When Strangers Come Knocking---Part 18

This is the next installment of my series to be published the first Monday of each month.

There are members of false sects, like Jehovah's Witnesses, that come knocking door-to-door hoping to convert you. Instead of ignoring them, it is we who should try and convert them. In 1 Peter 3:16, our first Pope writes, "But in thy hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks thee to give the reason for the hope that thou hast. But do this with gentleness and respect,..." Before the Great Apostasy, the Church would send missionaries to the ends of the Earth to make as many converts as possible. 

Those in false religions don't always come (literally) knocking at your door. It may be a Hindu at work who wants you to try yoga. It could be a "Christian Scientist" who lives next door and invites you to come to their reading room. Each month, I will present a false sect. Unlike the Vatican II sect, I do not see them as a "means of salvation" or possessing "elements of truth" that lead to salvation. That is heresy. They lead to damnation, and the adherents of the various sects must be converted so they may be saved.

In each month's post, I will present one false sect and give an overview of: 

• The sect's history
• Their theology
• Tips on how to share the True Faith with them

Chrislam

As the name, and the symbol shown above indicate, Chrislam is a syncretic sect that attempts to merge Islam and Christianity into a single belief system. It was founded in Nigeria in the late 1970s and has been growing ever since. It has now made inroads here in the United States. Nigeria was a logical starting point given that Moslems and Christians divide the country. Even now 49.3% of the country is Christian and 48.8% is Moslem or "Muslim" (See globalreligiousfutures.org/countries/nigeria#/?affiliations_religion_id=0&affiliations_year=2010&region_name=All%20Countries&restrictions_year=2016). 

In June 2016, the "Presbyterian Church USA" offered up prayers to the false moon god "Allah" at their 222 General Assembly. "Allah bless us and bless our families and bless our Lord. Lead us on the straight path - the path of all the prophets: Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad. Peace be upon them all, Amen," said Wajidi Said of the Portland Muslim Community, after completing a chant in Arabic.

 (See christianitydaily.com/articles/8228/20160623/pcusa-garners-criticism-prayers-allah-offered-during-general-assembly.htm). 

In his 2015 visit to St. Patrick's Cathedral, here in New York City, "Pope" Francis said:

I would like to express two sentiments for my Muslim brothers and sisters: Firstly, my greetings as they celebrate the feast of sacrifice. I would have wished my greeting to be warmer. My sentiments of closeness, my sentiments of closeness in the face of tragedy. The tragedy that they suffered in Mecca.

In this moment, I give assurances of my prayers. I unite myself with you all. A prayer to almighty god [sic; in original], all merciful. (See https://abcnews.go.com/US/read-pope-francis-yorks-st-patricks-cathedral/story?id=34023376). 

In addition to calling Moslems "my brothers and sisters" and lending credibility to their feast (Eid al-Adha, a feast celebrating the fictitious claim that Abraham followed Allah's command to sacrifice his son Ishmael), the last phrase of  Bergoglio's comments are consistent with Islamic beliefs, as they recognize Allah as "the all-merciful one" most specifically.

Granted Bergoglio and the Presbyterians did not claim to be endorsing Chrislam, but they have either adopted or support their basic tenets and are consequently helping them grow. The history and beliefs of Chrislam will be examined next.

The Blasphemous Beginnings and Evil Teaching

In this section, I wish to cite M. Janson “Unity through Diversity: A Case Study of Chrislam in Lagos.” Africa: Journal of the International African Institute (2016, Vol. 86 No. 4): 646–72, and Chrislam: How Missionaries are Promoting An Islamized Gospel ed. by Lingel and Morton, 2012 edition as my principal sources for the history and belief of Chrislam.---Introibo

Tela Tella (b.1939), the founder of Nigeria’s Chrislam movement, Ifeoluwa, proclaimed that “Moses is Jesus and Jesus is Muhammad. Peace be upon all of them; we love them all.”  Tella has refused to talk about his religious background. The name Ifeoluwa, means “The Will of God” or “The Love of God,”  and was allegedly revealed to him by Divine revelation. After receiving the revelation, he meditated for twenty-one days at the spot where he later built the mission. In addition to Ifeoluwa, Tella refers to his mission as “Chrislam,” a term that he coined to create awareness of unity among Christians and Moslems. Similar to Islam, Chrislam is based on five pillars, with love being the first (the others are: mercy, joy, good deeds, and truth). Tella sees himself as God’s love incarnated in a human being, who has been ordained to “enlighten the world."

According to Tella, God communicates with him via Divine revelations, which He conveys through "speaking in tongues" (aka "glossolalia"). Until the "world is ready" to receive these revelations, Tella lives a secluded life with his two wives (called "the Lady Apostles") and their children on the Mountain of Power, which is a whitewashed compound in Agege, a densely-populated suburb in Lagos, Nigeria. His basic belief is one that is appealing to many:

Christians and Moslems worship the same God.  Chrislamists worship on Saturday so as not to offend Moslems who keep the Sabbath on Friday, and Christians who keep it on Sundays. Tella remarked, "I don't like dogmatic teachings." He also opined, "People come here to fight their enemy. Their enemy is illness, barrenness, death, poverty, disillusion, frustration, failure, sorrow. We teach them how to pray to God, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed in order to conquer their enemy. Prayer is the key to success." 

Since religion is for Chrislamists not primarily about belief but about practical concerns, the mixing of diverse, and often contradictory, religious elements is permitted as long as it helps them living life "more profitably." Chrislam promises a better life on earth and it is accomplished by intertwining the beliefs of Islam, Christianity, and even other beliefs if it helps you to "feel good." 

Chrislam calls they place of worship neither church or mosque, but temple. According to Tella, the "holy scriptures" (the Bible and Koran) are incomplete. To complement the Bible and Koran, Tella is working on his own Holy Book, the Ifeoluwa Book. Tella’s sermons contain moral lessons that are interpreted by his followers as “religious pep talk,” instructing them in how to combat their feelings of despair and how to become successful in life. Services consist in circling a copy of the Bible and Koran seven times, then singing chants and praying to the God of "Christians and Moslems." Similar to Pentecostal services, the testimonies recount the “miracles” experienced by Chrislam's followers when they accepted God’s love in their lives, in the form of healing, finding a spouse, the birth of a baby, finding employment, or a windfall. After the service, the congregants assemble to receive manna, what they call "blest food."

Membership in Chrislam requires so-called spiritual training. In order to elicit a higher spiritualty and moral lifestyle that will promote social harmony, members must observe eighty rules and regulations concerning codes of moral behavior (such as “any member who wears Ifeoluwa’s clothes should not rebuke or talk against any religion”), dress codes (female followers are obliged to cover their heads and all followers must dress modestly), and food taboos derived from the Old Testament and the Koran (members must avoid drinking alcohol, abstain from eating fish without scales, such as catfish, and pork; only halal meat is allowed). Like in Islam, several rules and regulations emphasize the importance of “purity” (women must stay away from the temple during their menstruation plus one extra day, after which they must sanctify themselves; members must take a bath after sexual intercourse and stay away from the temple for at least six hours). Members must pray twice each day. Although Tella is the leader of the sect, there are those who form their own temples in other countries.

The Vatican II Sect Leads The Way---To Hell

In the heretical Vatican II document Nostra Aetate, it teaches, "The Church (sic) regards with esteem also the Moslems. They adore the one God, living and subsisting in Himself; merciful and all- powerful, the Creator of heaven and earth, who has spoken to men; they take pains to submit wholeheartedly to even His inscrutable decrees, just as Abraham, with whom the faith of Islam takes pleasure in linking itself, submitted to God." (para. #3; Emphasis mine).

Chrislam prospered only because of the false and heretical idea that Catholics and Moslems worship the same God. The false popes have further promoted this lie:

"Pope" "Saint" John Paul II kissed the Koran and prayed, "May Saint John the Baptist protect Islam." "Pope" Benedict XVI  called for Christians "to open their arms and hearts" to Moslem immigrants and "to dialogue" with them on religious issues. Ratzinger told participants that the Catholic (sic) Church is "increasingly aware" that "inter-religious dialogue is a part of its commitment to the service of humanity in the modern world." "Pope" Francis prayed towards Mecca and said, "Islam is a religion of peace, one which is compatible with respect for human rights and peaceful coexistence."

Most disturbingly, two years ago on February 4, 2019, Bergoglio and Sheik Ahmed el-Tayeb, grand imam of al-Azhar, a leading authority for many Moslems, signed a document on "human fraternity" and improving "Christian-Muslim" relations.

"The pluralism and the diversity of religions, color, sex, race and language are willed by God in his wisdom, through which he created human beings," the document said.  The Modernist Vatican immediately tried to spin this heretical statement by saying that God's permissive Will tolerates a diversity of religions. It is not an act of God's positive Will by which He actually desires something to be done. However, if you look at the text, it tells a different story. The other categories Bergoglio enumerates; color, sex, race, and language are positively willed by God. Why would he begin the list with something only permissively willed by God, the only exception to the other attributes? 

Therefore, to be successful in proselyting the followers of Chrislam, you must prove that Allah and the God of the Christians is not the same.

God: Trinity or Tawhid?

Most Chrislamists in the United States and Europe were liberal Protestants or very Modernist members of the Vatican II sect who are caught up in "ecumenical dialogue" to the point they are Indifferentists (i.e., one religion is as good as another). 

The best way to attack Chrislam is by showing that if you follow the God of Christianity, then you can't follow Allah, a false moon god. The evil of Islam and Allah should also be stressed. Finally, what has Tela Tella done to prove his "Divine revelations," and his assertion that the Bible is somehow "deficient"? 

1. The monotheistic God is Trinity not Tawhid 

Moslems insist that Allah has no “partners.” To ascribe partners to Allah – for example, to say that Jesus is the Son of God, or that God exists as a Trinity – is to commit the unpardonable sin of shirk, which damns a soul to hell. Therefore, Allah is a "monolithic One" or tawhid. The Trinity is denied. Catholics believe that God exists as Three Divine Persons, but there is only One God. The Moslem Allah is of pagan origin and admits of no Trinity.

The universal symbol for Islam is a crescent moon. This symbol appears on mosques worldwide and on the flags of many Moslem nations such as Tunisia, Algeria, Mauritania, Malaysia, Pakistan and Turkey. The moon god, symbolized with the crescent can be easily traced as far as 2500 years before Mohammed. It was a powerful and common symbol in pagan worship that has endured for nearly four millennia. Though Moslem apologists try desperately to skirt this issue, claiming that Christians simply do not understand and are looking for something with which to bash Islam, the fact remains that they cannot wiggle out of the crescent, its origins and inherent paganism. 

If God is not Triune, then Christ could not be the Divine Second Person of the Most Blessed Trinity Incarnate. Show the Chrislamist the stark contradiction.

2. The Bible and Koran are Incompatible and Contradictory 

Common sense tells us that if Allah is also the God of Christianity, then the Koran, the allegedly inspired text of Islam, would perfectly harmonize with the Bible. Instead, it shows Allah to be many things--most of them evil.

Allah is a deceiver and a terrorist.

Sura (Koran chapter) 4:142: “The hypocrites seek to deceive God, but it is He who deceives them.”

Sura 8:30: “They schemed—but God also schemed. God is most profound in His schemings.”

Sura 8:12: “God revealed His will to the angels, saying…I shall cast terror into the hearts of the infidels. Strike off their heads, strike off the very tips of their fingers”

The Koran mocks the Trinity. 

Sura 5:73: “They do blaspheme who say God is one of three…for there is no Allah except one Allah.”

Sura 5:116: “And behold! God will say: O Jesus the son of Mary didst say unto men, ‘worship me and my mother as gods’ in derogation of Allah?"

The Koran tells of a Jesus different from the Bible.

The Koran teaches that Jesus was indeed born of a virgin. He is mentioned 97 times in its pages. However, the Jesus of the Koran is viewed as but a prophet on the level of Moses or Mohammed. Note as well that the Jesus of the Koran did not die on the Cross but was replaced by another individual.

Sura 4:157: “That they said in boast ‘we killed Christ Isa, the son of Mary’…but they killed him not, nor crucified him.”

The Jesus of the Koran is an imposter and not God incarnate. Again, how can a Christian who knows the truth about the origin of Allah and the "Moslem Jesus" ever consider aligning with such teachings? Just as compelling from the Moslem viewpoint is the question, how can Moslems entertain the idea of dialog and common ground with Christians for to do so is diametrically opposed to their own religious writings?

Sura 5:51: “Believers, take neither the Jews nor the Christians for your friends. They are friends with one another.”

Sura 109:1-6: “Say: 'Unbelievers, I do not worship what you worship, nor do you worship what I worship. I shall never worship what you worship, nor will you ever worship what I worship. You have your own religion and I have mine.'"

One can only wonder how John Paul the Great Apostate could say the following in his August 19,1985 Address to Moslems in Morocco:

I believe that we, Christians and Muslims, must recognize with joy the religious values that we have in common, and give thanks to God for them. Both of us believe in one God, the only God, who is all justice and all mercy; we believe in the importance of prayer, of fasting, of almsgiving, of repentance and of pardon; we believe that God will be a merciful judge to us all at the end of time, and we hope that after the resurrection He will be satisfied with us and we know that we will be satisfied with him. (Emphasis mine). 

Compare: [Moslems] are the enemy of the Catholic Faith. --Pope St. Pius V, Apostolic Constitution Salvatoris Domini, March 5, 1571.

Therefore, they must instruct them [Moslems] in the true worship of God which is unique to the Catholic religion.---Pope Gregory XVI, Summo Iugiter Studio, para. #6 (1832).

Conclusion

It should be clear that Moslems and Catholics do not "believe in one God, the only God" because Allah and the Triune God of Christianity are not the same. It makes you wonder what "god" the Vatican II sect worships. Like Chrislam, they try to unite mutually exclusive doctrines. They preach Universalism, yet welcome Feeneyites; anything goes except the Truth in the sect of Bergoglio. 

Islam is also violent in the extreme. While the current occupant of the White House is letting Moslems come into the country, it is good to remember what the Koran of the moon god Allah teaches:

 Surah 3:151: “We shall cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve (all non-Moslems) ...”

Surah 2:191: “And kill them (non-Moslems) wherever you find them ... kill them. Such is the recompense of the disbelievers (non-Muslims).”

Surah 9:5: “Then kill the disbelievers (non-Moslems) wherever you find them, capture them and besiege them, and lie in wait for them in each and every ambush ...”

Compare this with the One True Triune God of Catholicism. Christ predicted there would be those who would murder in God's name: They will put you out of the synagogues: yea, the hour cometh, that whosoever killeth you, will think that he doth a service to God. (St. John 16:2). Our Lord then told why they would do such horrible acts: They will do such things because they have not known the Father or Me. (St. John 16:3)