I recognize that her writings are quite old or dated but I fell that as a Christian she needs to be corrected because of what she has publically posted on her website.
In her ‘testimony’ about converting to Islam from her liberal or secular life and her seemingly weak faith in Christianity she says in the following paragraphs:
“In my discussions with Muslims about Christianity they seem to think that Christians do nothing other than go to church on Sunday and then live like pagans the rest of the week. While surely a large percentage do, there is a trend in the Christian church to return to the fundamentals of the Bible and there are a percentage of Christians who are very dedicated to their faith. I was lucky enough to meet and be baptized by Dr. Charles Stanley, the founder of In Touch Ministries in Atlanta Georgia and a serious Christian who taught me how to embrace and live my faith. I studied the Bible intensely and spent long periods of time in prayer every day, I listened to tapes and lectures and worked every aspect of my religion. This had a tremendous effect on my life – my rough edges began to mellow, I championed a variety of humanitarian and church causes and I abandoned the cut throat business of magazine publishing to establish a new development company based on Christian principles. I learned the power of forgiveness, I knew there was a God who was active in my life and I knew that the purpose of life was to serve Him.”
“Things went along pretty well for the first few years but then I hit what was described as a “dry spell”. As most know, Christians believe in the Trinity; God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. The Trinity is one of those things in Christianity that no one can explain; that merely has to be embraced on faith. I didn’t have a huge problem with that but I had still had sin in my life at times and I couldn’t understand why. I loved God and I wanted to please Him, so why was I powerless over sin? I consulted a variety of learned individuals and the answer was always the same “you need the power of the Holy Spirit in your life” and they would pack me on my way with some advice how to do that. It didn’t matter how much I prayed, fasted, begged or cried, I simply could not attain this “power of the Holy Spirit” but I still believed that this was something I would ultimately overcome.”
“I was still approaching my queries into Islam from a journalistic point of view when I read an English translation of the Qur’an. Having read the Torah and studied the Bible, I can tell you that the Qur’an is no ordinary book. I had no idea that Muslims believed in the Prophets, Jesus, and the Day of Judgment. The more I learned, the more interested I was. What first impressed me was the completeness of this religion. Islam brought the whole picture together. I also was impressed at how tolerant, fair and just the principles laid out by the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) were. There was still one big problem as far as I was concerned and that was Christ, the Savior. Over a two week period, I research this whole matter extensively and it became very apparent that Christ could not be God and that God can not, by His very nature, have partners. No wonder I couldn’t get the power of the Holy Spirit – there isn’t one! If Christ is not God, this invalidates the entire Christian religion. The question then became what I was going to do about it.”
http://www.jihadunspun.com/articles/20030911-ashes.to.light/ashes2light05.html
“It is a very difficult thing to change one’s religion – the very truth that one’s belief system is founded on. I was a serious believer and I had had some results with Christianity. By this time it was April, 2002 and JUS was several weeks past its original debut date but close to launch and I was now faced with a faith dilemma. I initially wanted to delay doing anything about Islam until after the launch but I couldn’t. I have searched for truth all my life and I had just been presented with a profound one. I could back up the proven claim that God had no partners because of his direct intervention into my life years earlier, long before I embraced Christianity. It had also been proven to me beyond a shadow of a doubt that Christ could not be God. I knew that God was Allah because of a host of proofs including the early translations of the Bible. I believed that Mohammed (PBUH) was indeed a messenger of God because of the completeness of the Qur’an and because his message mirrored the same message of the previous Prophets. And with that I knew there was no decision to be made – I had already made it.”
http://www.jihadunspun.com/articles/20030911-ashes.to.light/ashes2light06.html
It should be obvious to most who research Islam that she fell for the most obnoxious propaganda that muslims can make and sell. She doesn’t mention which Islamic websites she visited to ‘research’ the supposed claims of islam and Muhammad but it is quite clear she got ‘suckered’ too easily.
Lets consider her mistakes:
Mistake #1
She allowed a ‘dry spell’ to mess up her faith. When we Christians go through dry spells we should always talk with friends. Study the Holy Bible not merely by Faith but the peoples, places and themes. She also made a fatal mistake. She thought that she could get free of her sins simply by works. She should have realized that without Faith in Jesus and the help and knowledge of fellow Christians she would never be freed from her varied sins.
Mistake #2
She researched islam from the stance of a liberal or secular journalistic approach that of course reinforced the lies that Islam is SUPPOSED to be a new revelation and that allah is the same God as Jews of Christians.
In this paragraph:
“What first impressed me was the completeness of this religion. Islam brought the whole picture together. I also was impressed at how tolerant, fair and just the principles laid out by the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) were.”
How is muhammads many marriages, attacks on caravans and the various battles against the many tribes of Arabia make him fair or tolerant?
I suspect she didn’t read the history’s of muhammads deeds in the hadiths much.
Also she avoided websites like this:
http://www.historyofjihad.org/
Maybe the above website would have helped her ask pointed questions about Muhammad’s actions towards the many peoples surrounding Arabia during his life.
Mistake #3
She says: “Over a two week period, I research this whole matter extensively and it became very apparent that Christ could not be God and that God can not, by His very nature, have partners. No wonder I couldn’t get the power of the Holy Spirit – there isn’t one! If Christ is not God, this invalidates the entire Christian religion. The question then became what I was going to do about it.”
She only took two weeks to ‘study’ and assumed that the Jesus of Islam (Isa) is the same Jesus of the Holy Bible? When I read and re-read the quran I knew for a fact that the story’s about Jesus in the quran were faked.
And where did she get her information? She must have been able to read about Islam from a Christian perspective. I suspect she didn’t want to read what Christians think of Islam she only wanted to stick with the Islamic propaganda that she read.
She should could have read from websites like:
http://www.answering-islam.org
http://www.islamreview.com/
http://www.abrahamic-faith.com/
And many more that could have taught her than many differences between Islamism and Christianity. But instead she made her choice…
Mistake #4
She assumes God and allah are the same deity…
She assumes Isa the Islamic Jesus and Jesus the Christ are the same…
Since we Christians believe in a Triune God it is obvious that it is not the singular allah…
Allah originally started out as a Arabian God that was worshipped by Arabian pagans. I can verify this information here:
Allah
http://inthenameofallah.org/Allah.html
ALLAH, HIS HERITAGE FROM PAGAN GODS
Article rescued from extinction from the Web
http://www.blessedquietness.com/alhaj/allah_heritage_sumer_elohim.htm
Was Allah The Moon God of Ancient Arab Pagan?
By Syed Kamran Mirza
http://www.faithfreedom.org/Articles/skm30804.htm
The pre-Islamic origin of “Allah”
http://www.bible.ca/islam/islam-allah-pre-islamic-origin.htm
Mistake #5
“I believed that Mohammed (PBUH) was indeed a messenger of God because of the completeness of the Qur’an and because his message mirrored the same message of the previous Prophets.”
She again fell for more propaganda. Where in the quran did Muhammad have a message for the Israeli Jews? No my friends he spoke mostly to the inhabitances of Arabia not Israel. His message had nothing to do with the Prophets of the Torah
In Conclusion:
Ms GiesBrecht made the choice of following a deity that is enemy of Christians, Jews, Hindus and all other meaningful religious faiths of our shared world. She chose to back mujahedeen muslims who desire a world controlled by themselves and their Sharia laws.
I find that many Western converts to islam follow a similar pattern.
They reject Christianity usually in regards of its teachings, Theology, Doctrines.
The sympathize with muslims who are SUPPOSEDLY being mistreated by Western Governments but in reality these same muslims are under the control of varied mujahedeen groups and are abusing them.
They have a self hatred of Western culture and its varied systems.
Ms GiesBrecht and the many other Westerners who have accept the lies, lifestyle and differences of Islamism will have to live with their decisions and the biased views of both muslims and non muslims. Ms GiesBrecht will live a lifestyle alien to most Westerners and with her choice of accepting the views of the Mujahedeen Muslims she now must accept the responsibility for any criminal wrong doing she is supporting both online and in the many countries the muslim jihadists attack in order to bring about of their Ummah.
