ABOUT THE AUTHOR

 

 

I was born into a religious Christian orthodox family although we practiced more like Catholics. I never believed that Jesus was God or the son of God (in a literal sense). I always believed Jesus was the highest prophet of God and a perfect example for mankind. Even though I did the sign of the cross, I did not realise it was the sign of the trinity.
Our family home had crucifixes, some icons, and a couple of miniature statues of Jesus and Mary. As a Christian, this seemed normal, I even used to wear a crucifix around my neck.
I loved Christianity and being a Christian, even though I didn’t realise my beliefs were far away from mainstream Christianity.
As Christians we felt as though we were different to people from other religions, Christians being in the light and everyone else is in the dark.

I lived in the Gulf for 7 years amongst the Muslims. Our family mainly had Christian family friends, but we did have some Muslim friends also. Being brought up in my younger years in a western country and then living in the Gulf was an experience. Living in the Gulf was one of my fondest memories of life, the people were hospitable and generous. The people were respectful and had good morals. Life was fun there.
Living in the Gulf for the first time as a Christian you realise there is a huge population of Muslims in this world. You see them in the dark, whereas we Christians are in the light. You are taught by your family and friends that the Muslims follow a man called Mohammed who pretended to be a prophet. You see mosques everywhere. You believe they are following a false god and all their prayers are in vain.

Coming back to the western world in my mid-teens was a culture shock to me in every sense. I matured in the Gulf and was more used to their lifestyle than to the ever deteriorating moral culture of the western world. I felt the Christians who lived amongst the Muslims were closer to their religion than the ones practising in the western world.

Being Christians we can drink alcohol and eat pork. We have such a beautiful season called Christmas. At Christmas we Christians had a beautifully lit Christmas tree in the house, everyone was giving and forgiving in that month. There were such lovely Christmas movies to watch on television and beautiful Christmas music and carols to listen to. It is usually a Christian’s favourite time of year. We did celebrate Christmas in the Gulf, but it is so much more enjoyable in the west as the majority are celebrating it rather than the minority.
I was proud of my Christian heritage and a non-Christian could not converse with me about their beliefs (i.e. a Muslim or an Atheist). I found that it was usually Muslims or Atheists who would try to convert Christians to their beliefs.  A Muslim friend once gave me a copy of the Quran to keep and said I should read it one day. I accepted it out of politeness but was secretly annoyed and had no intention of reading it. I stored it on my book case where it collected dust.

I had a personal interest in researching international politics and was more focussed on the political situation in the Middle East.

I felt let down by the world and it’s biased reporting of the turmoil in the Middle East. I also was disappointed by most of the people I knew in the western world not caring at all or mostly just believing everything that was reported on the biased media.

A few personal circumstances added to my downhill path of thinking. My once happy personality turned and I became stressed, depressed, paranoid and lost all my confidence. Luckily this lasted a very short time but during that time I remember looking up into the sky and asking God for answers.

I started studying philosophies about man’s thoughts and how to control them. This philosophy claimed that the key to life is through controlling your thoughts. Experts on this topic claimed this philosophy was rooted in the bible. I started researching the bible for evidence.
Something pushed me to open the copy of the Quran a friend once gave me. I started reading this copy, it was the Arthur J. Arberry English translation. It was translated into old English, the style of the King James Bible. This version had translated the word ‘Allah’ into ‘God’, the English meaning of the word.

 
This book is unlike any book that I have read. It seemed like God was speaking to me personally through this book. It sounded like the God of the Old Testament. I thought to myself if God was to write a book it would definitely sound like this. It spoke about all the Old Testament prophets that I knew of very well, and had expanded on some of their stories. It mentioned Jesus more times than Mohammed and held Jesus in the highest esteem. It had a whole chapter on the Virgin Mary.

It referred to the Jews and Christians as the People of the Book. It comes with a clear warning, cautioning the Christians not to associate Jesus with God. It tells us a more complete story of Adam and Eve and the expulsion from the Garden of Eden.
It explains the human mind like no other book does and gives a clear understanding about Man’s thoughts. Never has a book warned us about the afterlife like this book. It identifies itself as the literal Word of God. No other book identifies itself as the Word of God. It claims to have no errors in it and challenges mankind to try and make a book like it, a chapter like it or even a small part like it, insisting that they would not be able to do so.

This book insists that it is a book of clear warning and Guidance from God. This book is the Last testament from God.

I was taught all my life so much propaganda about Mohammed and Islam, which is normal practice in most Christian families. It became quickly apparent that this propaganda was all false.
How could an illiterate man write such a book? How could any man write such a book? I did recognise this book very quickly as being the word from God and Mohammed was obviously a prophet. I had accepted this in my heart sixteen years ago.

I mentioned my secret conversion to my siblings and a couple of close friends. I continued to keep this secret from my parents, relatives and the rest of my friends. There were clear signs that I could have been a Muslim: I didn’t believe in the trinity, Jesus’ divinity, I stopped doing the ‘sign of the cross’, I stopped eating pork, I started a halal diet but told them it was kosher.

If people asked me what religion I was associated with, I would always answer “I come from a Christian Orthodox / Catholic family”, and would sometimes mention that I only recognised Jesus as a prophet and do not worship him.

I had a few confrontations with ‘born again’ Christians and practising Catholics regarding the divinity of Jesus. They tried to convince me that my view of him just being a prophet was wrong. I knew they were wrong, but I did not have the knowledge of the scriptures to counteract the verses they would use to try to prove his divinity.

Eighteen months ago I watched many lectures on eschatology (the day of Judgement, hell etc.) by a renowned Islamic Scholar. I had never been so afraid in my life of dying as I had from that moment. There is so much detail in the Quran and the Hadiths (teachings of Mohammed) regarding what happens to you when you die.
According to the Quran and Hadiths, the main dwellers of hell besides the people that deny the existence of God are idol worshippers, evil doers and those who associate partners with God.
Christians associate partners with God, which is contrary to what the Old Testament teaches. Christians believe they are saved for accepting Jesus as their saviour and God. With my limited understanding of Christology at that time, even I knew that that wasn’t Jesus’ true message.

I decided to study some of the renowned scholars in this field. I learnt the basic rebuttals to some of the verses Christians used to try and prove the divinity of Jesus.
From there on, I professed my true faith to a selected few and starting explaining to them what I had learnt. The rebuttals I used made sense to them but they still held on to their theology. If one day, I had convinced them of the true meaning of the verses, the next time I conversed with them they would have forgotten my points.

I felt I needed to write all my points down in a document highlighting the verses that they need to understand correctly. This way they would have it all in one document and can study it. I decided to take some time out and spend as much time as needed to create such a document, I only intended the document to be a maximum of fifteen pages.

I continued to converse with the selected few. I started to warn them about the day of Judgement and that they will be held to account for their beliefs. I learnt of more and more objections - why they would not accept the truth and some stated if on judgment day they were wrong they would blame the Church. The Quran states that we were given a long life to find the truth.
I soon learnt that most Christians really have no real knowledge of the bible. They follow what they are taught and hold on to it. I do not know any Christian that has read the whole bible or even half of it. They hold their priests in high esteem and trust their decisions.

This document that I was supposed to develop grew into a book.  Every belief they held onto I had to research. I knew there was something seriously wrong with the current Christian theology and the traditions they were following.
For just over a year I spent days and nights researching and studying credible Jewish, Christian and Islamic scholars’ work.  I studied many ancient historians and mythographers’ works.  Many titles I needed were out of print, but I was so fortunate in obtaining most of them.
It was a quest for knowledge, and it was such an amazing journey. The book you are now reading is the findings from my research. I pray you read this with humbleness and an open mind.

I never had any intention of selling this work as doing so is against my beliefs. I pray everyone takes the time to read it all and to trust their judgment, not the judgment of others. I can only present the information, it is only God that can guide.

I wish you the greatest success on your journey.

If you want to help your brethren all you need to do is forward the eBook, print the eBook and give it out, or direct them to where it is being hosted.