From Matthew 28 (NIV)

18Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Currently in this world there are 2.1 billion professed and practicing Christian brothers and sisters in Christ, according to 2005 census from adherents.com - and STILL GROWING AND PROSPERING.

GLORY BE TO LAMB OF GOD

why did you delete my comments here, do you support censorship like danny/danny2/first/bob? if you loose a debate so thorougly like that it must have hurt bad ya?

aritonang

It only says fight back when persecuted. That is why Vietnamese fought back and defeated persecuters.

The verses should be taken within context. It refers to infidels who persecuted Muslims and evicted them from Mecca.

But you want to give a different meaning by bracketing your thoughts. Be honest and trust Almighty The-God (Alloh / Elohim).

To support chris333,

Dear Khanson my friend, as a good Muslim surely you agree with these verse from your book.

Qur'an Sura (9:30) - "And the Jews say: Ezra is the son of Allah; and the Christians say: The Messiah is the son of Allah; these are the words of their mouths; they imitate the saying of those who disbelieved before; may Allah destroy them; how they are turned away!"

Qur'an Sura (2:191-193) - "And slay them wherever ye find them, and drive them out of the places whence they drove you out, for persecution [of Muslims] is worse than slaughter [of non-believers]...and fight them until persecution is no more, and religion is for Allah."

Do you by any chance need help with the semtex and flack jacket?

firstly, we should enhance the capability,ability and the quality of the would-be pastors and preachers, we should do so to the christians too.
secondly, encourage all the brothers and sisters of church to preach gospel by applying the methods and strategies of evangelical explosion 3.
thirdly,heal the hearts of brothers and sisters of the church so that we won't have bad self-image and inconfidence in ouirselves.
Thirdly, encouirage all the christians to read at least three chapters of Bible.
fourthly,extend our hands to the marginalised,the poor,the sick and those who need our love.

Khanson,

The message of Christianity has nothing to do with the wars in these places, or any wars. We cannot say the same for Islam though.

A.S.Mathew

If one foceses on what Jesus Christ taught then this world could become a safer place to live. But very bearer of Gospels killed millions in Japan, Vietnam, Korea and other parts of the world. I hope reaching people of the occupied lands did not mean economic and military conversions in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Darfur and Chad.

I am not sure why I got the thumbs down, if anyone finds a problem with what I said then please explain, I would be delighted to explain my position.

The gospel of Jesus Christ, not only changes hearts but the whole society. Whatever might
be the cost, every Christian has a responsibility to reach the world with the gospel of Jesus
Christ. How the real Christians can make the world a better world to live in peace and joy!.
But in our zeal to evangelize the world, some people go overboard in changing the customs of
the new converts overnight. Jesus came to preach the gospel of peace and eternal life, not
necessarly to change the customs of each nation. There are thousands of Hindus who are
following the teachings of Jesus Christ without changing their names and customs. The
Pentecostal movement in India has two standard of holiness, the believers in the extreme
southern state of Kerala were taught that wearing ornaments is a sin. But the believers of
the same denomination in other parts of India can wear ornaments without any condemnation.
While we undertake the great commission of evangelization, if unimportant issues are
injected into the process of evangelization, there will be problem. Let the new comers
wear clothings the way they want, eat the food they like to eat and wear the ornaments they
like to put on. When we preach the gospel, let us not try to major in minors and vice versa.

Strammel,

I agree, however some things should be mentioned. A bridge between Catholics and Protestants is important, and should not be downplayed (for that matter it should be based upon the Bible), Muslims can very well maintain some practices such as praying 5 times a day, there is no reason why they cannot be praying to God through Jesus Christ in this, they can read the Quran, so long as they do not believe in it or read it in a religious devotion way, but certainly they should know what it says so they can reach out to other Muslims (again this just depends on how they are doing these things, but we shouldn't make it more difficult to be a Christian than it should be). And as far as Christian mysticism, as long as it is based upon a strong faith in Christ and the Bible, then I see nothing wrong with it. If it is this newage mess then yes there would be something wrong, but there is no reason to believe we cannot have a relationship with God in this way as well as through the real truth of the Gospels. (Again this just depends on how it is being done).

You are right that we need to be focused on giving people real faith based upon the Gospels, but let's not make this more complicated than it is.

I like the fact that a large group of people are gathering to discuss how to reach 2 billion lost souls. However, I am not so sure a group as diverse as those in attendance agree on what the Gospel is. It is reported that a “commitment to holiness, integrity and purity” was needed as a starting point. I agree this is important, but what about the Gospel, what about the Word of God and the need for it to be preached in all the world. Why was is not reported that a return to the sufficiency of scripture and a biblical Gospel is paramount to any surge to win souls? Most likely because those issues where not articulated.

It’s not insignificant that men like Jack Hayford, Luis Palua, and many YWAM leaders have championed the ecumenical agenda in many ways. Cooperation with Rome is not the answer, they need Jesus too.

YWAM leaders have even come up with the idea of “Messianic Muslims” where this new “convert” is informed that they can continue regular mosque attendance, bowing in prayer to Allah, and Quranic reading and still be considered born again. Is this the gospel that will truly reach 2 billion souls for Jesus?

And the “Prayer Movements”, we should be very watchful of them. Many involved in these prayer movements embrace the “mystical” ideas of Roman Catholic mystics.

The point that I want to bring home is this, it’s not really that complicated. We need to return to the models provided in scripture for reaching the lost. All these models are easy to identify and they all involve preaching the Word of God. After all, we are to preach the Gospel, God does the saving work and he should receive the glory for it.

We need to raise up men of God who will preach the Gospel to the nations.

Isn't it amazing that while so-called baptists are worrying about global warming that true Baptists such as Bobby Welch are more concerned about eternal warming and what we can do to have as few as possible face that eternity.