Reviews

From Jihad to Jesus: An Ex-Militant's Journey of Faith

Jerry Rassamni begins the book with the story of his conversion. Born in Liberia of Lebanese parents, he grew up in Lebanon as a secular Druze Muslim. He says that, as a youth, he never thought in religious terms, yet he became caught up in the Lebanese civil war and lived as a militant Muslim. Hatred and killing hardened him. Then it disgusted him. Looking for a way out, as soon as he had the chance, he came to the U.S. seeking an education. While in Texas, he met and married a Christian woman. Soon, he attended Bible classes, never expecting to join the church, but while there he learned to know and love his Savior.

The main part of his book is a detailed analysis of the weaknesses of Islam and the strengths of Christianity. Its goal is to create doubt in the minds of Muslims: doubt about the holiness of human nature, about the reliabiliity of the Qur'an and Mohammed, and doubt about the truthfulness of Islam's theology and traditions. At the same time, the book confesses the Christian faith in order to draw readers to trust the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Savior.

The Constantine Codex

The Constantine Codex involves readers in an intriguing search for a rare Third Century copy of the New Testament. The search leads to Istanbul where discovery of the codex arouses the passions of zealous Muslims who try to destroy the precious document.

Of particular interest for many readers is a public Christian-Muslim debate that the book stages in Istanbul at the famous Hagia Sophia. It illustrates the challenge that Islam presents to Christianity and how the Christian faith more than meets that challenge.

The Constantine Codex is one of a series of popular novels written by noted historian Dr. Paul L. Maier dealing with archaeology, Christianity, and with opposition to the truth.

A Rope And A Prayer - A Kidnapping From Two Sides

David Rohde, a recently-married American journalist completing research for a book on the Afghan war, travels south from Kabul to interview a Taliban leader before returning to the U.S. Without warning he is kidnapped and held for ransom by the Taliban in the tribal area of Waziristan for seven worrisome months of 2008-2009.

Both David and his wife Kristen tell the harrowing story of his captivity and eventual escape from their own points of view. In the U.S. Kristen works with a variety of government and private contacts in an attempt to negotiate his release. At the same time, David details his frightening experiences as a captive and provides practical insight to the political, cultural, and religious motives behind the complicated conflict raging in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The Balfour Declaration - The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict

The question of Palestine won't go away. Who owns this tiny land - sacred to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam? Arabs and Israelis dispute about their rights and boundaries. Each expects the other to yield. Both are fighting for control.

What started this mayhem? Historians point to a day in November of 1917 during the horrors of WWI when Britain entered into an agreement with Zionist Jews promising to help them establish a national home in Palestine. The agreement, known as the Balfour Declaration, was intended to win the financial and military support of Jews around the world - one of several theories on how to bring the war to an end and safeguard the far-flung British Empire.

In this book historian Jonathan Schneer leads the reader through the mysterious tangle of contradictory, simultaneous agreements that a desperate British Empire made with France, the Arabs, the Ottoman Turks, the Americans, and the Jews in order somehow to stop the bloodshed.

It's no wonder that chaos in the Middle East is a result. As Schneer says, in slaying the dragon, they sowed the dragon's teeth.

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DVD Bible Study

In June 2009 Outreach to Muslims released a four-session DVD Bible study titled “Speaking the Truth in Love to Muslims.” Like the book with the same name, it is designed to help Christians better understand Islam, become acquainted with their Muslim neighbors as friends, and discover why Muslims need the gospel of Christ.

The Promise

The Promise is an excellent brochure to give to a Muslim friend who wants to know more about your Christian faith. Sixteen colorful pages present the basic biblical message from the fall into sin to life in heaven.

Part 1: Muslim Backgrounds – Topic 1: Muhammad and His Times

Introduction
For Americans and much of the world, September 11, 2001 is a day never to be forgotten. As no previous event, including the attack on Pearl Harbor, 9-11 brought home the reality that terrorism can—and, indeed, has—come to mainland America. It has also thrust into national consciousness the reality of a world religion that in the past has often been ignored and overlooked by much of the Western world. That religion is Islam.

It may surprise many to learn that Islam has a long-standing relationship with lands where Christianity flourishes. In fact, for almost fourteen centuries, the Christian-Muslim encounter has formed the center of much of world history. The “war on terrorism” may ebb and flow, but the presence of Islam remains an ongoing challenge to Christians.

Part 1: Muslim Backgrounds – Topic 2: Islam's Glorious Past

Beginning in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, the Christian faith spread by preaching the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ. The book of Acts tells how despite persecutions, the first Christians “preached the word wherever they went” (8:4). The early centuries of Islam followed a much different pattern. Already during the lifetime of Muhammad, his religion spread by the sword. At the time of his death, the prophet was ruler over most of Arabia. That pattern of conquest did not stop with his passing.

Spread of Islam under the Rightly Guided Caliphs
(632-661)

The early and formative history of Islam revolves around the first four successors of Muhammad, all of whom ruled from the city of Medina in Arabia.

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