Muslims are Converting to Christianity in Record Numbers

National Catholic Register ^ | Patti Armstrong

[GoldenState_Rose]

We are in a time of the first ever mass conversions of Muslims,” Father Mitch Pacwa SJ told me in a phone interview. “God is doing a mighty work among them.”

Pacwa said that mass conversions are happening even in very fundamentalist countries. There is rapidly growing number of conversions especially on the edges of the Muslim world in the western and southern parts of Africa, he said. “Africa is now growing predominantly Christian despite crackdowns,” Pacwa said.

Some of the noteworthy countries he mentioned include Iran, reported to have 3 million Christians, and Indonesia with reports of 2 million a year converting.

“In Mongolia, the president opened the country to Christians and there’s even an archbishop,” Pacwa said. “They built a Catholic school there too. If I was younger, I would have gone.” He said that the desire for a Western education was the impetus to open up the country to the Catholic Church.

There are even conversions happening in many strict Muslim countries, according to Pacwa. He did not want to go on record with particulars for fear of increased retribution. Mass conversions are also being reported among refugees that are filling up the Christian churches left empty by Europeans. Many wonder if those are authentic conversions or just a response to improving their chances for amnesty, but time will tell.

Signs of this conversion are showing up in the U.S. too, Pacwa said. “I was about to celebrate Mass at a Maronite church in San Diego and I said hi to a man who introduced himself as Achmad. I asked if he was a Christian. He said: ‘Yes, I was recently baptized.’ He said he from Morocco. Christians do not have the name Ahmad—that’s a form of Mohammad.”

[aMorePerfectUnion]

So tell me in your own words without parroting Scripture (which even Satan is capable of doing) exactly what you think John’s claim is in the verses you’ve cited.

Quoting exactly what God says in Scripture is not "parroting."

I gave it to you straight, without any interpretation. Just what He said.

Read it again, if you did not understand it the first time. As many times as it takes.

Then ask yourself if you know you have eternal life now.

I do.

I believe what God said.

If you cannot answer that you have eternal life, ask yourself why you don't believe what God said.

[papertyger]

There’s nothing contradictory about the Petrine doctrine. It is what it is, and it’s predicated on Scripture.

[ealgeone]

That's why context is key to understanding the Scriptures. Paul isn't going to tell one group to do one thing and another something else.

No.

His message, and the message of the NT writers, and OT, is that we come to God through faith.

There is no deed, no matter how good or how many, can earn/keep our salvation. None.

Now...are we created for good works after we are saved? Yes. The NT is clear on that. There should be a change in our lives as a result of following Christ.

But that isn't what saves us...it's faith in Him and only Him that saves.

[fortes fortuna juvat]

>>Ok....what WORK do you have to do??<<

That is a very good question because in the divinely inspired Holy Scriptures that comprise what we call the Bible, James explicitly teaches sincere Christians that faith without works is DEAD. Of course, since you’re a sincere Christian you already know that don’t you? As to your question, I’m not your spiritual director or your tutor, but here’s a hint: READ YOUR BIBLE because it clearly conveys to all who read it EXACTLY what “work” they have to do to actually be considered by God to be a Christian.

[ealgeone]

Well, the ECFs disagree. As I noted before....they're all over the place on the issue.

I'm out for the night.

[ealgeone]

Read James 2 in context of James and the NT. When did those works occur? Before salvation...or after salvation?

You may also note the works James cites are not found in the Ten Commandments.

[Claud]

And Rome did what to increase that? With the wealth of Rome they could have had copies of the Bible produced for their members. They chose not to.

So let me get this straight. The monks could have written out Bibles. Longhand. For their "members"...which basically means every single Christian soul in Europe. And taught them how to read to boot.

Wow. Hoo boy.

This is what I mean about Reformation theology being such a product of its time. No one before the printing press would be so snobbish as to propose a theology whereby some peasant family ekeing out a living on a subsistence farm would have to own a Bible that cost more than their house and actually have to spend years in school to learn how to read it.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

There’s nothing contradictory about the Petrine doctrine. It is what it is, and it’s predicated on Scripture.

And yet the Orthodox Churches not only deny it, they've never believed it - all the way back to the Apostles.

What an oversight on their part! 😂

[MrKatykelly]

Dittos

Islam to Catholic, big improvement. Catholics don’t cut your head off, let’s start there.

[papertyger]

Well, the ECFs disagree. As I noted before....they're all over the place on the issue.

Oh, I have no doubt of that, but that’s what ecumenical councils were for. Being an ECF did not convey an automatic imprimatur to everything they said and believed.

[af_vet_1981]

That's why context is key to understanding the Scriptures. Paul isn't going to tell one group to do one thing and another something else.

Rather, the risk is misunderstanding the Apostle Paul and ignoring the LORD Jesus.

For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh. And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like: He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock. But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.

...

Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless. And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction. Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness. But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.

Luke, Catholic chapter six, Protestant verses forty three to forty nine,
Second Peter, Catholic chapter three, Protestant verses fourteen to eighteen,
as authorized, but not authored, by King James

[fortes fortuna juvat]

>> Read James 2 in context of James and the NT. When did those works occur? Before salvation...or after salvation?

You may also note the works James cites are not found in the Ten Commandments.<<

I’m not sure what yarn you’re trying to spin by this mumbo-jumbo but the clear “biblical” statement is that faith without works is DEAD. Isn’t literalism what you Fundies always fall back on when your arguments are weak? So, what’s the problem here?

[papertyger]

And yet the Orthodox Churches not only deny it, they've never believed it - all the way back to the Apostles.

No argument from me. I just don’t agree with them. And it certainly doesn’t make them proto-Protestants in anybody’s book.

[fortes fortuna juvat]

>> You may also note the works James cites are not found in the Ten Commandments.<<

So now what are you implying, that the 10 Commandments are no longer to be observed? Or they are somehow in conflict with the works James references? What is your point?

[Claud]

Off topic, and you’re trying to redirect and bait me into a “gotcha” because you don’t have the knowledge to discuss Christian history. And it shows.

I’m in no rush. Do some reading on the actual church history of the third century, and then we can pick this up on some another thread.

But, since you asked, I’ll side with the great St. Alphonsus Liguori over you any day of the week. You didn’t write “Tu scendi dalle stelle”. :)

[aMorePerfectUnion]

I just don’t agree with them.

More importantly, these churches that claim to equally descend from the Apostles, have never believed your claim. They claim to have been there on "day 1" and have never recognized your claim.

And it certainly doesn’t make them proto-Protestants in anybody’s book.

And yet Protestants and the Orthodox agree on this...

[showme_the_Glory]

Is taqiya a concern?

[fortes fortuna juvat]

>> I do.<<

That’s absurd. You know nothing of the kind, and you nor anyone else will know that they’re saved until it happens. And no matter how many times you make this claim, it just ain’t so. What you’re doing unwittingly is negating the whole meaning of “faith”. You need to ponder the meaning of the virtue of humility because Christ admonished those who simply cry out Lord, Lord and said His response would be that He never knew you. Pride goeth before the fall (Proverbs 16:18). You need to remember that.

[PeterPrinciple]

Being RC and $2 will get you a cup of coffee.

Being P and $2 will get you a cup of coffee and a glass of water.

[papertyger]

And yet Protestants and the Orthodox agree on this...

And I also might be inclined to agree were it not for Jesus setting up a juxtaposition so glaringly obvious it even comes through when translated to English.