From: PENDITA@aol.com Date: Wed, 7 May 2003 10:29:20 EDT Subject: Fwd: ISLAM VS. CHRISTIANITY ISLAM VS. CHRISTIANITY This is some pretty heavy stuff, for such a short piece. I'm not sure how much more profound one can get. This quote is from an interview with Attorney General John Ashcroft by Cal Thomas: People are always asking me (Cal Thomas) if there are good leaders in Washington. There are. There are quite a few, but you don't often hear about them because many of them aren't engaging in scandalous or self-serving activities. One such good person is Attorney General John Ashcroft. I had the pleasure of interviewing him again this week for a column I'm writing. During the interview, Ashcroft said something so profound, I wanted to share it with you. The Attorney-General of the United States said: "Islam is a religion in which God requires you to send your son to die for him." "Christianity is a faith in which God sent his Son to die for you." From: PENDITA@aol.com Date: Fri, 22 Aug 2003 23:47:10 EDT Subject: Unique Testimony of a former Indonesian Moslem. Jesus visited me in prison. On one occasion President Megawati was on-the-job visiting in the Lampung region. Among the people who were assigned to welcome the president was a retired military officer. Even though there are some wrinkles on his face, you still can see his heroic military appearance. Coincidentally, when Megawati was passing the escort on the front line, Madam Megawati paused for a moment while she observed the man who was standing straight in military salute position. She tried to remember all her memories of him from the past. Hi, uncle! “Why are you here?” asked Madam Mega after she already recalled who he was. And she asked him again, what are you doing now? He said:” I am God's servant in this region.” Oh, that is very good, she said. This event happened to R. Moch. Erwin Soetikno, SH. When he was still active in military. He was the president‘s personal escort. That’s why Erwin had a close relationship with former president Soekarno’s children and even with Megawati. Its still lingering in his memory the time he spent together with Megawati and her siblings, he even volunteered himself to pretend to be a horse and let the Presidents children ride on his back. But everything changed after the political mayhem in 1965. Without allegation, Erwin was cast into military custody. Anyway this scenario was part of the will of God in his life, because through his experience in the custody he was able to see Jesus in person. How did he yield his life to Christ? This testimony was quoted from general chairman ”Mawar dari Saron” (Rose from Sharon) and recited again by Purnawan Kristanto. He came to know Jesus in the midst of his loneliness behind bars in the military regional command 08, Brawijaya:” My loneliness arose because I live afar from my wife and children. To quench such feelings, I tried to borrow a book from one of the corporals in custody and his name is Yohanes. Unfortunately, he has none, the one and only book he has is the Bible. There is no other choice but to accept his offer and in only 40 days I finished reading the whole Bible from old testaments to new testaments. I notice that a lot of verses in the Bible really hit deep down to my core beliefs. However, this curiosity inspired my spirit to know more about the Bible. I became uneasy after I read the verse in John 14: 6 say “I am the way, the truth and the life no one comes to the Father except by me.” Its more than a year (from > August 11, 1968 to June 10, 1969) I have nothing to do but read the Bible. Since, I am a very fanatic person and intently explored the holy book. After this long period to study about the bible, eventually I found the answer that I needed and it totally changed my point of view about Christianity. I do not consider them as heathen anymore. On the contrary, I want to learn how to pray in the Christian way. Jesus visited me in prisoner custody. Since then, every day after I woke up and before I go to bed or before and after eating I always prayed the Lords Prayer, because I don’t know the other prayers yet only the Lords Prayer. In 1969 at noontime, I experienced a marvelous phenomenon scene, I was lying down on my bed and suddenly I saw a brilliant light enter my room. In the midst of the light I saw Jesus stretching out his hand and the scars are still there toward me as if giving me a blessing. This scene went away in the twinkling of an eye. I am positively sure that he is Jesus; because his face looks like the picture I have seen before when I was in high school. After I saw him appearing, I have more courage to be his follower. It seems to me, I learned the bible directly from him. I deem to consider that some verses in the Bible are very powerful, e.g. Matthew 17:20 says, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can move a mountain. I fasted for 50 days to steadfast my faith. I made a vow to the Lord that I would be a Christian if I would be freed without verdict. On June 10, 1969, I fulfilled my promise because I was released and was free indeed. My wife wanted to get a divorce. After being a freedman, I went to my hometown to be united with my wife and children. One day when we were eating together, my wife startled looking at me praying in unusual way. At that moment, I did not have any choice anymore except to be honest to her that I am already Christian. She was so angry and left the table right away. She intended to go home to her parents house. Furthermore, she even proposed to get a divorce. She considers our marriage as annulled because I renounced my former belief. Fortunately her parents disagreed with her proposal, they even reminded her that if she insisted getting a divorce, she would be cast out of their house. According to Lampung Seputih tradition, which is my wife’s original town. Divorce has never been allowed. My wife and I had been separated for more than 3 years. And eventually she came home to be reunited with me again. Even though we had already been together I never insisted that she should follow my belief, rather she has a freedom to perform her own religious acts instead. Meanwhile, my faith in Christianity kept growing. In 1970, I enrolled in the bible school in Surabaya. After I finished my school, I was ordained as a Pastor at GPI (Indonesian Pentecostal Church) in North Sumatra. Nonetheless my wife still remains faithful to her belief. Its a very challenging situation to me. Sometimes she threw a tantrum at our kids because they attended Sunday school. Furthermore she kept asking me to renounce my faith to Christ and follow her belief. I tried to convince her about the truth of the word of God but she still hardened her heart for any reason. She started to change a little bit in her action, when our children were already in junior high school. She will not persecute our children anymore. Otherwise, she started learning how to pray. My wife wanted to be baptized. Until October 1984 my wife is still asking me when I will renounce my faith and follow her again. Without hesitate I answer her: ”tomorrow, during our breakfast time!” In response to my answer she even challenge me, why not tonight? I accepted her challenge. On that very night I asked her to gather all her siblings and immediate family to witness what I am going to say, I quoted a verse from her holy book. In this verse it says that I can have more than one wife. So I challenge her that I will renounce my faith if you allow me to have more than one wife. She did not even say a word only her eyes were staring at me to prove that she disagreed with what I said. One month later after this incident she surprised me with her request that she wanted to be baptized. Anyhow she requested that the baptism would not be performed by me and not in the Lampung region. She chose one of my best students in the GPI Bible School to baptize her. At that time I was already a pastor for the Lampung region, South Sumatra, Padang and Riau. On November 14, 1984, eventually my wife became a follower of Christ by giving herself to be baptized in the pool of Caltex Pacific Indonesia, Rumba - Pekanbaru, Riau. Being a pious wife Since then, my wife has been a very pious Christian, aggressive and even can memorize almost the whole Bible; in comparison to my capability to memorize she is better than me. She is the person to ask when I couldn’t recall the verse I needed in the Bible; we even fast and pray together. Even though she is not really involved in the ministry, she often testified the love of Christ upon her life wherever she was. As a result, many of the Lampung indigenous came to know Christ; one of them is Reverend Siti Umayah. After all, my wife became a very joyful and supportive Christian to my ministry and until the end of her life she was still faithful to Christ. On December 11, 1999, when my wife was on her bed, she gave up her spirit in peace to the Lord without suffering any pain. Now, I am a chairman “Rose from Sharon” (Mawar dari Saron); its an organization with an interest in serving more than 116 servants of God to obtain the scholarship in Lampung, Bengkulu, Jambi, South Sumatra and Java vicinities. And now, I have committed my whole life only for His glory. Amen. God Bless. Revelation 3:11 “Behold I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown.” 08:08 18-10-03 eof