More Than A Prophet

My wife Laurie is working on her Masters Degree in Christian Apologetics at Biola University in California. One of her classmates is from Nigeria. When he found out that in November 2016 we were headed to Nigeria to teach seminar, he suggested that we visit him and that I debate a Muslim on the question of “Is Jesus God?” I agreed to the debate Sheikh Hussaini Yusuf Mabera who had written a booklet entitled “The Bible Says: Jesus is not God.” You can watch the video of the debate here.

My preparation for the debate included reading several books and scouring many websites, both Christian and Muslim, to get a feel for how to approach the topic. Although I’ve taught for years about the deity of Jesus, this was a special opportunity to speak to Muslims who have only heard what their polemicists have told them, namely that Jesus is not God, and that the Bible has been corrupted. The Qur’an has some verses that say God (“Allah”) has no Son, and that he does not share his glory with anyone. However, Islam reveres Jesus as a prophet.

My research and preparation for the debate prompted me to consider putting my findings into a book. When Laurie and I got back from Nigeria, I outlined a book with the working title More Than A Prophet, then proceeded to bury myself in my office writing text. When I came up for air a couple of months later, I had a 20-chapter book with two appendices, and roughly a 150-page book. While I was in Indonesia last mont, I put the finishing touches on the book, and now it is available through Amazon. You can find it here.

More Than A Prophet (subtitle, The Identity of Jesus from the Bible, Qur’an and Early Sources) is divided into three sections: (1) Attributes of God Ascribed to Jesus, (2) Who Jesus, His Followers and His Enemies said He Was, and (3) Questions Muslims Ask.

The book is intended to set forth the reasons why Jesus is “more than a prophet.” I argue that since both Christianity and Islam hold Jesus in high esteem as a prophet (although Christianity holds Him to be more than that), then Jesus’ words ought to be believed. I demonstrate that many of the titles and attributes (i.e., characteristics or unique qualities, such as being the “Giver of Life” and the ability to forgive sins) that both the Bible and the Qur’an say belong to God alone are also ascribed to Jesus. After documenting each example, I ask the question, “How can a title (or ability) that belongs to God alone according to the Bible and Qur’an be ascribed to Jesus if He is a mere prophet? This is my way of not only showing Christians how to demonstrate that Jesus is God, but it also puts the burden on the Muslim to explain why, over and over, Jesus is said to possess qualities that belong to God alone.

Some Muslims have been taught to say that where the Bible and the Qur’an disagree (such as on Jesus’ death on the cross and His resurrection, which Islam rejects) the Bible must have been corrupted. I cover this baseless excuse by pointing out that (1) the Qur’an makes no such claim, (2) some Muslim scholars do not accept the claim that the Bible has been corrupted, (3) the facts show that the Bible Muhammad had is the same one we have today, and, (4) the Qur’an says that God gave the Gospel (called Injil in Islam) to Christians as a guide to mankind.

When the excuse that “the Bible has been corrupted” has been taken off the table, Muslims are left to deal with the text of the New Testament, especially the Gospels (Muslims have a low view of Paul’s epistles). Using primarily the Gospels, More Than A Prophet presents a solid case from the testimony of Jesus’ followers, His enemies (which makes their testimony especially powerful) and from Jesus Himself that He is God. In addition, in order to refute the claim that it was not until the 4^th century that Christians began believing Jesus was God, I give several examples of early Christians (from A.D. 110 to ca 200) who state Jesus is God. Finally, I even present a letter from a Roman governor who acknowledged in about the year A.D. 113 that Christians worshiped Jesus as “a god.”

Since the Bible does, clearly, present Jesus as God, Muslims are taught to ask, “If Jesus is God, and He died on a cross, how could God die?” This, and several other common questions asked by Muslims about how Jesus can be God are answered in the book.

If you have an interest in understanding the Bible’s teaching about Jesus being God, or if you have an interest in knowing how to talk to Muslims about Jesus’ deity, you should find More Than A Prophet very helpful. I trust that it will answer questions for both Christians and Muslims so that the truth about the identity of Jesus will be understood and believed. Inshallah!

A Word from Uganda

I recently returned from my teaching trip to Kenya and Uganda. As I am recovering from jet lag, I wanted to share with you a recent email from our dear friend in Uganda who set up a radio interview for me and all my teaching opportunities in Uganda. 

Dr. Stewart,

Please forgive me for delaying to communicate with you since the end of your visit to Uganda. So many disruptions but you have been in our minds and my our prayers.

Your ministry was very impactive and a blessing to us! All the people were amazed at your great knowledge yet you are able to present simply and humbly! If you remember my adopted son Moses, he commented, "am surprised I could understand your professor! I thought his material would be too hard for me". Moses completed High School last year. You simplified your teaching so nicely that even the illiterate people in the villages understood and were blessed!

Dr. Stewart, am blessed to have met you. I loved your class, I love your ministry and godly life style. You have since become my mentor. Am proud of you as a Christian intellectual that is sold out to God. You are even willing to go to my audience in the villages and we were so blessed to have lunch with you in Makanga! The Lord will surely bless you, for you are like Him, reaching the poor and teaching the truth of His Kingdom.

My wife Esther was so blessed to host you in our humble home. Your visit really blessed us as a family. May be we will get time to go fishing next time you are in Uganda. We are praying that you come back next year. This time you will speak to bigger audiences and meet many people. Please extend my sincere appreciation to the donors.

Extend our love in Christ to Laurie and your daughters.

Your fellow servant of Christ,

Arthur Magezi.

Rev. Arthur Magezi, President, Christ Transformation Ministries http://ctmafrica.org/

Report from Uganda

Wednesday—(Oct 28) Conference in Makanga, Uganda

Arthur Magezi and I were driven in a beat-up car to the bush outside Kamuli, to an area called Makanga. It took one hour on marginal dirt roads to reach the Makanga, and we passed several small villages along the way. When we arrived at the church, I was not totally surprised at what I saw, since Arthur had told me that this was a new church plant in a very poor area, and there were presently no resources to build a church building.

The structure used for the Makanga church consisted of thick branches used as posts, and more branches for the frame. The roof was palm leafs, and the structure was perfectly suitable to keep the congregation and me out of the sun. Given the porous nature of the roof (there were a few places where you could look up and see the sky), I was glad it did not rain, because we would have all gotten wet to some degree, not a desirable situation when everyone has open Bibles!

The majority of 35 or so who attended were pastors and Christian leaders that came from a long way, and needed assistance to get to the conference. Motorcycles are the least expensive way to travel long distances in the bush, and motorcycle taxis are everywhere. Also, Arthur’s son Moses drove Arthur’s vehicle to ferry many who attended to the meeting.

I taught about God, the Bible and Jesus, with my teaching translated into Kiswahili. It was a joy to see their eyes light up as I explained how God created us, then sin became humanity’s problem, and how the rest of the Bible tells how God planned fix the sin problem through the Messiah.  I laid out the prophecies of the Bible that gave more and more specific details of who the Messiah will be. Finally, I came to the New Testament and showed how Jesus fulfilled the prophecies, and did miracles to demonstrate His spiritual authority. I highlighted that the ultimate proof that Jesus’ death on the cross saves all who believe was His resurrection from the dead.

There were some wonderful ladies who prepared lunch for all attending, cooked over a wood fire. It was my second time in two days eating goat meat. I explained to Arthur that probably the only place in the U.S. where you can find goat meat is in authentic Mexican restaurants. Arthur told me that the average Ugandan who lives in the bush maybe gets meat once per month, either goat or chicken. Thus, our lunch, which included Ugandan rice, potatoes and ugali (a dish commonly eaten by poor people in Kenya) was a feast for most who were present.

After lunch there was a time of praise and worship, and just like in neighboring Kenya, these Christians knew how to sing and dance. It was delightful to watch, and I only imagined how the Lord must delight in the praises of these people. I told them I would like to bring them to America to show us new ways to praise the Lord.

I spent some time answering questions. All the questions were good ones, and it gave me more opportunity to emphasize God’s plan for His people, and how we need to read and study the Bible to obtain the details of how Christians and the church are supposed to function. Without using the term, I ended up presenting a basic course in Christian apologetics, that aspect of evangelism that deals with the reasons why Christianity is true. I repeatedly used the terms “fact” and “evidence” as I explained that what sets Christianity apart from other “religions” is that Christianity stands or falls on the facts of Jesus life, death and resurrection, and that while other religions are efforts of man to reach God, Christianity is God reaching us.

 Thank you for your prayers.

My Ninth Trip to Kenya

On short notice I was asked by my old friend, Bishop Samuel Munai, to be a keynote speaker at a three-day conference at Lake Nakuru, Kenya for a thousand pastors. Laurie gave me the “okay,” and on August 21 I left for Kenya, East Africa, for my ninth mission trip to Kenya.

My previous trips had been to teach at Manna Bible Institute outside Nairobi, Kenya, appear on radio and television, and consult regarding the formation of a Christian Law Program at Africa Nazarene University. Last year I also spoke to around 600 people at a pastors’ conference for the Nairobi Region for the Pentecostal Evangelistic Fellowship of Africa (“PEFA”), an African denomination with over a hundred churches in greater Nairobi. This year was the semi-annual conference for all PEFA pastors in Kenya, and there are some 3,000 PEFA churches in Kenya.

I arrived in Nairobi late Saturday night, August 22, and spoke to over 1,000 people the next morning at South B All Nations Gospel Church in Nairobi. Monday was a three-hour drive (if you leave early enough to beat the traffic) from Nairobi to Kabarak University at Lake Nakuru.

One of three speakers at the plenary sessions, I was asked to speak on “Evidence That Demands a Verdict.” My Monday message set the stage: “Christianity’s Future in an Anti-Christian World.” On Tuesday the topic was “The Case for the Bible,” and on Wednesday, “The Case for Jesus.” I also spoke at workshops on Tuesday and Wednesday, teaching on “The Trinity,” “Lost Books of the Bible,” and “Pastoral Ministry in the 21^st Century.”

After my keynote addresses, some gave me the nickname “Verdict,” because the messages ended with the verdicts, based on the evidence, that the Bible is reliable and that Jesus is the Christ, the Savior of the world. It turns out that around 1,300 pastors (including a few wives) attended the conference. There was significant response to the messages, and my call to bring apologetics (“evidence why Christianity is true”) back to churches, Sunday schools, Bible schools and seminaries. Many wanted copies of my power points that I had prepared that I showed to the audience to illustrate my points.

Upon my return to Nairobi, I met for a long time with my friend, Bishop George Muguro, who was one of my students in the Doctoral program I taught in June at Multnomah Biblical Seminary in Portland, Oregon. George had tremendous insight as to why PEFA needs to incorporate apologetics in its curriculum at all levels, or else many young people and the educated will fall away or will not come in the first place if church services focus on emotion to the detriment of thinking, reason and evidence. Although the churches in Kenya are not that much different from the churches in America, in that the average American Christian cannot give well-thought-out answers to skeptics’ questions any better than Kenyan Christians can, Kenya has yet to be bombarded with the anti-Christian sentiments that are rampant in America. However, the universities in Kenya have the potential to become the seed-bed for doubt, skepticism, agnosticism and atheism just like they are in the United States.

My visit paved the way to pursue placing trained Christian apologists at Kenyan universities to defeat the anti-Christian teachings before they take root. This is the vision of Ratio Christi, and we ask for your prayers as we pursue the training and calling of apologists to the universities in Kenya in order to strengthen believers and to reach out to those don’t believe or who have misconceptions about Christianity. Please join Laurie and me as we target universities in Kenya and around the world, as we seek to redeem campuses from anti-Christian attitudes that undermine the gospel, changing them to places where, in the marketplace of ideas, the truth of Christianity is freely and fairly presented.

Off to Kenya in a few days!

I returned July 27 from the Philippine Islands where I lead a team of Christian apologists (those who give reasons why Christianity is true), conducting a conference in Manila followed by an academy for those interested in learning more.

Now that I have re-adjusted to the 13-time zone difference between the Philippines and Iowa, I am preparing for a trip next week to Kenya.

This trip to Kenya, my seventh, will be my first without Laurie, who is still getting her new office set up now that she has established her own law and mediation practice here in Iowa.

I will be a keynote speaker at a pastors’ conference at Lake Nakuru, four hours north and west of Nairobi. I am told they expect up to 1,200 pastors and wives at the conference, where I will be speaking about the certainty of Christianity in an uncertain age.

I’ve been invited to preach at a church in South B, a community that has middle class (for Kenya) homes on one side and a slum on the other. The last time I spoke at this church, there were about 700 people in a building that accommodates 600. It is a blessing to see such a desire for believers to come together for worship, even when there is standing room only for late arrivers. I do recall vividly my last time preaching at South B, because at the very moment I was speaking, about two miles away a church was bombed by terrorists, resulting in one death and many injuries.

With terrorism rampant in Kenya, and with bad water, bad roads, malaria and the threat of the Ebola virus, why go to Africa? The simple answer is “because I was invited, and because training Christian leaders to understand, proclaim and defend their faith is my calling.”

I don’t look forward to the 24 hours it takes to get to Kenya, nor would it be my first choice to spend another 10 days away from Laurie. But when given the opportunity to change lives and help change a country, I don’t see it as a daunting task, but rather a humbling privilege. Please pray for effectiveness as I challenge hundreds of Christian leaders to be ready to give reasons for their hope in Christ (1 Peter 3:15) and open the door for the ministry of Ratio Christi (“the reason of Christ”) that places trained Christian apologists on university campuses throughout the world.

Thanks for your interest in and support of Rolling Stone Ministries.

Bwana asifiwe (“praise the Lord” in Swahili).

West Africa Update

 Laurie and I got back late Tuesday night, and despite the ordeals that accompany travel to Africa, we were exceedingly blessed on this mission trip. It was our second trip to West Africa, our first trip being in November 2012. That mission was so well received that we were asked to return, with Laurie being asked to train Christian lawyers in biblical peacemaking while I would again teach Christian leaders evidence for the truth of Christianity ("apologetics").

As we previously shared in an email blast before we left, Laurie was expecting twenty or so Christian lawyers to attend her class, and even that would have been a good turnout, given lawyers' busy schedules, and since the class was all day Monday through Friday. It turns out around 125 lawyers attended, and the response was beyond expectations. The final day of teaching ended with a ceremony lead by a High Court judge who was sad that he was only able to attend one day of Laurie's seminar. The executive committee of the lawyers is already planning for Laurie to come back and provide advanced peacemaking and mediation training for the lawyers.

I had the privilege of teaching more than 25 Christian leaders from all over Nigeria on "The Case for God, the Bible and Jesus." I created three power point presentations and brought my own projector so that there were no technical issues. The response was tremendous, and the students asked if I could send them my power point presentation via email when I returned to the U.S., which I have done.

I also had the privilege of sharing the vision of Ratio Christi, the campus apologetics ministry that brought me in as the International Director. Our host at the facility where I taught invited the Chairman of a large Christian association to meet with me. I shared with him the vision of Ratio Christi, and how we are committed to reversing the statistic that half or more of professing Christians who enter the university walking away from their faith before they graduate. This man was so receptive that he picked up his cell phone and called the president of his denomination, which is three million strong. I was invited us right over to the headquarters and was able to share with him, too, the vision of bringing apologetics and a renaissance of Christian thinking to the campuses of West Africa and to the churches.

During our time in West Africa we spent several hours in meetings with a local man who is taking his training in apologetics in the U.S. at Luther Rice University in Atlanta. He wants to serve as coordinator of Ratio Christi in this particular country, so he is my "feet on the ground" in my absence. We are in the process of formulating plans for a return trip that will include an Apologetics Conference, and formal training for students and Christian leaders who want to learn apologetics, which is a species of evangelism.

I will only give you the highlights of the trials and blessings of traveling to and from West Africa. We were flying from Des Moines to Atlanta with a stopover in Charlotte, North Carolina, before flying to West Africa. When we arrived in Charlotte we found out our flight to Atlanta was cancelled, meaning we would miss our connecting flight to Africa. We spent about three hours on cell phones trying to find alternatives, and the only way we could be in on Monday morning to teach our respective students was to fly from Charlotte to JFK in New York early the next morning, then fly all night to West Africa. We booked those flights, at an additional cost of around $1,500. The bad news was that all our luggage, including 135 textbooks for Laurie's class, had been sent on to Atlanta. Thankfully, with moments to spare, our luggage arrived at JFK just after we did, and we were able to keep our teaching schedule, albeit with no sleep Saturday night.

On our return from West Africa, the attorney who coordinated Laurie's event knew how chaotic it is to make domestic airline connections in their country, so he asked his brother-in-law to help us. It turns out that his brother is in the military and works at the International Airport, and he and two of his friends, in uniform, escorted us through the security lines like we were royalty or rockstars. It was almost surreal, but such a huge blessing.

We thank you for your prayers and support that enables us to fulfill our calling. We will provide more details after we catch our breath, which may take a couple of weeks because next week I am speaking at an apologetics conference in Vancouver, Canada, and Laurie is assisting with a marriage mediation in Spokane, Washington while I am in Canada.

Great News regarding West Africa!

Good news--In a certain country in West Africa in 2013 fewer Christians were martyred than were killed in 2012, the toll reduced from 800 to 600. Better news, in response to persecution at the hands of a radical Muslim group, Christian lawyers in the epicenter of violence against Christians, have determined to create a mediation center to employ biblical principles of peacemaking in order to bring reconciliation, alleviate the violence, and present the love of Jesus as the answer to hate and revenge. Great news--an estimated 125 Christian attorneys will be spending a week this month learning the basics of biblical peacemaking and conflict resolution. The fantastic news is that Laurie will be doing the teaching! Later this month, Laurie and I return to West Africa where I will be teaching around 15 key Christian leaders and evangelists while across town Laurie will be training the lawyers. We are excited about our return to Africa, and now with a further opportunity to introduce  Ratio Christi to West Africa (Ratio Christi, "Reason of Christ" in Latin, is a campus apologetic alliance that has called me to be the International Director). Secularism is growing in Africa, and the prospect of having trained apologists (defenders of the faith) on each university to counteract secularism and atheism is exciting. Thanks in advance for your prayers, and we look forward to bringing you a special report when we return to let you know how the Lord used Laurie and me through Rolling Stone Ministries to make a huge impact in one of the most heavily persecuted countries in the world, but a country that is ripe for the Prince of Peace to change the hearts and minds of the nation.