300 Muslims Dream About Jesus and Convert

[SLD]

So I saw this meme being posted on Facebook. Some guy who tries to convert Muslims to Christians is claiming that he converted 200 men from Islam to Christianity after they all dreamed about Jesus.

Supernatural Move of God in Gaza as Hundreds Reportedly Meet Jesus in Dreams

More than 200 Muslims in Gaza have reportedly asked to follow Jesus after meeting Him in a dream.

www2.cbn.com

It’s making waves all over. Accepted unconditionally by the faithful because of course a Christian would never lie.

 

[TomC]

So I saw this meme being posted on Facebook. Some guy who tries to convert Muslims to Christians is claiming that he converted 200 men from Islam to Christianity after they all dreamed about Jesus.

Supernatural Move of God in Gaza as Hundreds Reportedly Meet Jesus in Dreams

More than 200 Muslims in Gaza have reportedly asked to follow Jesus after meeting Him in a dream.

www2.cbn.com

It’s making waves all over. Accepted unconditionally by the faithful because of course a Christian would never lie.

200 converts, only 1,500,000,000 to go.


Did anyone bother pointing out to him that about 1,000 more Muslims were born that night?
Tom

 

[Learner]

You could include, what has been reported as being the fastest growing church in the world, which is of all places.. in Iran.
(They've always had a Jewish community over there too, funny enough).

 

[ideologyhunter]

The story supposedly came from Michael Licona of Risen Jesus Inc., a missionary outfit, and he's quoting "underground missionary" sources. These sources claim that emergency aid workers were ministering to men who, in many cases, had seen their family members die. They read Christian scriptures to them and 200+ said they encountered Jesus in their dreams. So, if even a fraction of this is true, traumatized victims in an active war zone whose lives have been thrown into chaos and who have lost family members -- in other words, people who are dealing with more stress factors than I will probably ever endure-- had mystical dreams. And again, this is dependent on the reporting standards of anonymous Christian missionaries. The whole story is sad, and it sounds like a narrative shaped to give the pious a nice fable to repeat.
(The Bible connection that came to my mind was Paul's hallucination/conversion. Not a persuasive sales closer, for me.)

 

[steve_bank]

Why is Christianity possibly growing in Iran?

That is obvious. Christianity generally no longer executes or tortures people for fornication, homosexuality, public morality, and apostasy except in a few areas like Uganda and Nigeria.

Polling I have heard cited around the Mid East and North Africa say young people want to keep their Muslim faith, but want to get rid of the oppressive religious authoritarianism.

One can be Christian without accepting any religious authority other than your own interpretation and judgement. The polar opposite of Islam in Iran and the Arab states.

Christians who keep any kindd of traditional conservative morality appear to be in a minority.

 

[TomC]

One of the things I found bizarrely interesting, after someone else mentioned it, is how many black Americans adopted the religion of the slavers.

Just kinda made me go Hmmmm?
Tom

 

[bilby]

One of the things I found bizarrely interesting, after someone else mentioned it, is how many black Americans adopted the religion of the slavers.

Just kinda made me go Hmmmm?
Tom

Christianity pretty much started out as a religion for slaves. It's hardly surprising that it still appealed to slaves centuries later.

 

[steve_bank]

One of the things I found bizarrely interesting, after someone else mentioned it, is how many black Americans adopted the religion of the slavers.

Just kinda made me go Hmmmm?
Tom

The black Christianity is a distinct sect. A lot of hope in a glories afterlife. For a few hours in church on Sunday an escape from Jim Crow oppression. A positive black identity and self image.

You can hear it in the original gospel music like Mahalia Jackson. It is where America blues came from.

If you know the music Elvis was a gospel singer, his roots were in black gospel music. Aretha Franklin.

What opuzzles me are gay Christians.

 

[ideologyhunter]

There are all kinds of run-arounds you can use, if you want to shape your connection with a problematic text. How many majority-black churches have used the Bible's slavery passages in the liturgy? How often are those passages ever alluded to? Gay Christians...yeah, tough call, inasmuch as there's a death penalty attached to gayness in the good book. I've heard the fairly weak argument that Jesus never spoke about gayness, and preached universal love. Yeah, and he also invented the notion of a hell of torment, full of the sinners who went against his god. And non-secular Jews, reading the many genocide passages in the OT? Jews of all people have an agonizing sensitivity to what genocide means, but here's Jehovah demanding that his people practice it. There's some heavy lifting (or purposeful distraction) required in this religion racket.

 

[TomC]

Gay Christians...yeah, tough call, inasmuch as there's a death penalty attached to gayness in the good book. I've heard the fairly weak argument that Jesus never spoke about gayness, and preached universal love.

It's not that difficult.
Plenty of "straight but not narrow" Christians simply prioritize what Jesus said over what anyone else does. He said stuff like "Love your Neighbor" and "Don't Judge". Lots of people aren't full on literalist, especially when it comes to ethical codes.

Harder to grasp, for me, are the ones who ignore divorce. Jesus was pretty clear about that one.
Tom

 

[Politesse]

Hardly unusual for a Muslim to have a dream about one of the principal figures of their faith. But this man is, of course, lying.

 

[southernhybrid]

One of the things I found bizarrely interesting, after someone else mentioned it, is how many black Americans adopted the religion of the slavers.

Just kinda made me go Hmmmm?
Tom

I know what you mean. I had a Black woman do laser therapy on me after knee surgery. She and I had wonderful discussions. She told me that she had a hard time understanding why so many Black people were Christians for the same reason. She also told me that she really wanted to believe but couldn't. She seemed to be agnostic while leaning towards atheism. I told her I was an atheist who also couldn't believe, even if I had wanted to. I bought her a copy of Frederick Douglas's Narrative of a Slave. Douglas said in the book that the absolute worst slave owners were the Christian ones, especially those who were very religious. I hope she was able to read the book. It's a tough one emotionally, but very important for every American to read, imo.

Most of my Black friends and acquaintances are Christians, some are even evangelicals, but I also know a few Black atheists. I think the Christians mostly enjoy the community and the fact that the church was the center of the civil rights movement, and there is still a lot of charity going on in the Black church. I also think it's odd that most churches are racially segregated, although there is at least one in my town that is racially diverse. There is a Black woman in her late 80s who tries to exercise with us. She usually wears a little cap that says: "Jesus Saves". I have to control myself from asking her which bank Jesus saves at.

I think Douglas did go back to believing in a very liberal version of Christianity but he never became involved with organized religion after his experiences as a slave, if I remember correctly.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

One of the things I found bizarrely interesting, after someone else mentioned it, is how many black Americans adopted the religion of the slavers.

I'm trying to wonder if I find it bizarre that you find it bizarre and I also don't want to be sarcastic about it. I mean, the vast majority of humans on the planet end up believing the religion of the majority in the geography they belong to. There are institutional pressures.

If you do find something interesting there, I think it could be the contradiction that religion was often used to justify slavery or racism. BUT note that religion was also used to justify anti-racism to the slaves and their descendants. That's how contradictory religion works and I guess when one sees it in action, one can be fascinated by it. Historically, there were likely slavers who didn't want their "property" to go on thinking they had souls or to become literate--they wanted to keep the inequality--but there were also others who became missionaries and tried to convert the slaves and their descendants. If you think about it--what would Christianity provide--except to say, "hey you are equal" and also "you are in a simulation and your paradise comes later after the simulation ends. Have faith and hope." The same thing applies to all people who are being preached to--they are told (often by an elite person who can take advantage and get wealthy) that they are equals and in the afterlife they will have paradise. Whether slaves or not, uneducated masses who are held down are more susceptible to the message and we observe this statistically in population differences.

 

[TomC]

I'm trying to wonder if I find it bizarre that you find it bizarre and I also don't want to be sarcastic about it.

I suppose bizarre was a strong word. It seems a bit like Stockholm Syndrome, to me. In a huge way.

But humans are strange. It's just another episode of human history.
Tom