later in this life, and it certainly will spill over into eternal life.
The ripple effect led Jacques Marie Louis Monsabré, a former pastor at Notre Dame in Paris, to trust God even when he couldn’t see any good coming from evil. He said: “If God would concede me His omnipotence for 24 hours, you would see how many changes I would make in the world. But if He gave me His wisdom too, I would leave things as they are.”
Indeed, God will redeem Nabeel’s death for good like he redeemed Nabeel himself. But while Nabeel is now with the Lord, Michele and Ayah remain with us. As Nabeel asked in one of his final videos, please pray for them as well as Nabeel’s loving parents. And if you can help Michele and Ayah financially, would you please do so here?
While we grieve, let us be thankful for Nabeel’s eternally significant life. He did more for the Kingdom of God in 34 years than ten thousand people do in 80. And the ripples he created—waves really—will help carry people into Heaven for generations. Blessings to you Brother. See you on the other side.
God wants to use all of us, but doesn’t need any of us. Beyond that, we can only guess, and any guess would be wrong.
There’s a recent song by Mercy Me called “Even If” that comes to mind.
Now, this song has one issue that seems very common among Christians in that it reckons the faith of a mustard seed is but a little faith (I disagree, but that’s for another time) but the basic idea that even if God does not move those mountains, even if they are precisely the things he has chosen to be there so that they don’t move, our hope in him alone ... and THAT is pretty good theology.
Do we trust him? Then whatever comes we are not shaken because he can, he is able, and we trust him ... even if he says “no” to our requests.
After watching several strong Christian friends suffer horribly and die...men with children and family’s...i drew my own conclusions
I was deeply saddened by Nabeel’s passing. I was praying for a miraculous recovery, but I recognize that God has a plan that we are not privvy to, and part of our walk as Christians is to trust Him to know what is best.
The book of Job explains...God is God. He can do ad He pleases
There are a lot of things I do not understand.
I have read that all of Jesus’s Disciples except John were martyred. Interesting to me is that John was the one Jesus told to take care of Mary as if she was his own Mother.
Muslim becomes a Christian.
New Christian undergoes severe trials.
New Christian does not recant on his death bed.
How does that play in Muslimlandia?
I’m not observant.
No one should ask my advice in religious matters.
But.
What I outline above suggests that a test was given.
And passed.
According to the very personal strictures of the Christian faith.
Trust is a key ingredient of faith. A good dog trusts his master, even though he doesn’t know his master’s reasoning. We are no more capable than that when dealing with God’s reasoning.
As for death, God graciously wills when it is time to take His children to their home in heaven. We won’t remember this troubled time spent apart from Him, as we experience the complete joy of that blessed place. There we can finally know Him as He has known us from the beginning of time.
I think this is an excellent summary. God gave him grace to the very end.
Interesting take....
Thanks.
Really Smart people Here!
Are we talking more about him now that he is dead? Well there is your answer. Besides, now he gets to rise first.
Because his witness in his death furthered Gods plan for His Church. If healing him would have furthered the Gospel more God would have done it. We do it have the big picture. Gods ways are not our ways. We need to be still and know God is sovereign are trust Him.
God can heal but He doesn’t in most cases. I have faced death many times. Each time I have had peace in knowing that I am 1 of 7.2 billion on Earth and my existence is really of no consequence as we all die. It is thought by those that focus on this or other stories of death that they are are exempt. That is denial. In Deed — you will die before the next century. We have been created with a finite life and God really does not drive our cars or make our decisions but God is God and he has permitted us only one way to eternal life ( note there is no eternal life in “hell”). That way is to believe simply and completely that Jesus is God’s son. That’s it!!
Bingo.
May he rest in peace and may he help us from the other side.
Probably the man died because was focussing on the evil that is Islam and forgot to focus on the evil that is chemo-pushing Western “medicine”.
Lord bless his family and lifework, may it bloom and grow in Christ’s name.
I Peter I
[Our pastor was talking about the following verse on Sunday. “Now remember, this was written when the Romans were persecuting Christians - with the Emperor lighting his gardens by burning Christians alive tight to stakes.”]
6 So be truly glad.[b] There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. 7 These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.
8 You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. 9 The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls.
10 This salvation was something even the prophets wanted to know more about when they prophesied about this gracious salvation prepared for you. 11 They wondered what time or situation the Spirit of Christ within them was talking about when he told them in advance about Christ’s suffering and his great glory afterward.
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Nabeel’s faith kept him strong, and it brings him “much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.”
Well done, good and faithful servant.
“Besides, now he gets to rise first.”
2 Corinthians 5:1-8 J.B. Phillips New Testament
5: 1-4 We know, for instance, that if our earthly dwelling were taken down, like a tent, we have a permanent house in Heaven, made, not by man, but by God. In this present frame we sigh with deep longing for the heavenly house, for we do not want to face utter nakedness when death destroys our present dwelling—these bodies of ours. So long as we are clothed in this temporary dwelling we have a painful longing, not because we want just to get rid of these “clothes” but because we want to know the full cover of the permanent house that will be ours. We want our transitory life to be absorbed into the life that is eternal.
Death can have no terrors, for it means being with God
5-8 Now the power that has planned this experience for us is God, and he has given us his Spirit as a guarantee of its truth. This makes us confident, whatever happens. We realise that being “at home” in the body means that to some extent we are “away” from the Lord, for we have to live by trusting him without seeing him. We are so sure of this that we would really rather be “away” from the body (in death) and be “at home” with the Lord.
Luke 23:42-43 English Standard Version
42 And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 43 And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
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