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| Note added January 29, 2021. In what follows, I was encouraged by the concern that Indian pastors in Durban, South Africa, had for the honor of the name of the Lord Jesus. Wherever they are in the world, Indian Christians are a minority; certainly this is the case in India itself. Yet they are willing to be faithful to the Lord in spite of opposition and misunderstanding. May God bless our Indian Christian brothers and sisters in Christ. |
From the Easter
Day 2015 sermon of Erlo Stegen
at KwaSizabantu, South Africa:
|
Here in Durban
there was a radical Muslim, Ahmed Deedat. He was
determined to conquer South Africa. He founded the IPCI, and held large
meetings where he said that Christianity was wrong, Jesus never died and never
rose from the dead and made many other inflammatory claims. He held many
debates against Christians. In one such a debate he said that Jesus never
claimed that He would rise from the dead. It was simply fabricated by Paul and
Paul made it popular. Many Christians didn't know how to answer him, but Josh
McDowell answered him that Jesus Himself said in Rev. 1:17-18 that He was dead
and is alive for evermore. Rev. 1:17 And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. And He laid His
right hand upon me, saying to me, Do not fear, I am the First and the Last, Rev 1:18 and the Living One, and I became dead, and behold, I am alive for ever and ever, Amen. And I have the keys of hell and of
death. Deedat didn't know what to answer. There were many Indians in the
audience and they cheered wildly. Deedat never raised
that point again in a debate. We must be
armed with the Word of God, and if we meet Muslims, be ready to give them an
answer (1 Pet 3:15). Another point
which they use a lot, is to claim that the sign Jesus predicted about Jonah was
never literally fulfilled (Matt 12:40), in that Jesus was never three days and
three nights in the grave, e.g. if He died on Friday then He was only two
nights in the grave. In reply Josh McDowell said that in Gen 1, Esther 4 and in Matt 12 where He refers to being buried for
three days and three nights, we must look at His prediction in the context of
the time in which He lived. Firstly, the
Jews' measurement of days is that any part of a day is counted as a day and
night, for example in Esther we read: Est 4:16 Go, gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan,
and fast for me, and do not eat nor drink three days, night or day. My
maidservants and I will also fast in the same way. And so I will go in to the
king, which is not according to the law. And if I perish, I perish. Est 5:1 And it happened on the third day, Esther put on royal clothing,
and stood in the inner court of the king's house, across from the king's house.
And the king sat on his royal throne in the royal house, across from the gate
of the house. Here in Esther
we see that the instruction was that they fast three days and nights, but on
the third day Esther already acted and their fasting would be over. Secondly, in
Genesis the Bible refers to "and evening and the morning was the first
day". The Jews measured their days as starting in the evening, at 6 in the
evening to be precise, and any part of a day is counted as the full day and
night of that day. Jesus died at
about 3pm in the afternoon, so on Friday He was already dead and in the grave
for almost three hours before the evening of the next day started. In the
Jewish understanding any part of a day is counted as a day and night (and even
in our own time measurement, for example if a child should be born at 11.59pm,
his birthday would still be counted on that day, and if born the next minute
his birthday would be counted with the next day. So whether you were born
12.01am or 11.59pm, almost 24h apart, your birthday would still be counted on
that day!). So those three
hours on Friday would be counted as a full day and night, according to the
Jewish reckoning. Then you have the full Saturday (counting from the evening)
and then part of Sunday again (starting in the evening again, counted as a full
day and night) when He arose. The full time in the grave would then be counted,
as per the Jews way of timekeeping, as three days and nights. Even though Deedat was shown his errors time and again, he refused to
stop with his inflammatory remarks and even became more and more vocal, mocking
Christ and the Bible etc. Indian
pastors in Durban wrote a letter to Deedat in which
they warned him to stop mocking our Lord Jesus Christ (you can find the full
letter at the following site, http://answering-islam.org/Responses/Deedat/open_letter.htm ), and if he refused they will hand him over to God. Deedat read the letter and laughed, but not long after that
he had a major stroke that affected him so badly that he couldn't speak. He did
not listen to God's warning and God closed his mouth. I visited some friends of
Deedat, before he had the stroke. I told them to
speak to Deedat to come and visit me and stay at my house.
I said to them I would not strive with him or preach to him, but simply that he
observe me in my house, how I treat my wife and children and how we live here
at KwaSizabantu. He never accepted the invitation. I
was overseas when I received the message that he got the stroke. I sent a
message to his relatives that I would like to visit him, either in hospital or
at home. The king of Saudi Arabia sent a jet to fetch him and take him to the
best specialists available, but they couldn't help him. Soon after that he
died. I don't know how he will stand before the Judge of judges who said,
"I was dead, but behold I am alive!" |
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