Conversion To Christianity: A Missionary Deception

M S M Saifullah

www.answering-christianity.com

November 22, 1999

PDF by: www.esnips.com/user/Jam2000
 Conversion To Christianity: A Missionary
Deception
M S M Saifullah

Introduction

The Christian missionary efforts in preaching the Gospel are hardly worthy of emulation. Ever since
the appearance of Islam on the world stage and the first sighting of tribes (or natives) of the New
World, the crusade to convert the whole world to Christianity was accompanied by the unholy means
of deception, exploitation and persecution.

The exploitation of the indigenous tribal people by the resource-hungry invaders called the Christian
missionaries, has amounted to the persecution of the most ruthless and relentless kind, including the
theft of the tribal land, the stripping of their forest in the name of 'development', the destruction of
their cultures, and the wholesale enslavement of their populace. This enslavement continues without
abatement by the evangelizing ambassadors of Christianity - the missionaries.

In this document, we will be concerned with the deceptive tactics and exploitation used by the
Christian missionaries when it came to preaching the 'gospel' to Muslims or the indigenous people. The
detailed study of the issues like persecution of the indigenous tribal people can be found in specialized
Conversion To Christianity: A Missionary Deception | 11/22/1999

books on cultural anthropology which the reader can refer to in the libraries.

Muslim & The Christian Missionary

Before reading the below quotes, let have a look at the lecture by Shaykh Salmân al-Awdah talking
about Christian Missionaries Sweeping the Islamic World. This lecture by the Shaykh deals with
various deceptive tactics used by the Christian missionaries to convert unsuspecting and ignorant
Muslims to Christianity. The deceptive tactics of the missionaries include misquoting of the Islamic
sources, building churches that look similar to mosques, doing Christian ceremonies on Fridays
purposefully and not on Sundays, and use of natural disasters to forcefully convert poor and helpless.

According to the Christian missionaries, this page is a:

(The Islamic Paranoia Page) If only we would have as much impact as he believes Christians have.

In order to verify who exactly is paranoid, we refer to a book called Islam And Christian Witness by
Martin Goldsmith, who lectures at All Nations Christian College. This book was given to us a few years
ago. It was published by OM Publishing, Carlisle, UK. In a gist, this book is all about how to convert

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Muslims to Christianity in the Islamic world using the deceptive ways exactly as mentioned by Shaykh
Salmân al-Awdah in his lecture.

Without beating around the bush let us quote a few paragraphs from the chapter "How To Witness".
Let us start with the Prayer.

Orthodox Muslims place great emphasis on the importance of prayer timings. If they are strict in their
religion, they will put other things aside at the prayer times in order to pray. It is vital to realize that
the Christian also believes in it and practices it. In some cases, it may even be helpful if we can join
the Muslim in prayer, so that they actually hear the Christian communing with God through Jesus
Christ.

Muslims pray regularly five times a day at the set times of prayer, to which they are
summoned by the call to the prayer. This call is always made by human voice, and never
with the use of musical instruments or bells. [1]

And later on the author states:

...and there is no need to export the use of church bells, which may be easily exchanged for
a human voice calling believers to pray worship and pray. [2]

The high point of the Muslim prayer is the act of prostration in which the Muslim kneels
before God with forehead bowed to ground. In the Bible too we have accounts of people

Conversion To Christianity: A Missionary Deception | 11/22/1999

who demonstrated their worship and awe at the presence of God in similar fashion. Should
Christian prayer in a Muslim society practise such agreed ritual movement? [3]

The Church in a Muslim context must ask whether it is helpful for prayer to be made in the
symbolic direction of Jerusalem. Muslims must pray towards Mecca; Daniel directed his
prayers with his face towards Jerusalem; should the Muslim convert follow the example of
Daniel? [4]

There are a few interesting ideas about the way a “Mosque” should be modeled

Should the actual building of the Church be more akin to a Mosque? Are the usual European
fashions a necessity? Do we need seats in the Church? Must the focal point be a table or a
pulpit? Do we need a special lectern? [5]

In the conclusion of the chapter "The Muslim Convert" the author states:

In coming years we may see new Christian Churches which are outwardly as closely as akin
to Muslim Mosques as the early Christians were to their Jewish Synagogue background. [6]

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 And how to deceptively go for Hajj and do Sacrifice

Summary of New Methods

Some of the festivals are based on the annual pilgrimage to
used by missionaries:
Mecca with its particular background and theological
implications. Some aspects may be celebrated with an eye to • Misguiding, making similar,
their fulfillment in Christ, but many Christians would not feel and lying. Many books have
been written for Muslims
happy to endorse all that the pilgrimage stands for Islam. [7]

describing Christian beliefs

in Islamic terminology.
And a few thoughts about the month of Ramadan itself
• Building churches that look
similar to mosques.
And then comes the question of the fast month. In connection with • Names: they started using
prayer, fasting is encouraged in the New Testament. Jesus gives Islamic names e.g. Allama
teaching on a snare of pride in fasting and the dangers of Ibraheem Yusuf in Pakistan.
sanctimonious piety, but true fasting has a significant place in • not to tell Muslims things as
they are.
Christian devotion. Is it permissible to introduce a fast month
• The use of Islamic
along Muslim lines into a Christian Church? Of course, it must
expressions such as
be voluntary and practised in conjunction with prayer. [8]
"bismilalhi Al-Rahmani Al-
raheem", "Eessa Alaihi
In some strongly Muslim countries conversion from Islam into assalam", "Allah subhanah",
another faith is tantamount to suicide. Those who come to faith in "Allah tabarak wa tawala"
Jesus Christ must therefore make a radical decision. They can make • Making concessions to win
Muslims e.g. worshiping on
an open confession of Jesus as the Lord and Saviour, be baptised and
Friday instead of Sunday.
then probably die the death of a martyr. Otherwise they may
•
Conversion To Christianity: A Missionary Deception | 11/22/1999

Accepting the principle of

perhaps be able to flee the country, find anonymity in Europe and polygamy.
North America and there develop a true Christian life. But they then • They say that many
also loose contact with their own people and have no testimony to Muslims have changed to
them. This second alternative is generally open to the wealthier and
Christianity and they have
written books etc.
more educated. Many ordinary people eschew the first alternative
• Taking the children from
and cannot afford the second. They opt for a third possibility, their parents and raising
namely, to continue the outward forms of Islam while adding in their them according to Christian
hearts a new spiritual dimension based on a person and work of belief.
Jesus Christ. [9] • Changing Education
Curriculums in Islamic
Countries, this has been
And with regards to wolf dressed in sheep's skin, the author states
done in Pakistan and Egypt.
• The use of Natural disasters,
After an initial period, however, they may develop sufficient
wars, floods etc.
spiritual maturity to enjoy having their Christian faith dressed • Making conditions easy for
in Islamic cultural garb. [10]
new converts from Islam to
Christianity.

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In other words, the ideas of deception are in fact coming straight from the horse's mouth and then put
into practice by his fellow-men. The Shaykh did not invent the statements and neither did other
Muslims.

We should also emphasize that this deception was not an "original" idea of Martin Goldsmith. Arthur
French, a Christian missionary, wrote about the methodology of "Christianizing" Muslims in India some
80 years ago using a similar deception. He said:

If we are insistent in urging the claims of "specialized" Missions, let it be remembered that until Arabic
is conquered Islam remains. Islam is wedded to Arabic in indissoluble bonds till death do them apart,
either the death of Arabic or the death of Islam. Arabic must be Christianised, if we were to win Islam.
Islam must be won, if we were to win India.

Christian Arabic Prayers, Hymns, Liturgies, Lectionaries; the Five Hours of Prayers; the Call
to Prayer; Churches furnished more in Mosque-fashion and erected in Sarcen style; these
are the methods which Missions to Moslems need. We have to take over from Islam all that
we can with the least possible dislocation. [11]

Dr. Abdullâh Hâkim Quick writing in the magazine The Message on his recent trip to East Africa says:
c

I was shocked when I returned from East Africa in May to find Muslim families in a desperate struggle
to save their children from leaving their homes and their faith! In Kenya, the Pope and the forces of
Christianity vowed last year to change Africa into a Christian continent by the year 2000 CE. Crosses

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with red fluorescent lighting are being raised on the skyline of Mombasa, Kenya and other traditionally
Islamic cities. In Mirti (Northeastern Kenya), Muslim youth are being called to a Christian
worship center called "Makkah Center," which is shaped like a masjid, five times a day.

An example of open deception on the WWW can be found here where one can find "suggestions" for
using the Qur'ân in the Muslim Convert Church. Interestingly, Christian missionaries talk about being
guided by Holy Spirit. Whether it is the God or Devil of Deception is anybody's conclusion!

"The Panare Killed Jesus Christ, Because They Were Wicked"

To misrepresent another religion for fear of people converting is one thing, but to do so to one's own
in the hope of gaining converts is another. Christian missionaries, unable to convince the Panare
Indians of the Colorado valley to accept faith in Jesus Christ took to compiling books for the natives to
read in their mother tongue, this was accomplished during 1975 and 1976. [12]
The compiling of the
books presented certain linguistic problems, solved in the end in a very cunning fashion.

The problems arose because there are no equivalents in Panare for many words held as basic to the
concept of the Christian religion. There are none, for example, for sin, guilt, punishment and

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 redemption. Since Panare tribe lived as an isolated society in the forests for thousands of years, it is
impossible to have famines, plagues were unrecorded and the wars that shaped our history were
reduced to a ceremonial skirmish. The biblical dramas, therefore, were hardly more than shadow
plays. [13]

It was soon realized, however, that before the Indians could be made to accept repentance and
salvation - both equally obscure concepts to the Panare - one had to give them something to feel
guilty about. The missionaries came up with an ingenious, yet underhand, solution - translate and re-
edit the New Testament in such a way so as to implicate the Panare Indians in Jesus' death! Gone
from the Bible were Judas's betrayal, the Romans, the trial, and Pontius Pilate. The text now read at
the appropriate places:

The Panare killed Jesus Christ

because they were wicked.

Let's kill Jesus Christ, said the Panare.

The Panare seized Jesus Christ.

The Panare killed in this way.

The laid a cross on the ground.

Conversion To Christianity: A Missionary Deception | 11/22/1999

They fastened his hands and his feet

against the wooden beams, with nails.

They raised him straight up, nailed.

The man died like that, nailed.

Thus the Panare killed Jesus Christ [14]

It is clear that if this could create the feelings of guilt, nothing could. Now there was a talk of God's
vengeance for the dreadful deed. The re-edited New Testament continued:

God will burn you all,

burn all the animals, burn also the earth,

the heavens, absolutely everything.

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He will burn also the Panare themselves.

God will exterminate the Panare by throwing them on the fire.

It is a huge fire.

I am going to hurl the Panare into the fire, said God.

.....

God is good.

'Do you want to be roasted in the fire?' asks God.

'Do you have something to pay me with so that I won't roast you in the fire?

What is it you're going to pay me?' [15]

One does not have to think hard in order to realize what payment was being demanded; namely,
unquestioning submission to the missionaries' demands, the abandonment of their traditional lives and
their customs, and the acceptance of Christianity. The Indians were terrified. The first Indian woman
came forward and said:

".... I don't want to burn in the big fire. I love Jesus."

Conversion To Christianity: A Missionary Deception | 11/22/1999

.... Here we had sat for almost a year teaching one believer and nothing else happening and all of a
sudden WOW! [16]

It seems it was a common practice among the Christian missionaries to accuse Indians of killing the
Christ.

David Stoll, writing in SIL in Peru, describes a missionary teacher calling his Amuesha congregations
Jews 'because they did not have faith and were killing Jesus'. [17]

From the present discussion, it would seem that the Bible will be 'translated' for the benefit of winning
the souls even if it requires gross deception and misrepresentation of the scripture itself.

In the Gospel according to John, chapter six, Jesus is reported to have said: "I am the bread of
(P)

life." In the time of Jesus at least, and probably even today in the Middle East, bread is the "staple
(P)

of life", it is essential and it is available even to the poor. It is a 'relatively cheap' food. If the Bible
translators would translate something like that into the tribal languages of Papua New Guinea literally,
what would these people think? In these countries, 'bread' is something only the rich can afford. If

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 they read "I am the bread of life," they would immediately think "Oh, Jesus is not for me, I can't
afford to become a Christian... " and this would mean a complete miscommunication. In Papua New
Guinea the staple food is sweet-potato. And therefore this verse would be best translated by the
missionary standards as "I am the sweet-potato of life" as well as communion/eucharist is
celebrated with sweet-potato instead of bread. This way the meaning would be "preserved" and
convey what Jesus "meant" albeit the original text is re-edited. It is available for all, it is life
(P)

essential, since for those people a meal without sweet-potato is not a complete meal. Perhaps for the
Chinese, Jesus would be the "rice of life". And to win the souls of some Russian drunks, a
(P)

translation of Jesus being the "vodka of life" would be perfect!

(P)

This explains many of the problems within Christianity; they can't make up their mind on the
translation of their scripture as much as the actual extent of their scripture. And above all the
deception of any kind is exercised to win converts.

Weapons & Wine: A Case Of Tahiti

In 1795 the London Missionary Society was formed, its immediate attention focused upon the Pacific;
two years later a convict ship bound for Australia put the first missionaries ashore on Tahiti. It was
four years before any of them learned enough of the local language to be able to preach a sermon to a
puzzled though sympathetic audience. The Tahitians built houses for them, fed them, and provided
them with servants galore, but after seven years not a single convert to Christianity had been gained.
The missionaries opted for a more brutal tactic and gained the upper hand by helping to reduce the
Conversion To Christianity: A Missionary Deception | 11/22/1999

local chief called Pomare to an alcoholic and then offered him backing in a war against other islands
chiefs by supplying firearms (the enemy having only wooden clubs to defend themselves). But Pomare
would be backed in a war against the other island chiefs on the understanding that:

his victory would be followed by enforced conversion. Since Pomare was supplied with firearms to be
used against its opponents' clubs, victory was certain. 'The whole nation', Orsmond wrote, 'was
converted in a day.' [18]

With their power base firmly established in Tahiti, the missionaries moved swiftly to the outer islands.
The methods they employed were as before. A local chieftain would be baptized, crowned king,
introduced to large quantities of alcohol and left to the work of converting his own people. Chieftains
who put up any form of opposition were quickly shown the might of the missionary forces. Where no
resistance was found, a native teacher supported by a half dozen missionary police would take over an
island within a week. [19]
What a way to love your neighbour!

Conclusion

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The present discussion has dealt with in the deceptive tactics used by the Christian missionaries to
gain converts. The deceptive tactics would involve imitation of the religious ideas of other faiths, gross
mistranslation of the Bible even if it involves tampering with the 'word' of God and to persecute people
to win the souls for Jesus . Commenting on the book of Norman Lewis, The Missionaries: God
(P)

Against The Indians, the famous writer Graham Greene said:

In the recent years we have found it easy to laugh at the American television evangelists...
but until I read Mr. Lewis's remarkable book I had no idea of the danger to human life
which they represent. [20]

And Allah knows best!

WWW Sites Dealing With The Dishonest Christian Missionary Tactics

• The Muslim's Guide To Missionary Tactics

• Hot Times In North America

• Exposing TV Evangelism

But is it only the Muslims who are saying that? Why not check out what the Jews
say:

Conversion To Christianity: A Missionary Deception | 11/22/1999

• The Jewish Guide To Missionary Tactics

References

[1] Martin Goldsmith, Islam & Christian Witness, OM Publishing, Carlisle (UK), p. 113.

[2] Ibid., p. 135.

[3] Ibid., p. 134.

[4] Ibid., p. 135.

[5] Ibid.

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 [6] Ibid., p. 137.

[7] Ibid., p. 132.

[8] Ibid., pp. 135-136.

[9] Ibid., pp. 130-131.

[10] Ibid., p. 136.

[11] Arthur J. P. French, "The Problem Of Islam In India (A Discussion Of "Methods")", 1916, The
Moslem World, Volume 6, p. 11.

[12] Norman Lewis, The Missionaries: God Against The Indians, 1988, McGraw-Hill Publishing
Company, p. 208.

[13] Ibid., adapted from p. 209.

[14] Ibid., p. 210.

[15] Ibid., p. 210-211.

[16] Ibid. p. 211.

Conversion To Christianity: A Missionary Deception | 11/22/1999

[17] Ibid., p. 210, see footnotes.

[18] Ibid., p. 4.

[19] Ibid., see a detailed discussion on the missionaries' tactics from pp. 4-8.

[20] Ibid., see the review on the back flap of the book.